Sunny Boy and His Playmates | Page 9

Baker, as Sunny Boy came out on his front steps,
dragging his new sled with him. "Did you know it snowed in the night?
Can you go coasting?"
"Yes. And let's stop for Oliver," suggested Sunny Boy. "Oh, Nelson,
your mother is rapping on the window for you."
"Gee, I bet Ruth wants to go coasting," said Nelson crossly. "I never
wanted to do anything in my life, Ruth didn't want to, too. I think girls
are just horrid!"
"Nelson!" called Mrs. Baker, raising the window, "wait just a minute,
dear; Ruth wants to go coasting, too. She will be right out."
"I told you so!" groaned Nelson. "Now I can't have a hit of fun. Ruth
will cry because the sled goes too fast and she'll cry because her feet
are cold and she'll cry because she gets tired walking up the hill. And
then she will want to come home just when I am having a good time
and I'll have to bring her. I wish Mother would make her stay in the
house."
Before Sunny Boy could answer him, Ruth came out. She was a pretty
little girl, about four years old, and she wore a fur hat and a dark red
coat with a fur collar. Her muff was tied to a string which went around
her neck. She had her own sled, a little one.
"Hello, Sunny Boy," she said, smiling. "Santa Claus brought me a sled,
too."
"What do you want to go coasting for?" asked Nelson, not waiting for
Sunny Boy to answer. "Your feet will get cold."
"They won't, either!" cried Ruth. "Anyway, I'm going with
you--Mother said I could. So there!" and she stamped her foot in its

shiny new rubber.
"All right, come on then," said Nelson crossly. "What are you waiting
so long for? Sunny Boy and I could have a lot more fun if you stayed at
home."
Sunny Boy was so afraid Ruth was going to cry at this unkind speech
that he tried to think of something to say that would make her forget it.
"You sit on your sled and Nelson and I will pull you," he told Ruth.
"You can hold my sled for me."
This pleased Ruth very much, and she sat down on her sled and tucked
her coat around her and stuck her fat, short little legs, in their gray
leggings, straight out in front of her.
"Take my sled, too," said Nelson, forgetting to be cross. "Don't fall off,
because we are going to go fast."
"Let's play we are fire horses, going to a fire," suggested gunny Boy.
They had some automobile fire apparatus in Centronia, but the engines
were still pulled by horses. "Can you pull two sleds, Ruth?"
"Oh, my, yes," replied dear little Ruth.
If the boys had asked her to pull six sleds she would have tried her best
to do it. It did seem too bad that when she wanted to go with them and
tried so hard to please them, that they so often wished her to stay in the
house and play by herself. That is, Nelson did.
"Hang on," said Nelson now, and away went the two fire horses,
pulling the fire engine.
Ruth nearly fell off when they started, for they jerked the sled, but she
managed to hold on. The two sleds bumped wildly behind her, but she
held the ropes tightly and never cried out even when the boys pulled
her over a curb-stone and her sled tipped far to one side.
"Toot! Toot!" cried Sunny Boy, trying to whistle, and not doing it very

well because it is difficult to run and pull a sled and whistle, all at the
same time.
"Nelson!" called Ruth, as they bumped her down another curbstone.
"Oh, Nelson! Say, Sunny Boy, wait a minute!"
"We can't stop! We have to get to the fire!" cried Nelson, panting.
"When we get to the fire we'll stop."
"But wait a minute!" begged Ruth, "I want to tell you something."
The two little boys pretended to kick up their heels and snort as they
had seen the fire horses do, and they would not stop. They galloped and
pranced and tried to run faster. At last they had to stop to get their
breath. Their cheeks were red and they were as warm as toast.
"Why--why--" stammered Sunny Boy, looking back at Ruth who sat on
her sled with her hands in her little fur muff. "Why, where are our
sleds?"
"I dropped the ropes 'way back on Greene Street," replied Ruth calmly.
"I asked you to stop and you wouldn't."
"Well, you might have said you lost the sleds," said Nelson. "Then we
would have stopped. Gee, I hope nobody took 'em! We'll have to