Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue.

by Laura Lee Hope.

CHAPTER I

AUNT LU ARRIVES

"Bunny! Bunny! Wake up! It's time!"

"Wha--what's matter?" sleepily mumbled little Bunny Brown, making his words all run together, like mola.s.ses candy that has been out in the hot sun. "What's the matter, Sue?" Bunny asked, now that he had his eyes open. He looked over the side of his small bed to see his sister standing beside it. She had left her own little room and had run into her brother's.

"What's the matter, Sue?" Bunny asked again.

"Why, it's time to get up, Bunny," and Sue opened her brown eyes more widely, as she tried to get the "sleepy feeling" out of them. "It's time to get up!"

"Time to get up--so early? Oh, Sue! It isn't Christmas morning; is it, Sue?" and with that thought Bunny sat up suddenly in his bed.

"Christmas? No, of course not!" said Sue, who, though only a little over five years of age (a year younger than was Bunny), sometimes acted as though older than the blue-eyed little chap, who was now as widely awake as his sister.

"Well, if it isn't Christmas, and we don't have to go to the kindergarten school, 'cause it's closed, why do I have to get up so early?" Bunny wanted to know.

Bunny Brown was a great one for asking questions. So was his sister Sue; but Sue would often wait a while and find things out for herself, instead of asking strangers what certain things meant. Bunny always seemed in a hurry, and his mother used to say he could ask more questions than several grown folks could answer.

"Why do you want me to get up so early?" Bunny asked again. He was wide awake now.

"Why, Bunny Brown! Have you forgotten?" asked Sue, with a queer look in her brown eyes. "Don't you remember Aunt Lu is coming to visit us to-day, and we're going down to the station to meet her?"

"Oh yes! That's so! I did forget all about it!" Bunny said. "I guess it was because I dreamed so hard in the night, Sue. I dreamed I had a new rocking-horse, and he ran away with me, up-hill--"

"Rocking-horses can't run away," Sue said, shaking her head, the hair of which needed brushing, as it had become "tousled" in her sleep.

"Well, mine ran away, in my dream, anyhow!" declared Bunny.

"They can't run up hill, even in dreams," insisted Sue. "Horses have to walk up hill. Grandpa's always do."

"Maybe not in dreams," Bunny said. "And I really did dream that, Sue.

And I'm glad you woke me up, for I want to meet Aunt Lu."

"Then let's hurry and get dressed," Sue went on. "Maybe we can run down to the station before breakfast. Aunt Lu will be hungry, and we can show her the way to our house."

"That's so," agreed Bunny. "But maybe we'd better take a piece of bread and b.u.t.ter down to the station for her," he added, after thinking about it for a few seconds.

"Or a piece of cake," added his sister.

"We'll take both!" exclaimed the blue-eyed, chubby little chap. Then he began to dress. Sue, who had gone back into her own little room, had almost finished putting on her clothes, but, as her dress b.u.t.toned up the back, she had to come in and ask Bunny to fasten it for her. This he was ready to do as soon as he had pulled on his stockings and little knickerbockers.

"Shall I start at the top b.u.t.ton, or the bottom one, Sue?" he asked, as he stood behind his sister.

"It doesn't matter," said Sue, "as long as you get it b.u.t.toned. But hurry, Bunny. We don't want the train to get in, and Aunt Lu get off, with us not there to meet her. Hurry!"

"All right--I will," and Bunny began b.u.t.toning the dress. But soon a queer look came over his face. "Aren't you done?" asked Sue, as he stopped using his fingers.

"Yes, I'm done, Sue, but I've got two b.u.t.tons left over, and there's only one b.u.t.tonhole to put 'em in! What'll I do?" Bunny was quite puzzled.

"Oh, you must have b.u.t.toned me wrong, Bunny," Sue said. "But never mind.

n.o.body will notice so early in the morning. Now come on down stairs, and we'll get the bread and cake."

The children went to the dining room, where the table was set for breakfast, and Sue was cutting off a rather large slice from a cake she had found in the pantry, while Bunny was putting twice as much b.u.t.ter on a slice of bread as was needed, when their mother's voice exclaimed:

"Why, Bunny Brown! Sue! What in the world are you children doing? Up so early, too, and not properly dressed! Why did you get up? The idea!"

"We're going to the station," Sue said. It really was her idea. She had thought of it the night before, when their mother had told them her sister (the children's Aunt Lu) would arrive in the morning. "We're going to the station," said Sue.

"To meet Aunt Lu," added Bunny.

"And we're taking her some cake so she won't be hungry for breakfast,"

went on Sue.

"And bread," Bunny continued. "Maybe she don't like cake, so I'm taking bread."

"If she doesn't eat the cake, we can," Sue said, as if that was the easiest way out.

"Of course," Bunny echoed.

Mrs. Brown sat down in a chair and began to laugh. She had to sit down, for she laughed very hard indeed, and when she did that she used to shake in such a jolly fashion that, perhaps, she would have fallen if she had not been sitting in a chair.

"Oh, you children!" she said, when she had wiped the tears from her eyes with the corner of her ap.r.o.n. She was not exactly crying, you know. Only she laughed so hard that tears came into her eyes. "You queer, dear little children!" she said. "What are you going to do next?"

"Why, we're going to the station as soon as I get the bread b.u.t.tered, and Sue puts the cake in a bag," Bunny said. He did not seem to feel that anything was wrong.

"Oh, my dears, Aunt Lu's train won't be in for some time--two or three hours," said Mrs. Brown. "And you know I've told you never to go down to the station alone."

"Couldn't you come with us?" asked Sue, eating a few of the cake crumbs.

"Or maybe papa," added Bunny. "If he can't Bunker can. Bunker knows the way to the station."

"And Bunker likes cake, too," Sue said. "We might give him a piece, if Aunt Lu doesn't want it."

"No, no! You musn't give away my cake like that," said Mrs. Brown. "Now listen to me. It will be hours before Aunt Lu will get here. Then, perhaps, I may take you to the station to meet her. But now I must dress you right and give you your breakfast. Papa had his some time ago, as he had to go down to the bay to see about some boats. I wondered why you were getting up so early. Now put back the bread and cake and wait until I give you something to eat."

A little later, rather disappointed at not being allowed to go off alone to meet their aunt, Bunny and Sue sat at the breakfast table.

"I wish the time would hurry up and come for Aunt Lu to be here," Bunny said.

"So do I," chimed in Sue. "What fun we'll have when Aunt Lu comes."

"Indeed we will!" Bunny exclaimed.