"Now we'll surprise old Miss Hollyhock," said Bunny.

"Won't it be nice!" exclaimed Sue.

They did not stop to think that they might also surprise someone else besides the poor old lady.

Looking toward the Thompson house, to make sure Tommie was not coming out, Bunny and Sue filled their little arms with bundles from the grocery basket, and started toward old Miss Hollyhock's cabin. They did not want Tommie to see what they were doing.

"'Cause maybe he wouldn't want to give her so much," said Bunny. "But mother will pay for it if we ask her to."

"Yes," said Sue.

Together they went up to old Miss Hollyhock's door. Then Bunny thought of something else.

"We'll give her a surprise," he whispered to Sue. "We'll make believe it's Valentine's Day or Hallowe'en, and we'll leave the things on her doorstep, and run away."

"That will be nice," said Sue.

The children had to make three trips before they had all the groceries out of the basket and piled nicely on the front steps of old Miss Hollyhock's house. But at last it was all done, and Bunny and Sue climbed back in the wagon again. Bunny even reached down and pulled up after him the box on which he and his sister had stepped when they got in and out.

All this while Tommie had not come out of the Thompson house, so of course he had not seen what the children had done. Soon after Bunny and Sue were safely snuggled down amid the boxes and baskets once more, the grocery boy came down the walk whistling.

He threw an empty basket into the wagon, put in his pocket the book in which he had written down the order Mrs. Thompson had given him, and cried to Prince:

"Giddap!"

"And he giddapped as fast as anything!" said Sue, in telling about it afterward. "He giddapped so fast that I tumbled over backward into a box of strawberries. But I didn't smash very many, and Bunny and me ate 'em, so it didn't hurt much."

On went the grocery horse, and pretty soon Tommie, on the front seat, cried:

"Whoa!"

The horse stopped in front of a big house where lived Mr. Jones. Tommie looked back into the wagon. He did not see Bunny and Sue, for they had pulled a horse blanket over themselves to hide, since there were not so many boxes in the wagon now.

"h.e.l.lo!" cried Tommie in surprise. "Where's that big basket of groceries for Mr. Jones? I surely put it in the wagon, but it's gone! This is queer!"

Bunny and Sue, hiding under the blanket, wondered what would happen next.

CHAPTER VI

OFF FOR NEW YORK

"Where is that basket of groceries for the Jones house? Where can it have gone to?" asked Tommie aloud, as he looked back into his wagon.

"I'm sure I put it in, and now--"

He turned around on his seat, and stepped over into the back part of the wagon, among the boxes and baskets. He looked at them carefully, and finally he raised the horse blanket that was over Bunny and Sue.

"Why--why--what--what in the world are you doing here?" cried Tommie, much surprised to see the two children hiding there.

"We--we're having a ride," said Sue.

"Where did you get in?" asked Tommie.

"When you stopped at our house," answered Bunny. "And we've been riding with you ever since."

"Well, well!" cried Tommie. "And to think I never knew it! You riding in with me all the while, and I never knew a thing about it! Well, well!"

He laughed, and Bunny and Sue laughed also. It was quite a joke.

"You don't mind, do you, Tommie?" asked Bunny.

"No, not a bit. I'm glad to have you."

"And will you ride us home?" asked Sue.

"Sure, yes, of course I will. But I've got to deliver the rest of my groceries first. And that makes me think--I've lost a big basket full that ought to go to Mr. Jones. I'm sure I put 'em in the wagon, but they're not here. You didn't see a big basket of groceries--b.u.t.ter, bread, tea, coffee and sugar--fall out, while you were riding in there, did you?"

Bunny and Sue looked at one another. They were both thinking of the same thing.

"That must have been the basket," said Bunny slowly.

"Yes," agreed Sue.

"What basket?" asked Tommie.

"We--we gave a basket of groceries to old Miss Hollyhock," said Bunny slowly. "It was while you were in Mr. Thompson's house. You know old Miss Hollyhock is awful poor, and we gave her the things to eat. We left 'em on her doorstep."

"For a Hallowe'en surprise," added Sue, "or a Valentine, though it isn't Valentine's Day yet, either."

"So that's what happened; eh?" cried the grocery boy. "Old Miss Hollyhock has the things I ought to leave for Mrs. Jones! Well, well!"

"Is you mad?" asked Sue, for there was a queer look on Tommie's face.

"No, not exactly mad, Sue," said Tommie slowly. "But I don't know what to do. I know you meant to be kind, and good to old Miss Hollyhock; but what am I to do about the things for Mrs. Jones? I can't very well go and take them away from old Miss Hollyhock, for she must think that some of her friends sent them, as they often do. It wouldn't do to take them away."

"Oh, no! You musn't take 'em away from her, after we gave 'em to her,"

said Bunny. "That would make her feel bad."

"And she feels bad now, 'cause she's poor," put in Sue. "She's hungry, too, maybe."

"Yes, I guess she is," agreed Tommie. "Well, I don't know what to do. If I go back to the store to get more things for Mrs. Jones, Mr. Gordon will want to know what became of the basketful I had. And old Miss Hollyhock has them. Well--"

"Oh, I know what to do!" cried Bunny.

"What?" asked Tommie.