CHAPTER XXI
SUE COULDN"T STOP IT
There was a banging, kicking sound and several cries of "Oh, dear!" The cries were faint and m.u.f.fled, as if they came from the cellar. Then the lady who had ordered three pounds of flour, which Bunny was trying to scoop out for her, ran behind the counter.
Sue followed. So did Mrs. Golden. All they saw were Bunny"s heels sticking out of the barrel, waving in the air, and now and then banging against a low shelf near which the flour barrel stood.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Bunny, from inside the barrel.
For that is where he was. He had fallen into the flour barrel!
"Pull him out!" begged Sue.
"I can"t. I"m not strong enough to pull him up!" panted the customer, but doing her best.
"We must all pull!" exclaimed Sue. "Bunny pulled me out of the brook, and I"ll pull him out of the flour barrel!"
"Yes, we must all pull!" said Mrs. Golden.
Together they all grasped Bunny by the heels and lifted him out of the flour barrel.
Oh, but he was a queer sight! Luckily he had stuck out his two hands when he felt himself falling head first into the nearly empty barrel, and had landed on his outstretched palms. And as there was not much flour in the barrel his head had not gone into the fluffy white stuff, or he might nearly have smothered. As it was his face was completely covered with the white particles.
And when Mrs. Golden, the customer and Sue had pulled the little boy from the barrel, and set him on his feet, Sue could not help laughing.
"Oh, Bunny!" she cried, giggling. "You look--you look just like the clown in the circus!"
And truly Bunny did, for his face was plastered as white as the face of any funny man that ever made jokes beneath the canvas.
"You poor boy," said the customer.
"Oh, Bunny, I"m so sorry!" exclaimed Mrs. Golden.
"I--I"m all right," declared Bunny, blowing out a white cloud of flour as he talked. "I--I didn"t spill any!"
"No, you spilled yourself more than anything else," said Mrs. Golden. "I guess I"d better get the flour, Bunny, after we brush you off. It"s too low in the barrel for you to reach. I don"t want you falling in again."
"All right," agreed Bunny. "I guess I"m not quite big enough for flour barrels."
He was dusted off out in the side yard, so no great harm resulted from his accidental dive into the barrel, and Mrs. Golden waited on the flour customer.
"What did you think, Bunny, when you were falling into the flour barrel?" asked Sue, when the excitement was over and business was going on as before in the little corner store.
"What did I think?" he repeated. "Why, I guess I didn"t have time to think anything. I just felt myself slipping, and then I fell in. I stuck out my hands, and I"m glad the flour wasn"t deep in the barrel."
"It was like the time when I fell into the brook!" said Sue, with a little laugh. "Only I fell in feet first and you went in head first."
"Yes," laughed Bunny, "I went in head first all right!"
Mrs. Golden told the children they must not try to do things that were too hard for them, even though they meant to be kind and help her.
The second day of the special sale of oatmeal and notions was not quite as busy as the first. The novelty of the cat and dog in the window wore off and Bunny brought some of the little pet alligators to show. Still quite a number of people came in to buy, and Mrs. Golden was well pleased, thanking Bunny, Sue, and Charlie many times. She also wanted to thank Splash and the white kitten and the best way to do this was to feed them, which she did, as well as the alligators.
"We"ll come and help you tend store to-morrow," said Bunny as he and Sue went home that night, Sue carrying Charlie"s kitten in a basket and Splash following at Bunny"s heels. The alligators were left till next day.
"I"m afraid your mother will think you are doing too much for me," said the old lady, as she said good-bye.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny. "She told us to help you all we could."
"And we like it!" Sue exclaimed. "It"s fun."
"Except when you fall into flour barrels!" added Bunny Brown, with a laugh at some white spots that still clung to his jacket.
Mrs. Brown did not mind how much Bunny and his sister helped Mrs.
Golden, but she told the children they must not stay in the store too much.
"Your long vacation from school is given you so you may play out in the sunshine and fresh air," said Mother Brown. "And though it is all right for you to help Mrs. Golden in her store, I want you to have some fun also."
"It"s fun in the store," said Bunny.
"Well, I mean other kinds of fun," added Mrs. Brown.
So there were days when Bunny and Sue only went to Mrs. Golden"s grocery on some errand for their mother or Mary, but even on these short trips they often were able to help the storekeeper, sometimes making little sales, if she was busy in another part of the house, or by arranging goods on the shelves.
Having learned that she could do more business by having her windows clean and with things nicely piled in them, Mrs. Golden kept this plan up, Bunny and Charlie and Sue often stacking goods where they would show well.
But with all this even the children could see that Mrs. Golden was worried. Bunny often saw her adding up figures on bits of paper, and she would look at the sum and sigh.
"What"s the matter?" Bunny once asked.
"Oh, I owe so much money I"m afraid I"ll never be able to pay," she said. "And it seems to be getting worse, even with all the help you children give me. If only Philip would get that legacy!"
"Hasn"t he got it yet?" asked Bunny.
"No, not yet," was the answer. "And I"m afraid he never will. I miss him so, too. If he were here to help me things might go easier. But there! I mustn"t complain. I"m much better off than lots of folks!" she added, trying to be cheerful.
"If more people would come to buy here you"d have more money," said the little boy. And that gave him an idea that he did not speak about just then, but turned over and over in his busy little head.
Heeding their mother"s advice, Bunny and Sue played out of doors with their boy and girl chums, sometimes going on picnics and excursions or on walks through the woods and over the fields. Bunny and Charlie often played at boats in the brook, and more than once they fell in. Sue and her friends often waded in the water of the brook.
Bunny did not again, though, topple into any flour barrels. It was Sue who had the next accident at the corner grocery, and this is the way it happened.
The little girl had been sent by her mother to get a yeast cake at Mrs.
Golden"s, and when Sue reached the store she found the old lady busy with two women who were matching sewing silk. At the same time a little boy had come in for some mola.s.ses.