"I"ll get the mola.s.ses for you," Sue offered, for she knew where the barrel was kept, and once Mrs. Golden had allowed her to raise the handle of the spigot and let the thick, sticky stuff run out into the quart measure. Sue was sure she could do this again. So, taking the boy"s pail, she went to the mola.s.ses barrel.
It was kept in the back part of the store, and perhaps if Mrs. Golden had seen what Sue was about to do she would have stopped the little girl. But the two customers were very particular about the sewing silk they wanted, and kept Mrs. Golden busy pulling out different trays.
Sue reached the mola.s.ses barrel, set the quart measure under the spout, as she had seen Mrs. Golden do, and raised the handle. The next thing the storekeeper knew was when Sue came running up to her in great alarm crying:
"I can"t stop it! I can"t stop it!"
"Can"t stop what, my dear?" asked Mrs. Golden.
"I can"t stop the mola.s.ses from running out!" cried Sue. "I got it turned on, but I can"t turn it off, and it"s running all over the floor!"
"Oh, my goodness!" cried Mrs. Golden, hurrying to the back of the store.
CHAPTER XXII
A SHOWER OF BOXES
Sister Sue, as soon as she had told Mrs. Golden what had happened also started to run back to the mola.s.ses barrel. In fact she ran ahead of the storekeeper, and Sue"s hurry was the cause of another accident.
For the mola.s.ses, running out of the spigot which Sue had not been able to close, had overflowed the quart measure, and was now spreading itself out in a sticky pool on the floor.
It was a slippery puddle, as well as a sticky one, and Sue"s feet, landing in it as she ran, slid out from under her.
Bang! she came to the floor with a thud.
"Oh, my dear little girl!" cried one of the customers, who had been buying the sewing silk. "Are you hurt, child?"
Sue, sitting in the mola.s.ses puddle--yes, she was actually sitting in it now--looked up, thought about the matter for a moment, and then answered, saying:
"No, thank you, I"m not hurt. But I"m stuck fast. I can"t get up."
It was very sticky mola.s.ses.
Mrs. Golden, thinking more about the waste of her precious mola.s.ses than about Sue for the moment, reached over and shut off the spigot. It had caught and was hard to close, which was why Sue could not do it.
Fortunately, however, the little girl had nearly closed it before the quart measure was quite full, and not so much of the mola.s.ses had run out on the floor as might have if the spigot had been wide open all the while. But, as it was, there was enough to make Sue fall, and to hold her there in the sticky mess after she had sat down so hard.
"Dear me, what a mess!" exclaimed one of the customers.
"Isn"t it!" said the other.
"I--I"m awful sorry," faltered Sue. "My father will pay for the mola.s.ses I let run out, Mrs. Golden!"
"Oh, don"t worry about that," said the old lady, though she was a bit worried over the loss, for nearly a pint of the sweet stuff had run away. "It"s you I"m thinking of," she said. "Are you sure you aren"t hurt?"
"No," answered Sue. "But my dress is. Oh, how am I going to get home?"
she went on, as she pulled up the edge of her skirt and saw how dirty and sticky it was.
"You"ll have to get into the bath tub, clothes and all," said one of the customers.
"It"s like when I fell in the brook," half sobbed Sue.
"There, never mind!" said Mrs. Golden kindly. "Here, little boy," she said, reaching over and lifting up the br.i.m.m.i.n.g measure of sweet stuff, "take your mola.s.ses and run along. Then I"ll clean up here."
Leaning over, to keep her feet out of the puddle, Mrs. Golden helped Sue to rise, though it was a bit hard on account of the sticky mola.s.ses.
Then the little girl"s dress was taken off and she was sent into Mrs.
Golden"s bedroom.
"I"ll wash this dress and your petticoat out for you, Sue," said Mrs.
Golden, when her thread customers were gone. "But it will hardly be dry for you to wear home before dark."
"If you should see Bunny, you could send him home to get another dress for me," Sue suggested.
"Yes, I could do that," agreed Mrs. Golden. "I"ll see if Bunny is coming after I put your clothes to soak."
But Bunny was off playing ball that day, and did not come to the corner store. However, fat Bobbie Boomer happened to pa.s.s, and Mrs. Golden sent him to Sue"s house.
He rather frightened Mrs. Brown at first, for Bobbie twisted the message and said Sue had fallen into a barrel of mola.s.ses, instead of just into a puddle on the floor, so that Mrs. Brown came hurrying to the store, imagining all sorts of things had happened.
She had to laugh when she heard the real story, and then she went back to get a clean dress for Sue, leaving the other to be washed and dried by Mrs. Golden.
"I"m afraid the children are more of a bother to you than a help," said Mrs. Brown, as she started home with Sue.
"Oh, bless their hearts, I don"t know what I"d do without them!" said the storekeeper. "They are a great help. My store business is much better than before they began coming here. That special oatmeal sale brought me new customers, and Bunny and Sue are a great help."
As it would be rather hard work for Mrs. Golden to clean up the sticky puddle, Mrs. Brown sent Bunker Blue up from the boat dock to help. For this Mrs. Golden was very glad, as she could hardly have handled the broom and pails of water as well as Bunker did.
"This is easier than cleaning out boats," declared the fish boy as he "swabbed" the floor, as he called it.
Soon the store was scrubbed nice and clean and ready for more customers the next day. As Bunny and Sue had nothing special to do they went to the corner grocery to see if they could do anything to help. And Sue was told by her mother to bring home the washed dress and petticoat.
"We"ve come to help," Sue announced, as she entered the store. "But I"m not to draw any more mola.s.ses! Mother said I wasn"t to!"
"Well, perhaps it will be as well for me to do that," said Mrs. Golden, with a smile. "That spigot is sometimes hard to close."
"And I"m not to dip up any more flour," added Bunny.
"Yes, I suppose it will be as well for me to do that, too," said the storekeeper. "But since you like to help me tend store there are many other things you can do."
Bunny and Sue found them, for it was afternoon now, and many families in the neighborhood sent children to buy things for supper.
"h.e.l.lo, Sue!" called George Watson as he came into the store, whistling.
"I told my mother about that special sale of oatmeal you had here last week. Got any more?"