BUNNY'S BIG IDEA
Bunny Brown ran to the pantry where his grandmother had gone. Sue
followed. The two children saw Grandma Brown looking at some empty
shelves. On one shelf, before they had started for the picnic, had stood
the big cocoanut-custard cake, that was too large to go in any of the
baskets. That was why it had been left at home for supper.
"Oh, is it really gone?" asked Bunny sadly.
"It isn't here," said Grandma Brown.
"Could the hired man have taken it?" asked Bunny's mother.
"Oh, no! He wouldn't do such a thing as that," replied Grandma Brown. "I
left his dinner in the kitchen, as I always do when we go away. No, some
one must have gotten in the house, while we were gone, and taken the
cake, besides some of my pies and other things."
"Was it--was they burglars?" asked Sue. She had often heard, at home, of
burglars getting into houses and taking money and other things.
"No, I don't believe it was burglars," said Grandma Brown. "But I see
how they got in. I left the pantry window open, though the shutters were
closed. They opened the shutters and climbed in. The shutters were tied
with a string, and the string has been cut--see!"
She showed Bunny and Sue, also Mother Brown, where the cut string hung
dangling from the edge of one shutter.
"They climbed in that window and took the cake," went on Grandma Brown.
"Oh, my lovely cake!" exclaimed Sue. "And I wanted some for supper!"
"So did I!" said Bunny Brown. "Is there any other kind of cake,
Grandma?"
"Oh, yes, I can give you cookies. But I would like to know who it was
got in my pantry. We don't generally trouble to lock our doors and
windows around here in the day time," she went on, "for none of us was
ever robbed before. But if this is going to happen I'll have to be more
careful."
She pushed open the shutters, which were partly closed, and looked out.
Then she called:
"Oh, here's a box they stepped on to get in the window. Look, children,
they brought a box from the barn, stepped up on it, and crawled in the
window. And see! One of them dropped his handkerchief!"
Bunny and Sue, looking under Grandma Brown's arms, one on each side of
her, saw, down on the ground, a red handkerchief. At the sight of it
Bunny Brown cried:
"Oh it was the tramps! It was the tramps that took our cake, Grandma!"
"How do you know, Bunny?"
"Because the tramps that scared us had red handkerchiefs on their necks
just like that one down there. I'm sure they were the same tramps,
Grandma."
The two children, grandma and Mother Brown went outside, under the
pantry window. There lay the red handkerchief on the ground, and it was
twisted up in just the way a handkerchief would be twisted if it had
been around any one's neck.
"Those tramps didn't get enough to eat out of our baskets," said Bunny
Brown, "so they came here and took grandma's things. Let's go after 'em!
I'll get Splash and----"
Bunny Brown started to run after his dog, that had gone out to the barn
with Bunker Blue. But his mother caught the little boy by the arm.
"You had better stay right here," she said. "You are too small to go
chasing off after tramps, even with Splash. We'll let Papa Brown and
grandpa find the bad men, if they are still here."
Daddy Brown and grandpa came back from the barn, where they had been
putting away the horses, and they were told of the missing cake, pies
and crullers. Then they looked at the red handkerchief, lying where one
of the tramps must have dropped it.
"Yes, I should not be surprised if the same tramps who scared the
children came here and took your things, Mother," said Papa Brown. "They
must have been frightened, and have run off in a hurry, to have dropped
their handkerchief this way. We'll ask the hired man."
But the hired man had been working in the garden, some distance away
from the house, and he had seen nothing of any tramps. He had come in to
his dinner, and he said he had looked in the pantry then, and had
noticed that the big cake was all right.
"Then the tramps came here after dinner, and after they were at the
picnic grounds," said Grandpa Brown. "I must look around. They may be
hiding in my barn, and sometimes tramps smoke in the hay, and set it on
fire. We'll look for them."
But no tramps were found.
"Maybe they heard Splash barking, and ran away in such a hurry that they
dropped their handkerchief," said Bunny.
"Maybe," agreed his mother. "Well, it's better to have them take the
crullers, the pie and the cake instead of a cow or a horse."
"Indeed it is!" said Grandpa Brown. "I don't want to lose any more
horses."
"I can bake you another cocoanut-custard cake, children," said Grandma
Brown. "I'll make it to-morrow. To-night you will have to eat cookies
with your milk."
And the cookies were very good, as was everything Grandma Brown made, so
Bunny and Sue were not hungry after all.
That night Grandpa Brown went all around the house, to make sure that
all the doors and windows were locked.
"For we don't want any tramps coming here in the middle of the night,
waking us up from our sleep," he said.
And nothing happened. Probably the tramps ran a good way off with the
fine big cocoanut-custard cake. They must have had a good feast on that,
and on the pies and crullers.
For two or three days after the picnic Bunny Brown and his sister Sue
had good times at grandpa's farm. One day it rained, but the children
played a part of the time in the barn, and the rest of the time in the
big attic of grandpa's house.
This attic had in it even more things, to have a good time with, than
did the attic at Bunny's home.
There were big fur rugs that Grandpa Brown put in the sled when it was
winter. There were strings of sleigh bells that jingled when they were
touched. And there was a spinning wheel, like the one in Mother Brown's
attic, only it was larger.
Then, too, there were piles of old clothes, old picture-papers, trunks
with many strange things in them, and so many other things that Bunny
and Sue did not get tired of playing all day long.
But the attic was only nice to play in on rainy days. On days when the
sun shone down hot on the roof it was too warm up there. So the next
day, when the storm was over, Bunny and Sue looked for something else to
do to have a good time.
"Come on, and we'll play ball," said Bunny.
He and Sue did not exactly play ball the way big boys did. But Bunny
would throw the ball, and when Sue had caught it she would toss it back.
They went out behind the house to play this game.
Back and forth they tossed the ball, until Sue missed it when Bunny
threw it to her. The ball rolled under a currant bush, but when Sue ran
to pick it up, the little girl suddenly stopped, and stood looking at
the bush.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny. "Why don't you pick the ball up, and
throw it to me, Sue?"
"I--I can't," she answered
"Why not?"
"'Cause a hen's got it."
"A hen's got my ball?" asked Bunny, much surprised.
"Yep," said Sue, shaking her head up and down to make Bunny understand.
"The ball is right by the hen, and she's got her bill on it. I dassn't
pick it up, 'cause she'll peck me."
Bunny ran to where Sue stood. Surely enough, the ball had rolled under
the edge of the currant bush, close to where a big hen was all cuddled
up in a heap. And the hen did have her bill on the ball with which the
children had been playing.
"Why--why that hen is on a nest!" exclaimed Bunny. "I guess grandma
doesn't know there's a hen's nest out here. We'll go and tell her."
"But aren't you going to take your ball?" asked Sue. "Maybe the hen will
eat it if you don't."
"Hen's can't eat balls," said Bunny. "The ball is too big for them to
swaller."
"Well, anyhow, they could pick holes in it, and then we couldn't play
with it any more."
"That's so," agreed Bunny. "I'll see if I can get it away from her."
But when Bunny crept under the currant bush, and reached for his ball,
the hen made a funny clucking noise, ruffled up her feathers and looked
so angry, that Bunny was afraid.
"Maybe she's got little chickens in her nest," said Sue. "If she has
she'll peck you if you go close to her--grandma said so."
"Maybe she has," agreed Bunny. "But I'll get a long stick and poke my
ball out. Then she can't peck me."
But it was not easy to make the ball roll out of the way of the hen. The
stick would slip off it when Bunny reached for it, and whenever the
stick came near the hen she would peck at it. Once she almost knocked it
from Bunny's hand.
And, all the while, the hen made that queer clucking noise, and fluffed
up her feathers so that she looked twice as big as she really was.
"Oh, come away! Come away!" begged Sue. "She'll bite you, Bunny!"
Bunny Brown was a little afraid of the hen. And when he found he could
not roll the ball out of her way he ran to the house, with Sue, and told
his mother and grandmother what had happened.
"Why, that must be the old gray hen, sitting on her nest that she went
off and made by herself," said Grandma Brown. "I wondered where she was
hiding, but I never thought to look under the currant bush. I'm glad you
found her, Bunny. I'll get your ball for you."
The hen did not seem to mind when Grandma Brown went close to her. Very
carefully Grandma reached for Bunny's ball. Then she gently lifted up
one of the hen's wings, and showed the children the eggs under her
feathers.
"Soon some little chickens will hatch out of the eggs," said grandma.
"Some of the shells are already cracked, and the chickies may be out
to-morrow."
"Oh, I'll just love to see them!" cried Sue.
Now that they had their ball again, Bunny and Sue could play once more.
And the next day the little chickens did hatch. Up to the house came the
old mother hen with eleven little, fluffy, yellow balls, almost as round
as Bunny's ball, but of course not so big.
"Peep! Peep!" went the little chickens, as they followed the hen-mother
around.
"Cluck-cluck!" said the hen-mother.
[Illustration: "OH, AREN'T THEY CUTE!"--_Page 208._
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm._]
"Oh, aren't they cute!" cried Sue.
Every one thought they were, and I think the hen mother was very proud
of them, for if any one went too near she would make a queer noise, and
ruffle up her feathers, just as she had when Bunny reached for his ball
near her.
It was two or three days after this that Bunny Brown and his sister Sue
awakened one morning, and saw something queer out on the side of
grandpa's barn.
"Oh, look!" exclaimed Sue, who saw it first. "What a big picture,
Bunny!"
Indeed it was a large one, brightly colored, showing elephants, lions,
tigers and horses, all in a big ring. And there were men and ladies
jumping from the top of a tent, into nets underneath.
"Oh, it's a circus picture!" cried Bunny. "How did it get there,
Grandpa?"
"A man came along early this morning, and pasted it up," said Grandpa
Brown.
Bunny and Sue ran out to look at the circus picture. It was a fine, big
one, and the more they looked at it the more the children liked it.
Finally Bunny said:
"Sue, I've got an idea! Such a big idea!"
"Oh, what is it," asked Sue. "What's an idea? Is it good to eat?"
Bunny did not exactly know what an idea was, but he had heard his mother
and father say that word.
"Sue!" exclaimed Bunny in a sort of whisper, "if that circus is coming
to town we'll go--you and me. We'll go to the circus!"
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "That will be just fine! But
how can we go?"