A HAPPY ENDING
The cheerful chug-chug of Captain Franklin’s motor-boat, on its way to
find Sunny Boy, was something of a comfort to Sunny’s anxious mother.
“He can hear it while we’re afar off,” she said to Mr. Horton, “and
perhaps he will stand up and wave. How dreadful it must be, Harry, for
sailors to be adrift on this great ocean for days at a time.”
“Yes indeed,” nodded Mr. Horton, “but Sunny Boy, you know, isn’t going
to be adrift even one day. What’s the matter?”
The noise of the engine stopped and the _Rocket_ began to drift.
“Engine trouble,” explained the captain briefly. “I’ll have to ask you
to move a bit while I get those tools under the seat.”
Poor Mrs. Horton looked as if she would like to cry. It was hard, when
she felt that every minute they were delayed Sunny’s boat might be
going farther and farther out to sea.
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” said the kind captain, who knew perfectly well
that she was uneasy and fretting. “I know what the trouble is, and I’ll
have her going in a minute. If I were you, I’d eat a bite, or take a
drink of milk. I’ve a fresh bottle in that locker there. You don’t want
to get played out before we come up with the little chap.”
Mrs. Horton drank a glass of milk, but she could not eat. And presently
“chug-chug, chug-chug!” sounded merrily again.
“Now we’ll make up lost seconds,” said Captain Franklin sturdily.
“There’s a boat!” cried Mrs. Horton suddenly.
“It’s one of the fishing fleet,” replied the captain, who knew
practically every boat in the harbor. “One of the men has likely rowed
out with bait for a party that wants to stay out all night. But I’ll
hail him.”
He stood up, and, putting his hands to his mouth, roared, not “Ship
Ahoy!” as they do in books, and as Mrs. Horton secretly expected him
to, but “Hey, you!”
Tired and anxious as she was, Sunny’s mother had to laugh.
“Seen anything of a stray rowboat this afternoon?” the captain was
calling. “White boat, broad green stripe—one of Jo Grimes’. Haven’t
passed it, have you?”
The solitary man in the other boat stood up and bellowed something in
reply that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Horton could understand.
“He says he hasn’t seen any boat since dinner time,” said the captain,
dropping back into his place by the engine. “I was hoping he hadn’t.
Ned Butterworth is so slow, he’d never think of stopping the boat if it
ran smack into him.”
Meanwhile, Sunny Boy had wakened and found he was still thirsty. He
remembered something Harriet had once told him when he was a very
little boy and had teased for a drink when they were somewhere where
she did not find it easy to get one for him.
“Take your mind off your troubles,” had been Harriet’s counsel. “Think
about something else, and you’ll forget you are thirsty. Count the red
roses on this wallpaper. I’ll help you.”
And Sunny Boy, with the help of his baby fingers, had gone to counting
red wallpaper roses and forgotten his thirst, just as Harriet said.
“But I’m thirstier now,” said poor Sunny Boy to himself. “What’ll I
count? Clouds?”
He began to count the gray-white clouds scudding swiftly across the
sky. He counted six, ten, eleven.
“Big ones should count more,” he murmured sleepily.
His yellow head was beginning to nod again.
“Thirteen. What comes after thirteen?” he puzzled.
His eyes shut tight.
When he woke he did not know where he was at first. He lay quietly in
the bottom of the boat, thinking, and then when he saw the oars, he
remembered. He sat up.
The hot sun had gone under a cloud, and the ocean was no longer blue,
but gray. It was hot and still.
Now when Sunny Boy sat up to look about him, something happened.
“Chug-chug, chug-chug!” said the motor-boat, carrying Mr. and Mrs.
Horton and Captain Franklin.
“That looks like a rowboat,” whispered the captain to Mr. Horton,
putting down his field glasses. “Don’t tell Mrs. Horton—it’s empty.”
But Mrs. Horton had heard, and she took the glasses before any one
could stop her. Just as she put them to her eyes Sunny Boy sat up in
the boat.
“He’s in it!” cried Mrs. Horton joyfully. “See, Harry, that little
black dot must be his head. Oh, hurry, Captain, hurry!”
“Chug-chug, chug-chug!” gurgled the swift little motor-boat, fairly
leaping through the water. “I’ll do my best. Chug-chug.”
And it wasn’t very long before Sunny Boy heard the noise of the engine
and he stood up to look. There was a boat coming straight toward him.
“Sit still!” called Mr. Horton. “Don’t jump about, Sunny Boy. We’ll be
right there.”
The motor-boat scraped alongside, and Sunny was lifted over and placed
on his mother’s lap.
“My precious!” she whispered, kissing him. “Oh, my dear little boy, to
think I have you in my arms!”
“Don’t cry,” implored Sunny Boy, surprised to see tears running down
her face. “I’m all right, Mother. But I didn’t catch up with my boat.”
Captain Franklin was fastening the rowboat Sunny Boy had been in to his
own boat, because, as he explained to Mrs. Horton who wanted him to
leave it and hurry them back to the Cove, some one might find it and
think the rower had drowned.
“Besides, Jo Grimes, whose boat ’tis,” said the kind captain, “might
like to use her again. All right, Bub, aren’t you?”
“Could I have a drink?” asked Sunny Boy wistfully.
“All ready and waiting for you,” responded the captain promptly.
“Guess you’re hungry, too. We brought a biscuit or so along—got them
in here somewhere.”
While Sunny Boy drank the cool, fresh water—and you probably have no
idea how good it tasted, because you have never been as thirsty as
he was—and ate his crackers, Mrs. Horton gently rubbed his sunburned
little face and hands with the cold cream.
“Going to be a storm,” announced the captain, watching the gray sky.
“Plenty of wind, most likely. Lucky we found the little fellow, or he
might have been blown pretty far out.”
The wind began to blow as the captain spoke, and the spray dashed high
over the _Rocket_. Mrs. Horton went into the tiny cabin, but Sunny Boy
and his father stayed with the captain. They were wrapped in oilskin
coats he lent them, and it was very exciting to watch the _Rocket_ cut
through the waves.
“Wouldn’t the wind blow her ashore ’thout any engine?” Sunny asked,
after studying the clouds for a moment.
They were thick, dark clouds, and the wind was blowing them in toward
the shore.
“It might,” admitted the captain, his blue eyes twinkling. “But the
wind’s a tricky friend. You never know just where you’re going to land,
once you give right up to him. I’d rather pin my faith to this little
comrade here,” patting the tarpaulin that covered the noisy little
engine and kept it dry.
When the rain came it fell in big splashy drops, and the wind began to
moan. Sunny Boy was glad to see the land ahead, and he thought the way
Captain Franklin steered the _Rocket_ in alongside the little rickety
wharf nothing short of wonderful.
“Here we are!” announced the captain cheerfully. “And I guess you’ve
had enough sea-voyaging for one afternoon, heh?”
Sunny Boy agreed with him. Mr. Horton stayed to thank the good captain
and to pay him for taking them out in the motor-boat, and Sunny Boy and
his mother picked their way along the beach, intending to cross to the
road where the sand was firmer. The rain had settled down into a steady
drizzle.
“I hope the little boy who finds my boat will take good care of it,”
said Sunny Boy. He couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful _Billow_
he had lost. “I was just as sure I could catch it, Mother.”
“Oh, darling, don’t talk any more about it!” exclaimed his mother,
stopping to hug him. “When I think of you out on that great ocean, all
alone in that flimsy boat—well, I don’t see how I can ever love the sea
again.”
“Why, it was a very nice sea,” insisted Sunny Boy. “Only it’s too salty
to drink. What’s that in the sand, Mother—paper from sandwiches?”
He ran a little forward to look.
“Mother!” he shouted, kneeling in the wet sand and beginning to dig
frantically. “Mother! I’ve found _The Billow_!”
Sure enough, he had. The gallant sailboat was half buried in the sand,
the beautiful white sails all draggled and wet. The wind had evidently
driven her ashore and up on the beach.
“That’s what happens to real boats when they are shipwrecked,” said
Mr. Horton, who caught up to them as they were examining the ship.
“You’re lucky, Sunny Boy; Mother can make you a new set of sails and
your boat will be all right and as good as ever. Ever so many ships are
hopelessly wrecked by being driven on the beach.”
Sunny Boy hugged his recovered treasure happily. He was puzzled to know
how _The Billow_ could have sailed ashore while he was hunting it, for
he thought he had looked very carefully. He finally decided in his own
mind that his boat had passed the motor-boat in the storm and that
the high waves had kept him from seeing it. Even yet Sunny Boy did not
realize how wide and how vast the ocean is, or understand that many,
many ships may pass daily on the sea so many miles apart that they can
not see each other.
“Here’s Sunny!” shrieked Ellen, running out as the Hortons passed the
Gray bungalow. “You didn’t get drowned, did you? And look, Ralph, he
caught up with _The Billow_, and—”
Sunny Boy would have stayed to explain to Ellen, but Daddy and Mother
hurried him along to get into dry clothes. And when he reached the
house Aunt Bessie and Miss Martinson and Harriet had to stop him and
hug him and hear all about his experience. You should have seen the
dinner Harriet had ready for him when he was dressed in clean, dry
clothes. She had even sent over to town for chocolate ice-cream.
“Olive,” said Mr. Horton to his wife the next morning, “Sunny Boy and
his sailing expedition made me forget to speak to you about a letter
that came by special delivery yesterday morning. It’s from Wright, and
he says that deal will drag along for several months unless I come on
to New York.”
Sunny Boy was watching his mother cutting out new sails for _The
Billow_ and he knew he must not interrupt Daddy when he was talking
business. He wanted dreadfully to ask Daddy not to go away.
“I was thinking that you and Sunny Boy and I might go to New York
for three or four weeks,” went on Mr. Horton, just as he might say:
“Suppose we go home to-morrow.”
Sunny’s mother put down her shears.
“Go to New York!” she echoed. “Why, think of the expense. And what
should I do with Sunny Boy in a hotel?”
“Have a good time,” smiled Mr. Horton. “I’m in earnest, Olive. The
girls will go back to school next week, Betty will, that is, and
Bessie wants to get her fall schedule started. Let ’em go, and keep
Harriet till we get back. You’d like to see New York, wouldn’t you,
Sunny Boy?”
Sunny Boy nodded. He was too amazed to speak.
“But you’ll have a great deal on your mind,” argued Mrs. Horton.
“Sha’n’t we be in the way? And I wanted to send Sunny Boy to the
kindergarten this fall.”
“Plenty of time after we get back,” announced Mr. Horton, tousling
Sunny’s hair playfully. “I think I’ll need my wife and son to help
me put through this big contract. I’ll find some time to play around
with you, too. But mostly I’m afraid you will have to keep each other
company.”
Sunny Boy took his boat under his arm without waiting for the new
sails, and went out to find Ellen and Ralph.
“When are you going?” demanded Ralph, as soon as he heard that Sunny
Boy was going to New York. “My cousin lives there.”
“Going week after next,” said Sunny Boy. “I wish you were going too.”
“Goodness, we have to go to school,” declared Ellen importantly. “My
mother says education just mustn’t be ne-ne-glected.”
Sunny Boy was troubled.
“I’m going to kindergarten when we come back,” he explained
hesitatingly.
“Oh, traveling’s good for you,” admitted Ellen, who was a fair little
person in spite of her condescending ways at times. “My mother says you
can learn a lot by traveling in different places.”
So Sunny Boy felt better, for of course he didn’t want to go through
life without education. No one does.
Ellen and Ralph and Sunny Boy had only a few more days to play together
at Nestle Cove. Then they separated, Ellen and Ralph to go home to the
small town where they lived and go to school, and Sunny Boy and his
mother and father to get ready for the trip to New York.
THE END
SUNNY BOY IN THE BIG CITY
CHAPTER I
THE PARADE
“Fall in!” said Sunny Boy sharply.
The army, six small boys distributed comfortably over the front steps,
scrambled to obey. That is, all except one, who remained seated, a sea
shell held over each ear.
“I said ‘Fall in,’” repeated Sunny Boy patiently, as a general should
speak.
“I heard you the first time,” admitted the small soldier. “Did you know
these shells made a noise, Sunny?”
“Of course,” answered Sunny Boy scornfully. “Any shell sounds like that
if you hold it up to your ear. Come on, Bobbie, we’re going to parade.”
But Private Robert Henderson, it seemed, didn’t feel like parading just
that minute.
“Let’s take this stuff out to the sand-box,” he suggested. “We can make
a real beach, with shells and everything. Gee, you must have had fun at
the seashore.”
“Did,” said Sunny Boy briefly.
He was exasperated. As general of his army he tried not to be cross,
but Bobbie was famous for always spoiling other people’s plans. He
never by any chance wanted to do what the other boys wanted to do.
“You can play with the sand-box after we parade,” announced Sunny Boy
now. “Come on, Bobbie.”
Bobbie remained obstinately absorbed in the shells.
“Let me!” Down the steps tumbled a pink gingham frock and a fluff of
yellow bobbed hair that proved to be four-year-old Ruth Baker. She
lived next door to Sunny Boy, and her brother, Nelson, was already
marking time with the waiting army.
“Let me march, Sunny Boy,” Ruth begged. “I can mark time, an’
everything!”
Sunny Boy decided swiftly.
“All right,” he assented. “I don’t think much of girls in an army, but
I s’pose it’s better than being one short. Get in next to David.”
Ruth’s feelings were not easily hurt, and she didn’t mind if her
enlistment was not accepted with enthusiasm as long as she was
accepted. She slipped happily into line back of David Spellman, a
freckle-faced boy with smiling dark eyes.
“Forward, march!” Sunny Boy beat a lively quick-step on his drum and
the army moved down the quiet street, leaving Bobbie Henderson playing
with the shells.
Sunny Boy’s drum, of all his toys, was probably his favorite. He had
let it roll into the street once and a horse had nearly stepped on it,
but his mother had mended it neatly with court-plaster, and it seemed
good for many more days.
“Rub-a-dub, dub! Rub-a-dub, dub!” he pounded gaily now as he swung
along at the head of his gallant forces.
“I don’t think generals play drums,” David Spellman had said
doubtfully, when Sunny Boy first organized his army.
“Well, I’m going to play mine,” Sunny Boy had retorted firmly. “Daddy
says when you’re short of help a man has to do two people’s work. I can
play my drum and be general, too.”
_This Isn’t All!_
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in
this book?
Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and
experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?
On the _reverse side_ of the wrapper which comes with this book, you
will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same
store where you got this book.
_Don’t throw away the Wrapper_
_Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have.
But in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete
catalog._
THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS
For Little Men and Women
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of “The Bunny Brown Series,” Etc.
Illustrated. Every Volume Complete in Itself.
These books for boys and girls between the ages of three and ten stand
among children and their parents of this generation where the books of
Louisa May Alcott stood in former days. The haps and mishaps of this
inimitable pair of twins, their many adventures and experiences are a
source of keen delight to imaginative children.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOWBROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR
THE BOBBSEY TWINS CAMPING OUT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND BABY MAY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS KEEPING HOUSE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CLOVERBANK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CHERRY CORNERS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND THEIR SCHOOLMATES
THE BOBBSEY TWINS TREASURE HUNTING
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SPRUCE LAKE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS’ WONDERFUL SECRET
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE CIRCUS
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
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Illustrated. Each Volume Complete in Itself
These stories ate eagerly welcomed by the little folks from about five
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Sister Sue.
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa’s Farm
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Camp Rest-A-While
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu’s City Home
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue and their Shetland Pony
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Giving a Show
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Christmas Tree Cove
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue and Their Trick Dog
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at a Sugar Camp
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Jack Frost Island
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Shore Acres
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Berry Hill
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Skytop
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at the Summer Carnival
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
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Author of The Bobbsey Twins Books, The Bunny Brown Series, The Blythe
Girls Books, Etc.
Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itself.
Delightful stories for little boys and girls which sprung into
immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunkers is to take them at
once to your heart, they are so intensely human, so full of fun. Each
story has a little plot of its own—one that can be easily followed—and
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wholesome volumes which ought to be on the bookshelf of every child in
the land.
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MAMMY JUNE’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT FARMER JOEL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MILLER NED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT INDIAN JOHN’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT HAPPY JIM’S
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Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations Drawn by WALTER S.
ROGERS
Honey Bunch is a dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to
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Little girls everywhere will want to discover what interesting
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HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE SEASHORE
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE GARDEN
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS IN CAMP
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST AUTO TOUR
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP ON THE OCEAN
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP WEST
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST SUMMER ON AN ISLAND
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP TO THE GREAT LAKES
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HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE ZOO
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PATTY FAIRFIELD
PATTY AT HOME
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PATTY’S SUMMER DAYS
PATTY IN PARIS
PATTY’S FRIENDS
PATTY’S PLEASURE TRIP
PATTY’S SUCCESS
PATTY’S MOTOR CAR
PATTY’S BUTTERFLY DAYS
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MARJORIE’S BUSY DAYS
MARJORIE’S NEW FRIEND
MARJORIE IN COMMAND
MARJORIE’S MAYTIME
MARJORIE AT SEACOTE
THE TWO LITTLE WOMEN SERIES
Introducing Dorinda Fayre—a pretty blonde, sweet, serious, timid and a
little slow, and Dorothy Rose—a sparkling brunette, quick, elf-like,
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TWO LITTLE WOMEN AND TREASURE HOUSE
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Dick and Dolly are brother and sister, and their games, their pranks,
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_The Little Swiss Wood Carver_
This is the absorbing tale of how Seppi, the ambitious Swiss lad, made
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