SURPRISING OLD MISS HOLLYHOCK
"Aren't we having a fine ride, Bunny?"
"Hush, Sue! Not so loud! He'll hear us!" whispered the little boy, as he
and his sister cuddled down in among the boxes and baskets in the
grocery wagon.
"But it is a nice ride; isn't it?"
"It sure is, Sue." Bunny laughed in a sort of whisper, so Tommie, the
boy who drove the wagon, would not hear him. And, so far, Tommie had no
idea that he was taking with him Bunny and Sue.
The two children had no idea where they were going. They often did
things like that, without thinking, and sometimes they were sorry
afterward. But it had seemed all right to them to get into the wagon for
a ride.
"We won't go very far," Bunny went on, in another whisper, after a bit.
"We'll just ride around the block, and then get out."
"Will we have to walk home?" Sue asked.
"Maybe Tommie will drive us back," said Bunny. "He's real good, you
know."
"I'd rather ride than walk," said Sue.
Tommie was whistling away as loudly as he could, and this, with the
rattle of the wagon, and the clatter of the horse's hoofs made so much
noise that the whisperings of Bunny and Sue were not heard by the
grocery boy.
The horse began to trot slowly, and Bunny and Sue, peering out from the
back of the wagon, saw that it was going to stop in front of Charlie
Star's house.
"What's he stopping for?" asked Sue.
"Hush!" whispered Bunny. "I guess Tommie is going to leave some
groceries here."
Bunny had guessed right. Tommie reached back inside the wagon, and
picked up a basket full of packages and bundles. The delivery boy did
not notice Bunny and Sue, who crouched down low, so as to keep out of
sight. Then, still whistling, Tommie ran up the walk with some groceries
for Mrs. Star.
In a little while Tommie was back again, and once more the horse trotted
off as the grocery boy called: "Giddap there, Prince!" Prince was the
name of the horse.
"Oh, this sure is a fine ride!" said Sue, laughing and snuggling close
up to Bunny. "Aren't you glad we came?"
"Yes," he answered, "but I hope he brings us back. We're a long way from
home now, and it's pretty far to walk."
"Oh, I guess he'll take us," said Sue. "Anyhow we're having a good time,
and so is my doll," and she looked at her toy which she had brought with
her. The doll was now sound asleep on a pound of butter in one of the
baskets, her feet resting on a bag of sugar, and one arm stretched over
a box of crackers.
"She won't get hungry, anyhow," said Bunny with a laugh.
"She doesn't eat when she's asleep," said Sue.
Tommy stopped his grocery wagon several times, to leave boxes or baskets
of good things at the different houses. Finally he stopped in front of
a house where lived Mr. Thompson, and here Tommie had to wait a long
time, for the Thompson family was very large, and they bought a number
of groceries. Tommie used to write down in his book the different things
Mrs. Thompson wanted to order, so he could bring them to her the next
time he drove past.
Bunny and Sue, cuddled down amid the boxes and baskets, did not like to
stay still so long. They wanted to be riding. Finally Sue looked out of
the back of the wagon and said:
"Oh, Bunny, look! There's where old Miss Hollyhock lives," and she
pointed to a shabby little house, where lived a poor old woman.
"Hollyhock" was not her name, but everyone called her that because she
had so many of those old-fashioned flowers around her house. She was so
poor that often she did not have much to eat, except what the neighbors
gave her. Mrs. Brown often sent her things, and once Bunny and Sue sold
lemonade, and gave the money they took in to old Miss Hollyhock.
"Yes, that's where she lives," said Bunny.
"And maybe she's hungry now," Sue went on.
"Maybe she is," agreed Bunny.
"We could give her something to eat," suggested Sue, after thinking a
few seconds.
"How?" Bunny wanted to know.
"Look at all these groceries," Sue said. "There's a lot here that Tommie
don't need. We could get out, and take a basket full in to old Miss
Hollyhock."
"Oh, so we could!" Bunny cried. "We'll do it. Pick out the biggest
basket you can find, Sue."
Neither Bunny Brown nor his sister Sue thought it would be wrong to take
a basket of groceries from the wagon for poor old Miss Hollyhock. They
did not stop to think that the groceries belonged to someone else. All
they thought of was that the old lady might be hungry.
"We'll take this basket," said Sue. "It's got lots in."
She pointed to one that held some bread, crackers, sugar, butter,
potatoes, tea and coffee. All of these things were done up in paper
bags, except the potatoes. Bunny and Sue could tell which was tea and
which was coffee by the smell. And they had often gone to the store for
their mother, so they knew how the grocer did up other things good to
eat, in different sized bags or packages.
"Yes, that will be a nice basket to take to old Miss Hollyhock," agreed
Bunny. "But I don't think I can carry it, Sue."
"I'll help you," said the little girl. "Anyhow, if we can't carry it all
at once, we can take it in a little at a time."
"We--we ought to have a box to step on when we get out, same as we had
to get in," said Bunny.
"Here's one," and Sue pointed to an empty box in the wagon.
Bunny dragged it to the back of the wagon. The end, or "tail," board was
down, so there was no trouble in dropping the box out of the wagon to
the ground. Then Bunny could step on it and get out. He also helped Sue
down. But first they pulled the big basket of groceries close to the end
of the wagon, where they could easily reach it.
"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.
"Hello!" 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.