Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
[Illustration: THEY BEHELD A HUT OF DRIFTWOOD AND PALM LEAVES.
_Frontispiece_—(_Page 174_)
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean._
]
BUNNY BROWN
AND HIS SISTER SUE ON
THE ROLLING OCEAN
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES, THE BOBBSEY
TWINS SERIES, THE SIX LITTLE
BUNKERS SERIES, MAKE
BELIEVE STORIES,
ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
WALTER S. ROGERS
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
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 AUNT LU’S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
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
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
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 MEADOW BROOK
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 WASHINGTON
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
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
(Eleven Titles)
MAKE BELIEVE STORIES
(Twelve Titles)
GROSSET & DUNLAP NEW YORK
Copyright, 1925, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE RUNAWAY HORSE 1
II A STRANGE STORY 12
III WONDERFUL NEWS 23
IV MR. POTT GOES AWAY 32
V AT THE HOSPITAL 45
VI OFF ON THE TRIP 58
VII ABOARD THE “BEACON” 68
VIII THE ROLLING OCEAN 78
IX SUE IN THE CELLAR 91
X A MIDNIGHT ALARM 98
XI OVERBOARD 108
XII BUNNY IS LOCKED IN 117
XIII A TERRIBLE NOISE 127
XIV FAST AGROUND 138
XV GOING ASHORE 147
XVI LEFT BEHIND 157
XVII AN ISLAND HUT 167
XVIII ANOTHER STORM 176
XIX CAMPING OUT 185
XX THE WOODEN HOUSE 194
XXI THE WILD MAN 201
XXII SEARCHING FOR THE WILD MAN 210
XXIII CAUGHT 219
XXIV THE SHIP COMES BACK 229
XXV THE LOST TREASURE 236
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS
SISTER SUE ON THE
ROLLING OCEAN
CHAPTER I
THE RUNAWAY HORSE
Bunny Brown stood behind a long board which was laid across two boxes
in the front yard. On the board were some piles of white stones and
little heaps of red pebbles. There were also clam shells, a few
filled with white sand and others with brown sand.
On one end of the board were some pieces of paper cut into squares
and near them was a ball of string. On the other end of the board,
balanced on a small box, was a shingle. This shingle moved up and
down like the scales in a grocery store. In fact, this shingle and
the box were Bunny Brown’s scale. He was “playing store.”
“Well, I wonder if anybody is coming to buy anything at my store
to-day,” said Bunny, as he paced up and down behind the counter.
Just then a little girl, carrying a doll under one arm, walked up
to the shade tree under which the play store was. She went to the
counter and looked at the piles of sand, pebbles, and the clam
shells. But Bunny Brown did not seem to think she was a little girl.
He bowed to her and asked:
“What will it be to-day, Mrs. Anderson?”
“Oh, Bunny! You sound just like Mr. Gordon in the real grocery
store!” laughed Sue, clapping her hands. As she did this her doll
fell down on the grass. “You’re just like Mr. Gordon!” cried the
little girl again.
Bunny Brown frowned, wrinkling his forehead until it looked like a
wash-board from the laundry.
“Look here!” he exclaimed, coming out from behind the counter. “I’m
not going to play store if you do that!”
“Do what?” asked Sue, for it was Bunny Brown’s sister Sue who had
come to the store. Bunny had called her “Mrs. Anderson,” but all the
same, she was Sue Brown. “What did I do, Bunny?” asked Sue.
“There you go again!” cried Bunny. “Stop calling me by my right name!
If we’re going to play store I’m Mr. Gordon and you’re Mrs. Anderson!”
“Yes, I know, Bunny, but—”
“Oh, will you stop it?” cried the little boy, dancing up and down in
his excitement. “I’m Mr. Gordon keeping the store!” he explained.
“Yes, I know you are,” admitted Sue. “I said you sounded just like
Mr. Gordon when mother goes in and he says what will it be to-day,
Mrs. Brown. You sounded just like him, and—”
“Well, then, you must call me Mr. Gordon!” insisted Bunny. “Now start
over again.”
“Oh, all right, Bun—I mean Mr. Gordon!” and Sue quickly corrected
herself. “Wait a minute.”
She picked up her doll from the grass and, imitating as nearly as she
could the manner of a grown woman, walked out of the store. Of course
the store was out of doors, in the front yard of the Brown home,
under the trees. But to Bunny the store was very real, indeed. Bunny
could “pretend” much harder than could Sue, because, possibly, he was
a year older.
Sue—or Mrs. Anderson—having gone out, turned about to come in again.
Bunny was once more behind the counter, looking at the clam shells,
the piles of pebbles, and the sand, at his wrapping paper and twine
and at the swaying shingle on a box—his scales.
“Good morning, Mrs. Anderson, what will it be to-day?” again asked
the little boy storekeeper as he bowed to his sister.
“Oh, good morning, Mr. Gordon,” replied Sue, and she did not even
smile as she gave her brother the pretend name. This showed that Sue
was now playing the game in real earnest. “Have you any sugar this
morning, Mr. Gordon?”
“Yes, Mrs. Anderson, I have some nice fresh sugar that just came in,”
Bunny answered, acting so much like Mr. Gordon, the real grocer, that
Sue nearly smiled at him. But she remembered just in time and her
face grew serious.
“Do you wish white sugar or brown, Mrs. Anderson?” asked Bunny. I can
call him that without getting into trouble, you know.
“I’ll have a pound of white sugar, and two pounds of brown,” answered
Sue, or Mrs. Anderson.
“Please have a seat while I weigh it for you,” the little storekeeper
went on.
In front of the counter there was a small box. Pretending that this
was a stool, such as they sometimes have in real stores, Sue sat down
on it.
Then Bunny, taking up a stone for a weight, put it on one end of the
shingle scales. On the other end of the shingle he piled up some
white sand, and when the shingle balanced, that was a pound. He put
the white sand in one of the pieces of paper and tied a string around
it.
“There is your white sugar, Mrs. Anderson,” he said to his sister.
Sue took it but cried:
“Oh, Bunny, there’s a hole in the paper and all the sand is running
out! Look!”
Bunny Brown raised his hands in the air.
“There you go again!” he cried. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Mr.
Gordon and not Bunny? And that isn’t sand—it’s sugar! If you aren’t
going to play right—”
“Oh, Bunny—I mean Mr. Gordon—I forgot!” gasped Sue. “Truly, I did!
Come on and play!” she begged, for Bunny started to walk out from
behind the counter. “I won’t do it again! Really, I won’t, Bun—I
mean Mr. Gordon! And I don’t care if this san—I mean if the sugar
spills. I have lots of money and I can buy more,” and she looked in
her pocket where a mass of green leaves from the lilac bush took the
place of money.
“Well, all right,” said Bunny slowly, after a moment. “But if you
forget again I’m not going to play!”
“I won’t forget,” promised Sue.
She placed the paper of sand-sugar down on the counter in front of
her, brushed some of the grains off her doll’s dress and said:
“Now I’ll have some brown sugar, Mr. Gordon.”
“Yes, Mrs. Anderson,” said Bunny. “This brown sugar is very sweet.
Just taste it!”
He held some of the brown sand out to his sister. She looked at him
in a funny way, and Bunny cried:
“Go on—taste it!”
Thereupon Sue wet the end of her finger and dipped it in the sand
Bunny held out to her on the end of a little board. Then Sue put the
sand on the tip of her tongue.
“Burr-r-r! Ugh! Oh, yes, it is very sweet sugar!” she exclaimed,
making a funny face as she spluttered until the sand was out of her
mouth. “I think I’ll have two pounds of that, Mr. Gordon.”
Bunny never smiled at the funny face his sister made when she tasted
the sand. When Bunny played anything he was very much in earnest, as
I have told you.
He put another stone on the weight end of the shingle scale. He
then dipped out twice as much brown sand as he had of the white and
wrapped this up in a paper which he tied with a piece of string.
“There is the brown sugar, Mrs. Anderson,” he said. “And now what
else will there be to-day?”
Bunny Brown acted so much like Sam Gordon, the real grocer, and even
imitated his talk and manners so well, that Sue felt like laughing.
But she knew that if she did so her brother would not play any more,
so she kept as straight a face as she could and said:
“Have you any fresh eggs, Mr. Gordon?”
“Oh, yes, Mrs. Anderson, some very fresh ones. They were picked just
this morning!”
“Oh, Bunny Brown, you don’t pick eggs! They grow in the chicken
coop!” giggled Sue. And Bunny, knowing that he had made a mistake,
did not find fault this time with Sue for calling him Bunny instead
of Mr. Gordon.
“I mean,” corrected the little boy, “that the eggs were laid fresh
this morning.”
“Then I’ll take a dozen,” said Sue, getting her face straight again.
Bunny picked up twelve of the larger white pebbles and put these in
an old cracker box, of which he had several under the counter.
“Be careful not to break the eggs, Mrs. Anderson,” he said, handing
Sue the box. “Is there anything else?”
“I think that’s all,” said Sue gravely, as she had heard her mother
say. “How much is it?”
Bunny pretended to be adding up the cost of the pound of white
sand-sugar, the two pounds of the brown sand-sugar, and the price of
the dozen white-pebble-eggs.
“That’s a dollar and fifty-seven cents,” he finally said.
Sue took out a large green leaf and two smaller ones. And Bunny gave
her back, in change, two red petals from a rose.
“Come again, Mrs. Anderson,” he called as Sue, tucking her doll under
one arm and her packages under the other, started away from the play
store. She walked across the grass and down toward the bushes that
grew as a sort of hedge in front of the house.
As she neared the gate, Sue saw something which caused her to cry out:
“Oh, look, Bunny! Look! Quick!”
“Say, didn’t I tell you I’m Mr. Gordon, the grocer, and you mustn’t
call me Bunny?” cried the little boy. “Now I’m not going to play
store any more!”
“I don’t want to play store!” exclaimed Sue, who was much excited.
“Look, Bunny! It’s a runaway horse and he’s coming right this way!”
This made Bunny forget all about being a grocer. Out from behind
the counter he ran to join his sister near the gate. He saw, coming
down the street, a galloping horse on the back of which was a man
who either had lost the bridle or who did not know how to manage the
animal.
“Oh, Sue, it is a runaway!” gasped Bunny, and for the first time
since the store game had begun he called his sister by her right
name. “I wonder whose it is?”
“I guess it’s that man’s,” said Sue. “Look! He’s coming right for us!
I’m going to run!”
“He won’t come here!” said Bunny. “He can’t jump over the bushes,
Sue.”
The man on the back of the horse seemed either frightened or excited.
He was now leaning forward, his arms around the neck of the animal,
and he cried:
“Avast there! Belay! Drop your anchor! Pull up at the dock! I want to
go ashore!”
Bunny thought this was a funny way to talk to a horse.
“He should say ‘whoa’ or ‘back’ to him,” thought Bunny. “He’s talking
just like Bunker Blue or one of the sailors down at daddy’s dock.”
But neither Bunny Brown nor his sister Sue had time to think much
more or do much more. All of a sudden the horse came up on the
sidewalk near the Brown gate. Then, just outside the hedge of bushes,
the horse came to a sudden stop.
Off his back shot the man, up into the air, over the bushes in a
curve, and then he fell to the ground with a groan.
“Oh! Oh!” cried Bunny’s sister Sue.