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BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of
The Bunny Brown Series, The Bobbsey
Twins Series, The Outdoor Girls
Series, The Six Little Bunkers
Series, The Make-Believe
Stories, Etc.
Illustrated by Walter S. Rodgers
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
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 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
THE MAKE-BELIEVE STORIES
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
* * * * *
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers New York
Copyright, 1921, by
Grosset & Dunlap
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South
[Illustration: WITH DELIGHT AND WONDER, THE CHILDREN PICKED ORANGES.
_Frontispiece_--(_Page 203_)
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South._]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE SNOW MAN 1
II BUNNY'S TRICK 10
III ORANGE BLOSSOMS 19
IV A RUNAWAY 31
V OUT OF A DUSTPAN 43
VI OFF FOR GEORGIA 50
VII THE PLANTATION 60
VIII AMONG THE COTTON PICKERS 73
IX GATHERING PEANUTS 84
X ON TO FLORIDA 93
XI THE POOR CAT 104
XII A STRANGE RIDE 115
XIII NUTTY, THE TRAMP 123
XIV A QUEER PICNIC 134
XV LEFT ALONE 144
XVI THE JOLLY SWITCHMAN 154
XVII A WORRIED MOTHER 164
XVIII THE TRICK DOG 171
XIX A HAPPY REUNION 180
XX AT ORANGE BEACH 191
XXI GOLDEN APPLES 198
XXII THE RAFT 207
XXIII ON THE ISLAND 216
XXIV THE ALLIGATORS 225
XXV MR. BUNN 234
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
CHAPTER I
THE SNOW MAN
"Oh, Bunny! what you making such a big nose for?"
"So I can hit it easier, Sue, when I peg snowballs at it."
Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were in the backyard of their home,
making a big man of snow. There had been quite a storm the day before,
and many white flakes had fallen. As soon as the storm stopped and the
weather grew warm enough, Mrs. Brown let Bunny and Sue go out to play.
And of course one of the first things they did, after running about in
the clean white snow, making "tracks," was to start a snow man.
Bunny was working away at the face of the white chap when Sue asked him
about the big nose he was making.
"What'd you say you were going to do, Bunny?" asked Sue, who was digging
away in the snow about where the man's legs would be when he was
finished.
"I said--" replied her brother, as he pressed some snow in his
red-mittened hand, getting ready to plaster it on the man's funny
face--"I said I was making his nose big so I could hit it easier with a
snowball."
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue, "are you going to throw snowballs at our nice
snow man?"
"Of course!" replied Bunny. "That's what we're making him for! I'm going
to put a hat on him, too. Course a hat's easier to hit than a nose,
'specially a tall hat like the one I'm going to make. You can throw at
the hat if you want to and I'll throw at the nose."
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, and from her voice you might have thought
Bunny had said he was going to throw a snowball at Wango, the pet monkey
of Mr. Jed Winkler, an animal of which Bunny Brown and his sister Sue
were very fond. "Bunny, don't hurt him!"
"Pooh! You don't s'pose a snow man can feel, do you?" asked Bunny,
turning to look at his sister. He had just begun to understand why it
was that Sue did not want him to throw snowballs at the big white fellow
when he was finished.
"Well, maybe he can't feel," said Sue, for she was really too old to
have such a little child's belief. At least she felt she was too old to
confess to such a feeling. "But what's the fun of making a nice snow man
and then hitting him all over with snowballs? I'm not going to throw at
his tall hat, even if you make one. Why can't you throw balls at
something else, Bunny, like a tree or a telegraph pole?"
"'Cause I can peg at them any time," Bunny answered, with a laugh. "It's
more fun to throw snowballs at a snow man and make believe he's real. He
can't chase you then."
"Well, I'm not going to throw anything at our nice snow man," decided
Sue, digging away with her little shovel to carve out the legs.
"You don't have to," said Bunny, fairly enough. "I'll do it all, Sue."
"Well," said his sister, with a shake of her head, "you can throw at
your part of the snow man, if you like, but you can't throw at my part!"
"Which--which is your part?" asked Bunny, and he spoke as though greatly
surprised.
"The legs," answered Sue. "I wish you wouldn't throw any snowballs at
the legs, Bunny Brown."
"All right, I won't," he promised kindly. For Bunny was a year older
than his sister, and, at most times, was kind and good to her.
"You can throw at your own part as much as you like," went on Sue, "but
I'm not going to have my part spoiled."
"All right," her brother agreed again. "I'll throw at his nose and high
hat--after I make it--and I won't touch his legs."
This seemed to satisfy Sue, and for some time the children played in the
yard, where the big snow man was being made. He was as large as Sue and
Bunny could build him. First they had rolled a snowball around the yard,
and, as the snow was soft and packed well, the ball grew larger and
larger.
Then, when it was about the size Bunny thought was right, it was left at
the place where the man was to stand.
"Now we have to roll another ball," Bunny had said.
"What for?" asked Sue, who, though she had often seen snow men, had
perhaps forgotten just how they were made.
"This second ball is for his stomach," Bunny said.
"What good is a stomach?" asked Sue. "He can't eat."
"He could maybe eat icicles if he wanted to," Bunny had answered.
"Anyhow, the second snowball has to go on top of the bottom one and make
the body. Then you cut legs out of the bottom snowball. You can cut the
legs, 'cause I'm taller 'n you and I can reach up and make the face."
Sue was digging away with her little shovel at the bottom snowball to
make the man's legs, and Bunny was just finishing the big nose when,
suddenly, a snowball came sailing into the Brown yard and fell with a
thud between Bunny and his sister.
They both started, and Bunny cried:
"Did you throw that, Sue? If you did you mustn't, for 'tisn't time to
start throwing yet!"
"Ha! Ha!" laughed a voice around the corner of the Brown home, and down
the path came running Charlie Star, one of Bunny's playmates, followed
by Helen Newton, a little girl with whom Sue was very fond of playing.
It was Charlie who had laughed.
"I threw the snowball," he said. "But I only did it to make you jump. I
wasn't trying to hit you, Bunny and Sue."
"All right," replied Bunny. "Want to help make the snow man?"
"Sure!" answered Charlie.
"Oh, what fun!" added Helen. "May I help?"
"You may help me make the legs," replied Sue. "Bunny says he's going to
throw snowballs at his part--that's the head," she explained.
"That'll be fun!" decided Charlie Star. "Come on, let's hurry up and get
it finished and then we'll see who's the best shot."
"I've got to get a hat made first," Bunny stated. "It'll be a lot more
fun pegging at a tall hat."
"If you could get a real one--one of the shiny black kind--it would be
dandy," said Charlie.
"Well, I can make one just as good of snow," Bunny said. "Come on,
Charlie!"
Together the four children played around the snow man, who was slowly
coming to look more and more like himself.
"Oh, isn't he a big fellow!" cried Helen, walking off a little way to
get a better view.
"Wait till I make his hat," suggested Bunny. "Then he'll look bigger,
and we can hit him easier, Charlie."
"Sure, Bunny!"
"All but his legs!" cried Sue. "You mustn't hit his legs, Bunny Brown.
They're my part."
"No, we won't hit the legs," agreed Bunny. "Charlie, you look for some
pieces of coal for the eyes. I'm going to roll another snowball to make
the tall hat."
Bunny walked over toward the side of his house to find some snow that
had not been trampled on, so he would have a good place to start to roll
the ball that could be cut into the shape of a tall hat. Sue and Helen
had about finished work on the snow man's legs, and Charlie had fitted
in two chunks of black coal for eyes.
"Shall I put some of the red paper on for ears?" asked Charlie, as he
was about to make the mouth.
"Snow men don't have red ears!" laughed Helen.
"My ears get red when they're cold," said Sue.
"We'll make the ears out of snow," called Bunny, who was rolling the
snowball near the house. "I forgot about them. But I guess we don't need
'em, anyhow."
All of a sudden, as Bunny was bending over to give the hat snowball a
final roll, which would make it about the right size, a queer noise
sounded. It seemed to come from the roof of the Brown house.
Charlie, Sue, and Helen looked up. They saw, sliding down the sloping
roof of the house, a big mass of snow, like a great drift. It was just
above Bunny's head, and the other children could see that it would slide
right down on top of him.
"Look out, Bunny!" screamed Sue.
Her brother glanced up from the ball he was rolling.
"Look out for the slide from the roof!" shouted Charlie.
Bunny started to run, but it was too late. In another second down came
the big mass of snow with a rush, covering Bunny Brown from sight!