ORANGE BLOSSOMS
Bunny Brown walked from the cellarway over to where his mother, Uncle
Tad, his sister, and his playmates stood. Uncle Tad and Mother Brown
looked rather reproachfully at the little boy. They really thought he
had played a joke on them, or at least that he had caused the other
children to do so, sending them to cry that he was buried under the
snow.
But Sue, Charlie, and Helen knew that Bunny had really been covered from
sight under the snow. They knew there was no trick about it, though they
did not know how it was Bunny appeared as if coming out of the cellar
when he should have been under the snow.
"I didn't play any trick, Mother. Really I didn't," said Bunny
earnestly. He had played tricks in times past, but his mother knew he
always told the truth.
"Were you really under that pile of snow?" asked the old soldier.
"Yes, Uncle Tad, I was," Bunny answered. "The snow came down off the
roof and covered me all up."
"Then why didn't I find you there when I dug all the way down to the
ground and the cellar wall?" asked Uncle Tad.
"Because," answered Bunny, with a queer little smile on his rosy face,
"when the snow piled on top of me, and knocked me down, I was right
close by a cellar window. First I didn't know what to do. Then I saw the
window, and I pushed on it, and it opened.
"I went through the window into the cellar. There was a box under the
window inside the cellar, and I got on that and then I jumped off down
to the floor.
"First I couldn't see anything, 'cause it was so dark there, but I could
after a while, and I come out by the door."
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed his mother. "We never thought of the cellar
windows! Of course I see how it could happen," she said to Uncle Tad.
"The pile of snow does cover a window."
She pointed toward one end of the big pile under which Bunny had been
hidden. This end did, indeed, cover one of the low cellar windows, and
when the snow was shoveled away it could be seen where the little boy
had scrambled through.
"Say, it was lucky the cellar window wasn't fastened," said Charlie.
"It surely was!" agreed Bunny. "I was glad when it opened."
"I didn't know we had left any of them unbolted," Mrs. Brown said.
"We'll fasten it now. But don't get under any more snowslides, Bunny."
"Now we can finish making our snow man!" Bunny said, as his mother and
uncle turned to go into the house.
"Yes, I guess there's no more danger of snow sliding off the roof,"
remarked Uncle Tad. "All that could fall has slid off."
"Don't forget to take Mr. Snyder's shovel back," Mother Brown called to
the children.
They promised to return it, and then began an hour of fun with the snow
man. Bunny finished making the tall white hat, and then he and Charlie
threw snowballs at it and at the nose of the snow man until he was so
battered and plastered that he did not look at all like himself.
Sue and Helen threw a few snowballs at the legs of the man, but they
soon tired of this, for Charlie and Bunny grew so excited with their
sport that there was not much chance for the girls.
"Let's go and slide downhill," proposed Sue.
"That'll be fun," agreed Helen. So, taking their sleds, the girls went
to a little hill not far away, where, meeting Mary Watson and Sadie
West, they had good times riding down the snowy slope.
"Well, he doesn't look much like a snow man now," laughed Charlie Star,
after many balls had been thrown at the white image.
"No; his face is all gone," Bunny agreed. "What'll we do now?"
"Let's go over on the hill," proposed Charlie. "It's getting so warm
that maybe the snow won't last much longer, and we don't want to miss
the fun."
"It is getting warmer," Bunny agreed. "The wind's coming from the
south," he added as he looked at the weather vane on the barn and saw
that it was pointed to the south. "I guess they don't ever have snow
down south; do they, Charlie?"
"They don't where my aunt lives," Charlie answered. "She's down in
Florida--away down in the end, near Key West. She sends me letters
sometimes, and she says they never have snow there. She has all the
oranges she wants, too!"
"I'd like to live there!" Bunny said, smacking his lips. "I love
oranges. But I'd like a little snow once in a while, wouldn't you,
Charlie?"
"Oh, yes! You couldn't have any fun in winter without snow."
"I'd like to see such a place--just once, anyhow," went on Bunny Brown.
And he little knew how soon he was to get his desire.
The two boys, having pelted the snow man all they wished, got their
sleds and soon joined Sue and the other girls on the hill. There they
had races, and coasted down in as many different ways as they could
think of. Finally Bunny cried:
"Let's make a bob, Charlie!"
"No, you mustn't do that!" exclaimed Sue.
"Who said so?" demanded Bunny.
"Daddy," Sue answered. "He said I wasn't to make any bobs on the hill."
"Well, he didn't tell me not to," declared her brother.
"I guess he meant you," answered Sue. "You'd better not make a bob,
Bunny Brown! You might get hurt!"
Making a bob, it might be explained, meant that two or three boys and
sometimes the older girls would lie flat on their sleds. Then one
coaster would take hold of the rear of the sled in front of him, and
twine his feet around the front runners of the sled behind him. In this
way half a dozen boys or girls could lock themselves and their sleds
together and go down the hill that way.
There was danger in it because sometimes the hands or legs of some one
in the middle would lose their grip, and the "bob" would come apart.
Then sleds would crash together, and often the children were hurt. Sue's
father had told her never to do this, for he had more than once seen
children hurt at this game.
Whether he had told Bunny not to make a bob I do not know. I think if
Bunny had been forbidden this fun he would not have taken part in it.
But perhaps he forgot.
Anyhow, he and Charlie and some of the other lads stretched out on their
sleds, making a bob as I have told you it was done, and down the hill
they coasted.
All went well for some distance, and then suddenly Harry Bentley, who
was in the middle, lost his hold of Bunny's sled.
"Hold on to me! Hold on to me!" cried Bunny, as he saw that he was
slipping sideways.
"I can't!" Harry answered.
A few seconds later the bob came apart, some boys rolling off their
sleds and others coasting down backwards or sideways. Bunny went on by
himself for some little distance, and then, all of a sudden, the two
last boys, who were still locked together, crashed right into the side
of Bunny's sled, knocking him off and coasting on right over him!
"Oh! Oh!" cried Sue, who saw what had happened. "Look at Bunny!"
For a moment it seemed that her brother must be severely hurt, but when
some of the older boys ran to pick him up, Bunny arose by himself. On
his face was a spot of blood.
"Oh, you're hurt!" cried Charlie Star.
Bunny put his hand to his nose. It was bleeding, and at first he was
frightened. But he did not cry.
"I--I don't care!" he said bravely. "I've had nose-bleed before. It
don't hurt much!"
"Hold some snow on it," advised one boy. "That'll stop the bleeding."
Bunny did this, but as the cold snow hurt worse than the pain of his
bumped nose, he soon tossed the red ball away.
"Come on, I'll take you home," said Jack Denson, one of the older boys.
"Don't cry, Sue," he said, as Bunny's sister began to whimper. "He's
all right."
Jack was very kind, wiping the blood off Bunny's face at times with a
handkerchief, so that when the Brown home was almost reached the
bleeding had nearly stopped. Sue, who had been very much frightened at
first, was growing calmer, and Bunny was feeling better. As they neared
their house they saw their father coming home from his work at the boat
and fish dock.
"There's my father," Bunny said.
"Oh, then you'll be all right," remarked Jack. "I'll skip back then, for
I've got to go to the store for my mother."
Mr. Brown stood at the gate waiting for his two children, who came along
dragging their sleds.
"Why, Bunny! what's the matter?" asked Mr. Brown, when he saw the blood
on his son's face.
"He played bob; and didn't you tell him not to?" broke out Sue. "An' the
bob busted and he got bumped into and he was run over and he was under
a drift and he crawled through the cellar window an' Uncle Tad couldn't
find him an'--an'--everything!" gasped Sue, now quite out of breath.
"My, you're telling all the bad news at once!" laughed her father, for
he saw that Bunny was not seriously hurt and he knew that sometimes
accidents will happen on coasting hills.
Mr. Brown had a box under his arm. It was a box that had come through
the mail, as Bunny and Sue could see by the stamps. It looked very
interesting and mysterious, this box did, and the children regarded it
curiously as they walked up the path to the front door of the house with
their father.
"Didn't you tell Bunny never to make a bob?" asked Sue, as Daddy Brown
took his key from his pocket to open the door.
"I don't know that I did," was the answer. "Still if it is dangerous to
make bobs I wish neither you nor Bunny to do it."
"Oh, it's lots of fun," Bunny said. "And my nose doesn't hurt much now.
What's in the box, Daddy?" he asked.
"I'll show you in a minute," Mr. Brown promised. "It is something very
nice."
"Candy?" cried Sue, who had more than one "sweet tooth," I think.
"No, not candy," her father teased. "You'll soon see."
He went into the house with the children, and as soon as Mrs. Brown saw
Bunny she knew what had happened; at least she knew his nose had bled.
"Did you have a tumble?" she asked.
"He was in a bob and it broke and he was run over!" cried Sue, who
seemed anxious to do all the telling.
"Well, I'm glad it was no worse," said Mother Brown. "What's this?" she
asked, as her husband handed her the box. "For me?"
"Yes," he answered. "Orange blossoms."
"Orange blossoms! How lovely!" cried the children's mother. "Where
from?"
"Florida. Mr. Halliday sent them. He's down there on an orange farm, and
I may have to go down myself."
"Down where?" cried Bunny.
"South," answered his father.
"To Florida where the orange blossoms grow?" asked Sue eagerly, as her
mother was opening the box.
"Well, we may get to Florida. But first I shall have to go to Georgia,"
answered Mr. Brown.
"Oh, take us!" cried Bunny and Sue. "Please take us!"
"We'll see," said Mr. Brown, with a look at his wife. "We'll talk it
over after supper. Let's look at the orange blossoms now."
While Mother Brown was opening the box there came a noise at the side
door as though some one were trying to break it open by pounding on it.