THE CORNER STORE
"Quiet, children! Quiet!" ordered Miss Bradley. "This is school, not the
playground at recess. Now, Sadie," she went on, as soon as there was a
little quiet in the room, "tell me again, and be careful what you say.
What did you see?"
"Please, teacher, I saw a mouse in Bunny Brown's desk, and he made a
face at me. I mean the mouse made a face at me--not Bunny!" Sadie made
haste to explain, for she saw Bunny look at her when she made the
statement about his desk and the mouse.
Sadie had left her seat beside Bunny's desk, and was now up front.
"How many other girls saw the mouse in Bunny's desk?" asked Miss
Bradley.
No one answered.
"Raise your hands if you are afraid to speak," said the teacher, with a
smile. She was beginning to believe that Sadie had imagined it all, or
else that an edge of a book had looked like a mouse.
None of the girls raised her hands except Sadie West.
"Did any boy see the mouse?" Miss Bradley next asked.
"No, but I wish I had!" exclaimed Charlie Star. "If I'd see it I'd grab
it!"
The other pupils giggled on hearing this.
"Quiet, children! Quiet!" begged the teacher again.
"Are you sure, Sadie, that you saw a mouse in Bunny Brown's desk?" asked
Miss Bradley.
"Yes'm, I'm sure I did," was the answer.
"Bunny, did you bring a mouse to school?" Miss Bradley next asked. "I
mean a pet mouse, for I know you and Sue have many pets. Did you bring a
mouse to school, Bunny?"
"Oh, no, Teacher! I wouldn't do such a thing!" Bunny declared very
earnestly.
"I didn't believe you would," said Miss Bradley, with a kind smile. "I
think Sadie must be mistaken. But still, to quiet her--and all of you,"
she added, looking at the pupils, "I will look in Bunny's desk. I am
quite sure I will find nothing more than a book or a piece of paper that
may have moved, making Sadie think it was a mouse."
Miss Bradley went to Bunny's desk. All the desks in the room were of the
sort with a lid that raised up and down on hinges, like the cover of a
box. As Miss Bradley came near Bunny's desk she noticed that the top was
raised a little way, leaving a crack of an opening. Bunny had put one of
his books in hurriedly, and the desk lid rested on this.
As the teacher raised the desk lid and looked in, the room was very
quiet. Some of the girls almost held their breaths. One of them covered
her eyes with her hands, lest she might, by accident, see the mouse.
Sadie West leaned forward eagerly, anxious, in a way, that a mouse
should be found, for that would make her story true, and she was sure,
in her own mind, that she had seen a mouse. Bunny, too, looked eagerly
at Miss Bradley, and so did Sue, from the other side of the room.
"Grab a book, everybody!" said Charlie Star in a hoarse whisper to the
other boys. "Grab a book, and if the mouse runs out we'll bang him!"
Charlie was an active little chap, almost as lively as Bunny Brown
himself.
Miss Bradley heard what Charlie said and, with the desk lid half raised,
she said:
"No, boys! No throwing of books, if you please! Should there be a mouse
in the desk I can call the janitor to get it out."
"Oh, let me get it out!" begged Bunny.
There was no time to say more, for now Miss Bradley had Bunny's desk lid
fully raised. She looked inside for a moment, then with a queer look on
her face she closed the desk again and moved away.
"Did you see it, Teacher? Did you see the little mouse--same as I did?"
eagerly asked Sadie.
"No," answered Miss Bradley. "There isn't a mouse in the desk, but there
is a little alligator!"
"Alligator!" cried the girls--that is, all but Sue.
"Alligator!" shouted the boys.
"Let's see it!" cried Charlie Star.
"Quiet, children! Quiet!" ordered Miss Bradley. Then, turning to Bunny
she asked: "Did you bring that little alligator to school?"
"No'm," Bunny answered.
"Is it yours?" went on Miss Bradley.
"Well, I have some pet alligators home," Bunny admitted. "Half of 'em's
Sue's. We got one of 'em down South, and Daddy bought the rest. But I
didn't bring any to school. If you let me look I can tell if it's mine
or Sue's."
"I'll help!" offered Charlie Star. "I know Bunny's alligators, too!"
"No, let Bunny manage his own pets," said the teacher. "Come here,
Bunny, and see what really is in your desk. I can't understand how an
alligator would get in there if you didn't bring it."
Bunny opened his desk cover, the other boys wishing they had his chance
to "show off" this way right in the school room. Bunny looked inside and
then laughed.
"Yes," he said, "it's Judy, the littlest alligator. She won't hurt
anybody."
"But how did it get to school?" asked Miss Bradley.
"It's in my big pencil box," Bunny answered. "I brought my pencil box to
school this morning, but I didn't open it and----"
"Teacher! Teacher! I know!" exclaimed Sue, raising her hand to show that
she had something to tell.
"Well, how did it happen?" asked Miss Bradley.
"If you please, Teacher," said the little girl, "Bunny's pencil box was
out in the barn where we keep the alligators. He left it there when we
played school the other day. This morning Bunny couldn't find his pencil
box, but it was out in the barn. He brought it in from there and we came
to school."
"And I guess," said Bunny, finishing the story his sister had started,
"that Judy climbed into my pencil box in the night and went to sleep
there and I didn't see her."
This seemed to be as good an explanation as any, and was probably the
way it had happened. Anyhow there was the little alligator in the
pencil box inside Bunny's desk. The scaly creature had crawled in and
then out, and when Bunny went up to recite the little creature had
thrust its snout out beneath the partly raised lid. It was this that
Sadie West had seen and thought was a mouse.
"Well, Bunny," said Miss Bradley, "I know it wasn't your fault, so we'll
say nothing more about it. Only, after this, please look in your pencil
boxes before you bring them to school."
"I will," promised Sue's brother.
"And now I'll excuse you from class while you take your alligator home,"
went on Miss Bradley.
"I can help him, Miss Bradley, if he wants me to," offered Charlie Star.
"I know a lot about alligators."
"No, thank you," replied the teacher with a smile. "This alligator is so
little I think Bunny can manage it alone. Now we will go on with our
lessons!"
There was something like a sigh of disappointment among the children.
For they had all welcomed the happening, since it gave them a sort of
recess. But now they must pay attention to their books.
Bunny shut Judy up in his pencil box, as the easiest way of carrying the
little alligator, and soon he was on his way home with his pet.
"Why, Bunny! what's the matter?" his mother asked, as he came into the
house. "Why are you home?"
"I had to bring back one of the alligators," he explained.
"Ha! Ha!" laughed Uncle Tad. "Like Mary's lamb, the alligator followed
you to school one day, did it, Bunny?"
"She didn't 'zactly follow me," Bunny explained, as he took his pet out
to the tank in the barn. "I carried Judy in my pencil box, but I didn't
know it."
Bunny went back to school and finished his lessons. And all the
remainder of the day, when the pupils had a chance to speak, they talked
of nothing but Sadie West, the "mouse" and Bunny's pet alligator. It was
very exciting, all together.
When Bunny and Sue reached home that afternoon they found their mother
on the steps waiting for them.
"I'll take your books," she told the children, "and I want you to go to
the store for me. Mary started to bake a cake and found, at the last
moment, she was out of baking powder. I want you to go for a box. You
needn't go all the way to the big store. Stop at the little one on the
corner--Mrs. Golden's, you know. She sometimes has the kind I want. Go
to the corner store and get the baking powder."
"All right!" exclaimed Bunny, and he and Sue hurried off. They knew
where Mrs. Sarah Golden's little corner store was located--just a few
blocks from their home, much nearer than the big store where Mrs. Brown
generally traded. Bunny and Sue had been in Mrs. Golden's store before,
but not often, as it was rather out of the way, and such a small place
that Mrs. Brown was afraid things would not be as fresh as at the larger
grocery. Besides groceries, Mrs. Golden also kept "notions"--that is,
pins, thread, hooks and eyes, and things like that. She also had candy
and a few toys for sale.
"Her store isn't much bigger than our play store was, is it?" asked
Bunny of Sue, as they reached Mrs. Golden's.
"Not much," agreed Sue. "Didn't we have fun when we played store?"
"Lots!" agreed Bunny. "And didn't the boiler make a big racket when it
fell down?"
He and Sue laughed at remembering this, but their laughs died away as
they entered the little corner store and heard groans coming from behind
one of the counters. Groans and sighs greeted the children as they
opened the door. No one was in sight.
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed Sue, frightened, "what you s'pose has happened?"