A BUSY BUZZER
Bunny, Sue and the other children were just as much surprised as was
Miss Bradley when that strange, harsh voice called out. And it needed
but a look at the faces of her pupils to show the teacher that none of
them had broken one of the rules of the classroom.
Bunny still held his mouth open, for he was half way through the
spelling of the word "cracker." He was about to keep on, when once more
the voice called:
"Cracker! Cracker! Polly wants a cracker!"
The sound came from the cloak closet on one side of the classroom.
"It's a parrot!" cried Charlie Star. "A poll parrot!"
"Yes, I believe it is," said Miss Bradley.
"You didn't bring a parrot to school to-day, did you, Bunny?" she asked.
"Oh, no, Ma'am!" he exclaimed, so earnestly that of course Miss Bradley
believed him.
"But I know whose parrot it is," said Sue, eagerly.
"Whose?" asked the teacher.
"Mr. Winkler's! He's got a parrot and a monkey. They're always getting
loose. Maybe the monkey's in the cloakroom, too, only the monkey can't
talk like Polly," went on Sue.
"Keep your seats, children!" said Miss Bradley. "I'll look in the
cloakroom. There is no need to be excited. A parrot will hurt no one,
nor a monkey, either. Keep your seats!"
As she opened the cloakroom door the harsh voice again sounded more
loudly than before.
"Bow! Wow! Wow!" it barked. "Cracker! Cracker! Polly wants a cracker!
Let's have a song! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
Then it began what I suppose the bird thought was singing.
The children laughed, and so did the teacher.
Out of the cloakroom flew the parrot, fluttering up on the teacher's
desk. There it perched, preening its feathers with its big beak and
thick, black tongue, now and then uttering harsh squawks and making
remarks, some of which could not be understood.
"Is this the parrot you meant, Sue?" asked Miss Bradley.
"Yes'm, that's Mr. Winkler's," answered Sue. "I can take it back to him
if you want me to. Polly knows me."
"And he knows me, too!" exclaimed Bunny.
"And me!" eagerly added Charlie Star. "Let me and Bunny take him home,
please?" he begged.
"Is that the way to say it?" remarked the teacher, for the room was more
quiet now. "What should you have said, Charlie?"
"Let Bunny and me," corrected Charlie.
"That's right. Always speak of yourself last. It is more polite. Well, I
think you and Bunny may take the parrot back to Mr. Winkler," went on
the teacher. "Certainly we don't want him in our class, though he seems
a bright bird."
"You ought to see Wango, the monkey, climb!" cried fat Bobbie Boomer,
and all the other children laughed. "He's great!"
"Well, I think a parrot is enough for one day," remarked Miss Bradley,
with a smile. "Take Polly home, Bunny and Charlie."
"Just see, Teacher, he's tame and he knows me," Bunny said, stroking
Polly's head, a caress the parrot seemed to like. Polly perched herself
on Bunny's shoulder, and then he and Charlie went out, envied by the
other pupils.
"Oh that bird! Out again!" cried Miss Winkler, when Polly was restored
to her. "I declare, I'll make Jed get rid of her and Wango! They're more
bother than they're worth!"
"I'll take 'em if you don't want 'em!" offered Charlie Star.
"So will I!" said Bunny.
But as Miss Winkler usually made this threat three or four times a week
(or every time the monkey or parrot got loose), and as Mr. Winkler had
never yet given them away, it did not seem likely that he would do so
now. So Bunny and Charlie had small hopes of owning either pet.
The boys went back to school, passing, on their way, the store of Mrs.
Golden.
"Let's go in," suggested Charlie. "I want to buy a top!"
"All right," agreed Bunny.
"Well, boys, what can I sell you to-day?" asked Mrs. Golden, coming out
from the little back room where she generally sat when there were no
customers to wait on.
"Got any tops?" asked Charlie.
"A few," Mrs. Golden answered, "but not many. I'm going to have a new
lot in next week. Good day, Bunny," she went on. "Did your mother like
that baking powder?"
"I guess so," Bunny answered. Then he and Charlie began looking at the
tops. But the kind Charlie wanted was not in the case, and after looking
at several Charlie decided not to buy any.
"Here's a tin automobile I'm selling cheap," said Mrs. Golden, taking a
red toy out from another case. "It's the last one I have, and I'll sell
it to you for what it cost me--twenty-five cents. The regular price
would be fifty cents. See, I'll wind it up for you."
This she did, setting it down on the floor. With a whizz and a buzz the
auto darted across the store, bringing up with a bang against the low
part of the opposite counter.
"Say, that's a dandy!" exclaimed Charlie. "I'd like to own that!"
"So would I!" agreed Bunny. "Only I haven't twenty-five cents."
"I have!" Charlie said. "I was going to spend only ten cents for a top,
but I guess I'll buy this buzzer auto for a quarter."
"It's in good order," said Mrs. Golden. "I'm not going to keep such
expensive toys after this. I'm getting too old to run a toy store as
well as groceries and notions. I'm giving up most of my toys. But this
is a good auto, Charlie."
"Yes'm, I'll take it," said the little boy, and he bought the auto.
"You can't take it to school with you," said Bunny, as he and his chum
left Mrs. Golden's store.
"Yes, I can," answered Charlie.
"If teacher sees it she'll take it away."
"Well, she won't see it. I can put it in my coat pocket." This Charlie
did, after a struggle, for the pocket was rather small and the toy auto
rather large.
"It sticks out and shows," Bunny said, after the toy had been crowded
in.
"I'll stuff my handkerchief over it," Charlie decided, and this was
done.
Then the two boys went on to school, arriving just as it was time for
recess, so they did not have to go back to their lessons right away.
"And I didn't have to spell!" laughed Bunny. "Though I did know how to
spell cracker."
"Come on!" called Charlie. "We'll have some fun with my new auto! I'll
let it run around the yard."
This he did to the delight of the other boys. As for the girls, they
gathered on the other side of the school yard for their own particular
recess fun.
Sue, Mary Watson, Sadie West, Helen Newton and some others raced about,
playing tag and jumping rope.
"Oh, I know what we can do!" suddenly cried Helen, when they were all
tired from having romped about playing tag.
"What?" asked Sue.
"Let's go down to the end of the yard where the men are digging, and see
how big the hole is," suggested Helen.
"Oh, teacher said we mustn't!" exclaimed Sadie.
"Well, we won't go very close," went on Helen. "She just told us to be
careful not to fall in. But if we don't go too close we can't fall in."
This seemed a safe way of looking at it, and the girls were curious to
see what the workmen had done at the far end of the school yard. The
laborers had been digging for some days, fixing water pipes, and had
made a deep trench, so deep that when a man stood down in it only his
head showed above.
Just now none of the men was near the hole, all having gone away to get
other tools, and as the boys were busy playing at the other end of the
yard, or watching Charlie's auto, the girls could explore the digging by
themselves.
"It's nothing but a hole!" said Sue, in some disappointment, as they
approached as near as they dared and looked in.
"I'd like to go down in it!" exclaimed Helen, who was rather daring.
"Oh!" cried Sue. "Come back! Don't go too close!"
But Helen did not heed. She went up to the very edge of the long, deep
trench, and was looking in when suddenly her feet slipped out from under
her, and down she went, sliding right into the hole!
"Oh! Oh!" she cried.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed the other girls, and in such excited voices that Miss
Bradley came running out of the classroom and the boys crowded down to
the end of the yard.
"What has happened?" asked the teacher.
"Helen Newton fell into the big hole!" cried Sadie West.
"Did the dirt cave in on her?" asked Miss Bradley.
Fortunately, it had not. The walls of the trench were firm and solid,
and the only thing that had happened was that Helen was down in the
deep trench, and could not get up by herself. She was crying now.
"Don't cry," said Miss Bradley. "You're all right. We'll soon get you
out. Now you other boys and girls keep back from the edges, or you'll
cause the sides to cave in and they'll cover Helen! Keep back, Bunny,
Sue, every one!"
This was good advice, and as the other children moved back away from the
trench there was less danger. Miss Bradley was just going to send one of
the boys to call the janitor when two workmen came back. They broke into
a run as they saw the crowd about their digging place, for they had told
the teacher to keep the children away from it.
"There's been an accident!" said one man.
But it was not so bad as he feared, and he and his companion soon lifted
Helen out on solid ground again, a rather frightened little girl, but
not in the least hurt.
"I told you to stay away from that hole!" said Miss Bradley, rather
severely. "I was afraid something like this might happen. It is
fortunate it was no worse. Who started it?"
There was a moment's pause, and then Helen raised her hand. She had been
crying.
"If--if you please, Teacher, I went there first," she stammered.
"Well, I think your fright has been punishment enough for you," said
Miss Bradley kindly, "and we will say nothing more about it. But if any
of you go near that hole again he or she will be kept in after school.
It isn't that I mind your seeing what the workmen are doing, it is just
that it would be dangerous for even grown folks to go too near the edge
of the trench, and much more so for you little folk. So keep away from
the hole. I hope the pipes will be in this week, and the hole closed up.
Now do you all promise to keep away?" she asked. "Raise your hands!"
Every hand went up, for the boys and girls were fond of their teacher
and did not want to cause her worry.
It was a solemn moment, for they all felt that something dreadful might
have happened to Helen had the dirt caved in on her.
"Hands down," said Miss Bradley, and down they went.
Just then the bell rang. Recess was over, and the lines of boys and
girls marched into the schoolhouse once again.
Charlie Star reached for his handkerchief, which he had again stuffed
over his toy automobile after he had crowded that toy into his pocket
when going back into school after recess. As he pulled out his
handkerchief the auto came with it and fell to the floor.
Suddenly there was a strange buzzing sound in the room. Neither the
teacher nor the girls knew what it was, but Bunny and the boys knew it
was Charlie Star's new toy automobile which he had bought from Mrs.
Golden.
With a buzz the busy auto ran from Charlie's desk straight down the
aisle toward Miss Bradley, who was standing in front of her platform.