IN A HOLE
"What things are you going to sell?"
"Who's going to tend store?"
"I want to be cashier!"
These were some of the things the boys and girls shouted as they ran
into the barn where Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were waiting for them
to play store. Charlie Star, Helen Newton, fat Bobbie Boomer, Harry
Bentley, George and Mary Watson and Sadie West were among the boys and
girls who came crowding into the barn, for the day before Bunny and his
sister had invited them to spend Saturday in having fun.
"We'll take turns tending store," explained Bunny, after he had shown
his playmates the shelves and boxes that were to be used for shelves.
"And we're going to have our dog Splash deliver things with a basket on
his neck," explained Sue.
"I should think it would be more fun to hitch up your pony Toby to the
basket cart and have him to deliver things," remarked Helen.
"We thought of that," replied Bunny. "But Bunker Blue has taken Toby
down to the boat dock. He has to do some errands for my father, so we
can't have Toby."
As Bunny and his sister had played this game more than the others, they
were allowed to lay out the plans. Bunny showed the boys how the boards
were to be put across the boxes to make shelves, and Sue took the girls
down to the brook to gather little pebbles and the shells of fresh water
mussels which were to be used for money, as there were going to be so
many "customers" for the barn store that Mrs. Brown's buttons would not
be enough to make change.
"What things are we going to sell?" asked Charlie, as he began pulling
something from his pocket.
"Oh, we'll get stones, sand, gravel, some leaves, pieces of bark,
twigs, and things like that," Bunny explained. "But what you got in your
pocket, Charlie?"
"My wind-up auto. I thought maybe we could use it in the store."
"How?"
"Well, it could be like a cash register. You see," Charlie went on,
"somebody's got to be the cashier just as in a big store. We'll have
different clerks, and when anybody buys anything they must pay the money
to whoever is clerk."
"Yes," agreed Bunny, who understood thus far.
"Then," went on Charlie, "the clerk must put the money the customer pays
into my auto, and send it on a plank up to the cashier's desk. The
cashier will make change and send it back in the auto."
"Oh, that'll be great!" cried Bunny. "And I guess you ought to be the
cashier for thinking it up, Charlie."
"Well, maybe I ought, 'cause it's my auto," Charlie said. He had been
hoping for this all along. "Now I'll make myself a place to be
cashier," he went on, "and I'll fix up a long plank for the auto to run
back and forth on. One winding will bring it up to me and back to the
clerk."
When the other children heard this plan they were much delighted. Soon
the store was ready for business. Boards had been placed across the
boxes and a tier of shelves made, the top one so high that a long box
had to be used like a stepladder to reach it. On the shelves were placed
different things picked up around the barn, in the yard, and in the
patch of woods not far away, or brought from the shore of the brook.
Then the boys and girls divided themselves up, some were to be customers
to buy things in the store, while others were to be clerks to wait on
the customers. Charlie took his place at the end of the tier of shelves
to act as cashier. From the end of the shelves to his box ran a long
narrow plank on which the auto change-carrier was to run.
Finally everything was ready, even to torn pieces of newspaper in which
the things bought were to be wrapped. Splash was on hand with a basket
tied to his neck to deliver the goods. And each customer had picked out
a certain part of the barn as his or her "home" where the things were to
be delivered.
"All ready!" called Bunny Brown. He and Sue were to be clerks in the
store at first; afterward they would take a turn at being customers.
"I want a pound of sugar!" ordered Sadie West, coming up to Bunny,
standing behind his part of the front counter.
"Yes, Ma'am. A pound of sugar!" repeated Bunny, scooping up some sand in
a clam shell. "Nice day, isn't it--Mrs. er--Mrs.----"
"Snyder is my name," said Sadie. "I'm Mrs. Snyder and I live at 756
Oatbin Avenue," she added, as she looked toward the part of the barn she
had picked out for her "house." It was near Toby's oat bin.
"Yes, Ma'am," answered Bunny. "I'll send it right over to Oatbin
Avenue."
He wrapped up the sand-sugar in a piece of paper and took the black
mussel shell which Sadie handed him as her "five-dollar bill." Bunny
placed the shell in the automobile, and started it up the plank to where
Charlie waited. Taking out the large shell, Charlie put in two smaller
ones and a white stone. This was "change."
Back whizzed the auto down the plank until it reached Bunny, who took
out the "change" and handed it to "Mrs. Snyder."
"Please send my sugar right over," she ordered.
"Yes, Ma'am, it will go on the first delivery," Bunny answered, as he
had heard Mr. Gordon, the real grocer, often say.
"Here, Splash!" called Bunny, and his dog, with the basket on his neck,
came running up, wagging his tail.
"Oh, look out!" cried Sue, who was acting as a clerk next to Bunny.
"What's the matter?" Bunny asked.
"Splash is wagging his tail so hard that he'll knock down my eggs!"
complained Sue.
Of course the "eggs" were only pine cones from the woods near by, but
when you are playing store you must pretend everything is real, or else
it isn't any fun.
"Keep your tail still, Splash!" cried Bunny. But the dog seemed only to
wag it the harder.
Splash might have knocked down all the "eggs" and done other damage in
the store had not Bunny placed Mrs. Snyder's sugar in the basket and
sent his pet to deliver the make-believe sweet stuff.
And Splash delivered it very carefully, too. Sadie had gone back to her
home at "756 Oatbin Avenue" to wait for her sugar, and when it came she
took it from the basket on Splash's neck. Then the dog went back to the
barn store to run on more delivery errands.
This was a sample of the way Bunny, Sue, and their friends played that
Saturday morning. Now and then they would change about, some who had
been clerks becoming customers and the customers clerks.
Of course accidents happened. Splash wagged his tail so hard that he
knocked over a box of prunes, scattering them on the barn floor. Even if
the prunes were only little black stones it wasn't just the thing for
Splash to do, and Sue scolded him for it. But Splash didn't seem to
mind.
Another time, when the dog had been sent to deliver some ice-cream
(which was really some white sand from the brook) to Mrs. Leland Sayre,
who lived at 1056 Straw Terrace (Mrs. Sayre being Mary Watson), an
accident happened. Splash was on his way to Mrs. Sayre's home when he
heard another dog barking outside the barn.
With a bark of greeting Splash dashed out, spilling the "ice-cream" all
over the barn floor.
"Oh, dear! And I wanted it for a party!" said Mrs. Sayre.
But of course it was all in fun.
More than once the change auto ran off the plank, either on its way to
the cashier or coming back, and spilled the money all over the barn
floor. But that could not be helped.
"Only it isn't good for my auto," said Charlie.
"We'll put some straw down on the floor so when it falls it won't get
bent," said Bunny, and this was done.
All morning the children played store in the barn, selling the things
over and over again. Splash got tired of being a delivery dog after a
while, and Bobbie Boomer said he'd take his place. Bobbie was more to be
depended on than Splash, who, try as he did, would sometimes deliver
things to the wrong houses.
When noon came the neighboring children were talking of going home to
lunch, but Mrs. Brown gave them all a pleasant surprise, including Bunny
and Sue, by asking all the boys and girls to remain and have something
to eat, served in the barn.
"Oh, what fun!" cried Sadie West.
"The best ever!" declared Charlie Star. "I'm glad I came!"
Lunch over, the playing of store went on again, until first one and then
another began to tire, and it was given up. Then they put away the
planks and boxes and played tag and hide and seek until it was time for
supper, when the boys and girls went home.
"We've had a lovely time!" they said to Bunny and Sue.
Just before supper Mrs. Brown needed something from the store.
"I'll go get it," offered Bunny. "I'll get it at Mrs. Golden's."
"I'll go with you," said Sue, and soon they were at the little corner
grocery.
"How are you to-day, Mrs. Golden?" asked Bunny, as the old woman was
getting the yeast cake he had been sent for.
"Oh, pretty well," she answered, with a cheery smile on her kind but
wrinkled face. "I'd like it if I wasn't so stiff, but then we can't have
all we want in this world."
"We played store in our barn to-day," said Sue, looking around at the
various shelves filled with many articles.
"Did you, dearie? That was nice. I guess it's easier to play store than
it is to keep one really," said Mrs. Golden.
"Oh, I'd like to keep store!" declared Bunny Brown. "Only, how do you
remember where everything is?" he asked. "There's such a lot of stuff!"
"Yes, there is," agreed Mrs. Golden. "And sometimes I forget. But I'm
getting old, I reckon. There's your yeast cake. Now run along, and be
careful when you cross the street."
"Yes'm, we will!" promised Bunny, as he took Sue's hand.
"Maybe, when vacation comes, Mrs. Golden will let us help her in her
store," said Bunny to his sister, as they neared their home.
"Oh, maybe!" Sue agreed. "And it soon will be vacation, won't it?"
"Yes," said Bunny. "I wonder where we'll go this summer."
"I wonder, too," mused Sue. "If we could stay at home and have a real
store it would be fun!"
Bunny agreed to this.
Several days passed. The hole in the school yard was filled up so there
was no further danger of any of the boys or girls falling in. Charlie
did not again bring his toy auto to school.
But something else happened.
One afternoon Charlie Star walked home with Bunny and Sue from school.
Bunny had made a new sailboat, and he wanted Charlie to see it make the
first voyage down the brook which ran back of the Brown home.
"May I come, too?" asked Sue, as Bunny carried his little vessel down to
the stream.
"Sure, let her come," advised Charlie.
"All right," called Bunny, and Sue ran along after the boys.
But Bunny and Charlie were so interested in sailing the new boat that
they did not pay much attention to Sue after reaching the brook. They
watched the wind puff out the sails and Charlie was just going to ask
Bunny if he would trade the boat for the toy auto when there came a loud
scream from Sue, who had wandered off by herself.
"Oh, Bunny! I've falled in! I've falled in!" cried Sue.
"Oh, she is in!" exclaimed Charlie, glancing upstream.
"And there's a deep hole there!" shouted Bunny, darting away. "Come on,
Charlie! Help me pull Sue out of the hole!"