THE LEGACY
"What's the matter? What's happened?" asked Bunny Brown. "Are you going
to fall, Sue?"
He was helping his sister on one side to climb in the window, and
Charlie was on the other side of the little girl.
"No, I'm not going to fall," Sue answered. "But look at my dress! It's
all red paint!"
And so it was! In addition to being wet and muddy her skirt was now
covered with big blotches of red paint--the same kind of paint that was
being put on the roof.
"How did it happen?" went on Sue, almost ready to cry again. "I didn't
step in any paint, did I?"
"Even if you did I don't see how it got on your dress," said Charlie
Star.
"There's some on me, too!" cried Bunny Brown. "There's some on my
pants!"
"And I'm daubed just like you!" cried Charlie. "We're all three
painted!"
And they were, only Sue had more of it on her dress than the boys had on
their clothes.
"It must have been on the ladder," decided Charlie. "The painter man got
some of his red stuff on the ladder and we got it on us."
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue. "Now after my dress is dry and I brush the mud
off mother will see the red paint. Course I'd tell her, anyhow, but I
wish she wouldn't see it first!"
However, there seemed no help for it. All three of the children had red
paint on their clothes, and paint, you know, can't be brushed off. When
it's on it stays, unless turpentine, or something like that, is used to
take it off.
Sue, and the boys, too, had hoped that Mrs. Brown would not know what
had happened. It wasn't that they wanted to deceive, or fool, her, but
Sue wanted to tell of the accident at the brook in her own way and time.
She really did not want to cause her mother worry when Mrs. Brown had
company. And Mrs. Brown would certainly begin to ask questions when she
saw those red spots on Sue's dress.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue again, and she seemed about to burst into tears.
Neither Bunny nor Charlie knew what to do.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue for the third time.
Suddenly the three children saw the upper end of the ladder--the part
that was raised up over the roof of the sun parlor. They saw this part
of the ladder moving.
"Oh, somebody's coming up!" exclaimed Charlie.
"Maybe it's mother!" wailed Sue. "Oh, help me get in the window! I don't
want her to see me this way!"
"Mother wouldn't be coming up the ladder!" declared Bunny. "What would
she be coming up the ladder for?"
"That's so!" agreed Charlie. "I guess she wouldn't."
"But somebody's coming up!" declared Sue, and this was very plain to be
seen. The ladder shook more and more.
Wonderingly the children watched it, and then there came into sight,
above the roof of the sun parlor, the head and shoulders of the
painter. He looked surprised as he saw the children, and then a cheerful
smile spread over his face as he said:
"Well, you've been getting daubed up, I see!"
"Ye-yes," faltered Bunny. "We got some of your paint on us!"
"'Tisn't my paint!" laughed the painter. "It's your father's, Bunny. I
got this paint down at his boat dock to paint the roof of this sun
parlor. I don't mind how much of it you daub on yourselves. 'Tisn't my
paint, you know!"
"But we don't want it on us!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, I fell in the brook
and I got all muddy and now I'm all covered with paint! Oh, dear!"
Sue was almost crying again, and the painter who at first had thought
the children were merely playing, now began to understand that something
was wrong.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Then the story was told, of why the boys had helped Sue climb up the
ladder to get into her room so her mother and the company would not see
her in her soiled dress.
"But now we're all paint!" wailed Sue.
"Well, never mind!" said the good-natured painter. "I can take those
paint spots out for you, if that's all you're worrying about."
"Oh, can you?" eagerly cried Sue.
"How?" asked Charlie Star, who was a rather curious little chap.
"Will you?" asked Bunny Brown, which was more to the point.
"I can and will!" said the painter. "Wait until I get some clean rags
and my turpentine."
He want back down the ladder, but soon came up again, with a can of
something with a strong, but not unpleasant smell. Bunny remembered that
smell. Once when he was little, and had a bad cold, his mother had
rubbed lard and turpentine on his chest.
"This turpentine will take the paint out when it's fresh," said the
painter. "Stand still now."
He wet the rag in some turpentine, which, as you know, is the juice, or
sap, of the pine and other trees. It is used to mix with paint, which
it will dissolve, or melt away after a fashion. It also helps the paint
to dry more quickly when spread on a house or bridge.
With the turpentine rag the painter rubbed at the red spots on Sue's
dress, and then, having taken those out, he began on Bunny and Charlie.
But the boys wanted to take out their own paint spots, and the painter
let them do it.
"There you are," he finally said. "I guess they won't show now."
"And my dress is nearly dry!" exclaimed Sue. "Oh, I'm so glad. Mother
won't know until I tell her. And of course I'll tell her," she quickly
added.
Sue was as good as her word. After she got into her room and the boys
had climbed down the ladder to go back and play with Bunny's little
ship, Sue changed into dry clothes.
Then, after the company had gone, she told her mother all that had
happened.
"I suppose it couldn't be helped," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "I mean
about falling into the brook. But it would have been just as well to
come and tell me at once, Sue, instead of climbing the ladder. You
might have fallen."
"I didn't want the company to know about it, Mother!"
"That was thoughtful of you. But if you had fallen off the ladder the
company would have known about that, and it would have been much worse
than just being seen in a wet and muddy dress."
"Oh, I couldn't fall with Bunny and Charlie to help me!" declared Sue.
That evening, just before supper, after Charlie Star had gone home and
Bunny and Sue were playing out in the side yard, Mary called to them,
asking:
"Do you children want to run to the store for me?"
"Yes," answered Bunny, and Sue inquired:
"What do you want?"
"A little pepper," was the answer. "I forgot that we were out and didn't
order any when the grocery boy called to-day."
"We'll get it at Mrs. Golden's corner store!" said Bunny. "She keeps
pepper."
"All right," Mary agreed. "Wait and I'll get you the money. We don't
charge things at her store."
A little later Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, hand in hand, entered
Mrs. Golden's little store.
"Well, my dears, what is it to-day?" asked the old lady, with a smile.
"Some pepper, if you please," answered Sue.
"Red or black?" asked Mrs. Golden.
Bunny and Sue looked at one another. This was something they had not
thought about. Which did Mary want--red or black?
Seeing that the children were puzzled, Mrs. Golden said:
"What is your mother going to use it for, my dears?"
"Mother didn't tell us to get it," replied Bunny. "It was Mary, our
cook, who sent us after it, 'cause she forgot to get any for supper."
"Oh, then it's black pepper she wants, I suppose," said Mrs. Golden.
"She wouldn't want red pepper unless she were putting up pickles or
something like that. I'll give you black pepper."
She started to rise from her chair, for she had been seated near the
back of the store, but seemed so old and feeble that Bunny and Sue felt
very sorry for her. When ladies got as old as Mrs. Golden seemed to be
they ought always to rest in easy chairs, Bunny thought, and not have to
get up to wait on a store.
Mrs. Golden grunted and groaned a little as she pushed herself up from
the arms of the big chair.
"Are you terrible old?" asked Sue.
"I'm pretty old, yes, my dear," said Mrs. Golden. "But I don't mind
that. It's the stiffness and the rheumatism. It's hard for me to get
about, and the black pepper's on a high shelf, too. If my son Philip was
only here he'd reach it down for me."
"Where is Philip?" asked Sue.
"Oh, he's gone to the city on business. He hopes to get a little
legacy."
"What's a leg-legacy?" asked Bunny. "Is it something to sell in the
store?"
"Bless your heart, no!" laughed Mrs. Golden. "A legacy is money, or
property, or something like that which is left to you. If some of your
rich relations die they leave money in the bank, or a house and lot, and
it comes to you. That's a legacy."
"Did some of your rich relations die?" asked Sue.
"Well, an old man, who wasn't a very close relation, died," said the
storekeeper. "There was some talk that he might leave me something, and
Philip went to the city to see about it.
"But, dear, me! things are so uncertain in this world that I don't
believe I'll get anything. There's no use thinking about it. I don't
want to be disappointed, but I would like to get some money!"
Poor old lady! She seemed very sad and feeble, and the children felt
sorry for her.
"Let me see now," went on Mrs. Golden. "Was it salt you said you wanted,
Bunny?"
"No'm, pepper--black pepper."
"Oh, yes, black pepper! And it's on a high shelf, too. I wish Philip was
back. He'd reach it down for me. I don't believe he'll get that legacy
after all. Let me see now--pepper--black pepper----"
"Let me get it!" begged Bunny. "I can climb up on a high shelf!"
"So can I!" cried Sue. "I went up on a ladder, after I fell in the
brook, and I got red paint on my dress!"
"My, what a lot of things to happen!" murmured Mrs. Golden, as slowly
and feebly she made her way around the store to the side where she kept
the groceries.
"Let me get the pepper!" begged Bunny, as he saw the old woman looking
toward a top shelf. "I can climb up."
"Well, my dear, if you're sure you won't fall, you may get it," said
Mrs. Golden. "I've got some sort of a thing to reach down packages and
boxes from the high shelf. My boy Philip got it for me. But I can hardly
ever find it when I want it. Be careful now, Bunny."
"I will," said the little fellow, as he began to climb.
Sue watched her brother, thinking over what Mrs. Golden had told them
about a legacy.
"If she got a lot of money," mused Sue, "she could get a big store, all
spread out flat and she wouldn't have to have any high shelves. I hope
she gets her legacy."
Bunny was just reaching for the box of pepper when there was a sudden
barking of dogs outside the store and something black and furry, with a
long tail, rushed in, leaped up on the counter, and thence to the top
shelf, knocking down a lot of boxes and cans.
"Oh! Oh!" screamed Sue. "Look out, Bunny!"