TWO LETTERS
Mrs. Golden thought it over for a minute. Really, with her head aching
as it did, she was in almost too much pain to think, but she felt that
something must be done. She needed all the money she could take in, and
if customers were turned away from her store, because the door was
closed, she would lose trade. Not many would come around to the side as
Mrs. Clark had done.
"Couldn't we tend store for you--a little while?" asked Bunny again, as
he saw Mrs. Golden thinking, as his mother sometimes thought, when he or
Sue asked her if they might do something.
"We could ask you where things are that we don't know about," added Sue,
"and we wouldn't talk loud or make a noise."
"Bless your hearts, dearies!" sighed Mrs. Golden. "You are very kind;
but I'm sure I don't know what to say."
"Then let me say it," advised Mrs. Clark. "I say let the children tend
store for you, Mrs. Golden. Bunny and Sue are a lot smarter for their
age than most children. You let them tend store for you, and I'll run
over once in a while to see if everything is all right."
"Very well," said Mrs. Golden. "You may keep store for me, Bunny and
Sue."
"Goodie!" exclaimed Sue, clapping her hands. Then she happened to
remember that she must not make too much noise, and she grew quieter.
"I'll open the front door and take down the sign," said Bunny. "We'll
wait on the customers for you, Mrs. Golden."
Bunny felt quite like a grown man as he removed the card and turned the
lock in the front door, swinging it open. The shades had been pulled
down over the show windows, and Bunny and Sue now ran these up.
"I'll run along now," said Mrs. Clark, going out the front door and
nodding in friendly fashion at the children. "I guess you'll make out
all right, and I'll be back in a little while. If she gets any worse, or
anything happens, just come and tell me--you know where I live," she
said in a low voice, so Mrs. Golden, in the back room, would not hear.
Sue nodded and Bunny smiled. They were rather anxious for Mrs. Clark to
go, so they would be left in charge of the store. And when this
happened, when really, for the first time, Bunny Brown and his sister
Sue were truly storekeepers you can hardly imagine how pleased they
were.
"You go to sleep now, Mrs. Golden," said Sue, going on tiptoe to the
rear room, to look at the old woman lying on the couch. "You go to
sleep. Bunny and I will tend store."
Then she went back to Bunny, who sat on a stool behind the grocery
counter. He had decided he would sell things from that side of the
store, while Sue could wait on the dry-goods and notions side.
"All we want now is some customers," remarked the little boy.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We want to sell things."
They waited some little time, for the corner store was not in a busy
part of town. Several times, as footsteps were heard outside, Bunny and
Sue hardly breathed, hoping some one would come in to buy. But each time
they were disappointed.
Finally, however, just when they were about to give up, thinking they
would have to go home, a woman came in and looked around, not at first
seeing any one.
"What can I do for you to-day, lady?" asked Bunny Brown, as he had often
heard Mr. Gordon say.
"Oh, are you tending store?" the lady asked. She was a stranger to Bunny
and Sue.
"Yes'm, I and my sister--I mean my sister and I--are keeping store for
Mrs. Golden. She's sick," said Bunny. "I can get you anything you want."
"All I want is a loaf of bread," the lady answered.
Bunny knew where to get this, and also the kind the lady wanted, as it
was the same sort of loaf his mother often sent him for. He put it in
a paper bag and took the money. The lady gave the right change, so Bunny
did not have to trouble Mrs. Golden.
All this while Sue stood on her side of the Store, rather anxiously
waiting. She wished the customer would buy of her.
"You are rather small to be in a store, aren't you?" asked the lady, as
she started to leave with the bread.
"Oh, we know lots about stores," said Bunny. "We often play keep one,
but this is the first time we ever did it regular."
"I know how to keep store, too," said Sue, unable to keep still any
longer. "Would you like some needles and thread?"
"Yes, now that you speak of it, I remember I do need some thread, my
dear," the lady answered, with a smile. "Can you get me the kind I
want?"
"I--I guess so," Sue answered, yet she was a bit doubtful, as there were
so many things among the notions.
"Well, perhaps I can help you," said the lady. "I see the tray of spools
of silk right behind you, and if you'll pull it out I'll pick the shade
I want. I have a sample of dress goods here."
[Illustration: SUE HELPED HER CUSTOMER MATCH HER SAMPLE.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store._ _Page_ 174]
Sue had often been with her mother when Mrs. Brown matched sewing silk
in this way, and the little girl pulled out the shallow drawer of small
spools. She saw the sample and knew the lady needed red sewing silk; so
she at once pulled out the right drawer. Then she helped the customer
match her sample until she had what she wanted.
"How much is it?" asked the lady, taking out her purse.
Here was Sue's trouble--she did not know exactly, and she did not want
to go ask Mrs. Golden, for the storekeeper might be sleeping. To call
her might make her head suddenly ache worse.
"I generally pay ten cents a spool," said the customer, "and I suppose
that's what it is here. If it's any more I can stop in the next time I
pass. That is, unless you can find out for sure."
"Oh, I guess ten cents is all right," said Sue, and she found out later
that it was.
Then the lady left with her bread and thread. The children had waited on
their first customer all alone.
In the next hour, during which the children remained in the store, they
waited on several customers, and did it very well, too, not having to
ask Mrs. Golden about anything, for which they were glad. Of course the
things they sold were simple articles, easy to find, and of such small
price that the men or women who bought them had the right change all
ready.
Once a boy came in, and you should have seen how surprised he was when
Bunny waited on him. He was Tommy Shadder, a boy Bunny knew slightly.
"Huh! you workin' here?" asked Tommy, as he took the sugar Bunny put in
a bag, not having spilled very much.
"Sure, I'm working here!" declared Bunny. "That is, for a while," he
added, for he knew he would soon have to go home.
"Huh!" said Tommy again, as he went out. "Huh!"
"Mail!" suddenly called a voice, and the postman entered the store.
"Where's Mrs. Golden?" he asked, as he saw Bunny and Sue, whom he knew.
"She's got a headache, and we're tending store," Sue answered proudly.
"Oh, all right. Here's a couple of letters for her. She's been asking me
for letters all week, and I didn't have any for her. Now here are two."
He tossed them on the counter and went out into the sunlit street. Bunny
looked at the two letters.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "One's from Mrs. Golden's son Philip. Maybe it's
about the legacy!" Bunny had seen the name Philip Golden in the corner
of the envelope.
"Who's the other from?" asked Sue.
"The Grocery Supply Company," read the little boy from the other
envelope.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Sue.
"What's the matter?" asked Bunny.
"Maybe that's a bill," Sue said, for she had often been in her father's
office on the dock when the mail came in, and when he received a thin
letter Mr. Brown would hold it up to the light, laugh, and say:
"I guess this is a bill."
Sue knew what bills were, all right, and she seemed to feel that bills
coming to Mrs. Golden, who had little money, would be worse than those
which came to her father's office, for Mr. Brown never seemed to worry
about the bills.
As the children looked at the letters on the counter, wondering whether
or not to take them in to Mrs. Golden, she herself came out of the back
room. She looked at the children and then at the letters.
"Oh, some mail!" she exclaimed. "I hope it's from Philip about the
legacy! If it is, I'm sure it will completely cure my headache, which is
much better."
Eagerly Bunny and Sue watched to see Mrs. Golden open the letters.