BUNNY HAS AN IDEA
Mrs. Golden read first the letter from her son, sent to her from the
distant city. But if Bunny and Sue thought to see a look of joy spread
over the store owner's face they were disappointed.
"Did he--did your son send you the legacy?" asked Bunny, as the letter
was folded and put back in the envelope.
"Well, no, not exactly," was the answer. "It seems there is some trouble
about it. I hoped Philip could come home to help me, but he can't, and
it will be some time before we'll get any money from that legacy--if we
ever get it. Oh, dear! So many troubles!"
Mrs. Golden sighed and opened the other letter. Her troubles seemed to
be more now, for she sighed again as she laid this letter aside. Sue
could not help asking:
"Is it a bill?"
"Something like that, yes," answered the old lady. "It's from Mr.
Flynt's grocery company. It says if I don't pay soon I'll be sold out."
Mrs. Golden sighed again. The children did not know exactly what it was
all about, but they knew there was trouble of some kind and they wanted
to help. But they felt, too, that it was time they went home.
Mrs. Golden must have seen the worried looks on their faces, for she
tried to smile through the clouds of her own trouble as she said:
"Never mind, my dears! Run along now, for I'm sure your mother will be
getting anxious about you. You have been a great help to me. I guess
I'll find some way out of my troubles--I hope so, anyhow. Run along now!
It was good of you to help me."
So Bunny and Sue, taking the things they had bought, started out of the
store.
"If she could only sell more things she'd have more money and then she
could pay that grocery bill," said Bunny to his sister.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We'll tell daddy about it and see what he says.
Daddy has lots of money."
"But maybe he needs it," suggested Bunny. And very likely Mr. Brown did.
However, children of the ages of Bunny and Sue are not unhappy for very
long at a time, and trouble seems to roll away from them like water off
a duck's back. On the way home they met some of their playmates, and in
talking over a picnic that was to be held in a few days Bunny and Sue
forgot about Mrs. Golden for a while.
"You stayed rather a long time," said Mrs. Brown, when Bunny and Sue
finally reached home with the groceries she had sent them for.
"You said we could stay," said Bunny.
"And we helped Mrs. Golden by tending store," added Sue.
"Did you really tend store?" Uncle Tad asked, and he was much surprised
when the children told what they had done.
"I guess she doesn't do much business," remarked Uncle Tad. "She has a
store on a corner, which is the best place for one, as people on two
streets pass it. But I'm afraid she isn't enough of a hustler."
"What's a hustler?" asked Bunny, wondering if Mrs. Golden might be made
into one.
"A hustler," said Uncle Tad, "is a person that does things in a hurry.
Some storekeepers are hustlers for business. If business doesn't come to
them they go after it. That's how they sell things."
"How could Mrs. Golden sell more things?" Bunny questioned. "She's got
lots of things in her store--heaps and packs of 'em--but she doesn't
sell much."
"That's the trouble!" said Uncle Tad. "She doesn't advertise, and she
doesn't make any window display."
"What's a window display?" Sue inquired.
"I saw you looking at one the other day," replied the old soldier. "Do
you remember when I passed you and Bunny while you were looking in the
drug store window on Main Street?"
"Oh, yes! Where the rubber bags were!" cried Bunny.
"A little doll was making believe swim in a rubber bag," said Sue, "and
there was a big crowd looking at it."
"That's it!" exclaimed Uncle Tad. "That drug store man got a big crowd
in front of his store by putting something in the window that made
people stop and look. That's advertising."
"Maybe Mrs. Golden could fix up her windows so a crowd would stop in
front!" exclaimed Sue.
"What good would that do?" Bunny asked. "She wants people to come inside
her store and buy things."
"That's it," agreed Uncle Tad. "But if you get a crowd _outside_ a
store, because there's something to look at in the windows, some of that
crowd will go _inside_ and buy something."
"Only Mrs. Golden hasn't any rubber bags," went on Bunny. "But I guess
Sue could lend her a doll if she wanted it to take a swim."
"Mrs. Golden doesn't need to put rubber bags in her window," said Uncle
Tad. "That wouldn't be the thing for a grocery and notion store. She
should put in something that people would stop to look at, or have a
special sale or something like that. And another thing I've noticed,
when I've been past her place is that the windows are very dirty. You
can hardly see what's inside. If her windows were cleaned and she had
something in them, a crowd would stop and more people would go in and
buy than go in now. Mrs. Golden needs to advertise in that way."
Uncle Tad went out. Mrs. Brown busied herself about the house, and Bunny
Brown motioned to his sister Sue to come to the side porch.
"What you want?" asked Sue.
Bunny put his finger over his lips.
"I've got an idea!" he said. "I know how we can help Mrs. Golden get a
crowd in front of her store."