SUE COULDN'T STOP IT
There was a banging, kicking sound and several cries of "Oh, dear!" The
cries were faint and muffled, as if they came from the cellar. Then the
lady who had ordered three pounds of flour, which Bunny was trying to
scoop out for her, ran behind the counter.
Sue followed. So did Mrs. Golden. All they saw were Bunny's heels
sticking out of the barrel, waving in the air, and now and then banging
against a low shelf near which the flour barrel stood.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Bunny, from inside the barrel.
For that is where he was. He had fallen into the flour barrel!
"Pull him out!" begged Sue.
"I can't. I'm not strong enough to pull him up!" panted the customer,
but doing her best.
"We must all pull!" exclaimed Sue. "Bunny pulled me out of the brook,
and I'll pull him out of the flour barrel!"
"Yes, we must all pull!" said Mrs. Golden.
Together they all grasped Bunny by the heels and lifted him out of the
flour barrel.
Oh, but he was a queer sight! Luckily he had stuck out his two hands
when he felt himself falling head first into the nearly empty barrel,
and had landed on his outstretched palms. And as there was not much
flour in the barrel his head had not gone into the fluffy white stuff,
or he might nearly have smothered. As it was his face was completely
covered with the white particles.
And when Mrs. Golden, the customer and Sue had pulled the little boy
from the barrel, and set him on his feet, Sue could not help laughing.
"Oh, Bunny!" she cried, giggling. "You look--you look just like the
clown in the circus!"
And truly Bunny did, for his face was plastered as white as the face of
any funny man that ever made jokes beneath the canvas.
"You poor boy," said the customer.
"Oh, Bunny, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed Mrs. Golden.
"I--I'm all right," declared Bunny, blowing out a white cloud of flour
as he talked. "I--I didn't spill any!"
"No, you spilled yourself more than anything else," said Mrs. Golden. "I
guess I'd better get the flour, Bunny, after we brush you off. It's too
low in the barrel for you to reach. I don't want you falling in again."
"All right," agreed Bunny. "I guess I'm not quite big enough for flour
barrels."
He was dusted off out in the side yard, so no great harm resulted from
his accidental dive into the barrel, and Mrs. Golden waited on the flour
customer.
"What did you think, Bunny, when you were falling into the flour
barrel?" asked Sue, when the excitement was over and business was going
on as before in the little corner store.
"What did I think?" he repeated. "Why, I guess I didn't have time to
think anything. I just felt myself slipping, and then I fell in. I stuck
out my hands, and I'm glad the flour wasn't deep in the barrel."
"It was like the time when I fell into the brook!" said Sue, with a
little laugh. "Only I fell in feet first and you went in head first."
"Yes," laughed Bunny, "I went in head first all right!"
Mrs. Golden told the children they must not try to do things that were
too hard for them, even though they meant to be kind and help her.
The second day of the special sale of oatmeal and notions was not quite
as busy as the first. The novelty of the cat and dog in the window wore
off and Bunny brought some of the little pet alligators to show. Still
quite a number of people came in to buy, and Mrs. Golden was well
pleased, thanking Bunny, Sue, and Charlie many times. She also wanted to
thank Splash and the white kitten and the best way to do this was to
feed them, which she did, as well as the alligators.
"We'll come and help you tend store to-morrow," said Bunny as he and
Sue went home that night, Sue carrying Charlie's kitten in a basket and
Splash following at Bunny's heels. The alligators were left till next
day.
"I'm afraid your mother will think you are doing too much for me," said
the old lady, as she said good-bye.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Bunny. "She told us to help you all we could."
"And we like it!" Sue exclaimed. "It's fun."
"Except when you fall into flour barrels!" added Bunny Brown, with a
laugh at some white spots that still clung to his jacket.
Mrs. Brown did not mind how much Bunny and his sister helped Mrs.
Golden, but she told the children they must not stay in the store too
much.
"Your long vacation from school is given you so you may play out in the
sunshine and fresh air," said Mother Brown. "And though it is all right
for you to help Mrs. Golden in her store, I want you to have some fun
also."
"It's fun in the store," said Bunny.
"Well, I mean other kinds of fun," added Mrs. Brown.
So there were days when Bunny and Sue only went to Mrs. Golden's grocery
on some errand for their mother or Mary, but even on these short trips
they often were able to help the storekeeper, sometimes making little
sales, if she was busy in another part of the house, or by arranging
goods on the shelves.
Having learned that she could do more business by having her windows
clean and with things nicely piled in them, Mrs. Golden kept this plan
up, Bunny and Charlie and Sue often stacking goods where they would show
well.
But with all this even the children could see that Mrs. Golden was
worried. Bunny often saw her adding up figures on bits of paper, and she
would look at the sum and sigh.
"What's the matter?" Bunny once asked.
"Oh, I owe so much money I'm afraid I'll never be able to pay," she
said. "And it seems to be getting worse, even with all the help you
children give me. If only Philip would get that legacy!"
"Hasn't he got it yet?" asked Bunny.
"No, not yet," was the answer. "And I'm afraid he never will. I miss him
so, too. If he were here to help me things might go easier. But there! I
mustn't complain. I'm much better off than lots of folks!" she added,
trying to be cheerful.
"If more people would come to buy here you'd have more money," said the
little boy. And that gave him an idea that he did not speak about just
then, but turned over and over in his busy little head.
Heeding their mother's advice, Bunny and Sue played out of doors with
their boy and girl chums, sometimes going on picnics and excursions or
on walks through the woods and over the fields. Bunny and Charlie often
played at boats in the brook, and more than once they fell in. Sue and
her friends often waded in the water of the brook.
Bunny did not again, though, topple into any flour barrels. It was Sue
who had the next accident at the corner grocery, and this is the way it
happened.
The little girl had been sent by her mother to get a yeast cake at Mrs.
Golden's, and when Sue reached the store she found the old lady busy
with two women who were matching sewing silk. At the same time a little
boy had come in for some molasses.
"I'll get the molasses for you," Sue offered, for she knew where the
barrel was kept, and once Mrs. Golden had allowed her to raise the
handle of the spigot and let the thick, sticky stuff run out into the
quart measure. Sue was sure she could do this again. So, taking the
boy's pail, she went to the molasses barrel.
It was kept in the back part of the store, and perhaps if Mrs. Golden
had seen what Sue was about to do she would have stopped the little
girl. But the two customers were very particular about the sewing silk
they wanted, and kept Mrs. Golden busy pulling out different trays.
Sue reached the molasses barrel, set the quart measure under the spout,
as she had seen Mrs. Golden do, and raised the handle. The next thing
the storekeeper knew was when Sue came running up to her in great alarm
crying:
"I can't stop it! I can't stop it!"
"Can't stop what, my dear?" asked Mrs. Golden.
"I can't stop the molasses from running out!" cried Sue. "I got it
turned on, but I can't turn it off, and it's running all over the
floor!"
"Oh, my goodness!" cried Mrs. Golden, hurrying to the back of the
store.