Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home Part 21

"Oh, Mother!" cried Bunny, as he saw her. "Are you hungry too? Sit down by us and eat! We had a fine meal, didn't we, Sue?"

"Yep," answered the little girl. "The ice-cream and watermelon is awful good, Mother!"

"Yes, I suppose it is," and Mrs. Brown could not help smiling. "But you musn't come in restaurants, and order meals like this, Bunny Brown, without having money to pay for them. It isn't right!"

"I--I thought I had money enough," and Bunny looked at his four pennies.

The manager laughed. He had found Aunt Lu's name in the telephone book, and had talked to her, telling her about Bunny and Sue. And then, as the restaurant was just around the corner from Aunt Lu's house, Mrs. Brown had hurried there to get her children.

She paid for what they had eaten, and took them back with her. The waitress girl smiled, so did the manager, and so did many persons in the restaurant, who had seen Bunny and Sue eating.

"Don't ever do anything like this again, Bunny," said Mrs. Brown.

"I won't," Bunny promised. "But we went to the fire, and we were awful hungry; weren't we, Sue?"

"Yes, we was. And the hot cakes was good."

"Oh dear!" sighed Mrs. Brown. "I wonder what it will be next."

But even Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know.

For several weeks the two children stayed at Aunt Lu's city home. They had more good times, and often went with their mother or Aunt Lu to the moving pictures. Then, too, there was much to see on the city streets, and Bunny and Sue never grew tired of looking at the strange sights.

Daddy Brown wrote letters, saying he was so busy, looking after his boat business, that he could not come to see them for a long time.

"Does he say how Splash, our dog, is?" asked Bunny, when part of one of his father's letters had been read to him and Sue.

"Yes, Daddy says Splash is all right, but lonesome," Mrs. Brown answered.

"I wish we had Splash here with us," sighed Sue.

"So do I," echoed her brother.

After that, whenever they saw a dog out in the street, they looked anxiously at him, especially if he looked like Splash. And one day, when Bunny and Sue had gone down to the corner of their street, to listen to another hurdy-gurdy hand-piano, they saw a big yellow dog running about, sniffing at some muddy water in a puddle in the sidewalk, as though he wanted a drink.

"Oh, look at that dog!" cried Bunny to Sue. "He's thirsty!"

"He looks as nice as Splash, only, of course, it isn't Splash," Sue said.

"Maybe we could take him," said Bunny. "Let's try. Then we'll have a city dog and a country dog, too."

Sue was willing, and she and Bunny walked up to the stray dog.

"Come here!" called Bunny, just as he used to call to Splash.

The dog looked up. He seemed to like children, for he came straight to Bunny and Sue.

"Oh, he's got a nice collar on," said Sue. "Let's take him to Aunt Lu's, Bunny, and give him a nice drink of water."

"All right," agreed Bunny. "We will." Then, each with a hand on the dog's collar, Bunny and Sue walked along with the nice animal, whose red tongue hung out of his mouth, for the dog had been running, and was quite hot.

CHAPTER XIV

THE RAGGED MAN

"Come on, nice dog!" coaxed Sue, for as the children came nearer to the house where Aunt Lu lived, the animal seemed to want to turn back and run away.

"Yes, don't be afraid," said Bunny. "We'll give you something nice to eat, and some cold water."

Whether the dog understood what Bunny and Sue said to him, or whether he was thirsty and hungry and hoped to get something to eat, I do not know.

Some dogs seem to know everything you say to them, and certainly this one was very wise. So he walked on willingly with the two children.

"Do you think we can keep him?" asked Sue.

"I guess so," answered her brother. "He's my dog, 'cause I saw him first."

"Isn't he half mine?" Sue wanted to know.

"Nope, he's _all_ mine!" and Bunny took a firmer grasp on the dog's collar.

"Well, I don't care!" cried Sue, stamping her foot, which she sometimes did when she was getting angry. "Half of our dog Splash at home is mine, and I don't see why I can't have half of this one."

"Nope, you can't!" cried Bunny. He hardly ever acted this way toward his sister. Generally he gave her half of everything. "I want all this dog,"

Bunny said. "I'm going to train him to be a circus animal, and if a girl owns part of a dog she don't want him to run, or get muddy or anything like that."

"Oh, Bunny Brown!" cried Sue. "I don't care if he does get muddy. I want him to be a circus dog, too. So please can't I have half of him? I'll take the tail end for my half, or the head end half or down the middle, just like we do with Splash!"

"Well," and Bunny seemed to be thinking about it. "Maybe I'll let you have half of him, Sue. But you've got to let me train your half the same as mine, to be a circus dog."

"Yes, Bunny, I will. Oh, isn't he a nice dog!" and she patted him on the head. The dog wagged his tail and seemed happy.

Into the apartment house hall walked the children, leading the stray dog they had found in the street. The elevator was not open, being on one of the upper floors, and Bunny pushed the b.u.t.ton that rang the bell, which told Henry, the colored elevator boy, that someone was on the lower floor, waiting to be taken up.

When Henry came down in the queer iron cage that slid up and down, he looked first at Bunny, then at Sue, and then at the dog.

"What yo' all want?" asked the colored boy, smiling and showing his big, white teeth.

"We want to ride up to Aunt Lu's house," answered Bunny.

"We got a new dog, Henry," said Sue.

Henry shook his head.

"I'll take you little folks up to yo' aunt's house," he said, "but I can't take up dat dawg."

"Why not?" asked Bunny. "Is he too heavy? 'Cause if he is, Henry, we'll go up with you first, and you can bring the dog up alone. We'll wait for him up stairs."