Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South Part 26

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue felt sure that they would. They liked the sunny South very much, as a change from the cold northland where they had been coasting a few days before.

Everything was lovely and green in Florida now, though it was the middle of what is called winter in the North. Trees and bushes glowed in soft green tints, and had been washed clean in a recent rain. As the automobile bearing the Brown family and their host along a pleasant road chugged on and on, Sue suddenly exclaimed:

"What's that nice smell?"

"I hear it, too--I mean I smell it!" said Bunny.

"Those are orange blossoms you smell," said Mr. Halliday. "In some of my groves you will find both blossoms and fruit. We get so used to the sweet smell that we don't notice it, but I suppose a stranger, coming in from another place, finds it very nice."

"I just love it!" exclaimed Sue, taking long deep breaths.

"So do I!" added Bunny, sniffing hard.

They had left the small village behind some time before, and were now on a pleasant country road, lined with trees on either side. The road twisted and turned, and in about an hour, after making a sudden turn in the highway, Mr. Halliday called out:

"There's my place!"

Bunny and Sue looked and saw a white house, surrounded by a few barns and other outbuildings set in a green landscape. All about were rows of green trees, and the sweet smell of the orange blossoms was stronger than ever.

"Oh, look at the golden apples!" cried Sue, pointing to some trees quite near the road.

"Those golden apples, as you call them," said Mr. Halliday, "are yellow oranges. I'll stop and let you pick some."

It was the first time the Brown children had ever seen the wonderful fruit growing, and they were delighted when Mr. Halliday stopped the car and they were allowed to get out. Then they saw that in between the rows of trees were men picking the oranges.

Some of the men were up on high stepladders, so they might reach the top branches of the trees. Other men stood on the ground, from which they could easily reach up to the low limbs and pull off the ripe fruit.

The men had big cloth bags slung over their shoulders or tied around their waists, and as fast as they picked the "golden apples," as Sue called them, they were dropped into the bags. When the bags were filled the men took them to empty boxes, placed here and there amid the trees, and placed the oranges into them. Other men took the boxes away as fast as they were filled, leaving more empty ones in their places.

"Do you ship the fruit right from here?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"First it has to be sorted, graded, as we call it," Mr. Halliday answered. "Then it is carefully packed and sent up North."

Bunny and Sue had been standing quietly to one side, listening to the talk of their parents and Mr. Halliday and watching the men pick the fruit. The grove owner now turned to the children and said:

"Go ahead! Pick as many as you like. Here, these are the best and ripest," and he led them to a tree, the lower branches of which were easily within the reach of Bunny and Sue.

With delight and wonder showing on their faces, the children picked their first oranges and ate them there in the grove, while the wind brought to them the sweet smell of distant blossoms.

"Oh, how good!" murmured Sue, as she finished her fruit.

"Best I ever ate," declared Bunny.

"Try some," said Mr. Halliday to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. "You will find oranges picked ripe from a tree taste very different from those you get up North."

"I should say so!" exclaimed Mother Brown. "They are delicious."

"Guess we didn't make any mistake coming to Florida," laughed Mr. Brown, as he, too, ate not one, but two ripe oranges.

"Well, let's go on to the house," suggested Mr. Halliday, as he walked back toward the road where the automobile had been left standing. "My wife will be eager to see you, and the orange groves aren't going to run away as Nutty, the tramp, did," and the Southerner laughed at the remembrance of the story of the travels of Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.

Mrs. Halliday made her guests welcome, and when she and Mrs. Brown were chatting over a cup of tea, and while Daddy Brown and Mr. Halliday were talking business, Bunny and Sue changed into some of their every-day clothes and asked if they might walk around and see things.

"Yes," their mother told them. "Only don't get into mischief."

"And keep away from the river," added their father, for the stream which went by the name of Squaw River was not far from the house.

"Can't we just stand on the bank and look for alligators?" asked Bunny.

"Yes, let them," Mr. Halliday advised. "The river is not as big nor deep as it sounds. In fact up here it is only a shallow creek, though down below it widens and deepens. And there aren't any alligators in it."

"Well, anyhow, we can look," said Bunny, hoping against hope that there would be some of the scaly lizards in the water.

So, having been cautioned not to fall in, a promise the children readily gave, Bunny and Sue started off down through an orange grove near the house to go to Squaw River. They paused only a little while to watch the men picking oranges, and then hastened on. Soon they were at the edge of a slow-moving stream which flowed this way and that between banks of overhanging palm trees, some of which were festooned with Spanish moss that hung down in cl.u.s.ters like the ragged beard of a very old man.

It was very quiet and still beside the river. It was shady and cool, too, after the hot sun of the open places and the orange groves, and Bunny and Sue rather liked it.

Bunny picked up a stone and tossed it into the river. It fell with a splash.

"What you doing?" Sue wanted to know.

"Maybe I can scare up an alligator," Bunny answered.

"Mr. Halliday said there wasn't any," Sue responded.

Bunny tossed in another stone, and hardly had it sunk beneath the surface than Sue grasped her brother's arm, and, pointing to the river, whispered:

"Look! There's an alligator!"

Something like the long, black snout, as Bunny remembered once to have seen it on an alligator in a zoological park tank, rose into view. And there was a swirl of the water as though the reptile had switched its tail.

"Oh!" exclaimed Sue. "It's an alligator! I'm going to run!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE RAFT

Bunny Brown wanted to be called a brave little boy, so when he heard his sister say she was going to run because she thought he had scared up an alligator in the river by throwing stones, Bunny thought it was time to show his bravery.

"Don't be afraid!" he called to Sue, catching her by the hand before she had time to run very far. "I won't let him hurt you!"

"How are you going to stop him?" Sue asked.

"I--I'll bang him on the nose with a stick," Bunny said, and he let go of Sue's hand as he turned around to search for the proper kind of club with which to beat an alligator.