Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Keeping Store Part 4

The children were soon having a lunch of cake and milk. Though Miss Winkler was a bit fussy over her brother's pets, yet she had a good heart, and she liked Bunny and Sue.

Through the little mud puddles, left after the rain, Bunny and Sue splashed their way back home. Their mother saw them coming, and, as Splash was making a great fuss at being kept in the house, she let the dog out. He ran to meet the children.

"What'll we do now?" asked Bunny, when they had told their mother about taking w.a.n.go home.

"Let's go down and wade in the brook," proposed Sue. "We have our boots on, and we won't have 'em on to-morrow. We'll have to go to school then, anyhow. So let's go wade in the brook now."

"All right!" agreed Bunny. "And we'll sail boats!"

With their dog, the children were soon splashing in the shallow brook, made a bit higher on account of the rain. They found some boards and made a raft, on which they pushed themselves about the wider part of the brook. Splash climbed on the raft with them, and the children pretended they were Robinson Crusoe on a voyage.

"Well, we had a lot of fun to-day," sighed Bunny in contentment, as he and Sue were going to bed that night. "Lots of fun!"

"Yes," agreed his sister. "And to-morrow we have to go to school."

"Oh, well," Bunny remarked, "maybe we'll have fun there." The children had been kept at home on account of the heavy rain.

"We won't have any fun like the hardware store shelf falling down on you," laughed Sue, as she remembered the queer accident.

"No, I don't want anything like that," said Bunny. "Once is enough."

Early the next morning the children were ready for school. But, almost at the last minute, Bunny could not find his large pencil box.

"Where did you have it last?" his mother asked him.

"Oh, I remember! I saw it in the barn!" exclaimed Sue.

"That's right--we were playing school there day before yesterday," said Bunny. "I'll get it!"

He ran to the barn, got the pencil box, thrust it into his bag with his books, and trotted along with Sue.

Having to hunt for his pencil box at almost the last moment nearly made Bunny and Sue late for school. But they slipped into their seats just as the last bell was ringing. After the morning exercises, Bunny placed his pencil box and the books he did not need to use right away in his desk and went to his reading cla.s.s.

It was when Bunny was doing his turn at reading up near the front platform that Sadie West, who sat in the seat next to Bunny, gave a sudden little cry.

"What is the matter, Sadie?" asked Miss Bradley, the teacher.

"Oh! Oh, if you please, Teacher, there's something in Bunny Brown's desk making faces at me!" exclaimed Sadie.

"Something making faces at you? What do you mean, Sadie?" asked Miss Bradley in surprise. "What is it?"

"It--it's a--a mouse!" cried the little girl.

"A mouse?" repeated the teacher.

"Yes'm! A mouse in Bunny Brown's desk!" and Sadie screamed.

At this some of the other children screamed, and there was much noise and confusion in the schoolroom.

CHAPTER IV

THE CORNER STORE

"Quiet, children! Quiet!" ordered Miss Bradley. "This is school, not the playground at recess. Now, Sadie," she went on, as soon as there was a little quiet in the room, "tell me again, and be careful what you say.

What did you see?"

"Please, teacher, I saw a mouse in Bunny Brown's desk, and he made a face at me. I mean the mouse made a face at me--not Bunny!" Sadie made haste to explain, for she saw Bunny look at her when she made the statement about his desk and the mouse.

Sadie had left her seat beside Bunny's desk, and was now up front.

"How many other girls saw the mouse in Bunny's desk?" asked Miss Bradley.

No one answered.

"Raise your hands if you are afraid to speak," said the teacher, with a smile. She was beginning to believe that Sadie had imagined it all, or else that an edge of a book had looked like a mouse.

None of the girls raised her hands except Sadie West.

"Did any boy see the mouse?" Miss Bradley next asked.

"No, but I wish I had!" exclaimed Charlie Star. "If I'd see it I'd grab it!"

The other pupils giggled on hearing this.

"Quiet, children! Quiet!" begged the teacher again.

"Are you sure, Sadie, that you saw a mouse in Bunny Brown's desk?" asked Miss Bradley.

"Yes'm, I'm sure I did," was the answer.

"Bunny, did you bring a mouse to school?" Miss Bradley next asked. "I mean a pet mouse, for I know you and Sue have many pets. Did you bring a mouse to school, Bunny?"

"Oh, no, Teacher! I wouldn't do such a thing!" Bunny declared very earnestly.

"I didn't believe you would," said Miss Bradley, with a kind smile. "I think Sadie must be mistaken. But still, to quiet her--and all of you,"

she added, looking at the pupils, "I will look in Bunny's desk. I am quite sure I will find nothing more than a book or a piece of paper that may have moved, making Sadie think it was a mouse."

Miss Bradley went to Bunny's desk. All the desks in the room were of the sort with a lid that raised up and down on hinges, like the cover of a box. As Miss Bradley came near Bunny's desk she noticed that the top was raised a little way, leaving a crack of an opening. Bunny had put one of his books in hurriedly, and the desk lid rested on this.

As the teacher raised the desk lid and looked in, the room was very quiet. Some of the girls almost held their breaths. One of them covered her eyes with her hands, lest she might, by accident, see the mouse.

Sadie West leaned forward eagerly, anxious, in a way, that a mouse should be found, for that would make her story true, and she was sure, in her own mind, that she had seen a mouse. Bunny, too, looked eagerly at Miss Bradley, and so did Sue, from the other side of the room.

"Grab a book, everybody!" said Charlie Star in a hoa.r.s.e whisper to the other boys. "Grab a book, and if the mouse runs out we'll bang him!"