Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South Part 4

"He was in a bob and it broke and he was run over!" cried Sue, who seemed anxious to do all the telling.

"Well, I'm glad it was no worse," said Mother Brown. "What's this?" she asked, as her husband handed her the box. "For me?"

"Yes," he answered. "Orange blossoms."

"Orange blossoms! How lovely!" cried the children's mother. "Where from?"

"Florida. Mr. Halliday sent them. He's down there on an orange farm, and I may have to go down myself."

"Down where?" cried Bunny.

"South," answered his father.

"To Florida where the orange blossoms grow?" asked Sue eagerly, as her mother was opening the box.

"Well, we may get to Florida. But first I shall have to go to Georgia,"

answered Mr. Brown.

"Oh, take us!" cried Bunny and Sue. "Please take us!"

"We'll see," said Mr. Brown, with a look at his wife. "We'll talk it over after supper. Let's look at the orange blossoms now."

While Mother Brown was opening the box there came a noise at the side door as though some one were trying to break it open by pounding on it.

CHAPTER IV

A RUNAWAY

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, who were standing on their tiptoes to look at the orange blossoms in the box, turned quickly and glanced at the door as the pounding sounded again.

"I wonder who that can be," said Mother Brown, pausing with the box cover in her hand.

"I'll go and see," offered Mr. Brown. "It's queer they didn't go to the front door."

"Maybe it's somebody from the post-office come to take our orange blossoms away," suggested Bunny.

"What would they do that for?" Sue wanted to know.

"'Cause," answered Bunny, "maybe the orange blossoms came to the wrong place and have to go to somebody else, like that letter one day." He was speaking of a time when the letter carrier left a wrong missive at Mr. Brown's home, and came later to get it.

"Oh, these are daddy's orange blossoms all right!" said Mrs. Brown, as she looked at the address on the box. "They came to him at his office on the dock."

"Then who can it be?" asked Bunny, as the knock sounded again.

There came the sound of a bark as Mr. Brown opened the door, and next the children heard their father exclaim:

"Well, you poor half-frozen fellow! Come in and get warm! Go on away, dog!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "Let w.a.n.go alone!"

"Oh, it's w.a.n.go!" cried Sue, running to the door.

"Mr. Winkler's monkey!" added Bunny. "Did he bring him over to play with us?"

"No, w.a.n.go seems to have come by himself," answered Mr. Brown, and as soon as the door was opened wider in scrambled the monkey, a stick of wood in one paw probably being what he had been pounding on the door with. From the light of the lamp, which streamed out on the side porch, the children could see a big black dog that, very likely, had been chasing and barking at poor w.a.n.go.

"Go on away, dog!" cried Mr. Brown, and, stooping, he gathered up a handful of snow from a corner of the side porch and threw it at the barking animal, which then ran away.

Meanwhile w.a.n.go, the pet monkey that was a great favorite with Bunny and Sue, came s.h.i.+vering into the room to get warm.

"Oh, you poor thing!" cried Sue. "I'll get you my coat to put on! You're all s.h.i.+very!" She started for the hall to get her garment, while Bunny petted the wet head of the long-tailed animal.

"No, Sue! Don't take your coat," called her mother. "You'll get it covered with monkey hairs. Wrap a floor rug around w.a.n.go if you like."

"I'll do that!" cried Bunny, taking a small carpet rug up from the floor. This he draped around w.a.n.go's shoulders, and the cold, s.h.i.+vering monkey seemed to like it.

"Well, w.a.n.go, what made you come out this kind of weather?" asked Mr.

Brown, coming back to the table on which was standing the box of orange blossoms.

"Maybe Mr. Winkler left the window open and he got out," said Sue.

"Don't monkeys like cold, Daddy?" asked Bunny.

"No, they come from warm, tropical countries," answered his father.

"They cannot stand the cold."

"Florida is warm, isn't it, Daddy?" asked Sue, as she helped wrap the rug about w.a.n.go.

"Oh, yes, Florida, especially the southern part where oranges grow, is quite warm," Mr. Brown answered. "There is no snow there."

"Then maybe we can find some monkeys when we go down!" Sue said. "Won't that be nice, Bunny? We'll each have a monkey of our own."

"I'm going to teach mine to do circus tricks!" cried Bunny.

"Hold on! Hold on!" laughed Mr. Brown. "In the first place, there aren't any monkeys in Florida--at least none running around wild as there are in the South American jungles. And in the second place, what makes you children so sure you are going to Florida?"

"You said you'd take us!" replied Bunny.

"I said I'd _see_," remarked his father. "Anyway, I have to go on business to Georgia, not Florida, though your mother and I may take a trip to the orange country later on."

"But if you went you'd take us, wouldn't you?" pleaded Sue.

"Oh, of course he would! Don't tease the children so!" exclaimed Mrs.

Brown. "And what are we going to do with w.a.n.go?" she asked, for the monkey seemed quite contented now that he was in a warm, light room with his two special friends, Bunny and Sue.

"I think Jed will be after him as soon as he finds his monkey is missing," said Mr. Brown. "But let's get those orange blossoms in water, to freshen them up. Mr. Halliday said he would send me some packed in damp moss, so they would keep pretty well, but he told me to put them in a bathtub full of water as soon as I got them and they would freshen up."