Chapter 1 BUNNY IS UPSIDE DOWN

"Grandpa, where are you going now?" asked Bunny Brown.

"And what are you going to do?" asked Bunny Brown's sister Sue.

Grandpa Brown, who was walking down the path at the side of the farmhouse, with a basket on his arm, stood and looked at the two children. He smiled at them, and Bunny and Sue smiled back, for they liked Grandpa Brown very much, and he just loved them.

"Are you going after the eggs?" asked Sue.

"That basket is too big for eggs," Bunny observed.

"It wouldn't be-not for great, great, big eggs," the little girl said. "Would it, Grandpa?"

"No, Sue. I guess if I were going out to gather ostrich eggs I wouldn't get many of them in this basket. But I'm not going after eggs. Not this time, anyhow."

"Where are you going?" asked Bunny once more.

"What's a-a ockstritch?" asked Sue, for that was as near as she could say the funny word.

"An ostrich," answered Grandpa Brown, "is a big bird, much bigger than the biggest Thanksgiving turkey. It has long legs, and fine feathers, and ladies wear them on their hats. I mean they wear the ostrich feathers, not the bird's legs."

"And do ockstritches lay big eggs?" Sue wanted to know.

"They do," answered Grandpa Brown. "They lay eggs in the hot sand of the desert, and they are big eggs. I guess I couldn't get more than six of them in this basket."

"Oh-o-o-o!" exclaimed Bunny and Sue together, with their eyes wide open.

"What big eggs they must be!" went on Bunny.

"And is you going to get hens' eggs or ockstritches' eggs now, Grandpa?" asked Sue.

"Neither one, little brown-eyes, I'm going out in the orchard to pick a few peaches. Grandma wants to make a peach shortcake for supper. So I have to get the peaches."

"Oh, may we come?" asked Sue, dropping the doll with which she had been playing.

"I'll help you pick the peaches," offered Bunny, and he put down some sticks, a hammer and nails. He was trying to make a house for Splash, the big dog, but it was harder work than Bunny had thought. He was glad to stop.

"Yes, come along, both of you," replied Grandpa Brown. "I don't believe you can reach up to pick any peaches, but you can eat some, I guess. You know how to eat peaches, don't you?" he asked, smiling again at Bunny Brown and his sister Sue.

"Oh, I love peaches!" said Sue.

"And I do, too-and peach shortcake is awful good!" murmured Bunny.

"Well, come along then. It's nice and shady and cool in the peach orchard."

Grandpa Brown put the basket over his arm, and gave Bunny one hand to clasp, while Sue took the other. In this way they walked down the path, through the garden, and out toward the orchard.

"Bunny! Sue! Where are you going?" called their mother to the children. Mrs. Brown had come out on the side porch.

"With Grandpa," answered Bunny.

"I'll look after them," said Grandpa Brown.

Bunny and his sister, with their papa and mamma, were spending the summer on the farm of Grandpa Brown away out in the country. The children liked it on the farm very much, for they had good fun. A few days before they had gone to the circus, and had seen so many wonderful things that they talked about them from morning until night, and, sometimes, even after they got to bed.

But just now, for a little while, they were not talking or thinking about the circus, though up to the time when Grandpa Brown came around the house with the basket on his arm, Bunny had been telling Sue about the man who hung by his heels from a trapeze that was fast to the top of the big tent. A trapeze, you know, is something like a swing, only it has a stick for a seat instead of a board.

"I could hang by a trapeze if I wanted to," Bunny had said to Sue.

"Oh, Bunny Brown! You could not!" Sue had cried.

"I could if I had the trapeze," he had said.

Then along had come Grandpa Brown.

"How many peaches do you think you can eat, Bunny?" asked Grandpa, as he led the children toward the orchard.

"Oh, maybe seven or six."

"That's too many!" laughed Grandpa Brown. "We should have to have the doctor for you, I'm afraid. I guess if you eat two you will have enough, especially with shortcake for supper."

"I can eat three," spoke up Sue. "I like peaches."

"But don't eat too many," said Grandpa. "Now I'll see if I can find a little, low tree, with ripe peaches on it, so you children can pick some off for yourselves."

They were in the orchard now. It was cool and shady there, and the children liked it, for the sun was shining hot outside the orchard. On one edge of the place, where grew the peach trees, ran a little brook, and Bunny and Sue could hear it bubbling as it rippled over the green, mossy stones. The sound of running water made the air seem cooler.

A little farther off, across the garden, were grandpa's beehives, where the bees were making honey. Sue and her brother could hear the bees buzzing as they flew from the hives to the flowers in the field. But the children did not want to go very close to the hives, for they knew the bees could sting.

"Now here's a nice tree for you to pick peaches from," said Grandpa Brown, as he stopped under one in the orchard.

"You may pick two peaches each, and eat them," went on the childrens' grandfather.

"And don't you want us to pick some for you, like ockstritches' eggs, an' put them in the basket?" asked Sue.

"Well, after you eat your two, perhaps you can help me," answered Grandpa Brown with a smile. But I think he knew that by the time Bunny and Sue had picked their own peaches he would have his basket filled. For, though Bunny and Sue wanted to help, their hands were small and they could not do much. Besides, they liked to play, and you cannot play and work at the same time. But children need to play, so that's all right.

Leaving Bunny and Sue under the tree he had showed them, where they might pick their own peaches, Grandpa Brown walked on a little farther, looking for a place where he might fill his basket.

"Oh, there's a nice red peach I'm going to get!" exclaimed Sue, as she reached up her hand toward it. But she found she was not quite tall enough.

"I'll get it for you," offered Bunny, kindly.

He got the peach for Sue, and she began to eat it.

"Oh, Bunny!" she cried. "It's a lovely sweet one. I hope you get a nice one."

"I will," Bunny said. Then as he looked at his sister he cried: "Oh, Sue! The juice is running all down your chin on your dress."

"Oh-oh-o-o-o!" said Sue, as she looked at the peach juice on her dress. "Oh-o-o-o!"

"Never mind," remarked Bunny. "We can wash it off in the brook."

"Yes," said Sue, and she went on eating her peach. "We'll wash it."

Bunny was looking up into the tree for a peach for himself. He wanted to get the biggest and reddest one he could find.

"Oh, I see a great big one!" Bunny cried, as he walked all around the tree.

"Where is it?" asked Sue. "I want a big one, Bunny."

"I'll get you another one. I see two," and Bunny pointed to them up in the tree.

"You can't reach 'em," asserted Sue. "They're too high, Bunny."

"I-I can climb the tree," said the little boy. "I can climb the tree and get them."

"You'll fall," Sue said.

"No, I won't, Sue. You just watch me."

The peach tree was a low one, with branches close to the ground. And, as Bunny Brown said, he did know a little bit about climbing. He found a box in the orchard, and, by standing on this he got up into the tree.

Up and up he went, higher and higher until he was almost within reach of the two peaches he wanted. Grandpa Brown was busy picking peaches at a tree farther off, and did not see the children.

"Look out, Sue. I'm going to drop a peach down to you," called Bunny from up in the tree.

"I'll look out," said Sue. "I'll hold up my dress, and you can drop the peach in that. Then it won't squash on the ground."

She stood under the tree, looking up toward her brother. Bunny reached for one of the two big, red peaches, but he did not pick it. Something else happened.

A branch on which the little boy was standing suddenly broke, and down he fell. He turned over, almost like a clown doing a somersault in the circus, and the next moment Bunny's two feet caught between two other branches, and there he hung, upside down, his head pointing to the ground.

* * *

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Contents

Chapter 1 BUNNY IS UPSIDE DOWN

Other books by Laura Lee Hope

The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge

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The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House; Or, Doing Their Best for the Soldiers