Read Ebook: Sunny Boy at the seashore by White Ramy Allison Wrenn Charles L Charles Lewis Illustrator

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Ebook has 982 lines and 33354 words, and 20 pages

"But I don't know whether I'd like to be a postman in the city where I'd see a lot of people and know such a lot of children, or be one in the country, like the postman that comes to Brookside farm, and ride around all day in a buggy. That would be fun. I could know children in the country, too. There was an awful lot of Hatch children, seven of them."

Sunny Boy was thinking of the children of the tenant who lived on Grandpa's farm, and with whom he played while he was visiting at Brookside.

"'Lo!" called the girl across the street, sweeping the pavement.

"Hello!" responded Sunny politely.

She had red hair and that reminded him of Araminta, the little girl at Grandpa Horton's house. He wished Araminta lived in the city where he could see her every day. Sunny Boy, you will perceive, had what his Aunt Bessie called a "wishing fit" this summer morning.

"Out of my way, kid!" A thin, freckle-faced boy with the lightest hair and eyebrows Sunny Boy had ever seen leaped from the laundry wagon that drew up to the curb. "Haven't any time to fool this morning. This 266 Glenn Avenue? Yep? Well, hustle now and don't keep me waiting for those shirts to be done up. Rush order, too, it is."

Sunny Boy had a dim idea that this boy was poking fun at him, and he frowned a little. But Mrs. Horton had heard through the screen door, and she came, bringing the package of shirts.

"Are you sure they will be returned to-morrow?" she asked anxiously. "We leave early Thursday morning."

"Oh, they'll be ready in plenty of time," said the boy reassuringly. "Don't you worry--the Star Laundry never breaks its word; we can't afford to."

He ran down the walk, tossed the package into the back of the wagon, and hurried across the street to another house.

Mrs. Horton laughed.

"What a very important young man!" she said. "Well, Sunny Boy, are you having a good time? Where are Ruth and Nelson?"

"They had to go in," answered Sunny Boy. "Mother, could I get an ice-cream cone?"

"Not before lunch, dear," decided Mrs. Horton. "Now I have to finish the mending. Keep out of the sun, won't you? It's one of the warmest days we've had."

She closed the screen door and Sunny returned to his express wagon.

"I could tie it on back," he said aloud.

The laundry wagon was still standing where the freckle-faced boy had left it, and the horse was slowly but surely going to sleep, "right in his tracks," as Harriet would have said had she been there to see. His head kept nodding lower and lower, and Sunny Boy privately decided that the only thing that kept it from hitting the asphalt was the big round collar the horse wore.

Sunny Boy got up from the step and walked down to the wagon, dragging his express cart behind him. He had often seen other boys tie their toy wagons on behind real wagons, and he knew exactly how it was done.

"I'll just pretend," he told himself, glancing up at the windows of the house uneasily. "I won't really go for a ride."

There was no one to see him knot the rope firmly and make the express cart fast to the laundry wagon. He climbed in and had a blissfully thrilling moment making believe that he was part of an express train.

"I'll be the baggage car," he thought. "Toot! Toot!"

Then from across the street came whirling the breezy laundry-wagon boy. This time he had no parcel, but leaped into his seat and took up the reins without going round to the back of his wagon.

"Gid-ap, Lazy-Bones!" he cried to the sleepy horse. "What do you think this is--a cab-stand? Gid-ap!"

And Sunny Boy and his wagon moved gently off down the street.

He could easily have tumbled out, but that would mean to lose his wagon. And the laundry boy was whistling so shrilly through his teeth that there was no hope of being able to make him hear, even if he called out. Besides, Sunny Boy thought that he might very likely be cross and scold about small boys hitching to his wagon.

"I--I--don't believe Mother would like it," said poor Sunny Boy forlornly, as the horse broke into a gentle trot.

ENDING A BUSY DAY

"I know my mother wouldn't like it," said Sunny Boy.

The laundry wagon horse was galloping now, urged on by the freckle-faced boy who was singing loudly as the light wagon swayed from side to side. Sunny Boy looked very little and frightened trailing on in his wagon behind.

A big brown dog bounced out at him and barked madly.

"Go 'way!" cried Sunny, for the dog reminded him of the fairy-tale wolf with very white teeth and such a red mouth. "Go 'way, old dog!"

Slish! the laundry wagon swerved to avoid another wagon, and Sunny Boy nearly tumbled out. An old gentleman stood on the sidewalk and brandished his cane at him.

"Hi, you!" he called, "don't you know you're likely to be killed? Why don't the policemen--"

Sunny Boy couldn't hear the rest of what he said, but, looking back, he saw the old gentleman still standing on the walk shaking his cane angrily.

Sunny Boy was more than willing to let go, but he didn't see how he could. They were nearing the end of the street now, and the houses were fewer with more ground between.

"Look behind!" an ice-man delivering ice called to the laundry boy, at the same time pointing to the back of the wagon.

The laundry boy may have looked, but of course he couldn't see Sunny's wagon from where he sat, and he apparently had no intention of stopping his horse to see if any one was stealing a "hitch." Instead he brought the whip down smartly, and the horse leaped forward with a sudden jerk that made Sunny's neck snap.

"My land!" poor Sunny gasped.

It was an expression he had learned from the red-haired Araminta.

Goodness knows what might have happened if they had had to turn a corner, or if the rope hadn't broken. But break it did, and Sunny Boy and the laundry wagon parted company just as they came opposite to a vacant lot. Sunny's wagon shot off to one side and, as there was no pavement and no curbing, the wagon kept going until it brought up in a clump of elderberry bushes.

"Hurt you, kid?" and a man who had seen him came running across the street. "That's a mighty dangerous way to play, and the littler you are the worse it is. I suppose you've seen the big boys do it. Take my advice and leave wagons alone after this."

As he talked, he lifted Sunny and the express wagon out of the bushes, brushed Sunny Boy off neatly. He now stood smiling down at him so good-naturedly that it was impossible to keep from smiling back.

"I thought you was scolding," said Sunny Boy, in whose experience people never smiled when they scolded.

Sunny Boy suddenly remembered that Aunt Bessie always made big round eyes and a round mouth and held up her hands whenever he said "you was," and that his mother always looked at him and shook her head just the very least possible bit. But never mind; it was too late to go back and say it differently now, and besides he must hurry on and explain to this nice man who was smiling down at him.

"It didn't hurt me, but one wheel's bent," he said.

"That's where it skidded across the street," explained the man, bending down to examine the wagon. "Not worth mentioning, though. I'm thankful it wasn't your leg that was bent. Now don't you think you'd better call it a day and go home?"

Sunny was willing enough to go home, though he didn't know what the man meant by calling it a day.

"I mean that one such adventure's enough for a morning," smiled the new friend, as he saw that Sunny Boy looked puzzled.

Sunny agreed to this, and they shook hands gravely and the man went on down the street and Sunny and his express wagon headed for home.

He found his mother getting lunch, and she was very glad to see him because, as she said, she was lonesome.

"We'll have to hurry," she greeted him when he had put the express wagon in the back yard and found her in the kitchen. "Daddy is coming home at half-past one to help get us ready to go. Have you washed your hands, dear? Well, then you and I will have our bread and milk right here on the kitchen table."

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