Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home Part 19

"Oh!" cried Sue, as she saw this. "I wouldn't like him to bite me, would you, Bunny?"

"No, I guess not!" said the little boy.

But there was no danger that the hippopotamus would bite anyone, for he was behind big, strong, iron bars, and could not get out. There was also a baby hippopotamus, swimming around in a tank with the mother.

Bunny and Sue saw many other animals in Central Park, and then, as he was getting hungry, and as he began to think his mother might be wondering where he was, Bunny said to Sue that they had better go back home.

"All right," Sue answered. "I'm tired, too."

They went back to where they had left the automobile taxicab.

"Well, did you see enough?" the man asked them.

"Yes," Bunny answered, "and now we want to go home, if you please."

"All right," said the man. He knew just where to take Bunny and Sue, for he remembered where he had found them, right in front of Aunt Lu's house. So the two children did not get lost this time, though they had gone a good way from home.

"Thank you very much," said Bunny as he and Sue got out.

The automobile man laughed, as Bunny and Sue started up the front steps, and then he called to them:

"Wait a minute, little ones, I must have some money for giving you a ride."

"Oh!" exclaimed Bunny. "I--I thought you gave folks rides for nothing.

Wopsie said you did."

"Well, I don't know who Wopsie is," said the cab man, "but I can't afford to ride anyone around for nothing. You'd better tell your mother that I must be paid."

"Oh, I'll tell her," said Sue. "Mother or Aunt Lu will pay you."

"I'll come up with you I guess," said the automobile man, and he rode up in the elevator with Bunny and Sue.

And you can guess how surprised Mrs. Brown and Aunt Lu were when the two children came in.

"Oh, where have you been?" cried Mother Brown. "We've been looking all over for you; up on the roof, down in the bas.e.m.e.nt, out in the street--and Wopsie was just going to ask the policeman on this block if he had seen you. Where have you been?"

"Riding," answered Bunny.

"Up in Central Park, to see a elephant," added Sue.

"And we had a good time," Bunny went on.

"And now the automobile man wants some money, and we haven't any so you must pay him, Mother," said Sue.

"We--we thought we were riding for nothing," Bunny explained.

Mrs. Brown and Aunt Lu looked at the automobile man, who smiled, and told how the children had called to him, and asked him to give them a long ride.

"Which I did," he said. "I thought their folks had maybe sent them to get the air, as folks often do here, and--"

"Oh, it isn't your fault," said Mrs. Brown. "I'll pay you for the children's ride, of course. But oh, dear! Bunny, you musn't do this again."

"No'm, I won't," Bunny said. "But we had a nice ride."

Mrs. Brown gave the taxicab man some money, and thanked him for having taken good care of the children. Then Wopsie did not have to go to tell the policeman, for Bunny and Sue were safe home again.

"I wonder what they'll do next?" said Mrs. Brown.

"No one knows," answered Aunt Lu.

But, for several days after this, Bunny and Sue did nothing to cause any trouble. They went with their aunt and mother to different places about New York in Aunt Lu's automobile, Wopsie sometimes going with them.

Several times Bunny or Sue asked colored persons they met if they were looking for a little lost colored girl, but no one seemed to be.

"Never mind, Wopsie," Bunny would say. "Some time we'll find your folks."

"Yes'm, I wishes as how yo' all would," Wopsie would answer.

Bunny and Sue liked it very much at Aunt Lu's city home. They had many good times. And that reminds me; I must tell you about the time Bunny ordered a queer dinner for himself and Sue.

The children had been out with Wopsie for a walk, and when they came back to Aunt Lu's house it was such a nice day that Bunny and Sue did not want to go in.

"Let us stay out a while, Wopsie," Bunny begged.

"Well, don't go 'way from in front, an' yo' all can stay," Wopsie said.

So Bunny and Sue sat on the side of the big stone steps, in front of Aunt Lu's house.

They really did not intend to go away, but when they saw a fire engine das.h.i.+ng down the street, whistling and purring out black smoke, they just couldn't stand still.

"Let's go and see the fire!" cried Bunny.

"Come on!" agreed Sue.

But it was only a little fire, after all, though quite a crowd gathered.

It was upstairs in a store, and it was soon out. Bunny and Sue started back, for they had not come far. They were getting so they knew their way around pretty well now.

As they pa.s.sed a restaurant, or place to eat, they saw, in the window, a man baking griddle cakes on a gas stove. He would let the cakes brown on one side, toss them up in the air, making them turn a somersault, catch them on a flat spoon, and then they would brown on the other side.

"Oh Bunny!" cried Sue. "Wouldn't you like some of those?"

"I would," said Bunny. "Come on in and we'll have some. I'm hungry!"

He and Sue went into the restaurant, and sat down at one of the tables.

A girl, with a big white ap.r.o.n on over her black dress, brought them each a gla.s.s of water and a napkin, and said:

"Well, children, what do you want?"

"We want dinner," said Bunny. "We're hungry, and we want some of those cakes the man in the window is baking."