Excerpt
CHAPTER I A MIDNIGHT ALARM
"Bunny! Bunny Brown! Sue, dear! Aren't you going to get up?"
Mrs. Brown stood in the hall, calling to her two sleeping children. The sun was shining brightly out of doors, but the little folks had not yet gotten out of bed.
"My! But you are sleeping late this morning!" went on Mrs. Brown. "Come, Bunny! Sue! It's time for breakfast!"
There was a patter of bare feet in one room. Then a little voice called.
"Oh, Bunny! I'm up first. Come on, we'll go and help grandma feed the chickens!"
Little Sue Brown tapped on the door of her brother's room.
"Get up, Bunny!" she cried, laughing. "I'm up first; Let's go and get the eggs."
In the room where Bunny Brown slept could be heard a sort of grunting, stretching, yawning sound. That was the little boy waking up. He heard what his sister Sue said.
"Ho! Ho!" he laughed, as he rubbed his sleepy eyes: "Go to get eggs with grandma! I guess you think we're back on grandpa's farm; don't you Sue?" and he came to his door to look out into the hall, where his mother stood smiling at the two children.
When Bunny said that, Sue looked at him in surprise. She rubbed her hand across her eyes once or twice, glanced around the hall, back into her room, and then at her mother. A queer look was on Sue's face.
"Why—why!" she exclaimed. "Oh, why, Bunny Brown! That's just what I did think! I thought we were back at grandpa's, and we're not at all—we're in our home; aren't we?"
"Of course!" laughed Mrs. Brown. "But you were sleeping so late that I thought I had better call you. Aren't you ready to get up? The sun came up long ago, and he's now shining brightly."
"Did the sun have its breakfast, Mother?" asked Bunny.
"Yes, little man. He drank a lot of dew, off the flowers. That's all he ever takes. Now you two get dressed, and come down and have your breakfast, so we can clear away the dishes. Hurry now!"
Mrs. Brown went down stairs, leaving Bunny and Sue to dress by themselves, for they were old enough for that now.
"Oh, Bunny!" exclaimed the little girl, as she went back in her own room. "I really did think, when I first woke up, that we were back at Grandpa Brown's, and that we were going out to help grandma feed the hens."
"Do you wish we were, Sue?" asked Bunny.
"Oh, I don't know, Bunny," said Sue slowly. "I did like it at grandma's, and we had lots of fun playing circus. But I like it at home here, too."
"So do I," said Bunny, as he started to get dressed.
The two children, with their father and mother, had come back, only the day before, from a long visit to Grandpa Brown's, in the country. I'll tell you about that a little later. So it is no wonder that Sue, awakening from the first night's sleep in her own house, after the long stay in the country, should think she was back at grandpa's.
"Bunny, Bunny!" called Sue, after a bit.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Will you button my dress for me?"
"Is it one of the kind that buttons up the back, Sue?"
"Yes. If it buttoned in front I could do it myself. Will you help me, just as you did once before, 'cause I'm hungry for breakfast!"
"Yep, I'll help you, Sue....