ting-a-ling! rang the telephone in the home of bunny brown and his sister sue. ting-a-ling!
“i’ll answer it!” called bunny, for he knew his mother was down in the kitchen, helping the maid get supper ready. it was almost supper time. bunny could tell this, he said, “by the empty feeling in his little tummy.”
ting-a-ling! rang the telephone again.
“i’m going!” fairly shouted bunny, for he heard the footsteps of his sister sue coming down the hall.
“i want to answer it!” cried sue. “it’s my turn, bunny brown!”
[2]“no, ’tisn’t! it’s mine!” and bunny fairly yelled this, he was so excited.
“children! children!” gently called their mother, as she opened the kitchen door, thereby letting out the delicious smell of baking tarts, of which bunny and his sister were very fond. “gently, children!” begged mrs. brown. “i can’t have you answering the telephone if you are going to shout like that. think what the person on the other end of the wire would say if they heard you.”
ting-a-ling-a-ling! rang the bell again so loudly and so long that it seemed to mean some one was very impatient on the other end of the line, though of course the girl in the central office was doing the ringing.
“i’m going!” cried bunny.
“i’m going!” exclaimed sue.
“you may both go,” decided mrs. brown. “sue, you may talk over the telephone that is down in the library. bunny, you go upstairs and talk over the telephone in the sitting room.”
“all right!” agreed bunny.
“this is fun!” laughed sue.
[3]perhaps she knew that she would get to the telephone first, for bunny had to run upstairs from the downstairs hall. and sue was first. taking the receiver off the hook she called:
“hello!”
back came a voice she well knew. it was her father speaking.
“hello, sue!” he cried, in his jolly tones. “is bunny there?”
“yes, i’m here!” answered bunny for himself, as by this time he had reached the upstairs telephone—an extension of the one from downstairs. thus both children could talk to their father at once and he to them.
“listen quietly, children, and don’t talk back until i ask you to,” cautioned mr. brown. “are you listening?”
“yes,” answered bunny brown.
“yes, i am, too!” said sister sue.
the children wondered what it could all be about. why was their father so particular to have them listen carefully?
mrs. brown caught enough of the talk from bunny and sue to learn that it was her husband who was on the other end of the wire.[4] he often called up from the boat dock just before supper, to let her know he was on the way home. bunny and sue had taken such messages many times before, but this time seemed a bit different.
“i want to ask you a question,” said mr. brown, at his end of the wire. “are you going to be at home this evening, bunny?”
“why, of course i’m going to be at home!” answered the little boy.
“that’s good,” said his father. “are you going to be at home after supper, sue?”
“course i am, daddy!” she replied, with a laugh. “what makes you ask such a funny question?”
“because i want to know,” went on mr. brown, and bunny was sure he could hear his father laughing back there in the office on the boat and fish dock. “now don’t forget! don’t go out after supper. and don’t go out until i come home. tell mother i’ll be there soon.”
“but what for, daddy?” asked bunny. “why don’t you want us to go out?”
“are you going to take us to the movies?”[5] asked sue. for sometimes daddy brown did this when there was a children’s play early in the evening.
“well, we may go to the movies,” said mr. brown. “but perhaps you won’t care to go after you see what you’re going to see.”
“oh, what are we going to see?” cried bunny, catching at a new tone in his father’s voice.
“that’s a secret!” replied mr. brown.
“oh, a secret!” cried both children.
“tell me!” begged sue.
“i will when i come home,” her father promised.
“is it a nice secret?” bunny wanted to know.
“ha! ha!” laughed mr. brown. “you can tell better after you see it. but i haven’t time to talk any more now. yes, bunker blue, i’m coming,” he said in a side voice which bunny and sue could hear. bunker blue was a red-haired boy who worked at mr. brown’s boat and fish dock. then their father ended with: “now don’t forget, bunny[6] and sue. don’t go out this evening. wait for the surprise.”
“i will!” promised bunny brown.
“i will!” promised his sister sue.
they hung up the telephone receivers, and after that you could not have gotten them away from the house even if a lot of fire-engines had raced by outside.
“well, children, what was it?” asked mrs. brown, as bunny came sliding down the banister as the quickest way of reaching the first floor, while sue ran out from the library. “is daddy coming home soon?”
“he’ll be here right away,” said bunny.
“and he’s going to bring a surprise!” burst out sue. “a surprise! a surprise! oh, mother, what do you s’pose it is?” she asked, her eyes big with wonder.
“i don’t know, i’m sure,” and mrs. brown smiled. “maybe it’s a lollypop or a picture book.”
“pooh! they wouldn’t be surprises!” scoffed bunny.
“but they’d be nice just the same!” sue made haste to say, fearing that bunny was not[7] grateful enough. “picture books and lollypops are very nice.”
“but they’re not zactly surprises!” said bunny. “i guess daddy has a better surprise than that.”
the children could hardly wait for their father to come home. again and again they raced to the front door, thinking they heard him coming, but it was a “false alarm.” then they went out on the front steps to look down the street and wait. after a while mr. brown came along.
“i see him!” shouted bunny.
“i see him!” cried sue, like an echo.
“but he hasn’t got any surprise,” said bunny, a bit sorrowfully.
“maybe he has it in his pocket,” suggested sue. like her brother she had noticed that mr. brown carried nothing in his hands.
down the street in the early summer evening raced bunny brown and his sister sue to meet their father. laughing, he caught them up in his arms, one on either side, and carried them along with him.
“though you’re getting so big i’ll soon have[8] to stop this,” he said, with another laugh. “my, but you’re getting heavy!”
“daddy! daddy! where’s the surprise?” asked bunny.
“didn’t you bring it? you promised!” said sue.
“no, i didn’t bring it. but it’s coming right after supper,” said daddy brown.
“oh, now i can guess what it is! toby, our shetland pony, is coming back!” cried bunny.
the pony had been sent away to the doctor’s some time before this.
“is toby coming back?” asked sue. “is that the surprise, daddy?”
“no, that isn’t the surprise,” he answered, as he set the children down inside the fence in front of the house. “now don’t try to guess any more, or you won’t be able to eat any supper. as soon as we have eaten the surprise will come.”
“oh, couldn’t we have it first?” asked bunny.
“please!” begged sue.
“no, it will be best to eat first and have the[9] surprise afterward,” their father said. “otherwise you might not eat.”
“oh, what can it be?” wondered sue.
“it surely is a big surprise!” declared bunny.
whether daddy brown told mother brown in a whisper what the surprise was, i do not know. i rather think he did before he sat down to supper. but the children were kept guessing, and you can imagine how impatient they were.
but finally the meal was over and as mr. brown looked at his watch and pushed back his chair there came a ring at the front doorbell.
“i’ll go,” said daddy, as the maid started to answer. “no, you children sit still,” he ordered, shaking his finger at them. “if this is the surprise—and i think it is—i want to introduce you to it in the right way.”
so, more impatient than before, bunny and sue kept their seats while their father went into the front hall. they heard him open the door and then a man’s voice asked:
“does mr. jim denton live here?”
[10]“no, there is no one of that name on this street,” answered mr. brown. “what business is he in?” asked the children’s father. and as they rightly guessed this was not the visitor mr. brown expected and as it could not be the surprise, bunny and sue felt that they might take a peep at the front door. their mother nodded her permission.
bunny and sue saw their father talking to an old and ragged man. he was almost as ragged as a tramp, and yet he did not seem to be a tramp.
“what does this mr. denton do that you are asking about?” inquired mr. brown.
“he’s in the circus business,” answered the old man, and bunny and sue felt sorry for him, he looked so sad and tired. “i used to know him. we were in the show business together. i was thinking he might help me——”
“are you hungry?” asked mr. brown kindly. “if you want food——”
“oh, no, thank you, i’m not quite as badly off as that—yet. though i may be,” answered the old and ragged man in a sad voice. “if[11] i could find mr. denton he might help me to get back in the show business again. some one told me he lived around here.”
“i don’t believe he does,” said mr. brown, as the children stood behind him in the hall. “i know all the men around here and there is no mr. denton who was in the circus business.”
“well, then, i’ll have to search further,” said the weary old man. “i’m sorry i bothered you.”
“oh, it was no bother,” said mr. brown. “i thought you were some one i was expecting. good-night!”
“good-night,” echoed the old man, and bunny and sue felt very sorry for him as he went feebly down the steps and shuffled off.
“well, that wasn’t the surprise after all,” said mr. brown, as he shut the door.
“when will it come?” asked bunny.
“soon now, i think,” was the answer.
they all went back to the dining room. mr. brown was telling about the old man who was seeking a mr. denton in the circus business when again the front doorbell rang.
[12]“this is the surprise, i’m sure!” cried daddy brown. “now stay here, children, until i call to you to open the door into the hall,” he warned.
bunny and sue, so impatient they could hardly keep still, waited. they heard the front door open. they heard their father talking. then came a funny, squeaking, whining sound.
“oh, what can it be?” murmured sue.
then came a knock on the door leading from the dining room into the hall.
“you may open!” called their father.
bunny and sue together turned the knob, and into the room stalked a funny little chap, wearing a red cap, a white coat, and blue trousers. in he stepped and began dancing around.
“there’s your surprise!” cried daddy brown.
