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HONEY BUNCH:
[{ERIWRSTILKYSCHJTEEEFARNT

BY
HELEN LOUISE THORND‘YKE

AUTHOR OF “HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE
GIRL,” “HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST
VISIT TO THE CITY," ETC.

ILLUSTRA TED BY
WALTER S. ROGERS

NEW YORK

GROSSET 8: DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

 

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THE HONEY BUNCH BOOKS
BY HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE

 

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

 

HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRL
HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT TO THE CITY

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

 

GRO SSET & DUNLAP

Publishers New York

 

 

 

 

 

COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP

 

Honey Bwnch: Her First Days on the Farm

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CHAPfim

II.
III.
IV.

VI.
VII.
VIII.

\

l XI.

i XII.

I ' XIII.
XIV.

XV.

 

CONTENTS

PAGE
ALMOST SUMMERTIME ............... 1
T HE CAR COMES .................... 13‘
THE JOURNEY BEGINS ............... 25
RUTH EVANS ....................... 37
NEW FRIENDS ...................... 49
BROAD ACRES ....................... 62
LINY’S PICTURE ..................... 74»
IN THE ORCHARD ................... 86
BRAVE STUB ........................ 98
ONE RAINY AFTERNOON .............. 110‘
HELPING LINY ...................... 122
THE OLD MILL ..................... 135
SUNDAY SCHOOL .................... 147
SEVERAL SURPRISES ............... u, 159'
WHAT THE BEES SAID ......... h. . . .m 171

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HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST
DAYS ON THE FARM

CHAPTER I
ALMOST SUMMER TIME

“WOULD you care,” said Honey Bunch
politely, “if I left the door a little open?”

“Close it tight,” said Mrs. Miller, turning
the wringer as fast as she talked, and that was
pretty fast. “Your daddy put the screen door
01: yesterday because he says it’s most time for
flies.”

“But it’s so hot,” said Honey Bunch, closing
the screen door to please Mrs. Miller. “I
thought perhaps we needed air.”

Nlrs. l‘Ailler laughed and stopped turning
the wringer. Instead she went over and
stirred the clothes in the boiler on the stove.
Mrs. Miller was always busy When she was}:
washing.

“The fire makes it hot in here, Honey
1

 

 

‘2 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Bunch,” she explained. “But the Wire on the
door lets in all the air there is to come in.
Why don’t you stay outdoors and play Where
it is cool?”

“Mother went down town and I’m lone—
some,” said Honey Bunch. “Is it summer yet,
Mrs. Miller?”

“Dear me, no; and thankful I am it isn’t,”
replied Mrs. Miller, lifting the lid from the
boiler. “To—day is extra warm, I’ll admit;
hut we’ll have a cool spell before the real hot
weather comes. You mark my words.”

Then Mrs. Miller turned on the faucet in
one of the tubs and the water began to run £22
so fast and splashily that no one could tail»;
So Honey Bunch sat down on a chair and
whispered to Lady Clare, the beautiful black
cat, Who opened a yellow eye and seemed t9
listen.

“You mark my words, summer is coming,
Lady Clare,” Whispered Honey Bunch. “My
daddy said so.”

“Want to come out in the yard, Honey
Bunch?” asked Mrs. Miller, picking up a

1‘ x 74);»? ’ —-

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 3
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

basket. “I’m going to hang these clothes out
now.”

Honey Bunch did want to go out into the
yard, and so did Lady Clare. They both fol—
lowed Mrs. Miller up the three little stone
steps and out into the yard Where some very
White clothes fluttered on the line.

“Let me put the pins in?” asked Honey
Bunch, Who knew all about hanging up
clothes; hadn’t she helped Mrs. Miller over
and over?

“P11 tell you What to do, Honey Bunch,”
said kind Mrs. Miller. “These clothes are
dry and I’ll have to take them down. You
pick up the pins as I drop ’em on the grass and
put every one in this little bag. That Will be

a big help.”

“I’ll pick them all up,” said Honey Bunch
earnestly; “You mark my words, Mrs.
Miller.”

Mrs. Miller sat down on the lowest step of
the back porch and laughed. She laughed
easily. Most people laughed, too, when they
saw her laughing. Honey Bunch always did.

 

 

 

 

4; HONEY BUNCH:
HEB. FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“You mustn’t say everything you hear me
'say,” declared Mrs. Miller, When she had
stopped laughing. “Aren’t you a funny little
girl, Honey Bunch!”

“Am I?” asked Honey Bunch.

“Yes, you are,” Mrs. Miller told her, get-
ting up and walking over to the basket Which
she had left in the middle of the grass.
“You’re a funny little girl and a dear little
girl, and What I should do without you on
Tuesdays, I’m sure I don’t know.”

This was very nice, and Honey Bunch
trotted after Mrs. Miller, picking up clothes-
pins as fast as she dropped them and putting
them into a little striped bag. When all the
dry clothes were taken down, Honey Bunch
followed Mrs. Miller up and down While she
hung up the clothes she had brought out in
the basket. Every time she needed a clothes-
pin, Honey Bunch handed her one. So you
can see how nicely they worked together.

“There!” said Mrs. Miller, When the basket
was empty. “That finishes everything. I
have to clean the laundry before lunch, but I

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 5
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

believe I’ll sit down and get my breath
first.”

“Sit down on the step and get it,” begged
Honey Bunch. “It’s so nice outdoors.”

It was nice outdoors that morning. The
grass was very green and the early flowers
nodded gaily from the brown earth and the
pear tree at the foot of the yard was a mass of
white that smelled as sweet—well, Honey
Bunch said it smelled as sweet as a whole b0t~
tie 0f cologne, and it did.

Mrs. Miller sat down on the step again and
Honey Bunch sat beside her and Lady Clare
came and sat beside Honey Bunch.

“I wish summer would hurry up and
come,” said Honey Bunch wistfully.

“Seems to me you’re in a great hurry,” an’
swered Mrs. Miller, fanning herself with her
blue and white apron. “You’ve been asking
me for six weeks now when summer was
coming.”

“Well, I’m going to Visit my cousin this
summer,” explained Honey Bunch. “Not my
New York cousins—I went to New York in

 

 

 

 

6 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the Winter. But this cousin you have to go
to see in the summer time.”
“Dear me, Which cousin can that be?” said

Mrs. Miller, Who knew every cousin Honey»

Bunch had and Who was only pretending.
“Are you going to see your cousin Hazel?”

“I haven’t any cousin Hazel!” cried Honey
Bunch.

“Well, then, it must be your cousin Ida,”
said Mrs. Miller, smiling.

“I haven’t any cousin Ida!” said Honey
Bunch. “Not a single cousin Ida.”

“You’ll have to tell me, then,” said Mrs.
Miller, making believe to be disappointed.
“I give it up. What cousin are you going to
see this summer?”

Honey Bunch stood up. She was so excited
she almost shouted.

“I’m going to see my cousin Stub!” she
cried. “You know, Mrs. Miller—Stub’s real
name is Mary Morton and she lives on a farm.
A real farm and she has a dog!”

“My goodness!” said Mrs. Miller. "‘What
is the dog’s name?”

 

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HONEY BUNCH: ’7'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“I don’t know. But Stub Will tell the and
I’ll write it to you on a postal card,” promised
Honey Bunch. “Stub Will tell me how to
spell it. Did you ever see a real farm, Mrs.
Miller?”

“I lived on one When I was your ago,” an—
swered Mrs. Miller. “ ’Tis a grand place for
little girls. But Why is a girl With a good
name like Mary called such a queer name?
Stub! I never heard that before.”

“She stubs her toes so much—that’s Why,”
said Honey Bunch. “She can’t help it, but
she does fall down a lot. I don’t see Why,
but she does. She used to cry When she was
little, but hsr daddy made up a verse for
her to say When she falls down and now
she doesn’t cry any more. She says the
poetry.”

“I Wish some one would make up poetry
for me to say When I burn my thumb,” said
Mrs. Miller. “I’m always burning my
fingers.”

“Uncle Rand can make up» poetry about
anything,” said Honey Bunch. “I’ll ask him

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8 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

to make up some for you when you burn your
fingers. Shall I?”

“If he isn’t too busy,” said Mrs. Miller.
“But What does Stub say When she falls down,
Honey Bunch?”

“I must think,” replied Honey Bunch.

When she was a very tiny little girl she had
said, “I must sink” when she meant to say, “I
must think.” But she didn’t say that any
more. She was five years old. and always
spoke plainly. Mrs. Miller and Lady Clare
waited patiently while she thought of the
verse Stub’s daddy had taught her to say.

“I know What it is,” said Honey Bunch, in a
few minutes. “I’ll recite it for you.”

Honey Bunch stood up again. She could
talk better standing up for some reason.

“ ‘Stub fell down and hurt her toe,
Give it a rub and away she’ll go.’

“There! Stub says that when she falls
down, and then she forgets to cry,” said

Honey Bunch. “I think it is a nice verse,
don’t you, Mrs. Miller?”

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 9
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Yes, indeed,” replied Mrs. Miller.
“Much nicer than crying. And Where does
Stub live, Honey Bunch—as far away as'New
York?”

“N 0, not as far away as New York,” an-
swered Honey Bunch. “But I don’t know just
Where the farm is. Daddy is going to take
us.”

“You like to ride on trains, don’t you P” said
Mrs. Miller. “N 0 wonder you want summer
to come so you can go traveling.”

Up hopped Honey Bunch again. She
had forgotten the most important news of
all!

“We’re not going in the train!” she cried.
“We’re going in the automobile! Daddy is
going to learn to make it go and we’re going
to the farm and I’m going to ride in the front
seat With him.”

“Your mother told me in the Winter that
Mr. Morton had ordered a car,” said Mrs.
Miller, her round, red face as excited as
Honey Bunch’s small pink one. “My land,
won’t that be fine! Where is this automobile,

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10 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Honey Bunch? I’d like to see how you look
sitting on the front seat.”

“It hasn’t come yet,” Honey Bunch replied,
sitting down more calmly. “It has to come on
the train and then Daddy has to learn to run
it. And then—When summer comes—he’ll
take us to the farm.”

“N o wonder you want to hurry up the cal-
endar,” said Mrs. Miller. “But it won’t take
your daddy long to learn how to run this can
He knows a heap about them already. E’ve
heard your mother say so.”

“Then perhaps we’ll go the day after,”
cried Honey Bunch, dancing up and down on
the step.

“The day after What?” asked Mrs. Miller,
picking up the clothes’ basket and the ciothes-
pin bag.

“The day after the automobile Comes,” said
Honey Bunch seriOusly. “Stub Will be eX~
pecting us as soon as summer comes, and we
ought to hurry.”

“Well, I’ll have to hurry myself if I’m go-
ing to get the laundry cleaned and lunch

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HONEY BUNCH: ,1];
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

started before your mother gets back,” said
Mrs. Miller, going down the steps to the laun-
dry. “You stay out and play a while, Honey
Bunch, While I wipe up the floor.”

But in a very few minutes Honey Bunch
came quietly down the steps and climbed up
into the chair to watch Mrs. Miller mop the
floor.

“Is anything the matter?” Mrs. Miller
asked her. “You sit there so quiet, Honey
Bunch.”

“I came in,” said Honey Bunch in a Whis-
per, “because that Norman Clark was in his
yard.”

“That’s the boy Whose falks moved into the
vacant house on the next street, isn’t it?” asked
Mrs. Miller? wringing out her mop. “Don’t
you like Norman, Honey Bunch? He looks
like a nice little boy.”
3 “Oh, no, he isn’t a nice boy,” replied Honey
dBunch. “I wouldn’t play With him and he
can’t come to my next birthday party. He
isn’t nice at all 1”

“For pity’s sake, What is the matter with

 

 

 

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12 HONEY BUNCH:
‘ HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

him?” asked Mrs. Miller, so surprised that
she forgot to go on With her mopping. “Has
he done anything mean to you, Honey
Bunch?”

Honey Bunch shook her head.

“Well, then, Why don’t you like him?” re-
peated Mrs. Miller. “I think he’s lonely in
this strange neighborhood and you ought to be
nice to him.”

“He’s a bad boy,” replied Honey Bunch.
“Just as bad as can be. He told me something
dreadful.”

Mrs. Miller dropped her cake of soap and
forgot to pick it up.

“What did he tell you?” she asked. “When
did he tell you?”

Honey Bunch climbed down from her chair
and ran over to Mrs. Miller. She stood on

77 «m.

tiptoe to whisper the dreadful thing Norman '

Clark had told her.

CHAPTER II
THE CAR COMES

HONEY BUNCH was so little that even When
she stood on tiptoe Mrs. Miller had to bend
510an or she couldn’t haar her Whisper.

“Norman Clark,” whispered Honey Bunch,
“went to a party last week. And he told me
he-—-he ate a lady’s fingsrsi Yes, he did. And
he likes themi”

Honey Bunch was Sure Mrs. Miller would
be surprised. She might even be~frightened.
Honey Bunch had been at first, and now every
time she saw Narman Clark she put her hands
in her sweatsr pockets, 01‘ if she didn’t have
her sweater on, she put her hamis behind her.

But Mrs. MiHEr didn’t say a word at first.
She stared at Honey Bunch. Then she began
to laugh. She laughed and laughed and

finally she had to sit down in the little rocking
13

 

    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  

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14: HONEY BUNCH:

HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

chair—Mrs. Miller was so large that you
couldn’t see the chair at all When she was in
it—and wiped her eyes with her apron.

“My dear lamb!” cried Mrs. Miller, “don’t
you know what lady fingers are? They are
little sponge cakes!”

“Are they?” asked Honey Bunch doubt-
fully. “Why do they call them a lady’s fin-
gers then P”

“I think myself it is a silly name,” said Mrs.
Miller. “But I suppose some one called them
that because they are long and narrow. Dear
me I must tell your mother and she Will buy
some for you and then you won’t be thinking
poor Norman Clark goes around eating up
real ladies’ fingers.”

Mrs. Miller went on to finish cleaning the
laundry and then she went upstairs in the
Htchen to get lunch ready. Honey Bunch
stayed down, curled up in the chair, thinking
about Norman. She wasn’t sure yet that he
had not eaten a lady’s fingers and she meant
to keep her own ten pink fingers safely out of
his reach till she was sure. T hen she thought

  

  

HONEY BUNCH: 15
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

about Stub and the farm and the new auto-
mobile.

While Honey Bunch is waiting for her:
lunch, Will be a good time to ask you if you}
know her. Do you? If you have read the
first book about her, called “Honey Bunch:
Just a Little Girl,” then you know that she was
the kind of friend you would like to have live
next door to you. Any little girl Whose daddy
and mother call her “Honey Bunch” because
every time they look at her they are re-
minded of “sweet thingsl’mas Honey Bunch’s
daddy said—is pretty sure to be a lovely small
neighbor. Don’t you think 80? Of course
this little Honey Bunch had another name, in
fact she had two names beside her last one.
Her real name was Gertrude Marion Nlor—
ton, and sometimes an invitation to a birthday
party came addressed to her like that.

In this first book about Honey Bunch,
you’ve been told of the good times she had
with her friends and Lady Clare, the black cat
Who wore a White fur collar that looked like
ermine around her neck. Honey Bunch was

 

 

16 HONEY BUNCH:
' HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

busy, too, and she didn’t play all the time.
She helped her mother and she fed the birds
and she watched the painters paint the house
and even did some painting herself.

Honey Bunch was a lucky little girl, be—
cause she had plenty of cousins. There were
the Turner twins, Bobby and Tess, who lived
in New York; and Stub, the cousin who lived
on a farm; and Julie, another cousin who
lived at the seashore. In the second book
about Honey Bunch (the title of that book is
“Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City”)
you may read of the visit she and her mother
made to the Turners in New York. Uneie
Paul and Aunt Julia were very glad to see
Honey Bunch and her mother, and Bobby and
Tess were delighted. New York City made
Honey Bunch open her blue eyes wide and
often, but she had a beautiful time and. had
some exciting adventures.

Almost as soon as Daddy Morton. brought
hie. little girl and her mother back to Barham,
where they lived, Honey Bunch began to hear
about the visit to the farm. She was eager to

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HONEY BUNCH: $7
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM}

go and visit her cousin Stub, for Stub had
come to her birthday party and had told her
something of the fun that could be found on
a farm.

So that is the reason we find. her curled up
in a chair in the laundry, thinking about Stub
and wishing summer would hurry and come.

“Lunch is ready, Honey Bunch!” called
Mrs. Mifler. “And your mother’s come!”

Honey Bunch ran upstairs. She was very
glad to see her mother, and While they had
lunch together Honey Bunch told her all
about heiping Mrs. Miller hang out the
clothes and handing her the Clothespins.

“I’ve been busy, too,” said Mrs. Morton,
smiling. “I’ve been buying dresses for a little
girl to wear this summer.” ‘

“Is it time to pack?” asked Honey Bunch.
She bounced around in her chair and nearly
knocked a biscuit off the table. Honey Bunch
was always excited about packing. When she
went to New York she came near packing her
father’s birthday cake in the trunk. That
shows how going traveling stirred her up.

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HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Not yet,” replied Mrs. Morton. “Daddy’s
car hasn’t come, you know. Now, dear, if
you have finished, run out and play a little
While. I want to tell Mrs. Miller about the
cleaning this afternoon.”

Honey Bunch folded up her napkin. She
said “Excuse me” and slipped down from her
chair. Then she kissed her mother and went
out on the front steps

“Hello!” called Ida Camp, a little girl
about her own age Who lived on the same
street. “Come over on out porch and let’s
play farm.”

There were several little girls on Ida’s
porch and. they were all eager to play farm.
Ever since Honey Bunch had told them she
was going to Visit Stub, they had had great
fun With this play. None of them had ever

E°been on a farm, so if they made mistakes not
one of them could scold.

“Let me feed the chickens this time,”
begged Cora Williams, as Honey Bunch ran
up the steps. “Grace always feeds the

chickens."

 

 

 
     

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 19
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM;

“Yes, it is Cora’s turn to feed the chick
ens,” said Honey Bunch.

So Mary and Fannie Graham and Kitty
Williams, who was Cora’s sister, and Anna
Martin and Grace ‘Winters and Ida and
Honey Bunch sat down in a row on the steps
and Cora pretended she was the mother bird
and they were the little ones.

“I’m coming With a nice worm,” chirped
Cora. “Open your mouths.”

All the little girls opened their mouths and
chirped: '

“I’m hungry! I’m so hungry!”

“What on earth are you doing?” called Ned
Camp, coming up the walk and laughing as
he saW the seven little mouths Wide open and
Cora dancing up and down, running from one
to the other.

“Cora is feeding the chickens,” explained
Ned’s sister, Ida. “She is the mother
chicken.”

“But that isn’t the way chickens are fed,”
said Ned, looking so merry and kind that they
did not care if he was laughing at them.

 

 

    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 
 
 
 
  
 

  

  

 

20 .HONEY BUNCH:

HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

N ed was in high school and Ida thought he
was the best brother Who ever lived. Honey
Bunch liked Ned, too. He often brought her
catnip for Lady Clare When he went camping
Where it grew and once he had climbed a tree
and rescued the eat when Lady Clare had
climbed up so far she was afraid to come
down.

“That’s the way the mother robin feeds the
little robins,” said Cora firmly. “I watched
the birds that had their nest in our maple tree
last summer.”

“How do you feed chickens?” asked Honey
Bunch.

“Oh, you scatter corn and they come and
pick it up themselves,” explained Ned.
“You’ll find out when you visit at the farm,
Honey Bunch, and then you can come back
and give us all lessons in farming.”

Honk! Honk! went an automobile horn so
suddenly that every one jumped.

“There’s Daddy!” cried Honey Bunch.
“Look! The automobile has come!”

Sure enough, a shiny autombile had stopped

 

 

  

HONEY BUNCH: 21
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

at the curb and Mr. Morton sat behind the
Wheel. He waved to them and beckoned.

“Are there any little girls around here who
want to ride around the park and back With
me P” he called.

Pellmell down the path ran the children,
forgetting the farm game.

“Is it new? Can you drive it? Will you
' really take us?” seven little voices shouted.

Honey Bunch dicin’t say anything and Ned
opened the door and swung her up on the seat
beside her daddy.

“Give me the girl who doesn’t try to see
how loud she can talk,” said Ned. “Shall I
ship these other passengers, sir?”

“Well, if they’ll ask permission first,” an-
swered Mr. Morton, “I’ll be very glad to take
them. And you, too, Ned. It won’t take a
minute to ask your mothers, and I’ll wait for
you.”

“My mother won’t care,” said Grace
VWinters.

“No little girl rides in my car Who doesn’t
ask Mother first,” said Mr. Morton; so Grace

 

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22 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

ran off to find her mother and was back in a
moment so out of breath that she could hardly
say:

“She says ‘all right.

“Can you make it go, Daddy?” asked
[Honey Bunch, while they were waiting for
the others to come.

“Why, yes, dear,” said her daddy. “I’ve
driven cars before, you know. I have had my
driver’s license for a couple of years. But I
wanted to get used to this kind of car before,
I took you and mother on a real trip“ This
j} 1, car is a bit different from any I’ve ever driven.
f 1 i i I promise not to spill you out, Honey Bunch.”

Honey Bunch laughed. She knew her
daddy wouldn’t spill her out. He had never
tipped her off her sled or dropped her when
he was carrying her down the steep stairs.

“Here we are—everybody here?” said Mr.
Morton, When all the little girls had come
.. running back and Ned had lifted them into
, i g: the tonneau, one by one. “Coming, Ned P”

“I’d like to, sir,” answered Ned, “but I’m
,due at baseball practice in fifteen minutes.”

3”

 

HONEY BUNCH: 23
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“I’ll take you out to the grounds. The field
is this side of the park, isn’t it?” said Mr.
Morton. “Hop in.”

So Ned stepped in and took Honey Bunch
on his lap and away rolled that beautiful shiny
ear with the spotless new White tires as silently
aS—as—Honey Bunch tried to think What it
reminded her of and at first she couldn’t.

“I know!” she said so suddenly that Ned
jumped a little. “That’s the way Lady Clare
goes creeping after a mouse. She runs so
still!”

Mr. Morton stopped when they came to the
ball field and Ned got out. He played on the
high-school bail team.

“NOW we’ll go through the park and see
how near the summer has come to us,” said
Mr. Miorton, miling at the happy little faces
in the back of the car and the happy little face
beside him.

“Has it pretty near come?” asked Honey
Bunch, When they reached the park.

“Yes, it has,” cried Grace Winters. “The
leaves are out and the grass is just as green!

 

, ~. - '1‘7‘Ft'.=xazz-1;;n

 

24 ' HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

And the yellow flowers are out and the sun is
warm. It is summer, isn’t it?”

“Almost summer,” replied Mr. Morton.
“A few more weeks and we’ll have June
roses.”

He drove them through the little park and
over the new boulevard home again and each
little girl said, “Thank you,” and hopped out
as he stopped the car before her house.
Honey Bunch had a “little extra ride,” as she
said, because she rode With her daddy to the
garage Where he kept the car. Then they
walked home together.

“Well, dear,” he said, as they went in to
tell Mother Where they had been, “I think ,
next week we’ll be off to the farm.”

“And I’ll feed the chickens,” cried Honey
Bunch joyfully.

 

 

CHAPTER III
THE JOURNEY BEGINS

A FEW days after the new automobile came
the deep trunk was brought down from the
attic and stood in the upstairs hall. Honey
Bunch danced around it, bringing things for
her mother to put in it and changing the few
toys she was allowed to take three times a
day.

“For I might want something else, after I
took this,” Honey Bunch explained to her
daddy.

“That does happen sometimes,” he said,
laughing. “But you won’t need many toys on
the farm, dear; you and Stub Will be playing
outdoors all day long and you’ll find the nicest
kind ofvplaythings in the fields and in the
brook and right in the front yard.”

“Mother says not to take but three toys,”

Honey Bunch explained. “Three to play
25

 

    

  
     
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

26 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

 

With in case it rains or I need to be amused. ' _
Shall I need to be amused, Daddy?” 5
“You might,” he answered. “But look ‘
here, Honey Bunch—do you see this hole?” 5
They were standing near the trunk While
Mrs. Morton sat on the floor beside it, packe
ing clothes in the tray. Honey Bunch leaned
over and looked down into ghe trunk. Her
daddy was pointing to a dee ; hole.
“Do you know what that is for?” asked Mr.
Morton seriously.
Honey Bunch shook her head. She didn’t
know.
“Do you know, Mother?” asked Mr. Mor-
ton, his eyes twinkling now.
“No, I don’t,” said Mrs. Morton, folding
.5 up a white dress that belonged to Honey
5 Bunch. “Unless it is to put Lady Clare in.”
5 “Oh, Mother!” cried Honey Bunch. “You
i said Lady Clare was going to live With Mrs._
5 Miller till we came back.” '
5 ' “So she is, darling,” answered Mrs. Mor-
ton. “I wanted to tease Daddy, that’s all. I
wouldn’t pack our beautiful Lady Clare in a

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HONEY BUNCH: 2’?"

BER. FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

hot, dark trunk. You know I wouldn’t do
such a dreadful thing.”

So Honey Bunch kissed Mother and said
no, she knew she wouldn’t do that.

“Well, if neither one of you can guess What
that hole is for,” said Mr. Morton at last, “I
suppose I’ll have to tell you.”

“Yes, please tell, Daddy,” Honey Bunch
begged him. “What is it for?”

“For Stub’s present,” said Mr. Morton.

“Stub’s present?” said Honey Bunch.
“What present?”

“The present you are going to take her,”
replied Mr. Morton. “I think it will just go
into that hole.”

Honey Bunch stared at him.

“But I haven’t any present to take Stub,”
she said. “Have I, Mother?”

“011, but we’re going down town now and
buy Stub a present?” dsclared Mr. Morton.
“I have the car outside and I came home sspe-
cially to inviie Mother and you to this down
town With mo.”

Mrs. Morton laughed and pulled Honey

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28 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Bunch into her lap, on top of the clean
dresses.

“How does Daddy expect us to get packed:
to go away?” she said. “Shall we go down
town and buy Stub a present, Honey Bunch,
and finish the packing When we come back?”

“Oh, yes, let’s!” answered Honey Bunch
“And you tell What to buy, Mother, because
you know What Stub likes.”

So Mrs. Morton put on her hat and she and
Honey Bunch went down and got into the car
and rode down town With. Daddy Morton.
Honey Bunch couldn’t think of a single thing
that Stub would like them to bring her, but
her mother seemed to know what to buy. She
found a ring-toss game that was meant to be
played outdoors and a little green watering
pot With pink posies on it like the one that
Honey Bunch had for her garden.

“These will both go in the trunk,” said Mrs.
Morton to Honey Bunch. “And Daddy has
bought a croquet set Which he Will have sent
up by express. Stub’s mother wrote me that
Stub had lost all the balls of her old set, so I

 

HONEY BUNCH: 29
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

think she will be glad to have a new one to
play With.”

Honey Bunch thought so, too, and all the
way home she was pretending that she and
Stub were playing croquet, Stub With a red
ball and mallet and Honey Bunch herself
with a blue ball and mallet. Blue was Honey
Bunch’s favorite color.

The next day the trunk was packed anti
locked~the things they had bought for Stub
did go into What Honey Bunch called “the
empty hole” in the trunk and they fitted eX-
actlymand the expressman came and took it
away to go by train.

“We’fl have two suiteases to take in the car,
and that is enough,” said Mr. Morton. “‘Ne .
won’t carry the trunk With us, as the snail
carries his house on his haek.”

Mrs. Miller came the day they were to start
for the farm, and she put Lady Clare into a
basket. Honey Bunch hugged her cat and
said good-by and Mrs. Morton hugged Lady
Clare, too, and told Mrs. Miller to take good
care of her.

 

 

 

 

 

9 ->q

30 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“And don’t let her cat little birds,” said
Honey Bunch. “Boiled liver is What she
ought to eat.”

Mrs. Miller promised to remember, and she
came down the walk to see them get into the
car. Honey Bunch was so excited she could
not stand still and she bounced around like a
rubber ball.

“Good—by, Honey Bunch,” called Ida
Camp from her porch.

“Good—by!” cried Honey Bunch, With a lit-
tle extra skip. “Good-by! I’m going away
now.”

“Good-by, Honey Bunch,” called Kitty and
Cora Williams. “Send us post cards.”

“If they have them in the country,” called
back Honey Bunch, taking two hops this
time. “Good—by!”

“All ready, Honey Bunch P” said her daddy,
Who had been busy packing the two suitcases
and; the long croquet set in the tonneau. He
had decided to carry the set with them, “so
you may play croquet as soon as you see Stub,
if you want to,” he had said to Honey Bunch.

 

 

 

"4‘5

 

HONEY BUNCH: 31
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Mrs. Morton was already in the car and
Honey Bunch was lifted in beside her. Then
Mr. Morton went around on the other side‘
and got in. Mrs. Miller waved her hand, Ida}?
Camp waved, and Cora and Kitty Williams
waved, too, and the car started.

’ “Good-by! Good-by!” every one called,
and Honey Bunch saw Mrs. Miller turn and
run into the house.

“She’s afraid Lady Clare will get out of the
basket and run and hide,” said Honey Bunch
Wisely.

And that was just what Mrs. Miller
thought, but she reached the basket before
Lady Clare could climb out. She took the cat
home with her and a very peaceful, pleasant
summer Lady Clare had in her new home.

It was a lovely sunny, summer morning
when Honey Bunch and her daddy and
mother started for “Broad Acres” which was
the name of the farm.

“How far do we go-a hundred miles,
Daddy?” asked Honey Bunch, snuggling
down to be comfortable for a long ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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32 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Oh, no, not as far as that,” replied her
daddy. “About sixty, I think. Did you bring
the road maps, Edith?” ’

“They’re in the pocket,” said Mrs. Morton, >
leaning over and patting the leather pocket 63
the door of the car.

“I don’t need them now, but I may later,”
said Mr. Morton.

“Where does Stub live?” asked Honey
Bunch next.

“The name of the town is Elmville,” re-
plied Mr. Morton, Who was the dearest daddy
to answer questions. He liked to answer
questions. He said so.

“I suppose you are wondering Why Daddy
wants a map to tell him Where to go,” said
Mr. Morton, smihng at Honey Bunch. “You
see, dear, your mother and I have always gone
to visit Broad Acres by train. This is the first
time we have ever followed the road. Would
you be surprised if we should get lost?”

“You can’t get lost, Daddy,“ said Honey
Bunch, chuckling. “Anyway, a policeman
will find you, if you do.”

 

HONEY BUNCH: 33
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

But it wasn’t long before they were miles
away from a policeman. It didn’t take long
to run through Barham, Which was not a large
city, and then out on to the boulevard Which
led them into the country.

“No houses at all,” said Honey Bunch, sit-
ting up straight so that she might see every-
thing. “Where do the people live, Mother?”

“They live in houses,” answered Mother.
“You can’t see them, because they are built far
apart. See that little trail of smoke in the sky
Honey Bunch? That means there is a house
there around the turn in the road. Some one
is cooking in the kitchen of the house.”

“What are they cooking?” Honey Bunch
wanted to know.

“Pancakes,” said Mr. Morton, turning the
ear to pass a Wide load of hay.

“Lunch,” said Mrs. Morton. “Are you get-
ting hungry, Honey Bunch?”

“A little,” admitted Honey Bunch. “But
shan’t we have to wait till we get to Stub’s
house?”

“Oh, no, indeed!” answered her mother.

 

 

  
 
 

 

   

    

34 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“We had an early breakfast, and riding in this
nice fresh air makes us hungry, too. Daddy
Will find us a place to eat pretty soon and we’ll
stop and have lunch.”

Sure enough, in a short time they came to a
pretty little town, With beautiful tall trees
growing in rows along the streets. The name
of this town was Morgan, Daddy said, and he
drove the car up before a building that had a
large gold sign across the railing 0f the front
porch.

“This is the Morgan hotel,” said Honey
Bunch’s mother, as Mr. Morton stopped the
car. “We’ll have lunch here.”

They went into the house and a pleasant
looking woman in a pink and White dress
came to meet them. '

“Dinner is ready now,” she saict, smiling.
“Would you like to go upstairs first?”

Mrs. Morton said yes, and she and Honey
Bunch followed the pink and white dress up-
stairs. The woman took them into a cool,
dark room and said they would find water and
soap and towels 0n the washstandt

 

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 35
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Where’s the washstand?” asked Honey
Bunch the moment the door had closed and
the woman had gone downstairs.

Mrs. Morton laughed.

“You never saw one, did you, dear?” she
said. “Well, it isn’t much to see. Look over
in the corner and you’ll see a washstand.”

Honey Bunch looked. She saw a tall White
pitcher and a white bowl and a White dish
With a cake of pink. soap on it. These things
were on a table With a pile of clean white
towels.

“I’ll pour out the water and then you may
wash your hands,” said Mrs. Morton.

She had to help Honey Bunch, because that
small girl was so interested in the washstand
she forgot to wash her face at all and she let
the cake of pink soap melt almost all away
while she tried to find out how deep the water
was in the pitcher.

“There now, we’re nice and clean and we’ll
go down and find Daddy and have lunch,”
said Mrs. Morton, at last. “Come, dear.”

Mr. Morton was waiting for them in the

 

 

 

 

 

  
  
  
   
   
   
    
   

 

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36 [HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

hall and they went into the dining room to-
gether. There were two long tables and‘sev-
eral people sitting at each, already eating.

'Her daddy lifted Honey Bunch into one of

the chairs.
“Oh, Daddy!” she Whispered, but not so
softly that the man across from her couldn’t

hear, “Daddy, did you see the washstand P”

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Page 41

ASKED HONEY BUNCH.

“ IS THAT A LETTER BOX .7”
Honey Bunch .‘ Her First Day: on the Farm.

 

 

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CHAPTER IV? f
RUTH EVANS

THE man seated across the table from the
Mortons laughed When he heard Honey
Bunch’s question. Daddy laughed a little,
too, as he sat down.

“When I was a little boy,” said the man,
his eyes twinkling at Honey Bunch, “I had a
washstand in my room and in Winter the water
used to freeze in the pitcher and I had to
pound it with a stick before I could get water
enough to wash my face.”

“Oh!” said Honey Bunch. “Wasn’t it
cold? We have warm water that comes out
gOf a faucet in our house.”

“To be sure you do,” answered the man.
“But When your grandma was a little girl she
didn’t have any faucets in her house.”

He had been eating dessert When they went
37

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

   
   
   
  
   
     

 

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38 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

in and now he had finished. He nodded;
good-by and went away.

“Does he live here?” asked Honey Bunch,
as she tasted a baked potato the young waitress
brought her.

“I don’t think so,” answered Mrs. Morton.
“I imagine he is traveling and just stopped
here for his lunch. But you mustn’t talk so
much, Honey Bunch, or we’ll never get off,
Drink yeur milk and don’t forget the bread
and butter.”

As soon as they had finished their luncheon.
Honey Bunch and her daddy and Mother
went back t0 the car. They drove away down
the shady street and through the town. MOI“
gan wasn’t very large, and most of the streets
were short and turned suddenly. The m0~
ment they were past the last house, Honey
Bunch made a discovery.

“The sun has begun,” she said.

“Goodness, Honey Bunch, are you making
up poetry to tell Uncle Rand?” asked Mrs.
Morton.

    

HONEY BUNCH: 39
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Is that poetry?” questioned Honey Bunch
eagerly.

She said it over several times to herself.
9%“The sun has begun, the sun has begun,” and
finally she decided that it was poetry.

“Yes, it must be poetry,” agreed Mr. Mor-
ton, his eyes on the road. “I never could um»-

ietstand poetry and I don’t understand this.
‘éthat does ‘the sun has begun’ mean, Honey
Bunch P”

“Why, it means,” said Honey Bunch, very
slewiy and carefully so that Daddy should
understand, “that———that the sun has begun,
Daddy. Just as soon as we left Morgan the
trees stopped and the sun began. Don’t you

see?”

“NOW I do,” he replied. “The sun did be-
gin to pour down on us, didn’t it, dear? It
would be nice if we could have a shady road
fit the way to Elmville, but no one has planted
the trees.”

Then Honey Bunch asked about the trees—
who planted them and Why some places had

 

 

 

 

 

 

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40 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

trees and some didn’t and how long it took a
tree to grow and whether her daddy had ever
planted a tree and where was it now?

By the time Mr. Morton had answered all
of these questions they were far out in the
country. Sometimes they saw men working
in the fields, and when they waved to the
speeding car Honey Bunch and her mother
waved back. The sun was hot, but the top
was up and an automobile can always bring
you a breeze, you know, as long as it is going.

“There’s a tree I” cried Honey Bunch,
pointing ahead. “There’s a tree, Daddy!”

“I’ll stop there and take a look at the en-
gine,” Mr. Morton said. “You and Mother
may like to take a little walk while I’m tinker-
ing.”

The tree was a cherry tree—so Mrs. Mor-
ton said——-and it grew inside the fence but
spread its green branches far out over the
road. Mr. Morton drove up under it and
stopped the car.

“Is it broken?” asked Honey Bunch anx-
iously.

    
  
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
    
  
    

HONEY BUNCH: 41
Hm FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“No, indeed,” said her daddy cheerfully.
“I want to poke the engine’s insides, that’s
all. I think I can make it run more
smoothly.”

“We’ll take a walk down this lane,” said
Mrs. Morton. “Come, dear. We won’t go
far and Daddy can call us if he finishes before
We get back.”

A few steps beyond the cherry tree there
was a lane. Honey Bunch thought it looked
just like a street, except that there were no
houses and n0 sidewalks and no people.
There was a letter box, though, right at the
corner Where the lane joined the road.

“Is that a letter box?” asked Honey Bunch,
When Mother told her What the White tin box
With the little red flag was meant fort

“Surely it is,” replied Mrs. Morten.
“When the little flag is up, that means the let-
ter carrier has left a letter.”

“It’s up now,” said Honey Bunch. “Who
is the letter for, Mother?”

“There must be a farmhouse near here,”
answered her mother. “And the letter is

 

 

 

 

   

   

42 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

meant for some one Who lives in the farm—
house.”

“But Will the letter man go and tell them
there is a letter?” went on Honey Bunch, so
interested in the mail box she forgot to walk.
“How Will they know there is a letter for
them, Mother?”

“Come on the shady side of the path, dear,”
said her mother, “and I’ll tell you While we
are walking. In the country, Honey Bunch,
the mail comes only once a day. The post
man leaves it in these boxes. Every family
has a tin box like this one. Some one comes
and gets it once a day, too.”

“But maybe there isn’t a letter for every-
body every day,” said Honey Bunch. “Some—
times the letter man goes right by our house,
Mother, and doesn’t leave us a thing.”

“Sometimes he drives right by the country
letter box, too,” explained Mrs. Morten.
“But the people Who live in the country usu«
ally go once a day to their mail boxes, any-
way. Most of them take a daily paper, and
that means there Will always be something in

 

HONEY BUNCH: 43
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the box. Here comes some one for the mail
now, I do believe.”
Honey Bunch looked. Coming toward

’ them was a little girl, a year or two older than

Honey Bunch, perhaps. She wore a brown
gingham dress and she had brown eyes and
hair and some brown freckles on her little
nose.

“Hello!” said Mrs. Morton, smiling, while
Honey Bunch and the little girl stared at each
other.

“Hello!” said the little girl shyly.

“My little girl and I were talking about the
letter box at the end of the lane,” said Mrs.
Niorton. “I told her how the letters are de-
livered in the country. She is going to Visit
this summer on a farm, and I am sure she Will
find letters in just that kind of a box.”

“Did you happen to see if the flag was up?”
asked the little girl eagerly. “I don’t suppose
you looked, did you?”

“Yes, we did!” cried Honey Bunch. “The
flag was up, wasn’t it, Mother? That means
there is a letter there! Mother said so 1”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    
  
  
 
 
    
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
  
  
 
  
   

44 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Yes, and that letter is from my aunt,” said
the little girl. “My cousin Laura is coming
to see me next week and now we’ll know what
train she is coming on.”

“We’ll turn and go back,” said Mrs. Mor-
ton. “I think Daddy must be looking for us
by this time.”

“Did your car break down P” asked the lit~
tie girl, quite as if she were used to meeting
people in her lane Whose cars had broken
down.

“No, nothing’s broken, but Honey Bunch
and I thought we’d take a little walk While
Honey Bunch’s daddy tinkered With the en-
gine,” explained Mrs. Morton, smiling at the
little girl Who smiled back and told her own
mother afterward that the lady in the tan coat
was the “nicest and happiest lady.”

“Is that her name—Honey Bunch?” asked.
the little girl. “My name is Ruth—Ruth
Evans.”

“My Whole name is Gertrude Marion Mor-
ton,” said Honey Bunch. “But every one
calls me Honey Bunch. And I’m going to see

 

HONEY BUNCH: 45
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

my cousin, too. She lives on a farm and her
name is Stub. Where does your cousin Laura
live?”

“She lives in Bayplace,” answered Ruth.
“That’s the seashore. What a funny name—
Stub! Is that her real name?”

“N 0—0. But she falls down When she stubs
her toe, and that’s Why they call her that,” ex-
plained Honey Bunch. “What is Stub’s real
name, Mother?”

“Oh, Honey Bunch, you know, if you’ll
only stop to remember,” laughed Mrs. Mor—
ton. “Her name is Mary Morton, dear.”

“And I have a cousin Who lives at the sea-
shore, too,” said Honey Bunch proudly.
“julie. She came to my birthday party.”

They had reached the mail box by this
time and Ruth lifted the lid and pulled out
several letters and a newspaper and two maga-
zines. Then she folded down the little
flag.

“Why do you bend it down P” asked Honey
Bunch, Who thought this way of getting let-
ters was much more exciting than to have the

 

 

 

 

 

  

   
 
 

 
  
 

 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    

 

 

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46 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

postman bring them to the house and ring the
doorbell.

“If you leave the flag up, the mail man Will
think there are letters in the box to be mailed,”
answered Ruth. “He doesn’t like to go feeling
around in the bottom of the box when there
isn’t anything there.”

“Oh!” said Honey Bunch.

Mrs. Morton asked Ruth to walk With them
down to the car, but Ruth said she had prom~=
ised her mother to come straight back to the
house.

“She wants to telephone to my brother, who
lives in town, to go to meet my cousin, as soon
as she knows What train she is coming on,” eX—
plained Ruth. “So I’ll scoot.”

And up the lane she “scooted,” her brown
gingham skirts flapping as she ran. She could
run fast, and in a few minutes she was out 0f

6% ght.

“Dear me,” said Mr. Morton, Wiping his
hands on a towel as Honey Bunch and her
mother came around the front of the car, “I
thought I saw two little girls. Didn’t I? Did

   

HONEY BUNCH: 4:7
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the fairies come and carry the other girl
away?”

“That was Ruth Evans, Daddy,” answered
Honey Bunch. “She came down to get the
letters out of the mail box. The mail man
leaves them there once a day. Ruth has a
cousin Laura who lives at the seashore, just
like Julie. And the cousin is coming to see
her When her mother telephones her brother

to go to meet the train that the letter tells-

about”

Mr. Morton swung Honey Bunch into the
seat and gave her a kiss.

“You must know all about Ruth Evans,” he
said teasingly. “So I really did see another
little girl. I thought, perhaps, I was getting
to be such an old daddy I needed glasses.”

“You’re not an old daddy!” exclaimed
Honey Bunch.

“No, indeed,” declared Mrs. Morton.
“Here’s a four-leaf clover I picked for you
in the lane While Honey Bunch was talking to
Ruth.”

Mr. Morton put the clover in his watch

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48 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

case and said it would bring him good luck.
Then, as the engine was “running beautifully”
he said, they started off again. But though
the car went as fast as it had before, Mr. Mor~
ton kept slowing up and once he stopped and
stood up to look back.

“What is the matter, David P” asked Honey I

Bunch’s mother. “Is anything coming up be-
hind us?” I

“No. But I begin to think I’ve taken the
wrong road,” replied Mr. h/Iorton. “Let’s
have a look at the road maps. I should have
studied them before.”

He spread the maps out on his lap, and
though Honey Bunch could not understand
the yellow and blue spots, Daddy and Mother
seemed to know What they meant. Mother
took a hairpin and followed a Wide black line
clear across the paper.

“There’s Where I made the wrong turn,”
said Daddy, in a moment. “I’ll turn the car
around—because the next cross road is at
least four miles aheadwand we’ll go back. It
won’t delay us more than half an hour.”

é” (\\ _

 

CHAPTER V.
NEW FRIENDS

MR. MORTON turned the car around and
they went back as far as a painted white post
Honey Bunch did not remember having seen
before.

“That’s the trouble,” said her daddy when
she pointed to the post. “We should have
seen thatnat least I should. Then I would
have taken the right road. However, here we
go.” And he turned the car down another
road Which would, he explained, take them to
Stub’s house.

“What pretty clouds 1” said Honey Bunch,
when she looked across a field and saw big
White clouds piled on top of each other.
“Look, Mother, they’re like the castles in my
fairy-tale book.”

“Yes, I see them,” said Mrs. Morton, a lit-
, 49

 

 

   
 
  
   
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    

 

 

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50 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

tle anxiously. “I’m afraid they mean we are
going to have a thunder shower.”

“It may go around us,” said Mr. Morton,
glancing at the sky. “If we do get caught,
I’ll drive in somewhere.”

Honey Bunch thought the clouds were
lovely. They looked as though she could
plunge her hands up and down in them, as she
sometimes did in Mrs, Miller’s soapsue‘ts.
That is, if she could get near enough to the sky
to reach the Clouds. Honey Bunch was sure
that if Daddy drove straight across the fields»,
to the spot where the sky touched the earth,
she could grab a piece of the clouds. But
then, Daddy was in a hurry to get to the farm,
she knew, and it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to
drive so far out of his way.

“Now they’re dark,” said Honey Butter:
suddenly, staring at the beautiful white clouds
which had turned black While she watched
them. ,

“See how fast they go,” said Mrs. Morton,
Who was watching the clouds, too. “Almost
as fast as the car goes.”

HONEY BUNCH: 51
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“What makes the clouds move?” asked
Honey Bunch.

“The wind, dear,” replied her mother.
“Hark? I hear thunder.”

Honey Bunch listened. Far away she
heard a rumble and a muttering.

“It’s back of the clouds, Mother,” she said.

“We’ll not get wet,” Mr. Morton said, not
even looking at the clouds again. “I’m not
going to stop to put on the side curtains. I
think there is a farmhouse just ahead and
we’ll run into the barn and wait till the shower
is over.”

T he White clouds were evety one black now
and the wind was blowing hard. Honey
Bunch could see the trees rocking back and
forth. The thunder sounded nearer and little
jagged streaks of light darted across the sky
in front of the automobile.

“HOW glad all the little green growing
things Will be to get the rain,” said Mrs. Mor-
ton. “I’m sure they are thirsty for a drink of
water.”

“And we’ll not have any more dust to-day,”

 

   
   
 
 
 
   
  
 
 
 
 
  
   
  
 
   
 

 

 

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Z52 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

'declared Mr. Morton. “All the rest of the
way to the farm we’ll have a dustless road.
Aha, there’s the farmhouse chimney.”

Honey Bunch stood up to look. There was
a chimney showing through a clump of trees.

Pat! Pat! Pat! went something softly.

“What’s that?” asked Honey Bunch.
“What’s that funny noise?”

“It is the rain,” answered her mother.
“You hear the drops striking the leaves. D0
hurry, Daddy, so we won’t get wet.”

The car leaped ahead and in another min-
ute they were opposite a barn. There was a
man standing in the doorway and as soon as
he saw them he pushed the sliding door back
and Mr. Morten ran the car through the door-
way into the nice dry barn.

“Hello!” said the man pleasantly. “Most
caught you, didn’t it?”

g He was a little old man and he seemed ghd
to see them. He opened the door for Honey
Bunch and her mother to step down and the
L first thing he said to Honey Bunch was:
“Do you like kittens?”

  

 

HONEY BUNCH: 53
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Oh, yes!” replied Honey Bunch, looking
at the old man as though she thought he might
have a kitten in the pockets of his overalls.

“Well, Mother has some, up at the house,”
said the little old man. “If you all Will come
on up, she’ll be right glad to see you.”

“Perhaps we had better wait here,” said
Mr. Morton. “Is it far to the house?”

“Just a step,” replied the old man. “You
can run between the drops.”

Honey Bunch laughed. She didn’t see how
Daddy could run between the little fine drops
of rain. The old man laughed, too.

“Mother ioves to have company,” he said.
“She’s seen your car come in. I know she has
the kettle on by this time and is getting out the
cookies. She’ii never forgive me if I don’t
bring you up to the house.”

“All right, let’s run for it,” said Mr. Mor-
ton, ‘ picking up Honey Bunch. “Come,
Edith-it isn’t raining hard yet.”

The house was not far away and they all
ran, Daddy carrying Honey Bunch. As they
reached the front porch the door was opened

 

 

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 
    

 

 

    

54 HONEY BUNCH:
‘ HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

and a tiny little old lady bounced out, waving
her apron and smiling.

“Come right in and set a spell,” she cried.
“Are you wet? Are you cold? I’ll have a
cup of hot tea for you in a minute. Come out-
in the kitchen Where the fire is.”

Talking every minute, the old lady led them
into the largest kitchen Honey Bunch had
ever seen. Although it was summer, the room
was not too warm, for the shower had brought
a cold Wind with it, and When people are wet
a fire feels very comfortable indeed. There
was a fire in the big stove and a teakett‘re send—
ing out White. clouds of steam and in the mid«
die of the kitchen a round table spread with a
White cloth.

“I know you’re hungry,” said the 0M lady
cheerfully. “Folks are always hungry when
they’re driving. Pm so sorry I didn’t know
you were coming, or I could have cooked
something special.”

In two minutes they felt as though they
had always known the little old lady and
the little old man. Their names, they said3

HONEY BUNCH: 55
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

were Popoveerr. and Mrs. Popover.

“Just remember popovers and you’ll re—
member ue,” said the old lady, Who could cer—
tainly talk faster than any one Honey Bunch
had ever known.

Indeed, everything Mrs. Popover did, was
Hone quickly. She talked fast and she walked
fast and she had cups of tea peured out for
her Visitors—With a glass of milk for Honey
Bunch and had brought out a basket of
striped. yellow and White kittens and three pie~
tures of her grandchildren and then sat down
and knitted, almest before Mrs. Niorten had
taken off Honey Bunch’s hat and unloosened
her own Einen coat.

“Such darling kitties!” cried Honey BunchL
sitting dawn on the floor beside the basket.‘
“Have they any names?”

“To be sure,” said Mrs. Popover, knitting
away as fast as she talkec‘t. “One is named
Topaz—that’s the one you are stroking now.
Then there is Emerald and Ruby and Pearl.
Peter, pass the child a cookie.”

Mr. Popover brought the plate of cookies

 

 

 

 

 

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56 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

to Honey Bunch Who took one and went on
petting the kittens.

“I’m going to give Topaz to my grandson,
Cornelius, just as soon as the kittens are old
enough to give away,” said Mrs. Popover.
“Pearl is for my granddaughter, Lucy, and
Emerald is for the baby, Albert.”

“But there is Ruby,” Honey Bunch re~
minded her. “Haven’t you any more grand—
children, Mrs. Popover?”

“Oh, Father and I Will keep Ruby,” an—
swered the old lady. “The mother cat, Jewei,
would feel lonely if we didn’t keep one
kitten.”

Honey Bunch asked where the mother cat
was.

“Out in the barn most likely,” said NIT.
Popover, Who was eating cookies as though
he liked them very much. “Jewel is a great
mouser and she patrols the barn as regularly
as a policeman.”

“I’m right glad you dropped in,” declared
Mrs. Popover, beaming at her guests and
clicking her needles faster than ever. Father

HONEY BUNCH: 57
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

and I get lonely with no one to talk to. I
often tell him we ought to borrow some chil—
dren to stay With us. Our daughter and her
children live fifty miles away and we don’t
see them as often as we’d like.”

While the Popovers talked, the thunder
storm was “storming,” as Honey Bunch said.
The Wind rattled the shutters of the farm~
house and the rain poured down. The thun-
der sounded directly over their heads, but no
one seemed to pay much attention to the storm.
Mr. Popover and Mr. Morton were talking
about farming and Mrs. Popover was show-
ing Mrs. Morton her patchwork quilts—she
took her upstairs to show her thosefland
Honey Bunch played with the kittens and
loved them. They were too busy to listen to
the Wind and the rain.

“It is getting lighter now,” said Mr. Mor-
ton, walking over to the window. “I think
we can be going on in a few moments. Honey
Bunch, can you find IVIother3 and tell her I
am going out to the barn to start the car?”

“You go right out into that hall and up the

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58 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

stairs,” said Mr. Popover to Honey Bunch.
“You’ll find the ladies talking about basting
threads and thimbles in the front room, ML
bet a cookie.” ;

Honey Bunch laughed and trotted into the
Wide, square, front hall. She went up the
stairs that twisted and as soon as she reached
the upstairs hali she heard Mrs. Popovet
talking.

“Come right in, dear,” said the old lady.
“I’ve been showing your mother my quilts. I
don’t suppose you ever made patchwork, did
you? When 1 was a little girl that was the
first needlework. we did.”

Honey Bunch looked at the gay quilts
spread across the bed. There were stars and
Wheels and diamonds, all beautifully stitched
together. There was every color of the rain-
bow in those quilts, too.

“How pretty!” said Honey Bunch. “Did;
you make them, Mrs. Popover?”

“Every one,” said the old lady proudly“
“I’ve won twenty prizes at the State fair for
my quilt patterns.”

HONEY BUNCH: 59
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

When Honey Bunch said that Daddy had
gone out to the barn and that he wanted them
to be ready to start in a few moments, Mrs.
Popover seemed much disappointed.

“I hoped it would settle down into a steady
rain, so you could stay all night,” she said.
“I’d have fried Chicken for supper if I
thought you’d stay.”

“Oh, they will be expecting us at the farm,”
replied Honey Bunch’s mother. “We couldn’t
stay over a night—though it is lovely of you
t0 be so hospitable.”

“Well, I like plenty of people around,” an-
swered Mrs. Popover, folding up the quilts.
“When Father and I were younger we had
summer boarders a good deal. They were
good. company, but they used. to tile me be-
cause they couldn’t remember our names. We
were always getting letters addressed to Mr.
Mufin or Mrs. Biscuit, and it get on my
I'lerves, though I s’pose that was silly.”

Honey Bunch and her mother laughed at
the idea of a letter addressed to “Mrs. Bis-
cuit,” and Mrs. Pqpover, too, laughed good-

 

 

 

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60 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

naturedly. She followed them out to the barn
and begged them to stop in if they ever drove
past again.

“Stop on your way home, at least,” she
urged. “Stop off here for dinner When you
go back.”

Mr. Morton said they would and that
promise seemed to cheer Mr. and Mrs. Pop—
over so much they smiled and waved their
hands quite gaily as the car went down the
toad.

“They’re just lonely,” said Honey Bunch’s
mother. “They ought to have some one Who
is young and gay and happy come and live
with them.”

“Some one like Honey Bunch,” said Honey
Bunch’s daddy, smiling at his little girl. “But
we can’t spare her.”

The rain had stopped entirely new and the
fields were fresh and green as though just
washed. And that was What the rain had
done—washed them. There was no dust in
the road, either, and theirs seemed to be the
only car out. Honey Bunch was thinking

    
  
 
  
  
     
    
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
     

HONEY BUNCH: "61'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

about Mr. and Mrs. Popover and the kittens
When her daddy slowed down and turned into
a cemented drive that was bordered on each
side by beautiful blue iris.

“All out for Broad Acres!” called Mr.
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CHAPTER VI
BROAD ACRES

“OH, Honey Bunch! I thought you never
Were coming!” shouted Stub, flying down the
lawn.

She dashed up to the car and tumbled in,
hugging Mrs. Morton and Honey Bunch and
trying to tell them how glad she was to see
them.

“Here, here,” said Mr. Morton, leaning
over the back of the seat to kiss her. “Where’s
Mother, Stub? And do we drive on in or get
Out here?”

“Drive on around,” said Stub, climbing
over beside Mr. Morton. “Mother is on the
porch and Daddy and Michael are out in the
ham.”

Mr. Morton followed the cement drive
around to the side porch Where Stub’s mother

eame down the steps to meet them.
62

 

HONEY BUNCH: 63
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“There’s a telegram for you, David,” said
Stub’s mother, lifting Honey Bunch down
and kissing Mrs. Morton. “It came this;
morning.” 2

Stub’s mother was “Aunt Carol” to Honey.-
Bunch, and she was as "gentle and calm
as Stub was hurried and excited. Honey
Bunch thought Aunt Carol was very
pretty, with her soft, dark hair and blue
eyes and she liked to hear her law, even
voice.

“I’ll run the car out to the barn and come
back,” said Honey Bunch’s daddy. “I’ve an
iciea What that telegram says. I thought I
could get in a week’s vacation, but it seems
not.”

“Come on, we’ll go, too,” said Stub, pulling
Honey Bunch back into the car. “You
haven’t seen the barn yet.”

Mr. Morton laughed and said that Honey
Bunch had not seen anything yet.

“But she Will know every corner of the
farm, With you to show her, Stub,” he said.
“Hello, here’s Rand.”

 

 

 

64s HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Stub’s daddy stood in the doorway of the
barn and beckoned them to drive in.

“Park right here on the barn floor,” he said.
“Give the horses something to look at When
they’re not working.”

Uncle Rand had a jolly face and eyes that
twinkled. Honey Bunch decided that he
looked as though he could make up poetry,
and she thought she would tell him about
Mrs. Miller’s burned fingers as soon as she
had a chance.

, “Well, Honey Bunch, welcome to the
ffarm,” said Uncle Rand, lifting her out of the
car. “Carol tell you about the telegram,
David?” he asked, shaking hands With Honey
Bunch’s daddy.

. “Yes, thanks,” said Mr. Morton. “It means
I’ll have to go back to-morrow, I’m afraid.
Oh, here is Buffy. Honey Bunch, come and
shake hands With Buffy.”

A large Shepherd dog bounced up to them
gand held out his paw to Honey Bunch very
politely. She shook hands With him and pat-
ted his head. When Bufly sat down he was

 

 

 

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HONEY BUNCH: 65
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

as tall as Honey Bunch. That is, his head was
on a level With hers.

“Stub,” said Uncle Rand, “we’re going up
to the house. Supper Will be ready in half an
hour. You and Honey Bunch come in When
Michael does and you won’t be late.”

“Yes, Daddy,” answered Stub.

The two daddies went away and Stub took
Honey Bunch by the hand.

“I’ll show you all the nicest places in the
barn,” she said. “But first come and talk to
Michael.”

She led Honey Bunch through the barn till
they came to another door. This was twice
as wide as the one they had driven through
and Honey Bunch was surprised to find, When
she looked through it, that she was upstairs.

“We didn’t come up any stairs,” she said to
Stub. “But this is the second floor, isn’t it?”

“There’s a basement under the barn,” eX-
plained Stub. “You don’t see it from the
front of the barn. Michael! Michael! here’s
my cousin!” she called.

Honey Bunch looked down and into a thin

 

 

 

 

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66 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

brown face With the merriest smile flashing
up at her she had ever seen. She smiled back
at once—every one smiled at Michael.

“Hello, Miss Honey Bunch!” said Michael,
waving a cornstalk at her. “I’ve heard all
kinds of nice things about you.”

“What are you doing, Michael?” asked
Stub. “Can we jump down?”

“Certainly not,” said Michael promptly.
“It’s soaking wet down here. 13m spreading
out dry stalks because your father wants the
cows to have a dry place to-night. That was
a mighty heavy sho't er we had.”

“We saw it,” said Honey Bunch.

Then she jumped 21 little, for a cold nose
touched her hand. It was Buffy, Who wanted
to look through the door, too.

“Come on, we’ll go up in the haymow,” said
Stub, Who never could stand still a moment.

y“I’11 show you how I can walk across a beam.”

She pulled Honey Bunch up the little shaky
ladder that led to the haymow and Buffy sat
down on the floor to wait for them. He was
too fat to climb ladders, and he knew it.

HONEY BUNCH: 67'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Now you sit down and watch me,” said
Stub. ,

She was a year older than Honey Bunch
and as strong and sturdy as little girls are who
live in the country all the year around and.
play outdoors in every kind of weather. Her
daddy often said that Stub was “built like a
little football,” by which he meant that she
was not easily hurt and that bumps and knocks
did not seem to bother her 0‘; discourage her.

“You watch,” said Stub, scrambling up on
a heavy beam that ran across the haymow.

Honey Bunch sat down on the slippery hay
and watched. She thought that Stub was very
brave to walk across the beam. so high in the
air and she was quite sure that she, Honey
Bunch, would never do such a thing. She
didn’t even want to try.

“It’s just as easy!” called Stub. “Some day
I mean to walk on the beam that is under th
cupolawwhen Michael isn’t around tots;
me.,’ [:5 kg...
Alas for Stub’s pride. She had almost
reached the end of the beam and was thinking

 
 
 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

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68 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

about turning around to walk back when she
stubbed her toe—poor Stub, she would stub
her toe, no matter how careful she was—and,
Josing her balance, down she crashed, fortu«
nately into the hay.

“Are you hurt?” cried Honey Bunch
scrambling over to her. §§tub did you hurt
yourself?”

“N 0, I’m not hurt,” answered Stub, rather
breathlessly. “I did come down kind of hard,
though, didn’t I? Maybe it’s time for us to
go in to supper.”

“Stubi” called some one just at that mo-
ment. “Stub! Stubby!”

“That’s Liny,” said Stub, standing up and
brushing ofi‘ her dress. “She’s calling us to
supper. Come on, Honey Bunch.”

Down the ladder tumbled Stub and Honey
Bunch followed her more carefully. She was
dwondering who “Liny” was, and as they
{walked over the grass to the house, Stub told
her.

“Liny is. the hired girl,” she said. “She
makes thefbest turnovers you ever ate.”

 

HONEY BUNCH: 69
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

That reminded Honey Bunch of the old
:man and old lady, Mr. and Mrs. Popover, and
she told Stub about them. By this time they

had reached the house. They went in, to find
) the grown-ups already seated at the table.
Liny, Who was a short, fat girl, whisked them
into her kitchen and had their faces and hands
washed and their hair brushed almost before
Honey Bunch knew What she was doing.
There was a little room next to the kitchen
Which had been made over into a bathroem, to
save busy folk the trouble of going upstairs to
the large bathroom.

“N OW run along,” said Liny kindly, giving
them a little push When she had finished.
“I’m going to prayer meeting to-night and
I don’t want to be late With the supper
dishes.”

Honey Bunch was so tired from the long
drive and the excitement of the day that she
“hardly knew When Mother took her upstairs
to put her into the big, four-posted bed in the
square room With five Windows Which was to
be her bedroom. She did not know, either,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

70 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

how long she had been asleep When Daddy
woke her up by kissing her.

“Is it morning?” asked Honey Bunch sleep-
iiy. “Do I get up right away?”

“No, dear, not time to get up for you,” re-
piied her daddy, hugging her tightly. “Good-
by, darling. Daddy will come back as soon
as he can.”

“Good—by,” murmured sleepy little Honey
Bunch without knowing what she said.

She turned over on the nice cool pillow and
went fast a.gleep again.

By and by she woke up and found Mother
had been up and dressed for several hours and
Daddy had game away.

“The telegram cailed him to New York,
dear,” Mother explained, sitting down on the
bed by Honey Eunch. “He will go back to
Barham in the car and then on to New York
by train. And he thinks he’ll come and get
us before our six weeks are up.”,

Honey Bunch missed her daddy and she
was sorry he had to go back to the dusty city.
But there was so much to see and do on the

 

HONEY BUNCH: 71
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

farm that she couldn’t be sorry very long.
There was sure to be something interesting g0-
ing on wherever Stub was, and Honey Bunch
thought her cousin was a very wonderful lit-
tle girl.

“She isn’t afraid of anything,” said Honey
Bunch to Michael one morning. “I don’t like
the White cow, but Stub Will pat her right on
the nose.”

“Well, Stub has always lived. on a farm and
she is used to cows,” said Michael kindly. “I
dare say there are plenty of things in the city
that wou‘td surprise her.”

Honey Bunch did not reafiy think. that Stub
WGuld be surprised at anything. A girl Who
couldn’t be surprised by a cow, thought
Honey Bunch, wouldn’t be surprised at~—-at———
well, not even subway trains.

“Come on,” said Stub, rushing out of the

Ikitchen door. “Hurry up, Honey Bunch.
We want to go down to the brook before din-

ner time. The tax assessor is coming to din-
ner and Mother says I must keep this dress
dean, so we can’t go wading.”

 

 

 

 

72 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“It’s too cold, anyway, to go wading yet,”
said Michael, Who was painting a flower box
for Stub’s mother.

“What’s a tax assessor?” asked Honey
Bunch, as the two little girls hurried down to
the brook. é

“He’s a man,” explained Stub. “Daddy
knows him. His name is Mr. Kelly. He al-
ways comes to our house for dinner When he
is in Etmville. ‘Want to race me to the brook,
Honey Bunch?”

Honey Bunch was Willing, and away they
went, pellmell, down the hill, over the road,
and into the tall grass.

“Look out for stones 1” panted Stub, and
just as she said that she tripped and went tum-
bling headlong.

“Oh, my! Your dress!” cried Honey
Bunch, more worried about Stub’s clean frock
than her cousin’s arms or legs. Indeed Stub
seldom hurt herself, but she surely did spoil a
great many dresses.

“It’s all right,” said Stub hastily, sitting up

 

 

 

 

 

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HONEY BUNCH: 73
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

and rubbing her elbows. “I’ve just pulled
some of the gathers out.”

Honey Bunch looked at the dress doubt-
fully. It touched the ground When Stub stood
up because she had pulled the skirt loose from
the waist. There was a great streak of dirt
across the front, too, and Honey Bunch was
sure Aunt Carol would not call it a clean dress
now.

“I don’t see Why I can’t fall backward,”
complained the unlucky Stub. “I always tear
my dresses in front Where they show. But I
guess we can mend this before Mother sees it.
Come on, Honey Bunch, let’s go up to my
room and we’ll sew it up. The dirt Will brush
off with a wet rag. I know it Will.”

They climbed the hill again and went in at
the side door and up the back stairs to Stub’s
room. Without meeting any one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII
LINY’S PICTURE

STUB had a Iittie workbasket of her own,
With needles and thread and a shining pair of
blunt—pointed scissors in it. She did not like
to sew, but her mother said that perhaps if
She had her own basket she might use it in-
seeafii of pulling all the spooks out of the large
mending basket and tang‘xing up the tape
measure With the (Earning cotton.

“Can you mend it Without taking it 0E?”
askefi Honey Bunch, watching Stub as she
threaded a needle With black thread.

Stub’s dress was pink, but she thought black
thread was stronger than any other kind, so
she used that.

“1 can’t sew it, but you can,” said Stub.
“Here, take this and don’t stick it in me.”

Poor Honey Bunch stuck out her tongue as

she always did When she was trying to do her
74

 

HONEY BUNCH: 75
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

best, and took the large needle Stub handed
her. She didn’t know how the dress ought to
be mended, but Stub did.

“You run the needle along and kind of pick
up all the gathers,” she directed. “Then you
sew it fast to the waist.”

Honey Bunch ran the needle in and out, in
and out, and When she had all the gingham
bunched up she took one long stitch to fasten
it to the waist.

“Ow! Ouch!” screamed Stub, dancing up
and down. “Ouchi Oh, you ran that right
into me!”

“I—I didn’t mean to,” said Honey Bunch.
“Did it hurt you very much, Stub?”

“Yes, it did,” answered Stub. “But go on.
I’ll hold my breath in. and maybe you won’t
do it again.”

Though Honey Bunch hurried as fast as she
«3613.36: Stub was quite purple 1n the face from
3W?” :13; her breath before she h1d finished

5:11n’t think it looks very good,” said
1*:y snipping the thread With her scissors.
“E7111: it Will do, I guess. NOW I’ll wash the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

76 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

dirt Off With a wet cloth and then we’ll go
down. Liny must have dinner ’most ready.”

Stub took one of the towels in the bathroom
and Soaked one end of it in warm water.
Then she scrubbed her dress With it. The
more she scrubbed, the darker the streak of
dirt grew.

“You’ll get the Whole dress wet,” said
Honey Bunch. “I don’t believe you can get
it ofl, Stub.” ‘

“I don’t believe I can, either,” sighed Stub.
“Maybe Liny Will lend me an apron. A nice,
clean apron Will be all right, even if the tit:
assessor is coming.”

The two little girls ran downstairs and
peeped out on the front porch. There sat a
stout, red—faced man, talking to Stub’s father.

“That’s Mr. Kelly,” said Stub. “Come on.
Liny’s in the kitchen.” ,

Liny was in the kitchen. She was putting?
pretty green lettuce leaves on a plate and talk—
ing to Michael, Who sat on the back steps With
Buffy. '

“My land!” said Liny, When she saw Stub

HONEY BUNCH AND STUB ENJOY THE SWING.
Honey Bunch : Her First Day: an the Farm.

 

Page 79

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 77
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

and Honey Bunch. “Dinner Will be on the
table in five minutes, and look at you!”

“Will you lend me an apron, Liny?” said
Stub, coaxingly. “This dress isn’t very
clean.”

“Michael,” said Liny, “I ask you to 100" at
these children.”

“W’hat’s the matter With them?” asked
:Michael, standing up to look in through the
screen door.

“Matter?” repeated Liny. “Why, Stub’s
dress is a sight! It’s wet and dirty and sewed
up With black thread in stitches you couid see
a mile away. And her face is black and
Honey Bunch has a streak of dirt across her
nose and I never saw such hands in my life!
And company to dinner, too!”

Honey Bunch was surprised to hear she had
a dirty face. She had been so busy helping
Stub that she had forgotten to wash her own
face and hands.

“Michael, you chop me some ice,” said
Liny, drying her hands on a clean towel. “I
Won’t be a minute.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

78 , HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

And in hardly more than a minute, Liny
had Honey Bunch soaking her hands in the
little bathroom off the kitchen While she hus—
tled Stub into a clean blue dress that had been
ironed that very morning and was lying on top
of the clothes basket ready to be carried up-
stairs. Then Liny brushed Stub’s hair and
washed her face and tied Honey Bunch’s rib—
bon again and dusted off their sandals and
gave them each a clean pocket handerchief
from the basket of clean clothes.

“N OW then go out and sit down in a rock-
ing chair and don’t let me hear a word from
you till dinner is on the table,” said Liny,
hurrying back to her kitchen.

So Honey Bunch and Stub went out and
spoke to Mr. Kelly, and no one would ever
have thought that two such clean, cool, neat
little 'girls could ever have been the least bit
éuntidy.

It was a very good dinner—at Broad Acres
they had dinner in the middle of the day in-
stead of at night, as most people did in Bar-
ham—but neither Honey Bunch nor Stub

HONEY BUNCH: 79
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

could talk very much. Mr. Kelly talked a
great deal and Stub’s daddy talked to him and
her mother did, too, and Honey Bunch’s
Mother. Honey Bunch and Stub talked to
each other a little, and they were glad when
they were excused after the dessert had been
served.

They went out to the swing and stayed there
till they saw Mr. Kelly ride away in his little
red automobile. Then they went around to
see if Liny would play croquet with them.
Stub had been delighted with the croquet’set:
h/Iiehael had set it out, and sometimes he and
Liny would play when they were not: too
busy. '
Both Honey Bunch and Stub liked Michael
and Liny very much. They were always
cheerful and they seemed to have a good time,
though they did a great deal of work. Sun-
day afternoons Michael took Liny driving in
a runabout, Stub told. Honey Bunch that was
the name of the shiny wagon harnessed to the
shiny black horse.

“Michael is saving money to buy an auto~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

80 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

mobile,” said Stub. “But Daddy won’t have
a car; he likes to drive horses.”

This afternoon When Honey Bunch and
I Stub went around to ask Liny to come out and
play croquet, they found her reading a letter.
She was putting away the silver With one hand
and holding the letter in the other and she
laughed When she saw Honey Bunch’s blue
eyes staring at her.

“I ought not to try to do two things at
once,” said Liny, “and I’ll put the rest of the
dishes in place before I read this letter again,
Would you like to see a picture of my broth-
ers, Honey Bunch?”

“Oh, yes!” said Honey Bunch, ant} Stub,
Who had heard of Liny’s brothers, came close
to see the photographs, too.

Honey Bunch looked at the picture Liny
gave her. She saw two young men standing
very straight and very tall. They looked seri—
ous. The taller one had his hand on the
shoulder of the other and they were staring
out of the picture straight into the eyes of
Whoever should be looking at them;

HONEY BUNCH: 8.1
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“The tall one is Walter,” said Liny
proudly. “And the shorter one—though he
is almost siX feet high—is George.”

“Will they come to dinner?” asked Honey
Bunch, Who thought that if a tax assessor
came, any one was likely to come to one of
Liny’s good dinners.

“Oh, ho!” laughed Stub. “They couldn’t
come, could they, Liny? They live in South
America!”

“But Liny lives here,” said Honey Bunch.
“Uncle Peter is Mother’s brother—Mother‘
told me so—and he doesn’t live in South
America. Brothers and sisters live near each
other. Don’t they, Liny?”

“Not always, dearie,” said Liny. “Walter
and George went to South America over two
years ago. I don’t expect them home before
another two years are up. They- are trying to
make money and save it. Then, perhaps”
we’ll have a home together some day.”

Liny stared at the picture a moment, then
put it down on the table. She folded up the
letter and placed that in her apron pocket and

 

 

 

 

82 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

began to carry the clean dishes into the dining
room and to put them away in the china cup-
board.

“Liny, Will you play one game of croquet?”
asked Stub. “Just one before you go upstairs
to rest your bones P”

Liny had a few hours to herself every after-
noon, and s! e had once told Stub that she
“rested her bones” in that interval.

“All right, I Will if you’ll get Michael to
hammer on the head of that orange mallet,”
said Liny. “I can’t abide a maliet that comet:
off When you’re piaying With it. Tell him to ,
hammer it hard.”

Stub ran away to get Michele} to mend the
orange mailet~—orange was Liny’s favorite
color and she always chose it When she played
eroquet—and Honey Bunch wandered into
the living room to look at the sun and; moon.
clock While she waiteti for the game.

The sun and moon clock fascinated Honey
Bunch. It was a very, very old clock and Un—u'
cle Rand said it had belonged to her great
great grandmother. It was short and fat and

HONEY BUNCH: 83
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

dark and it had a sun and moon and little
stars Sprinkled over the square patch 0t glass
above the clock face and sometimes it told
when the moon changed, It didn’t always,
for it was such an old clock it didn’t always
work. Uncle Rand said that clocks grew tired
of working just as people did, and when they
were old they liked plenty of rest.

“Liny!” Honey Bunch heard Stub come
running into the kitchen. “Liny, Michael has
feund the white hen’s nest! It’s up in the
haymow and he says there are seven eggs
there.”

“I’m coming!” answered Liny, and Honey
Bunch heard the screen door slam as she ran
after Stub.

Honey Bunch ran out into the kitchen, in-
tending to follow Liny and see the white hen’s
nest, too; but as soon as she went into the
kitchen she saw the photograph of Liny’s
brotherslying 0n the floor. Liny had brushed
it off with her apron as she ran out of the door.

“Where’ll I put it?” said Honey Bunch to
herself, picking it up. “Liny won’t want to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

84 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

lose it. I know! I’ll put it on top of the sun
and moon clock.”

Into the living room she trotted and
dragged a chair over to the mantel. She had.
to stand on her tiptoes to reach the Clock, but
she did manage to put the picture on the top.
Then she climbed down and raced out to the
barn Where she found Michael and Liny and
Stub and one indignant White hen very much
put out because her nest had been found and
her seven round eggs she had thought to keep
a secret.

By the time Michael had shut up the hen
in the hen-house and Liny had put away the
eggs in her egg basket and one game of cro-
quet to satisfy Stub had been played, it was
time for Liny to think about putting on a
clean dress and getting supper.

“I’ll go down and pick up enough green
apples for apple sauce first,” she decided.
“Do you two want to come along?”

Stub and Honey Bunch did want to go, and
they helped Liny gather the apples and then
followed her back to the house. Just as Liny

 

HONEY BUNCH: 85
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

was going upstairs, she remembered her
photograph.

“What did I do With Walter and George’s
picture?” she said. “Don’t tell me I left it in
my apron pocket, for if I did, it’s dropped
out.”

“It was on the floor,’ cried Honey Bunch
eagerly. “I found it and I put it on top of the
sun and moon clock for you.”

Liny hurried into the living room.

“Your mother must have taken it Off,” she
said, glancing at the mantel. “It isn’t there.”

But neither Honey Bunch’s mother nor
Stub’s mother had seen the picture. When
Liny asked them, they said they had not
touched it. They did not know Liny had re—
ceived a photograph from South America.

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VIII
IN THE ORCHARD

“BUT, Mother,” said Honey Bunch eat"—
nestly, “I put it right on top of the sun and
moon clock.”

“Then it must have dropped down behind
it,” said Mrs. Morton, and she and Aunt
Carol moved the clock and everything on the
mantel shelf, but there was no picture any-
where to be found. '

“I’m just as sorry as I can be, Liny,’ said
Aunt Carol. “Can’t you get another one?”

“It’s the only one they had taken,” sighed
poor Liny. “Well, it’s my own fault for not
taking better care of it. Don’t you cry, Honey
Bunch; you couldn’t help it. Maybe it Will
turn up again, anyway.”

But although Liny cleaned the living room
the next day and swept and shook and beat

every rug and curtain and pillow and dusted
86

7

HONEY BUNCH: ‘ 87
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

every vase and bit of woodwork and every
ornament on the shelf, she did not find the pic-
ture. t seemed to have disappeared “like
magic,” Liny said.

“I stood on a chair and I put it on the
clock,” said Honey Bunch over and over. “I
found the picture on the floor and I meant to
save it. I don’t see Where it went.”

For as long as a week, Honey Bunch and
Liny and Stub hunted for the picture and then
they gave it up and said it must be lost. There
were so many interesting things to do on the
farm that even Honey Bunch couldn’t be eX-
pected to stay in the houseand hunt for a miss-
ing photograph, though she was a persevering
littleigiti and did not like to give up.

“‘Whete are you going, Michael?” asked
Honey Bunch, one sunny morning.

She was sitting on the front porch waiting
for Stub, and I‘v/{ichael had come Whistling
around the corner of the house. He carried a
roll of wire over his shoulder and had some
tools in his hand.

“Going to mend the orchard fence,” an-

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88 HONEY BUNCH:
' HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

swered he, smiling. “The apples are begin-
ning to get ripe and your uncle thinks some of
the neighbors’ young pigs have been in root—
ing for them.”

“But why don’t the pigs stay at home?”
asked Honey Bunch. “They mustn’t come
over here and eat Uncle Rand’s apples.”

“Well, somebody doesn’t mend his fences,”
explained Michael. “But that isn’t my fault.
I aim to make ours tight, and then we wan’t
have to worry.”

“We’re coming, Michael,” said Stub,
bouncing out of the door" and almost falling
over Honey Bunch. “Where are you going?”

That was just like Stub. She always made
up her mind to go before she found out where
she was going.

“All right, come along if you want to,” said
Michael. “I like company.”

Honey Bunch loved to go to the orchard.
She liked the grass and the smell of honey-
suckle Which grew along the fence. She liked
the trees Which were so low and easy to climb
that a little girl could scramble up into them

HONEY BUNCH: 89
HEB. FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

without a bit of trouble. Oh, the orchard was
the nicest place to play, no doubt of that!

This morning they found apples lying on
the ground. There had been a shower in the
night and the Wind had knocked a good many
off.

“Now look here,” said Michael, putting
down his Wire. “You are not to eat a dozen
apples and make yourselves sick. They’re
hardly ripe enough to be good, you know.”

“But here’s a ripe sweet apple, Michael,”
urged Stub. “Look, it’s just as soft! And
here’s another for Honey Bunch!”

“You’ll probably find a bad spot in it some-
where,” said Michael. “Eat one, then, just
one! Will you promise, Stub? And look out
for Honey Bunch?”

“Yes, of course,” replied Stub, biting into
her apple With her sharp little White teeth.
“I guess I know about green apples9
Michael.”

“Perhaps you do,” said Michael. “I re-
member the last time you were sick. Now
I’m going to work. Why don’t you pick up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

90 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the green apples and put them in a pile for
Liny? She’ll give us hot apple sauce and bis-
cuits for supper then, perhaps.” !

HoneyBunch and Stub thought this was a
very good plan. They began to hunt under
the trees for fallen apples, and each one they
found they carried back to a tree near
the piece of fence that Michael was mend—
ing. *

“What do green apples do to you, Stub?”
asked Honey Bunch.

“They double you up,” answered Stub.

“Did you ever eat any?” asked Honey
Bunch, looking at a green apple she had found
as though it might bite her and double her up
on the spot.

“Twice,” answered Stub. “Once when I
was little and didn’t know green apples woulci
make you sick, and last year When I thought
the apples were ripe and they weren’t.”

“Yes, and who told you they were not ripe
and you wouldn’t take his word for it?” said,
Michael, who had overheard her.

“You did,” admitted Stub. “But I’m much

HONEY BUNCH: 91
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

older now and I know a lot more. Green
apples make you so sick, Honey Bunch.”

Honey Bunch finished her nice sweet apple
and said she wouldn’t eat a green apple, not
for anything!

“There! we’ve picked all the apples there
are,” said Stub suddenly. “Let’s climb a tree
and play ship.”

'Stub loved to play ship. She had taught
Honey Bunch the game, too. They each
Climbed into a tree and sat as far out on a limb
as they could climb and then they bounced
softly up and down. That, Stub said, was the
ship rocking at sea.

“I wonder if Julie goes sailing in real
boats,” said Honey Bunch, as she made her
apple tree ship rock up and down.

Julie, you know was her cousin—and also
Stub’s cousin—Who lived at the seashore.

“Of course she does,” replied Stub, though
she really didn’t know whether Julie went
sailing or not. “I Wish I lived at the sea‘
shore.”

Bang! Bang! went Michael’s hammer, as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

92 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

he pounded nails into the post to hold the
Wire.

“Michael!” called Stub. “Oh, Michael,
wouldn’t you like to live at the seashore P”

“Certainly not,” replied Michael, taking
the nails out of his mouth so that he could
speak more plainly. “I like to live in the
country. That’s Why I do. Stub, Where’s
Buffy?”

“‘Why—why, he’s shut up in the wagon
house,” said Stub. “I forgot to let him out.
Are you going to, Michael?”

“I’m going up after more nails, but if you
want Bufi‘y out, you’ll have to go and do it,”
said Michael. “That’s the second time
you’ve forgotten him. I am not going to the
wagon house, only to the tool box.”

“You wait for me, Honey Bunch,” said
Stub, climbing down from her tree and start-
ing to run.

Stub knew that Michael was not to be
coaxed or teased. She always shut Buffy in
the wagon house to keep him from barking at
the mail carrier, and she was supposed to let

HONEY BUNCH: 93
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the dog out the moment the mail had passed.
Alas, Stub sometimes forgot him and he
would be shut up in the stuffy wagon house
till some one went there and found him.
Michael knew that the best way to help Stub
remember her pet was to let her go and open
the door for him. If Michael did it for her,
Stub might never learn to be thoughtful.

So Michael went to get more nails and Stub
ran to let out Buffy and Honey Bunch was
left alone in the sunny orchard.

As she swung up and down on her branch,
she saw something moving near the fence
where Michael had been working.

“Are you a little pig?” called Honey Bunch
softly, leaning down and trying to see under
the honeysuckle vine.

Two red, dirty and indignant small faces
peered out at her.

“Don’t you dare call us names!” said a voice
that sounded very much like a small boy’s
voice. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!”

“I didn’t know you were there,” said Honey
Bunch. “Excuse me. Michael said little pigs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

94 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

came through the fence and that’s Why I
thought you were one. The pigs ate our
apples before the fence was mended.”

“We were hunting for the hole,” said the
boy Who had spoken. “Do you live here?”

“I’m Honey Bunch,” answered the little
girl. “I’m visiting Stub. She’s my cousin.
This is Uncle Rand’s farm, you know.”

“I’m Guy and he’s Ted,” the boy replied,
beginning to climb over the fence. “We’re
boarding at Mr. Phillips’. But he won’t let
us in his orchard.”

“Gee, the apples are ripe, aren’t they?” said
the other boy, Ted, running over to the tree
Where Honey Bunch and Stub had piled the
apples for Liny to make into apple sauce.

“N o, they’re not!” cried Honey Bunch,
slipping down from the tree. “They’re
green! Michael said so. If you eat them,
they’ll double you up.”

“N othing can double me up,” boasted Guy.
“Anyway, these apples are ripe. I can
squeeze them.”

“Michael said they’d make us siclg” argued

HONEY BUNCH: 95
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Honey Bunch. “I guess he knows. Stub ate
one sweet apple and so did I, but that’s all
that were under the sweet apple tree.”

“Then, if these aren’t ripe, What are you
saving ’em for?” asked Ted, picking one of
the apples up and starting to eat it.

Honey Bunch stared at him. She expected
him to double up before her eyes.

“They’re for apple sauce for supper,
said.

“Well, if apples in apple sauce don’t make.
you sick, they won’t raw,” declared Guy.
“Come on, Ted, fill your pockets.”

“They’re Uncle Rand’s apples!” exclaimed
Honey Bunch. “And they Will, too, make
you sick. See if they don’t.”

But the two boys stuffed their pockets With
the apples and filled their caps and then
climbed the fence and ran away before
Michael and Stub and Buffy came back to-
gether to the orchard. u

“There were two boys here and they took.
a lot of apples,” said Honey Bunch. “I think
it’s just like stealing. And won’t apples raw

” she

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

96 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

make you sick When apple sauce won’t,
Michael?”

“Sure,” said Michael. “Might as well say
that if a raw potato isn’t good for you, a baked
one isn’t, either. Cooking makes all the dif-
ference in the world. I’m sorry those kids
got away With the green stuff, though it
wasn’t stealing, Honey Bunch. Apples that
lie on the ground, in the country, are free
for the asking, and most times Without~to
boya”

That night Aunt Carol was called to the
telephone from the supper table. When she
came back she smiled at Honey Bunch. She
had heard all about the morning in the
orchard.

“Mrs. Phillips just telephoned me,” said
Aunt Carol, “that those two little boys Who
,are spending the summer With her have been
dreadfully sick all the afternoon. They had
to «send for the doctor, because their mother
was so frightened about them. She says she
doesn’t think they Will take green apples from
our orchard again. Mr. Phillips tried to keep

HONEY BUNCH: 97
HEB. FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

them away from his orchard till the fruit
should be ripe enough to eat.”

“Aunt Carol,” asked Honey Bunch ear-
nestly, “did they double up?”

“I didn’t ask Mrs. Phillips, but I shouldn’t y
be surprised if they did,” replied Aunt Carol,
While Uncle Rand leaned back in his chair
and laughed till the tears came into his eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

)

CHAPTER IX
BRAVE STUB

EVERY time Honey Bunch went into the 1iv~
ing room she looked up at the sun and moon
clock. She thought she might see the photo-
graph of W alter and George, Liny’s brothers,
but she never did.

“I don’t see how a picture could get lost,”
said Honey Bunch thoughtfully.

She was standing by the Window, waiting
for Stub. She often had to wait for Stub, Who
was constantly getting into accidents and need—
ing clean frocks and dry shoes. This time
Stub had caught her dress on a nail and her
mother had sent her upstairs to put on another.

Uncle Rand sat at the flat-topped desk in
the living room, writing. Honey Bunch
wondered if he were busy.

“What are you thinking about, chicken?”
98

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HONEY BUNCH: 99
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

he asked her, putting down his pen and seal-
ing an envelope With a splotch of red sealing
wax.

“About Mrs. Miller,” answered Honey?
Bunch. “She washes our clothes, you know.
I told the poetry to her.”

“What poetry?” Uncle Rand asked, hunt-
ing in his little brass box Where he kept post-
age stamps.

“The poetry you made up for Stub to say
When she stubs her toe,” replied Honey
Bunch. “Could you make up some for Mrs.
Miller, Uncle Rand? I told her perhaps you
could.”

“Well, now, I don’t know What kind of
poetry Mrs. Miller likes or needs,” said Uncle
Rand slowly. “It is very important, you
know, Honey Bunch, to know that.”

“I know!” cried Honey Bunch eagerly. “I
know just the kind. She needs some to say
When she burns her thumb! She burns her
thumb as much as Stub falls down! She said
so, Uncle Rand.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“All right, Mrs. Miller shall have a verse,”
declared Uncle Rand. “Let me think a
moment.”

He leaned back in his chair and ”Honey
Bunch sat as still as a little mouse. She won-
dered what the poetry would be like.

“Aha, I have it!” said Uncle Rand, sitting
up straight and smiling. “How Will this do,
Honey Bunch?”

And looking at Honey Bunch With twink-
ling eyes, Uncle Rand said this:

 

 

 

 

“I do not mind my thumb at all,
I might have burned my pointer tall.”

“Will Mrs. Miller like that?” asked“ Honey
Bunch.

“Oh, my, yes,” replied Uncle Rand. “She’il
be so glad to be reminded that she didn’t burn
her pointer finger that she’ll forget her thumb.
The pointer finger, you know, Honey Bunch,
is a very important finger. You can’t point
out things to people if you burn that finger.”

“Mother won’t let me point, anyway,” an-
swered Honey Bunch. “But maybe Mrs.

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HONEY BUNCH: 101
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Miller’s mother doesn’t mind. Anyway, I’ll
tell Mother and she Will write it down for me
to send to Mrs. Miller. It makes me feel nice
to say it, Uncle Rand.”

Uncle Rand’s eyes were twinkling more
than ever and Honey Bunch wondered if he
could be laughing at her. She didn’t mind,
because When Uncle Rand laughed you al-
ways felt like laughing, too.

“Here is Stub at last,” said Uncle. Rand, as
that small girl, in a spandy clean dress came
running in. “I’ll write down the rhyme for
you, Honey Bunch, so run away and don’t
Fbother your head over burned thumbs.
Where are you going?”

“Down to the pasture,” called Stub, as she
took Honey Bunch’s hand and pulled her

after her.
Honey Bunch told her cousin about Mrs.
Miller as they ran and the verse Uncle Rand
had made up for her, and Stub, who was used
to her daddy’s rhymes, shouted: (

“I do not mind my thumb at all, I might
have burned my pointer tall,” all the way to

 

 

 

 

 

102 'HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the pasture. The cows looked surprised at
her, but Stub didn’t care.

“Won’t they bite?” asked Honey Bunch,
when they reached the pasture gate.

There were eight or nine cows standing in
the pasture, enjoying the soft grass and gently
switching their tails as they ate. Honey
Bunch did not feel that she was exactly ae-
quainted with so many cows.

“No, of course they won’t bite,” answered
Stub. “Come on, we can wiggle through the
gate. It’s too heavy to lift down.”

Honey Bunch watched Stub crawl through
the bars and then she followed her.

“Why do they keep looking at us?” she
asked Stub, as the cows stopped eating and.
stared at the two little girls.

“Oh, I suppose they want to see who we
are,” answered Stub. “Let’s go down by the
brook. Aunt Edith likes wild flowers so
much. Perhaps we can find some for her.”

Honey Bunch knew that her mother loved
Wild flowers dearly and she was eager to pick
a bouquet for her. Still, she couldn’t help

 

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 103
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

wishing that the cows would go on eating
grass and not look at them.

“Don’t you fall into the water,” said Stub.
“I’m going down to the edge to look for flow-
ers, but you’d better be careful.”

Stub felt that she ought to take great care of
Honey Bunch, not only because she was her
visitor, but because she was a whole year
younger.

Honey Bunch did; not want to fall into the
water, so she let Stub go ahead and the next
time she looked up, there stood a cow directly
in her path.

“It looked as big as—as big as—a moun-
tain 1” Honey Bunch told Liny that afternoon.

Of course the cow was no larger than any
ordinary cow, but when you are only five years
old an ordinary cow looks pretty tall if it is
Close beside you.

“Stub!” screamed Honey Bunch. “Stub,
come get the cow!”

Honey Bunch was sure her cousin would
not be afraid of a cow. Stub, she knew, was a
brave little girl. Sure enough, she scrambled

 

 

 

 

 

 

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‘ HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

up the bank and dashed toward the cow the
moment she heard Honey Bunch call.

“Go away, Daisy!” cried Stub. “Aren’t
you ashamed of yourself?”

But Daisy stood quietly and Stub explained
that she wanted to be petted.

“Mother and Liny always pet her,” eX-
plained Stub. “Daisy gives more milk than
any other COW we have. Scratch her nose,
Honey Bunch, and tell her she is nice, and
then she will walk away.”

Honey Bunch put out her little hand and
scratched Daisy’s nose, and Stub did, too.

“You are a very nice cow,” said Honey
Bunch politely. “I like the rich milk you
give me to drink. Please, Will you go away
now?”

And after Stub had patted her and told her
she was a nice cow, Daisy did turn and walk
away.

“My, Stub, how brave you are said
Honey Bunch, trotting along beside her
cousin. “You’re not afraid of anything, are
you?”

1”

HONEY BUNCH: 105
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Well, no, hardly anything,” answered
Stub. “Of course, Honey Bunch, I live in
[the country and I’m used to cows. But I
don’t believe anything can really scare me.”

And just as she said that, Stub shouted
“Owl” and jumped up into the air so high that
Honey Bunch was frightened nearly out of
her Wits.

“Stub!” she cried. “Oh, Stub, what is it?
Did you step on a pin?”

“I saw a snake!” gasped Stub. “A horrid
snake! Right over there in the grass! Come
on, let’s go home.”

“But we haven’t got the flowers for
Mother,” said Honey Bunch. “And there are
lots of them down there by the water—blue
ones. Snakes won’t bite, will they, Stub?”

Now Stub was really a sensible little girl.
She knew why she was afraid, and that is more
than some grown-up people can explain.

“No, none of the snakes we have around
here bite,” she said to Honey Bunch. “Daddy
and Michael both know and they say there
are none but harmless water snakes about. I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

106 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM.

jump When I see even a tiny snake, because I
don’t like them; they make me shiver, Honey
Bunch.”

“Well, if they don’t bite, I don’t care,” an»
swered Honey Bunch. “Snakes won’t make
me shiver, and I want some blue flowers for
Mother. Where was that snake you saw,
Stub? I’ll chase it and then you can come
and pick flowers, too.”

Stub looked at Honey Bunch in surprise.
Here was a girl who was afraid of cows ami
who was not afraid of snakes. Stub liked
cows and she did. not like snakes.

“It was right over there,” she said, pointing
to a patch of long grass. “I saw it, just as
plain. But don’t go near it, Honey Bunch.
We can walk the other way.”

“I’ll chase it,” said Honey Bunch. “I
would like to see a snake run.”

She tiptoed over to the patch of grass and
looked around carefully.

“Oh, ho, you funny Stub!” she called.
“Look!” And she. stooped down and picked
up something long and dark that dangled.

 

 

 

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HONEY BUNCH: 109:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“It’s only rope!” cried Honey Bunch.
“Just an old piece of rope! It never was a
snake.”

Well, of course, it never was a snake. Even
Stub could see that, though she had been so
sure. She laughed good-naturedly and then
she and Honey Bunch picked the little blue
flowers—they were violets—till they each had
a nice, large bunch to take home.

“Something splashed me,” said Honey
Bunch, tying her bunch with a grass stern, as
Stub showed her.

“It’s raining,” declared Stub. “We’ll have
to run if we don’t want to get wet. It hasn’t
rained since you’ve been here, has it, Honey
Bunch?”

Liny said the same thing and so did
Michael. Honey Bunch and Stub found
them both on the back porch. Liny was peel—
éing potatoes for dinner and Michael was stor-
ing little new plants under the porch out of
the wet. He said that he would set them out
in the garden after supper that night.

“I think the rain has been holding off till

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

108 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

you had a chance to see the farm, Honey
Bunch,” said Liny. “And now it has to make
up for the delay.”

“I would rather,” said Honey Bunch, “not
have it rain. I like to play outdoors With
Stub.”

“My garden needs rain,” Michael told her,
smilingly. “All the thirsty vegetables Will get
a cool drink.”

“And we can play in the barn, Honey
Bunch,” said Stub. “I’ll show you how to
slide down the hay. You need to practice
that.”

It was raining hard by dinner time, and
after dinner Aunt Carol brought out two old
water-proof capes and gave them to Honey
Bunch and Stub.

“N ow run between the drops and have a
grand time in the barn,” she said, kissing each
little girl.

“That’s What Mr. Popover said—to run be-
tween the drops,” called Honey Bunch, as she
and Stub raced out to the big, dry barn.

Stub had heard all about Mr. and Mrs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 109
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Popover and she thought they must be very
nice indeed.

“Let’s do something exciting,” suggested
Stub, When they had climbed into the hay-
mow. “Oh, there’s Buffy—he followed us
out. We can bring him up here and play with
him.”

Buffy wasn’t a very young dog and he was
fat. He didn’t know how to climb a ladder
and he didn’t care much about learning. But
Stub was determined to get him into the hay-
mow, and she pushed him and Honey Bunch
pulled him, and, with much work and tug-
ging, they finally managed to haul the poor
dog up the ladder into the mow.

“N OW we can play,” said Stub, trying not to
see Where she had stepped on her dress and
pulled a big piece out of the hem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER X
ONE RAINY AFTERNOON

BUFFY didn’t like it up in the haymow at
all. He didn’t feel comfortable, for one
thing, and for another, he was too warm. He
wore a shaggy fur coat, you see, While Honey
Bunch and Stub wore gingham dresses. And
besides, Buffy knew that the haymow was no
place for a dog.

“We’ll play he is a bear,” said Stub. “Let’s
bury Buffy in the hay and then go hunting for
him.”

They heaped the hay up over the poor dog
and then went burrowing like two small rab-
hits through the sweet, dried grass, hunting
the “bear.” When they found Buffy they
pounced on him and told him he was cap-

tured.

“I think Buffy is tired,” said Honey Bunch
110

HONEY BUNCH: 111
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

at last. “I’m tired, too. Can’t we sit down
a minute?”

“Of course,” answered Stub. “We can slide;
down the hay and that will rest you.”

Stub never wanted to sit down and rest her-
self. Her daddy said that the only time she
was quiet was when she was asleep.

“I’ll fix the hay—you wait,” she said.

So while Honey Bunch and Eufify sat down,
Stub built a long hay slide on one side of the
mow, pulling out the hay in one place and
piling it up in another, “like a waterfall,” she
explained.

“Come on and slide!” she called to Honey
Bunch, when it was ready.

Honey Bunch thought sliding down the hay
was the most fun she had ever had.

“Look out———here I go!” shouted Honey‘
Bunch, her cheeks as red as fire.

Down she shot. Bump! she landed on the
smooth spot where Stub had pulled away the
hay.

“Ouch!” cried Honey Bunch, as all the rest
of the hay slid down on top of her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

112 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

There was hay in her eyes and hay in her
hair and hay sticking right into her hands and
arm’s—Honey Bunch could feel it. There
was a good deal of dust flying about, too, and
When Stub pulled her out, Honey Bunch was
sneezing and coughing.

“Honey Bunch!” they heard Stub’s daddy
calling. “Stub! Children, Where are you?”

“We’ll go down,” said Stub. “You won’t
sneeze outdoors. Here—I’ll help you down
the ladder.”

Honey Bunch and Stub went carefully
down the ladder and neither one saw the
shaggy head and two brown eyes that peered
at them over the edge of the mow. They didn’t
even hear Buffy When he Whined.

“It’s stopped raining!” said Honey Bunch,
in great surprise.

They found Uncle Rand and Michael
standing in the barn doorway. Michael was
holding one of the farm horses, “Thomas
Foete,” by the bridle. When Honey Bunch
first heard that this was the horse’s name, she
thought Stub must be teasing her.

HONEY BUNCH: 113
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“That’s his name, it really is,” insisted Stub.
“Michael named him, and we all call him
T . F. Michael named him so he could write
down in the blacksmith’s book ‘shoes for T.
Foote.’ Michael said lots of people sign their
names that way and he didn’t see why a horse
shouldn’t have a sensible name like a man.”

Honey Bunch called the horse T. Foote
after that, and Michael said it showed what
good sense she had.

“Well, what have you been doing?” asked.
Uncle Rand, as soon as he saw the two little
girls. “Why, you look as though you might
have been sleeping in the haymew for a
week.”

“We were playing,” said Honey Bunch.

“The slide fell down on her,” explained
Stub. “There’s a little hay left in her hair
yet.”

“A little?” repeated Uncle Rand, his eyes
twinkling. “Why, Stub, I was wondering if
there was any hay left in the mow. How can
I take the pictures of two such odd looking
people?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

114 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Stub clapped her hands and danced about.

“Michael went to town and brought back
films!” she cried. “You did, didn’t you,
Michael? And now Daddy can take our
pictures.”

But Uncle Rand said that he couldn’t take
their pictures While they looked as they did.
They must brush their hair and shake the hay
seed out. He helped them, and in a few min-
utes both Honey Bunch and Stub looked
much better.

“The sun Will be out stronger, if we wait a
few minutes,” said Uncle Rand. “VVe’ll give
Honey Bunch a little ride on T. Foote first.”

“He’s pretty far from the ground,” Honey
Bunch said, looking up at the gray horse Who
was pretty tall.

“All the better for you,” declared Michael
cheerfully. “You’ll be so far above the mud
you can’t be splashed. Shall I lift you up?”

Honey Bunch nodded. She held. her breath
While Michael lifted her up and put her on
the blanket folded over T. Foote’s broad back.
When he felt her there, the horse turned

’ ‘55 E‘U‘u’urs” ‘ ,

HONEY BUNCH: 115
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

around and looked to see Who was riding him.

“You look ahead, T. Foote,” said Honey
Bunch sternly. “My daddy says to watch the
road When you’re going anywhere.”

Michael laughed and took the bridle, while
Uncle Rand walked beside Honey Bunch and
held her on With one hand. Stub danced
ahead to open the barnyard gate, for Michael
said it was drier in the orchard than in the
yard.

“He———he rocks,” gasped Honey Bunch,
holding on to the thick gray mane With both
hands. “But he is a very nice horse,” she
added quickly.

T. Foote lifted his feet very carefully and
put them down softly. Honey Bunch thought
he didn’t want to splash her With mud, and _
that may have been the reason. Horses are j ,
very Wise, you know, and they can understand ‘ :
our kind of talk much better than we under-
stand theirs.

There was a wide path, almost as Wide as a
road, around the orchard, Where no trees were
planted. It was around this path that Michael

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

116 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

led T. Foote With Honey Bunch on his back.
Just as they reached the first pear tree, the sun
came out from behind the clouds, hot and
clear.

“Take her picture!” begged Stub. “Take
it now, Daddy!”

“All right, I Will,” said Uncle Rand.
“Michael, you come around on this side and
hold her steady. You won’t show behind the
horse. Look at the camera, Honey Bunch,
please.”

Honey Bunch sat up straight and held the
lines as she had seen her uncle and Michael
‘ drive. She smiled right into the small black
box Uncle Rand carried, and When it
went click! she knew her picture had been
taken.

“N OW take Stub, too,” said Honey Bunch.
“I want to show Ida Camp Stub’s picture.”

Michael lifted Stub up on the horse, too,
and Uncle Rand took another picture. He
promised Honey Bunch she should have six to
send to her friends in Barham.

“I’ll send one to Mrs. Miller,” decided

93‘;— ,21'114.» t “M... ,,,_

HONEY BUNCH: 117
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Honey Bunch. “She never saw me riding on
a tall horse.”

As Uncle Rand turned the key again,
Honey Bunch remembered Liny and the lost
picture.

“If Liny’s brothers were here, you could
take their pictures, Uncle Rand,” she said.
“Walter and George, you know, who fell off
the sun and moon clock.”

“You always say that,” laughed Stub.
“How could they fall off the sun and moon
clock?”

“I don’t know, but they did,” declared
Honey Bunch. “I know I put the picture on
top of the dock. And Uncle Rand would
take more pictures of them for Liny, wouldn’t
you, Uncle Rand?”

“If Walter and George were here, I cer-
tainly should,” said Uncle Rand. “But,
sweetheart, if they were here, Liny wouldn’t
be so anxious for a picture. It is because that
one was all she had and they are so many
thousands of miles away from her that she.
feels so bad.”

 

 

 

' Ln

 

 

 

 

 

118 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Every one at Broad Acres felt sorry for
Liny. She thought so much of her brothers’
photograph and it did seem odd that it could
be lost.

“Pictures don’t walk out of houses—at least
I never knew them to before,” Liny had said.

“Climb into the tree and I’ll take a photo-
graph of you there, Honey Bunch,” said her
uncle. “Don’t worry your little head over
Liny’s picture. If it is lost, it is lost and we
can’t bring it back to her.”

Uncle Rand took a picture of Honey Bunch
in the apple tree and a picture of Stub stand-
ing on the fence, then he took a picture of
them both holding out an apple for T. Foote
to eat. Honey Bunch didn’t hold the apple
very near his mouth, but Stub knew how to
hold her hand out flat and T. Foote ate her
apple up so fast Honey Bunch was sure there
wouldn’t be any of it left to show in the
picture.

“N OW I’m going to drive over to Elmville,”
said Uncle Rand, When he had used up his
roll of films. “I’ll take you both, if you will

HONEY BUNCH: 119'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

run up to the house and ask the two mothers.
Come, Michael, you help me harness up.”

Stub’s mother and Honey Bunch’s mother
were quite Willing that their little girls should
go to town with Uncle Rand. Michael har—
nessed T. Foote to the buggy and in a few
minutes they were off.

Honey Bunch loved to drive to town.
Sometimes she drove and sometimes Stub
held the reins, but When they saw an automo-
bile coming, Uncle Rand always drove. T.
Foote wasn’t exactly afraid of automobiles,
but he liked horses better. At least that is
What Stub said.

“Stub,” said her daddy as they drove into
town, “do you know Where they sell ice-cream
cones here?”

Of course Stub knew, and she and Honey
Bunch went into a store and bought two
chocolate ice-cream cones While Uncle Rand
went to the post—office and left the pictures he
had just taken at the drug store to be devel-
oped and printed. He had several other er-
rands to do, and When they reached home

 

 

 

 

 

 

120 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

again it was nearly supper time. Honey
Bunch and Stub planned to play a game of
croquet after supper, if they could do it be-
fore it should be half—past seven and time for
bed.

They hurried out to the side lawn as soon
as they had finished their meal, and they were
choosing their mallets when Michael came up
to them.

“Come out to the barn a moment,” he said.
“I want to show you something.”

“We want to play a game before we have
to go to bed,” Stub told him. “Is it something
nice, Michael?”

“It is something important,” replied
Michael, and that made both children curi-
ous. They could not guess what Michael
wanted to show them in the barn.

He led them through the big door on to the
main floor of the barn. It was still light out—
side, but almost as dark as night in the dim,
shadowy space. Michael walked over to the
haymow and Honey Bunch and Stub followed
him.

HONEY BUNCH: 121
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Oh, my!” gasped Stub, remembering
something. “We left Buffy up there.”

Buffy leaned over the mow and looked at‘
his little mistress reproachfully. He whined.

“HOW could you forget me?” he seemed to
be saying.

“He hasn’t had a drink of water all the
afternoon,” said Michael. “He has not had
a bite of supper. I happened to hear him
When I came in to close the Window in the
harness room, or he might have been forgotten
all night.”

“I’m awfully sorry, Michael,” said Stub.
“It’s all my fault. I didn’t mean to forget
Buffy—you know I didn’t. He was playing
with us When Daddy called us to have our pic—
tures taken.”

“Well, I’d hate to he Buffy, that’s all,” was
Michael’s reply, as he climbed up the ladder
to bring poor Buffy down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI
HELPING LINY

HONEY BUNCH and Stub were very glad
When Michael had helped Buffy down the
ladder, and they took the dog into Liny’s
kitchen and fed him his favorite supper of
bread and gravy With a beef bone for dessert.
After that Stub, at least, was more thoughtful
of her pet and tried not to leave him in places
Where he couldn’t be comfortable.

“Honey Bunch,” said Stub, one day not
long after the pictures were taken—and by the
way, every picture Uncle Rand took came out
well and Honey Bunch sent three to her
daddy and two to Ida Camp and one to Mrs.
Miller~—“Honey Bunch,” said Stub, “I have«
.to take this pattern over to Mrs. Phillips for
mother. Don’t you want to come?”

Of course Honey Bunch wanted to go With

her cousin, and as soon as Stub’s mother had
122

HONEY BUNCH: 123
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

put the pattern into a White envelope and
fastened it so Stub couldn’t lose it, they
started. Mrs. Phillips lived next door to
Broad Acres. But next door, in the country,
may be rather far away, as Honey Bunch
found out.

“Let’s go down along the potato field,” sug-
gested Stub. “Michael is dusting the plants.
Perhaps he’ll Whittle us a boat.”

Michael had promised to make them each a
boat “some day,” and Stub was always I‘C':
minding him.

“Michael is very neat, isn’t he?” said Honey
Bunch, trudging along beside Stub and trying
not to step on the ants that would crawl in the
dirt and never look to see Who might be
ceming.

“Yes, of course he is,” replied Stub. “Liny
says he is the neatest hired man we ever had.
She likes him. She makes the kind of dessert
he likes too, and she says he never forgets to
wipe his feet on rainy days before he comes
into the kitchen.”

“Does he use an oiled cloth?” asked Honey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

124 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Bunch, crawling under a fence after Stub,
Who was making a short cut across the pas-
ture. Stub never followed a road or a path if
she could help it.

“Michael use an oiled cloth, you mean?”
said Stub, puzzled. “What for?”

“My mother says a feather duster isn’t any
good,” answered Honey Bunch. “She never
lets Mrs. Miller use one. She says it scatters
the dust all over a room.”

Stub stared at her little cousin.

“I don’t know What you’re talking about,”
she said. “Who said anything about feather
dusters?”

“There’s Michael waving to us now,”
Honey Bunch replied. “Nobody said any-
thing about feather dusters, but you said
Michael was dusting the plants and I just
wondered how he did it.”

Stub’s eyes crinkled 'with laughter. She
shouted so loudly that Michael heard her.

“Oh, Honey Bunch!” laughed Stub. “I
think you are the funniest girl I ever knew!
Wait till I tell Michael!”

--.t,_\ . A
‘- E&‘K‘Lu» ,. . w”

HONEY BUNCH: 125
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

And though Honey Bunch begged her to
wait and asked her not to tell Michael, Stub
began t0 run. She could run faster than
Honey Bunch and she reached Michael first.‘

“Oh, Michael!” shouted Stub. “Listen to
What Honey Bunch said! She said—she said
” and then Stub was so out of breath from
running and laughing that she couldn’t say
another word!

“Here, here, What’s all the excitement
abeut?” asked I‘Jliehael, as Honey Bunch
came running after Stub. “Your faces are as
red as peonies. Take your time, children. I
have all the morning, ahd so have you.”

“Honey Bunch is so funny!” said Stub.

“I am not!” cried Honey Bunch. “I didn’t
know—that’s all.”

Michael stooped down and lifted Honey
Bunch up and sat her on one of the fence
pests. Michael wore his overalls and they
and the canvas gloves that covered his hands
were white With powder.

“Honey Bunch, is Stub teasing you?” he
asked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

126 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“I told her you were dusting the potato
plants, and she asked me if you used an oiled
cloth or a feather duster, Michael 1” squealed
Stub. “She thought you went around and
dusted every plant the way Liny does the
chairs and the tables. I never knew such a
funny girl!”

Michael looked at Honey Bunch. She felt
the least bit like crying, and, in fact, she had
tears in her blue eyes. No one likes to be
made fun of, and Stub was making fun of her,
Honey Bunch was sure.

But Michael looked at her,_ and his eyes
were so smiling and his smile began to grow
and spread and in a minute Honey Bunch
found herself laughing, too.

“That’s much better,” said Michael, patting
her shoulder. “Always laugh when you want
to cry and you’ve no idea how much better it
will make you feel. Stub doesn’t do any dust-
ing at all, so she shouldn’t tease you. I’m sur~
prised at you, Stub, I really am.”

Stub looked uncomfortable. She was sup-
posed to help her mother a half hour every

.A,_‘\

HONEY BUNCH: 127'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Saturday morning, but she usually teased to)
be allowed to go out and play and seldom did
her task, which was to dust the furniture in
the living room. So Michael knew she would
understand what he meant.

“Now I’ll show you how I dust the potato-
plants, Honey Bunch,” he said pleasantly.
“Then you’ll be able to tell Bobby and Tess
When—well some day when you see them.”

Michael showed Honey Bunch how he
dusted the white powder on every plant to;
keep the potato hug from eating the leaves.
Honey Bunch thought it was a lot of work, to
get the powder on each plant, and Michael
said it was.

“But when we have a large crop of potatoes
ready to dig, we forget the work,” he said
cheerfully.

“Mother wants us to hurry,” Stub whisj
pered t0 Honey Bunch, and as she said thatjé.j
poor Stub fell over Michael’s hoe which was
lying on the ground.

Michael picked her up and loaned her his
clean handkerchief. Stub needed a handker-

 

 

 

 

 

 

rum“)N p

 

 

 

128 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

chief because she had been crying just a little,
and that was the reason she didn’t see the hoe.

“Everything’s all right, Stub,” Px/Iiehael
told her. “I know you didn’t mean to make
Honey Bunch cry, either. Now run along,
both of you, or that pattern will be out of style
before you get it to Mrs. Phillips.”

This made both little girls laugh, and they
ran almost all the rest of the way to the
Phillips’ farm. They half hoped to see the
two boys whohad eaten the green apples—
Honey Bunch especially was anxious to ask
them if they had “doubled up”———but Mrs.
Philiips said they had gone to the old mill
with the hired man.

“Daddy is going to drive us there some
day,” Stub told Honey Bunch, as they walked
home. “Every week he says ‘pretty soon.’
There is a water wheel and it goes around and
around, and it’s lots of fun to hear it splash.”

When they reached home they found the
two mothers very busy. They were getting
out clean sheets and dusting upstairs and put-
ting fresh flowers into the vases.

HONEY BUNCH: 129°
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Is company coming?” asked Stub, who,
saw the door of the guest room open.

“Little girls should not ask questions,” said
her mother, smiling. “Liny is making butter
this morning, dear—don’t you want to take
Honey Bunch out in the milk room and let
her taste buttermilk?”

Honey Bunch had never seen Liny make
butter. She did not chum every day, and
though she had made butter several times
since Honey Bunch and her mother had come
to the farm, she had happened to do it on.
mornings when Honey Bunch was busy some-
where else.

“Hello!” said Liny, smiling, When she saw
two little faces peeping in at her through the
milk—room door. “Come in the butter is al-
most here.”

And Liny lifted the cover of the churn and‘
let Honey Bunch look in.

“Where is the butter?” asked (Honey
Bunch, in surprise.

“That faint yellow patch you see Will be
butter soon,” answered Liny. “Here, shake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

130 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

the dasher a minute; then you can say you
helped to make butter.”

Honey Bunch dashed the wooden stick up
and down a few times and then Liny took it
and made it go faster. She lifted the lid again
and there were golden lumps of butter, just
the kind of butter that Honey Bunch ate on
her bread.

“Is it all done?” asked Honey Bunch, stat—
ing into the churn.

“Dear, no,” answered Liny. “I have to
take it out and work it and salt it before it is
teady to use. Taste this, Honey Bunch—it is
buttermilk.”

Honey Bunch did not like buttermilk at all.
It tasted sour to her.

“Lots of people can’t drink it,” said Liny,
taking a glass for herself. “Stub won’t touch
it. But Michael can drink a whole pitcherfui
for his dinner.”

' “Are we going to have Whipped cream for
dinner?” asked Stub, Who had found a bowl
of sweet cream on the table.

She knew it was sweet, for she had put her

HONEY BUNCH: 131
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

finger into it and tasted it when Liny was not
looking.

“Don’t touch that,” said Liny, busily scoopg
ing her butter out of the churn. “That is fori'
supper. But I haven’t an egg in the house.
Your daddy took the basket with him to town
this morning, and now your mother wants two
cakes made. Can’t you and Honey Bunch go
out and hunt me some eggs?”

Stub . and Honey Bunch were sure they
could and they ran off toward the barn.
Liny’s hens were supposed to lay their eggs in
the hen-house, but there were always three or
four hens Who insisted on laying their eggs in
the barn. Honey Bunch and Stub thought it
was much more fun to hunt in the hay for eggs
than to go through the hen-house and pick
them out of the nests.

“You begin on that side and I’ll start here,”
said Stub, pointing to the side of the barn un-
der the haymow.

“I’ve found one!” called Honey Bunch im
a few moments.

“So have I!” shouted Stub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

132 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

And presently Honey Bunch found another
and so did Stub, and it wasn’t long before they
had each found three eggs.

“You wait here, and I’ll climb up and look
in the haymow,” said Stub, running up the
ladder like a iittle squirrel.

“Look out——you dropped an egg!” cried
Honey Bunch, as one slipped from the skirt
of Stub’s dress and smashed 0n the barn floor.

“Well, that’s only one egg,” replied Stub
cheerfully. “I can find another.”

The shaky ladder began to sway, Stuh
threw out both hands, and down went the
other two eggs and broke into bits on the floor.

“Silly 01d eggs!” scolded Stub, as though
the eggs were to blame. “Maybe I’ll find
"three in the haymow to make up for them.”

But although she hunted a long time and
Honey Bunch waited patiently, not an egg
could Stub find.

“You can have mine,” said Honey Bunch,
When Stub had Climbed down again.

“No, you keep them,” replied Stub.
“‘There’ll be some more in the henvhouse.

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Page 131

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 133
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

You put your eggs down on the floor and
come and help me look under the heavy
wagon. If there aren’t any there, we’ll go to
the hen-house and hunt.”

Honey Bunch put her three eggs down
carefully, close together, and covered them
With a Wisp of hay. Then she and Stuh
crawled under the heavy wagon. Sometimes
the hens would go under that and make a nest
in the hay and lay their eggs.

As Honey Bunch and Stub were feeling
about in the hay and, at the same time, pre-
tending they were swimming in the ocean,
they heard the rattle of Wheels and T. Foote
Whirled the buggy in through the open barn
door. .

“Anybody home?” called Uncle Rand
loudly.

“Look out for the eggs!” shouted Stub,
wriggling out, flat on her stomach. After her ‘
wriggled Honey Bunch, crying:

“Did he step on the eggs? Did he step on
the eggs?”

And there in the buggy, one on each side of

 

 

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134 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Uncle Rand, sat Bobby and Tess Turner, the
twins from New York!

“Daddy,” said Stub seriously, “T. Foote
has stepped on the eggs Honey Bunch was
saving. Hello, Tess! Bobby, can you play
croquet?”

 

 

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CHAPTER XII
THE OLD MILL

HONEY BUNCH was so surprised to see
Bobby and Tess that she forgot about the eggs.
“Mother is coming on the next train,” cried
Tess, jumping down and kissing both her
cousins. “Bobby and I came all alone and
Uncle Rand met us at the station. Didn’t you
know we were coming?”

“We kept the good news for a surprise,”
said Uncle Rand, smiling, While Bobby took a
flying leap from the buggy that landed him
in the hay in front of T. Foote’s stall.

“Well, that’s the reason Liny has to make
two cakes,” said Stub. “And she has to have
the eggs to make ’em With. Honey Bunch and
I want to look in the hen—house. You can
come if you want to, Bobby and Tess.”

“But Tess has her best dress on,” said

Honey Bunch.
135

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

136 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“I’ll be careful,” promised Tess, and the
four children went to hunt for eggs in the hen-
house.

Stub made Bobby and Tess stand outside
because, as she told them, if an egg did break
it would be sure to spatter 0n Tess’s dress or
over Bobby’s clean blouse.

“And eggs,” said Stub, With a, sigh, “mostly
break When I’m trying to be careful.”

She and Honey Bunch found a dozen eggs
and carried them out. Stub let Bobby carry
three and Tess three anti those twelve eggs
reached Liny’s kitchen safely. Yes, and they
were made into two beautiful cakes not long
after that—and broken eggs are safest in a
cake, you know.

The Turner twins’ mother—Who was “Aunt
Julia” t0 Honey Bunch and Stub~came 0n
the next train, and Uncle Rand declared he
did not know Who laughed and chattered
more—the three mothers on the front porch or
the four Children playing croquet after supper.

It was the very next morning that Uncle
Rand suggested a trip to the old mill.

HONEY BUNCH: 137
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Stub has been teasing me to take Honey
Bunch there for the last two weeks,” said this
kind uncle. “But I knew if the twins came
they would want to go, too, so it seemed Wiser
to wait till I could make one trip”.

The buggy wouldn’t hold four lively chil-
dren, of course, and Michael said he thought
they would have to go in the “clill—do.”

“What is a dill-do?” asked Honey Bunch.

“What is a dlll—do, Michael?” asked Bobby
and Tess in one breath.

Michael laughed and whittled the hoe han-
dle he was fitting into a sharp, new shining
hoe.

“A dill-do,” he said merrily, “is a wagon.”

And that must have been the right answer,
for when Uncle Rand drove T. Foote out of
the yard and tied him to the white hitching
post that stood in front of the house, the horse
was harnessed to the wagon that was used for
taking the milk cans to the creamery every
morning. There were two seats in it now
though. As a rule, there was only one, for the
driver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

138 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Uncle Rand was to drive, and When he
‘ficame out of the house he found all four young—
sters sitting on the front seat waiting for him.

“No one is going to take a chance on being
left, that’s certain,” said Uncle Rand. “But
how do you expect me to drive?”

“Well, Daddy,” replied Stub, “I said there
wasn’t room for every one up here, but no one
wants to sit in the back. We all want to ride
on the front seat.”

“Can’t be done,” said Uncle Rand, standing
by the post and making no move to untie T.
Foote. “Two Will have to go on the back seat.
I must have elbow room, you know.”

Bobby and Tess sat still and so did; Stub.
But Honey Bunch stood up.

“I’ll sit in the back,” she said. “I guess I
almost want to, anyway.”

“That’s my sweet girl!” said Uncle Rand,
lifting her over the back of the seat and put—
ting her down on the second seat With a kiss.
“There wouldn’t be any quarrels if every one
could be 21 Honey Bunch.”

“Well, I’ll go back, too,” said Stub, scram—

HONEY BUNCH: 139;
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

bling over. “I’m used to riding in front and
Bobby and Tess are company.”

Bobby and Tess will change places With
you, When we come back,” her daddy prom-
ised. “Now then, T. Foote, let’s show the city
folks how fast we can travel over country
roads.”

Uncle Rand untied the horse and climbed
into the wagon beside Bobby and Tess. He
turned the wagon around and they started off
down the Winding White road that Honey
Bunch was sure went clear around the world.
She had never seen the end of it, or where it
began, and neither had Uncle Rand. Honey
Bunch knew he had not, because she had
asked him.

“What is a mill for?” asked Bobby curi-
ously.

“Well, now, What do you think a mill is
for?” asked Uncle Rand, touching T. Foote’s
back with the whip to frighten off a fly that
was trying to bite him.

“Fear millers, I guess,” said Tess wisely.

“No,” said Honey Bunch, “mills aren’t for

 

 

 

 

MO HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM;

millers. They eat holes in clothes———my
mother says so.”

“Those are moth millers,’ answered Uncle
Rand. “They have nothing to do With the
kind of miller Who runs a mill. He grinds
com into meal and Wheat into flour for us to
eat, Bobby.”

Stub, 01" ceurse, knew about mills, but the
other Chiidren had a great many questions to
ask.

“This old mill we are going to see doesn’t
grind any more,” explained Unde Rand, who
could drive and keep Bobby from falhng off
the seat and. catch Tess’s hat for her When the
breeze nearly carried it away and still answer
questions. “This mill used to he a busy one,
but when there was a larger one built to be
run by electric power in another town, people
graduafly stopped going to the mill run by
water power. NOW it is about in ruins, With
nothing but the old wheel to remind us of the
busy place it used to be.”

“People come and paint it,” said Stub,

7

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 141
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

bouncing around on the seat like a small rub-
ber ball. “They put it in pictures.”

T. Foote jogged right along and all the talk
and laughter in the wagon behind him did not
seem to interest him in the least. He never
stopped once to listen and he did not turn
around to see What was going on. He simply
kept going and that, of course, brought him
to the old mill as quickly as it was possible
for a gocd horse to get there.

“Isn’t it pretty!” cried Honey Bunch, as her
uncle lifted her down.

It was pretty, this old mill, and even Bobby,
Who liked to explore first and look afterward,
stopped for a moment to see the 01d Wheel.
The mill itself had been built of stone and the
stones were crumbled and broken now.
There was no roof and only one side of a wall
and you could see directly into the large room
Where the miller had worked When he ground
the wheat and the com the farmers brought
him.

“The Wheel is on the other side,” said Stub,

 

 

 

 

142 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

catching hold of Honey Bunch by the hand.
“Come around and look.”

They heard the sound of rushing water as
soon as they went close to the mill. The old
wheel was not turning, but the water went
through it and fell With a splash into a narrow
walled space below that Uncle Rand told
them had been the sluice.

“You see,” he explained, holding Honey
Bunch up so that she could look into the
wheel, “When the mill was grinding, the water
struck the wheel and forced it to turn and that
turned the great stone grinders inside the mill
and the corn and wheat was crushed to pow-
der between them.”

Uncle Rand held each child up to look,
even Bobby who wanted to climb up on the
wheel and see for himself just how water
wheels were made.

“N o, sir!” said Uncle Rand, when Bobby
suggested this. “Nothing like that. Your
mother made me promise that I would keep
you a good two feet from the water before she
was willing to have you come. There is

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 143
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

plenty to be seen Without going swimming in
the sluice, Bobby.”

So Bobby had to be contented With climb-
ing all over the heaps of stones that had oncel
been walls and peering into the dark corners
Where little green ferns were growing in place
of the big bags of grain that had once stood
there.

The floor of the mill was not safe to walk
on, and after Uncle Rand had led them
around the edge and told them more about the
big stones that had ground the cornmthese
stones, he said, had been sold and carried off
When the miller closed his millwhe made
them promise that they would not go inside
the mill again.

“Hello, Morton! What brings you over
this way?” cried a jolly-looking fat man, stop-
ping his horse in the road.

Uncle Rand went down to talk to him and
that left the twins and Honey Bunch and Stub
to amuse themselves.

“It would be fun to cross the brook,” said
Stub. “Let’s get a board and make a bridge.”

 

 

 

 

144 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Uncle Rand said not to go in the mill,”
Honey Bunch reminded her.

“Well, I’m not going in the mill,” retorted
Stub. “Here’s a board. Help me carry this,
Bobby.”

Stub pointed to an old board that lay in the
grass at her feet. It was heavy, and Bobby
had all he could do to help her drag it down
to the brook. Stub was careful to go on the
other side of the mill from the road and she
knew enough to go down below the sluice.
Stub was a careful little girl, and she had no
intention of getting drowned. The water in
the sluice was deep enough to drown a boy or
a girl, but the brook was not deep.

“Come on,” cried Stub. “Come on, Tess
and Honey Bunch. We’re going to have a
heap of fun 1”

Honey Bunch and Tess followed Stub and
Bobby who were almost out of breath when
they reached the brook. The board was'much
heavier than Stub had thought it. would be,
but she did not give up easily.

“It won’t reach,” said Bobby, after he had

 

HONEY BUNCH: 145
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

put the board down. “It isn’t long enough.”

“Well, put it across as far as it will go,” re-
plied Stub, impatiently. “Then we can hop
the rest of the way on the stones.”

Bobby’dragged the board to the edge of the
brook and let it fall so that one end rested
on a large stone. The other was on the
bank.

“There!” said Stub. “That’s a bridge. I’lk
go over first.”

Stub’s dress was torn, because there had
been a nail in the board. Stub’s hands and
face were streaked with dirt, for the board
had been 01d and dusty. But Stub was having
a very good time—Honey Bunch knew it by
the way she smiled.

“Here I go!” sang Stub, running down and
out on her bridge. “Watch me!”

They all watched her, but Stub was so
afraid they might miss seeing something she
did that she turned her head and looked back
over her shoulder to make sure they were
looking.

Alas! Stub’s toe hit a knot-hole in the

 

 

 

 

 

146 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

board, she tripped, lost her balance and fell
screaming into the water!

“Uncle Rand!” shouted Honey Bunch.
“Uncle Rand, come quick! Stub fell in the
brook! Stub fell in the brook!”

Uncle Rand came flying around the miil
and the fat man came running after him, but
Bobby waded into the brook Without waiting
for them. The water was not deep, but it was
cold, and Stub had tumbled in flat on her face.
Bobby pulled her up, but before he could
drag her to her feet Uncle Reind had come
stepping over the stones and had her in his
arms.

“Are you hurt, dear?” he said, holding her
tightly. “Don’t be frightened~Daddy has
you safe, Stub.”

Stub could not get her breath at first, but
When she could speak she opened her mouth
as Widely as she could and how she roared!
Honey Bunch stared at her, and Bobby began
to laugh.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XIII
SUNDAY SCHOOL

“I’M co—old!” roared Stub. “I’m so co-old!
I want to go ho-ome!”

“Here, you, stop laughing,” said the fat man
to Bobby. “You wouldn’t think it was funny
if you had fallen head-first into that cold
water. Run up to the wagon and get the
blankets out from under the seat.”

“All right, I w-will!” stuttered Bobby, his
teeth chattering. “It is c-cold, isn’t it?”

Bobby had been in the water, too, you see,
and though he was not as wet as Stub, still he
Was beginning to shake and shiver as she did.

“We’ll get the blankets!” said Honey
Bunch quickly. “Hurry up, Tess. I saw
them under the seat.”

The two little girls ran up to the fence
Where the horse and wagon were tied. Sure

enough, there were two heavy blankets folded
147

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

148 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

under the seat. Honey Bunch dragged them
out, but Stub and Uncle Rand and Bobby had
reached the wagon almost as soon as she and
Tess had and she did not have to carry them
down to the brook.

“There, there, Stub, you’re all right,” said
Uncle Rand, wrapping one of the blankets
around Stub. “Now let me bundle up Bobby,
and we’ll be home before you can say Jack
Robinson.”

Bebby was wrapped in the other blanket
and put on the back seat. Then Uncle Rand
lifted in Stub, Whowas still crying, and made
Honey Bunch sit next to her so that she would
not fall ofi the seat. Stub was so bundled up
she looked like a package more than she did
like a little girl.

Tess sat on the back seat With Bobby and T.
Foote went home With them all as fast as he
could.

“Is anything the matter?” asked Aunt
Carol, coming down the steps When the wagon
drove up and stopped. “Has anything
happened?”

 

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4"‘cgs‘mn... ,.

HONEY BUNCH: 149
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Well, you may be sure When the three moth-
ers heard what had happened there was a
great scurrying to and fro. Stub and Bobby
were rubbed dry and put to bed and fed hot
soup and every one waited on them and tried
to keep them warm and contented, because
Uncle Rand said he thought they should stay
in bed till supper time. And neither of them
took the tinieet bit of a cold from their tum~
bles and they had forgotten about the cold
water before breakfast the next morning.

The next day was Sunday, and Stub felt
very important because she had three cousins
to take to Sunday school.

“We have to go to church first,” said Stub.
“Sunday school is after that. Do you go to
Sunday school in New York, Bobby?”

“Of course we do,” said Tess, answering for
Bobby. “Only we have Sunday school at
half-past nine in the morning, before church
begins.”

Uncle Rand took them all to church in a-
comfortable, cushioned carriage and Honey
Bunch liked the square white-painted church

 

 

 

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150 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

as soon as she saw it. She thought it would
have been nicer to have the service outdoors
under the weeping Willow trees, and it would
certainly have been cooler.

“You can go to sleep after the long prayer,”
Whispered Stub. “It isn’t wrong. It’s only
wrong to Whisper and laugh in church.”

“I won’t go to sleep,” whispered Bobby Who
had overheard. “I never go to sleep in
church. I always listen.”

Honey Bunch decided that she would not
go to sleep, either. She liked the music and
the singing and when the tall, thin minister
stood up and began to preach, she sat up very
straight and listened.

“Isn’t it funny—” she thought to herself,
“isn’t it funny—hovv—-the sun turns———red——~
and—green—and yellow.”

Honey Bunch was looking at the stained
glass window and without knowing it she
went to sleep, leaning against her mother. A
loud noise woke her up.

“What was that?” she said aloud.

“Hush, dear!” whispered her mother.

, man»; ' er;., -- 7:“? ._ P".

HONEY BUNCH: 151
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Bobby went to sleep and fell off the seat.
Uncle Rand has picked him up.”

There were a few people who were smiling
and one man in the pew ahead of them
laughed outright. Bobby’s face was very red,
but Uncle Rand did not smile. He acted as
though he was quite used to seeing people fall
off their seats in church. This made Bobby
feel better—he hated to be laughed at.

Honey Bunch did not go to sleep again, and
after the service had ended she and Stub and
Bobby and T ess went into the Sunday—school
room which was back of the church.

‘ “How do you do, Mary?” said a young lady
to Stub.

Honey Bunch did not know at first that she
was speaking to Stub. “Mary” sounded as
though she must mean some other little girl,
though, of course, that was Stub’s real name.

“Miss Carter,” said Stub, “these are my
cousins Honey Bunch—she lives in Barham.
And Bobby and Tess Turner—they live in
New York.”

“I am very glad to know you,” said Miss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

152 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Carter. “You may sit With Mary in that
third row. Willy, stop teasing your sis~
ter, or I shall have to send you to the plat-
form.”

“Where’s the platform?” whispered Honey
Bunch.

“Up there, Where the man sits,” Stub Whis-
pered back. “He’s the superintendent. If
the boys are bad, they have to go and sit on the
edge of the platform. One Sunday there was
a row of ’em all the way round the three
sides.”

There was a piano in one corner of the
room, and Miss Carter sat down at that and
played a hymn While the Whole school rose
and sang. Then the superintendefit read 1the
Scripture lesson and said the Lord’s prayer
and then it was time to teach the lesson. Each
class did not have a separate room, as they did
in the twins’ Sunday school. But instead each
class made a little circle around its teacher
and listened While she taught them.

“Where’s Mother?” Honey Bunch Whis-
pered, as Miss Carter was giving out little

 

‘ ‘ 4!; {guy .s

HONEY BUNCH: 153
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

, lesson books. “Did she and Aunt Carol and

Aunt Julia go home?”

“N o, they’re in the church,” Stub explained"
“The grown-up people have Bible classes in
the church. They have to wait for us, and
they can have a class while they’re waiting,
you see.” 1

Honey Bunch listened and heard the organ
and the sound of singing. She thought it was
nice for every one to go to Sunday school at
the same time.

“Mary, will you ask your cousin to read the
first verse of our lesson?” said Miss Carter.

“Tess can read, but Honey Bunch can’t,”
said Stub. “She’s only five years old. Go on,
Tess.”

Tess read a verse so fast that no one could
understand a word of what she was saying, but
Miss Carter did not ask her to read it again.
Perhaps she thought it would not be polite.

Stub could not read very well, but Miss
Carter helped her with the hard words, and
then a little girl, named Fannie Morgan, read
a verse. Then it was Bobby’s turn, but he was

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154 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

too shy. The idea of reading before so many
strange people did not suit him at all.

“I can’t read,” he said when Miss Carter
looked at him.

“Why, you can, too.” said his sister. “Can’t
he, Stub?”

“Of course he can. He’s eight years old,
and any one can read When he’s eight,” de—
clared Stub, as though that settled it.

“I tell you I can’t read,” protested Bobby.

He really meant that he couldn’t read un-
less he felt comfortable and at home. If he
stood up in this strange place and tried to read
a verse from a strange lesson paper, he knew
his face would get red and his hands shake
and, worst of all, perhaps his voice might
sound shaky, too. And he could see that there
were ever so many long Bible names he
couldn’t say.

“I think you Ought to read a verse, if you
can, Bobby,” said Miss Carter. “We should*"‘
take a part in Sunday school Whenever we can,
you know.”

“Well, I ‘can’t readmthat’s all,” muttered

HONEY BUNCH: 155
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Bobby, wishing he had never come to Sunday
school.

Honey Bunch felt sorry for him. She knew
how she would feel if Miss Carter spoke to
her like that. She knew Bobby wasn’t happy,
and Honey Bunch couldn’t be happy herself
if she saw some one else having What Mrs.
Miller called a “worrying spell.”

“Bobby can find places on the map, Miss
Carter,” explained Honey Bunch. “He can
read names, but he can’t say ’em.”

Bobby looked at his little cousin gratefully.
That was exactly What he could do. He could
not pronounce the names of the 01d cities, but
he loved to find them on the Bible maps and
he and Tess had spent many a happy Sunday
afternoon sticking pins in the names of the
towns and cities that had been mentioned in
their morning Sunday-school lesson. Honey
Bunch knew Bobby liked to do this, for she
had seen him do it When she visited the twins
in New York.

“That is nice to know,” said Miss Carter
more kindly. “Suppose you take your lesson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

156 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

paper, Bobby, and this map and box of pins,
and put a pin on every city you find mentioned
in the lesson.”

This pleased Bobby very much and he set
to work at once, While Miss Carter went
around the circle, asking each one to read a
verse. By the time they had finished reading
the lesson, Bobby had the map covereci With
black-headed pins, and when Miss Carter
looked at it she said he had not migsed a single
town or city.

“Look at the boys,” Whispered Stub to
Honey Bunch, as Miss Carter began to teach.

Honey Bunch looked. There on the plat-
form sat five or six boys Who had been sent
from their classes because they had Whispered
0r teased other boys or had, in some way, in-
terfered With the lesson.

The lesson Miss Carter was teaching them
this Sunday was about the heathen, and she
told them all about the good missionaries Who
went far away to teach sick and ignorant and
unhappy people who had no church and Suno
day schools.

 

HONEY BUNCH: 157'
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Perhaps When you grow up, you’ll be a
missionary, Mary,” said Miss Carter to Stub.

“Well, perhaps,” said Stub, but she did not
seem at all sure about it.

Afterward she told Honey Buneh that she
wouldn’t mind being a missionary if she could
stay at home and be one.

When Sunday school was over, they founti
the three mothers and Uncle Rand waiting
for them. Uncle Rand asked Honey Bunch
What she had learned.

“About heathen,” she said, waiting for him
to‘ lift her into the carriage.

“But, dear, you have your money in your
hand,” said her mother. “Why didn’t you put
it in the collection box.”

Honey Bunch shook her head.

“I don’t want the heathen to have it,” she
said seriously. “I’m saving it for the bad
boys.”

She meant the boys Who had been sent to
sit on the edge of the platform. Stub said she
didn’t see Why Honey Bunch should want to
give her money to them°

   

 

,. \"\,-—~....»..t........n.. "AM“ A. a.

 

 

 

158 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“They’re not heathen,” said Stub.

“Yes, I think they are heathen,” laughed
Uncle Rand. “Only I don’t believe that is

Why Honey Bunch wants to give them her

money. Why is it, dear? Can’t you tell us?

We won’t laugh.”

“Well, the reason is,” said Honey Bunch, “I
found it. They hid it under the edge of the
carpet and I went and took it out.”

In spite of his promise, Uncle Rand
laughed.

“They thought they’d save their Sunday-
school money and buy lollypops on the way
home,” he chuckled. “But they didn’t know
a little squirrel had come to Sunday school.
What Will you do next, Honey Bunch?”

“She must find the boys and give the money
back to them,” said Honey Bunch’s mother.
“It belongs to them.”

CHAPTER XIV
SEVERAL SURPRISES

HONEY BUNCH looked at the six pennies in
her hand.

“Maybe they’re looking for them now,” she
said.

“They probably are,” declared Uncle Rand.
“We’ll go back in the Sunday—school room
and look.”

The others stayed in the carriage While he
and Honey Bunch went into the room back
of the church. There on their hands and
knees on the floor were six very uncomfortable
boys, searching for something. Their Sun-
day-school teacher, a severe-looking woman
With spectacles, stood by, holding a wooden
box in her hands.

“If you put any money there, it must be
there now,” she said. “And if you have spent

your collection money this week again, I’ll
159

 

 

 

 

 

 

160 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

tell your mothers and you’ll be kept home
from the picnic.” .

“Here’s the money,” said Honey Bunch.

Red and tumbled, the boys stood up. Their
teacher looked surprised. She asked Honey
Bunch if she were sure the money belonged
to them, and Honey Bunch said she was sure.

“Then give it to them,” said the teacher,
“and I’ll see that each one puts his penny in
the box.”

“Will the heathen get it?” asked Honey
Bunch.

“The heathen Will,” replied the teacher
grimly. “Though if the heathen in foreign
lands are any worse than those I teach every
Sunday, I’m ashamed to say I don’t think the
money will do them much good.”

As Honey Bunch and her uncle walked
back to the carriage, he asked her Why she had
picked up the pennies from under the carpet.

“I just wanted to make those boys sur-
prised,” said Honey Bunch, and she laughed
a gay little giggle.

Uncle Rand laughed, too. He and Honey

ii]:

HONEY BUNCH: 161
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Bunch could always see a joke, and that was
the reason she thought he was so much like
her daddy.

“Where’s the picnic?” asked Bobby, as soon
as Honey Bunch told them what the Sunday—
school teacher had said.

They were driving home, and Honey
Bunch stood up on the floor of the carriage to
talk to Bobby and Tess, who were riding in
front.

“It’s the big Grange picnic,” said Stub.
“It’s Thursday, isn’t it, Mother? And we’re
all going. Every single person in our house.”

“Are Liny and Michael going?” asked the
twins, both of them.

“Yes, they always go,” explained Stub.
“And the picnic is in Holder’s grove and we
go right after breakfast and stay till milking
time.”

That was all the children talked about after
that—the big picnic. Liny was the busiest
person on the farm, or she said she was. She
had chickens to dress and cook and sandwiches
and cake to make and boxes to pack and her

C ‘ “.mw;-w_.~...,...~., .. _

 

 

 

 

 

162 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

new pink lawn dress to iron. The three moth-
ers were busy, too, and Michael washed and
polished the buggy and the carriage till they
shone. He oiled the harness, too, and then,
the day before the picnic, he brushed and
combed T. Foote and his mate, W. Vane, be-
cause T. Foote was to take the family in the
carriage and W. Vane was to take Michael
and Liny in the buggy t0 the picnic.

“What does W. Vane mean?” repeated
Michael, when Honey Bunch once questioned
him. “Why, I’ll tell you. That stands for
Weather Vane, because that horse is as
changeable as the weather. But we shorten
it because we don’t like to hurt his feelings.”

“I’m so tired I could cry,” said Liny, iron-
ing her pink lawn dress when Honey Bunch
peeped into the kitchen the afternoon before
the picnic. “I counted on, Michael bringing
in the turkeys for me, and now he tells me he’s
going to drive Mrs. Turner and your mother
over to town. I don’t care if those turkeys
never come back. I’m not going to chase
after them.”

 

HONEY BUNCH: 163
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Honey Bunch looked at Liny. She sounded
cross, and yet Liny was never cross. And the
flock of young turkeys were the pride of her
heart. N ot many people raised turkeys
around Elmville, and Liny said it was because
they didn’t have the patience. It took lots of
patience, she once explained to Honey Bunch.

“Turkeys can’t live if you shut them up
close like chickens,” said Liny. “And yet if
you let them out you have to go after them and
bring them in every time because they never
know enough to come home. And a heavy
dew will kill them if they stay out in it before
they get grown.”

Honey Bunch had often seen Liny hunting
her turkeys, and now she knew there must be
something very wrong indeed if Liny didn’t
care whether they never came back.

“I’ll go after them for her,” said Honey
Bunch to herself.

The twins had gone with Uncle Rand to
see the baby pigs on the Phillips farm, but
Honey Bunch had not cared to go with them.
She thought baby pigs were rather homely.

l" .
1:393»- ,t ‘ 7 ,_ , .7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

164 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Stub and Aunt Carol had gone to another
neighber’s to take a loaf Cake for their picnic
basket and, as ll/Iichael had driven Honey
Eunch’s mother and Aunt Julia over to tewn,
Haney Bunch found herself alone.

“I’ll. go get the turkeys,” she said again.

She knew that they were usually found in
one of the large grass fields, but Honey Bunch
had never been in a grass field, and When she
climbed through the bars she found the grass
was almost as high as her head.

“It’s like wading in the water,” she Whis-
pered, for somehow it was so still and quiet
in the big field she did not want to speak
loudly.

It was like wading, and Honey Bunch went
in deeper and deeper. Then she heard a rus-
tle and saw a bronze wing. It was a turkey.

“Liny goes all around and shoes ’em up,”
'said Honey Bunch, remembering.

It was hard work, “going around” the
turkeys, for they scattered and ran through
‘the tall grass at every chance. Honey Bunch
did not know that Liny usually waited till a

‘ ‘- _ ,
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HONEY BUNCH: 165
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

little later in the afemoon When the turkeys
would come out of the grass to hunt for their
supper. Then she could see them easily and
drive them in With less trouble.

“It is—a—little hot!” said poor Honey
Bunch, Chasing a saucy turkey Who seemed to
like to go in the opposite direction.

The tall grass was hot and by the time the
little girl had shooed every turkey out and
:into the pasture, her face was red from the
heat and her yellow hair was wet With perv
spiration.

Honey Bunch never thought of stopping
now she had the turkeys as far as the pasture.
From side to side she went, gently waving the
skirt of her dress as she had seen Liny wave
her apron, to drive the turkeys toward the
barnyard. Back and forth Honey Bunch
trudged, waiting patiently while the turkeys
5st0pped on one side of the fence, slowly
hopped down on the other side and began a
still slower march to the house.

Liny was ‘just coming out of the kitchen,
warm and tired from her ironing, to start

 

 

 

 

 

166 HONEY BUNcmz
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

after her turkeys When she saw the flock com~
ing up the road, Honey Bunch behind them.

“I found them!” cried Honey Bunch. “Are
they all there, Liny?”

“T W0 —— four — six —— twelve —— sixteen
-twenty—” counted Liny rapidly. “Twenty
six —— thirty! Every single one, Honey

Bunch, you blessed lamb! But how could you;
do it all yourself? And you look so tired!”

“They were kind of silly,” replied Honey
Bunch, dropping down on the grass under
the horse-chestnut tree. “They kept going
back.”

Liny scattered corn in the yard and shut the
big gate. She said she would shut the turkeys
in the barn an hour later.

“In three more weeks they can roost out-=
doors,” she said. “N ow you come in, Honey
Bunch, and I’ll make you the nicest lemonade
you ever tasted to pay you for all that hard
work.”

The next day was the picnic, and evety one
woke early and smiling.

Holder’s grove, Where the picnic was held9

 

HONEY BUNCH: 167
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

was several miles from Uncle Rand’s farm,
and it seemed to Honey Bunch that it couldn’t
possibly be a large enough place to hold all
the people who started for it. There were
carriages and automobiles, filled With people
and lunch boxes, and boys on bicycles and
young men on motorcycles and some young
people on horseback, all traveling the roads
that lead to the grove. Liny and Michael
drove away in the buggy and looked very
bright and happy.

Then, when they reached the grove, there
seemed to be plenty of room. There were
board tables under the trees for the luncheons
and swings for the children and a. little brook
to wade in. There were shady places for the
horses to stand and a whole field for the auto—
mobiles who didn’t care if the sun did pour
down on their tops.

There were dozens of children, and Stub
knew most of them. Such games of tag they
had! Stub tripped over a pine cone and fell
down, but she wasn’t hurt, and though, a little
later, she fell over a stone sunk in the ground,

 

 

168 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

she wasn’t hurt that time either, for she fell on
a pile of soft leaves.

“Here’s the tintype man!” cried one of the
boys, after lunch, pointing‘down the road.
“He’ll take our pictures.”

Uncle Rand said the four cousins must be
taken together, and that reminded Honey
Bunch again of the picture of Walter and
George, Liny’s brothers, which had been so
strangely lost.

“I put it on top of the sun and moon clock,“
said Honey Bunch. “I know I did.”

Bobby and Tess had not heard of the photo-
graph, so Honey Bunch told them about it.
Bobby said a Wind must have blown it out of
the kitchen and Tess was sure the vacuum
cleaner had sucked it up.

“Aunt Carol hasn’t a vacuum cleaner,” said
Honey Bunch. “And there wasn’t a Wind.
Besides, it wasn’t in the kitchen. I put it in
the living-room and there was a screen in
every Window.”

“Well, then,” said Bobby, “Where did it
g0?”

 

 

 

 

 

HONEY BUNCH: 169
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Honey Bunch, of course, could not tell him.
The tintype man came and set up his little
tent at the edge of the grove and for several
hours was very busy taking pictures. He
printed them and gave them to the picnic folk
right there, so When it came time to go home
Honey Bunch and Stub and Bobby and Tess
each had a picture to put in his or her pocket.

“It was the nicest picnic,” said Honey
Bunch a little sleepily, at the end of the day
When Uncle Rand lifted her into the seat be-
side him.

“Yes, wasn’t it?” agreed the twins, trying
not to yawn.

Playing all day in the open air has a way of
making small people sleepy, you know. Stub
could hardly keep her eyes open.

“I thought we left Buffy in the barn With
the door closed, so he couldn’t follow us,” said
Stub, sitting up straight as they turned into
the road that led to the house. “Look, Daddy,
there’s Buffy on the porch.”

“Perhaps Michael and Liny came home the
shorter way and got here before we did"’ said

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

170 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Stub’s mother. “That certainly is Buffy on
the porch, and some one is With him.”

The some one stood up and waved his hat to
them, and then Honey Bunch knew Who it
was.

“Daddy!” she shouted. “Oh, Daddy, you
missed the picnic!”

Mr. Morton came down to the gate and
Honey Bunch jumped into his arms almost
before Uncle Rand had stopped the horse.

“Surprised you, didn’t I?” Mr. Niorton
said, smiling. “I could get a week off if 1
took it at once, so I came. I found the place
éeserted and the dog Whining for company in
the barn. I knew you’d be home soon, so I
waited.”

“My goodness, Daddy,” Whispered Honey
Bunch, “s’pose you hadn’t!”

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CHAPTER XV
WHAT THE BEES SAID

AS Uncle Rand said, a week was not very
long, but then it was much better than no
visit at all from his brother.

“I didn’t know you were Uncle Rand’s
brother,” said Honey Bunch to her daddy one
afternoon When she found them laughing in
the barn While Mr. Morton tinkered With
the car.

Mr. Morton had explained that they were
laughing at the recollection of something that
had happened When they were boys.

“Oh, Honey Bunch, you’ve forgotten!” said
her daddy. “I’ve often told you how Uncle
Rand and I went to school together and how
I used to do his arithmetic for him and he
used to draw my maps for me. Why, dear,
you knew Uncle Rand was Daddy’s brother.

You’ve forgotten, that’s all.”
171

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

172 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM:

“I knew he was your brother when you
were a little boy,” said Honey Bunch. “But
I thought it was different when folks were
grown up.”

Daddy Morton explained that brothers-
Were always brothers and that Honey Buneh’s
mother was a sister of the Uncle Peter Who
came to see them every year.

“They were brother and sister when they
were a little boy and girl and they always
will be,” said Mr. Morton. “Aunt Julia is
Daddy’s sister, too, you know. But don’t
bother your head about brothers and sisters
and uncles and aunts. Let me see you slide
down the hay. Stub tells me you can slide
now without shutting your eyes.”

Honey Bunch at first had shut her eyes
tight Whenever she slid down a pile of hay,
but she didn’t do that any more. She could -
slide as well as Stub and shethought, did?
Honey Bunch, that when she grew up she
would have a farm of her own and have
Michael and Liny and Buffy and Stub come
and live on it with her.

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HONEY BUNCH: 173
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

“Honey Bunch,” said Uncle Rand, a morn-
ing or twa after Honey Bunch’s daddy had
come, “I den’t believe you have seen my bees,
have you?”

“No, she hasn’t,” said Aunt Carol quickly.
“I have been too busy to take her, and Stub
can’t go near the hives. If she ever stubbed
her toe and fell into one, all the poetry in the
world couldn’t make her feel comfortable.
And now, since the twins came, I told the
Children they must stay away from the bee-
hives. I don’t honestly know What effect
Bobby would have on bees,” added Aunt
Carol, “but I don’t. want to risk a Visit from
him to them.”

Aunt Julia laughed. She said she thought
it would be just as well if Bobby and Tess
didn’t go calling on Uncle Rand’s bees.

“I want Honey Bunch to see them before
she goes home,” said Uncle Rand. “She is
such a quiet little girl, I know they will like
her. We’ll go after breakfast.”

NOW, Honey Bunch was sure she didn’t
like bees. She knew they could sting, and

 

 

 

 

 

 

174 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

whenever she saw one humming around above
a. pink clover flower, she always left that pink
clover flower strictly alone.

But Honey Bunch was a polite little girl,
as well as a quiet one, and she did not want
to hurt her uncle’s feelings. So after break-
fast she took the hand he held out to her and
they went away together to visit the bees.

Back of the house was a flower garden,
filled with the sweetest flowers Honey Bunch
had ever seen. Uncle Rand told her, as they
walked down the red brick path of this gar—
den, that it was partly for the bees that all
the flowers were planted.

“Of course Aunt Carol; couldn’t be happy
without her flowers,” said Uncle Rand. “Beat
while fields of clover and buckwheat please
the bees, they like flowers, too. They make
honey from the yellow dust you find in the
theatt of a flower, and as I don’t want my bees
to go too far from home, I take pains to plant
the flowers they like.”

Honey Bunch pressed 3 little closer to her

HONEY BUNCH: 175
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

uncle when they came to the houses where the
bees lived.

“I’ll wait here,” she said. “They—-they
might not know who I am.”

Uncle Rand laughed, but softly.

“I’ll tell them,” he answered. “Bees like
quiet folk, Honey Bunch, and they’re only
rude and noisy When frightened or annoyed.
You watch me. I’ll tell the bees you are
here.”

Honey Bunch watched. She saw Uncle
Rand walk up to one of the hives and put his
hand inside. When he drew it out, there
were black bees walking about on his fingers.

“Bees,” said her uncle, walking carefully
over to the old tree stump where Honey
Bunch sat, “this is my dear little niece. She
lives in Barham. Her name is Honey Bunch.
And she loves sweet honey on her bread and
butter in the Winter time. What do you say
to that?”

He bent down his head and listened.

“The bees say that they will be glad to

 

 

 

 

176 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

make sweet honey for a little girl Whose name
is Honey Bunch,” said Uncle Rand, smiling
at Honey Bunch, Who was too interested to
smile back. “They say all the time you are
at the seashore, they’ll be busy getting honey
from the flowers and storing it up for you.”

“Really and truly?” asked Honey Bunch.
“Really and truly, Uncle Rand. P”

“Really and truly,” said her uncle. “Next
Winter you may expect a comb of honey, ad-
dressed to you and sent you by the bees. You
see if you don’t get it.”

“Then thank you very much, dear bees,”
said Honey Bunch, standing on tiptoe to look
down at the bees walking about on Uncle
Rand’s hand. “I think you are very good to
work so hard.”

Uncle Rand put the bees back, and then he
and Honey Bunch walked down to the mail
box together Where they found Stub and the
twins waiting for them.

“Did the bees sting you?” asked Bobby.

“No... of eouxrse not,” saici Honey Bunch,
‘Nflo felt as though she knew the bees well

HONEY BUNCH: , 177
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

by this time. “Bees are just like other folks,
Bobby.”

Bobby did not think they were, but the mail
carrier brought the mail just then and there
was a race to see Who could reach the house
first.

“This letter is from Julie’s mother,” said
Honey Bunch’s mother, opening the letter
her little girl brought her. “Dear, would
you like to Visit Julie next week?”

“At the seashore?” cried Honey Bunch.
“Oh, Uncle Rand said the bees would make
honey for me to eat while I was at the sea-
shore, so he must have known. But, Mother,
what will we do without Stub and Bobby and
Tess and Aunt Julia and Aunt Carol and
Uncle Rand and Michael and Liny?”

Everybody laughed at this long list, and
Honey Bunch’s mother said that perhaps Stub
and the twins would visit Julie while Honey
Bunch was there.

“Daddy says he will take us. before he has
to make another long trip,” explained Mrs.
Morton. “We’ll have to go home, first, but

 

 

 

 

 

 

WW :vW—Li / r. .19,” ~ » A

178 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

Glenhaven isn’t hard to reach and the trip
Will not be too far to make in the car.”

“Honey Bunch hasn’t seen the ocean, but
we have,” said the twins. “We’ve been to
the seashore lots of times.”

“I’ll tell Michael to hurry up and Whittie
those boats,” promised Stub. “If I go to see
Julie, I’ll need a boat.”

And that very afternoon the four children
played “seashore” in Stub’s sand box which
she had under a tree and hardly ever played
in at all. What happened 10 Honey Buneh
at the real seashore I’ll tell you in another
book, to be cafied, “Honey Bunch: Her First
Visit to the Seashore.” She was a very little
girl to pay a Visit to the very big ocean, and
she found. so much to do and see that it is no
wonder it takes a Whole book to tell it.

“I am so hot,” declared Tess, after they had
been playing in the sand box an hour or twoo
“Let’s go Where it is cooler.”

“We’ll go down cellar,” suggested Stub.
Stub could always think of something to do
or somewhere to go, her daddy said. “It’s

 

HGNEY BUNCH: 179
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

0001 down there. Liny has the doors open, to
air it.”

The cellar doors were open and the four
chiidren walked down the short stone steps
into the cool, light cellar. It was in perfect
order, for Liny was as neat as a pin—Honey
Bunch had heard Aunt Carol say so.

“Let’s play three-cornered tag,” suggested
Tess, forgetting that she was warm. “I’ll be
it. Choose your corners.”

Honey Bunch took her place behind one
of the whitewashed pillars. Tess said that
V-quld count as a corner. Stub couldn’t make
up her mind where she wanted to go, and.
while she was waiting Honey Bunch looked
down at the floor and saw something gray
against the wall.

“It’s a piece of pasteboard,” she said to her-
self. “I wonder what’s on the other side.”

She stooped down and picked it up and
turned it over.

“I’ve found it!” she shrieked, running for
the stairs that led to the kitchen. “Stub!
Liny! I’ve found it!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

180 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

The other children did not know what
Honey Bunch had found, but they ran after
her and four pairs of shoes elattered up the
stairs and four pairs of hands burst open the
kitchen door and four voices cried: “Liny!
Liny!”

N o wonder Liny, Who was mixing potato
salad for supper, was so surprised she dropped
the potato knife. But When she saw what
Honey Bunch had in her hand, Liny almost
smothered Honey Bunch in one big hug.

“What is it?” Stub kept asking. “What
did she find? Show us, Liny.”

If‘It’s the photograph!” cried Honey Bunch,
when she had wriggled out of Liny’s arms.
“Look, W alter and George! Look, Bobby?”

The three mothers had heard the noise, and
they came to see What the matter was. When
they saw the picture, of course they asked
Who had found it and Where it had been
found. Every one went downstairs to look at
the spot Where Honey Bunch had found it,
and Aunt Carol said it must have slipped
down behind the mantel and worked its way

HONEY BUNCH: 181
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARM

down to the cellar. And that was What had
happened.

“This house is so old the cracks are Wide
and deep,” said Aunt Carol. “Well, Honey
Bunch, if ever I lose anything, I shall send
for you to come and find it.”

“I knew I put it on top of the sun and moon
clock,” said Honey Bunch happily.

Liny thought that Honey Bunch was the
most wonderful little girl she ever knew, Hé-
cause she had found the long-lost picture, and
When it came time for the Mortons to start
for heme, Liny packed a basket of lunch that
Daddy Morton said would have lasted them
all the way to japan.

“Good~by, darling,” Whispered Liny, stand—
ing on the step of the car to kiss Honey Bunch.
“I hope you’ll come to Broad Acres again
very soon.”

They all crowded around to say good—by,
and Michael even brought out T. Foote and
W. Vane and let them stand at the big gate
of the barnyard to watch the car start off.
The twins and Stub and Buffy had to be

 

182 HONEY BUNCH:
HER FIRST DAYS ON THE FARl‘vI

taken off the running boards at least a dozen
times, and finally IVIr. Morton had to make
the start While Stub was in the middle of a
sentence.

“Good-by!” they all called. “Good-by—-
don’t forget to write.”

Honey Bunch steed up and held on to her
mother’s hand, waving until 21 mm in the road
hid the farmhouse from her sight.”

“I fee1-1 feel funny,” said Honey Bunch5
sitting down.

“Do you know that we are going to step
and see Mr. and Mrs. Popover?” asked Mt:
Morton. “Well, we are, and you’d better be»-
gin to think what you want to tell them, for
they’ll have many questions to ask you.”

Honey Bunch began to think and she did
not feel “funny” any more. So we’ll leave
her thinking pleasant thoughts to tell Mrs“
Popover and you may remember her as a1;
smiling little Honey Bunch. ‘5

 

 

 

THE END

 

This Isn’t AM!

Would you like to know What
became of the good friends you
have made in this book?

Would you like to read other
stories continuing their adventures
and experiences, or other books
quite as entertaining by the same
author?

 

On the reverse Jide of the wrap-
per Which comes With this book,
you will find a wonderful list of
stories Which you can buy at the
same store where you got this book.

‘Don’t throw away the mepet

Use it as a handy catalog ofthe books
you want some day to have. iBut in
case you do mislay it, write to the

Tublishers for a complete catalog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE HONEY BUNCH BOOIE§
By HELEN LOUISE THORNDYKE

 

 

Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations Drawn by
WALTER 5. ROGERS I

 

 

Honey Bunch is a dainty, thoughtful little
girl, and to know her is to take her to, your
heart at once. ‘

Little girls everywhere Will want to“ dis-
cover What interesting experiences she is
having Wherever she goes. .

HONEY BUNCH: JUST A LITTLE GIRE

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VESIT TO
THE CITY

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS ON
THE FARM

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST VISIT, TO
THE SEASHORE

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST LITTLE
GARDEN

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST DAYS
IN CAMP

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST AUTO TOUR

HONEY BUNCH: HER FIRST TRIP ON
THE OCEAN

 

 

GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK

 

 

 

 

 

EH12 BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS

For Little Men and Women
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of “The Bunny Brown Series,” Etc.

 

 

Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itseif.

 

 

These books for boys and girls between the ages of three
and ten stands among children and their parents of this
generation Where the books of Louisa May Alcott stood in
former days. The haps and mishaps of this inimitable pair
of twins, their many adventures and experiences are a
source of keen delight to imaginative children everywhere.
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE ,BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HONIE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE COUNTY FAIR
THE BOBBSEY TWINS CAMPING OUT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND BABY MAY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS KEEPING HOUSE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CLOVERBANK

 

 

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, N EW YORK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of the Popular “ Bobbsey Twins” Books, Etc

 

 

Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding.
Every Volume Complete in Itself.

 

 

These stories are eagerly welcomed by the little folks 1::
from about five to ten yearspf age. Their eyes fairly dance
with delight at the lively domgs of inquisitive little Bunny
Brown and his cunning, trustful sister Sue.
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S
FARM

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP-REST-
A-WHILE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU’S
CITY HOME

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG
WOODS

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO
TOUR

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR
SHETLAND PONY

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOVV

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS
TREE COVE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY
SOUTH

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE KEEPING STORE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEER
TRICK DOG

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT A SUGAR
CAMP

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON THE ROLL»
ING OCEAN

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON JACK FROST
ISLAND

s

 

 

GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK

 

 

 

 

 

TH E FLYAWAYS STO RI ES
By ALICE DALE HARDY
Author of The Riddle Club Books

individual Colored Jackets and Colored Illustrations by
WALTER S. ROGERS

 

 

 

 

A splendid new line of interesting tales for the little
ones, introducing many of the well known characters of
fairyland in a series of novel adventures. The Flyaways
are a happy family and every little girl and boy will want
to know all about them.

THE F LYAWAYS AND CINDERELLA

How the Flyaways went to visit Cinderella only to find that Cinderella's
Prince had been carried 05 by the Three Robbers, Rumba, Hibo and Jobo.
“ I’ll rescue him I " cried Pa Flyaway and then set out for the stronghold oi
the robbers. A splendid continuation of the original story of Cinderella.

'THE FLYAWAYS AND LITTLE RED RIDING
HOOD
On their way to visit Little Red Riding Hood the F lyaways fell in with
Tommy Tucker and The Old Woman Who Liveci in 21 Shoe. They told
Tommy about the Magic Button on Red Riding Hood's cloak. How the
wicked Wolf stole the Magic Button and how the wolves plotted to eat up
Little Red Ricling Hood and all her family, and how the Flyaways and
King Cole sent the wolves flying. makes a story no children will want to miss.

THE FLYAVJAYS AND GOLDILOCKS

The Flyaways wanted to see not only Goldilocks but also the Three
Bears and they took a remarkable journey through the air to do so. Tommy
even rode on 3 Rocket and met the monstrous Blue Frog. When they
arrived at Goidilcck's house they found that the Three Bears had been there
before them and mussed everything up, much to Goldilock's despair. " We
must drive those bears out of the country ! " said Pa Flyawey, Then they
ioumeyed underground to the Yellow Palace. and oh! so many things hap-
pened after that!

 

i'l-ROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

 

 

 

3‘. 1

_ '4-‘3‘m-n‘i‘3-Fr ‘V'z‘xiyl
4‘ . »:‘..v,_.-.e.‘l.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of The Bobbsey Twins Books, The Bunny
Brown Series, The Blythe Girls Books, Etc.

Durably Bound. Illustrated. Uniform Style of Binding=
Every Volume Complete in Itself.

 

 

 

 

 

Delightful stories for little boys and girls Which sprung
into immediate popularity. To know the six little Bunkers
is to take them at once to your heart, they are so intensely
human, so full of fun and cute sayings. Each story has a
little plot of its 0wn~—one that can be easiiy followedfiand
all are written in Miss Hope’s most entertaining manner.
Clean, wholesome volumes which ought to be on the book-
shelf of every Child in the land.

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPVIA BELL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO’S

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT MAMMY JUNE’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT FARMER JOEL’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKE RS AT MILLER NED’S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT INDIAN JOHN’S

 

 

 

fl

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

 

 

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