Mun Bun

“ Oh, look, Sue, it's a man, not a dog!"
"A man?" cried Sue. "What kind?"
"Oh, I can't tell, except that he has a dog and he's very ragged." Bunny peeped between some bushes and the next moment uttered a cry of surprise:
"Why, it's the ragged hermit who gave us the milk and who was so good to us!" cried Bunny. "He's the man who lives in the log cabin with the cow! Now we're all right. He'll take us home. Now we're all right!" and Bunny danced about. ”

“ Sue said. "A half tiger and half dog."
"Lots of folks would like to see an animal like that," Bunny said. "I'll just stripe my half of Splash, and leave your half plain, Sue."
"All right. But is you only going to have one wild make-believe animal, Bunny?"
"No, Ned Johnson has a dog. We can make a lion out of him."
"But Ned's dog hasn't any tail," said Sue. "I mean he has only a little baby tail, like a rabbit. Lions always have tails with tassels on the end."
"Well," said Bunny, slowly. "We could make believe this lion had his tail bit off by an elephant." ”

“ Bud herself could not sleep then for watching the revelation of her lovely auntie in the dawn—the cloud on the pillow, that turned to masses of hazel hair, the cheeks and lips that seemed to redden like flowers as the day dawned, the nook of her bosom, the pulse of her brow.
Other mornings Wanton Wully's bell would send her in to Bell, who would give her the warm hollow of her own place in the blankets, while she herself got up to dress briskly for the day's affairs. “Just you lie down there, pet, and sleepy-baw,” she would say, tying her coats with trim tight knots. ”

“ Look at Captain Consequence, never the same since he was abroad—mulligatawny even-on in India; a score of servant-men, and never a hand's turn for himself—all the blossom from that kind of Indian cress is on his nose.”
“Land's sake! I am glad I'm not dead,” said Bud, with all her body tingling as she heard the bees buzz in the nasturtium bells and watched the droll dog Footles snap at the butterflies.
“It's not a bad world, one way and the other,” said Miss Bell, knitting at her side; “it would have been a hantle worse if we had the making o't. ”

“ Bunny answered.
"Monkeys don't cost much I guess. 'Cause hand-organ mens isn't very rich, and they always have one. I'd like a parrot, too," said Sue.
"Yes, a parrot is better than a doll, for a parrot can talk."
"A parrot is not better than a doll!" Sue cried.
"Yes it is," said Bunny. "It's alive, too, and a doll isn't."
"Well, I can make believe my doll is alive," said Sue. "Anyhow, Bunny Brown, you can't have a parrot or a monkey, 'cause Henry, the elevator boy, won't let 'em come inside Aunt Lu's house." ”

“ Anderson,” he said to his sister. Sue took it but cried:
“Oh, Bunny, there’s a hole in the paper and all the sand is running out! Look!”
Bunny Brown raised his hands in the air.
[Pg 6]
“There you go again!” he cried. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Mr. Gordon and not Bunny? And that isn’t sand—it’s sugar! If you aren’t going to play right—”
“Oh, Bunny—I mean Mr. Gordon—I forgot!” gasped Sue. “Truly, I did! Come on and play!” she begged, for Bunny started to walk out from behind the counter. “I won’t do it again! Really, I won’t, Bun—I mean Mr. Gordon! ”

“ But he was a good monkey."
"Wango is good, too," said Bunny. "Only I guess he is scared, now. Come on down, Wango!" called Bunny, "and I'll give you a peanut."
"Oh, yes, he'll come down for a peanut, or maybe two peanuts!" exclaimed
Sue. "Wango loves peanuts. Have you any, Mrs. Redden?"
"Yes," answered the store-lady. "But I'm not going to give him peanuts, after all the candy he has taken and spoiled. Nearly half the jelly beans will be wasted, and the glass jar is broken, and he will spoil all those lollypops, too. Oh dear!" ”

“ But I will tell you, and Bunny Brown can look it up in his geography when he gets home. The point in the sky when the sun seems to be directly over your head is the zenith. [Pg 116]
"And it's noon and dinner time, too," went on Bunny.
"Can you tell by your stomach?" asked Sue. "I can, for my stomach is hungry. It is always hungry at noon."
"I can tell by my stomach, for it is hungry just like yours," said Sue's brother. "But I can tell by the sun. Daddy told me that it was noon, and time to eat, when the sun was straight over our heads. Now, we'll get out of the woods, Sue." ”

“ Bunny took the mooring rope and made it fast to a tree stump on shore. He did not want the raft to float away as, more than once, some of his father's boats had floated off from the dock.
Then Bunny and Sue, taking the bag of lunch with them, went on shore—that is on the island. It was a pleasant place, with trees and bushes to make shade, and with birds to sing to them.
"There doesn't anybody live here, I guess," [227] Sue said, as they walked about, looking on every side.
"Nobody ever lives on an island 'cepting pirates," Bunny said; "and we're them." ”

“ He did not even know that cows gave milk until he saw the farmer's hired man milking one day.
"I just don't know anything about the woods or the country," the boy said to Bunny and Sue, "so you can fool me all you like."
"Oh, we won't fool you," said Bunny kindly. "We'll tell you all we know."
"Thanks," said Tom Vine.
He had offered to travel on, after supper, and try to get back to the city.
"I don't want to be a trouble to you folks," he said to Mrs. Brown. "In the city I know some fellows, and they'll lend me money enough to buy some papers, and start in business." ”

“ Bunny and Sue thought for a moment Then Bunny asked:
"Could you keep a monkey, Aunt Lu?"
"Gracious goodness, no!" cried his aunt. "I should hope not! A monkey would be worse than a dog, a cat or a parrot. I hope you don't think of bringing a monkey home, Bunny."
"Oh, no'm. I was just wondering what we'd do if a hand-organ man gave us a monkey."
Mrs. Brown and Aunt Lu laughed.
"Well, I hope a hand-organ man won't give you a monkey," said Bunny's mother, "but, if one does, you'll have to say that you're much obliged, but that you can't keep it." ”

“ Medicine heap good. Indian like!"
"You'd better get yourself a toy train," said Bunny.
"No got money," returned Eagle Feather. "Like 'em very much for boy papoose when he grow big so like you." [Pg 80]
"Maybe I'll be tired of mine by that time and give it to him," said Bunny.
"Too nice. You no get tired long while," said the Indian. "Heap big medicine. Come, Sue, we wait for you."
As the Indian and Bunny waited they heard, off in the distance, the lowing of a cow.
"Hark!" cried Bunny.
"That my cow," said Eagle Feather. "I tell you boy and gal medicine heap good—find cow soon. Over this way! ”

“ Bunny. "I'm all better, and I can eat. Then we'll see what mother has."
Never did an ill person get well so quickly as did Bunny Brown just then. He sat up, threw to one side a blanket Sue had spread over him, and called:
"Where's the pie and cake?"
"Here they are," Sue answered, as she took them from a little box under the bushes.
"And where's the milk?" asked Bunny. "Fevers always make folks thirsty, you know. I'm awful thirsty!" ”

“ Bunny knew his way about grandpa's farm, for he was older than Sue, and he remembered having been there once before.
"Oh, here's a horse. Sue!" he cried, as he went into the barn.
Looking over the edge of the manger, or box where his hay and oats were put, was a brown horse. He sniffed at the children, and whinnied, as if glad to see them. When a horse whinnies it is just as if he laughs.
"Hullo!" said Bunny, and, liking horses, and not being afraid, he went up and patted this one on the nose. "Come on, Sue, rub him." ”

“ When dinner was over there came a lazy lounging hour on the fir boughs in the warm sun, while Old Cy smoked his pipe of content.
Ray, however, could not resist the signal flags any longer, and as soon as the meal was eaten he was out tending them again.
When the sun was halfway down, again the 209 happy trio broke camp and returned to the cabin, carrying fish enough to feed a multitude. That evening Old Cy told stories as usual, Ray picked his banjo and sang lively songs, and so ended Christmas in the wilderness.
Our lives are but a succession of moods, varying ever as our surroundings change ”

“ I can't talk to a doll!" cried Bunny.
"Yes, you can, too," said his sister. "Just pretend, you know."
"Well, even if I do, how can your doll talk to you, and wake you up?"
"Oh, Bunny! I'm only going to be make-believe asleep, and of course a doll, who can [Pg 10] pretend to talk, can make-believe wake me up as easy as anything, when I'm only make-believe asleep."
"Oh, all right, if it's only make-believe," agreed Bunny. "Giddap, Splash! I've named the make-believe chair-horse the same as our dog," he explained to Sue. ”

“ Think I don't know when anybody's bragging?” said Bud. “And when a body brags about a place or anything, they zaggerate, and just about double things.”
“You're not canny,” said Kate, thrusting the milk-can back hastily on the kitchen dresser. “Don't spare the butter on your biscuit. They tell me there's plenty of money in America. I would not wonder, eh?”
“Why, everybody's got money to throw at the birds there,” said Bud, with some of the accent as well as the favorite phrase of Jim Molyneux.
“They have little to do; forbye, it's cruelty. Mind you, there's plenty of money here, too ”

“ One day Bud saw great bands of countless birds depart, passing above the highroad, and standing in the withering garden heard as it were without a breath of wind the dry rattle of dead leaves fall. It frightened her. She came quickly in to the tea-table, almost at her tears.
“Oh, it’s dre’ffle,” she said. “It’s Sunday all the time, without good clothes and the gigot of mutton for dinner. I declare I want to yell.”
“Dear me!” said Miss Bell cheerfully, “I was just p. 142thinking things were unusually lively for the time of year. There’s something startling every other day. ”

“ There are many errands and chores to do, and a good boy is always useful."
"I'm glad he's going to stay," said Bunny.
"So'm I," added Sue. "Maybe he can make boats, Bunny, and a water wheel that we can fix to turn around at a waterfall." [Pg 50]
"Maybe," agreed Bunny. "Where is Ben, Grandma?"
"Oh, now he's out in the barn, somewhere, I expect. But you two tots must get dressed and have your breakfast. Then you can go out and play."
"We'll find Ben," said Bunny.
"Yes," agreed Sue. "We'll have two boys to play with now—Ben and Bunker Blue." ”

“ And about the ending of the day would Yūn-Ilāra go up to his tower’s top and look towards the setting of the Sun to cry his curses against Mung, crying: “O Mung! whose hand is against the Sun, whom men abhor but worship because they fear thee, here stands and speaks a man who fears thee not. Assassin lord of murder and dark things, abhorrent, merciless, make thou the sign of Mung against me when thou wilt, but until silence settles upon my lips, because of the sign of Mung, I will curse Mung to his face.” ”

“ Ah Lun bent forward and whispered. As he did so, amazement, indignation, and comprehension flitted across the tobacconist's face. He had to moisten his lips before he could speak.
"And the blooming things go back to their original state the moment they pass out of the hands of the owner of the black bottle? Well, I'm——"
"He no use to English," said Ah Lun, nodding affirmatively; "he use to pol Chilaman."
"Business is business," said Mr. Bourne, "all the world over. ”

“ That is right, dear. I know you like sweets, Bun, but I must punish you a little, you know, so I can't give you any to-day. Come, now, I forgive you both, so let us go back to our lessons at once; and I hope you will do your best to show me that you are truly sorry, by working very hard for the next two hours."
"Yes, yes, we will, indeed," cried the children together, and off they ran to get their books. ”

“ Mun married at St. Mary's Woolchurch Haw, London, Ursula, daughter of John Malcott, esq., of Bedfordshire. He settled in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. In July 1615, as a well-known merchant, he was elected a member of the committee or a director of the East India Company, and he spent his life in actively promoting its interests.
In 1621 Mun published 'A Discourse of Trade, from England unto the East Indies; answering to diverse Objections which are usually made against the same. ”

“ So Bell determined there and then to coax her into the gentle arts of domesticity that ever had had a fascination for herself. She went about it, oh, so cunningly! letting Bud play at the making of beds and the dusting of the stair-rails and the parlor beltings—the curly-wurly places, as she called them, full of quirks and holes and corners that the unelect like Kate of Colonsay will always treat perfunctorily in a general wipe that only drives the dirt the farther in. ”

“ Bunny begged. "Maybe I'll catch a fox pretty soon. Oh, look, Sue!" he cried, this time aloud, he was so excited. "There's a bird going into the box. I'll catch the bird, to show you how my trap works."
"You won't hurt the bird; will you, Bunny?" begged Sue. ”

“ Splash, who had run on ahead of Bunny and Sue, now came trotting back. He did not seem surprised to see Bunny with a horse. To Splash, everything Bunny did was all right.
The dog barked at the horse once or twice, but that was only his way of speaking, I suppose, and the horse lowered his head, and put his nose close to the dog. [90]
"Oh, now they're friends!" cried Sue, clapping her hands. "But don't let him bite you, Bunny."
"Let who bite me?"
"That horse."
"Horses don't bite," said Bunny. "They just eat hay and grass and oats. Anyhow his head's too high up. He can't reach me to bite me." ”