Sunny Boy

“ Sunny Boy worked at them till his poor little fingers were blue, but he could not unfasten them. So Sunny Boy was ready to cry with cold and disappointment and loneliness when a man spoke to him. It is not strange that a little boy should feel like crying when he has lost his grandpa and his feet are wet and his hands are so cold they ache. ”

“ When they reached Sunny's house, a familiar touring car was drawn up at the curb.
"Daddy's home!" cried Sunny Boy. "P'haps he'll give us a ride. Where's Bobbie?"
Bobbie was not in sight, but his shells lay scattered on the top step where he had left them.
"Well, well, who wants a little ride?" Mr. Horton came smiling down the steps. [21] "Sunny Boy, Mother wants you to pick up this stuff and put it in the hall. Any one's likely to fall over it out here. And then I'll take you round the park and back."
"All of us?" asked Sunny Boy, beginning to pick up the shells and sea-weed. ”

“ Ready, Daddy?"
Soon they were in the dining room.
"Where are we going?" asked Sunny Boy, at the table and trying not to feel queer when the waiter brought him his cantaloupe with the same flourish with which he served Daddy sitting opposite.
"Why, I'm going to be very busy this morning," explained Mr. Horton, "and I thought you and Mother might enjoy a little shopping trip. I'll meet you here for lunch. Anything you specially want to buy, Sunny?"
"Some post cards," replied Sunny Boy promptly. "Ruth Nelson wants one for her collection. And I could get Aunt Bessie a present." ”

“ If you say your name is Sunny Boy, all right, it is. And I'll even have it you live at the Macnapin Hotel, though where that is is more than I know. Quit crying, I tell you; you're going home along with me."
Sunny Boy continued to stare at him, the tears slowly chasing down his cheeks.
"I want my mother!" he sobbed forlornly.
"All right, all right, I'll get her for you," promised the distracted older boy. "You leave it to Tim Harrity, and there won't nothing happen to you. Only quit crying, [170] because folks are beginning to look at you. Come on. I'm through for the night." ”

“ Sunny Boy was hungry, but he was so eager to begin to build his snow man that he would have hurried through his lunch and skipped the bread and butter entirely if Harriet had not said that he could not go out to play at all unless he ate the things she gave him. ”

“ Sunny Boy introduced his new friends politely, though they had to tell him their last names.
“Ellen and Ralph Gray,” repeated Mrs. Horton. “Then I think you must be the little folk who live in the white house on the street next but one to ours. I met your mother in the embroidery store this morning when I was matching some wool. It is nice you live so near Sunny Boy.”
“Is the water cold? Aren’t you lazy people going in?” asked Aunt Betty, dancing [Pg 101] before them in her pretty black and white bathing suit. ”

“ But Sunny had not tied the knots in his string tightly enough, and a strong puff of wind coming by, the cord parted and away sailed the kite, over the brook and into the woods! 118
“Ding-ling! Ding-ling! Ding-a-ling!” rang Araminta’s bell.
It is often a good thing to be too busy to cry. Sunny Boy might have felt bad over the loss of his kite—indeed he watched it out of sight—but if he meant to cry the sound of the bell changed his mind. Instead, he ran up to the house as fast as he could go, and found Mother and Grandma waiting for him. ”

“ His real name, of course, was not Sunny Boy—oh, no, he was named for his grandpa, and when the postman brought him an invitation to a birthday party you might see it written out—Arthur Bradford Horton.
But birthday parties happen only once in a while, and Daddy and Mother called him Sunny Boy because he was nearly always cheerful. As Mother explained, you can’t depend on a party happening to cheer you 13 up, so to know a little boy who is sure to smile every day—well, that is worth while. ”

“ Tyler kindly. "You are sure, Sunny Boy, you don't mind going the rest of the way alone?"
Sunny Boy replied that he did not mind, and Nelson and Ruth went into the house, while he trudged off down the street by himself. Presently he chuckled.
"Didn't Jerry look funny?" snickered Sunny Boy. "I wonder what made me pin the donkey's tail on him."
"Where do you think you're going so fast?" cried Jerry, stepping out from behind a barrel where he had been hiding.
"Hello!" said Sunny Boy, surprised to see him. "I'm going home. The party is all done. You missed it—we had two kinds of ice cream." ”

“ You are so careful with your things they are not hurt at all, and it will keep them busy for an hour or two, playing with them.”
Sunny Boy thought this a fine plan, and he hardly had all the packages tied up and in the box again when Mrs. Horton pinned on her hat and gave him his, saying that the next station was theirs. She went down the aisle with him and they gave the surprise box to the five youngsters who were delighted to have something new to look at. And then the train stopped, and the brakeman lifted Sunny Boy down, and he found an old gentleman was kissing Mother. ”

“ Daddy gave him two ten-cent pieces, and he put them in the little slit and heard the bell ring twice.
Sunny Boy had never been so happy. He liked to look down from the high top of the bus and watch the motors and the people in the street. At nearly every cross street they had to stop while traffic went the other way, and often there would be four or five automobiles abreast. Once Sunny, looking down, saw a little boy in a beautiful car looking up at him. Sunny Boy waved, and the little boy smiled delightedly and waved back. ”

“ Don't you think Sunny Boy is too little to go alone, Daddy?"
"Oliver Dunlap and Nelson Baker will go, Mother," said Sunny Boy anxiously. "All the fellows are going, Daddy."
Mr. Horton laughed and gave Harriet his cup for more coffee.
"I think Sunny Boy will be all right," he said. "I know that new sled will rust its runners if it isn't used pretty soon. Sunny must not stay a minute later than you wish him to, and if the hill is too crowded, let him come home. You can have fun with your sled in more ways than just using it for coasting, you know, Son." ”

“ What do you suppose he would say to that?”
“I’m going,” announced Sunny Boy, scrambling to his feet. “I’m going this minute, Mother. Can I have a cracker?”
“‘May I have a cracker?’” corrected Mrs. Horton. “Well, just one. We’re going to have an early lunch.”
“All right. Then I’ll tell Harriet just one cracker.”
Sunny Boy ran over the hot sand, up to the bathhouse, and rubbed so hard with the rough towels that he was as dry and clean as could be in the shortest possible time. [Pg 127] He put on his sailor suit and went to his room to brush his hair. ”

“ Sunny Boy dabbled his feet in a little hole made by a stone he had pushed away.
“Sunny Boy!” called Mr. Horton once again.
Still Sunny Boy continued to play in the water. To tell the truth every one had been so anxious to make him happy at Brookside that he was the least little bit in the world spoiled. The more you have your own way, you know, the harder it is to do other people’s way, and if you can do as you please day after day, by and by you want to do as you please all the time. Sunny Boy felt like that now. 142
“Sunny!” said Daddy a third time, very quietly. ”

“ Horton did their packing and the trunk was sent early to the station. Sunny Boy was just as excited at the prospect of going home as he had been at the idea of the trip to New York.
"But what will you do all the time at home?" teased Jack the bell-boy, when Sunny Boy went to say good-bye to him.
"Oh, I'm going to school," announced Sunny Boy proudly. "All the children that I know go. Harriet's going to take me till I get used to it, and then Mother says p'haps I can go by myself." ”

“ Sunny Boy dropped asleep while they were talking, and in the morning he and Mother went shopping again, because Daddy was to have an all-day conference with business men and they must amuse themselves.
"I think we ought to choose a few little gifts to take to the friends at home," suggested Mrs. Horton, as she and Sunny Boy stepped from the car and went into one of the beautiful big shops. "Daddy says we won't be here much longer, perhaps not more than another week. Wouldn't you like to take something home to Nelson and Ruth?" ”

“ Sunny Boy ran down again to the beach and had time to help Ellen and Ralph build a schoolhouse in the sand before Mrs. Horton and the two aunts—for Aunt Betty had not stayed in the water many minutes after Sunny Boy came out—gathered up their magazines and sewing and started back to the bungalow for lunch.
“Sunny Boy,” said Mother at the table—and, by the way, Sunny Boy sat in Daddy’s place when he wasn’t there and tried his best to behave as the man of the house should—“if you take a nap this afternoon, you may [Pg 128] sit up to-night for a couple of hours and go with us down on the beach.” ”

“ From the straight, clean streets, the automobile turned into a wider thoroughfare, with nothing but stores on either side.
“I see the ocean!” Sunny Boy stood up in the car and shouted.
Sure enough, if one looked down the street straight ahead there was dark blue water, tossing in the sun.
“There’s where you can buy your pail and shovel,” said Harriet, pointing out a one-story shop with tin pails and shovels hanging up in its doorway.
“See all the children,” said Sunny Boy suddenly. “Are they going to the movies? And oh, look, Daddy!” ”

“ And after lunch they put on their mufflers and overcoats and caps and Sunny Boy hung his skates on his arm and they set out for Wilkins Park and the skating pond.
But first Mother had to kiss Sunny Boy and Harriet had to kiss him and they all waved their hands to him till he and Grandpa turned the corner and could not be seen from the house any more.
"We have to find the big boy, don't we?" said Sunny Boy, trying not to gasp as the wind blew down the avenue and almost took his breath away. ”

“ Sunny Boy heard. He turned and grinned impishly. He delighted to plague Jimmie, and he was having fun guiding Peter.
Then Jimmie rather lost his head. Had he kept still, Peter would probably have ambled gently about the meadow, perhaps turned into the road that led to the house and barn, and Sunny’s adventure might have been a very mild one. But Jimmie was frightened, and in his fear he did the one thing that could have brought about what he feared. He leaped the fence and came running toward the horse. ”

“ Sunny Boy was thrilled at the thought of riding in that orange dragon of an automobile. Mother and Daddy had friends who often took them motoring pleasant afternoons, and sometimes Sunny Boy went with them. But every one knows that is different from having a gay colored car roll up to your front door and wait especially for you.
The young man who drove the car opened the door with a flourish and helped Mrs. Horton in. Then he turned to lift Sunny Boy, but that young person hung back. ”

“ Snow White came to life again, and the big curtain came down and the lights flared up to show a houseful of happy, smiling children being buttoned into coats and gloves, and having their caps and hats and bonnets put on for them by mothers and [130] grandmothers and aunts and big sisters.
Sunny Boy walked soberly up the aisle beside his mother, thinking about a great many things. He thought about the dwarfs, and how he would like to know some to play with. He thought about the big theater, and wondered if it was fun to be an actor. ”

“ Daddy Horton was home when Sunny Boy came in, for he had left his office early. So he and Mother heard all about the fire before dinner, and though Mother hugged him tightly and declared that he smelled of smoke, she said she was glad her little boy had not been afraid.
"But the fireman was right," said Daddy Horton gravely. "Coats and rubbers are not important enough, Sunny Boy, even if they were trimmed with gold fur, to risk one's life for. I hope there'll be no more fires till you are grown up and able to judge for yourself. ”

“ Horton slowed down the car in surprise.
“That” was a merry-go-round on a vacant lot next to a brown frame building marked “Post-office.” The organ was playing merrily and the children on the prancing animals waved gayly to Sunny Boy as they spun round. A crowd of youngsters, tickets in hand, stood awaiting their turn.
“Let’s go on it,” suggested Sunny.
“Not this afternoon,” replied his father. “You see, I think we really should get to where we are going first, don’t you? I understand the ice is likely to melt and drown the whole house if we don’t hurry.” ”

“ Horton. “Where were you? Aren’t you hungry? Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“We’ve brought real seashore appetites to breakfast,” answered Mr. Horton. “Sunny Boy and I just went on a scouting trip. We’ve found the bathing beach, and made the acquaintance of Ellen. Sunny, have you said good morning to Miss Martinson?”
“Do you know,” said that little lady, smiling warmly at Sunny Boy, “I think it would be ever so nice if Sunny Boy would call me Aunt Betty. I haven’t a single nephew in this wide world—just two nieces. ‘Miss Martinson’ is such a long name to remember.” ”

“ He had rung the bell and Harriet had told him Sunny Boy was in the back yard. So Oliver had walked through the house, scattering snow at every step, and out through the kitchen to the back porch where he found Sunny Boy beginning his snow man.
"Aren't you going coasting?" called Oliver again. "Come on, Sunny Boy. Nelson and Ruth have gone to dancing school and we can have heaps of fun."
"I have to build a snow man," replied Sunny Boy. "I want to surprise my grandpa. Do you want to help build him, Oliver?"
"Why, I don't mind," said Oliver. "Wait till I bring my sled in. ”