Sunnyside

“ For the origin of the name Grave Creek, see under that heading.
SUNNYSIDE, Clackamas County. The area called Sunnyside lies south of Mount Scott and is rather loosely defined. There is a Sunnyside Road, well known and also a Sunnyside School about two miles west of Damascus. These features are all near the north border of the county. Sunnyside post office was established December 17, 1888, with John R. Welch first postmaster. The office was closed August 12, 1903, probably because of the extension of rural free delivery. The compiler does not know the exact location. ”

“ The Harbour Commission has developed the lakeside not only for commercial purposes, but also for the use of the people. West of the city it has built Sunnyside beach, a half mile long, with accommodations of all kinds for seventy-five hundred bathers. ”

“ On the death of her husband, she had retired with her family—three boys—to the pleasant cottage which they now inhabited. It belonged to the old lady of the castle, who was patroness of the parish, and who accepted from the minister’s widow of a mere trifle as a nominal rent. On approaching the village, strangers always fixed upon Sunnyside for the manse itself, for an air of serenity and retirement brooded over it, as it looked out from below its sheltering elms, and the farmyard with its corn-stack, marking the homestead of the agricultural tenant, was there wanting. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ Horton's sister, Sunny's Aunt Bessie, in her bungalow at Nestle Cove. Mr. Horton took them down to the seashore in the automobile, and Sunny Boy had a delightful time playing in the sand and learning to swim. He found a little lost dog, too, as you may remember if you have read the book about him called "Sunny Boy at the Seashore."
Now he was at home again in Centronia, the city where he and his daddy and mother lived, and they were getting ready to make a trip to the great city of New York. ”

“ Sunny Boy saw the dark blue car draw up before the house and stop, and he banged noisily on the window screen to attract his father’s attention. Then he dashed downstairs.
“Well, well, who’s this young cyclone?” inquired Mr. Horton, catching Sunny Boy in his arms and lifting him to his shoulder. “Saw me drive up, didn’t you? Where’s Mother?”
“Upstairs. Daddy, let’s go out in the automobile! Where you going to keep it? Can I drive?” Sunny bounced about excitedly as he put his questions one after another.
“Easy, easy,” protested Mr. Horton. “The automobile will be an old story fast enough. ”

“ Horton, as he turned the car around. “We’re going through the town now, Sunny Boy. You look about and decide what you want to do when I come down again and we come over for a little fun.”
Sunny watched with interest. First they went through very clean, straight streets, with small square lawns before the houses—“like little green pocket-handkerchiefs”—Aunt Bessie declared. Nearly every house had a porch, and on every porch were groups of ladies, dressed in white, knitting or sewing or just talking. Children played croquet on the lawns, or sat in swings. ”

“ Horton smiled when she saw Sunny’s flushed face.
[Pg 31]
“Some one is excited,” she teased. “Well, Daddy dear, what did Bessie say about the suitcase?”
“I called her up, but she wasn’t in,” answered Mr. Horton. “Miss Martinson seemed to think, though, that they’d better have it. I’ll go up and drag it out now and Sunny and I can run it over to her in the car.”
“Oh, yes, let’s,” coaxed Sunny Boy, without a very clear idea of what the talk was about, but sure that a ride in the automobile was in some way connected with it. ”

“ Nelson gathered up his string obediently and trotted through the gate. Ruth slipped her hand into her mother’s and followed him. Left alone, Sunny Boy wiggled to a more comfortable position in his wagon and gave himself up to pleasant thoughts of the coming trip.
“Look here, Sunny Boy, your brains will be absolutely baked!” Aunt Bessie descended on him from the back porch. “My dear child, this yard is the warmest place in the city in the morning. Your mother asked me to see what you were doing. Why don’t you go out in front and play where it is shady?” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sunny Boy and his mother sat facing Daddy.
"Now we're off," announced Mr. Horton, smiling at Sunny Boy, who was watching everything.
A few more people came into the car, but not many, and after what seemed a long wait to Sunny, they heard the conductor's long-drawn-out "All a-bo-ard!"
The train groaned and started slowly.
"And now we're going!" declared Sunny Boy, with satisfaction.
"Now we're going," echoed Mother. "Don't put your head out, Sunny. If the wind blows too strongly we'll have to put the window down." ”

“ Every summer she’s down on the beach all day, playing.”
“But dogs get hungry,” protested Sunny. “An’ where can she sleep?”
“She sleeps most anywhere,” said Ellen, who was spending her third summer in Nestle Cove and really knew Queen very well indeed. “Sometimes she sleeps on our front [Pg 117] porch. And my mother always feeds her if she acts hungry. All the people in the cottages know Queen.”
“Here’s a shell for you, Sunny,” announced Ralph, who had been running up the beach looking for one. “Let’s start the fort right here in this corner. ”

“ As the ferryboat drew near the New York side, Sunny Boy saw the wonderful "sky line" which is famous all over the world—the outline made by the tall buildings against the sky. Even a little boy could appreciate the picture the tall skyscrapers made, some buildings white, some gray, with here and there a gleaming gold dome against the fleecy September clouds.
"What makes the boat go?" Sunny Boy thought to ask, as the gates were opened and they were moving off with the crowd.
"Engines and steam," answered Mr. Horton. "And turn around and you'll see who steered us." ”

“ 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.” ”

“ And I can’t drive the car, ’cause nobody will teach me. An’ you sew all the time and don’t ’muse me at all!”
Sunny Boy felt so sorry for himself that two big tears ran out of his blue eyes and splashed down on Curly, asleep in his lap.
“Why Arthur Horton!” Mother’s voice was gentle. “That doesn’t sound like my little Sunny Boy. Who ever heard of amusing a laddie with a dog to romp with and the whole beautiful seashore for a playground? You and Curly run down to the beach now, and see if you can’t find some more of those shells Aunt Bessie is saving to make into souvenirs. ”

“ She sat or stood at the carriage window and watched the view. It was quite different from anything she had been used to. Sunny lives in a very pretty but rather level country, full of woods and lanes, and hedges and fields; but she had never seen a hill or a river, or indeed (except the Thames) any sort of water bigger than a horse-pond. Mamma had sometimes shown her pictures of mountains and lakes, but doubted if the child had taken it in, and was therefore quite surprised when she called out, all of a sudden, “There’s a mountain!” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Horton and Aunt Bessie decided to stay under the umbrellas and knit, and Ellen and Ralph had an errand to do in the town for their mother. So Sunny Boy and Daddy raced each other up to the bungalow and found their bathing suits neatly spread out for them in the built-in bathing houses next to the side porch.
“Can you swim, Daddy?” Sunny Boy asked, struggling with his jersey.
“Yes, indeed,” was the cheerful answer. “You’ll learn this summer, too. I want to teach Mother to drive the car, so I can leave it down here sometimes; and I want to teach you to swim.” ”

“ After they reached the bungalow, Mrs. Horton went in with Sunny and helped him get ready for bed. After she had gone again, he lay for a little while listening to the roar of the waves as they broke on the beach and watching the shadows the moonlight made in the room before he went to sleep.
“I have to go into town to do a bit of marketing,” Harriet informed him the next day when after breakfast he wandered out into her kitchen and proceeded to poke his yellow head into the pantry. “Sunny Boy, you know your mother doesn’t like to have you help yourself to food. ”

“ I’ll sit right here and keep a look-out for Mother so she won’t miss us.”
“Yes, that would be fun,” agreed Ellen. “Come on, Sunny.”
“All right,” responded Sunny Boy briefly. “Are you going to play, Ralph?”
“Course. I like to build in the sand.”
The three children set to work to build a fort, and as Sunny Boy could go down and scoop up water in Ellen’s pail, they had plenty of damp sand to make the walls shape well. They made an elaborate fort with five gates and a high wall, and they were molding soldiers for it when Mrs. Horton and Aunt Bessie came and found them. ”

“ Sunningdale.
A wild, deep, romantic valley, winding between lofty bush-clad hills, their summits broken into many a rugged cliff, which echoes back the muffled roar of a mountain torrent foaming and hissing through its pent-up rocky channel. A lovely valley as travelled in the morning sunshine, melodious with the piping of birds from the cool shade of tangled brake and sylvan recesses on either side. Overhead a sky of the most brilliant blue; around a fresh, clear atmosphere, revivifying as wine; for it is mountain air and the day is yet young. ”

“ But for me, there is no place that need be more lovely, than Sunny Bay, when there is no sun upon it; except what goes out from the shore into the sea. A bay in the west takes an unfair advantage—it looks at its best, when the world is looking at it. While nobody gets up to see the best time of an easterly bay ”

“ 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.” ”

“ He was puzzled to know how The Billow could have sailed ashore while he was hunting it, for he thought he had looked very carefully. He finally decided in his own mind that his boat had passed the motor-boat [Pg 210] in the storm and that the high waves had kept him from seeing it. Even yet Sunny Boy did not realize how wide and how vast the ocean is, or understand that many, many ships may pass daily on the sea so many miles apart that they can not see each other.
“Here’s Sunny!” shrieked Ellen, running out as the Hortons passed the Gray bungalow. “You didn’t get drowned, did you? ”

“ Our street is next, Sunny. You pay the man and tell him to stop.”
Ellen and Ralph and Stephen, lined up in a little row, waited for Sunny at his top doorstep. They wanted him to come down and go in wading, they said.
“Your mother said it would be all right, ’cause my mother is on the beach. She has her knitting,” said Ellen. “Let’s hurry ’fore it gets any hotter.”
[Pg 142]
CHAPTER XI
SUNNY BOY TO THE RESCUE The sun was very hot on the beach, so hot that Mrs. Gray declared that she was fairly baked under her umbrella and that she did not see how the children stood the direct rays. ”

“ To Our Friends in The Sunny South
(Alexander McGeoch and Family)
A silent home beside the way we see,
With sleeping lawn o'erhung by leafless tree;
All sombre 'neath the chilling shroud forlorn,
While Nature waits the resurrection morn! ”