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"I guess we'll have to go back without it," said Bunny, sighing. "But I'll buy another to-morrow."
The children turned to go back to Aunt Lu's house. Bunny and Sue looked about them. They had never been on this street before. It was not as nice as the one where their aunt lived. The houses were just as big, but they were rather shabby looking -- like old and ragged dresses. And the people in the street, and the chil...
"I -- I don't like it here," whispered Sue to Wopsie. "Let's go home."
"There's more children here than on our street," said Bunny. "Look at those boys wading in a mud puddle. I wish I could."
"Don't you dare do it, Bunny Brown!" cried Sue. "You know we can't go barefoot in the city. Mother said so."
"Yes, I know," Bunny answered.
The three children walked on. As they passed a high stoop they saw a number of ragged boys and girls sitting around a box, on which were some old broken dishes and clam shells. One girl, larger than the others, was saying:
"Now you has all got to be nice at my party, else you won't git nothin' to eat. Sammie Cohen, you sit up straight, and don't you grab any of that chocolate cake until I says you kin have it. Mary Mullaine, you keep your fingers out of dat lemonade. The party ain't started yet."
"I -- I don't see any party," said Bunny, looking at the empty clam shells, and the empty pieces of broken dishes on the soap box.
"Hush!" exclaimed Sue in a whisper. "Can't you see it's a play-party, Bunny Brown. Same as we have!"
Chapter XXI
The Real Party
The poor children on the stoop (I call them poor just so you'll know they didn't have much money) these poor children were pretending so hard to have a party, that they never noticed Bunny Brown, and his sister Sue, with Wopsie, watching them.
"When are we goin' to eat?" asked a ragged little boy, who sat on the lowest step.
"When I says to begin, dat's when you eat," said the big, ragged girl, who seemed to have gotten up the play-party. "And I don't want nobody to ask for no second piece of cake, 'cause there ain't enough."
"Is there any pie?" asked a little boy, whose face was quite dirty. "'Cause if there's pie, I'd just as lief have that as cake."
"There ain't no pie," said the big girl. "Now we'll begin. Mikie Snell, you let that ice-cream alone, I tells you!"
"I -- I was jest seein' if it was meltin'," and Mikie drew back a dirty hand he had reached over toward a big empty clam shell. That shell was the make-believe dish of ice-cream, you see.
"Say, dis suah am a funny party," whispered Wopsie to Sue. "I -- I don't see nuffin to eat!"
"Hush!" whispered Sue. "You never have anything to eat at a play-party; do you, Bunny?"
"Nope. But when we have one we always go in the house afterward, and mother gives us something."
"Let's watch them play," whispered Sue.
And so, not having found Bunny's kite, he and his sister Sue, and Wopsie, stood by the stoop, and watched the poor, ragged children at their play-party.
It was just like the ones Bunny and Sue sometimes had. There was make believe pie, cake, lemonade and ice-cream. And the children on the stoop, in the big, busy street of New York, had just as much fun at their play-party as Bunny and Sue had at theirs, in the beautiful country, or by the seashore.
"Now we're goin' to have the ice-cream," said the big girl, as she smoothed down her ragged dress. "And don't none of you eat it too fast, or it'll give you a face-ache, 'cause it's awful cold."
Then she made believe to dish out the pretend-ice-cream, and the children made believe to eat it with imaginary spoons.
"I couldn't have no more, could I?" asked a little girl.
"Why Lizzie Bloomenstine! I should say not!" cried the big girl. "The ice-cream is all gone. Hello, what you lookin' at?" she asked quickly as she saw Bunny, Sue and Wopsie.
For a moment Bunny did not answer. The big girl frowned, and the others at the play-party did not seem pleased.
"Go on away an' let us alone!" the big girl said. "Can't we have a party without you swells comin' to stare at us?"
Bunny and Sue really were not staring at the play-party to be impolite.
"What they want?" asked another of the ragged children.
"Oh, jest makin' fun at us, 'cause we ain't got nothin' to play real party with, I s'pose," grumbled the big girl. "Go on away!" she ordered.
Then Sue had an idea. I have told you of some of the ideas Bunny Brown had, but this time it was Sue's turn. She was going to do a queer thing.
"If you please," she said in her most polite voice to the big ragged girl, "we only stopped to look at your play-party, to see how you did it."
"'Cause we have 'em like that ourselves," added Bunny.
"And they're lots of fun," went on Sue. "We play just like you do, with empty plates, and tin dishes and all that. Do you ever have cherry pie at your play parties?"
The big girl was not scowling now. She had a kinder look on her face. After all she had found that the "swells," as she called Bunny and Sue, were just like herself.
"No, we never have cherry pie," she said, "it costs too much, even at make-believe parties. But we has frankfurters and rolls."
"Oh, how nice!" Sue said. "We never have them; do we Bunny?"
"Nope."
"But we will, next time we have a play-party," Sue went on. "I think they must be lovely. How do you cook 'em?"
"Well, we just frys 'em -- make believe," said the big girl, who was smiling now. "But I can cook real, an' when we has any money at home, an' me ma buys real sausages, I boils 'em an' we eats 'em wit mustard on."
Sue thought the big girl talked in rather a queer way, but of course we cannot all talk alike. It would be a funny world if we did; wouldn't it?
"It must be nice to cook real sausages," said Sue. "I wish I could do it. But will all of you children come to my party to-morrow?" she asked.
"Are you goin' to have a party?" inquired the big girl.
"Yes," nodded Sue. "We're going to have a party at our Aunt Lu's house; aren't we, Bunny? We are, 'cause I'm going to ask her to have one, as soon as we get back," Sue whispered to her brother. "So you say 'yes.' We are going to have a party; aren't we, Bunny?" Sue spoke out loud this time.
"Yes," answered the little boy. "We're going to have one."