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"You'll let them ride up with you; won't you, Henry?" asked Sue.
"Oh, suah I will!" he said, smiling and showing all his white teeth. "Dey kin ride in mah elevator as well as not."
And, about two o'clock, which was the hour Sue had told them, the ragged children came, the big girl marching on ahead with Aunt Lu's card held in her hand, so she would find the apartment house. But the children were not so ragged or dirty now. Their faces and hands were quite clean, and some of them had on better clo...
"I made 'em slick up, all I could," said the big girl, who said her name was Maggie Walsh. "Is the party all ready?"
"Yes," answered Sue, who with Bunny, had been waiting down in the hall for the "company."
Into the elevator the poor children piled, and soon they were up in Aunt Lu's nice rooms. The place was so nice, with its satin and plush chairs, that the children were almost afraid to sit down. But Aunt Lu, and Mrs. Brown soon made them feel at home, and when the cake, ice-cream, and other good things, were brought i...
"Say, it's real ice-cream all right!" whispered one boy to Maggie Walsh. "It's de real stuff!"
"Course it is!" exclaimed the big girl. "Didn't she say it was goin' to be real!" and she nodded at Sue.
"I t'ought maybe it were jest a joke," said the boy.
Aunt Lu had not had much time to get ready for Sue's sudden little party, but it was a nice one for all that. There were plenty of good things to eat, which, after all, does much to make a party nice. Then, too, there was a little present for each of the children. And as they went home with their toys, pleased and happ...
They had had more good things to eat than they had ever dreamed of, they had played games and they had had the best time in their lives, so they said. Over and over again they thanked Sue and her mother and Aunt Lu, and Bunny -- even Henry, the elevator boy.
"We'll come a'gin whenever you has a party," whispered a little red-haired girl, to Sue, as she said good-bye.
"And youse kin come to our make-believe parties whenever you want," said the big girl.
"Thanks." Sue waved her hands to the children as they went down the street. She had given them a happy time.
For a few days after Sue's party she and Bunny did not do much except play around Aunt Lu's house, for there came several days of rain. The weather was getting colder now, for it was fall, and would soon be winter.
"But I like winter!" said Bunny. "'Cause we can slide down hill. Are there any hills around here, Aunt Lu?"
"Well, not many. Perhaps you might slide in Central Park. We'll see when snow comes."
One clear, cool November day Bunny and Sue were taken to Central Park by Wopsie. They had been promised a ride in a pony cart, and this was the day they were to have it.
Not far from where the animals were kept in the park were some ponies and donkeys. Children could ride on their backs, or sit in a little cart, and have a pony or donkey pull them.
"We'll get in a cart," said Bunny. "I'm going to drive."
"Do you know how?" asked the man, as he lifted Bunny and Sue in. Wopsie got in herself.
"I can drive our dog Splash, when he's hitched up to our express wagon," said Bunny. "I guess I can drive the pony. He isn't much bigger than Splash." This was so, as the pony was a little one.
So Bunny took hold of the lines, but the man who owned the pony carts sent a boy to walk along beside the little horse that was pulling Bunny, Sue and Wopsie.
"Giddap!" cried Bunny to the pony. "Go faster!" For the pony was only walking. Just then a dog ran out of the bushes along the park drive, and barked at the pony's heels. Before the boy, whom the man had sent out to take charge of the pony, could stop him, the little horse jumped forward, and the next minute began trot...
Chapter XXIII
Old Aunt Sallie
"Bunny! Bunny! Isn't this fun?" cried Sue, as she looked across at her brother in the other seat of the pony cart. "Don't you like it?"
"Yes, I do," Bunny answered, as he pulled on the reins. "Do you, Wopsie?"
The colored girl looked around without speaking. She looked on the ground, as though she would like to jump out of the pony cart. But she did not. The little horse was going faster than ever.
"Don't you like it, Wopsie?" asked Sue. "It's fun! This pony goes faster than our dog Splash, and Splash couldn't pull such a nice, big cart as this; could he, Bunny?"
"No, I guess not," Bunny answered. He did not turn around to look at Sue as he spoke.
For, to tell the truth, Bunny was a little bit worried. The dog that had jumped out of the bushes, to bark at the pony's heels, was still running along behind the pony cart, barking and snapping. And, though Bunny and Sue did not mind their dog Splash's barking, when he pulled them, this dog was a strange one.
Then, too, the boy, who had started out with the pony cart, was running along after it crying:
"Stop! Stop! Wait a minute. Somebody stop that pony!"
But there was no one ahead of Bunny, Sue and Wopsie on the Park drive just then, and no one to stop the pony, which was kicking up his heels, and going faster and faster all the while.
"He's running hard; isn't he, Bunny?" asked Sue.
"Yes, he -- he's going fast -- very fast!" panted Bunny, in a sort of jerky way, for the cart rattled over some bumps just then, and if Bunny had not been careful how he spoke he might have bitten his tongue between his teeth.
"Don't -- don't you li -- like it -- Wop -- Wopsie?" asked Sue, speaking in the same jerky way as had her brother.
Wopsie did not open her mouth. She just held tightly to the edge of the pony cart, and shook her head from side to side. That meant she did not like it. Sue and Bunny wondered why.
True, they were going a bit fast, but then they had often ridden almost as fast when Splash, their big dog, drew them in the express cart. And this was much nicer than an express cart, though of course Bunny and Sue liked Splash better than this pony. But if they had owned the pony they would have liked him very much, ...
Now the pony swung around a corner of the drive, and he went so fast, and turned so quickly, that the cart was nearly upset.
Sue held tightly to the side of her seat, and called to her brother:
"Oh, Bunny! Don't make him go so fast! You'll spill me and Wopsie out!"
"I didn't make him go fast," Bunny answered. "I -- I guess he's in a hurry to get away from that dog."
"Make the dog go 'way," pleaded Sue.
Bunny looked back at the barking dog, who was still running after the pony cart.
"Go on away!" Bunny cried. "Let us alone -- go on away and find a bone to eat!"
But the dog either did not understand what Bunny said, or he would rather race after the pony cart than get himself a bone. At any rate he still kept running along, barking and growling, and the pony kept running.