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Chapter XV
Red Cross Money
Surely enough, in front of the Brown house was a wagon, painted red and yellow, and, as little Sadie West had said, it had on the sides many bright pieces of looking glass, which glittered in the sun.
"I wonder what it's for?" asked Bunny.
"It makes your eyes hurt," added Sue, shading hers with her hand as she looked at the bright wagon.
"Maybe it's your grandpa or your Aunt Lu come to see you," suggested Sadie, for she had heard Bunny and Sue tell about their relations.
"They wouldn't come in a wagon like that!" Bunny exclaimed.
"But who is in it?" asked Sue.
"Maybe it's a circus!" ventured Sadie.
"Nope! 'Tisn't a circus," Bunny said. "'Cause if it was a circus there'd be an elephant or a camel, and you don't see any of them, do you?"
"No," said Sue, "I don't."
"I don't, either," agreed Sadie.
Just then a tall, dark man, whose face looked like that of Tony, the bootblack down at the cigar store, came from the wagon, the back of which opened with a little door, and from which a flight of three steps could be let down.
"Oh, I know what it is!" cried Bunny.
"What?" asked Sue.
"It's gypsies," Bunny went on, as the tall, dark man, who had a red handkerchief around his neck, walked slowly toward the Brown home. "That's a gypsy wagon!"
"How do you know?" Sadie questioned.
"'Cause I see the earrings."
"A wagon hasn't got earrings!" exclaimed Sue.
"I didn't mean the wagon, I mean the man -- that man that looks as dark as Tony the bootblack," said Bunny. "See 'em!"
Then, indeed, the two little girls noticed the shiny rings of gold in the man's ears. And when he smiled, which he did at the children, they saw his white teeth glisten in the sun.
"That wagon's red and yellow," said Sue in a whisper. "It's just like Mr. Tallman's box, isn't it, Bunny?"
"What box?" asked Sadie West.
"The one he lost with all his money in," explained Sue. "No, it wasn't money, it was -- it was -- oh, well, he lost something, anyhow," she said, "and he had to sell Toby to us."
"Yes, and I'm glad he did," said Bunny. "Yes, his box was red and yellow, I 'member he said so. Maybe it's some relation to this gypsy wagon."
"Are you sure it's a gypsy cart?" asked Sadie, as the dark man kept on walking from his gaily painted wagon toward the Brown front gate.
"Sure, it's a gypsy wagon," said Bunny. "Charlie Star, or one of the boys, I forget who, told me some gypsies were camping over by the pond at Springdale, and maybe this is some of them."
"I'm not afraid," said Sue.
"Pooh! Course not! Nobody need be skeered of gypsies," said Bunny in a low voice, so the dark man could not hear him. But perhaps it was because he was in his own yard that Bunny was so brave.
The dark man -- he really was a gypsy, as Bunny and Sue learned later -- came up to the fence, and touched his cap, almost as a soldier might salute. He smiled at the children, showing his white teeth, and asked:
"Excuse me, but has your father, maybe, some horses he wants to sell?"
"My father doesn't sell horses, he sells fish, and he rents boats," said Bunny.
"Oh, yes, I saw the fish dock," went on the gypsy. "And you must be the Brown children."
"Yes, I'm Bunny, and this is my Sister Sue," said the little boy. "And her name's Sadie West," he added, pointing to their playmate.
"How'd he know your name was Brown?" asked Sadie in a whisper of Sue.
"He saw it painted on my father's boat house," said Bunny. "Everybody knows our name -- I mean our last name," and this was true, at least of the folks in Bellemere. They all knew Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue.
"I know your father does not sell horses for a business," went on the gypsy with the gold rings in his ears; "but perhaps, maybe, he has a horse he drives, and would like to get another for it, or sell it. We gypsies, you know, buy and sell horses as your father buys and sells boats and catches fish."
"Do you ever catch any horses?" asked Sue. "And do you catch them in a net?"
"Well, no, not exactly," and the gypsy smiled at her. "We get them in different ways -- we trade for them. Perhaps your father has a horse he wants to trade."
"No, he hasn't any horse, except the one that pulls the fish wagon down to the depot," said Bunny, for Mr. Brown did own a slow, old horse, that took the iced fish to the train. "But I don't guess he'd sell him," Bunny went on.
"All right, I ask next door," said the gypsy, and he was turning away when, back in the yard, sounded the ringing of a bell. The gypsy turned quickly, and looked at the children.
"Oh, that's Toby, and he's ringing for us to come back and play with him!" cried Sue.
"Is Toby your brother?" asked the gypsy.
"No, he isn't our brother," Bunny answered, and he was laughing at the funny idea when Toby, the Shetland pony himself, came walking around the corner of the house.
"This is Toby -- he's our pony!" explained Sue, as she put her arms around her pet, who came up to her, rubbing his velvety nose against her sleeve, as though asking for a lump of sugar or a bit of sweet cracker.
"Oh, ho! So that is Toby!" cried the gypsy, and his eyes seemed to grow brighter. "Ah, he is a fine little horse. Perhaps you will want to sell him?"
"Sell Toby? I guess not!" cried Bunny.
"Not for anything!" added Sue.