e
looking for us."
"Let's go just a little farther," proposed Bunny. "I'd like to see a
little alligator. You wouldn't be afraid of a baby 'gator, would you,
Sue?"
"Not if it was a little baby one, I don't guess I would," she answered.
So she followed Bunny down the bank of the slow-flowing river, where it
widened out and grew deeper. And in a place where the bank curved in,
making a still pool, or "eddy," as it is called, Bunny saw something
which was the cause of quite an adventure which came to him and Sue a
few days later.
Bunny caught sight of some boards and logs piled together on shore, and
no sooner had he seen them than he exclaimed:
"Oh, Sue! I know what we can do."
"What?" she asked.
"We can make a raft and go sailing down the river. Here's a lot of
boards and logs, and I can easy make a raft. Bunker Blue showed me how,
and you and I have been in daddy's boats lots of times. Let's make a
raft!"
"Not now," replied Sue, holding back as Bunny ran forward. "It's time we
went back. Mother told us not to stay too long."
"Well, I'll just look at the boards and see if I could make a raft of
'em, and then I'll go back with you," Bunny said.
On this promise Sue waited, and after looking at the tangled pile of
boards, which seemed to have been left on shore by a flood of high
water, the little fellow went back to where he had left his sister.
"It'll make a dandy raft!" Bunny reported. "To-morrow we'll make it and
go sailing down the river."
However, this was not to be, for the next day Mr. and Mrs. Brown were
taken by Mr. Halliday on an excursion to a distant orange grove, and
Bunny and Sue went along.
"We'll make the raft to-morrow," Bunny said.
But for one reason or another this fun had to be put off, and it was not
until they had been at Orange Beach nearly a week that Bunny got the
chance he wanted.
During this time the Brown family had very much enjoyed their stay in
Florida. The weather was lovely, and there was much that was new to
visit. While there was not the variety in an orange grove that there was
on the cotton and peanut plantation, still there was much work to be
done.
The children saw how the oranges, when brought in from the trees, were
sorted over, the best being packed for one class of trade, and those
that were not so good for another. The golden yellow fruit was wrapped
in tissue paper and then the thin wooden crates were packed full, to be
shipped North.
So
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