Sunny Boy in the Big City Part 14

"Dear me," said Mrs. Horton, "don't you think something we could pack in the trunk would be nicer? It needn't be a large gift, you know.

Just something they can say came from New York. We'll go up to the toy department and look around."

This was a different shop from the first one they had visited, and Sunny Boy had to see all the toys before he could settle down to choosing gifts for Ruth and Nelson. Finally, by Mother's advice, he settled on a quaint little painted music box for Ruth that played four different tunes, and a picture puzzle game for Nelson, who liked to put things together. These were sent home to the hotel so that Sunny Boy and Mother would not have to carry packages with them the rest of the day.

"Now we'll go to the restaurant and have lunch," planned Mrs. Horton, leading the way to the elevator. "And then I want to get a box of nice candy to take Adele's children. I hope their mother lets them eat candy."

"Will there be some children?" asked Sunny Boy, surprised. "That will be fun. Houses where I sit on a chair visiting are kind of lonesome."

"I don't doubt it," agreed Mother sympathetically. "Well, you'll find three children to visit with this afternoon. You must have been asleep last night when I told Daddy. Adele Parker has two boys and a little girl."

"Daddy calls her Mrs. Kennedy," objected Sunny Boy, following Mother out of the elevator into a large dining room.

Mrs. Horton stopped at the door till the waitress should find them seats.

"She is Mrs. Kennedy," Mother admitted, smiling. "I call her Adele Parker because that was her name when I knew her at school. She probably calls me Olive Andrew, because that was my name before it was Mrs. Horton."

The waitress came up to them and beckoned.

"There's a table for two over by the window," she said. "I'll see that some one takes your order."

CHAPTER X

MORE SIGHTSEEING

Sunny Boy and Mother had a pleasant lunch, Sunny Boy, as he ate his sandwiches and drank his milk, looking down into the street six or seven stories below, or out over the roofs of the city.

"Now we're going to Adele's," he remarked, as Mother gathered up her gloves and purse.

"Oh, Sunny Boy!" Mrs. Horton surveyed him half laughingly, half with despair. "You musn't call her Adele. Say Mrs. Kennedy. You never call Mother's friends by their first names, you know you don't."

"Well, I don't know her," offered Sunny Boy mildly, as though that made a difference.

They took a bus, which never lost its charm for Sunny, and after a rather long ride, got out at a cross street and walked until they reached a narrow, five-storied brick house with gay window boxes at every window. A maid opened the door for them and showed them into a pleasant, rather small room where a little girl sat at the grand piano, practicing.

She glanced up shyly as Mrs. Horton and Sunny Boy came in.

"I'm sure I know who you are," smiled Mrs. Horton. "You must be Alice."

The little girl got up and made a pretty curtsy.

"I'm Alice Kennedy," she said, smiling too. "Are you Mother's friend, Mrs. Horton? Is he your little boy?"

Mrs. Kennedy came in as Mrs. Horton nodded, and there was a great showering of kisses and many questions asked and ever so many introductions, for two small boys followed Mrs. Kennedy in and they were presented as her sons, d.i.c.k and Paul.

"Now you and I'll go upstairs where it is cozier," said Mrs. Kennedy, when every one knew every one else, "and the children shall take Sunny Boy up to their playroom on the top floor."

"We brought a little candy," explained Mrs. Horton, giving Sunny Boy the box. "Are you willing to have it pa.s.sed?"

Mrs. Kennedy was, so each of the children had three pieces and climbed the stairs to the playroom chattering like old friends.

"Have you been to the ac-quarium?" asked Paul, p.r.o.nouncing it as if it were two words. He was rocking Sunny Boy on his rocking horse, which was as large as a small pony and had real hair in its mane and tail.

"Got one at home," announced Sunny Boy contentedly. "There were ten goldfish but one died."

"Oh, Paul means the real aquarium," explained Alice. "Down at the Battery, with the queerest fish you ever saw, and big tanks, and corals, and everything."

No, Sunny Boy hadn't seen that. He was so much interested in Alice's descriptions that when the two mothers came up to see what they were doing, they found them still talking about the fish.

"Hasn't Sunny Boy been down to the Battery?" asked Mrs. Kennedy. "Why, we must all go. How about to-morrow?"

Mrs. Horton explained that she had planned to go to the Statue of Liberty the following day.

"You can do that easily in the afternoon," said Mrs. Kennedy. "We might as well make a day of it. I have to get the children ready for school, and one day is all I can spare. Suppose we meet at the Battery in the morning and see the aquarium. We'll have lunch somewhere and take the boat right from the Battery for Bedloe's Island."

So it was arranged that they should meet the next morning, and Sunny Boy and Mother went back to the hotel to tell Daddy all about their plans and to hear about his busy day.

As soon as Sunny Boy and Mother entered the park at the Battery the following morning, the glint of water in the sun attracted him.

"Why is it the Battery?" he asked. "Are there guns?"

"There used to be," said Mother. "Long ago, when instead of a park, this end of New York was high rocks, a water battery guarded the town and was used a little in the Revolution. That is where the Battery gets its name. The aquarium is housed in the old fort."

"I see Alice," cried Sunny Boy.

"Yes, here they all are," said Mother.

The Kennedy family came up to them, and together they walked toward the dingy building where the queer fish, Sunny had been told, lived.

"It doesn't look much, but think who's been in it," remarked Alice.

She went to school and liked history. "After it stopped being a fort, they called it Castle Garden, and three presidents of the United States held receptions there. 'Sides Lafayette landed there when he came to this country to visit. Didn't he, Mother?"

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Kennedy. "But I think Sunny Boy is more interested just now in seeing the fish. Here we are, and please, children, don't all talk at once and do try to keep together."

Sunny Boy stared about him in amazement. Huge gla.s.s tanks with the queerest fish he had ever seen swimming in them were on all sides of him. A sudden noise, like a harsh cough, startled him.

"That's a seal," laughed d.i.c.k. "Come on over here, Sunny, and see them."

Funny, flat heads, bright eyes and "whiskers" had the seals, and they made the queer coughing sound Sunny Boy had heard. He privately didn't think they were very pretty, and he admired the great turtles in another tank much more.

"Let's go in back and see if we can touch the fish," he suggested to d.i.c.k, when they had seen all the open tanks on the floor. "I'd like to look out from behind there and see how it seems."

d.i.c.k was puzzled, but Alice understood right away.

"Those are all tanks, with just gla.s.s in front," she informed Sunny Boy.