Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home Part 32

"Yes, please all come," said Sue once more. Then she walked on with Wopsie and her brother.

"Say, Miss Sue, is yo' all sartin suah 'bout dis yeah party?" asked Wopsie, as they turned the corner.

"Why, of course we're sure about it, Wopsie."

"Well, yo' auntie don't know nuffin 'bout it."

"She will, as soon as we get home, for I'll tell her," said Sue. "It will be fun; won't it, Bunny?"

"I--I guess so."

Bunny did not know quite what to make of what Sue had done. Getting up a real party in such a hurry was a new idea for him. Still it might be all right.

"It's a good thing I lost my kite," said Bunny. "'Cause if I hadn't we couldn't have seen those children to invite to the party."

"Yes," said Sue, "it was real nice. We'll have lots of fun at the party.

I hope they'll all come."

"Oh, dey'll _come_ all right!" said Wopsie, shaking her head. "But I don't jest know what yo' Aunt Lu's gwine t' say."

"Oh, that will be all right," answered Sue easily.

When the children reached home, they rode up in the elevator with Henry, and Sue found her aunt in the library with Mother Brown.

"Aunt Lu," began Sue, "have you got lots of cake and jam tarts and jelly tarts in the house?"

"Why, I think Mary baked a cake to-day," Sue. "What did you ask that for?"

"And can you buy real ice-cream at a store near here, or make it?" Sue wanted to know.

"Why, yes, child, but what for?" Aunt Lu was puzzled.

"Then it's all right," Sue went on. "You're going to give a real play-party to a lot of ragged children here to-morrow afternoon. I invited them. I gave them your card. And now, please, I want a jam tart, or a piece of cake, for myself. And then we must tell Henry when the ragged children come, to let them come up in the elevator. They're little, just like me, and they never could walk up all the stairs. I hope your real play-party will be nice, Aunt Lu," and Sue, smoothing out her dress, sat down in a chair.

CHAPTER XXII

IN THE PARK

Aunt Lu looked first at Sue, and then at Bunny Brown. Mother Brown did the same thing. Then they looked at Wopsie. Finally Aunt Lu, in a sort of faint, and far-away voice asked:

"What--what does it all mean, Sue?"

Sue leaned back in her chair.

"It's just like I told you," she said. "You know Bunny's kite got away, and we ran after it. We didn't find it, but we saw some poor children having a play-party, with broken pieces of dishes on a box, same as me and Bunny plays sometimes. We watched them, and I guess they thought we was makin' fun of 'em."

"Yes," said Bunny, "that's what they did."

"But we wasn't makin' fun," said Sue. "We just wanted to watch, and when they saw us I asked them to come here to-morrow to a _real_ party."

"Oh, Sue, you never did!" cried her mother.

"Yes'm, I did," returned Sue. "I gave 'em Aunt Lu's card, and they're coming, and we're going to have _real_ cake and _real_ ice-cream. That one girl can cook real, or make-believe, sausages, but we don't need to have _them_, 'less you want to, Aunt Lu! Only I think it would be nice to have some jam tarts, and I'd like one now, please."

Aunt Lu and Mrs. Brown again looked at one another. First they smiled, and then they laughed.

"Well," said Aunt Lu, after a bit. "I suppose since Sue has invited them I'll have to give them a party. But I wish you had let me know first, Sue, before you asked them."

"Why, I didn't have time, Aunt Lu. I--I just had to get up the real party right away, you see."

"Oh, yes, I see."

So Aunt Lu told Mary, her cook, and her other servants, to get ready for the party Sue had planned. For it would never do to have the big girl, and the little boys and girls, come all the way to Aunt Lu's house, and then not give them something to eat, especially after Sue had promised it to them.

Bunny and Sue could hardly wait for the next day to come, so eager were they to have the party. They were up early in the morning, and they wanted to help make the jam and jelly tarts, but Aunt Lu said Mary could better do that alone. Wopsie helped dust the rooms, though, and she lifted up to the mantel several pretty vases that had stood on low tables.

"Dem chilluns might not mean t' do it," said the little colored girl, "but dey might, accidental like, knock ober some vases an' smash 'em.

Den Miss Lu would feel bad."

Bunny and Sue spoke to Henry, the elevator boy, about the ragged children coming to the party.

"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 clothes.

"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 in, why, the children acted just like any others that Bunny and Sue had played with.

"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 happy, there was a smile on every face.

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.