“Why, Bunny! what’s the matter?” his mother asked, as he came into the house.  “Why are you home?”

“I had to bring back one of the alligators,” he explained.

“Ha!  Ha!” laughed Uncle Tad.  “Like Mary’s lamb, the alligator followed you to school one day, did it, Bunny?”

“She didn’t ’zactly follow me,” Bunny explained, as he took his pet out to the tank in the barn.  “I carried Judy in my pencil box, but I didn’t know it.”

Bunny went back to school and finished his lessons.  And all the remainder of the day, when the pupils had a chance to speak, they talked of nothing but Sadie West, the “mouse” and Bunny’s pet alligator.  It was very exciting, all together.

When Bunny and Sue reached home that afternoon they found their mother on the steps waiting for them.

“I’ll take your books,” she told the children, “and I want you to go to the store for me.  Mary started to bake a cake and found, at the last moment, she was out of baking powder.  I want you to go for a box.  You needn’t go all the way to the big store.  Stop at the little one on the corner—­Mrs. Golden’s, you know.  She sometimes has the kind I want.  Go to the corner store and get the baking powder.”

“All right!” exclaimed Bunny, and he and Sue hurried off.  They knew where Mrs. Sarah Golden’s little corner store was located—­just a few blocks from their home, much nearer than the big store where Mrs. Brown generally traded.  Bunny and Sue had been in Mrs. Golden’s store before, but not often, as it was rather out of the way, and such a small place that Mrs. Brown was afraid things would not be as fresh as at the larger grocery.  Besides groceries, Mrs. Golden also kept “notions”—­that is, pins, thread, hooks and eyes, and things like that.  She also had candy and a few toys for sale.

“Her store isn’t much bigger than our play store was, is it?” asked Bunny of Sue, as they reached Mrs. Golden’s.

“Not much,” agreed Sue.  “Didn’t we have fun when we played store?”

“Lots!” agreed Bunny.  “And didn’t the boiler make a big racket when it fell down?”

He and Sue laughed at remembering this, but their laughs died away as they entered the little corner store and heard groans coming from behind one of the counters.  Groans and sighs greeted the children as they opened the door.  No one was in sight.

“Oh, Bunny!” exclaimed Sue, frightened, “what you s’pose has happened?”

CHAPTER V

A NEW PUPIL

Though Bunny Brown and his sister Sue had not often bought things in Mrs. Golden’s store, they knew the woman who kept the place, and she knew them, for she often called them by name as they passed when she was out in front.  But now Mrs. Golden was not in sight, though the groans that came from behind one of the counters seemed to tell that she was there.

“Oh, Bunny, I’m afraid!” whispered Sue, standing in the opened door with her brother.  “Don’t let’s go in!”