“We’d love to stay!” cried Bunny.

“And we can, for a while,” added Sue.  “Mother said we didn’t have to hurry.”

“Oh, could we open the front door and tend store for you really?” asked Bunny, his eyes sparkling in delight.

CHAPTER XVII

TWO LETTERS

Mrs. Golden thought it over for a minute.  Really, with her head aching as it did, she was in almost too much pain to think, but she felt that something must be done.  She needed all the money she could take in, and if customers were turned away from her store, because the door was closed, she would lose trade.  Not many would come around to the side as Mrs. Clark had done.

“Couldn’t we tend store for you—­a little while?” asked Bunny again, as he saw Mrs. Golden thinking, as his mother sometimes thought, when he or Sue asked her if they might do something.

“We could ask you where things are that we don’t know about,” added Sue, “and we wouldn’t talk loud or make a noise.”

“Bless your hearts, dearies!” sighed Mrs. Golden.  “You are very kind; but I’m sure I don’t know what to say.”

“Then let me say it,” advised Mrs. Clark.  “I say let the children tend store for you, Mrs. Golden.  Bunny and Sue are a lot smarter for their age than most children.  You let them tend store for you, and I’ll run over once in a while to see if everything is all right.”

“Very well,” said Mrs. Golden.  “You may keep store for me, Bunny and Sue.”

“Goodie!” exclaimed Sue, clapping her hands.  Then she happened to remember that she must not make too much noise, and she grew quieter.

“I’ll open the front door and take down the sign,” said Bunny.  “We’ll wait on the customers for you, Mrs. Golden.”

Bunny felt quite like a grown man as he removed the card and turned the lock in the front door, swinging it open.  The shades had been pulled down over the show windows, and Bunny and Sue now ran these up.

“I’ll run along now,” said Mrs. Clark, going out the front door and nodding in friendly fashion at the children.  “I guess you’ll make out all right, and I’ll be back in a little while.  If she gets any worse, or anything happens, just come and tell me—­you know where I live,” she said in a low voice, so Mrs. Golden, in the back room, would not hear.

Sue nodded and Bunny smiled.  They were rather anxious for Mrs. Clark to go, so they would be left in charge of the store.  And when this happened, when really, for the first time, Bunny Brown and his sister Sue were truly storekeepers you can hardly imagine how pleased they were.

“You go to sleep now, Mrs. Golden,” said Sue, going on tiptoe to the rear room, to look at the old woman lying on the couch.  “You go to sleep.  Bunny and I will tend store.”

Then she went back to Bunny, who sat on a stool behind the grocery counter.  He had decided he would sell things from that side of the store, while Sue could wait on the dry-goods and notions side.