Sunny Boy in the Big City.
by Ramy Allison White.
CHAPTER I
THE PARADE
"Fall in!" said Sunny Boy sharply.
The army, six small boys distributed comfortably over the front steps, scrambled to obey. That is, all except one, who remained seated, a sea shell held over each ear.
"I said 'Fall in,'" repeated Sunny Boy patiently, as a general should speak.
"I heard you the first time," admitted the small soldier. "Did you know these shells made a noise, Sunny?"
"Of course," answered Sunny Boy scornfully. "Any shell sounds like that if you hold it up to your ear. Come on, Bobbie, we're going to parade."
But Private Robert Henderson, it seemed, didn't feel like parading just that minute.
"Let's take this stuff out to the sand-box," he suggested. "We can make a real beach, with shells and everything. Gee, you must have had fun at the seashore."
"Did," said Sunny Boy briefly.
He was exasperated. As general of his army he tried not to be cross, but Bobbie was famous for always spoiling other people's plans. He never by any chance wanted to do what the other boys wanted to do.
"You can play with the sand-box after we parade," announced Sunny Boy now. "Come on, Bobbie."
Bobbie remained obstinately absorbed in the shells.
"Let me!" Down the steps tumbled a pink gingham frock and a fluff of yellow bobbed hair that proved to be four-year-old Ruth Baker. She lived next door to Sunny Boy, and her brother, Nelson, was already marking time with the waiting army.
"Let me march, Sunny Boy," Ruth begged. "I can mark time, an'
everything!"
Sunny Boy decided swiftly.
"All right," he assented. "I don't think much of girls in an army, but I s'pose it's better than being one short. Get in next to David."
Ruth's feelings were not easily hurt, and she didn't mind if her enlistment was not accepted with enthusiasm as long as she was accepted. She slipped happily into line back of David Spellman, a freckle-faced boy with smiling dark eyes.
"Forward, march!" Sunny Boy beat a lively quick-step on his drum and the army moved down the quiet street, leaving Bobbie Henderson playing with the shells.
Sunny Boy's drum, of all his toys, was probably his favorite. He had let it roll into the street once and a horse had nearly stepped on it, but his mother had mended it neatly with court-plaster, and it seemed good for many more days.
"Rub-a-dub, dub! Rub-a-dub, dub!" he pounded gaily now as he swung along at the head of his gallant forces.
"I don't think generals play drums," David Spellman had said doubtfully, when Sunny Boy first organized his army.
"Well, I'm going to play mine," Sunny Boy had retorted firmly. "Daddy says when you're short of help a man has to do two people's work. I can play my drum and be general, too."
"Halt!"
Sunny Boy issued his order so quickly that the army was startled and stepped on one another's heels as they came to a standstill.
"This square's a good place to drill," he explained. "I'll see how well you know the man'l of arms."
Sunny Boy meant the manual of arms, and his idea of army drill, gleaned from the talk of his father and one or two older cousins, wasn't very clear; but then, his army didn't know much about it either, so his authority wasn't questioned.
"Column right!" said Sunny Boy.
The army obediently turned to the right.
"Ruth, don't you know which is your right?" demanded Sunny Boy severely.
A general must keep up discipline, you know, and when a girl is in an army she must do just as the others do.
"I get mixed 'bout right and left," admitted Ruth Baker cheerfully.
"But I'm all right now, Sunny. See?"
"All right," approved Sunny Boy graciously. "Column left!"
The army swung to the left.
"Look here, I don't intend to have you children making a noise like this in front of my house!" The handsome glass-paneled door of the house before which the army was drilling had opened suddenly. A woman whom Sunny Boy afterward described to his mother as "awful big and tall" came out on the steps and frowned down at the children. "Why on earth do all the children in the neighborhood pick out my house to play around?" she continued fretfully.
Sunny Boy's army wanted very much to run home, but he showed no signs of running himself so they waited, huddled together in a frightened little group.
"Why don't you stay at your own homes to play?" persisted the woman.
The woman really wasn't very tall, not taller than Sunny Boy's own mother. She came out so unexpectedly and stared down at the children so crossly that she seemed taller than she was. She had near-sighted eyes, and wore big, thick-rimmed glasses, and these, too, made her look more severe.
"Well?" she demanded.
Sunny Boy stood at the foot of the steps and smiled at her. He knew she wasn't always upset like this.
"You have such a nice sidewalk," he explained, putting down his drum and removing his cap as Mother had taught him. "It's so wide and smooth. I should think it would be great for roller-skating."
"I won't let 'em!" the woman answered quickly. "In the summer I just about spend my whole day chasing children off this walk. I didn't have it put down for a roller-skating rink. What are you young ones doing, anyhow?"
"This is my army," Sunny Boy indicated the column with a backward sweep of his hand. "We were marching, and we stopped to drill. But we'll go, if you'd rather."
"That's a cunning little girl," said the woman, looking at Ruth. "Is she a soldier, too? I thought only boys could join the army."
Sunny Boy explained that Ruth was taking the place of a private who didn't want to do his duty.
"We'll be going now," he added politely.