Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South

by Laura Lee Hope

CHAPTER V

OUT OF A DUSTPAN

Prince was certainly a frisky horse that morning. In spite of all Uncle Tad could do by pulling on the reins and calling soothingly to the animal, he raced with the sleigh over the railroad tracks. And the train was coming nearer and nearer. Bunny and Sue well knew what would happen if it hit them.

"Whoa there, Prince! Be a good horse!" called Uncle Tad. He pulled harder on the reins, and when he saw that unless turned, the animal might dash across the tracks right in front of the rushing train, the old soldier gave such a pull that he swung the head of the runaway horse around and guided him alongside of the tracks instead of across them.

"Look out, Uncle Tad! You're going into a big drift!" cried Bunny.

"That's just where I want to go!" said the soldier. "If I head Prince into the drift he can't run any more."

And this is just what Uncle Tad did. By a hard pull on the reins he swung the horse to one side, and not any too soon, either. For as Prince dragged the sled along the tracks and into a big drift that was almost as high as the head of the animal himself, the train dashed by—the train with the locomotive that had whistled and set Prince to running away.

"Whoa, there now! Quiet! Steady, old fellow!" called Uncle Tad soothingly, as Prince saw the big drift in front of him and seemed to know that he could neither go through it nor jump over it, especially when harnessed to the sleigh.

WITH A WHIZZ AND A ROAR THE TRAIN SPED PAST.