Sonny Boy   By: Sophie Miriam Swett (1858-1912)

[Illustration: Sonny Boy]

SONNY BOY

By Sophie Swett

Author of "Mary Augusta's Price," etc.

Illustrated

Philadelphia HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY

By the Same Author

MARY AUGUSTA'S PRICE Price, Fifty Cents

Copyright, 1904, by Henry Altemus

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I A Great Surprise for the Plummers 13

CHAPTER II Sonny Boy Goes on a Journey and Makes Friends 27

CHAPTER III Sonny Boy Goes in Search of His White Mice 43

CHAPTER IV Sonny Boy Finds a Crookeder Boy 57

CHAPTER V Sonny Boy Becomes a Scholar 71

CHAPTER VI Who Was Captain of the Company? 89

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE Sonny Boy Frontispiece "'Aunt Kate wants Sonny Boy,' she said." 21 "Sonny Boy went into the car." 29 "He told her which were Spaniards." 33 "The coachman used his fists to clear the way." 39 "'Are you his brother?' asked the man." 43 "'Let me show you what they will do.'" 49 "'Just think! He never has had one good time.'" 53 "'I'll give you twenty dollars for the parrot.'" 61 "'How quickly you have learned,' said Aunt Kate." 67 "Otto had his one good time." 73 "Captain Sonny Boy Plummer." 79

A GREAT SURPRISE FOR THE PLUMMERS

SONNY BOY

CHAPTER I

A GREAT SURPRISE FOR THE PLUMMERS

Mamma Plummer read a letter at the dinner table before she touched her soup. She had been having visitors and had not had time to look at it before. And she was always in a hurry to hear from Aunt Kate.

Aunt Kate! All seven of the young Plummers pricked up their ears.

Aunt Kate was "the right kind," as Tom Plummer said. She remembered all the young Plummers' birthdays, and even when she was in Europe sent home beautiful presents that arrived in Poppleton on the very day. A present is so much better on the very day.

"Aunt Kate is lonesome, in her new house, without any young people," said Mamma Plummer, at last. "She wants to borrow one of you children for six months."

There was a chorus of delight from the young Plummers. Mamma Plummer sighed a little. People were always saying, "How many there are of the Plummers," but Mamma Plummer never thought there were too many.

"Probably she wants one of us," whispered Dorothy, who was sixteen, to Polly, who was eighteen.

Sydney, who was fifteen, waited eagerly. He thought Aunt Kate might have heard of the picture on the barn door and mean to give him a chance to become a great artist. Any one could see that the picture meant a man on horseback, with a pipe in his mouth, and that the man was Michael, their gardener, even if Tom did pretend to think it was the town pump.

Oliver stood up on a round of his chair; he was short, and he had such a little, squeaky voice that he had to get up high to make people notice him.

"She may want one of the youngsters," said Polly doubtfully. "She said Trixie was a quaint child."