HELPING MRS. GOLDEN
Almost dropping his slice of bread and jam, so excited was he, Bunny
Brown ran toward the hose. Before he reached it, for it was around the
corner of the house, he heard the man's voice again calling out:
"Here! Stop that I say! Can't people go along the street without being
wet with water from a hose? Pull your hose farther back!"
"Sue! Sue! Don't do that! Be careful! You're wetting some one," cried
Bunny, as he ran along, not yet seeing the hose. But he could guess what
had happened.
Sue, coming along and seeing the hose turned on, with the water spurting
out, had picked up the nozzle end and was watering the garden. Only she
held the hose so high that the water shot over the high front hedge and
was wetting some man passing in the street.
That is what Bunny thought. But that is not what had happened.
Just before he turned the corner of the house he heard the man's voice
once more saying:
"Say, isn't it enough to wet me once? What are you keeping it up for? I
am trying to get out of the way, but you follow me. I'm coming in and
see about this!"
Something very like trouble seemed about to happen.
"Sue! Sue!" cried Bunny, still thinking his sister was to blame. "Let
that hose alone!"
But when he turned the corner of the house and could see the garden, Sue
was not in sight. And, stranger still, no one was at the hose. There it
lay, still spurting water out on the thick, green grass.
Who had picked up the nozzle and sprayed the unseen man in the street?
If it was Sue where had she gone?
"Sue! Sue!" called Bunny. "Were you playing with the hose?"
Sue's head was thrust out of the window of her room upstairs.
"What's the matter, Bunny?" she asked.
"Oh, you're up there, are you?" exclaimed the little boy, much
surprised. "Were you down here at the hose?"
"No. I'm getting dressed. I haven't been down in the yard at all yet."
"Then who did it?" thought Bunny. "I wonder----"
But just then a man, who seemed to have been out in a rain storm without
an umbrella, came hurrying around the side path. He caught sight of
Bunny standing near the hose.
"Look here, my little boy," said the man, trying not to speak angrily,
though he was rightfully provoked, "you must be more careful with your
hose. You have wet me very much. Does your mother know you are doing
this?"
"She--she knows I'm watering the garden," Bunny answered.
"Does she know you were watering me?" asked the man, with a half smile.
"No--no, sir," replied the small boy. "I didn't wet you!"
"You didn't! Then who did?"
"I--I don't know," stammered Bunny. "I left the hose here while I went
in to get some bread and jam. Here's some of it now," and he held out
what was left of his slice. "I heard you calling, and I thought maybe it
was my sister Sue. Course she wouldn't 'a' done it on purpose. But it
wasn't Sue. She hasn't been downstairs yet."
"Then who was it?" insisted the man. "Surely the hose didn't wet me all
by itself."
"No," admitted Bunny. "But it might have been Mr. Winkler's monkey."
"Who's Mr. Winkler's monkey, and how could he wet me with a hose?"
demanded the man.
"His name is Wango--I mean the monkey's is," explained Bunny. "Sometimes
he gets away and does things. He climbed up on Mrs. Golden's
shelves--she keeps a store. Maybe Wango got loose and came over here and
picked up the hose to get a drink or something, and so wet you."
"Well, that's possible," admitted the man. "And if that's the case I beg
your pardon. Do you see Wango around here?" he went on, while Sue,
looking from her upper window, wondered who the stranger could be.
"No, I don't see Wango," replied Bunny, looking about. "But I'll look
for him. Maybe he's hiding."
"Maybe he is," and the man now laughed. "I'll help you search. For if
the monkey is up to tricks like that he ought to be stopped. He may wet
some one else if you go away and leave the water turned on."
"That's right," agreed Bunny.
He left the hose, still spurting, on the grass, and, followed by the
man, walked around the yard, looking for Wango. But the mischievous
monkey was not in sight, nor did he come when Bunny called, though Mr.
Winkler's pet nearly always did this.
"I guess he isn't here," said Bunny at length. "But I didn't wet you
with the hose."
"Then who----" began the man, but he stopped short to point and cry:
"Look at that!"
As Bunny and the stranger were walking back toward the hose, Splash, the
big dog, ran out from under the back porch and took hold of the hose in
his teeth. He began to shake it as he often shook things with which he
played.
"There!" laughed the man. "That's how I was sprayed! Your dog picked up
the hose after you left it, and raised it high, so the water shot over
the hedge and on me! Now the mystery is explained! It was the dog that
did it!"
And so it was.
"Splash!" cried Bunny. "Drop that hose!"
Splash dropped it, and with a bark came running up to be petted. He did
not know he had done wrong.
"I'm very sorry," said Bunny. "Splash, you're a bad dog!" he declared,
and Splash drooped his tail between his legs.
"Oh, don't scold him," the man begged. "I like dogs, and I know they
don't like to be scolded any more than we do--or than boys or girls do.
It wasn't his fault. He thought the hose was left there for him to play
with."
"Is anything wrong?" asked Mrs. Brown. Sue had told her mother about a
strange man, all wet, in the yard talking to Bunny, and Mrs. Brown had
come down to see about it.
"Just a little accident," explained the stranger. "I was passing in the
street when it suddenly began to rain--or at least I thought at first it
was rain. Then I knew it was some one using a hose and spraying me. I
called to them, but that did no good, and I came in. I saw this little
boy and the hose, and naturally thought he had wet me by accident. But
it seems it was his dog," and he explained how it had happened.
"I am very sorry," apologized Mrs. Brown. "If there is anything I can
do----"
"Oh, I will soon dry in the sun!" laughed the man. "I wasn't really
angry, only I know children will get careless when they have a hose, and
I was going to tell them to be more careful. But I don't suppose I can
make Splash understand," and he patted the dog, whose tail was now
wagging again.
"I'm glad you are so kind about it," said Mrs. Brown. "Bunny generally
is careful when he waters the garden. If you will come in and get
dry----"
"Oh, no, thank you! I'll dry better in the sun. Clean water will hurt
no one, and I might just as well have been caught in a shower.
Good-bye!" he called, and hurried away.
"After this, Bunny," advised his mother, as he kept on wetting the
garden, "it will be best to turn off the water if you leave the hose."
"Yes, Mother, I will," he promised.
So that little happening passed off all right, and later Bunny and the
gentleman--who was a newcomer in town, Mr. Halsted by name--became good
friends.
One day, about a week after vacation had started, during which time
Bunny and Sue had had much fun, the two children went to the little
corner store kept by Mrs. Golden. Bunny and Sue each had two cents to
spend, and they were allowed to get some candy.
As they entered the store they saw Mrs. Golden trying to sweep, but the
way in which the old woman used the broom showed that she was in pain.
As the children entered she stopped, held her hand to her side, and
tried to stand up.
"Oh!" she murmured, in a low voice.
"Is it your rheumatism?" asked Bunny.
"That, or something worse," replied the old lady, with a sigh. "I get a
pain in my side every time I sweep."
"Let me do it!" begged Sue. "I love to sweep, and I'd like to help you."
"So would I!" exclaimed Bunny. "I can sweep, too. Please let me!"
Almost before she realized it, Mrs. Golden had given up the broom to
Sue, and the little girl was sweeping the store, while Bunny waited for
his turn.
Suddenly the doorway was darkened, and a big man with a bushy black
beard came stalking in.
"Where's Mrs. Golden?" he asked, looking at some papers in his hand. "I
want to see Mrs. Golden," and his voice was cross.
"I'm Mrs. Golden," answered the old lady. "What can I do for you?"
"The best thing you can do is to pay that money!" snapped the man.