Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm Part 19

"I--I'm afraid, Bunny," she called to him.

"But I have to get out, Sue! I can't get out if you don't help me!"

Bunny tried to raise first one leg, and then the other. Both were held fast in the sticky mud under the water. He almost fell over, he tried so hard to pull loose his feet.

"Oh, look, out!" cried Sue, as she saw her brother nearly fall.

"Oh, Sue! Sue!" and Bunny was almost crying. "What am I going to do?

Will I have to stay here forever?"

Sue didn't know just what to answer. But finally she said:

"Wait, Bunny. I'll get a long stick, and let you take hold of one end of it. I'll keep hold of the other end, and I'll stay here and pull you out."

"All right! But hurry up! I'm sinking down deeper all the while."

Sue looked about on the bank of the stream, until she found a long, thin branch from a tree, where it had blown to the ground. She held one end of this branch out to her brother, and he took hold of it.

"Now I'll pull you out!" cried Sue, as she held her end of the branch in both her hands.

But instead of Sue pulling Bunny, it was Bunny who pulled Sue, as he was stronger than she was.

"Oh, look out, Bunny! Look out!" cried the little girl. "I'll fall in!"

"Yes," said Bunny, as he stopped pulling on the stick Sue held, "I guess you will. But oh, Sue! You'll have to help me! I'm sinking down more and more."

And Bunny was. The water was nearly up to his trousers now. He was sinking down deeper in the mud.

"I'll go and tell papa and mamma!" Sue cried, as she threw down the tree branch, and ran through the woods. "They'll know how to get you out."

Away ran Sue, but she did not go far before she met Bunker Blue.

"Well!" he cried. "I was just wondering where you were. Your mother sent me to look for you. Where's Bunny, Sue?"

"Oh, he's sinking down in the mud!"

"Sinking down in the mud? Why, what do you mean?"

"Oh, hurry, Bunker Blue! Bunny made a waterfall, and then he went wading in it, and he can't get his feet out, and he 'most pulled me in and he's scared and so am I and--and----"

But poor Sue could say no more.

"Well, well!" cried Bunker. "I don't know what it's all about, but show me where Bunny is."

He took hold of Sue's hand, and hurried back with her, and pretty soon Bunker saw Bunny in the middle of the little pond. Bunker did not stop to take off his shoes and stockings.

Wading in, with his shoes on, Bunker reached Bunny, who was just about to cry. In his strong arms Bunker lifted Bunny up out of the mud and water and waded with him to dry land.

"There! Now you're all right," he said. "What did you do that for, Bunny?"

"Well, we--we wanted to make a waterfall, and then we couldn't go sailing on it in a boat, or on a raft, so I thought I'd go wading. I did wade, but I got stuck in the mud."

"I should say you did!" replied Bunker, looking at Bunny's bare, muddy feet and legs, and at his own dripping shoes and trousers. "You sure did get stuck in the mud! It is better to keep out of these ditches, and little brooks. The bottom is almost always soft mud, and you'll sink away down in it. Now go over there, where the bottom is sandy. You won't sink there. And you can wash the mud off your legs. I'll have to wash, too, I guess."

Bunker showed Bunny a shallow place in the brook where there was no danger of sinking in the mud, and soon the little fellow was quite clean. His trousers were wet on the bottoms, but the sun and wind would soon dry them.

Bunny and Sue were telling Bunker how they had built the waterfall, when they heard a rustling in the bushes, and a noise as if some one, or something, were coming nearer.

"I guess it's our dog, Splash," said Bunny.

"No, Splash was asleep in the barn when I came to look for you," said Bunker.

And then, through the trees, came a man.

"h.e.l.lo, children!" he cried. "Oh, ho! So this is the trouble; eh?" he went on. "I wondered why no water was running down into my chicken yard, and I came to see what had stopped up my brook. It's your waterfall!"

"Ye--yes, I made it." Bunny said, wondering whether he had done something wrong.

"And he got stuck in the mud," added Sue. She always wanted to tell everything.

"Yes this mud is pretty sticky," remarked the man. "But if you are done playing waterfall I guess I'll just take it away. You see it stops the water from coming down the brook--that is, it stops nearly all of it.

And I need the water."

With a long stick the man began poking away the mud and stones Bunny and Sue had piled up to make the waterfall.

"This little brook goes right through my chicken yard," the man explained, "and the chickens like to drink the water. When I saw, a while ago, that there was only a little coming down, not enough for the hens and roosters to drink, I thought something had happened. And it was you children who did it all," and the man smiled.

"Well, I know you want to have fun, but please don't stop up my brook any more; will you?" he asked.

"No, sir," answered Bunny. He had had enough of waterfalls, for a while at least. Then he and Sue went back to grandpa's.

"Oh, Bunny, Bunny!" was all his mother said when she heard what had happened. "What will you and Sue do next?"

"I don't know, Mother," Bunny answered.

Two days after that, Bunny and Sue, nicely washed and combed, with Sue wearing her new red dress, started for the next farmhouse to play with a little boy and girl who lived in it. They went across the fields. Sue stopped to pick some flowers, while Bunny went on ahead.

Pretty soon he heard his little sister calling:

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! Come quick! He's after me!"

Bunny turned, thinking it might be a goat running after his sister, as one had done, though it did not hurt Sue.

But this time it was no goat. Bunny saw a big bird, with his wings dragging along on the ground, his feathers all puffed up, and with what looked like a red ta.s.sel hanging dangling, dangling down over his beak, strutting toward Sue.

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny! What is it?" Sue cried. "Take him away!"

"It's a big turkey gobbler!" said Bunny. "I'll drive him away for you, Sue! Don't be afraid."