laring at Bert, who looked at
him a bit anxiously. More than once he and the bully had come to
blows, and sometimes Bert had gotten the best of it. Still he did not
like a fight.

"I'll get you yet, Freddie Bobbsey!" cried Danny, shaking his fist at
the little fellow. Whereupon Freddie turned and ran toward the house.
Danny saw that he could not catch him in time, and so he turned to Bert.

"You put him up to do that--to douse me with water!" cried Danny
angrily.

"I did not," said Bert quietly. "It was just an accident. I'm sorry."

"You are not! I say you did that on purpose or you told Freddie to,
and I'm going to pay you back!"

"I tell you it was an accident," insisted Bert. "But if you want to
think Freddie did it on purpose I can't stop you."

"Well, I'm going to hit you just the same," growled Danny, and he
stepped toward Bert.

"You'd better look out," said Bert, with just a little smile. "There's
still a lot of water in this hose," and he brought the nozzle around in
front, ready to squirt on Danny if the bad boy should come too near.

Danny came to a stop.

"Don't you dare put any more water on me!" cried the bully. "If you
do, I'll--" He doubled up his fists and glared at Bert.

"Then don't you come any nearer if you don't want to get wet," said
Bert. "This hose might sprinkle you by accident, the same as it did
when Freddie had it," he added.

"Huh! I know what kind of an accident that was!" spoke Danny, with a
sneer.

"You'd better get out of the way," went on Bert quietly. "I want to
sprinkle that flower bed near where you are, and if you're there you
might get wet, and it wouldn't my fault."

"I'll fix you!" growled Danny, springing forward. Bert got ready with
the hose, and there might have been more trouble, except that Sam, the
colored man, came out on the lawn. He saw that something out of the
ordinary was going on, and breaking into a run he called out:

"Am anything de mattah, Massa Bert? Am yo' habin' trouble wif anybody?"

"Well, I guess it's all over now," said Bert, as he saw Danny turn and
walk toward the gate.

"If yo' need any help, jest remembah dat I'm around," spoke Sam, with a
wide grin that showed his white teeth in his black, but kindly face.
"I'll be right handy by, Massa Bert, yes, I will!"

"All right," said Bert, as he went on watering the flowers.

"Huh! You needn't think I'm afraid of you!" boasted Danny, but he kept
on out of the gate just