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.
"Hello, 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.
Prett
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