help of Mary and Mrs. Brown, Bunny was pulled from beneath the
wreckage. At first the little boy could hardly speak, and his mother, no
less than Mary and Sue, was beginning to get frightened. But suddenly
with a gasp Bunny found his voice, and his first question was:

"Did you get hurt, Sue?"

"No," she answered. "But I guess you did."

"Only a little crack on the head," Bunny replied, rubbing the place that
hurt. "But who knocked down my high shelf? Did Splash get in and wag his
tail?"

Sometimes the big dog did this with funny results.

"I guess I knocked down your shelf, Bunny," said Mary. "I'm sorry, but I
didn't know you had a board on top of the doors."

"Did you have that, Bunny?" asked his mother.

"Yes'm, I--I guess I did," Bunny had to admit. "It was a high shelf for
our hardware store. I had the washboiler up there!"

"No wonder there was a crash!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "It's a wonder you
weren't hurt!"

"I guess the big ironing board fell on the stepladder first, and stayed
there, and the rest of the things didn't hit Bunny because he was under
the board," explained Mary.

And that is about how it happened. Bunny was under a sort of arch formed
by the stepladder and the two ironing boards, and so was saved from
being hit on the head by the heavy things. One of the overturned chairs,
however, had struck him in the stomach, and this had rather knocked his
breath out, which made him unable to talk for a little while.

"Well, I'm glad it was no worse than this," said Mrs. Brown. "Mercy
sakes, though, the kitchen is a sight!"

"I don't mind! I'll clean it up," offered good-natured Mary. "The
children have to play something in the house when it rains out of
doors."

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Brown. "But they could have kept on playing grocery
store. They didn't need to make a high shelf and put the big washboiler
up on it to fall down when the door was moved the least bit!"

"I did that," confessed Bunny, anxious that Sue should not be blamed for
what was not her fault. "I didn't know anybody would push the door."

"Well, it's a mercy it was no worse," remarked his mother. "And now,
after you have helped Mary pick up the things, go on with your playing.
Can't you play grocery instead of hardware store, Bunny, my dear?"

"Oh, hardware store is nicer, and we have all the things now," Bunny
replied. "But I won't make any more high shelves."

The washboiler, the pans, and the scattered knives and forks w