led Russ. "You've got to help me turn on the
water."

"Wait till I get my other shoe off!" said Laddie.

"No, come on! Do it now!" said Russ. "You can take your shoe off
afterwards, while we're waiting for the fountain basin to fill."

So, with one shoe on and the other off, Laddie limped over to the garage
to help his brother turn the faucet. Before this William had finished
what he was doing, and had gone to the house to ask Parker something. He
did not notice what Laddie and Russ were doing, but on his way back to
the garage the chauffeur saw the pile of dirt, noticed the hole and
looked at the end of the hose sticking up in the air.

"Now I wonder what that is," said William to himself. "I didn't leave
the hose like that, and I don't believe Alexis could have dug such a big
hole. I must certainly see what it is."

So William, forgetting for the moment about the little Bunkers, walked
over to the hose. He saw it sticking up in the hole and, as he bent over
it, he said:

"This must be the work of Laddie and Russ. I wonder what they're going
to do. Play fireman, maybe."

And it was just then, as William leaned over the hose, that Russ and
Laddie managed to turn the faucet. You can imagine what happened after
that.

Through the hose spurted the water, out of the end, right in William's
face. But of course Laddie and Russ did not mean to do that.

"Oh, my! Here! What's this! Oh, I'm all wet!" spluttered the chauffeur.
He jumped back, but not quite far enough, for he stumbled over some of
the dirt, and fell down, and the water, shooting up into the air, came
down on him in a regular shower.

"I say now! Stop it! Shut off the water!" cried William.

At first Laddie and Russ did not know what he meant. Then they looked
toward the hole, which they intended for a fountain, and saw the
chauffeur getting wet. William's legs seemed to be so tangled that he
couldn't get up in a hurry, and he was getting very wet.

"Turn off the water! Turn off the water!" he begged. "I'm getting all
mud!"

Laddie and Russ were frightened, then, and they tried to shut off the
faucet. But, just as, often, when you want to do a thing in a hurry you
can't, so it happened with the two boys. The faucet wouldn't turn, and
the water kept on spurting, and William kept getting wet, until he
finally managed to roll out of the way and then he stood up, looking at
the showering hose.

"What's all this?" asked the dripping chauffeur, but he w