All at once a daring plan came into Bob’s mind.  It seemed as if he could not resist it, for he thought of what he considered a fine “joke.”

As he was well acquainted with the hired man and cook he walked toward them.  Perhaps he would not have been flattered if he had heard what they said as he approached.

“Here comes that Henderson lad,” remarked Dent.  “He’s allers up to some trick.  Look out for him, Susan.”

“Oh, I can look out for myself.  It’s you that wants to be cautious.  He’d just like to spill your pail of water.”

So they did not look with much favor on Bob’s appearance.  However, Bob, once he had set his mind on a bit of mischief, knew how to carry it through.

“Hello, Dent,” he said good-naturedly.  “Dad wants to know if you have any more of that rheumatic medicine you made.  It fixed him up in great shape.”

This was true enough, though Mr. Henderson had not given the message to Bob that day, having some time previously requested him to deliver it the first chance he got.

“Sure I have some more,” replied the hired man.  If he was open to flattery on any point, it was on his skill as a maker of rheumatism cures.  He had tried several, and had at last decided that he had hit on one that was infallible.  He had a notion of setting up in the drug business.  “I’ll get you a bottle if you wait a while, Bob,” he said.

“I’ll wait.”

This was not very welcome news to Susan.  She wanted to have a private conversation with Dent, and she could not while Bob was present.  But the boy’s plan was not completed.

As he stood idly by the step-ladder, on the top of which was Dent washing away at the windows, with the pail of warm water beside him, Bob appeared to be toying with a bit of string.

“I don’t s’pose you have any doughnuts left, Susan?” he ventured rather wistfully.

Now Susan bad not forgiven Bob for a little joke he had played on her some time before, so at his hint, to show her displeasure, she turned her back and did not answer.  This was Just what Bob wanted.

Looking up to see that Dent was not observing him, he passed one end of the string about the step-ladder.  Tying it securely, he fastened the other end to Susan’s apron strings in such a manner that it would not pull off.

“I’ll wait for you out in the barn,” he said to Dent when it became evident that Susan was not going to take the hint and get the doughnuts.  In fact, Bob, much as he liked them, would have been disappointed if she had gone in for some.  He wanted to get out of the way before a certain thing happened.

He strolled off, but instead of going to the barn he hid around the corner of the house.  Susan and Dent conversed for several minutes longer, the man meanwhile busy at the windows.  Then the cook, hearing her mistress calling her, started for the house in a hurry.