“Please don’t run away,” he said.  “I won’t hurt you.  I need some one to help me.”

Bunny and Sue felt sorry for the boy.

CHAPTER XV

HIDDEN IN THE HAY

For two or three seconds the two children and the ragged boy stood in the queer cave looking at one another.  Splash had come to a stop near his little master and mistress, and with one fore leg raised from the ground was looking sharply at the boy.  It seemed as if the dog were saying: 

“Just say the word, Bunny or Sue, and I’ll drive this boy away from here.  He doesn’t look like a proper person for you to be with.”

But Bunny and Sue had no such feeling.  They did not mind how ragged a person was if he were only clean.  Of course a dog is different.  Splash never did like ragged persons, though in a good many cases they were just as good as the well dressed ones with whom he made friends.

So, in this case, seeing the ragged boy coming near to Sue and Bunny in the dark, where the only light was that of the little boy’s electric lamp, the dog growled and seemed about to spring on the lad.  The boy took a few steps backward.

“What’s the matter?” asked Bunny.  “You’re not afraid of us, are you?”

“No, little feller, I’m not.  But I don’t like the way your dog acts.  He seems as if he didn’t like tramps, and I expect he thinks I’m one.  Well, I ’spect I do look like one, ’count of my clothes, but I ain’t never begged my way yet, though many a time I’ve been hungry enough to do it.”

“Splash, behave yourself!” cried Bunny Brown.  “Charge!  Lie down!”

Splash did as he was told, but it was easy to see he did not like it.  He would rather have run toward and barked at the ragged lad.

“Don’t be afraid of him,” said Sue.  “We won’t let him hurt you.  Bunny, why don’t you make Splash shake hands with this boy, and then they’ll be friends forever.  You ought to introduce ’em.”

“That’s so!  I will,” said Bunny.  “I forgot about that.  Splash, come here!” he ordered, and the dog obeyed.  “Now go over and shake hands with him,” went on the little fellow, pointing to the strange boy.

“Don’t be afraid and move away from him, or Splash won’t like it,” said Sue, as she saw the boy shrink back a little.  “Just stand still and Splash will shake hands and be friends with you.”

The boy seemed to be a bit afraid still, but he stood quietly and, surely enough, Splash advanced and held out his right paw, which the boy took and shook up and down.  Then the boy patted the dog on the head, and Splash barked, afterward licking the boy’s hand with his tongue.

“Now he’s friends with you, and he’ll always like you,” announced Sue.

“And no matter where he meets you he’ll come up to you and shake hands,” said Bunny.  “Once Splash makes friends he keeps ’em.  My name is Bunny Brown,” he went on, “and this is my sister Sue.  We live at Camp Rest-a-While on the edge of the big woods.  We came out to see if my father had come back from fishing, and we saw this cave and came in.”