Then the story was told, of why the boys had helped Sue climb up the ladder to get into her room so her mother and the company would not see her in her soiled dress.

“But now we’re all paint!” wailed Sue.

“Well, never mind!” said the good-natured painter.  “I can take those paint spots out for you, if that’s all you’re worrying about.”

“Oh, can you?” eagerly cried Sue.

“How?” asked Charlie Star, who was a rather curious little chap.

“Will you?” asked Bunny Brown, which was more to the point.

“I can and will!” said the painter.  “Wait until I get some clean rags and my turpentine.”

He want back down the ladder, but soon came up again, with a can of something with a strong, but not unpleasant smell.  Bunny remembered that smell.  Once when he was little, and had a bad cold, his mother had rubbed lard and turpentine on his chest.

“This turpentine will take the paint out when it’s fresh,” said the painter.  “Stand still now.”

He wet the rag in some turpentine, which, as you know, is the juice, or sap, of the pine and other trees.  It is used to mix with paint, which it will dissolve, or melt away after a fashion.  It also helps the paint to dry more quickly when spread on a house or bridge.

With the turpentine rag the painter rubbed at the red spots on Sue’s dress, and then, having taken those out, he began on Bunny and Charlie.  But the boys wanted to take out their own paint spots, and the painter let them do it.

“There you are,” he finally said.  “I guess they won’t show now.”

“And my dress is nearly dry!” exclaimed Sue.  “Oh, I’m so glad.  Mother won’t know until I tell her.  And of course I’ll tell her,” she quickly added.

Sue was as good as her word.  After she got into her room and the boys had climbed down the ladder to go back and play with Bunny’s little ship, Sue changed into dry clothes.

Then, after the company had gone, she told her mother all that had happened.

“I suppose it couldn’t be helped,” said Mrs. Brown with a smile.  “I mean about falling into the brook.  But it would have been just as well to come and tell me at once, Sue, instead of climbing the ladder.  You might have fallen.”

“I didn’t want the company to know about it, Mother!”

“That was thoughtful of you.  But if you had fallen off the ladder the company would have known about that, and it would have been much worse than just being seen in a wet and muddy dress.”

“Oh, I couldn’t fall with Bunny and Charlie to help me!” declared Sue.

That evening, just before supper, after Charlie Star had gone home and Bunny and Sue were playing out in the side yard, Mary called to them, asking: 

“Do you children want to run to the store for me?”

“Yes,” answered Bunny, and Sue inquired: 

“What do you want?”

“A little pepper,” was the answer.  “I forgot that we were out and didn’t order any when the grocery boy called to-day.”