“Five, Mrs. Golden.  And please may I scoop it out of the barrel?”

“Well, yes, maybe; if you don’t spill it.”

“I won’t spill any!” promised Bunny eagerly.  “And may I put it on the scales?  You see I’m going to keep a store when I grow up,” he went on, “and I’ll want to know how to weigh things on the scales.”

“I hope you make more money than I do,” sighed Mrs. Golden.  “Now be careful of the scoop, dearie!”

Bunny felt quite proud of himself as he leaned down in the sugar barrel and dipped up the sweet, sparkling grains.  Mrs. Golden guided his hands as he poured the sugar into the scoop of the scale, and of course she watched to make sure the weight was right, for Bunny was hardly old enough to know that.

But he did it nearly all himself, and he told his father so that evening after supper.

“My!  I’ll have to be on the lookout for a vacant place to rent so you and Sue can keep a store during vacation,” replied Mr. Brown, laughing.

“Oh, we don’t want to start a store unless Mrs. Golden gets her legacy so she’ll be rich,” declared Sue.  “If we had a store she wouldn’t sell so much and she’d be sorry.”

“Well, maybe that’s so,” agreed her father, with a smile.  “We’ll wait until we find out about the legacy before we start you and Bunny in the store business.  When will Mrs. Golden know about it?”

“When her son Philip comes back.  He’s gone to see about the legacy,” said Bunny.

When they went to bed that night Bunny and Sue talked of what they would do during the long vacation.  On account of some business matters, Mr. Brown could not take his family away that summer until about the middle of August.  This left them with a good part of the vacation to spend in Bellemere, and the two children were beginning to plan for their fun.

One of the first things Bunny found to do the next morning—­the first morning of the vacation—­was to water the garden.

“May I take the hose and sprinkle?” he asked.

“If you don’t get yourself wet through,” his mother answered.

“I’ll be careful,” Bunny promised.

There was a vegetable garden at the side of the house, a garden which Uncle Tad had made and of which he was very proud.  As there had been no rain for some days the garden was in need of water.

The hose was attached to the faucet, for Uncle Tad had been watering the garden the night before, and he had gone away, leaving word that if any one had time to spray more water on the vegetables they should do so, as the ground was very dry.

“I like to water the garden,” said Bunny, and he took great delight in directing the stream from the hose over the cabbages, beets and potatoes which were coming up.

After watering for some time Bunny began to feel hungry, as he often did, and started in to ask Mary for some bread and jam.  He laid the hose down, with the water still running, but he turned the stream so it would spray on the grass and not on the garden, so it would not wash out any of the growing things.