Bunny was coming out again, with a large slice of bread and jam, when from the front street he heard a man’s voice crying: 

“Here!  Look out what you’re doing!  Be careful with that hose!  You’re soaking me!”

“Oh, oh!” cried Bunny Brown.  “Sue must have picked up the hose that I left and squirted water on somebody!”

CHAPTER XIII

HELPING MRS. GOLDEN

Almost dropping his slice of bread and jam, so excited was he, Bunny Brown ran toward the hose.  Before he reached it, for it was around the corner of the house, he heard the man’s voice again calling out: 

“Here!  Stop that I say!  Can’t people go along the street without being wet with water from a hose?  Pull your hose farther back!”

“Sue!  Sue!  Don’t do that!  Be careful!  You’re wetting some one,” cried Bunny, as he ran along, not yet seeing the hose.  But he could guess what had happened.

Sue, coming along and seeing the hose turned on, with the water spurting out, had picked up the nozzle end and was watering the garden.  Only she held the hose so high that the water shot over the high front hedge and was wetting some man passing in the street.

That is what Bunny thought.  But that is not what had happened.

Just before he turned the corner of the house he heard the man’s voice once more saying: 

“Say, isn’t it enough to wet me once?  What are you keeping it up for?  I am trying to get out of the way, but you follow me.  I’m coming in and see about this!”

Something very like trouble seemed about to happen.

“Sue!  Sue!” cried Bunny, still thinking his sister was to blame.  “Let that hose alone!”

But when he turned the corner of the house and could see the garden, Sue was not in sight.  And, stranger still, no one was at the hose.  There it lay, still spurting water out on the thick, green grass.

Who had picked up the nozzle and sprayed the unseen man in the street?  If it was Sue where had she gone?

“Sue!  Sue!” called Bunny.  “Were you playing with the hose?”

Sue’s head was thrust out of the window of her room upstairs.

“What’s the matter, Bunny?” she asked.

“Oh, you’re up there, are you?” exclaimed the little boy, much surprised.  “Were you down here at the hose?”

“No.  I’m getting dressed.  I haven’t been down in the yard at all yet.”

“Then who did it?” thought Bunny.  “I wonder——­”

But just then a man, who seemed to have been out in a rain storm without an umbrella, came hurrying around the side path.  He caught sight of Bunny standing near the hose.

“Look here, my little boy,” said the man, trying not to speak angrily, though he was rightfully provoked, “you must be more careful with your hose.  You have wet me very much.  Does your mother know you are doing this?”