Bunny and Sue thought they would have no trouble at all in going back home, but they did not know how far away it was.

“All we’ll have to do will be to keep along the trolley track,” said Bunny.  “If we had my express wagon now, and a harness for Splash, he could pull us.”

“Oh, that would be fun!” Sue cried.  “It would be just like a little trolley car of out own.  You could be the motorman and I Would be the conductor.”

“We’ll play that when we get home,” her brother decided.  “Oh, look!  What’s Splash barking at now?”

The dog had found something beside the road, and was making quite a fuss over it.  It looked like a black stone, but Bunny and Sue could see that it was moving, and stones do not move unless someone throws them.

“Oh, maybe it’s a snake!” and Sue hung back as Bunny ran toward the dog.

“Snakes aren’t big and round like that,” her brother answered.  “They’re long and thin, like worms, only bigger.  Oh, it’s a mud-turtle!” Bunny exclaimed as he came closer, “A great big mud-turtle, Sue,”

“Will he—­will he bite?’

“He might.  He’s got a head like a lobster’s claw,” replied Bunny.  “But he won’t bite me ’cause I won’t let him get hold of my finger.”

“He might bite our dog!  Come away, Splash!” Sue cried.

But the dog knew better than to get too near the turtle, which really could bite very hard if he wanted to.  Bunny got a stick, and poked at Mr. Turtle, who at once pulled his head and legs up inside his shell.  Then he was more like a stone than ever.

And, as it was not much more fan than looking at a stone, to watch the closed-up turtle, Bunny and Sue soon grew tired of watching the slow-moving creature.  Splash, too, seemed to think he was wasting time barking at such a thing, so he ran off to find something new.

Once more the two children walked along the road.  The sun grew warmer and warmer, and finally Bunny spoke, saying: 

“Let’s walk in the woods, Sue.  It will be cooler there.”

“Oh, yes” agreed the little girl.  “I love it in the woods.”

So into the cool shade they went, Splash following.  They found another spring of water, and drank some.  They gathered flowers, and found some cones from a pine tree.  With these they built two little houses, doll size.

Pretty soon Sue said she was hungry, and Bunny also admitted that he was.

“We’ll coon be home now,” he said.  “And we’ll stop at Mrs. Redden’s, and get our balloons.”

“Then we’ll have lots of fun!” cried Sue, clapping her hands.

But the patch of woods through which the children had started to walk was larger than they thought.  There seemed to be no end to it, the trees stretching on and on.

“Where’s home?” Sue asked, after a bit.  She was tired of walking.

Bunny stopped and looked about him.

“I can’t see our house from here,” he said. “but it’s only a little way now.  I guess maybe we’d better go out on the road, Sue.  We can see better there.”