“George Watson would rather pull Splash’s tail, than give him a present,” declared Bunny.  And indeed George often played rather mean tricks on animals, and little children.

“Open the box, and see what’s in it,” suggested Helen Newton.

“I’ll open it,” offered Bunny.

The cover of the box was tied on, but Bunny slipped off the string.  As he lifted the cover, Sue, who stood behind her brother, looking over his shoulder, exclaimed: 

“Oh, it’s alive!  It’s alive!  Look out, Bunny!  There’s something alive in that box, and it might bite you!”

CHAPTER XVI

THE LEMONADE STAND

Bunny Brown tried to clap the cover quickly back on the box, but he did not quite do it.  It went on crooked, and when Charlie Star tried to help he only made it worse, so that the cover went spinning to one side.

Suddenly some little green animals began hopping from the box.  Out they hopped, and then they began jumping in all directions, among the little boys and girls.

“Oh!  Oh!  Oh!” screamed the girls, as they started to run.

Some of the boys—­the smaller ones—­also ran, but they did not scream.

Bunny Brown and Charlie Star were the only boys who did not run.

“Oh, Bunny!  What is it?  What are they?” cried Sue, looking over her shoulder as she ran toward the house.

“It’s snakes!  I saw ’em!  Big green snakes,” insisted Sadie West.

“Oh, what a mean boy George is, to scare us so!” said Helen.

Then Bunny Brown laughed, and so did Charlie.  Hearing this the girls stopped screaming, and the boys stopped running.

“What is it?” asked Sue again.  “Did they bite you, Bunny?”

“Nope” he answered, still laughing, “they can’t bite me!”

“Why not?” his sister wanted to know.

“’Cause they’re only frogs.  They won’t hurt anybody!”

And that is what was in the box that George had tossed over the fence into the midst of the party-guests—­a box of big, green frogs that he had caught at the mill pond.  George wanted to scare Bunny and Sue for not asking him to their dog’s party.  But the little scare was soon over, and the children only laughed at the frogs.

The green hoppers jumped this way and that, through the grass, and Bunny and his friends did not try to catch them.

“They’re looking for water,” Bunny said.

Splash saw that something queer was going on, and he ran up to see what it was.  He barked at some of the frogs, as they hopped through the grass, but did not try to bite them.

“And to think George fooled us with frogs,” laughed Charlie.  “When I see him I’ll tell him we just like frogs, and they didn’t scare us a bit.”

“I thought they were snakes, at first,” Sue said.  “That’s why I ran away.”

“It was not a very nice trick,” said Aunt Lu.  “But still it did no harm.  Now for another game, and I think there are a few more tarts left.”