“Oh, is it ice cream?” asked Bunny eagerly.  “I hope it is.  I’m so hot!”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” his aunt answered, with a smile.

“Oh, it’s just as good as ice cream!” cried Sue, when she saw where her aunt had spread a little table, on the shady side of the porch.

“Lemonade!” murmured Bunny, as he saw the big pitcher which he and Sue had used at their street stand.

“And tarts—­jam tarts and jelly tarts!” added Sue.  “Oh! oh! oh!”

And that was the treat Aunt Lu had made for the children.  There were two plates of tarts, one with jam coming up through the three little round holes in the top crust, and others in which jelly showed.  Both were very good.  And the cool lemonade was good also.

“Oh, I just love to come over to your house to play, Sue!” said Sadie West.

“So do I!” chorused the other children.

“We do have such good times!” added Charlie Star.

“And such good things to eat,” came from Harry Bentley.  “Those tarts are—­awful good!” and he sighed.

“Would you like another?” asked Aunt Lu, with a laugh in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

“If you please,” answered Harry, as he passed his plate.

Then, after the children had rested, they played more games, until it was time to go home.

One day, when Bunker Blue came to the Brown home, to bring up some fish Mr. Brown had sent, Bunny, who was out in the yard with Splash, the big shaggy dog, said to the red-haired youth: 

“Bunker, you know lots of things; don’t you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to say that, Bunny.  There’s lots and lots of things I don’t know.”

“But you can sail a boat; can’t you?”

“Oh, yes, I can do that,”

“Well, I wish I could.  And do you know how to make a dog harness, Bunker?  Do you know how to harness up a dog so he could pull an express wagon?”

“Yes, I guess I know how to do that, Bunny.”

“Then I wish you’d harness Splash to my wagon,” Bunny went on.  “I’ve tried and tried, and I can’t do it.  The harness breaks all the while, and when I put the handle of the wagon between Splash’s legs he falls down—­it trips him up.”

“Of course,” Bunker said.  “You ought to have two handles to the wagon, and Splash could stand in between them, just as a horse is hitched to a wagon.”

“Oh, could you fix my wagon that way, Bunker?”

“I might, if your mother said it was all right.”

“I’ll ask her.  And will you make me a harness for Splash?”

“I’ll try, Bunny.”

Mrs. Brown said she did not mind if Bunker fixed the wagon and made a harness so Bunny could hitch Splash to the express wagon, for the big dog was kind and gentle.

“Oh, what fun Sue and I will have!” cried Bunny.  “We’ll get lots of rides in the wagon.”

It did not take Bunker long to make two handles, or “shafts,” as they are called, for Bunny’s wagon.  Then he made a harness for the dog—­a harness strong enough not to break.  One day, when all was finished, Splash was hitched to the wagon, and Bunny was given the reins.  They went around the neck of Splash, for of course you can not put in a dog’s mouth an iron bit, as you can in that of a horse.