As they were near the trees George Watson passed through the next lot, on the other side of the fence from the Brown land.

“I can climb trees better than any of you,” George said.  “If you let me come into your yard, Bunny, I’ll show you how to climb.”

“Oh, don’t let him in!” exclaimed Charlie.  “He threw the box of frogs at us the time you had your party.  Don’t you let him in!”

“No, I wouldn’t, either,” added Harry.

“Oh, please!” begged George.  “I won’t throw any more frogs at you.”

“Go on away!” ordered Charlie.

But Bunny Brown was kind-hearted.  He had forgiven George for the trick about the frogs.  And Bunny wanted to learn all he could about climbing trees.

“Yes, you can come in, George,” said Sue’s brother.

George was very glad to do so, for he liked to play with these boys, though he was older than they were.  And since his trick with the jumping frogs, in the box, George had been rather lonesome.

“Now I’ll show you how to climb trees!” he said.

“I can climb this one,” declared Bunny, going over to one in which he had often gone up several feet.

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” said George with a laugh.  “You ought to try and climb a hard one, like this.”

Up went George, quite high, in a larger tree.  Charlie and Harry also each got into a bigger tree than the one Bunny had picked out.  And of course Bunny, like any boy, wanted to do as he saw the others doing.

“Pooh!  I can climb a big tree, too,” he said.  He got down from the one he had picked out, and started up another.  He watched how George put first one foot on a branch and then the other foot, at the same time pulling himself up by his hands.  Bunny did very well until his foot slipped and went down in a hole in the tree, where the wood had rotted away, leaving a hollow place.

Down into this hollow, that might some day be a squirrel’s nest, went Bunny’s foot and leg.  Then he cried out: 

“Oh, I’m caught!  I’m caught!  My foot is fast, and I can’t pull it loose!”

And that was what had happened.  Bunny’s foot had gone so deep down in the hollow place of the tree, and the hollow was so small, that the little boy’s foot had become wedged fast.  Pull as he did, he could not get it up.  “Wait—­I’ll help you!” called George.

He scrambled from his tree, and ran over to where Bunny was caught.  Bunny could not get down, but had to stand with one foot on a branch, and the other in the hole, holding on to the trunk, or body, of the tree with both hands.

“Oh!” exclaimed Charlie, “s’posin’ he can’t ever get loose!”

“We could chop the tree down,” said Harry.

But George thought he could get Bunny loose easier than that.  George got a box, so he could stand on it and reach up to Bunny’s leg without getting up in the tree himself.  Then George pulled and tugged away, trying to lift up Bunny’s foot.