“Yes, if you will be careful and stay away from the holes, for you could easily drown in one of them, the water is so deep. But you well know where they are, don’t you? Each one has a long stick driven in it, standing well out of the water, with a red flag on it. So you can’t help knowing where they are. Good-by, and come home early for luncheon.”
“I won’t promise about that. We may be having too good a time to come home and we can eat some nice green grass and peppermint down by the stream, which will be a better luncheon than you will have. So don’t look for us, mother.”
“Very well! Be good children, and be careful about the deep holes.”
“All right. We won’t go near the holes. Good-by!” and Punch was off with a skip and a jump around the barn.
“Hurrah! Hurrah! We may go, Judy! Come along! I’ll race you down the hill.”
“It is very nice of Mr. and Mrs. Spots to give a party for us and such a big one, too, for there are dozens of animals on the farms round about us, and they have invited them from every farm that adjoins theirs,” said Billy.
“Yes, but you must remember, my dear, that not one-third of them will be able to come, as they cannot get out of their stables and pastures on account of the high fences and the locked doors of the stables.”
“Yes, I know that. But isn’t it a shame they cannot get away, for they all have such quiet lives that it would do them good to have a little excitement now and then.”
“Here come some of the sheep and goats to ask you not what they shall wear, having only one dress to their names, but how in the world they are to get the dirt off their wool and hair.”
“Good-morning, Mr. and Mrs. Billy Whiskers! Isn’t it lovely that the Spots are going to give a party for you?” said Mrs. Wire Hair, one of the goats. “But I am in despair. Just look at my hair! It is all stained with yellow clay. And worse than that, with black muck, too. I nearly stranded in the quagmire down by the pond yesterday and now I am a sight!”