“Stop it! Stop it!” suddenly cried Sue.
“What’s the matter?” asked Bunny, drawing back. “I’m trying to sop up your tears.”
“Well, you’re wiping ’em all over my face, an’ I don’t like it. I can sop up my own tears!”
“Oh, all right!” and Bunny acted as if his feelings were hurt. Then Sue felt sorry for being a bit cross—as she was—and she said:
“Oh, all right, Bunny, you can sop up my tears if you want to. But I guess I won’t cry any more. Anyway, not if you can find the way home.”
“I’ll find it all right,” declared the little boy. “Here, I’ll take hold of your hand, ’cause maybe you can’t see very well, and I’ll lead you.”
“I can see all right as soon as the tears dry up out of my eyes,” said Sue. “I’m all right now, but I was scared at first for being lost.”
“I was scared a little, too,” admitted Bunny. “But I’m not scared now. Come on, I guess we go this way to go home.”
Bunny thought he knew how to get out of the alley between the big brick buildings and find his way home, but he didn’t. It was a part of Bellemere he had never before visited, and it was strange to him. He walked to one end of the alley and saw another, almost like it.
“I guess we go down here,” said Bunny to his sister. Trustfully holding his hand, she stepped along at his side. It was still and quiet down among those big factory buildings. Bunny knew they were factories, though what had once been made in them he did not know. Nothing was made there now, for the buildings were deserted. Many windows were broken, and doors were swinging to and fro on half their hinges as the wind blew them.