"But now we're all paint!" wailed Sue.
"Well, never mind!" said the good-natured painter. "I can take those paint spots out for you, if that's all you're worrying about."
"Oh, can you?" eagerly cried Sue.
"How?" asked Charlie Star, who was a rather curious little chap.
"Will you?" asked Bunny Brown, which was more to the point.
"I can and will!" said the painter. "Wait until I get some clean rags and my turpentine."
He want back down the ladder, but soon came up again, with a can of something with a strong, but not unpleasant smell. Bunny remembered that smell. Once when he was little, and had a bad cold, his mother had rubbed lard and turpentine on his chest.
"This turpentine will take the paint out when it's fresh," said the painter. "Stand still now."
He wet the rag in some turpentine, which, as you know, is the juice, or sap, of the pine and other trees. It is used to mix with paint, which it will dissolve, or melt away after a fashion. It also helps the paint to dry more quickly when spread on a house or bridge.
With the turpentine rag the painter rubbed at the red spots on Sue's dress, and then, having taken those out, he began on Bunny and Charlie. But the boys wanted to take out their own paint spots, and the painter let them do it.