"I like the rain," said Bunny, "but I don't like the thunder and lightning; do you, Mr. Hermit?"
"I don't mind them very much," answered the old man. "But if you are afraid I'll take you back to my cabin, and leave you there, while I go to your house and get them to come for you in a carriage."
"I like to ride in a carriage," said Sue, "though you gave me a nice piggy-back, too. But I like a carriage and horses."
"Well, then that's what I'll do. I think it is going to rain hard soon, and if I carried you through it you'd get wet. So we'll go back, and I'll see about the horse and carriage."
"But can't we go and get grandpa's horses from the Gypsies?" asked Bunny.
"I'm afraid not this time," answered the old man. "If the Gypsies are in the valley they will stay all night, anyhow, and we can look for the horses in the morning, when it has stopped raining. We'll go back to my house now."
By this time the rain was coming down quite hard. But, as they walked along under the trees, Bunny and Sue did not get very wet, nor did the hermit. Sue was almost asleep, she was so tired, and Bunny was glad they did not have to walk all the way back to grandpa's farm.
It was nearly night, and Bunny thought his father and mother, as well as the others, might be worrying about him and Sue. But then the hermit would soon go and tell them that the children were safe in his log cabin.
Back through the woods they went. Now it lightened very often, and it thundered so loudly that Sue awakened on the back of the hermit, and began to cry.
"I want to go home!" she sobbed. "I want my mamma!"