Just then the little dog scrambled out on the far side of the hole, and Alexis, with a bark, sprang after him.
"Oh, stop him, William!" cried Laddie. "Stop him! Alexis will bite the little dog all to pieces."
"No, he won't do that," replied the chauffeur. "The two dogs are good friends. The little one lives down the street a way, and he and Alexis often play together this way, and race all over the yard. But I never saw 'em go into a mud-puddle before. Say, but you two youngsters are sights! Look at the mud!"
He had shut off the water by this time, and come back to the hole. Meanwhile Alexis was rolling on the grass, letting the little dog pretend to bite his ears.
"The mud'll brush off," said Russ.
"These are our old clothes," added his brother.
"Well, that's a good thing," said the chauffeur. "We're all in the same boat, I guess. But don't dig any more holes in the yard, and don't play with the hose unless your aunt says you may. She may blame me as it is."
When Mrs. Bunker and Aunt Jo came home, the mud had pretty well dried on the clothes of Russ and Laddie, and they did not look so dirty. But of course they told what had happened.
"You must never do it again!" said their mother. "Don't make any more fountains in Aunt Jo's yard."
"We won't," promised Laddie.