"Well, I thought I could get in and get out again before the bad old rooster saw me," went on Laddie. "So I went in. But when I wanted to come out after I got the ball, the gate wouldn't open, and then the bad old rooster came for me, and I tried to hit him with my ball stick, and I threw the ball at him, and I hit him, I guess, but he flapped his wings and he flew at me and—and——"
And then Laddie had to stop for breath, just as Rose had done.
"Dear me!" exclaimed his mother. "It's too bad, but of course you should not have gone into the chicken yard after your ball. Mr. Wendell told you not to. He would have got your ball for you. The rooster is afraid of Mr. Wendell."
"I won't go in any more," said Laddie. "And I wish Mr. Wendell would get my ball now, for it's in there."
"I'll ask him to," said Mrs. Bunker. "And now you had better come into the house and let me wash you."
"Oh, o-o-oh, look! Laddie's leg's got the nose bleed!" cried Mun Bun, pointing to the red spot on his brother's leg. "Laddie's leg's got the nose bleed!"
"Well, I'm glad it isn't any worse," said Mrs. Bunker, as the others laughed at Mun Bun's funny remark.
Mr. Wendell, who owned the savage rooster, came over later with Laddie's ball, which he had got from the chicken yard. Mr. Wendell said he was sorry for what had happened, and added:
"I'm going to get rid of that bird! He's getting older and more saucy every day. The best place for him is in a potpie. He won't trouble you any more, Laddie." And the next day the rooster was sent away.
The six little Bunkers kept on having good times at Captain Ben's. They went out on the water in his motor boat, and sometimes in a sailboat, and on these excursions Russ, at least, being the oldest, would look long and earnestly across the waters of the bay at Grand View.