Laddie and Russ had much fun playing at the water wheel and with the new and larger mill. Rose and the other children went to look at the splashing mill wheel and thought it very fine indeed.
“If I see that boy sneaking around here, and if he throws stones at your mill, shall I drive him off?” asked Mun Bun.
“What boy?” Russ wanted to know.
“That peddler boy who took Rose’s strawberry shortcake,” Mun Bun replied.
“Why, have you seen him again?” asked Mrs. Bunker, in surprise.
“Yes, I saw him going along the road yesterday,” Mun Bun said. “But he didn’t come in and try to sell any shoe laces.”
“He’d better not come around here again!” declared Russ, with flashing eyes as he clenched his fists. “If he comes I—I’ll hit him!”
“You mustn’t fight, Russ,” his mother said. “But I hardly believe it is the same boy. He wouldn’t stay around here after being so bold as to take Rose’s shortcake the way he did. It must have been some other peddler, Mun Bun.”
“No, it was the same one,” insisted the little fellow, and later they found out that he was right.
Two days after this a little girl who lived down the road from Farmer Joel’s house invited Rose, Violet, and Margy to come to a party.