ked Sue.

Bunny thought for a moment.

"Maybe I can make it better than that," he said. "I could fasten the
bell up in the tree back of your tent-house, and then tie a string to
it--to the bell, I mean. I can let the string hang down outside here,
and when I come I can yank on the string, and that will jingle the
bell."

"Oh, let's do it!" cried Sue.

So Bunny got the milkman's bell, and fastened it to a low limb in a tree
back of the tent-house where Sue pretended she was living.

Then Bunny tied a string to the bell handle and ran the string out in
front, letting it hang loose, so that a pull on it would set the bell to
swaying and jingling. To make it easier to take hold of the string,
Bunny fastened to it a piece of wood. Then he and Sue began the
playing-house game.

They had lots of fun at it. The bell rang just like a "truly-really"
one, as Sue said, and when Bunny jingled it, and came in to sit down on
a box (which was a chair), Sue would give him cookies.

They were sitting like this, wondering what next to play when, all at
once, there came a loud jingle on the bell that was hung in a tree back
of the tent.

"Are you doing that?" asked Sue of her brother.

"No!" he answered. "How could I? The bell string is outside and I'm in
here."

"I thought maybe you had hold of the string in here," went on Sue. Then
the bell was rung again.

"Oh, it's some of the boys and girls come to play with us--I mean
they've come to call," said Sue, remembering that she was supposed to be
a housekeeper.

"I'll let 'em in," said Bunny.

He went to the flap of the tent, which, being down, did not give a view
outside. And what Bunny saw made him cry:

"Oh, Sue! It isn't anybody at all!"

"It isn't anybody?" repeated the little girl. "How could _nobody_ ring
the bell?"

"I mean it isn't George Watson, or Sadie West, or any of the boys or
girls," added Bunny. "Oh, Sue, it's--it's----"

"What is it? Who is it?" asked the little girl. "Who is it if it isn't
anybody to play with us? Who is it, Bunny?"

"It's Toby!" he answered.

"What, Toby? Our pony?"

"Yes, it's Toby. And, oh, Sue! He's ringing the bell!"

"Oh, how can he?" asked Sue, wonderingly.

Bunny, who was looking out of the tent, answered:

"He's got hold of the stick I tied on the end of the bell string, and
he's shakin' his head up and down, and that rings the bell. Oh, come
and look, Sue!"

Then Sue went out from under the carriage-cloth, which