r a minute, some of
you! Oh, do come in and sit down!"

"What for, Mary?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Has anything happened?"

"No, but 'tis easy to see you've forgotten somethin'; and when that
happens if you don't sit down, or turn your dress wrong side out, bad
luck is sure to foller you when you start off again. So come in and sit
down, as that's easier than turning a dress."

"Oh, let me turn my knickerbockers outside in!" cried Bunny. "That will
be as good as you or Sue, Momsie, turning your dresses. It's easy for
me. Then I can make-believe I'm a tramp, and I'll run on ahead and beg
for some bread and butter for my starving family," and he imitated, in
such a funny way, the whine of some of the tramps who called at the
Brown kitchen door, that his mother laughed and Sue said:

"Oh, Momsie, let me turn my dress wrong-side out, too, and I can play
tramp with Bunny. That will be fun!"

"No, you mustn't do that," said Mrs. Brown. "While we're hunting for
Splash--who isn't in sight. Where can he be?--we'll go in and sit down a
moment to please Mary."

"Would we have bad luck if we didn't?" asked Bunny.

"Not at all. But some persons, like Mary, believe in them; and Mary is
very fond of us. Even if we do not believe in some of the things those
we like believe in, as long as it does no harm to our beliefs, we can do
them to please a friend."

Even Mr. Brown, because he liked Mary, went in and sat down for a minute
with the others.

"Now you've done away with the bad luck," said the cook with a smile.
"What was it you came back for?"

"Splash," answered Bunny.

"He didn't come with us," added Sue.

"Well, it's no wonder, the funny way he's cuttin' up with that dog next
door," said Mary.

"What did he do?" asked Bunny. "Was it funny? Please tell us, Mary."

"Well, it might have been funny for him, but it wasn't for me," said the
cook, though she could not help smiling. "The two dogs was playin' tag
on the lawn. I had some napkins spread out on the grass to bleach, and
what did that dog Dix do but run down in the brook, and then come back
with his feet all mud and run over my napkins. Sure, I had to wash 'em
all again. That's what them two dogs did. The bad luck was just startin'
in when you come back, an' it's good you did, to sit down a bit an' take
it off."

"But we must get on again," said Mr. Brown. "So hurry, Bunny and Sue.
Find Splash. If he's muddy make him swim through the brook and clean
himself off. A