you I was sorry I pinned the tail on you," answered Sunny Boy.
"I can't help it if they did laugh. And you did look funny."

"Well, you think so now, but you won't long," Jerry said. "I'm going
to wash your face in that snow and then you'll look funny yourself."

He pointed to some dirty snow that was banked in the gutter.

"You let me alone," cried Sunny Boy, trying to run past Jerry. "I
won't let you wash my face. Go away, Jerry Mullet!"

Jerry reached out his hand to snatch Sunny Boy's coat, but, before he
could touch him, down came a shower of snow that struck Jerry on the
back of his neck and made him shut his eyes.

"Hey, you!" called a deep, hoarse voice. "Why don't you pick on boys
your own size! That kid isn't half as big as you are!"

Jerry and Sunny Boy looked up. The voice came from the roof of a
piazza that overhung the sidewalk. A big man in blue overalls and a
red flannel undershirt, and wearing no overcoat, was shoveling the snow
off the roof. He had heard Jerry scolding Sunny Boy and had seen him
trying to grab him.

"The likes of you, thinking to pick a fight with a little feller like
that!" said the man, scooping up another shovelful of snow as he
talked. "Why, if you were my boy, bread and water for a week would be
too good for you. Take that, you little bully!" And down came another
shower of snow on the surprised Jerry.

"Run, kid, run!" shouted the man to Sunny Boy. "Let's see how well you
can run. I'll look after this tormenting one."

Sunny Boy took one look at Jerry sputtering in the snow, and then
turned and ran. He ran as fast as he could, and he never stopped till
he landed on his own doorstep and rang the bell. When Harriet came to
the door he was so out of breath that, for several minutes, he couldn't
tell her what had happened. And then, of course, before he could make
her understand about Jerry, he had to tell all about the party.

Daddy and Mother Horton had to hear about the party, too. And they
said that they would rather have a little boy for their son who behaved
as Sunny Boy had than a boy who acted the way Jerry Mullet did.

"But no one likes to be laughed at, and we won't be too hard on Jerry,"
said Mother Horton, as she helped Sunny Boy get ready for bed. "Shall
I put your donkey prize up here on the mantel shelf for you, Sunny Boy?"

Sunny Boy remembered her putting his donkey on the shelf for him, but
he did not remember seeing the donkey climb