Rose's did.

Up and along floated the balloons, lifting the basket, and then, all of
a sudden, something happened.

CHAPTER XI

VI IS LOST

Rose said, afterward, that it was not the fault of Alexis, though the
barking of the big dog made her jump and lose her hold on the string
that was fast to the basket in which the doll Lily rode as if in an
airship. But that is what happened.

As Rose was walking along, letting the balloons float over her head, and
giving a ride to Lily, the big dog came bounding out of the side yard.
He wanted to play with Rose, and he raced toward her, jumping up and
down. Rose was afraid he would jump up and put his paws on her, and
Alexis was so big that when he did this to any of the six little Bunkers
he almost always knocked them down. In fact, he had knocked Mun Bun and
Margy down more than once, but only in fun, and he had not hurt them.

"Go away, Alexis! Now go away!" exclaimed Rose, as she held the string
above her head. "I can't play with you now, because I got to give Lily
an airship ride. Go away, Alexis!"

But Alexis didn't want to go away! He barked and he danced around, and
he kept coming closer and closer to Rose, until he really almost bumped
into her. And then it happened.

Rose let go of the string, by which she was holding the basket that had
Lily in it, and up it shot, high in the air, pulled by the gas-filled
toy balloons. There were six of them, extra big ten-cent ones, and they
could easily lift the small doll in the basket.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Rose, three times. "Look what you made me do,
Alexis! Oh! Oh!"

And yet, afterward, Rose said it wasn't the dog's fault.

"I oughtn't to have taken anybody's balloon but mine, and then they
wouldn't be lost," said the little girl sadly.

For that is what happened.

Up and up into the air, high above Rose's head, shot the six
balloons--red, green and blue--carrying the doll. When she first felt
the string pulling out of her hand Rose did not know what to do. Then,
as she saw the balloons sailing away, she jumped up into the air and
tried to grab them. But it was too late. Away over the trees sailed the
airship Rose had made, carrying her doll on an unknown voyage.

"Oh, dear!" cried the little girl again, as she saw that, no matter how
high she jumped, she could not get hold of the string again. "Oh, dear!"

She looked at the six floating balloons, hoping they might get caught in
a tree, as once one did th