planned to get her into the house unseen by company. "A ladder!"

"Sure!" cried Bunny. "That's the best way! Charlie and I'll help you
up."

"You won't let me fall?" asked Sue.

"Course not!" declared Charlie. "I've climbed lots of ladders!"

"So have I!" boasted Bunny Brown. "And so have you, Sue Brown!"

"And can't anybody see me if I go up the painter's ladder?" asked Sue,
who was feeling most uncomfortable, being clammy and wet.

"Nobody'll see you!" declared Charlie. "The ladder's away off on one
side of the sun parlor. Mary can't see you from the kitchen, and your
mother and the company can't see you."

"Is the painter there?" Sue went on. She was asking a good many
questions and making a number of objections, I think.

"No, the painter isn't there," Charlie said. "I saw him going back to
the shop after more paint when we came down here."

"All right then!" sighed Sue. "Help me up the ladder!"

Cautiously the children approached it. There the ladder stood, a big
one, on a long slant leading from the ground to the roof of the
one-story sun parlor. From the roof of this extension were several
windows Sue could climb into, one opening from her own room.