"What's the matter?" he asked.

Then the story was told, of why the boys had helped Sue climb up the
ladder to get into her room so her mother and the company would not see
her in her soiled dress.

"But now we're all paint!" wailed Sue.

"Well, never mind!" said the good-natured painter. "I can take those
paint spots out for you, if that's all you're worrying about."

"Oh, can you?" eagerly cried Sue.

"How?" asked Charlie Star, who was a rather curious little chap.

"Will you?" asked Bunny Brown, which was more to the point.

"I can and will!" said the painter. "Wait until I get some clean rags
and my turpentine."

He want back down the ladder, but soon came up again, with a can of
something with a strong, but not unpleasant smell. Bunny remembered that
smell. Once when he was little, and had a bad cold, his mother had
rubbed lard and turpentine on his chest.

"This turpentine will take the paint out when it's fresh," said the
painter. "Stand still now."

He wet the rag in some turpentine, which, as you know, is the juice, or