was then, while the two children were fondling Bobo, who liked to have
his long ears pulled by a gentle hand, that Russ and Rose Bunker came
upon the scene.

Russ and Rose had been down to the burned cabin and had brought away all
their letters to Sneezer Meiggs. If the colored boy had never learned to
read writing, there was no use in leaving the notices there. So Russ had
said, and Rose agreed with him.

"Oh, my dears!" Rose cried out when she saw the little ones so mussed up
and with tear-stained faces, "what has happened to you?"

"Don't be afraid of Bobo," said Russ, running too. "He won't hurt you."

"He hurted the goosey-goosey-gander," declared Mun Bun confidently. "He
dug his head under the goosey-goosey-gander and flunged him right over
on his back."

"But he wouldn't hurt you," declared Rose.

"No," explained Margy. "Bobo came to help us when the gander wanted to
bite our legs. At any rate he wanted to bite Mun Bun's legs."

"'Twas your legs he was after, Margy," declared the little fellow,
flushing. "I wouldn't let the goosey-goosey-gander bite mine."

"Anyhow," said Margy, "he chased us. And all his hens came too. And Bobo
saw him and he came down and drove them off. See! That gander is hissing
at us now."