short while it was going around as fast as an automobile, splashing the
drops of water up in the sunlight, and making them look like the
diamonds which pretty ladies wear on their fingers.

“That’s a fine wheel!” cried Dickie. “I wonder if we could ride on it?”

“I guess we could,” spoke Bully. “It’s like a merry-go-round, only it’s
turned up the wrong way. I’ll see if I can ride on it, and if it goes
all right with me you can try it.”

So Bully hopped on the moving water-wheel, and, surely enough, he had a
fine ride, only, of course, he got all splashed up, but he didn’t care.

“Do you mind getting your feathers wet?” he asked of Dickie as he hopped
off, “because if you don’t mind the wet, you can ride.”

“Oh, I don’t mind the wet a bit,” said the sparrow boy. “In fact, I take
a bath every morning and I wet my feathers then. So I’ll ride on the
wheel and get wet now.”

Well, he got on, and around the wheel went, splashing in the water, and
then Bully got on, and they both had a fine ride, just as if they were
in a rainstorm with the sun shining all the while.

But listen. Something is going to happen, I think. Wait a minute—yes,
it’s going to happen right now. What’s that animal sneaking along
through the woods, closer and closer up to where Bully and Dickie are
playing? What is it, eh? A cat! I knew it. A bad cat, too! I could just
feel that something was going to happen.