"We'll come a'gin whenever you has a party," whispered a little red-haired girl, to Sue, as she said good-bye.

"And youse kin come to our make-believe parties whenever you want," said the big girl.

"Thanks." Sue waved her hands to the children as they went down the street. She had given them a happy time.

For a few days after Sue's party she and Bunny did not do much except play around Aunt Lu's house, for there came several days of rain. The weather was getting colder now, for it was fall, and would soon be winter.

"But I like winter!" said Bunny. "'Cause we can slide down hill. Are there any hills around here, Aunt Lu?"

"Well, not many. Perhaps you might slide in Central Park. We'll see when snow comes."

One clear, cool November day Bunny and Sue were taken to Central Park by Wopsie. They had been promised a ride in a pony cart, and this was the day they were to have it.

Not far from where the animals were kept in the park were some ponies and donkeys. Children could ride on their backs, or sit in a little cart, and have a pony or donkey pull them.

"We'll get in a cart," said Bunny. "I'm going to drive."

"Do you know how?" asked the man, as he lifted Bunny and Sue in. Wopsie got in herself.

"I can drive our dog Splash, when he's. .h.i.tched up to our express wagon,"

said Bunny. "I guess I can drive the pony. He isn't much bigger than Splash." This was so, as the pony was a little one.

So Bunny took hold of the lines, but the man who owned the pony carts sent a boy to walk along beside the little horse that was pulling Bunny, Sue and Wopsie.

"Giddap!" cried Bunny to the pony. "Go faster!" For the pony was only walking. Just then a dog ran out of the bushes along the park drive, and barked at the pony's heels. Before the boy, whom the man had sent out to take charge of the pony, could stop him, the little horse jumped forward, and the next minute began trotting down the drive very fast, pulling after him the cart, with Bunny, Sue and Wopsie in it.

CHAPTER XXIII

OLD AUNT SALLIE

"Bunny! Bunny! Isn't this fun?" cried Sue, as she looked across at her brother in the other seat of the pony cart. "Don't you like it?"

"Yes, I do," Bunny answered, as he pulled on the reins. "Do you, Wopsie?"

The colored girl looked around without speaking. She looked on the ground, as though she would like to jump out of the pony cart. But she did not. The little horse was going faster than ever.

"Don't you like it, Wopsie?" asked Sue. "It's fun! This pony goes faster than our dog Splash, and Splash couldn't pull such a nice, big cart as this; could he, Bunny?"

"No, I guess not," Bunny answered. He did not turn around to look at Sue as he spoke.

For, to tell the truth, Bunny was a little bit worried. The dog that had jumped out of the bushes, to bark at the pony's heels, was still running along behind the pony cart, barking and snapping. And, though Bunny and Sue did not mind their dog Splash's barking, when he pulled them, this dog was a strange one.

Then, too, the boy, who had started out with the pony cart, was running along after it crying:

"Stop! Stop! Wait a minute. Somebody stop that pony!"

But there was no one ahead of Bunny, Sue and Wopsie on the Park drive just then, and no one to stop the pony, which was kicking up his heels, and going faster and faster all the while.

"He's running hard; isn't he, Bunny?" asked Sue.

"Yes, he--he's going fast--very fast!" panted Bunny, in a sort of jerky way, for the cart rattled over some b.u.mps just then, and if Bunny had not been careful how he spoke he might have bitten his tongue between his teeth.

"Don't--don't you li--like it--Wop--Wopsie?" asked Sue, speaking in the same jerky way as had her brother.

Wopsie did not open her mouth. She just held tightly to the edge of the pony cart, and shook her head from side to side. That meant she did not like it. Sue and Bunny wondered why.

True, they were going a bit fast, but then they had often ridden almost as fast when Splash, their big dog, drew them in the express cart. And this was much nicer than an express cart, though of course Bunny and Sue liked Splash better than this pony. But if they had owned the pony they would have liked him very much, also, I think.

Now the pony swung around a corner of the drive, and he went so fast, and turned so quickly, that the cart was nearly upset.

Sue held tightly to the side of her seat, and called to her brother:

"Oh, Bunny! Don't make him go so fast! You'll spill me and Wopsie out!"

"I didn't make him go fast," Bunny answered. "I--I guess he's in a hurry to get away from that dog."

"Make the dog go 'way," pleaded Sue.

Bunny looked back at the barking dog, who was still running after the pony cart.

"Go on away!" Bunny cried. "Let us alone--go on away and find a bone to eat!"

But the dog either did not understand what Bunny said, or he would rather race after the pony cart than get himself a bone. At any rate he still kept running along, barking and growling, and the pony kept running.

The boy who had started out with the children, first walking along beside the pony, was now far behind. He was a small boy, with very short legs, and, as the pony's legs were quite long, of course the boy could not run fast enough to keep up. So he was now far behind, but he kept calling:

"Stop that pony! Oh, please someone stop that pony!"

Bunny and Sue heard the boy calling. So did Wopsie, but the colored girl said nothing. She just sat there, holding to the side of the seat and looking at Bunny and Sue.

"I wonder what that boy's hollering that way for?" asked Sue, as the pony swung around another corner, almost upsetting the cart again.

"I don't know," said Bunny. "Maybe he likes to holler. I do sometimes, when I'm out in the country. And this park is like the country, Sue."

"Yes, I guess it is," said the little girl. "But what's he saying, Bunny?"

They listened. Once more the boy, running along, now quite a long way behind the pony cart, could be heard crying:

"Stop him! Stop him! He's running away! Stop him!"

Bunny and Sue looked at one another. Then they looked at Wopsie. The colored girl opened her mouth, showing her red tongue and her white teeth.

"Oh! Oh!" she screamed. "De pony's runnin' away! Dat's what de boy says.

I'se afeered, I is! Oh, let me out! Let me out!"