"Oh, yes, as long as your man, William, and your cook, Parker, and your housemaid, Anne, are around to sort of look after them. I often leave them with our Norah and Jerry Simms."

So the six little Bunkers were left to themselves. And you can easily imagine that they had all sorts of good times. There was a stone walk around Aunt Jo's house, as well as around Mr. North's, and there Russ and his brothers and sisters rode in the express wagon, on the velocipede and on the coaster. They laughed and shouted, and every now and then there would be an upset, but no one was hurt and they all seemed to like it.

Now and then Parker or William or Anne would come out from the house or the garage to look and see that the six little Bunkers were coming to no harm, and when they found the children were all right they smiled, for it was fun to watch them play.

"I know what we can do," said Russ to Laddie, after they had taken turns riding on the velocipede and coaster. Just at this time Margy and Mun Bun had the coaster and were playing steam-car with it.

"What can we do?" asked Laddie, always ready to have fun with his older brother.

"We can make a harness for Alexis, and hitch him to the express wagon,"

went on Russ.

"Oh, that'll be lots of fun!" cried Laddie. "But what'll we make a harness of? Aunt Jo hasn't any horses and Mr. North hasn't either."

"We can make it of string," said Russ. "It doesn't need to be very strong, for we aren't very heavy to pull."

So Russ and Laddie begged pieces of string from Parker, not telling what they were going to make.

"If it's a cat's cradle you have cord enough for a dozen," said the good-natured cook, as she handed out the pieces of string she had saved from the grocery packages.

"No, we're not going to make cats' cradles," answered Russ. "You can see it when we get finished."

It was no very hard matter to catch Alexis and fasten a lot of pieces of string around him, as nearly like a harness as the two little boys could manage. The dog loved children, and asked nothing better than to be with them. So he stood very still, just hanging his tongue out of his mouth, as the day was hot, while Laddie and Russ tied the cord around him. Then they fastened the ends to the express wagon, tying a number of knots.

"We've got to have lines to drive him with," said Laddie. "Else we can't guide him the way we want him to go."

"Yes, I'll make some lines," said Russ. He tied two strings around the neck of Alexis, one for the left-hand side and the other for the right.

"I can't put a bit in his mouth, as I could if he was a horse," said Russ, "'cause Alexis holds his mouth open so much, to cool off his tongue, that the bit would fall out."

"That's right," said Laddie. "Anyhow, we don't want a bit. Now can we have a ride?"

"I guess so," said Russ.

There was quite a collection of strings tied around Alexis and made fast to the little express wagon.

"We'll get in now," said Russ, when he had the cord reins in his hands, "and we'll drive around the walk where Rose and Vi are playing with their dolls," for the two girls were having a party, with cookies and sugar water, which had been given to them by Parker.

Into the wagon got Russ and Laddie. Alexis, harnessed to the little wagon, turned his head to look at them, as if to make sure they were all right.

"Gid-dap!" called Russ, as he would to a horse.

"Bow-wow!" barked the dog, meaning, perhaps: "I will!"

Then he started to walk off.

Now, when I tell you that Alexis was a big, strong dog, and that Laddie and Russ in the express wagon made quite a heavy load, and when I say that the string harness was not very strong, you can easily imagine what happened. Alexis had not taken more than two steps before----

Snap! went the string harness, and it broke in several places.

"Whoa! Whoa!" called Russ. "Whoa there, Alexis!"

But Alexis never "whoaed" a bit. He kept on walking, and he walked right off with the bits of the string harness clinging to him, leaving the express wagon with the two little boys in it on the walk at the side of the house.

"Come on back and give us a ride!" called Laddie.

"I guess we'll have to make a stronger harness," said Russ with a laugh.

"I guess so, too," agreed Laddie.

Anyhow, Alexis didn't come back. Just outside Aunt Jo's fence he saw another dog which he knew, and he ran up to have a "talk" with him, in bow-wow language, of course.

"Well, we didn't get a ride," said Laddie.

"No," agreed Russ, "we didn't. But I know what else we can do."

"What?" asked Laddie.

Russ did not answer for a moment. He was looking at a shovel lying in the back part of the yard, where William had been spading for a late flower bed. Then Russ saw the hose with which the man had been washing the automobile.

"We can make a fountain, Laddie!" exclaimed Russ.

"A fountain! How?"

"Come on, I'll show you!" said Russ.

Then he and his brother began to make a fountain. And I suppose you wonder how they did it.

CHAPTER IX

WHAT HAPPENED TO WILLIAM

"First," said Russ, as he took up the shovel, "we've got to make a hole."

"I thought you said we were going to make a fountain," said Laddie.

"We are," Russ went on. "But first you have to have some place for the fountain water to run into, don't you?"

"I guess so," agreed Laddie, who was not quite sure.

"'Course you have," insisted his older brother. "Don't you 'member how a fountain is? It has a big basin where the water splashes in out of a thing like a hose, and us boys could paddle our feet in the water if we wanted to."

"Oh! are you goin' to make _that_ kind of a fountain?" asked Laddie.