There was a large vacant lot, near where Sadie West lived, and by crossing it, and going out at the far end, the Brown children could reach their home.  So Sue started across the lot, crawling through a hole in the fence.

Bunny started down the street, going quite fast, for he wanted to spend a few minutes looking in the window of the toy shop, and he also wanted to get home first, ahead of Sue.

But he had not gone far before he heard his sister calling: 

“Bunny!  Oh, Bunny!  Oh, dear!  He’s coming after me!”

Bunny turned and ran back.  Looking through the fence that was built around the lot, he saw a big goat, with long horns, walking toward Sue.  And the little girl, who had picked a few daisies, was standing in the tall grass, too frightened to run back and crawl through the fence.

“Bunny!  Bunny!  Take the goat away!” Sue cried.

CHAPTER XIV

A LITTLE PARTY

“Sue!  Sue!  I’m coming!  Don’t be afraid!”

Bunny cried this as he hurried up to the fence, through the pickets of which he could see the goat walking toward his sister.  Sue was screaming now.

But, after he had said this, Bunny did not know exactly what to do.  He did not know much about goats, and this was a big one, with long, sharp horns.  The goat belonged to an Italian family in town, and the Italian man used to ask those who owned vacant lots to let his goat go into them and eat the grass.  That was how the goat happened to be in this lot.  If Sue had known the animal was there, she would not have taken the short cut, but would have gone, with her brother, along the street.

“Bunny!  Bunny!” Sue cried.  “He’s coming closer!”

Bunny began to crawl through the hole in the fence as his sister had done.  As he did so, he saw, lying on the ground, several stones.  He picked up two, one in each fist.

“I won’t let him hurt you, Sue!” he called, but, even as he said that, Bunny did not know what he was going to do.  “I wish I had a red rag,” he thought, “I could wave it at the goat and maybe scare him.”

Bunny had heard his mother read from a book how bulls and turkey gobblers do not like red rags waved at them, and Bunny thought a goat was something like a bull.  They both had horns, at any rate.

“And if I could wave a red rag at him, maybe it would make him so mad that he’d run away and leave Sue alone,” thought Bunny as he found himself in the vacant lot with his sister.

Bunny was not quite right about the red rag, so perhaps it is just as well he did not have one.  For bulls run toward a red rag, instead of away from it, and perhaps goats might do the same; though I am not sure about this.

But, at any rate, Bunny had no red rag; and the goat, instead of running away, was coming toward Sue, who was too frightened to move.  She just stood there, crying: