“Anyhow, it isn’t wash-day,” said Bunny to Sue, “and as soon as I lasso the rooster I can put the line back again.  I can tie on what I cut off.”

Bunny had an old knife Bunker Blue had given him.  It was a knife Bunker had used to open clams and oysters, and was not very sharp.  That was the reason Bunker gave it to Bunny.  Bunker did not want the little boy to cut himself.  With this old knife Bunny cut off a bit of clothes line.  He had to saw and saw back and forth with the dull blade of the knife before he could cut the line.

But at last he had a long piece of rope.

“Now I’ll make a lasso just like the cowboys have in the Wild West,” said Bunny.

Bunny had once seen a show like that, so he knew something of what the cowboys did with their lassos, which are long ropes, with a loop in one end.  They throw this loop around the head, or leg, of a cow or a horse, and catch it this way, so as not to hurt it.

“Now see me catch the rooster, Sue!” called Bunny.

“I’ll help you,” offered the little girl.  “You stand here by the rose bush, I’ll shoo the rooster up to you, then you can lasso him.”

“All right!” cried Bunny, swinging the piece of clothes line around his head as he had seen the cowboys do in the show.

“Cock-a-doodle-do!” crowed the rooster, and then he made a funny gurgling noise, as he saw Sue running toward him.  The old rooster was not used to children, as, except when Bunny Brown and his sister Sue came to their grandpa’s farm, there were no little ones about the place.  And when the old rooster saw Sue running toward him, he did not know what to make of the little girl.

“Shoo!  Shoo!” cried Sue, waving her hands.  “Shoo!  Scat!”

“Cock-a-doodle-do!” crowed the rooster, and it sounded just as if he said, “I don’t know what to do!”

“Shoo!  Shoo!” cried the little girl, and she tried to drive the rooster over toward Bunny, so he could lasso the big crowing bird.

But the rooster was not going to be caught as easily as that.  He ran to one side, around the rose bush and off toward the garden.

“Get him, Bunny!  Get him!” cried Sue.

“I will!” shouted the little make-believe cowboy.  After the rooster he ran, swinging his lasso.  “Whoa there!  Whoa!” called Bunny.

“Shoo!  Shoo!” exclaimed Sue.

“No—­no!  Don’t do that!” begged Bunny.

“Don’t do what?” Sue asked.

“Don’t shoo him that way.  That makes him run.  I want him to stand still so I can catch him.”

“But you said cowboys catched things when they were running, like this rooster is,” objected Sue.

“Yes,” agreed Bunny, “but I haven’t been a cowboy very long you see.  I want the rooster to stand still so I can lasso him.  So don’t shoo him—­just whoa him!”

Then Bunny called: 

“Whoa!  Whoa there!”

“That’s what you say to a horse—­not to a rooster,” said the little girl.