"Stick out your foot and stop the skate wagon, same as you stop yourself on roller skates," cried Laddie. But Rose, it seemed, could do none of these things. Straight for the little dog she coasted. What was going to happen? CHAPTER XVIII THE SPINNING TOPS Rose was not able to stop the skate wagon, on which she was coasting down the sidewalk hill in front of Aunt Jo's house. Nor did the little dog seem to want to get out of the way. He just stood in front of Rose, while she was coasting toward him, and barked and wagged his tail. And it was almost as if he said: "Well, what's all this? Are you coming to give me a ride?" "Get out of the way! Get out of the way--please!" begged Rose. "I'll bump into you, same as I bumped into the curbstone, if you don't get out of the way, little dog; and then I'll run over you! Get out of the way!" But the little dog just stayed right there. Of course, if Rose had thought about it, she might have jumped off the skate wagon, and let that go on by itself, shoving it to one side. But she was coasting down the stone sidewalk hill quite rapidly now, and she was so excited that she never once thought of getting off or even trying to turn the skate wagon aside. Straight for the barking little dog she coasted. "Oh, we must stop her!" cried Mrs. Bunker, running down the slope after the little girl. "I'll get her, Mother!" cried Russ. "I guess I can run faster than you can." But there was no chance for either of them to catch Rose before something happened. And the something that happened was that Rose ran right into the little dog. Right into him she ran with the skate wagon. "Ki-yi-yi-yip! Ki-yi! Yip! Yip!" yelled the little dog. "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" sobbed Rose, for she was crying. Bang! went the skate wagon over into the gutter. The little dog--Well, I was almost going to say he laughed to see so much sport, but that little dog is in Mother Goose, if I remember rightly, and this little dog didn't laugh. He was very much frightened, and he was hurt a little, and so was Rose. So the little dog just tucked his tail in between his hind legs, and back he ran into the yard out of which he had come to see what was going on when he heard the skate wagon rattling down the sidewalk hill. By this time Russ, Laddie, and their mother had come up to Rose. "Are you much hurt?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "There now, don't cry. We'll take care of you!" "It--it's my knees!" sobbed Rose. "I scraped 'em! And is my skate wagon all busted?" "No, it's all right," said Laddie, as he picked it up from the gutter where it had rolled after Rose fell off. "It's as good as ever." "And your knees aren't hurt much--only scratched," said Mrs. Bunker, as she looked. Rose wore socks, and her legs, above her shoes, and partly above her knees were bare. "See if you can't stand up," urged Mrs. Bunker, for Rose was as limp as a rag in her arms. "Stand up and have some more rides!" exclaimed Russ.