As Russ and Laddie promised to look after him, Mun Bun’s mother allowed the little fellow to go with the other two boys. There was a small stream, larger than the brook, about half a mile away across Farmer Joel’s fields, and toward that place Russ, Laddie, and Mun Bun went in the afternoon. “Now be careful, Russ, that your brothers don’t fall in and don’t let them get fish hooks in their hands,” warned Mr. Bunker, for, to his delight, Mun Bun was allowed to fish with a real hook and not with a bent pin, with which he never had any luck. This was to be a real fishing party. “I’ll take care of them,” promised Russ. Away went the boys over the fields toward the little river, Russ merrily whistling. On a shady, grassy bank, under a big buttonwood tree, the boys sat down and cast their baited hooks into the deep water of an eddy, where, in the quiet pool, there were said to be large fish. Presently the cork on the line attached to Russ’s pole began to bob up and down. Then it went under water. “You have a bite, Russ!” excitedly called Laddie. “I know I have! Keep still or you’ll scare it away!” Russ waited a moment longer. The cork went away under. “Now I have him!” cried Russ. He pulled up his line. On the hook was a good-sized fish which Russ landed back of him on the grass. “Oh, I wish I could get one!” sighed Laddie enviously. “Look at my cork! Look!” suddenly cried Mun Bun. “He’s got a bite, too!” cried Laddie. “Pull in, Mun Bun! Pull in! I’ll help you!” Laddie pulled out the little fellow’s line, and, surely enough, Mun Bun had caught a fish, not as large as the one Russ had landed, but still Mun Bun was much delighted. “I wonder if I’ll get one?” sighed Laddie. He did a little later. Then Russ caught a second one, and after a while Laddie said he would go farther downstream to another “hole” he knew of. “The fish are biting good to-day,” Russ said, as he baited his hook and threw it in again. A little later a shadow fell on the grass behind Russ and Mun Bun. Russ turned around and saw—that ugly peddler boy who had taken the shortcake Rose had baked! “Huh!” sneered the peddler, as he walked up with a pole in his hands. “What right you fellows got to fish here?” “This is Farmer Joel’s land, and we’re staying at his house,” said Russ. “Course we have a right to fish here!” “You have not!” cried the peddler. “And you’d better get away before I make you. I’ll punch you—that’s what I’ll do!” Russ leaped to his feet and started toward the peddler lad, who was larger than Russ. “Oh! Oh!” cried Mun Bun. Then suddenly the peddler drew back his fist and struck Russ, knocking him down. CHAPTER XX YELLOW AND WHITE Mun Bun felt like bursting into tears. To see his beloved big brother, Russ, knocked down in this fashion was enough to make any small boy cry. It was almost like the time when Russ was so nearly run over by the truck.