Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's

by Laura Lee Hope

  CHAPTER I

  ALL UPSET

  "There! It's all done, so I guess we can get on and start off! All aboard!Toot! Toot!" Russ Bunker made a noise like a steamboat whistle. "Get on!"he cried.

  "Oh, wait a minute! I forgot to put the broom in the corner," said Rose,his sister. "I was helping mother sweep, and I forgot to put the broomaway. Wait for me, Russ! Don't let the boat start without me!"

  "I won't," promised the little boy, as he tossed back a lock of dark hairwhich had straggled down over his eyes. They were dark, too, and, justnow, were shining in eagerness as he looked at a queer collection of abarrel, a box, some chairs, a stool and a few boards, piled together inthe middle of the playroom floor.

  "The steamboat will wait for you, Rose," Russ Bunker went on. "But hurryback," and he began to whistle a merry tune as he moved a footstool overto one side. "That's one of the paddle-wheels," he told his smallerbrother Laddie, whose real name was Fillmore, but who was always calledLaddie. "That's a paddle-wheel!"

  "Why doesn't it go 'round then?" asked Violet, Laddie's twin sister. "Whydoesn't it go 'round, Russ? I thought wheels always went around!" Vi, asViolet was usually called, loved to ask questions, and sometimes they werethe kind that could not be easily answered. This one seemed to be thatkind, for Russ went on whistling and did not reply.

  "Why doesn't the footstool go around if it's a wheel?" asked Vi again.

  "Oh, 'cause--'cause----" began Russ, holding his head on one side andstopping halfway through his whistled tune. "It doesn't go 'round?"

  "Oh, I got a riddle! I got a riddle!" suddenly cried Laddie, who was asfond of asking riddles as Vi was of giving out questions. "What kind of awheel doesn't go 'round? That's a new riddle! What kind of a wheeldoesn't go 'round?"

  "All wheels go around," declared Russ, who, now that he had the footstoolfixed where he wanted it, had started his whistling again.

  "What's the riddle, Laddie?" asked Vi, shaking her curly hair and lookingup with her gray eyes at her brother, whose locks were of the same color,though not quite so curly as his twin's.

  "There she goes again! Asking more questions!" exclaimed Rose, who hadcome back from putting away the broom, and was ready to play the steamboatgame with her older brother.

  "But what _is_ the riddle?" insisted Vi. "I like to guess 'em, Laddie!What is it?"

  "What kind of a wheel doesn't go 'round?" asked Laddie again, smiling athis brothers and sisters as though the riddle was a very hard one indeed.

  "Pooh! _All_ wheels go around--'ceptin' _this_ one, maybe," said Russ."And this is only a make-believe wheel. It's the nearest like a steamboatpaddle-wheel I could find," and he gave the footstool a little kick. "Butall kinds of wheels go around, Laddie."

  "No, they don't," exclaimed the little fellow. "That's a riddle! What kindof a wheel doesn't go 'round?"

  "Oh, let's give it up," proposed Rose. "Tell us, Laddie, and then we'llget in the make-believe steamboat Russ has made, and we'll have a ride.What kind of a wheel doesn't go around?"

  "A wheelbarrow doesn't go 'round!" laughed Laddie.

  "Oh, it does _so_!" cried Rose. "The _wheel_ goes around."

  "But the _barrow_ doesn't--that's the part you put things in," went onLaddie. "_That_ doesn't go 'round. You have to push it."

  "All right. That's a pretty good riddle," said Russ with a laugh. "Nowlet's get on the steamboat and we'll have a ride," and he began to whistlea little bit of a new song, something about down on a river where thecotton blossoms grow.

  "Where is steamboat?" asked Margy, aged five, whose real name wasMargaret, but who, as yet, seemed too little to have all those lettersfor herself. So she was just called Margy. "Where is steamboat?" sheasked. "Is it in the kitchen on the stove?" and she opened wide her darkbrown eyes and looked at Russ.

  "Oh, you're thinking of a steam _teakettle_, Margy," he said, as he tookhold of her fat, chubby hand. "The teakettle steams on the kitchen stove,"went on Russ. "But we're making believe this is a steamboat in here," andhe pointed to the barrel, the boxes, the chairs and the footstool, whichhe and Rose had piled together with such care. For it was a rainy day andthe children were having what fun they could in the big playroom.

  "I want to go on steamboat," spoke up the sixth member of the Bunkerfamily a moment later.

  "Yes, you may have a ride, Mun Bun," said Rose. "You may sit with me infront and see the wheels go around."

  Mun Bun, I might say, was the pet name of the youngest member of thefamily. He was really Munroe Ford Bunker, but it seemed such a big namefor such a little chap, that it was nearly always shortened to Mun. Andthat, added to half his last name, made Mun Bun.

  And, really, Munroe Ford Bunker did look a little like a bun--one of thelight, golden brown kind, with sugar on top. For Mun, as we shall callhim, was small, and had blue eyes and golden hair.

  "Come on, Mun Bun!" called Russ, who was the oldest of the family of sixlittle Bunkers, and the leader in all the fun and games. "Come on,everybody! All aboard the steamboat!"

  "Oh, wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly called Vi. "Is there anywater around your steamboat, Russ?"

  "Water? 'Course there is," he answered. "You couldn't make a steamboat gowithout water."

  "Is it deep water?" asked Vi, who seemed started on her favorite game ofasking questions.

  Russ thought for a minute, looking at the playroom floor.

  "'Course it's deep," he answered. "'Bout ten miles deep. What do you askthat for, Vi?"

  "'Cause I got to get a bathing-dress for my doll," answered the littlegirl. "I can't take her on a steamboat where the water is deep lessen Ihave a bathing-suit for her. Wait a minute. I'll get one," and she ranover to a corner of the room, where she kept her playthings.

  "Shall I bring a red dress or a blue one?" Vi turned to ask her sisterRose.

  "Oh, bring any one you have and hurry up!" called Russ. "This steamboatwon't ever get started. All aboard! Toot! Toot!"

  Vi snatched up what she called a bathing-dress from a small trunkful ofclothes belonging to her dolls, and ran back to the place where the"steamboat" floated in the "ten-miles-deep water," in the middle of theplayroom floor.

  "Now I'm all ready, an' so's my doll," said Vi, as she climbed up in oneof the chairs behind the big, empty flour barrel that Mother Bunker hadlet Russ take to make his boat. "Gid-dap, Russ!"

  "Gid-dap? What you mean?" asked Russ, stopping his whistling and turningto look at his sister.

  "I mean start," answered Vi. "Don't you know what gid-dap means?"

  "Sure I know! It's how you talk to a horse. It's what you tell him whenyou want him to start."

  "Well, I'm ready to start now," said Vi, smoothing out her dress, andputting the bathing-suit on her doll.

  "Pooh! You don't tell a steamboat to 'gid-dap' when you want _that_ tostart!" exclaimed Russ. "You say 'All aboard! Toot! Toot!'"

  "All right then. Toot! Toot!" cried Vi, and Margy and Mun, who had climbedup together in a single chair beside Vi, began to laugh.

  "I know another riddle," announced Laddie, as he took his place inside thebarrel, for he was going to be the fireman, and, of course, they alwaysrode away down inside the steamboat. "I know a nice riddle about a horse,"went on Laddie. "What makes a horse's shoes different from ours?" heasked.

  "Oh, we haven't time to bother with riddles now, Laddie," said Rose. "Youcan tell us some other time. We're going to make-believe steamboat a longway across the deep water now."

  "A horse's shoes aren't like ours 'cause a horse doesn't wearstockings--that's the answer," went on Laddie.

  "All aboard!" cried Russ again.

  "All aboard!" repeated Laddie.

  "Oh, let's sing!" suddenly said Rose. She was a jolly little girl and hadlearned many simple songs at school.

  "Let's sing about sailing o'er the dark blue sea," went on Rose. "It's anawful nice song, and I know five verses."

  "We'll sing it after a while," returned Russ. "We got to get started now.All ready, fireman!
" he called to Laddie, who was inside the barrel."Start the steam going. I'm going to steer the boat," and Russ took hisplace astride the front end of the barrel, and began twisting on a stickhe had stuck down in one of the cracks. The stick, you understand, was thesteering-wheel, even if it didn't look like one.

  "All aboard! Here we go!" cried Laddie from down inside the barrel, and hebegan to hiss like steam coming from a pipe. Then he began to rock to andfro, so that the barrel rolled from side to side.

  "Here! What're you doing that for?" demanded Russ from up on top. "'You'rejiggling me off! Stop it! What're you doing, Laddie?"

  "I'm making the steamboat go!" was the answer. "We're out on the roughocean and the steamboat's got to rock! Look at her rock!" and he swung thebarrel to and fro faster than ever.

  "Oh! Oh!" cried Rose. "It's all coming apart! Look! Oh, dear! The barrel'sall coming apart!"

  And that's just what happened! In another moment the barrel on which Russsat fell apart, and with a clatter and clash of staves he toppled in onLaddie. Then the chairs, behind the barrel, where Rose, Vi and Margy andMun were sitting, toppled over. In another instant the whole steamboatload of children was all upset in the middle of the playroom floor, havingmade a crash that sounded throughout the house.