CHAPTER VI
The six little Bunkers, who had been scurrying around all over the house, helping, or at least thinking they were helping, to get ready for the trip, gathered in the big living room at the sound of their mother's voice.
"What's the matter?" asked Vi, beginning her usual questioning. "Is the chimney on fire again?"
"No," answered her mother. "But Captain Ben has lost his watch—the one the French soldier gave him. He thinks it became loose when he was helping pack the valises and trunks; so look around, children."
So the search began, but it was without result. Everything on the floor was lifted up, trunks and valises were moved aside, and even Norah and Jerry came in to help look. However, the watch could not be found, though the six little Bunkers aided all they could.
"Can't we go to Captain Ben's if he doesn't find his watch?" asked Vi.
"Oh, yes, that won't keep us from the trip," said the sailor-soldier. The marines are both soldiers and sailors, so either name fitted them. "But I would like to find my watch," Captain Ben added.
"Oh, I guess I got it—I mean I guess I stepped on it!" suddenly exclaimed Laddie, as he trod on something that was under a piece of paper.
There was an anxious moment, but when the paper was lifted up all that was under it was a tin whistle that Mun Bun had been playing with.
"Oh, dear!" said Laddie. "I thought sure I had it!"
The watch remained unfound, but the packing went on. Soon it was time for Mrs. Bunker to start for the train with Margy and Mun Bun. They were to go on ahead, as the way to Grand View by the train was longer than by the automobile road.
Captain Ben was to take Mrs. Bunker and the two smaller children to the railroad station in his car, leaving Mr. Bunker to attend to the last details of the packing with Russ and Rose, Violet and Laddie. Of course, Jerry Simms and Norah also helped.
MRS. BUNKER AND THE TWO SMALLER CHILDREN STARTED FOR THE RAILROAD STATION.
MRS. BUNKER AND THE TWO SMALLER CHILDREN STARTED FOR THE RAILROAD STATION.
MRS. BUNKER AND THE TWO SMALLER CHILDREN STARTED FOR THE RAILROAD STATION.
"Good-bye, children! I'll see you at Grand View!" called Mother Bunker, waving her hand to her four children as she sat beside Mun Bun and Margy in the automobile.
"Good-bye!" echoed Russ and the others. And the two smaller Bunkers waved their hands. They were delighted at the idea of a ride in the steam cars.
In a little while Captain Ben came back from the station with his empty automobile. As he alighted to go into the house, to see that the others were ready for the trip, he thrust out his left arm and looked down at his wrist.
"Oh, I forgot my watch was lost," he said with a grim laugh. "I have been so used to looking at the time that it comes natural to stick out my hand where I can get a good view of my wrist. Well, if my watch is gone—it's gone—that's all there is to it."
"Maybe Norah will find it after we have left," suggested Rose. "Lots of times she finds things we lose."
"I hope she does," echoed Captain Ben. "Well, never mind the watch now. Let's get ready to start. We must be off. It is getting late!"
The last valise was strapped shut, the expressman had taken the trunks that did not go as baggage, and now the four little Bunkers with their father and Captain Ben, went out on the porch, after saying good-bye to Norah and Jerry Simms.
Into the captain's big car piled the four children.
"It seems funny not to have mother and Margy and Mun Bun with us, doesn't it?" asked Rose, as she took her place with Russ, Vi and Laddie, her father and Captain Ben being in the front seat.
"Yes, it does," agreed Russ. "But we'll be with them to-night again, won't we, Captain Ben?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, we'll all be at my bungalow at Grand View this evening," said the sailor-soldier. "Your mother may get there first, but I have told her where to find the keys, so she can get everything all ready if she gets there ahead of us."
"Well, I think we're all ready to start," said Daddy Bunker at length. "Everything is all right, isn't it, Norah?"
"Oh, yes," answered the cook. "But it's sorry I am to see you go away again so soon after coming home. You're taking two vacations the same summer, children."
"Yes, and it's lots of fun!" cried Russ. "I'm glad the boiler in the school got leaky. I didn't want to go back so soon, anyhow."
Final good-byes were said, and then Captain Ben started his automobile down the street, the four children looking back as long as they could see Norah and Jerry Simms and waving farewells to them.
Out through the streets of Pineville they rode, Rose and Russ calling to various children of their acquaintance whom they met.
"Did you ride in this kind of an auto in France?" asked Russ of Captain Ben.
"Not very often," was the answer. "I had to walk most of the time, and I was glad I could. Lots of poor fellows were so crippled they couldn't walk."
"Do you know any French riddles?" Laddie wanted to know, as they turned out on a country road.
"French riddles?" repeated Captain Ben. "Do you mean you want me to tell you a riddle in the French language?"
Laddie shook his curly head.
"I don't know how to speak French," he said. "What I want is a French riddle that will be different from any riddle I know in English."
"I'm sorry, but I can't think of any," replied Captain Ben Barsey.
"Could you tell us a funny story about the war?" asked Russ.
Captain Ben thought for a moment.
"There wasn't very much chance to have fun when the fighting was going on," he answered, "but of course I didn't have to fight all the while. I remember once, being in a trench—that's like the big ditch over there," and he pointed to one at the side of the road along which the automobile was traveling at the time.
"Did you sleep in the ditch?" asked Vi.
"Yes," answered Captain Ben, "at times we slept in the trench ditch, and very often we ate in them. I was going to tell you about a funny thing that happened to me when I was getting ready to eat my dinner in a trench one day.
"We had been fighting all morning, but had stopped about noon, and then they brought us soldiers in the trench something to eat. I was very hungry and so were my friends. I got a piece of bread and some meat and made myself a sandwich. I also had a tincup of coffee.
"I laid the sandwich down on a stone for a moment to take a drink of coffee, and when next I reached out my hand for the bread and meat I felt it jump away."
"Oh, was it alive?" asked Russ.
"Well, I thought so, for a moment," answered the captain. "But when I looked, after getting over my first surprise, I saw that I had put my hand on a big, gray rat. He had come out of his hole in the trench and was eating my bread and meat. Of course he moved when I touched him."
"I'm glad I wasn't there," said Rose. "I don't like rats!"
"I wish I could just look at him—but that's all," said Russ.
"Did you make him give you back your sandwich?" questioned Vi.
"Hardly!" laughed Captain Ben. "I didn't want it after the rat had nibbled it. So I shooed him away, and managed to get some more bread and meat. But I'll never forget how funny it seemed when I thought I felt my sandwich moving under my hand."
The children laughed at this story of the funny side of war, and by this time the automobile was well away from Pineville and on the way to Grand View.
"I think this is the nicest summer I ever knew," said Rose to Russ. "We are having two vacations."
"It is lots of fun," he agreed.
Laddie was saying little. He seemed very sober.
"What's the matter?" Rose asked him.
"I know a good riddle about an automobile, but I can't just think of it," said the little boy. "I want to ask Captain Ben a riddle, but I can't think of the right one."
"Don't worry!" laughed the sailor-soldier. "I'll be with you the rest of the summer, and you can ask me all the riddles you think of."
"Oh, I can think of a lot!" declared Laddie. "But I have an extra good one about an auto, only I don't know what it is."
As the automobile was passing through a little country village, Vi saw a candy store, where, also, soda water was sold.
"Can't we stop here and get a drink?" she asked. "I'm thirsty!"
"Yes, we can stop," her father said, and he was just asking Captain Ben to slow up at the store when a woman ran from it in great excitement, waving her hands and calling aloud:
"Stop! Stop! Oh, wait a minute! Something terrible has happened! Oh, come in! Come in!"
And from the store, out of which the woman had rushed, came a loud hissing sound, while what seemed to be a lot of steam, or a spray of water, floated from the door behind her.