CHAPTER XVIII
Rose Bunker gave one look toward the thick clump of trees, through which wound a path, along which Laddie and Vi had gone for a little distance.
"Come on!" exclaimed Rose, taking her small brother and sister by their hands. "We'll all go back to daddy and mother."
Russ, who was still looking for stones, and any other curious things he could pick up, glanced toward the other three Bunkers.
"Where are you going?" Russ wanted to know.
"Back home. I mean back to daddy, mother and Captain Ben," explained Rose.
"What for?"
"'Cause I saw a lot of ragged men in the bushes," answered Laddie. "They were awful ragged, and they had a fire, and some of 'em were asleep, and——"
"Tramps!" exclaimed Russ, and he started toward the path, down which Laddie had pointed as leading to the place where he had seen the tramps. "I'm going to look at 'em!"
"No, you're not!" cried Rose. "You're coming right back with us, Russ Bunker, or I'll tell father on you!" and she spoke in a low but very earnest voice. Russ looked at her a moment, and then at the dark clump of trees.
"Yes, I guess I'll go back with you," he said. "I'll take you back, and then daddy and Captain Ben and I will come back here and drive the tramps away."
"Daddy won't let you," said Rose; and, in his heart, Russ believed his sister was right.
"Come on!" exclaimed Vi. "I don't want any of the ragged men to get me."
"Oh, they won't get you. See! Daddy and mother and Captain Ben are right down there," and Rose pointed to where the others of the picnic party could be seen in the grove on the beach.
"My! What's the matter? Did you see a cow?" asked Captain Ben, with a smile, when the four children came hurrying back from their excursion.
"I saw some ragged men!" exclaimed Laddie.
"I saw 'em too—and I don't like 'em! They were tramps!" declared Vi. "And maybe they were the same tramps that took Mrs. Brown's jewelry."
"Oh, I hardly think so," said Mrs. Bunker. But daddy and Captain Ben looked at each other, and then both men rose quickly to their feet.
"Tramps, eh?" said Captain Ben in a low voice. "We don't want any such around here. And I don't believe the other cottagers know it. Let's go and take a look," he said to Mr. Bunker.
"Can't I come?" asked Russ.
"No, you stay with mother," his father answered.
"There! I told you they wouldn't let you!" exclaimed Rose.
"Well, I don't care. Maybe some tramps will come here, and I can drive 'em away," declared Russ. "I'm going to get a lot of stones to throw at 'em!"
"You won't need to!" laughed his mother. "No tramps will come here, and it may have been only some fishermen you saw. Fishermen sometimes wear ragged clothes."
"These weren't fishermen, 'cause they didn't have any fishes," declared Laddie.
"Maybe they didn't have any luck, or else perhaps they hadn't yet gone fishing," his mother answered. "Anyhow, we'll leave the tramps, if such they were, to daddy and Captain Ben. And it will soon be time for us to get back to the bungalow."
"Is there anything more to eat?" Russ wanted to know.
"Not even some cookie crumbs," said his mother. "I threw them to the birds and squirrels. But when we go on the picnic to the island we'll take more lunch along."
"I hope we do," sighed Russ, "'cause I'm hungry right now."
The children sat around their mother while daddy and Captain Ben walked toward the grove where Laddie had seen the tramps.
"Do you suppose they could be the same ones who took Mrs. Brown's things, Mother?" asked Rose.
"They might be," her mother replied. "Though Mr. Brown's farm is some distance from here and I don't see how the tramps could arrive here so soon."
"They could if they had an auto like Captain Ben's," said Laddie.
"Pooh! Tramps don't have autos. Do they, Mother?" scoffed Vi.
"Not very often, I imagine," was the answer. "But don't think about the ragged men any more."
"Do you think they could have taken Captain Ben's watch?" persisted Laddie.
"No, of course not!" his mother quickly replied. "Captain Ben's watch was lost somewhere near our house, and that's almost a hundred miles from here. Besides, there were no tramps there."
"Well, anyhow, maybe the tramps took Tad Munson," suggested Laddie, who seemed bound to have the ragged men up to some mischief.
"No, poor Tad ran away by himself," Mrs. Bunker answered. "I feel very sorry for him, and I hope he is safe at home again by this time. We must go over to Avalon some day and find out."
A little later Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker came back.
"Did you catch 'em?" asked Russ eagerly.
"No, they had gone. I guess you children scared them away," replied the marine.
"Were there really tramps there?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"Yes, we found a place where they had made a sort of camp," was the answer of her husband. "They had built a fire and had been cooking something in empty tomato cans. Whether they took alarm as we approached, or left because they heard the children talking, I don't know; but the place was deserted."
"I'm glad our bungalow isn't near here," said Mrs. Bunker.
"Yes, I don't like tramps myself," remarked Captain Ben. "I'll tell the police of this place, and have them watch. Lots of cottagers and bungalow owners will soon be leaving and closing their places for the winter, and it is then that tramps often break in and take things. The police must be told, and they will be on the watch."
The six little Bunkers, with their father, mother, and Captain Ben, were soon in the motor boat again and on their way to the bungalow. The children talked so much about the ragged men, or the tramps, as they called them, that at length Mrs. Bunker said very firmly:
"Now, my dears, please stop! First you know you'll be dreaming about these poor men, and then, perhaps, some of you will walk in your sleep, as the little River boy did."
"It must be fun to walk in your sleep!" laughed Laddie.
"You did it once, when you were smaller," said his father.
"I did!" cried Laddie. "Did I do anything funny?"
"Yes," went on Mr. Bunker, laughing. "It was in the winter, and mother had just got you a new pair of red mittens. You had played out in the snow with them, and after supper you put them behind the stove in the kitchen to dry.
"Then you went to bed, but later in the evening, when Norah was fixing the fire for the night, you came tramping down the back stairs. You frightened Norah, and when she asked you what you wanted you didn't say a word. You just took your little red mittens and carried them back up the stairs to bed with you."
"I did!" exclaimed Laddie. "I never knew it."
"No, when a person walks in his sleep he generally doesn't know what he is doing," his father concluded.
That evening Captain Ben gave the children a box of marshmallow candies, and they had a fire on the beach to roast them. The children thought this was great fun.
The sailor had cut long sticks for the children. The sticks were sharply pointed on one end, and when the fire had burned down, so there was a good bed of hot, glowing coals, Mother Bunker said:
"Now each of you put a marshmallow on the sharp end of your sticks and hold it over the coals. Be careful not to hold them too close, and don't let the candies catch fire, as they sometimes do if you are not careful."
"I know how, 'cause I've roasted marshmallows before," said Rose.
"So've I. And once my candy caught fire," remarked Russ.
"Oh, look at mine blaze!" suddenly cried Laddie.
"Take it away from the fire, and blow out the blaze!" Captain Ben called. "Burned candies aren't good to eat."
Laddie tried to do as he was told, but he got so excited that his father had to blow for him. After that Laddie was more careful. Mother helped Mun Bun and Margy to roast their marshmallows, and soon they were all eating the dainties, seated on flat pieces of driftwood gathered along the beach.
The moon rose out of the sea, as it appeared, and the view was a beautiful one. Then Rose started a song, and they all joined in the chorus, while Russ whistled—but first, he had to swallow a marshmallow he was chewing.
"Oh, I just love it here," said Rose, when the song was finished.
"Yes, Captain Ben was very good to ask us to his seashore bungalow," said Daddy Bunker.
"Oh, I'm having just as much fun out of it as you folks!" declared the marine. "I wanted a jolly crowd here with me to help me forget about the war."
They sang more songs, Captain Ben told some funny stories, Laddie asked one or two riddles, and I am afraid to say just how many questions Vi asked, but it was a large number. Finally Mother Bunker said:
"It's time we went in, I think. Mun Bun and Margy are almost asleep. Come, Mun Bun," she called to the little boy. "Time you were in by-low land."
"Yes, I want to go to bed," murmured Mun Bun, who was really almost asleep. He tried to get up on his feet, off the broad, flat board on which he had been sitting on the sand while the marshmallows were being roasted, but it seemed as though he could not stand up.
"Come, Mun Bun!" called his mother. "Come along!"
"I—I can't come!" the little fellow answered. "I can't stand on my legs."
"What's the matter? Is your foot asleep?" asked his father. You know that sometimes happens if you sit with your legs cramped.
"No, it isn't my feet, but I just can't get up," went on Mun Bun. "I guess I'm sewed fast to the board."
"Sewed fast to the board!" cried his mother. "What does the child mean?"
"I'm fast!" went on Mun Bun, and when he did manage to stand up the board, on which he had been sitting, came up with him, fast to the seat of his little trousers.
"Oh, it must be caught on a nail!" said Rose. "You've sat on a nail, Mun Bun!"
"No, I didn't sit on a nail," said the little fellow. "But I guess it's something else. It's soft and sticky!"
His mother hurried over toward him. By the light of the beach fire she looked him over.
"Why, Mun Bun!" cried Mrs. Bunker, "you've sat in a lot of the marshmallow candies, and that's why the board is sticking fast to you. Look!" She pulled the piece of drift wood loose from the little fellow's trousers. A wad of candy came with it.
"Well, I thought it was something funny," said Mun Bun, as the others laughed. "I put some of my candies on the board and then I forgot 'em, and I just squashed myself down on top of 'em, didn't I?" he asked.
"You surely did!" laughed his father.
However, not much damage was done, as Mun Bun's trousers were the kind that could be washed. So after the laughter was over and the fire had been put out, so no embers would scatter in the night and cause a blaze, the party strolled up to the bungalow and went to bed, crawling into the bunks which Captain Ben had built like those on a ship.
Laddie rather hoped he might walk in his sleep again, but he did not. The night passed quietly, but when Rose and Russ, who were the first of the children up, came downstairs they saw their father, mother and Captain Ben out on the porch. The marine was rather excited.
"I was afraid something like this would happen after I heard about the tramps," he said.
"What has happened?" asked Russ.
"A number of things have been taken from Captain Ben's dock," explained Daddy Bunker. "There have been thieves here in the night, and a lot of things are gone."
"Most of all I miss my boat," said the marine. "They took that, too!"