CHAPTER XX
"Rose! what are you saying?" cried Mrs. Bunker, jumping up out of her chair and starting toward the door of the bungalow.
"You'd better come and get him out, Mother! He's in and he can't get out himself, and he's being picked all to pieces, and Mun Bun and Margy are crying and—and——"
Rose had to stop just here, as she was all out of breath.
"What has happened, Rose?" Mrs. Bunker, herself somewhat breathless, demanded. "What has Laddie fallen into? Where is he?"
"He's in—but you'd better come and get him out! He's got a stick, but it isn't much good, and he's being picked and——"
"Beingpicked, Rose? What do you mean? Who's picking him, and where is Laddie?" cried Mrs. Bunker. "I can't go to him till you tell me where he is."
"Laddie's in the coop with the big, old rooster that lives next door," explained Rose. "And he's picking him—I mean the rooster is picking Laddie, and he can't get out—I mean Laddie can't get out, and——"
But, once again, Rose had to stop to get her breath, for she talked very fast in her excitement.
"Oh, the rooster!" Mrs. Bunker hastened on. She remembered that Captain Ben had told them about a savage rooster that was part of some poultry kept by the man next door. The rooster was ugly, and would fly at every one who came near him, and, for this reason, he was usually kept shut up in the yard, while the other fowls were allowed to go outside. When the Bunkers had come to Captain Ben's to pay a late summer visit they had been warned about the rooster and told not to go near his yard, or if, by chance, he ever got out, they were to run away from him. For though roosters do not appear to be savage they have strong wings and sharp spurs and a beak, and they can harm a small child greatly.
Holding Rose by the hand, Mrs. Bunker ran toward the chicken yard of the man next door. Before she reached it, she could hear a great commotion there.
A rooster was crowing and flapping his wings, and Mother Bunker could hear the voices of Laddie, Mun Bun, Margy and Violet, and Laddie seemed to be making the most noise. Russ, as it happened, was down at the dock with his father and Captain Ben, or he might have helped his little brother.
As Mrs. Bunker turned the corner and came within sight of the chicken yard she saw what was happening. Inside the wire fence, which kept the savage rooster penned up, was Laddie. Outside, as though looking at some show, were Mun Bun, Margy and Vi, and they were screaming with excitement, Vi, every now and then saying:
"Bang him with the stick, Laddie! Bang him with the stick!"
This, as his mother could see, Laddie was trying to do. The small boy had a stick, and with this he was hitting at the rooster. But the feathered creature would flap his wings, jump up in the air out of Laddie's reach and, coming down, would try to hit Laddie with wings, spurs or beak.
Mrs. Bunker lost no time. Letting go of Rose's hand she rushed into the chicken yard through the high, wire gate. Then, flapping her skirts at the rooster, and crying "Shoo! Shoo!" Mrs. Bunker picked her little boy up in her arms, and before the surprised fowl could attack her she was safely outside and the gate was closed. The old rooster, with an angry crow, threw himself against the wire netting, but he would not get out.
Laddie, rather mussed up and with a scratch on his bare leg that was bleeding, turned around and faced his enemy as soon as his mother put him down.
"You bad old rooster you!" cried Laddie. "If you were a baseball I'd knock you over the fence!"
"Laddie, how did you come to go into the rooster's yard?" asked Mrs. Bunker, when she saw that the little fellow was not any more harmed than a few scratches.
"I went after my ball," Laddie answered. "It got knocked over into the chicken yard when we were playing, and I went after it."
"I told him not to," said Rose.
"Well, I thought I could get in and get out again before the bad old rooster saw me," went on Laddie. "So I went in. But when I wanted to come out after I got the ball, the gate wouldn't open, and then the bad old rooster came for me, and I tried to hit him with my ball stick, and I threw the ball at him, and I hit him, I guess, but he flapped his wings and he flew at me and—and——"
And then Laddie had to stop for breath, just as Rose had done.
"Dear me!" exclaimed his mother. "It's too bad, but of course you should not have gone into the chicken yard after your ball. Mr. Wendell told you not to. He would have got your ball for you. The rooster is afraid of Mr. Wendell."
"I won't go in any more," said Laddie. "And I wish Mr. Wendell would get my ball now, for it's in there."
"I'll ask him to," said Mrs. Bunker. "And now you had better come into the house and let me wash you."
"Oh, o-o-oh, look! Laddie's leg's got the nose bleed!" cried Mun Bun, pointing to the red spot on his brother's leg. "Laddie's leg's got the nose bleed!"
"Well, I'm glad it isn't any worse," said Mrs. Bunker, as the others laughed at Mun Bun's funny remark.
Mr. Wendell, who owned the savage rooster, came over later with Laddie's ball, which he had got from the chicken yard. Mr. Wendell said he was sorry for what had happened, and added:
"I'm going to get rid of that bird! He's getting older and more saucy every day. The best place for him is in a potpie. He won't trouble you any more, Laddie." And the next day the rooster was sent away.
The six little Bunkers kept on having good times at Captain Ben's. They went out on the water in his motor boat, and sometimes in a sailboat, and on these excursions Russ, at least, being the oldest, would look long and earnestly across the waters of the bay at Grand View.
"What are you looking for?" Rose would ask him. "Are you playing pirates?"
"No," Russ would answer. "I'm just looking to see if I can find the tramps that took Captain's Ben's rowboat."
But the tramps were not found, nor did the Bunkers learn whether or not Tad Munson ever ran back home after having run away. Mrs. Bunker often said they must take a trip over to Avalon, to inquire about the strange boy, but something always seemed to happen to put off the journey. Captain Ben was always thinking of so many things for the six little Bunkers to do to have fun.
One afternoon the marine, after having taken them all for a ride in his motor boat, said:
"To-morrow, if it's a nice day, we'll go to that island I was telling you about, and we'll have a picnic."
"May we take our lunch and stay all day?" asked Rose, breaking off a song she had started to sing.
"Yes, it will be a regular picnic lunch," the captain said. "That is, if it's a fair day."
"Do you think it will rain?" asked Russ, who had taken out his knife in order to make a little jumping jack for Mun Bun.
"It might," the captain remarked. "I don't like the way the sky looks," and he gazed up at the clouds that were scuttling along overhead. "It's about time for the usual storm we get late in the summer, but it may hold off a week or more. Anyhow, if it does come, we can have the picnic when it clears."
The six little Bunkers went to bed that night after having talked and planned for the picnic the next day. But alas for their hopes! The fears of Captain Ben proved true, and in the morning it was raining hard.
"Maybe it will clear," said Rose, as she stood at the window with her nose pressed against the glass, giving her a funny look.
"I hope it does," said Violet. "Say, Daddy, what makes the rain wet?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be nice if the rain was dry, like snow, and then we could go out without umbrellas? Wouldn't it be nice?"
"Snow is wet when it melts," her father said. "And if rain were not wet it would do no good when it fell. Don't complain. Have as much fun as you can here in the house. I don't believe it is going to clear to-day."
And it did not. It rained harder and harder, but Captain Ben knew how to provide fun for the six little Bunkers even in a storm. He had many things of interest in his bungalow, and he knew many stories which he told the children. Every once in a while, though, he would go to the door and look out, and Mrs. Bunker saw that the captain's face was grave.
"Do you think something might happen?" she asked.
"There's a great deal more rain falling than I like to see," answered Captain Ben.
"Will it make the ocean so high it will wash us away?" asked Violet, who overheard what was said.
"No," the captain answered. "All the rain that ever fell would not make the ocean rise any higher. But back of us is a small river, and sometimes, when it rains too much, this river rises and makes a flood."
"Will it wash this bungalow away?" Russ asked.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. But it sometimes comes into my cellar," replied Captain Ben. "However, I don't believe it will this time. Only I wish it would clear up so I could take my six little Bunkers to the island on a picnic."
The six little Bunkers wished this themselves, but of course all their wishes could not stop the rain from falling, and it pelted down all day.
Rather earlier the next morning than he was in the habit of getting up, Russ Bunker was awakened by hearing voices out in the bungalow yard under his window. He quickly jumped from bed, looked out, and what he saw surprised him. It was still raining hard, and the yard seemed to be turned into a small lake with chicken coops floating around in it. Besides the coops, there were planks and boards, and Captain Ben and other men were wading about with long rubber boots on, trying to secure the floating coops of chickens.
"Oh, Mother! Dad!" cried Russ in his excitement. "Wake up! The flood has come!"