CHAPTER XXI
Mr. and Mrs. Bunker did not need the urging call of Russ to awaken them. They had already been up more than an hour when the little boy exclaimed so loudly about the flood. And it was as he had said. The rain had filled the little river back of the bungalow, the river had risen and made a lake of the yards and fields back of Captain Ben's home.
"What's the matter?" called Rose, who had been sleeping and dreaming of the island picnic until she heard Russ's voice. "What's happened?" she asked.
"Come and see," answered Russ.
Rose finished dressing and ran to join her brother at the window, which looked down into the yard. Soon Laddie and Vi were with them, and the four little Bunkers looked out on a curious scene. The other two little Bunkers—Mun Bun and Margy—were still asleep in their beds, or bunks. And it was indeed curious for Rose, Russ, Vi and Laddie to see Captain Ben and some others, including Daddy Bunker now, wading about and pulling the floating chicken coops to places of safety.
"Are the chickens going for a ride in their coops?" asked Vi.
"It looks so," Russ answered. "But I guess they'd rather not go. Chickens don't like water."
"I wish that old rooster that flew at me would get soaking wet!" exclaimed Laddie.
"Anybody that's out in this rain'll get wet," observed Russ. "See it pour!"
It was, indeed, a very hard storm, but Captain Ben and his friends, with Daddy Bunker, who were helping to save the chickens of the neighbor next door, had on yellow "slickers," or oilskins, as the fishermen and sailors call them, and with their big rubber boots they were almost as dry as though under shelter.
"Will the bungalow float away?" asked Vi, as she looked at the big pond of water which not only filled Captain Ben's back yard, but also the yards of his neighbors on either side.
"No, the bungalows will not float away," said Mother Bunker, coming along just in time to hear Vi's question. Mother Bunker thought perhaps the flood might frighten the children, but they seemed to think it rather jolly than otherwise.
"It's like being on a house boat, isn't it?" said Rose.
"Oh, wouldn't that be fun!" cried Russ. "We could float all around and live here and we wouldn't care how hard it rained."
"I'm afraid Captain Ben wouldn't like to see his bungalow go floating off in the flood," said Mrs. Bunker, with a smile. "But come down to breakfast now, and then you may watch the men save the chickens. Poor things! I guess they don't know what to make of it."
"May we go out and help save 'em after we eat?" asked Laddie.
"No, indeed!" his mother told him. "You must stay in while it rains. But it may stop before the day is over."
However, the downpour showed no signs of letting up. It came down harder than ever, and when they had finished eating the children stood at the windows and looked out. The water in the rear yard was not quite up to the back steps, but when Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker came in, after having helped save the chickens, the marine said:
"There is water in my cellar now. If it keeps on raining there will be more in. But there's nothing much down there to spoil."
"Will it wash the bungalow away?" asked Vi.
"Oh, no!" laughed the captain. "We've had floods like this before, and we never had any serious trouble. I'm only sorry that it spoils our island picnic."
"Well, we can have fun here," said Russ. "We can make believe we're on a house boat, and that we're sailing to China."
"And can't we go somewhere to get something to eat?" asked Laddie. "Maybe they won't have anything I like in China. They have tea, and I don't like that very much."
"Yes, we'll make-believe sail to the North Pole, and maybe we'll see Santa Claus and he'll give us something good," laughed Rose, catching up Margy in her arms and dancing about the room.
"I want to see Santa Claus!" cried Margy.
"And I want candy!" added Mun Bun.
"Play as much as you like," said Captain Ben. "It can't rain forever and we'll have our island picnic as soon as the weather clears."
But it seemed to be going to rain all day. Inch by inch the water in the back yard crept nearer the back steps.
"I guess I'd better bring up one of my rowboats from the dock," said Captain Ben, with a laugh, as, after dinner, he looked out and saw the flood coming still higher. "Mr. Wendell will have to row around in a boat to feed his chickens, I believe."
"Oh, could I come?" begged Russ. "It'll be lots of fun to feed chickens from a rowboat."
"We don't know for sure that that is what Mr. Wendell will do," said the marine.
The children played about the bungalow as best they could until nearly supper time, when it was still raining. While Mrs. Bunker was busy with the meal, Rose and Russ went out on the back porch. The weather was not cold, and when the children saw how near the large puddle of water was in the yard, and noticed that it was not raining quite so hard now, they each thought of something at the same time.
"Let's go in wading!" exclaimed Russ and Rose together.
"We can put on our raincoats," added Russ.
"And take umbrellas," went on Rose.
Not stopping to ask their mother if they might, and seeing that Vi and Laddie, Mun Bun and Margy were playing together in a distant part of the house, Rose and her brother got on their storm clothes, took off their shoes and stockings and soon were wading about in the shallow part of the flood-pond.
"Isn't it nice?" laughed Rose, as she splashed about.
"Lots of fun," said Russ. Then, as he looked toward the far end of Captain Ben's flooded yard, Russ uttered a cry of surprise. "Look, Rose!" he called. "On that board floating down!"
"Oh, it's a cat!" cried Rose.
"And some kittens!" added Russ. "She's taking them for a ride!"
Surely enough, floating down the flooded yard on a board was a mother cat and four kittens. But they did not seem to be riding for pleasure, or having a good time. As the board boat slowly turned around and around, coming nearer and nearer to Russ and Rose, the mother cried as though asking the children to come and rescue her and her little family. The little kittens also cried.
"Oh, Russ!" exclaimed Rose. "The poor things! Can't we get 'em and take 'em in?"
"I guess so," Russ answered. "They're floating down this way. If I had a long stick I could poke 'em nearer to us."
"Here's a clothes stick," said Rose, taking one from the back porch. Then she and Russ waded farther out and waited for the mother cat and her kittens to come within reach.
SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY RUSS PULLED THE BOAT TOWARD HIM.
SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY RUSS PULLED THE BOAT TOWARD HIM.
SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY RUSS PULLED THE BOAT TOWARD HIM.
Just about this time Mrs. Bunker, who had finished setting the table, went into the pantry, and from a window she could look out into the back yard. She saw what Russ and Rose were doing—wading in the pond with their shoes and stockings off, Rose under an umbrella and Russ in his rain coat.
"Oh, children! what are you doing?" called Mrs. Bunker.
"We're trying to save the kittens!" answered Russ. "I'll have 'em in a minute."
As he spoke he reached out with the clothes pole Rose had handed him, and he managed to touch the board on which crouched the little family, mother and kittens all mewing now. Slowly and carefully Russ pulled the board toward him, and when it was almost within his reach the mother cat took one of the kittens up in her mouth. It was as though she knew they were going to be rescued, and as though she were getting ready for it.
"Oh, the poor little dears!" exclaimed Rose. She reached forward to lift off the other three little kittens, while Russ dropped the pole and got ready to take care of the mother cat. But Rose found that to hold three kittens she needed to let go of the umbrella, so she tossed it on the porch back of her.
Then she quickly gathered the three half-drowned kittens in her arms, while Russ took the mother cat and one kitten, which the mother cat still held in her mouth. Then, as the board floated away, the children carried their new pets into the house.
"Oh, my dears, you're all wet!" cried Mother Bunker, while Vi and Laddie and Mun Bun and Margy crowded around to look at the rescued animals.
"Well, if we hadn't gone out in the rain we wouldn't have seen the mother cat and her little ones, and maybe they'd be drowned, so it's a good thing we went in wading," declared Russ.
His mother laughed but said nothing. The cat and kittens were carried near the warm stove and given milk, and soon they were purring contentedly.
"Something good came out of the flood, anyhow," said Captain Ben, when he saw the now happy little family.
"How do you suppose they got on the board?" asked Russ, as he rubbed the now soft and dry fur of one of the kittens.
"I presume the old cat had her family out in some barn or woodshed," answered the marine. "When the water began to rise she crawled with them up as high as she could to keep dry. But the water kept on rising and finally floated her off on the board, as though it were a boat. I don't know where they came from, but we'll keep them until some one claims them."
"I'm going to keep one forever and take it home with me!" declared Margy, who had a black kitten in her lap.
"So'm I!" added Mun Bun, who was lifting up a black and white kitten.
It rained all that night, but the sun shone and the storm was over the next day. The flood did very little real damage, aside from floating away Mr. Wendell's chicken coops and filling Captain Ben's cellar with water. And almost as quickly as it had risen the small river went down again. The ocean and bay were not changed by all the rain that had fallen. The tides rose and fell just the same.
One bright, sunny day, shortly after the flood, when the old cat and her kittens had begun to feel quite at home in the bungalow, Captain Ben came up from the dock where he and Daddy Bunker had been working on the motor boat.
"Now theSprayis all ready for a long trip," said the sailor. "We shall go on our island picnic to-morrow."
"Oh, what fun!" laughed the six little Bunkers.
It was a glorious day for a picnic. They were all up early and the lunches were packed in boxes and baskets.
"Are we going to take the mother cat and her kittens?" asked Margy, when the time came for the start.
"Oh, indeed no!" said Mrs. Bunker.
"Well, how are they going to get anything to eat if we leave 'em home here all alone?" Mun Bun wanted to know.
"I'll put a saucer of milk where they can get it for their dinner, Margy," answered Captain Ben. "And we'll be home in time to feed them this evening."
That satisfied the two smaller children, and, after a last pat and rub of the purring mother and kittens, Margy and Mun Bun joined the others in the motor boat.
Over the sparkling waters of the bay at Grand View went theSpray. The six little Bunkers looked toward the island where they were to spend the day on a picnic, and soon they reached it.
"Can we go barefoot?" asked Vi, almost as soon as she had stepped out on the sandy beach.
"Yes. But be careful about stepping on sharp shells," her mother cautioned her.
"I'm going to take off my shoes, too!" said Mun Bun, and soon the four youngest Bunkers were wiggling their toes on the soft, warm sand.
Then such fun as the children had! They raced about, sailed little wooden boats, built caves of sand, and threw stones in the water. Russ gathered shells for his collection, and Rose picked flowers for her dried flower collection, while Daddy and Mother Bunker and Captain Ben sat in the shade and talked or read books they had brought along.
Rose and Russ had wandered off together down a woodland path on the island, and Rose was a little ahead of her brother when he suddenly heard her calling.
"Russ, come here!" said Rose in a strange voice.
Russ hurried forward.