DOWN IN THE WARM STRAW AND UNDER THE BLANKETS THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS WERE PLACED.DOWN IN THE WARM STRAW AND UNDER THE BLANKETS THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS WERE PLACED.
Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's.—Page 100
"Well, I guess we're all ready, Dick," said Grandpa Ford to his hired man, who was to drive. "Think we can make it?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. Ford," was the answer. "The horses are anxious to get home, and the roads aren't as bad as they'll be in the morning."
"Well, when we get to Great Hedge we can stay there a long time," said Grandpa Ford. "Go ahead, Dick."
"Go 'long, horses!" called Dick, at the same time cracking his whip. Of course he did not hit the horses with it. He just snapped it in the air over their backs.
Away they sprang, with a jingle of bells, their feet making no noise in the soft snow. Away they went, and on down the road which was white with the crystal flakes that sparkled in the light of a lantern that was hung underneath the big sled.
"How long a drive is it?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"Oh, about half an hour," answered Grandpa Ford. "We'll be there before you knowit. It's downhill, and the horses are anxious to get to their warm stable."
And this seemed to be true, for the animals, with the jingling bells around them, raced bravely along. Mun Bun and Margy fell asleep almost at once, it was so warm and cosy in Grandpa's sled. But the other children peered out now and then from beneath the robes. However, they were soon glad to pull their heads in again, for it was very cold.
The drive, too, was longer than Grandpa Ford thought it would be, as one of the roads was so blocked with a drift that the sled could not get through, and they had to drive around it.
"But we'll get through!" said Grandpa Ford.
On and on they went. It was a long, cold ride, but it came to an end at last. Russ, peering up over a blanket, saw, down the road, a large, black patch, and from it a light seemed to glow.
"Is that another railroad station?" he asked.
"No, that's Great Hedge," answered Grandpa Ford. "The black part you see is thehedge around the house, and the light comes from a lantern I have outside. Here we are at Great Hedge at last!"
The sled turned into a driveway and stopped beneath a sort of covered porch.
"Whoa!" called Dick to the horses.
A door opened, letting out a glow of warm, cheerful light.
"Are the six little Bunkers there?" asked a voice.
"Yes, every one, and the two big Bunkers, too!" answered Grandpa Ford. "Come on, children! Here's Grandma Ford all ready with that bread and jam for you!"
"Oh, I'm so glad!" sighed Rose. "I was getting hungry again."
"So was I," admitted Russ.
"Now I'm going to finish my riddle," declared Laddie, as he untangled himself from the robes.
"And we can begin to hunt for the ghost," whispered Rose to Russ.
"Yes," he whispered back.
Mun Bun and Margy were awakened and carried in the house. Oh, how nice and warm it was after the storm!
"Have you really got bread and jam?" asked Vi.
"Yes, indeed, my dear, I have!" laughed Grandma Ford, hugging and kissing her, and then hugging and kissing, in turn, the other five little Bunkers.
"Wait till you hear my riddle," began Laddie. "What kind of a tree would you like——"
And just then a loud noise sounded through the house. It was as if a giant had uttered a deep groan.
"O-u-g-h-m!"
Grandpa and Grandma Ford looked at each other. So did Daddy and Mother Bunker. And Rose leaned over and whispered to Russ:
"That's the ghost!"
Outside of Great Hedge the wind howled and the snow whirled about in white flakes. Inside it was warm, light and cosy. But the queer noise which had sounded, and which had seemed so to startle the grown folk, came from inside, and not outside. At least that is what Rose and Russ thought.
"It's the ghost!" said Rose again.
"Nonsense!" laughed Daddy Bunker. "What do you children know about ghosts? There aren't such things. There never has been a ghost and never will be one. That was the wind."
"Maybe it was," agreed Russ, who was not quite as ready as his sister was to think of ghosts.
"Of course it was!" exclaimed Grandma Ford. "The wind often howls that way inwinter. And now come over where it's warmer, and I'll get you all some bread and jam. You must be hungry, aren't you?"
"I am," said Mun Bun. "I went to get some cakes in the depot, and I——"
"Yes, and he pulled over the whole bowl full and it broke," said Margy, interrupting Mun Bun's story. "And the man was awful mad!"
"But we ate the cakes, anyhow," added Mun Bun. "They fell on a paper and most of 'em were clean. Have you got cakes, Grandma?"
"Bless your heart! Lots of 'em. But I don't believe cake will be good for you at night; especially after you've had some, as you did at the depot. But bread and jam and a glass of milk won't hurt you, and you shall have that. Do any of the rest of you want anything to eat?"
"I do!" cried Vi. "Where do you keep your things to eat, Grandma? Have you got a big pantry?"
"I guess Vi is afraid you won't have enough," laughed Mrs. Bunker.
"Oh, I laid in a big stock of food when Iheard the six little Bunkers were coming," said Grandpa Ford.
Neither Russ nor Rose said anything then about the ghost. But they saw that their father and Grandpa Ford were talking together in one corner of the room.
"Maybe they're talking about that," whispered Rose.
"Yes," agreed Russ, also in a whisper. "But let's get something to eat, and then we can hunt by ourselves. You're not afraid, are you, Rose?"
"No. Are you?"
"I—I guess not! No, I'm not afraid," and Russ spoke more firmly now. "It's so nice and light here I'm not a bit afraid," he went on.
Grandma Ford led the six little Bunkers out to the dining-room, where the table was already set waiting for them. There seemed to be plenty of bread and jam on it, and other things, too.
"Can't I tell my riddle now?" asked Laddie when they were all seated at the table and had eaten something. "Don't you want to hear it, Grandma?"
"Yes, of course I do, my dear. What is it?"
"What kind of a tree would you rather drive?" asked Laddie. "That's the riddle. Russ says you can't drive a tree, that you can only climb it or chop it down, or burn it up."
"And I said you could sit in the shade of it," added Rose.
"Well, all of those things can be done to trees," said Grandma Ford with a smile, as she gave Mun Bun some more bread and jam. "I think I should like best sitting in the shade of a tree. But what is your riddle, Laddie?"
"Oh, you have to guess it!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I ask you the question and you have to answer it. That's what a riddle is for. Now, I ask you, what kind of a tree would you rather drive?"
Grandma Ford thought for a moment, and then said:
"A dogwood tree if it wouldn't bite."
"Is there a dogwood tree?" asked Laddie.
"Yes," answered Grandma Ford. "And very pretty blossoms it has on it, too. Is that the answer to your riddle?"
"No'm," answered Laddie. "It's a horse chestnut tree. That's the kind you'd rather drive, wouldn't you? Ahorsechestnut!" and he laughed gleefully.
"Well, I guess that would be the most proper sort of tree to drive," said Grandpa Ford, who came in just then with Daddy Bunker.
"And I'll take my dogwood tree along to run under the wagon that your horse chestnut is pulling," said Grandma Ford.
"What makes some dogs—the kind with black spots on—trot under wagons?" asked Vi. "Is it so they won't get rained on?"
"I guess that's as good a reason as any," said her father.
So the six little Bunkers ate their supper—rather a late one, for the storm had delayed them—and then they sat about and talked for a while. Grandma Ford asked the children all about themselves, where they had been visiting and so on, and they told her about having been to Grandma Bell's, to Aunt Jo's, and to Cousin Tom's.
"It was warm while we were at all those places," said Rose. "And now it is winter."
"I guess you'd say so if you looked outdoors!" exclaimed Russ, who came back from having peered from a window. "It's snowing terrible hard."
"Then we can make lots of snow men!" exclaimed Laddie. "That will be heaps of fun."
"You'll have to be well wrapped up when you go out," remarked Grandma Ford. "It is colder here than it is during the winter at your home, so put on your coats every time you go out."
"The place for them to go now is to bed!" said Mrs. Bunker. "Mun Bun and Margy are asleep in their chairs this very minute, and Vi is almost asleep. Come, children, off to bed with you!"
Outside it was darker than ever, and still snowing and blowing hard. But Grandpa's house at Great Hedge was the nicest place in the world.
"Did the horses go to bed?" sleepily asked Mun Bun as his mother carried him up.
"Yes, they're in bed and asleep long ago. And that's where you will soon be yourself."
The children's rooms were close together,some of them sleeping in the same apartment. And Mr. and Mrs. Bunker had a room down at the end of the hall, so that they could go to any of the six little Bunkers who might call in the night. Often one of the four smaller ones wanted a drink.
Russ and Laddie had a room together, and so did Rose and Vi, and before the two older Bunker children went to bed Rose whispered to her brother:
"Shall we get up and hunt for the ghost when the others are asleep?"
"I don't guess we'd better do it to-night," he answered. "I'm too sleepy. Besides we don't know our way around the house in the dark. We'll wait until to-morrow."
"All right," agreed Rose. This suited her. She, too, was ready for bed.
Daddy Bunker and Grandpa Ford did not, of course, go to bed as early as did the children. And Mother Bunker was going downstairs to talk to Grandma Ford as soon as Margy and Mun Bun were sound asleep.
One after another the six little Bunkers got into bed and, though the two smallest were asleep almost at once, the others turned andtwisted a little, as almost every one does in a strange bed. But, finally, even Rose and Russ, in their rooms, were in Slumberland, lulled by the whistle of the wind and the rattle of the snow against the windows.
Russ thought it must be the middle of the night when he was suddenly awakened by a loud noise. It was a banging sound, as though something heavy had fallen to the floor. Then came a rattle of tin and a splash of water, and the voice of one of the little Bunkers cried:
"Oh, I fell in! I fell in! Somebody get me out!"
Russ leaped out of bed and ran into the hall, where a light was burning. The Bunkers always burned one, turned low.
"Mother! Daddy!" cried Russ. "Come on, quick! The ghost has got one of us! Come quick!"
For a moment no one answered his call, and then he heard, from the room where Mun Bun had been put to sleep, the sound of crying.
"What's the matter?" asked Russ, trying to make his voice sound brave. "Are you hurt, Mun Bun? Or Margy?"
"I—I fell in and I'm all wet," sobbed Mun Bun.
"Oh, Daddy! Come quick!" fairly shouted Russ. "The ghost pushed Mun Bun in, and he can't get out!"
Feet were heard coming upstairs. Then a voice asked:
"What is the matter? What has happened now, Russ? Are you hurt?"
"No, Mother!" answered the oldest Bunker boy. "But I guess it's Mun Bun. It sounds like him, and I guess the ghost has him!"
"Nonsense! There are no ghosts! Don't cry, Mun Bun," Mrs. Bunker went on, as she hurried up the stairs. "I'm coming, and so is Daddy Bunker! You'll be all right."
"But I'm all wet!" sobbed Mun Bun. "I—I guess I fell in the ocean, and I can't get out!"
"You're dreaming that you're back at Cousin Tom's," laughed Mrs. Bunker, as she turned up the light and went into the room where Mun Bun and Margy slept. "You're dreaming, and—Oh, you poor little dear!" she cried, as she saw what had happened. "You have fallen out of bed!"
And that is just what happened. Mun Bun, being in a strange bed, had rolled too near one edge, and had fallen out. That was the bumping, banging noise Russ heard.
"But what made the splash?" Russ askedas he came in to see his mother lift Mun Bun from the floor, and put him back in bed.
"That was when he upset a tin cup of water I had put in a chair near his bed, so it would be handy when I wanted to give him a drink in the night," said Mrs. Bunker. "It splashed all over Mun Bun, and that made him think, I guess, that he had fallen into the water. Did it, Mun Bun?" she asked.
"I—I guess so," he murmured. "I thought I fell into the water, 'cause I was all wet. I didn't like it."
"I don't blame you," said Mrs. Bunker. "Now I'll put a dry nightgown on you, and you can go to sleep again. I'll put a chair by the bed so you won't roll out again, and I'll set the water on the bureau.
"Now, don't make any more noise, Russ, or Mun Bun, and wake up Margy," went on Mrs. Bunker. "She is sleeping too nicely to be awakened." Mun Bun's little sister, though in the same bed with him, had not heard him fall out, knock over the tin cup of water, and call out that he had fallen in. She slept through it all.
Mun Bun was soon dressed in a dry garment, the water on the floor was mopped up, and the light turned down again.
Then the six little Bunkers at Great Hedge quieted down and slept all the way through until morning.
But that same night, when Mother Bunker went downstairs, after having put Mun Bun back to bed, she said to her husband and Grandpa and Grandma Ford:
"What do you suppose has got into Russ to be talking about a ghost?"
"Is that what he said?" asked Grandpa Ford.
"Yes. When he was awakened by Mun's falling out of bed the first thing he called to me was that the ghost had got Mun. I don't understand where the children heard anything about such a thing."
"Nor I," said Daddy Bunker.
"We mustn't let them get the idea that anything is wrong here at Great Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford. "It might frighten them, though, of course, it is nothing like a ghost. I can't imagine where they got the idea, but we must not speak of it again in front of them.
"I do wish we could find out what it is that makes such a queer noise. Your mother and I," he said to Daddy Bunker, "have heard it many times, and now, the first night you are here, it sounds again."
"But only once," said Mr. Bunker, "and that may have been the wind, as we said it was."
"No, it wasn't the wind," declared Grandpa Ford. "For I have heard the same moaning sound when there was hardly any wind. The wind has died down now. It is quieter. I think the storm has stopped, or soon will."
He went to the window to look out, and, as he did so, there sounded through the house a deep, dull groan. It seemed to fill many rooms, and for a moment Daddy and Mother Bunker and Grandpa and Grandma Ford looked at one another. Then they listened to see if any of the children were awake. But upstairs all was quiet.
"There it goes again," said Grandpa Ford.
"I heard it," answered Daddy Bunker. "I wonder what it could have been?"
"The wind," said Mrs. Bunker in a low voice.
"But the wind has stopped blowing," remarked Grandma Ford.
"Oh, well, we'll find out what it is soon," said Daddy Bunker. "Don't let it worry you. We came here, Mother dear, to help you hunt for the queer noise, and that's what we'll do."
The grown folks listened, but the noise did not sound again, and then, as it was getting late, they all went to bed. Nothing disturbed them until morning.
"Hurray! It's stopped snowing!" cried Russ as he ran to the window and looked out. "Now we can make a snow man."
"And a snow fort!" added Laddie.
"And slide downhill, I hope," said Rose. "I wonder if Grandpa Ford has any sleds we can take?"
"He said there were some," declared Vi. "I asked him last night. And there are skates, too. I asked him that."
One might depend on Vi to ask the questions.
"Then we'll have lots of fun!" said Russ. "Come on, now, we'll get our breakfast and then we can go out and have fun."
"I want to go out and see where the horses slept," remarked Mun Bun. "Did any of them fall out of bed, I wonder?"
"No," said Grandma Ford with a laugh. "Horses have beds that are right on the floor. They are made of straw, and the horses can't fall out. But you shall see for yourself. Come, now, while the cakes are hot. And we have maple syrup to eat on them."
"Oh, hurray!" cried Russ. "I love buckwheat cakes!"
And you should have seen the breakfast the six little Bunkers ate! No, on second thought, perhaps it is just as well you didn't see it, for it might have made you hungry. But I'll tell you this much: It was a very good one.
"Now we'll go out and have some fun!" cried Russ, as they left the table. "Shall we make a snow man first, or a fort?"
"A man!" cried Mun Bun.
"A fort!" called Laddie.
"Wait just a minute, all of you," said Mother Bunker. "I don't want any of you to go out just yet."
"Oh!"
"Oh, dear!"
"Oh, Mother!"
"Why?"
Thus, one after another, cried some of the six little Bunkers. They were all much disappointed.
"Oh, I'm going to let you go out and play in the snow all you like," said Mother Bunker quickly, "only I want you to wait until I can unpack your rubber boots and leggings. Then you won't get wet. So just wait an hour or two. That won't hurt you."
"And while you are waiting you can play up in the attic," said Grandma Ford with a smile. "I think you will like it there. Our attic is very large and there are a number of old-fashioned things in it with which you may play. The Ripleys left a lot of things behind. There are old trunks, and they are filled with old clothes that you can dress up in. There is a spinning wheel and candle-moulds, there are strings of old sleigh bells. And there are some things that I used to have when I was a girl. I moved them here from our old home. Don't you think you would like to play up there?"
"Oh, of course we would!" cried Rose. "We can take up our dolls!"
"And have a play-party!" added Violet.
"And dress up and play go visiting," added Margy.
"I'm going to make something!" cried Russ, with a jolly whistle.
"I'll think up some new riddles!" declared Laddie.
"What are you going to do, Mun Bun?" asked his grandmother, for the little chap had said nothing as yet, just listening to the others.
"I—I'm not going to fall out of bed!" he answered, and then he wondered why all the others laughed.
"Well, trot up to the attic," said Grandma Ford, "and have all the fun you want. Don't be afraid of playing with things, for I don't believe you can hurt them. Then your mother and I will be getting out your rubber boots, and you may play in the snow this afternoon."
With whoops and shouts of delight the six little Bunkers trooped up to the attic. As Grandma Ford had said, it was a large one.It was over about half the house of Great Hedge Estate, and the house Grandpa Ford had bought from Mr. Ripley was a big one.
There were many rooms on the first floor, more on the second and some on the third. Then came the attic, highest of all, and in this attic were stored the things thought to be of no use any more.
As Great Hedge was in the country, though not many miles outside the city of Tarrington, there were country things in the attic, such as a spinning wheel, two of them, in fact, candlesticks, candle-moulds and so on. You all know that a candlestick is something in which to stick a candle so one may carry it around. In the olden days, before we had electric lights, gas or even kerosene lamps, the people used to read and work by means of candles.
A candle is a stick of tallow, wax or something like that, with a string, or wick, in the middle, just as rock candy has a string in the middle. Only you light the string in a candle, and you throw away the string in a stick of rock candy.
Candle-moulds are tin tubes, just the shapeof candles, and into these tubes was poured the melted wax or tallow to make the light-givers.
Up into the attic tramped the six little Bunkers. From the windows, high up, they could look across the snow-covered fields. They could see the trees, now bare of leaves, and the great black hedge around Grandpa Ford's house. The big chimney of the house was hot and that kept the attic fairly warm.
"You wouldn't think a ghost could get in, would you?" asked Rose of Russ in a low voice.
"Maybe it was here already," suggested Russ. "An attic is a good place for ghosts. Let's look for one here."
"But don't let the others know," cautioned Rose, motioning to Mun Bun and Margy, Laddie and Vi.
"No," agreed Russ.
He and his sister began to look about the big attic. As Grandma Ford had said, there were many things with which to play and have fun.
"Oh, Russ!" cried Laddie. "Here are two spinning wheels. Couldn't you make something of them—a steamboat or an auto or something?"
"Yes, I guess I could," agreed Russ. "Let's see if they turn around easy."
He and Laddie were trying the spinning wheels, whirling them around, when there came a sudden cry from Margy. They turned to see her standing in one corner of the big attic, and, the next moment, she seemed to vanish from sight, as if she had fallen down some big hole.
"Oh, Margy! Margy!" cried Rose. "Where are you?"
For a moment there was no answer to the cry Rose gave when she saw her sister disappear from sight. The other children, frightened by Rose's scream, gathered about.
"What's the matter?" asked Russ, who was whirling one of the spinning wheels, while Laddie spun the other.
"Margy's gone!" exclaimed Rose. "She's gone, and maybe——"
"Where'd she go?" asked Russ. "Come on, Laddie, we'll find her."
Before Rose could answer Margy spoke for herself by uttering loud cries and sobs. They seemed to come from a dark hole in the attic, but the little girl herself could not be seen by her brothers and sisters.
"Oh, get me out! Get me out!" screamed Margy. "I don't like it here! It's dark!"
The five little Bunkers were puzzled. It was worse than some of Laddie's riddles. They could hear Margy, but they could not see her. She had gone into a dark corner and that seemed to be the last of her.
"Oh, what shall we do?" asked Rose.
"We better go for Daddy or Mother or Grandpa," said Russ.
"I'll go," offered Laddie.
But there was no need, for just then up the attic stairs came Mrs. Bunker and Grandma Ford. They knew right away that something was the matter.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"Margy's gone, and we can't find her, but we can hear her," explained Rose.
She need not have said the last, for Margy was still screaming:
"I want to get out! Take me out! It's terrible dark here!"
"Oh, the poor child's in the nut cubby-hole!" cried Grandma Ford. "Of course it's dark there! Wait a minute, my dear, and I'll get you out," she said.
Grandma Ford quickly crossed the attic. Then she stooped over in the dark corner,reached down, and lifted something up and there was—Margy!
The little girl was carried into the light, crying and sobbing; but, as soon as she found out there was nothing the matter with her, and that she was with her mother and grandmother and brothers and sisters, she stopped crying.
"What happened to you, Margy?" asked Russ.
"I—I don't know," she answered. "I just slipped like once when I rolled downhill."
"She fell into the nut cubby-hole," explained Grandma Ford. "There are many nut trees on Great Hedge Estate, and the Ripley family used to gather the nuts and store them here in the attic to dry. But the rats and mice used to take a great many of the nuts, so they built a sort of big box down in a hole in the floor. The hole was there anyhow, being part of the attic. But it was lined with tin, so the mice could not gnaw through, and the nuts were stored in it.
"I meant to tell you children to look out for it, as it is like a hole in the floor, though it is not very deep, and one end slopes down,like a hill, so you slide into it instead of falling.
"But I forgot about it, and I forgot that the cover has been off the nut cubby-hole for some time. So Margy, walking in the dark corner, slid into this hole."
"That's what I did," said the little girl. "I slid just like going downhill."
"That's why she disappeared so suddenly," went on Grandma Ford. "The tin, being smooth, didn't hurt her a bit, as she slid. And it is very dark in there. But after this I'll keep the cover on, so no more of my little Bunkers will get into trouble."
By the gleam of a candle which she lighted, Grandma Ford showed the children the nut cubby-hole into which Margy had fallen. Then the cover was put on so there was no more danger.
"And now you may go out and play in the snow," said Mrs. Bunker. "I have unpacked your rubber boots and old, warm coats, so run out and have some fun."
Laughing, shouting, and whooping, the six little Bunkers ran out to play. It was their first sight of Great Hedge in winter by daylight, and Russ and Rose paused for a moment after getting out of doors to look at the big house, on all sides of which was the tall hedge.
"It's a terribly big house," said Russ to his sister as they tramped on through the white snow. "I wonder what part the ghost lives in, don't you?"
"I thought he was up in the attic, and took Margy," said Rose.
"So did I, at first," admitted Russ. "But I don't guess he stays there. I guess the ghost lives down cellar. We'll hunt for him after a while, and Grandpa Ford will be glad we found him."
But it was now such a fine, sunny day outside, after the storm, that the six little Bunkers thought of nothing but having fun. They raced about in the snow, threw soft balls of it at one another, and then went out to the barn.
Dick, the hired man, was there feeding the horses, and the children saw the animals that had pulled them over the snow from the railroad station the night before.
There were several small sleds in the barn—some that Grandma Ford had bought when it was decided that the six little Bunkers would visit Great Hedge Estate—and they were just the proper toys for the six little children. Soon they were coasting down a small hill which Dick showed them and also helped trample down smooth for them. For snow on a hill has to be packed hard and made smooth before one can coast well.
"Let's have a race!" cried Russ, as he and Laddie had their turn riding down the slope.
"All right, I can beat you!" Laddie shouted. And he would have done so, too, only he guided wrong, and his sled went into a bank of snow, upsetting and tumbling him off.
"But I like it!" he shouted as he got up and shook the snow from him.
"When are you going to make the snow man?" asked Vi. "I want to see a snow man. And are you going to put a phonograph inside him, Russ, and make him talk?"
"I am if I can find a phonograph little enough," said Russ.
But Russ did not wait for that. With Laddie to help him, he rolled two or three ballsof snow. It was soft, for the sun was now warm, and the snow packed well. The snowballs were put together, and thus the snow man was started. The six little Bunkers then made arms and legs for him, stuck pieces of coal in for buttons on his coat and for his eyes and nose and mouth, and then Dick gave them an old hat to put on the snow man's head.
"Now he won't catch cold," said Dick, when the hat had been stuck on.
"Could he catch cold?" asked Vi. "I don't see how he could, 'cause he's cold already. He makes my hands cold," and she showed her little red fingers.
"Well, if you hear him sneeze come in and tell me," said Dick with a smile. "If a snow man sneezes that's a sure sign he's catching cold. So listen if you hear this one go 'a-ker-choo!' That means we'll have to get the doctor."
"I guess that's only a joke, like some of Laddie's riddles," remarked Russ, when Dick had gone back to the barn.
"I'm going to make up a riddle about a snow man, but I haven't got it thought outyet," said Laddie. "Come on, Russ, let's make a snow fort."
The snow man being finished, the two older Bunker boys let the smaller children play with it, and throw snowballs at it, trying to knock off the old hat, and Laddie and Russ started work on the fort.
They had great fun at this, and made quite a big fort, getting inside it and throwing snowballs at a make-believe enemy on the outside.
All that day and the next the six little Bunkers played around Great Hedge, having fun in the snow. Sometimes Mother and Grandma came out to watch them. Grandpa Ford and Daddy Bunker went to town in a cutter, with the merry jingling bellsonthe horse, and Daddy went home for a week on business.
Nothing more was said about the ghost for several days, and even Russ and Rose seemed to forget there was such a make-believe chap. They coasted downhill, played, and had fun in the snow and were very glad indeed that they had come to Grandpa Ford's.
Then, about a week after their arrival,there came a cold, blustery day when it was not nice to be out.
"Let's go up to the attic and make something with the old spinning wheels," said Russ to Laddie. "Maybe we can make an airship."
"All right," agreed Laddie. "Only we won't sail up very high in 'em, 'cause we might fall down."
Rose was out in the kitchen, watching Grandma Ford make an apple pie, and Rose was singing away, for she was trying to make a pie also—a little one with pieces left over from her grandmother's crust.
Up to the attic went Russ and Laddie, and Mun Bun followed them.
"I want to come and watch you," he said, shaking his pretty, bobbed hair around his head.
"Shall we let him?" asked Laddie.
"Oh, yes, he can watch us," said Russ, who was always kind to his little brother.
Grandma Ford had said the boys could play with the spinning wheels if they did not break them, and this Russ and Laddie took care not to do.
"First we must make 'em so both wheels will turn around together at the same time alike," said Russ.
"How are you going to do that?" Laddie asked, while Mun Bun sat down in a corner near the big chimney to watch.
"Well, we'll put a belt on 'em, same as the belt on mother's sewing-machine. Don't you know? That has a round leather belt on the big wheel, and when you turn the big wheel the little wheel goes. Same as on our tricycle, only there are chains on those."
"Oh, yes, I know," said Laddie.
They found some string and made a belt of it, putting it around each of the two big spinning wheels. Then, by turning one, the other, at some distance away, could be made to go around.
"This is just like an airship!" cried Laddie. "We'll make believe this is the engine, and we'll go up in it."
This the boys did, even pretending to take Mun Bun up on one trip. Then they played other games with the spinning wheels, making believe they worked in a big factory, and things like that.
By this time Laddie and Russ had forgotten about Mun Bun, and the little fellow had wandered off by himself to the place in the attic where the strings of sleigh bells hung. He had fun jingling these. Then Russ and Laddie found something else with which to play. These were the candle-moulds. Leaving the spinning wheels, with a number of strings and cords still fast to them, the two older boys began to make believe they were soldiers with the candle-moulds for guns.
"I'll be a soldier and you can be an Indian," said Russ to Laddie. "I must live in a log cabin, and you must come in the night and try to get me, and I wake up and yell 'Bang! Bang!' That means you're shot."
"All right, and then I must shoot you, after a while."
"Sure, we'll play that way."
So they did, and had fun. They aimed at one another with the candlestick moulds and shouted so many "bangs!" that the attic echoed with the noise.
Then, suddenly, as they stopped a moment for breath, they heard the voice of Mun Bun crying:
"Oh, stop pulling my hair! Stop pulling my hair! Oh, it hurts!"
Russ and Laddie looked at one another in surprise. Neither of them was near Mun Bun, and yet they could see the little fellow standing close to one of the spinning wheels, and his golden hair stuck straight out behind him, just as if an unseen hand had hold of it and was pulling it hard.
"Oh, stop! Stop! You hurt!" sobbed Mun Bun. "Let go my hair!"
But who had hold of it?
Russ and Laddie said, afterward, that they were much frightened at what happened. They were really more frightened than was Mun Bun, for he was not so much frightened as he was hurt. He thought some one had crept up behind him and was pulling his hair, as often happened when some of the six little Bunkers were not as good as they should be.
"Let go my hair! Stop pulling!" cried Mun Bun.
"We're not touching you," said Laddie.
"Is any one there?" asked Russ, looking to see if any one stood back of his brother.
But he could look right through the spokes of the spinning wheel, near which Mun Bun was standing, and see no one except his little brother. And the bobbed, golden hair of Mun Bun still stuck straight out behind him,as stiff as if the wind were blowing it, or as if some one had hold of it.
"Make 'em stop pulling my hair!" begged Mun Bun again. And then, as he moved a little to one side, Laddie saw the spinning wheel turn and he cried:
"I know what it is!"
"What?" asked Russ. "Do you see 'em? Is it Margy or Vi?"
"Neither one," answered Laddie. "It isn't anybody."
"Nobody pulling Mun Bun's hair?" asked Russ. "Then what's he hollering for?"
"'Cause the spinning wheel's pulling it. Look! He's caught in one of the spinning wheels, and his leg is tangled in one of the string belts we left on, and he made the wheel go around himself."
Russ dropped his candle-mould gun and ran over to his little brother. Surely enough it had happened just as Laddie had said.
The golden hair of the little boy had become tangled in the slender spokes of the spinning wheel, some of which were a bit splintery.
As I told you, when Russ and Laddie finished making believe the wheels were an airship, they left some strings on them. By pulling on these strings the spinning wheels could be made to go around. And that was what Mun Bun had done, though he did not know it.
At first he did not feel it when, leaning up against one of the wheels, his hair got caught. Then his legs became entangled in one of the strings, and, as he stepped out, he pulled on the string and the wheel began to spin.
Of course that stretched his hair tightly, and it felt exactly as if some one were pulling it, which was the case. Only it was the spinning wheel, and not a ghost or any person.
All ghost stories will turn out that way if you wait long enough. Every time it is something real which makes the funny noises or does the funny things. For there are no ghosts.
"Wait a minute, Mun Bun, and I'll fix you!" cried Russ. "Stand still. The more you move the more you pull your own hair."
"I'm not pulling my hair," said Mun Bun. "Somebody behind me is pulling it."
"It's the spinning wheel," said Laddie with a laugh.
Then, when they had untangled Mun Bun's hair, they showed him how it all had happened. He had really pulled his own hair. Of course, he was not hurt very much, for only a little of his hair had stuck to the wheel.
"I can make a riddle up about this," said Laddie when Mun Bun was free once more.
"How?" asked Russ.
"Oh, I don't know just yet, but it'll be something about how can you pull your own hair and not pull it. And the answer will be a spinning wheel."
"Can I make the spinning wheels go 'round?" asked Mun Bun, who wanted to have some fun after his trouble.
"Yes, you can play with 'em," agreed Russ. "That is, with one of 'em. I'm going to take the other and make it ring the sleigh bells."
"How can you?" asked Laddie.
"I'll show you," answered Russ.
He took the strings off one wheel, letting Mun Bun play with that, and then tied more strings on the second wheel. He also fastened a string of bells on the wheel, and then, standing in a far corner of the attic, and pulling on the string of jingling bells, Russ could make them tinkle and ring.
"This is fun!" cried Laddie, and he and his brother enjoyed themselves very much, and so did Mun Bun. The attic was a great place to have jolly times.
"And I don't believe there's any ghost up there, either," said Russ to Rose that night. "First I thought it might be him pulling Mun Bun's hair, but it wasn't. There's no ghost there."
"I'm glad of it," said Rose.
The weather became somewhat warmer again, and the six little Bunkers could play out in the snow. The hill back of the barn was worn smoother and smoother, and it made a fine place for coasting.
"Let's take our dolls out and give them a ride," said Vi to Rose one day. "They haven't had a sleigh ride for a long while."
"Yes, we'll give 'em a ride," agreed Rose.
"My doll wants a ride, too," said Margy.
Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun were making another snow-man, which was to be a regular "giant," so the girls had the coasting hill to themselves. They took two sleds, for Vi wanted to go by herself. But Margy was almost too little for this.
"You shall ride down with sister," promised Rose. "I'll take care of you."
"And I can hold my doll, can't I?" asked Margy.
"Oh, yes," agreed Rose.
They had brought to Great Hedge with them the Japanese dolls that had come ashore in the box on the beach at Cousin Tom's, and these the three girls took out with them to coast downhill. They had made new clothes for the dolls, as the Japanese dresses were hardly warm enough for the cold weather at Grandpa Ford's.
Reaching the hill, Vi took her place on her sled, holding her doll in her lap, and then, holding to the sled rope, she began pushing herself to the edge of the slope, at the same time calling:
"Gid-ap! Gid-ap!"
"You don't say 'gid-ap' to a sled," objected Rose. "That's only for a horse when you want it to go."
"Well, I want my sled to go, and that's the same thing," declared Vi. "Why can't I say it if I want to? Gid-ap!" she went on, not waiting for an answer to her question. Very often Vi asked questions to which there was no answer.
"Come on, I want a ride like Vi!" exclaimed Margy.
"All right, you shall have it," answered Rose. "And you may say 'gid-ap' to our sled, too, if you like."
"All right—gid-ap!" cried Margy, and then Rose pushed the sled on which she and her little sister sat to the edge of the hill, and down they coasted.
The three little Bunker girls had great fun on the hill. Now and then Dick, who was working around the barn, would come out to watch them.
"Don't you want a ride?" asked Rose, for a few days before Dick had let her sit on the back of one of Grandpa's horses, and had ridden her around the big barn.
"Oh, I'm afraid my legs are too long for those sleds," laughed the hired man. "I'll have to get a bigger one."
"You can hold my doll if you want to," offered Vi. "I'm going to coast like the boys do, and I can't hold her."
"Well, you had better leave your doll in the barn," said Dick. "I might lose her if I took her."
Vi stretched out face downward on the sled, to ride "boy fashion," and, of course, she couldn't hold her doll that way. So she left the toy in a warm place in the hay in the barn.
Rose, Vi and Margy had great sport coasting on the hill, and they were thinking of going in and getting some of Grandma Ford's good bread and jam when Margy cried:
"Oh, my doll! Where's my doll? She's gone. She went sliding downhill all by herself, and now she's gone! Oh, dear!" And Margy began to cry.
Dick came running out of the barn.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Are any of you hurt?"
But as soon as he asked that he could see that none of the three little Bunker girls was hurt, for they all stood on the hill beside the two sleds.
"What's the matter?" asked Dick again, for he could see that Margy was crying, and crying hard.
"She's lost her doll," explained Rose. "I guess it dropped in the snow. Could you find it for her? It's a Japanese doll, and we got her out of the ocean."
"Out of the ocean!" exclaimed Dick. "Well, if you got her out of the ocean I suppose I can get her out of a snow bank. For I guess that's where your doll is now, Margy. Don't cry! I'll try to find her."
Dick loved children, and, as it was rather lonesome at Great Hedge, he was very glad the six little Bunkers had come with their father and mother to stay until Spring.
"Where did you lose your doll, Margy?" asked Dick, stooping down and leaning over the little girl, who was crying so hard now that she could hardly see on account of her tears.
"Oh, I—I—don't know," she sobbed. "I—I had her in my arms, and I was giving her a nice ride and, all of a sudden, I didn't have her any m-more."
"I guess she slipped out when you went over a bump, or something like that," said Dick. "But, as I said, if you found her in the ocean, I guess we can find her when she's only in a snow bank. I never saw the ocean. Is it very big?"
"Terrible big," answered Rose. "We were down at Cousin Tom's, and a box was washed up on shore and some Japanese dolls were in it. We each have one—all except Russ and Laddie, 'cause they're too big to play with dolls. But now Margy's is lost. But we've two more home, Margy, 'causethere were half a dozen in the box, and you can have one of them."
"Don't want them!" exclaimed Margy. "I want my own doll that I had on the sled. Where is she?" And Margy cried harder than ever.
"We'll look," said Dick.
He went into the barn and came out again with a big wooden rake. In summer the rake was used to clean the lawn. But now it was to be used in the snow.
"You little girls go up to the top of the hill and sit down on your sleds," said Dick. "Or, better still, go into the barn, like the robin in the song, and keep warm. Then I'll look for your doll, Margy."
Then, with the long, wooden rake the man began "combing," as Vi called it, the snow along the hill. There was no need to look in the middle, where the sleds slid down, for there the snow was packed hard, and anything, even smaller than a good-sized Japanese doll, could be seen easily. But Dick raked on each side in the soft snow.
Pretty soon he cried:
"Hurray!"
"Did you find it?" asked Vi.
"Yes, this time I have it!" replied Dick, and he held up to view Margy's lost doll. She had fallen into the soft snow, and was not hurt a bit.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Margy.
After the snow had been brushed off the Japanese doll, Margy hugged her close in her arms.
"I'm never, never, never going to lose you again!" cried the little girl.
"And we're much obliged to you for finding her," said Rose to Dick.
"Oh, yes, I forgot. Mother said I was always to say thank you, and I do!" exclaimed Margy. "I could give you a kiss, too, if you wanted it," she went on, "and so could my doll."
"Well, I'd rather have one from you," laughed Dick. "But I haven't shaved to-day, and my face is rather whiskery."
"My father's face is like that lots of times—I don't mind," said Margy, so she kissed Dick and was very happy.
Then, after some more coasting, during which time the dolls were left in the barn,the three little Bunker girls went back to the house.
"Ready for bread and jam?" asked Grandma Ford. "That was always what I used to want when I came in out of the cold, and I think you want the same.".
"Yes, please, we do," said Rose.
"Oh, yes, please!" added Vi.
"I lost my doll," said Margy, "but Dick raked her up and I did give him a kiss."
"That was nice!" laughed Grandma Ford.
As she was spreading the bread and jam for Rose, Margy and Vi, in came Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun, leaving, of course, the snow man outside. And you can easily guess what the boys wanted.
Bread and jam!
That's just it, and you may go to the head of the class. I wish I had some bread and jam to give you for guessing right, but I haven't.
The next day when Daddy Bunker, who had come back from business, and Grandpa Ford went out to the barn to look at one of the horses that had a cold, Russ and Laddie followed. On the way they passed asmall house, or pen, such as chickens are kept in, and from it came a loud:
"Gobble-obble-obble!"
"What's that?" asked Mun Bun. "Is it a hand-organ monkey?"
"Oh, no!" laughed Grandpa Ford. "That's our prize turkey, and do you know what he says?"
"Did he say anything?" asked Russ.
"Oh, indeed he did!" said Grandpa Ford with a laugh. "You see I understand turkey talk, and this bird just said: 'Thanksgiving is coming, and then I'll be gobbled-obbled-obbled!' That's what he said, and it's going to come true. That's going to be part of our Thanksgiving day dinner."
"I like turkey," said Russ. "Is Thanksgiving coming soon?"
"Next week," his father told him. "You want to get up good appetites between now and then."
"I'm hungry now," said Laddie, though how he could be, having only had breakfast a little while before, I don't know. But lots of children are that way.
There was plenty to see and do aroundGreat Hedge Estate, and after the six little Bunkers had peeped in at the big Thanksgiving turkey, they played around the barn a bit and then romped in the snow.
In the afternoon Grandpa Ford hitched a team of horses to a big sled—the same one that had brought them from the station—and took them all for a long ride, the bells merrily jingling all the way. They stopped in the city of Tarrington on the way home, and bought some things Grandma Ford wanted for the Thanksgiving dinner.
Coming home in the afternoon, the children went up to the attic to play again, taking some apples with them to have a play party.
"Oh, Grandpa Ford's is just a lovely place!" exclaimed Rose that night as she and the others were going to bed.
"And we didn't hear any more funny ghost noises," said Russ in a low voice. "I guess the ghost has gone, Rose."
"I guess so, too. I didn't hear Daddy or Mother or Grandpa or Grandma say any more about it."
That night Mun Bun awakened, and calledto his mother to give him a drink of water. As it happened Rose and Russ were also awake, and Margy, hearing her brother ask for water, wanted some, too. So there were several of the Bunkers awake at once.
Just as Mrs. Bunker was giving Mun Bun his drink, there suddenly sounded through the dim and silent house the loud ringing of a string of sleigh bells.
"What's that?" called Grandma Ford from across the hall. "Is some one stopping out in front?"
"I'll look," said Grandpa Ford. It was bright moonlight, and he could see plainly. "No one there," he said.
The bells jingled again, more loudly.
"They're up in the attic!" cried Russ. "Some one is ringing the bells in the attic!"
By this time it seemed as if every one in Grandpa Ford's house at Great Hedge was awake. Even Mun Bun and Margy sat up in bed, after having had their drinks, and listened.
"There certainly are bells jingling," said Mother Bunker.
"And they are in this house, too," added Grandma Ford, as she came out in the dimly-lighted hall, wearing a dark dressing-gown. "I thought, at first, it might be a sleigh-riding party out in front. Often they stop to ask their way."
"No sleighs out in front that I can see," remarked Grandpa Ford. "Where do the bells seem to you to be?" he asked Daddy Bunker.
"Up in the attic!" called Russ from his room. "That's where they sound."
"I believe he is right," said Grandma Ford. "I have a good ear for sound, and that jingling is certainly up in the attic. Father, you'd better take a look."
"Aren't you—aren't you afraid?" asked Rose, rather hesitating over the words.
"Afraid of what?" inquired Grandpa Ford.
"Well, it's so dark up in the attic," went on Rose, and Russ, hearing what she said, knew what she meant. It was the ghost Rose was thinking of, and not the dark.
"I can take a light," said Grandpa Ford. "Then it won't be dark. But you mustn't be afraid in the dark. It can't hurt any one."
Just then the bells gave a very loud jingle, just as if some one had hold of the string and was shaking it hard.
"Oh!" exclaimed Rose.
"I'm goin' to sleep!" announced Mun Bun, and he covered his head with the bedclothes.
"So'm I," said Margy, and she did as her little brother had done, snuggling under the covers.
Rose and Russ heard their father ask Grandpa Ford:
"Did this ever happen before?"
"No," answered Grandpa Ford. "We have heard many strange noises at Great Hedge, noises we thought were caused by—well, you know what I mean," and he nodded at Mr. Bunker to show that he did not want to use the word "ghost."
Of course, Russ and Rose, being in bed in different rooms, could not see this nod, but they guessed what Grandpa Ford meant.
"Well, we'd better go up and see what it is," said Daddy Bunker. "We can't sleep with all that jingling going on," and even as he spoke the bells rang out again.
"I'll get a light," said Grandpa Ford. "A lantern will be best. There is always more or less breeze up in the attic, and a candle or lamp might blow out. Come on."
Daddy Bunker and Grandpa Ford went up into the attic, while the six little Bunkers, two of them with their heads under the covers, waited to hear what would happen. So did Mother Bunker and Grandma Ford.
The two men were heard tramping around in the attic, and then, suddenly, just as the bells gave another jingle, there was a loud laugh.
"There! It's all right," said Mother Bunker. "They've found the—the—whatever it was," she said quickly. "And it must be funny, for hear them laugh."
Down came Daddy Bunker and Grandpa Ford. Grandpa Ford carried the lantern, and Daddy Bunker had something in his hand.
"Here's what caused all the trouble!" he said, and he held out something round and red.
"An apple!" cried Russ, who had come out in the hall to see.
"Just an apple," went on Daddy Bunker. "This apple made all the noise, or, rather, was the cause of the bells jingling."
"How could an apple make bells jingle?" asked Laddie. "Is that a riddle, Daddy?"
"Well, almost, you might say. This is how it happened. When Grandpa Ford and I got up to the attic, we saw the string of sleigh bells hanging from a nail, where you children must have left them when you last played with them. But we couldn't see any one near them who might have rung them, and there was no one in the attic, as far as we knew.
"Then, even as we stood there, waiting and looking about, I saw the string of bells move, and then they jingled, and, looking down on the floor, I saw a big rat trying to carry this apple away in his mouth."
"Oh, Daddy!" cried Rose, "how could a rat carrying an apple away in his mouth, make the bells ring?"
"Easily enough," her father answered. "The apple was tied on a string, as I suppose some of you children left it when you got through playing this afternoon. And the other end of the cord was tied to the string of bells. That was also more of your play, I suppose.
"The rat came out of his hole in the attic, smelled the apple on the floor, and tried to drag it into his cupboard. But the string held it fast, and as the rat pulled and tugged he made the sleigh bells jingle; for every time he pulled the apple he pulled the string, and every time he pulled the string he pulled the bells."
"And is that all there was?" asked Grandma Ford.
"All there was," answered Grandpa Ford."Just a rat trying to have a nice apple supper made the bells ring."
"Well, I'm glad I know what it was," said Mother Bunker. "If I hear a noise in the night I like to know what it is and where it comes from. Now I can go back to sleep."
"So can I," said Rose.
And the other little Bunkers said the same thing. As for Mun Bun and Margy, as soon as they heard that everything was all right they uncovered their heads and went to sleep before any one else.
"Well, well! To think what a little thing can puzzle every one," said Grandpa Ford to Daddy Bunker, as the grown folks went back to their rooms. "Maybe we'll find that the other noises are made just as simply as this one was."
"Maybe," agreed Daddy Bunker. "But of late we haven't heard that groaning noise much, and maybe we shall not again."
"I hope not," said Mother Bunker.
The grown folks did not know that, half asleep as they were even then, Russ and Rose heard this talk. And the two older Bunker children made up their minds to find theghost—if there was one—or whatever sounded like one.
The next day the children all went up to the attic and saw the string where one of them had left it tied to the bells. Daddy Bunker had taken off the apple.
"I wish we could see the rat!" exclaimed Laddie.
"I don't," said Rose. "I don't like rats."
"I guess I've a riddle about a rat," said Laddie after a pause.
"What is it?" asked Russ. "I can guess it, easy."
"No, you can't!" declared his brother.
"I can so!"
"You can not!"
"Well, let's hear it," demanded Russ.
"It's when is a rat not a rat?" asked Laddie. "That's the riddle. When is a rat not a rat?"
"It's always a rat," said Rose.
"Do you mean when a cat is after him?" asked Russ, trying to guess the riddle.
"No," answered Laddie. "That isn't it. I'll give you another guess."
Russ tried to think of several other reasons why a rat was sometimes not a rat, but at last he gave up.
"This is it," said Laddie. "A rat isn't a rat when he's a bell-ringer; like the one in the attic was last night."
"Yes, that's a pretty good riddle," agreed Russ, after a bit. "Some day I'm going to make a riddle. Now I'm going to make snowshoes."
"How do you make them?" asked Laddie.
Russ was going to tell his brother, and take him out to the barn to show him, when Mother Bunker called up:
"Who wants to go for a ride with Grandpa?"
"I do! I! Take me! I want to go!" came in a chorus.
"Well, he has room for all of you, so come along. He's going to Tarrington to get some friends to come out to the Thanksgiving dinner, and you six may all go along," said Mother Bunker.
So the six little Bunkers had another fine sleigh ride, and came back to Great Hedge with fine appetites. They also brought back in the sled with them Mr. and Mrs. Burton,old friends of Grandpa Ford, who generally spent the Thanksgiving holiday with him.
For the next few days there were so many things going on at Great Hedge that if I only told about them I'd fill this book. But, as I have other happenings to relate to you, and the ghost to tell about, I will just skip over this part by saying that every one, even down to Mun Bun, helped get ready for the Thanksgiving dinner.
Such goings-on as there were in Grandma Ford's kitchen! Such delicious smells of cake and pie and pudding! Such baking, roasting, boiling, frying and stewing! Such heaps of good things in the pantry!
And then the dinner! The big roast turkey, and celery, and a big dish of red cranberries, and other good things!
"I got the wish-bone!" cried Rose, as she finished her plate.
"Let me help pull it with you, when it gets dry!" begged Russ, and then, in a whisper, he said: "If I get the wish I'll wish we could find the ghost."
"So'll I," said Rose.
After dinner the children played games inthe house, as it blew up cold and blustery and was not nice to go out in the snow. Rose had put the wish-bone over the kitchen stove to dry, and, late in the afternoon, she and Russ went out to get it to break, and wish over it. The one who held the larger part could make a wish.