"Snap!" went the wish-bone.
"Oh, I have it!" cried Rose. "I'm going to wish!"
And just then, all of a sudden, a loud, hollow groan sounded throughout the house.
"There it goes! There it goes again!" cried Rose, and, forgetting all about having gotten the larger end of the bone, so that she had the right to make a wish, she dropped it and ran toward the sitting-room.
The rest of the six little Bunkers and the father and mother, with Grandma and Grandpa Ford and their guests, were gathered in the sitting-room after the Thanksgiving dinner.
There was no doubt that they all heard the noise. It was so loud, and it sounded through the whole house in such a way that every one heard it. Only Mun Bun and Margy and Violet and Laddie did not pay much heed to it. They were playing a game in one corner of the room.
"Did you hear it?" asked Russ, as Roseran over and crouched down beside her mother.
"I heard a noise, yes," answered Mrs. Bunker quietly.
"We all heard it—and there it goes again!" exclaimed Grandpa Ford.
"O-u-g-h-m!" came the awful sound.
"It's the wind," said Grandma Ford.
"The wind isn't blowing," said Daddy Bunker. "It must be something else. There is no wind."
There was a little, but not enough to blow the snow about. It had been blustery—so cold and blowy, in fact, that the six little Bunkers could not go out to play. But now the sun had gone down, and, as often happens, the wind died down with it. The night was going to be still and cold.
"No, I don't believe it was the wind," said Grandpa Ford. "It's the same noise we heard before. We must try to find out what it is, Charles," and he turned to Daddy Bunker.
"It's the ghost! That's what it is!" exclaimed Russ. "We tried to find it, Rose and I did—but we couldn't. It's the ghost!"
"Nonsense! What do you know aboutghosts?" said Mother Bunker, and she tried to laugh, but it did not sound very jolly. "There aren't any such things as ghosts," she went on.
"Well, I got the big end of the wish-bone," said Rose, "and I was just going to wish that I'd find the ghost when, all of a sudden, I heard it!"
"Now see here, you two!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker, speaking to Russ and Rose, while Laddie and Vi, with Mun Bun and Margy, were still at their game. "You mustn't be talking about such things as ghosts. There isn't any such thing, and you may scare the younger children."
"How did you hear about a ghost at Great Hedge?" asked Grandpa Ford curiously.
Russ and Rose looked at each other. The time had come to tell of their listening under the window, and they felt a little ashamed of it. But they had been taught to tell the truth, no matter how much it hurt, and they must do it now.
"How did you know about a ghost?" asked Mother Bunker.
"We—we heard you and Grandpa Fordtalking about it—the time he came to our house," confessed Russ. He felt that he, being the oldest, must speak first.
"We listened under the window," added Rose. She wanted to do her share of the telling.
"That was very wrong to do," said her mother. "But, of course, I know you didn't mean to do wrong. Still, as it happened, no great harm was done, but you should have told me about it at the time. It was not right to be so mysterious about it, nor to have it as a secret. You two children are too small to have secrets away from Father and Mother, unless they are little ones, like birthday surprises and the like. Now, don't listen under windows again."
"We won't," promised Russ and Rose, who then told the whole story.
"But is there a ghost?" asked Russ, as the strange noise sounded again.
"No, of course not," said Daddy Bunker. "But, since you have heard part of the story, you may as well hear all of it."
Seeing that the four smaller children were busy at their play, and would not listen towhat he said, Daddy Bunker drew Russ and Rose up on his lap and began:
"You remember when Grandpa Ford came to see us, he said he wanted to take us back with him, and, if we could, have us help him find out something queer about Great Hedge, which he had bought from Mr. Ripley. The 'something queer' was that, every now and then, noises, such as you heard just now, sound through the house. Grandpa Ford and Grandma Ford couldn't find out where they came from, and neither Mr. Ripley nor his daughter knew what made them.
"Of course," went on Daddy Bunker, "some people, when they hear a strange sound or see a strange sight, think it is a ghost. But there is no such thing."
"We thought it was a ghost made Mun Bun's hair stick out and be pulled," confessed Rose, "but it was only the spinning wheel."
"Now, to go on with my story. As the queer noises kept up, Grandpa Ford came to get me, to see if I could help him. I am in the real estate business, you know—I buy and sell houses—and he thought I might knowsomething about the queer noise in his house. I have bought and sold houses that people said were haunted—that is, which were supposed to have ghosts in," laughed Daddy Bunker. "But I never saw nor heard of any spirits."
"Did you find out what made this noise?" asked Russ.
"No, we haven't yet, but we take a look every time we hear it," said his father. "That is what we are going to do now. So, after this, don't be afraid when you hear it. It is something in the house that makes it—not a ghost or anything like that. We'll find it sooner or later, Grandpa Ford and I."
"May we help?" asked Russ.
"Please, Daddy?" cried Rose.
"Well, yes, I guess so, if you want to," answered his father slowly. "If you hear the noise, and it sounds anywhere near you, look around and see if you can find out what makes it. Don't cry 'ghost!' and scare the others."
"We won't," promised Rose. "And maybe we'll be lucky and find it."
"I hope you will," put in Grandma Ford.
"It sounded like a cow mooing," remarked Russ.
"Yes, it did," agreed Grandpa Ford. "At first I thought it was a cow that had got into the cellar. But I couldn't find one. Then I thought it was boys playing a trick on us, but I heard the noise in the middle of the night, when no boys would be out. I don't know what makes it, but I'd like to find the ghost, as I call it, though I'm not going to after this. That isn't a good name. We'll just call it 'Mr. Noise.'"
"And we'll help you find 'Mr. Noise'!" laughed Russ.
Laddie came from where he was playing with a new riddle, and, while they were laughing over it, the groaning noise sounded again.
"Listen, all of you, and see if you can tell where it is," said Grandpa Ford.
Russ and Rose listened. So did Laddie and Violet; but Mun Bun and Margy kept on playing with their dolls.
"It's a tree rubbing against the house outside," said Russ.
"I thought so at first," said Grandpa Ford,"but there are now no trees that rub. I cut off the branches of those that did."
Each one thought it was in a different room, but a search showed nothing out of the way. They were all very much puzzled.
"It's worse than one of Laddie's queer riddles," said Daddy Bunker, when he and Grandpa Ford came back from having searched in several of the rooms.
They listened for a while longer, but the noise was not heard again, and then it was time to go to bed. The wind sprang up again and the clouds seemed to promise more snow. And, surely enough, in the morning, the white flakes were falling thick and fast.
"They'll cover up our snow man," said Laddie to Russ.
"Never mind. I know how we can have more fun," said the older boy.
"How?"
"I'll make some snowshoes for us, and we can walk without sinking down in the snow."
"How can you do that?"
"Oh, I'll show you. I started to make 'em before, but I forgot about it. Now I will."
And, when breakfast was over, and thefour older children had been warmly wrapped and allowed to go out to play in the storm, Russ led Laddie to the barn.
"We'll make the snowshoes there," he said. "I have everything all ready."
Laddie saw a pile of barrel staves—the long, thin pieces of wood of which barrels are made, where his brother had stacked them. Russ also had some pieces of rope, a hammer and some nails, and some long poles.
"What are they for?" asked Laddie, pointing to the poles.
"That's to take hold of and help yourself along. It's awful hard to walk on snowshoes—real ones, I mean. And, maybe, it'll be harder to walk on the barrel kind I'm going to make."
Then Russ began making the snowshoes.
You have probably all seen pictures of regular snowshoes, even if you have not seen real snowshoes, so you know how much like big lawn-tennis rackets they look. Snowshoes are broad and flat, and fasten on outside of one's regular shoes, so a person can walk on the soft snow, or on the hard crust, without sinking down in.
The Indians used to make snowshoes by bending a frame of wood into almost the shape of a tennis racket—except it had no long handle—and then stretching pieces of the skins of animals across this.
"But I'm not going to make that kind," said Russ.
"What kind are you going to make?" asked Laddie as he watched his brother.
"Oh, mine's going to be easier than that."
Russ took a long, thin barrel stave, that was curved up a little on either end. To the middle of the stave he tacked some pieces of rope and string.
"That's to tie the shoe to your foot," he explained to Laddie.
In a little while, with his brother's help, Russ had made four of the barrel-stave snowshoes—a pair for himself and a pair for Laddie.
"Now all we have to do," said Russ, "is to tie 'em on and walk out on the snow. We won't sink down in, as we do with our regular feet, and we can go as fast as anything."
"Won't we fall?" asked Laddie.
"We'll hold on to the poles. That's what I got 'em for," said Russ.
In a short time he and his brother had fastened the barrel staves to their shoes, winding and tying the cords and ropes, and even some old straps around and around. Their feet looked very queer—almost like those of some clown in the circus. But Laddie and Russ did not mind that. They wanted to walk on the home-made snowshoes.
"Come on!" called Russ, as he shuffledacross the barn floor toward the door, from which led a big stretch of deep, white snow. "Come on, Laddie!"
"I—I can't seem to walk," the little fellow said. "I keep stepping on my feet all the while."
This was very true. As he took one step he would put the other snowshoe down on the one he had moved last, and then he could not raise the underneath foot.
"Spread your legs apart and sort of slide along," said Russ. "Then you won't step on your own feet. Do it this way."
Russ separated one foot from the other as far as he could, and then he shuffled along, not raising his feet. He found this the best way, and soon he was at the barn door, with Laddie behind him.
"Come on now, we'll start and walk on the snow, and we'll s'prise Daddy and Mother," cried Russ.
He did manage to glide over the snow, the broad, long barrel staves keeping him from sinking in the soft drifts. Laddie did not do quite so well, but he managed to get along.
The boys held long poles, which helped tokeep them from falling over, and, at first, so uneven was the walking that they might have fallen if it had not been for the long staffs.
"I'll make snowshoes for all of us," said Russ, as he and Laddie went slowly around the corner of the barn. "Then we can play Indians, and go on a long walk and take our dinner and stay all day."
Together they walked around the barn. They were getting used to the barrel-stave snowshoes now, and really did quite well on them. Of course, now and then, one or the other's fastenings would become loose, and they would have to stop and tie them. Laddie got so he could do this for himself.
"It's like when your shoelace comes untied," he said. "Did the Indians' laces come untied, Russ?"
"I guess so. But now come on. We'll go to the house and get some bread and jam."
Russ and Laddie started out bravely enough, and they were half-way to the house when Russ said:
"Oh, let's see if we can get across that big drift!"
This was a large pile of snow, made bythe wind into a small hill, and it must have been many feet deep—well over the heads of the two small boys.
"Maybe we might get hurt there," said Laddie.
"No, we won't!" cried Russ. "Come on."
Russ was part way to the top when something happened. All at once one leg sank away down, barrel-stave snowshoe and all, and a moment later he was floundering in the snow, and crying:
"Hey, Laddie, I can't get out. I can't get out. Go and call Daddy or Grandpa! I can't get out!"
"Are you hurt?" asked Laddie.
"No. But my foot is stuck away down under the snow, and I can't pull it out."
"I'll go!" cried Laddie.
He never knew how fast he could travel on the home-made snowshoes until he tried. Up to the side porch he shuffled, and, not stopping to unfasten the pieces of barrel on his feet, he called out:
"Mother, come quick! Russ is upside down and he can't get his leg out!"
Inside the house Mother Bunker andGrandma Ford heard the queer thumping sound on the porch.
"I wonder what that is?" said Grandma Ford.
"Maybe it's our friend that makes the queer noises, making a new one," answered Mrs. Bunker.
Then they heard Laddie calling:
"Oh, come quick! Russ is upside down and his leg is stuck and he can't get it out! Oh, hurry, please!"
"Mercy me!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "Something has happened!"
Out of the door she rushed, with Grandma Ford after her, and when they saw Laddie, with the barrel staves on his shoes, his mother asked:
"What has happened? What have you done to yourself? What are those things on your feet?"
"Snowshoes that Russ made," was the answer. "He's got some on his own feet, but he fell into a snow bank and he can't get out and he's hollerin' like anything!"
"Oh, that's too bad!" cried Grandma Ford. "But if he fell into a snow bank it's so softhe won't be hurt. But I'll get Grandpa to dig him out."
But Daddy Bunker and Grandpa Ford had gone to town in the sled. But Dick, the hired man, was at home, and he came to help Mother Bunker and Grandma Ford.
"I'll get you out, Russ! Don't cry!" shouted Dick, as he ran up with his long rubber boots on. These were so high that he could wade into almost any snowdrift. "Don't cry, Russ!"
"I'm not cryin'," answered Laddie's brother. "I'm only hollerin' so somebody'll come and get me. My foot's stuck!"
And that is just what had happened to him. He had stepped into a soft part of the drift with one foot, and had nearly turned a somersault. Then the long barrel stave, tied fast to his shoe, became caught crossways under the hole in the snow, and Russ couldn't pull his foot out.
He could not stand up, and so had to lie down, and one leg was out of sight down in the hole.
"I'll soon have you out!" cried Dick.
He was as good as his word. Reachingdown in, he loosened the barrel-stave snowshoe from Russ's foot, and soon pulled the little boy up straight. Then he carried him to the porch.
"I wouldn't go in deep places with those queer things on my feet any more," said Grandma Ford.
"No, we won't," promised Russ.
So, when the snowshoe was again tied on his foot, he and Laddie shuffled about where the snow was not too deep. They had lots of fun, and the other little Bunkers came out to watch them. Mun Bun wanted a pair of the barrel-stave snowshoes for himself, but his mother said he was too little; but Russ made some for Rose and Vi.
Two days later, when the six little Bunkers got out of bed, they found that the weather had turned warmer, and that it was raining.
"Oh, now the nice snow will be all gone!" cried Rose.
"And we can't make any more snow men and forts," added Russ.
"But you can have fun when it freezes," said his father.
"How?" asked Laddie.
"You can go skating," was the answer. "There is a pond not far from Grandpa Ford's house, and when it freezes, as it will when the rain stops, you and the others can go skating."
"I can skate a little," announced Russ.
"So can I," said Laddie. "Did we bring any skates?"
"Yes, we packed some from home," replied his mother.
"I want to skate!" exclaimed Mun Bun.
"You can have fun sliding, you and Margy," said Rose. "And I'll pull you over the ice on a sled."
This satisfied the smaller children, and then, as the weather was so bad that they could not go out and play, the six little Bunkers stayed in the house and waited for the rain to be over and the ice to freeze.
They played around the house and up in the attic, and, now and then, Russ and Rose found themselves listening for the queer noise. They didn't call it the "ghost" any longer. It was just the "queer noise."
But they did not hear it, and they ratherwanted to, for they thought it would be fun to find out what caused it.
After two days of rain the snow was all gone. The ground was bleak and bare, but the six little Bunkers did not mind that, for they were eager for ice to freeze.
Then, one morning, Daddy Bunker called up the stairs:
"Come on out, everybody! The freeze has come! The pond is frozen over, and we're all going skating!"
"Hurray!" cried Russ. "This will be more fun than snowshoes!"
Little did he guess what was going to happen.
"Now you must all eat good breakfasts," said Grandma Ford, as the six little Bunkers came trooping downstairs in answer to their father's call. "Eat plenty of buckwheat cakes and maple syrup, so you will not be cold and hungry when you go out on the ice to skate."
Russ, Laddie and the others needed no second invitation, and soon there was a rattle of knives, forks and spoons that told of hungry children eating heartily.
The house at Great Hedge was warm and cosy, and the smell of the bacon, the buckwheat cakes and the maple syrup would have made almost any one hungry.
"Are we all going out skating?" asked Rose, as she ate her last cake.
"Yes, I'll take you all," said DaddyBunker. "Dick went over to the pond, and he says the ice is fine. It's smooth and hard."
"Is it strong enough to hold?" asked Mother Bunker. "I don't want any of my six little Bunkers falling through the ice."
"Nor I," added Daddy Bunker. "We'll take good care that they don't. Now wrap up well. I have skates for all but Margy and Mun Bun. I'm afraid they are a bit too small to try to skate yet, but we'll take over sleds for them."
"Russ and I are going to have a race!" boasted Laddie. "And if I win, you've got to guess any riddle I ask you, Russ."
"I will, if you don't make it too hard," said the older boy with a laugh.
As Daddy Bunker had said, there were skates for Russ, Rose, Laddie and Vi, these having been brought from home. Russ and Rose had learned to skate the winter before, and Laddie had made one or two attempts at it. He felt that he could do much better now. Violet, not to be outdone by her twin, was to learn too. Of course, the children could not skate very far, nor very fast, but they couldhave fun, and, after all, that is what skates are for, mostly.
"Could we take something to eat with us? We may get hungry," said Russ, as they were about to start.
"Bless your hearts! Of course you may!" exclaimed Grandma Ford.
She put up two bags of cookies, and then Daddy Bunker, thrusting them into the big pockets of his overcoat, led the children out into the crisp December air.
It was cold, but the wind did not blow very hard, and the six little Bunkers were well wrapped up. Over the frozen ground they went to the pond, which was back of Grandpa Ford's barn. It was a pond where, in the summer, ducks and geese swam, and where the cows went to drink. But now it was covered with a sheet of what seemed to be glass.
"What makes the ice so smooth?" asked Vi, as she leaned down and touched it.
"Because it freezes so hard," answered her father.
"Well, the ground is frozen hard, too," said the little girl. "But it isn't smooth."
"That's because it wasn't smooth before it was frozen," said Mr. Bunker. "When cold comes it freezes things into just the shapes they are at the time. The ground was cut up into ruts and furrows, and it froze that way. The pond of water was smooth, as it always is except when the wind blows up the waves, and it froze smooth."
"Would my face freeze smooth?" asked Violet, trying to look down at her nose.
"I hope it doesn't freeze at all," her father told her with a laugh. "But if it did your nose would be all wrinkled, as it is now."
"Then I'm going to smooth it," said Violet, and she did.
Russ could put on his own skates, as could Rose, but Laddie had to have help. Then the three children began gliding about the ice, their father watching them.
"Don't go too far over toward the middle," he warned them. "Dick said he thought it was safe there, but it may not be. Stay near shore."
The children promised that they would, and they had great fun gliding about on the steel runners.
Then Daddy Bunker put the skates on Vi and held her up while he taught her how to take the strokes. It was very wabbly skating, you may be sure.
Finally, however, she began to do very well for such a little girl and for such a short time. But after a while she said she was tired.
"Very well, Vi," said Daddy Bunker, "you sit on one sled and take Mun Bun in your lap. Margy can sit on the smaller sled, and I'll fasten the two together with ropes. Then I can pull both."
And Daddy Bunker did this. Over the ice along the shore he pulled the sleds with the three children on them, while Rose, Russ and Laddie skated about not far away. Finally Laddie called:
"Come on, Russ! Let's have a race! Let's see who can skate all the way across the pond first!"
"Oh, you mustn't skate across the pond!" exclaimed Rose. "Daddy said we must stay near the edge."
"But the ice is smoother out in the middle," said Russ. "It's all humpy and roughhere, and you can't skate fast. I want to go out in the middle!"
"So do I," added Laddie. "Come on, Russ. I'll race you, but you ought to give me a head-start 'cause you're older than I am and you can skate better."
"All right, I will," said Russ. "I'll let you go first, Laddie."
"Oh, I'm going to tell Daddy you're going out in the middle and across the lake!" cried Rose. "He said you mustn't!"
"All right, go on and be a tattle-tale if you want to!" exclaimed Russ.
Now, of course, it wasn't nice of him to speak to his sister that way, and it wasn't right for him to go where his father had told him not to go. Of course Rose didn't want to be a tattle-tale, but still it was better to be that than to let her brother do what he intended. So, while Russ and Laddie got ready for their race, Rose skated, as quickly as she could, to the other end of the pond, where her father was giving Violet, Mun Bun and Margy some of Grandma's cookies, which they had brought along.
"Come on, now! One, two, three! Race!"cried Russ, after he had let Laddie get a little start of him.
Away the boys skated, toward the middle of the pond. At first Laddie was ahead, but Russ was the better skater and soon passed him. Russ was near the middle of the pond when suddenly there was a loud crack.
Russ heard it and tried to stop himself and turn back. But he was going quite fast, and before he could slow up the ice in front of him cracked open. He saw a stretch of black water, and then, with a yell, into it splashed poor Russ.
BEFORE RUSS COULD SLOW UP, THE ICE IN FRONT OF HIM CRACKED OPEN.BEFORE RUSS COULD SLOW UP, THE ICE IN FRONT OF HIM CRACKED OPEN.
Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's.—Page 188
"Oh, he's fallen in! Russ has fallen in!" shouted Laddie, who had seen what had happened. And he suddenly tripped and sat down, sliding slowly along, or he, too, might have gone through the hole in the ice.
It was a good thing Rose had run and told her father what her brothers were going to do, for Mr. Bunker was already half-way to Russ when the ice broke.
"I'll get you! I'll get you!" called Mr. Bunker to Russ. "Rose, you look after the others, and I'll get Russ out. The pond is not very deep, and I'll soon have him out!"
Mr. Bunker ran out on the ice right toward the hole where the black water was. Russ had not fallen in head first, luckily, and now stood with the water about up to his waist.
The ice broke under the weight of Mr. Bunker, and into the water he splashed, but he did not mind. Laddie had quickly crawled away from the vicinity of the hole, and he now went back to where Rose was looking after Margy, Mun Bun and Violet.
"I've got you, Russ!" cried Mr. Bunker, as he caught the scared boy in his arms. And then, wet as both of them were, Mr. Bunker managed to get up on ice that was firm enough to hold him, and hurried to the bank, carrying Russ with him.
"I must get you home as soon as I can, and take off your wet clothes," he said. "You must be terribly cold. Laddie and Rose, take off your skates and follow after me. Bring Mun Bun and Margy, and tell Vi to come. Hurry now. Russ, I told you not to go out in the middle, where the ice might break."
"I—I'm sorry, Daddy!" shivered Russ. "I won't do it any more."
And I am glad to say he did not.
Of course Mother Bunker and Grandma Ford were excited when Daddy Bunker came racing in, all dripping wet, with Russ, also soaked through, in his arms. But Grandmother Ford and Mother Bunker were used to accidents. Dry clothes were put on, the two shivering ones sat by the fire and drank hot milk, and soon they were all right again.
The hole in the ice froze over in a little while, and the ice became so thick that even the grown men could go out in the middle of the pond. Then there was no danger of the children's tumbling in, and they were told they might play wherever they liked.
Russ and Laddie had another race—one that was finished, and Russ won, so he did not have to guess Laddie's riddle.
"If I had beat you," said Laddie, "I was going to ask you why is an automobile tire like a snake."
"Pooh, that's easy to guess," said Russ. "'Cause it's round and fat."
"Nope," said Laddie. "It's 'cause a snake hisses and so does an auto tire when the air comes out."
"Oh!" said Russ.
They were all in the house, after dinner, when Dick came in to ask Grandpa Ford about something that needed fixing in the barn. The hired man saw the children sitting about with nothing particular to do, and said:
"How would you like to come for a ride in my boat?"
"Where?" asked Russ eagerly.
"On the pond," answered Dick.
"The pond is covered with ice!" said Russ. "Is that a riddle? How can you sail a boat on a pond that is covered with ice?"
"I'm going to sail an ice boat," answered Dick. "Want to come down and see me, and have a ride?"
You can easily imagine what the six little Bunkers said when Dick asked this question about his ice boat.
"I want to come!" cried Russ.
"I want a ride!" shouted Laddie.
"Shall we get wet?" asked Rose.
"Oh, no, not in an ice boat," said Grandpa Ford. "I've seen Dick sail one before. An ice boat is like a big skate, you know. It just slides over the ice. You may take some of the little Bunkers for a ride in your ice boat, Dick, if you'll be careful of them."
"I'll be very careful," promised Dick. "Come along!"
With shouts and laughter the six little Bunkers got ready to go down to the pond with Dick, and ride in his ice boat.
I presume that not many of you have seenice boats, so I will tell you a little about them. Those of you who know all about them need not read this part.
As Grandpa Ford had said, an ice boat, in a way, is like a big skate or sled. It slides over the frozen ice of a pond, lake or river instead of sailing through the water, as another boat does. And an ice boat really has something like skates on it, only they are called runners. Perhaps I might say they are more like the runners of a sled.
If you will take two long, strong, heavy pieces of wood and fasten them together like a cross, or as you fasten kite sticks, you will see how the frame of an ice boat is built. On the ends of the shorter cross-piece are fastened the runners that slide over the ice. On the end of the longer cross-piece is another runner, but this one turns about from side to side with a tiller, like the tiller of a boat that goes in water, and by this the ice boat is steered.
Where the two sticks cross the mast is set up, and on this is fastened the sail, and between the sail and the tiller is a sort of shallow box. This is the cabin of the ice boat,where the people sit when they are sailing over the frozen pond.
"My ice boat is only a small home-made one," said Dick, "and I can't take you all at one time. But I'll give you each some turns, and I hope you'll like it."
Down to the edge of the pond went the six little Bunkers with Dick. Grandpa Ford and Daddy Bunker went, too, to see the ice boat.
Dick's ice boat was large enough to hold him and two little Bunkers at a time, and first he said he would take Russ and Mun Bun, for Russ could hold on to his little brother.
"I have to manage the sail and steer the boat," explained the hired man, "and sometimes we go pretty fast. Then you have to hold on as tight as you can. But you'll not spill out, for the ice is smooth."
Russ and Mun Bun took their places on some pieces of old carpet that Dick had put in the cabin of his boat. It was not like the cabin of any other boat, for it was open on all sides. Really all it could be called was a shallow box.
"All ready?" asked Dick.
"All ready!" answered Russ, holding tightly to Mun Bun.
Away they sailed over the ice, turning this way and that, and they went so fast that, at times, it almost took away the breath of Mun Bun and Russ. But they liked it, and laughed so gleefully about it that Laddie and Violet were eager to have their turn.
They, too, liked the ride on the ice boat, as it glided across the frozen pond. The wind blew on the sail, and made the ice boat go fast.
Then came the turn of Rose and Margy. At first Margy thought she would not go, but when they told her how much Mun Bun had liked it, and when Mun Bun himself had said he wanted to go again, Margy let Rose lift her in.
"Here we go!" cried Dick, and away glided the boat. Back and forth across the pond it went, and Rose laughed, and so did Margy. She found she liked it very much.
"Could I have another ride?" asked Russ after a bit.
"I guess so," agreed Dick. "I'll take you and Laddie this time. The wind is strongernow, and we'll go faster—too fast for the smallest ones, maybe."
"I like to go fast!" exclaimed Russ. But he went even faster than he expected to.
As Dick had said, the wind was blowing very strong now, and it stretched the sail of the ice boat away out. Dick had all he could do to hold it while Russ and Laddie got on board.
"All ready?"
"All ready!" answered Russ.
The boat swung around and away it whizzed over the ice. Russ and Laddie clung to the sides of the box-like cabin, and Russ had fairly to shout to make himself heard above the whistling of the wind.
"This is fast!" he called in Laddie's ear.
"Yes, but I like it," said the smaller boy. "I'm going to make up a riddle about the ice boat but it goes so fast as soon as I think of anything in my head I forget it."
"It's fun!" exclaimed Russ. "When I get bigger I'm going to make an ice boat that goes——"
But what Russ intended to do he never finished telling for, just then, there came astronger puff of wind than before, and Dick cried:
"Lookout!"
Just what they were to look out for Russ and Laddie did not know, but they soon discovered.
The ice boat seemed to tilt up on one side, "as if it wanted to stand on its ear," Grandpa Ford said afterward, and out spilled Russ, out spilled Laddie, and Dick, himself, almost spilled out. But he managed to hold fast, which the two boys could not do.
Out of the ice boat the lads tumbled. But as they had on thick coats, and as they did not fall very far but went spinning over the frozen pond, they thought it was fun.
Over the ice they slid, just as a skater slides when he falls down, and finally they stopped and sat up.
"Huh!" grunted Russ.
"That—that was fun, wasn't it?" asked Laddie.
"Lots of fun!" agreed Russ. "I wonder if he did it on purpose?"
"Let's ask him to do it again," suggested Laddie.
But the spill was an accident. Dick had not meant that it should happen.
"As for giving you more rides," he said, when he had brought the boat back to shore, "I don't believe I'd better. The wind is getting stronger, and there might be a real accident next time. Some other day I'll give you more rides."
"Oh, Dick, please!" pleaded Violet. But Dick said he was sorry, but they would all have to wait for a calmer day.
So the little Bunkers had to be satisfied with this, and really they had had fine fun, and all agreed that Dick's ice boat was just grand.
Back to the house they went, and, as it was nearly time to eat, they did not come out again until after the meal. Then there was more skating, and some fun on the ice with sleds, until it was time to come in for the day.
"What'll we do to-morrow?" asked Rose, as she and the other little Bunkers were getting ready for bed.
"If it snows we can go coasting," said Russ.
"Well, it looks and feels like snow," said Grandpa Ford, who came in from the barn just then, having gone out to see that the horses and cows were all right.
The grown folks sat about the fire after supper, talking and telling stories while the children were asleep in their beds.
"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.
"What is it?" asked her husband.
"I thought I heard one of the children," she answered.
And just then, through the house, there sounded, as from some distance away, the rattle of a drum.
"Another queer noise!" exclaimed Grandma Ford in dismay. "What will happen next?"
Rattle and bang-bang and rattle sounded the noise of the drum in Grandpa Ford's house, and yet, as the grown folks downstairs in the sitting-room looked at one another, they could not imagine who was playing at soldier. And yet that is what it sounded like—children beating a drum.
"Are any of those little ones up?" asked Mother Bunker. "Could they have gotten out of their beds to beat a drum?"
"I didn't know they had a drum with them," said Daddy Bunker.
"They didn't bring any from home," returned his wife.
"There is an old drum up in the attic," said Grandpa Ford. "It used to belong to Mr. Ripley, I think. Could Russ or Laddie have gone up there and be beating that?"
"The noise has stopped now," remarked Grandma Ford. "Let's go up and see which of the six little Bunkers did it," and she smiled at Mrs. Bunker.
It took only a glance into the different rooms to show that all six of the little Bunkers were in bed. Margy and Mun Bun had not been awakened by the drumming or the talk, but the other four were now waiting with wide-open eyes to learn what had happened.
"There it goes again!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker.
Surely enough the rub-a-dub-dubbing sounded again, this time more loudly than before, because the grown folks were nearer the attic.
"We must see what it is," said Grandpa Ford.
"We surely must," at once agreed Daddy Bunker.
As he and Grandpa Ford started up the stairs to the attic the drumming noise stopped, and all was quiet when the two men went into the attic. It was not dark, as Daddy Bunker took with him his electricflashlight, which he flashed into the different corners.
"Where is that drum you spoke of, Father?" he asked of Grandpa Ford.
"I don't see it now," was the answer. "It used to hang up on one of the rafters. But maybe the children took it down."
Daddy Bunker flashed his light to and fro.
"Here it is!" he cried, and he pointed to the drum standing up at one side of the big chimney, which was in the center of the attic. "The children did have it down, playing with it.
"But I don't see what would make it rattle," went on Daddy Bunker. "Unless," he added, "a rat is flapping its tail against the drum."
The noise had stopped again, but, all of a sudden, as Grandpa Ford and Daddy Bunker stood looking at the drum, the rattle and rub-a-dub-dub broke out again, more loudly than before. The drum seemed to shake and tremble, so hard was it beaten.
"Who is doing it?" cried Grandpa Ford.
Daddy Bunker quickly stepped over where he could see the other side of the drum, whichwas in the dark. He leaned over, holding his flashlight close, and then he suddenly lifted into view a large, battered alarm clock, without a bell.
"This was beating the drum," he said.
"That?" cried Grandpa Ford. "How could that old alarm clock make it sound as if soldiers were coming?"
"Very easily," answered Daddy Bunker. "See, the bell is off the clock, and the hammer, or striker, sticks out. This is shaped like a little ball, and it stood close against the head of the drum.
"I suppose the children wound the clock up when they were playing with it up here and when it went off the striker beat against the head of the drum and played a regular tattoo."
"Yes, I can see how that might happen," replied Grandpa Ford. "But what made the drum beat sometimes and not at others. Why didn't the alarm clock keep on tapping the drum all the while?"
"Because," said Daddy Bunker, as the clock began to shake and tremble in his hand, "this is one of those alarm clocks that ring for ahalf minute or so, and then stop, then, in a few minutes, ring again. That is so when a person falls asleep, after the first or second alarm, the third or fourth may awaken him.
"And that's what happened this time. The old alarm clock went off and beat the drum. Then when we started to find out what it was all about, the clock stopped. Then it went off again."
"Another time Mr. Ghost fooled us," said Grandma Ford, when her husband and son came down from the attic.
"Did any of you children have the alarm clock?" asked Mother Bunker, for the four oldest Bunkers were still awake.
"I was playing with it," said Russ. "I was going to make a toy automobile out of it, but it wouldn't work."
"I had it after him, and I wound it up and left it by the drum," said Laddie. "But I didn't think it would go off."
But that is just what happened. Laddie had set the clock to go off at a certain hour, not knowing that he had done so. And he had put it down on the attic floor so the bell-striker was against the head of the drum.
"Well, it's a good thing it didn't go off in the very middle of the night, when we were all asleep," said Mother Bunker. "We surely would have thought an army of soldiers was marching past."
"And it wasn't any ghost at all!" exclaimed Rose, as the grown folks turned to go downstairs.
"No, and there never will be," said her mother. "All noises have something real back of them—even that funny groaning noise we heard."
"But we don't know what that is, yet," said Russ.
"Go to sleep now," urged his mother, and soon the awakened four of the six little Bunkers were slumbering again.
The next morning they all had a good laugh over the drum and the alarm clock, and Laddie and Russ had fun making it go off again. The clock was one that had never kept good time, and so had been tossed away in the attic, which held so many things with which the children could have fun.
"Want to help us, Rose?" asked Russ after breakfast, when the children had on theirrubber boots, ready to go out and play in the snow.
"What you going to do?" she asked.
"Make a snow man," Russ answered. "We're going to make another big one—bigger than the one the rain spoiled."
"It'll be lots of fun," added Laddie.
"I'll help," offered Rose.
"Comin', Vi?" asked Laddie.
But Violet, Mun Bun and Margy were going to coast on a little hill which Dick had made for them, so the three Bunkers began to make the snow man.
As Russ had said, they were going to make a large one. So big balls were rolled and moulded together, and after a while the pile of white flakes began to look like a man, with arms sticking out, and big, fat legs on which to stand.
"Grandpa said we could have one of his old tall silk hats to put on Mr. White," said Russ. "That will make him look fine."
"Who is Mr. White?" asked Dick, who was passing at that moment.
"The snow man," answered Laddie. "That's what we're going to call him.'Pleased to meet you, Mr. White!'" he exclaimed with a laugh, as he made a bow.
Soon Mr. White was finished, with the tall hat and all. There were pieces of black coal for buttons, while some red flannel made him look as if he had very red lips. A nose was made of snow, and bits of coal were his eyes.
"Let's make a Mrs. White!" exclaimed Rose. "And then some little White children, and we can have a whole family," she added.
"Oh, yes, let's do it!" cried Laddie.
"All right," agreed Russ.
But just as they were going to start to make Mrs. White they heard a cry from the spot where the other children were coasting.
"Oh, Mun Bun's hurt!" shouted Rose, and, dropping her shovel, she ran toward the hill.
Russ followed his sister over the snow to the place where Dick had made the little hill. If there was trouble Russ wanted to help, for, though Rose was the "little mother," Russ felt he must do his share to help her.
They found that Mun Bun had rolled off the sled in going down a little hill and had toppled into a snow bank.
"But that didn't hurt you!" said Rose, laughing as she picked him up. "There, sister will kiss the place and make it better. You only got a little snow up your sleeve, and it makes your arm cold."
"But I bumped my head, too!" sobbed Mun Bun.
"Well, I'll rub that and make it well," said Rose, and she did.
"But I'm hungry, too," added Mun Bun.
"Oh, I can't rub your hungry away," and Rose laughed so merrily that Mun Bun stopped his crying and laughed too. So did Margy.
"What makes us get hungry?" asked Violet, as Mun Bun let Rose brush the snow from him. "What makes us?"
"It's when something tickles us in our stomachs," answered Laddie. "I know, 'cause I feel that way right now. I wish I had something to eat."
"So do I," said Margy. "My stomach doesn't zactly tickle, but it's hungry."
"Well, I'll go and ask Grandma for some cookies," offered Russ. "She always has a lot in a jar, and they taste awful good. I'll be back in a minute."
Away he ran to the house which was surrounded by the great, high hedge, and soon he came back with both hands and his pockets filled with sugar and molasses cookies.
"I brought two kinds," he said, "'cause I thought some of you would want one kind, and I might want both kinds."
The making of the snow man and the coasting down the little hill stopped while thechildren ate their cookies, and then, after a while, Russ said:
"Well, we must finish the White family."
"What's that?" asked Violet, brushing some cookie crumbs off her jacket.
"Oh, it's a snow family we're making," explained Rose. "There's Mr. White and Mrs. White and we're going to make some little White snow children."
"Like us six little Bunkers?" asked Mun Bun.
"No, I guess not so many as that," replied Laddie. "That would take us all day. We'll just make two children, a girl and a boy."
"Oh, I'm going to help make the White children!" cried Vi.
"Let's go an' watch 'em!" called Margy to Mun Bun. "We've had enough coasting, haven't we?"
"Yes," said Mun Bun. "We'll make some snow mans ourselves."
With the smaller children dragging their sleds and following them, Russ and Rose and Laddie and Vi went back to where they had left Mr. White standing. There he was, very fine and brave-looking with his tall silk haton his head, his coal-black eyes glistening in the sun, and his row of black buttons also shining.
All at once, as Russ, who was in the lead of the procession of children, looked at the snow man, he cried:
"Oh!"
"What's the matter?" asked Rose.
"Did you hear some funny noise?" questioned Violet.
"No, but look at Mr. White!" cried Russ. "He took off his hat and made a bow to me!"
"Why, Russ Bunker!" gasped Vi.
"Took off his hat?" cried Laddie.
"Made a bow to you!" exclaimed Rose. "Why, how could he? Mr. White is only a snow man. He isn't alive!"
"Well, he made a bow just the same!" cried Russ. "You just watch, and he'll do it again!"
Eagerly the children watched. Mr. White did not move. He just stared at them with his black eyes, smiled at them with his red cloth lips, and the tall, silk hat upon his snowy head never moved.
"You're fooling us, Russ!" exclaimed Laddie.
"No, I'm not—really!" Russ declared. "I saw him take off his hat and wave it at me."
For a moment the six little Bunkers stood in a row and looked at Mr. White. Then, just as naturally as if he had been used to doing it all his life, Mr. White's tall, black silk hat came off his head, was lowered before the children and was put back again. This time they all saw it.
"Oh, look! Oh!" exclaimed Rose.
"Why—why——" and that was all Laddie could say as he stood with his mouth wide open, he was so surprised.
"You made him do it, Russ!" exclaimed Violet.
"I? How could I make him do it?" Russ demanded.
"It's one of your tricks. You pulled a string and made his hat come off. It's a trick!"
"Well, maybe it is a trick, but I didn't do it," declared Russ. "I haven't got any string fast to his hat. And, anyhow, if I did, maybe I could pull his hat off with a string, but I couldn't pull it back on again, could I?"
"Well, maybe not, but you did it!" insisted Vi.
"No, I didn't!" said Russ. "You watch and I won't move my finger even, and maybe Mr. White will take his hat off again."
"Did you know he was going to do it?" asked Rose, as she looked at the snow man carefully.
"No, I didn't know anything about it," said Russ. "I was walking along with you all, just now, and, all of a sudden, I saw the hat come off. First I thought the wind blew it, and then, when I saw it wave at me, and go back on his head, I knew somebody did it—or—or maybe he did himself."
"But he couldn't, 'cause he's a snow man," insisted Laddie. "And I helped make him and you didn't put any phonograph or any machinery in him. You didn't, did you, Russ?"
"No, not a thing. He's just a snow man."
"Then he couldn't do it!" declared Rose. "But maybe it was Mr. Ghost! No, it couldn't be that 'cause he only makes a noise,and, anyhow, there isn't any such thing. But what is it?"
"Look! He's doing it again!" cried Vi.
Surely enough, the snow man once more took off his tall silk hat, and waved it toward the children. Then it went back on his head again, but this time it was not quite straight. It was tilted to one side, and gave him a very odd look.
"Ho! Ho! Isn't he funny!" laughed Mun Bun. "I like that snow man. I'm going to see what makes him take off his hat!"
"No, don't!" cried Rose, catching hold of her little brother's arm as he was about to run toward Mr. White.
"Why not?" Mun Bun wanted to know.
"'Cause he might—something might—oh, I don't want you to go!" exclaimed Rose. "I guess we'd better go and tell Daddy."
They stood for a moment looking at the snow man who had acted so strangely.
Suddenly the tall silk hat was straightened on Mr. White's head, and then, once more, it was lifted off and bowed to the six little Bunkers.
"Oh!"
"Come on!" cried Russ to Laddie after a moment. "Let's see what does it."
"Maybe it's a riddle," Laddie suggested.
"If it is, it's a funny one," said his brother.
They started for Mr. White, and, all at once, off came the hat again, and then, suddenly, there was a loud a-ker-choo sneeze!
"Oh, he's alive! The snow man has come to life!" cried Rose. "I'm going to the house."
But just then, out from behind the big snow image, with the tall hat in his hand, stepped—Grandpa Ford. He was laughing.
"I tried to stop that sneeze, but I couldn't," he said. "It came out in spite of me."
"Oh, was that you, Grandpa?" asked Rose.
"Did you hide behind the snow man?" questioned Russ.
"And tip his hat?" Laddie demanded.
"Why didn't we see you?" inquired Violet.
"My! what a lot of questions," laughed Grandpa Ford. "Yes, I played a little joke on you. I hid behind the snow man, which was so large I could keep out of sight. I hid there when I saw you coming toward it, and I thought it would be fun to make youthink it was alive. So I made him bow with the tall hat."
"But we didn't see your arm," said Russ. "How did you do it? Did you put your arm up inside the snow arm of Mr. White?"
"No," answered his grandfather. "I wound this white scarf around my arm, and it looked so much like the snow man himself that you couldn't see when I moved. Did I fool you?"
"Yes, you did—a lot!" admitted Russ.
"It was better than a riddle," said Laddie.
Then Grandpa Ford showed how he had hidden himself behind Mr. White, and, wrapping his arm in a white scarf, which he wore around his neck in cold weather, Mr. Ford had reached up and lifted off the hat and put it back. The white scarf hid his arm, and it looked exactly as if the snow man had made bows.
"We thought maybe he was alive!" laughed Rose.
"Well, I was going to have him throw snowballs at you in another minute," said Grandpa Ford with a smile, "but I had to sneeze and spoil my trick."
"But it was a good one," said Violet.
"Now, we'll make the rest of the snow family of White," said Russ. "And if Dick or anybody comes along we'll play the same trick on them that Grandpa played on us."
"Well, you can finish making Mr. White's family later," said Grandpa Ford. "I came out now to see if you don't all want to come for a ride with me. I have to go to town for some groceries, and also go a little way into the country to see a man. Do you want to come for a ride?"
Well, you can just imagine how gladly the six little Bunkers answered that they did. They forgot all about the snow people, except to tell Daddy and Mother Bunker about Grandpa's funny trick, and, a little later, they were in the big sled filled with straw, riding over the snow.
Merrily jingled the bells as over the drifts the horses pranced. Down the road they went to the store in Tarrington, where Grandpa Ford bought the things Grandma had sent him after.
"Are we going home now?" asked Russ, as the sled turned down a country road.
"No, not right away," answered his grandfather. "I have to go over to Glodgett's Mills to see a man, and after that we'll turn around and be home in time for supper. It looks like more snow, and I want to get you back before, the storm."
Out on the country roads, where the snow was deep, went the horses, jingling their bells and pulling the sled full of children after them.
"Get along, ponies!" cried Grandpa Ford.
And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The sled went into a big drift, which was deeper than Grandpa Ford thought. A moment later there was an upset, and the six little Bunkers were spilled out into the snow.