Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jos | Page 2

the questions Vi asked, and no one ever stopped to answer them all, any more than they tried to answer all the riddles--real and make-believe--that Laddie asked.
"Well, that's four of them," said Grandma Bell with a laugh.
"Yes," said Mother Bunker. "And now for the last. Margy and Mun!"
"We's here!" said Margy, who, as you may easily guess, was, more properly, Margaret. "Come on, Mun Bun!" she called. "Now we can have some fun."
And for fear you might be wondering what sort of creature Mun Bun was, I'll say right here that he was Margy's little brother, and his right name was Munroe Ford Bunker; but he was called Mun Bun for short.
"They're all here," said Grandma Bell, with a smile.
"Yes," answered Mrs. Bunker, as she saw the six children running across the field toward the woods. "They're all here now, and I hope they'll all be here when we start back."
"Oh, I think they will," said Grandma Bell with a smile. "I'm sorry this is your last picnic with me. I certainly have enjoyed your visit here--yours and the children's."
The two women walked slowly over the field and toward the woods, in which the six little Bunkers were already running about and having fun. The woods were on the edge of Lake Sagatook, and not far from Grandma Bell's house.
"Come on, Rose!" called Russ to his sister. "We'll have a last ride on the steamboat."
"I want to come, too!" shouted Laddie, dropping a bundle of pine cones he had picked up.
"So do I," added Vi. "I want a ride."
"Say, we can't all get on the steamboat at once!" Russ cried. "It'll sink if we do."
"Then we can play shipwreck," proposed Rose.
"Yes, we could do that," Russ agreed. "But if the steamboat sinks it'll be on the bottom of the lake, and it won't move and we can't have rides. That'll be no fun!" And the boy began to whistle, which he almost always did when he was thinking hard, as he was just now.
"Well, what can we do?" asked Rose. "I want a ride on the steamboat."
It wasn't really a steamboat at all, being only some fence rails and boards nailed roughly together. It was more of a raft than a boat, but it would float in the shallow water of the lake near the shore, and the children could stand on it in their bare feet and paddle about in a small cove that a bend in the shore-line of the lake made. The reason they had to take off their shoes and stockings was because the water came up over the top of the raft, and splashed on the children's feet. Anyhow, it was more fun to go barefooted, and no sooner had the six little Bunkers reached the shore of the lake in the midst of the woods, than off came their shoes and stockings.
"I want to ride on the steamer, too," said Mun Bun.
"No, we don't want to do that," put in Margy, who was standing near him.
"Why?" he asked.
"'Cause."
"But why?"
"Don't you 'member? We're goin' to roll downhill where the pine needles make it so slippery."
"Oh, yes," agreed Mun Bun. "We'll roll downhill, and then we'll ride on the steamer."
"But I want a ride now!" insisted Violet.
"So do I," added Laddie.
"I asked first," cried Rose. "But I s'pose mother'll make me give in to you two, 'cause I'm older'n you; but I don't want to," she added.
"My! what's all this about?" asked Mother Bunker, as she came along with Grandma Bell, the two women having walked more slowly than the children. "Has anything happened?" She could tell by the faces of the little ones that everything was not just right.
"Oh, they all want to ride on the steamboat at once, and it isn't big enough," explained Russ.
"Then you must take turns," said Mother Bunker quickly. "That's the only way to do. Rose, dear, you are the oldest; you will let Laddie and Violet have the first ride, will you not?"
"There! I knew you'd ask me to do that!" cried Rose, and her voice was not just as pleasant as it might have been.
"Never mind, Rose," whispered Russ to her. "I'll give you a longer ride than I give them. Anyway, they'll soon get tired of the raft, and then you and I can play sailor, and steamboat around as much as we like."
"And will you let me help push with the pole?" asked Rose.
"Yes, you can do that, of course," Russ agreed.
"All right," assented Rose. "I'll wait. Go on, Violet and Laddie. You may have your ride first."
With shouts of glee the twins ran down to the edge of the lake where the raft, or, as Russ called it, the "steamboat," was tied by a rope to an old stump. Russ, with the help of Tom