Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jos | Page 5

Grandma Bell, who had come with Mother Bunker.
"There it goes once more!"
And, surely enough, the voice called again:
"Come and get me! I'm lost!"
"Poor thing!" said Grandma Bell. "I wonder whose little boy or girl it
is."
"'Tisn't any of us," said Violet, "'cause we're all here!"
"Yes, I counted to make sure," said Mother Bunker. "But we must find
out who it is. Come on, children. Are we going too fast for you,
Mother?" she asked Grandma Bell.
"Oh, no, indeed!"
"We must find the lost one," Mother Bunker continued, and so they
kept on with the queer hunt. Every now and then they could hear the
voice calling. Pretty soon Mrs. Bell said:
"I can hear some one coming."
Then the voice called again:
"Come and get me! I'm lost!"

"Oh, there it is! Over in that direction!" exclaimed Grandma Bell.
They hurried toward a thick clump of trees, from which the voice
seemed to come. Then, all at once, another voice called:
"Oh, there you are! I see you! Now come right here to me, and don't go
away again!"
"Why, I know who that is!" exclaimed Grandma Bell.
Before the children could ask they heard a funny voice say:
"Oh, hello! Pretty Poll! Pretty Poll! Polly wants a cracker!"
"Well, you'll get one, and it won't be a sweet cracker, either, if you fly
out of your cage again," said a man's voice. "You'll get a fire-cracker!
Now you flutter right down to me and be good!"
"Hello! Hello!" said the funny voice, and then came a strange laugh.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"Why--why! It's a parrot!" shouted Laddie. "I can see his green
feathers!"
"Yes, and there is Mr. Hixon after him," said Grandma Bell. "You have
been fooled by Bill Hixon's parrot, children, just as you were teased
once before. It wasn't a little boy or girl lost in the woods at all. It was
just the parrot."
"That's just what it was, Mrs. Bell," said Mr. Hixon, and a man stepped
out from behind a tree. "Were you after him, too?" he asked, as he held
out his hand the parrot flew down out of the tree and alighted on his
finger.
"The children, playing in the woods, heard your parrot calling, and
thought it was a lost child," said Mrs. Bunker. "Did he get out of his
cage?"
"That's what he did," said Mr. William Hixon, or "Bill," as his

neighbors called him. "He got out early this morning, and I've been
looking for him ever since. I followed along through these woods,
because a man said he had seen a green bird flying about in here, and,
surely enough, I heard my Polly singing out about being lost, and
wanting some one to come and get her. She always begs that way when
she gets lost."
"We heard her," said Laddie. "But I thought it was a little boy."
"And I thought it was a little girl," added Violet.
Mun Bun and Margy didn't say anything. They just stood and looked at
the green parrot on Mr. Hixon's finger. The bird seemed happy now,
and bent its head over toward its owner.
"She wants it scratched," said Mr. Hixon. "Well, I'll be nice to you now,
but I won't like you if you get out of your cage again," he said. "She
can open the door herself," he explained to Grandma Bell and Mrs.
Bunker.
"She talks very plainly for a parrot," said Grandma Bell. "I remember
the day the six little Bunkers first came, and Polly was in the back of
the auto. We thought it was a child then."
"Yes, Polly is a good talker," said Mr. Hixon, who lived not far from
Grandma Bell's. "But I think I'll have to get her a new cage so she can't
get out. It keeps me busy chasing after her."
"Polly wants a cracker! Polly wants a sweet cracker!" chanted the
parrot.
"Well, you'll get a sour one if you aren't good!" said Mr. Hixon, with a
laugh. "I'm sorry my parrot fooled you, and made you think a child was
lost in the woods," he went on.
"Oh, that's all right," said Mother Bunker. "We didn't mind hunting,
and we're glad no one was lost."

"How are all the six little Bunkers?" asked the owner of the green
parrot, as he started for his home.
"Well, these four, as you see, are fine," said Grandma Bell. "The other
two, Russ and Rose, are playing steamboat on the lake. But I am going
to lose them all."
"Lose them all!" cried Mr. Hixon. "How's that?"
"We are going to pay a visit to Mr. Bunker's sister, who lives in
Boston," explained Mrs. Bunker. "She wrote and asked us to come, and
this