Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Toms | Page 3

Russ. "Then we can't get any soap on 'em."
"Why not?" asked Violet, who seemed especially fond of asking questions this day.
"'Cause they'll be inside us--I mean the cookies will," explained Russ.
"Oh, that would make a good riddle!" exclaimed Laddie. "I'm going to make up one about that."
The children went out to the garage, where there was a room in which they often played. There they ate their cookies and cakes, and then Russ and Rose made some bowls of soapy water, and with clay pipes, which the little Bunkers had bought for their play, they began to blow bubbles. They made large and small ones, and nearly all of them had the pretty colors that Violet had asked about.
They took one of the robes from Aunt Jo's automobile, and, spreading this out on the grass, they blew bubbles and let them fall on the cloth. The bubbles bounced up, sometimes making several bounds before they burst.
"Oh, this is lots of fun!" cried Laddie. "It's more fun than making riddles."
"I wondered why you hadn't asked one," said Russ with a laugh. "Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed, for he had happened to laugh just as he was blowing a big bubble, and it burst, scattering a little fine spray of soapy water in his face.
Margy giggled delightedly.
"I like this!" said Mun Bun, as he put his pipe down into the bowl of water and blew a big string of little bubbles.
Just then a voice called:
"Hey, Russ! Where are you?"
"Back here! Come on!" answered Russ, laying aside his pipe.
"Who is it?" asked Rose.
"It's Sammie Brown, the boy we met the other day when we went to Nantasket Beach," Russ explained. "He lives about two blocks from here, and I told him to come over and see us. Here he is now!" and he pointed to a boy, about his own age, who was coming up the walk.
"Hello, Sammie!" greeted Russ. "Want to blow bubbles?"
"Yes," was the answer, and a pipe was found for Sammie. He seemed to know how to use it, for he blew bubbles bigger than any one else.
"What's inside the bubbles?" asked Violet, who simply had to ask another question. "Is it water?"
"No, it's air," said Sammie. "If you could blow a bubble big enough to get inside of you could breathe the air, just like outside. Only when it was all breathed up you'd have to get more."
"Would you, really?" asked Rose.
"Sure," Sammie answered.
"How do you know?" Violet questioned.
"'Cause my father's a sea captain, and he takes divers out on his boat and they go down after things that sink. The divers have air pumped to them, and they wear a big thing on their heads like a soap bubble, only it's called a helmet. This is pumped full of air for the diver to breathe."
"Oh, tell us about it!" begged Laddie, laying aside his pipe.
"Did your father ever go down like a diver?" asked Russ.
"Yes, once or twice. But now he just helps the other men go down. He's been a sea captain all his life, and once he was shipwrecked."
"What's shipwrecked?" asked Margy.
"It's when your ship hits a rock, or runs on a desert island and sinks," said Sammie. "Then you have to get off if you don't want to be drowned. And once my father was shipwrecked on a desert island that way, and they found a lot of gold."
"They did?" cried Russ.
"Sure! I've heard him tell about it lots of times."
"Oh, is it a story?" asked Rose.
"No, it's real," said Sammie.
"Tell us about it," demanded Laddie.
"Well, I don't 'member much about it," Sammie said. "But if you come over to my house, my father'll tell you about it. Only he isn't home now 'cause he's got some divers down in the harbor and they're going to raise up a ship that's sunk."
"Couldn't you tell us a little about it?" asked Russ. "Did your father dig gold on the desert island?"
"Yes, he dug a lot of it," said Sammie. "He's got one piece at home now. It's yellow, just like a five-dollar gold piece."
"Where was the island?" asked Violet.
"Maybe we can go there," suggested Laddie. "That is, if it isn't too far."
"Oh, it's terrible far," said Sammie. "It's half-way around the world."
"That's too far," said Russ with a sigh.
"Maybe we could dig for gold here," suggested Rose. "There's nice sand in one part of Aunt Jo's garden, and I guess she'd let us dig for gold. We could give her some if we found any."
"I don't guess there's any gold here," said Sammie, looking the place over. "This isn't a desert island."
"We could pretend it was," said Laddie. "Let's do that! I'll go for a shovel."
He ran to where the garden tools were kept, but, on the way, he heard the postman's whistle and stopped to get