Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Toms | Page 7

know any better than to bring him here. They will just make them go to another part of the city, where, perhaps, performing bears are not objected to. Whether they allow them anywhere in Boston or not, I can't say. But he will be taken away from here."
The automobile patrol, with the bear and man in charge of the policeman, rumbled away. The crowd waited a little while, and then, as nothing more seemed likely to happen, it began to scatter.
"I'm glad we saw it," said Russ, as he turned back into the yard.
"So'm I," added Laddie. "It's 'most as much fun as digging for gold. Say, Russ, I hope we find some, don't you?"
"I sure do! I wish we were at Cousin Tom's right now. I want to start digging for that treasure."
"Don't be too sure of finding any," said Mother Bunker, who heard what her two little boys were saying. "Many persons dig for gold but never get any."
"Oh, we'll get some," declared Russ, and if you read this book through you will find out that what Russ said came true.
After supper that evening, when they had finished talking about the bear that had been arrested, Laddie and Vi wanted to go out into the yard and start digging.
"Oh, no," said their mother. "You have been washed and dressed, and digging will get you dirty again. Better wait until to-morrow."
"I thought we were going to start to pack to-morrow to go to Cousin Tom's," remarked Rose.
"So we are, but I guess you'll have time to dig for a little gold," returned Mother Bunker with a laugh. "Though that doesn't mean you will find any," she went on with another laugh.
The next day Laddie and Vi did start to dig in a place where Aunt Jo said it would do no harm to turn over the ground.
"Though if there is a golden treasure in my yard I never knew it," she said. "But dig as much as you like."
"I--I just thought of a riddle," said Laddie, as he and Vi started out.
"Let me hear it," suggested Aunt Jo.
"What is it that's so big you can't put it in anything?" he asked. "That's the riddle. What is it that's so big you can't put it in anything in this world?"
"The ocean," answered Rose, who came along just then.
"Nope!" and Laddie shook his head.
"Well, the ocean is terrible big," Violet stated.
"Yes, it is," agreed Laddie. "But that isn't the answer to my riddle."
"Do you mean the sky?" asked Russ. "That's big, too."
"That isn't the answer," said Laddie. "I'll tell you, 'cause you never could guess it. It's a hole that you dig. You can dig one so big that you couldn't put it in anything. Not even the biggest box that ever was. Isn't that a good riddle?"
"Yes, it's pretty good," agreed Russ; and he commenced to whistle a merry tune. "But you could fill a small box with some dirt, and dig a little hole in that, and you'd have a hole in a box," he added, after a moment.
"Yes, but the answer to my riddle is a big hole," said Laddie. "Now come on out and dig!"
"How big a hole are you going to dig?" Vi wanted to know.
"Oh, not the kind in my riddle," replied her brother. "We'll just dig a little one and make believe we're after treasure."
Of course I need not tell you that Laddie and Violet did not find any. Treasure doesn't usually grow in Boston back yards. But the children had fun, and that was best of all.
During the next few days there was much packing of trunks and valises to do, for the six little Bunkers were getting ready to go to Cousin Tom's at Seaview. This was a place on the New Jersey coast, and none of the Bunkers had ever been there. For Cousin Tom had been only recently married to a very pretty girl, named Ruth Robinson. Cousin Tom and his bride had stopped to pay a visit to Daddy and Mother Bunker when the young couple were on their honeymoon trip, and then Cousin Tom and his wife had said that as soon as they were settled in their new seashore home the Bunkers must come to see them.
"And now we are going," said Mother Bunker, on the morning of the day they were to leave Aunt Jo's. The last trunk had been locked and sent away, and the family of travelers was soon to take the train from Boston to Fall River. There they would get on a boat that would take them to New York, and from New York they could go on another boat to Atlantic Highlands, in New Jersey. Then they would take a train down the coast to Seaview.
"Well, I certainly shall miss you!"