Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bells | Page 7

now, looked at his
wife.
"Take the children, if you have time," she said. "At least Rose and Russ.
The others are playing in the sand," for that's what they were doing. Vi,
Laddie, Margy and Mun Bun were digging in a pile of sand at one end
of the yard.
"All right, come along, Little Flower, and you, too, Whistler," said Mr.
Bunker, giving Russ a pet name he used occasionally.
The two children, delighted to be out after the rain, went down the
street with their father, leaving their smaller brothers and sisters
playing in the sand. Russ and Rose felt they were too old for
this--especially just now.
"Did you hear what happened to us?" asked Russ, as he walked along,
holding one of his father's hands, while Rose took the other.
"What happened when?" asked Mr. Bunker.
"When I made a steamboat partly out of a barrel," went on Russ. "It got
broken when Laddie was inside it and I was outside. But we didn't any
of us get hurt."
"Well, I'm glad of that," said Mr. Bunker with a smile.

"And Laddie made up a funny riddle about the barrel" went on Rose.
"Jerry told it to him, though. It's like this--'Why does a barrel eat a roll
for breakfast?'"
"Why does a barrel eat a roll for breakfast?" repeated Mr. Bunker. "I
didn't know barrels ate rolls. I thought they always took crackers or
oatmeal or something like that."
"Oh, she hasn't got it right!" said Russ, with a laugh at his sister. "The
riddle is, 'When is a barrel hungry?' and Laddie says Jerry told him it
was when the barrel takes a roll before breakfast."
"Oh, I see!" laughed Mr. Bunker. "Well, that's pretty good. Now I have
a riddle for you. 'How many lollypops can you buy for two pennies?'"
and he stopped in front of a little store with the two children--one on
each side of him.
Russ looked at Rose and Rose looked at Russ. Then they smiled and
looked at their father.
"I think we can find the answer to that riddle in here," went Mr. Bunker,
as he led the way into the candy store, for it was that kind.
And Russ and Rose soon found that they could each get a lollypop for a
penny.
"You used to get two for a cent," said Russ. "But I guess, on account of
everything being so high, they only give you one."
"Well, one at a time is enough, I should think," said Mr. Bunker, as
they went out of the store. "If you had two lollypops I'd be afraid you
wouldn't know which one to taste first, and it would take so long to
make sure that you might grow old before you found out, and then you
wouldn't have any fun eating them."
"Oh, you're such a funny daddy!" laughed Rose.
They walked down Main Street, and soon came to Mr. Bunker's real

estate office. He hurried inside, followed by the children.
Mr. Bunker looked behind the door in the little room where he had his
desk. The office was made up of three rooms, and in the large, outer
one, were several clerks, writing at desks. Some of them knew the two
little Bunker children and nodded and smiled at them.
"Where's that old coat of mine I sometimes wear?" asked Mr. Bunker
of one of his clerks, when the office door had been opened but no
garment was found hanging behind it.
"Do you mean that ragged one?" asked the clerk, whose name, by the
way, was Donlin--Mr. Donlin.
"That's the one I mean," said Mr. Bunker. "I stuck some real estate
papers in the pocket of that coat yesterday when I went out to the
lumber pile with Mr. Johnson, and now I want them. I must have left
them in the pocket of the old, ragged coat."
"If you did they're gone, I'm afraid," said Mr. Donlin.
"Gone? You mean those papers are gone?"
"Yes, and the old coat, too. They're both gone. If there were any papers
in the pocket of that old coat they're gone, Mr. Bunker."
"But who took them?" asked the real estate man, much worried.
"Why, it must have been that old tramp lumberman," answered the
clerk. "Don't you remember?"
"What tramp lumberman?" asked Mr. Bunker.
"It was this way," said Mr. Donlin. "After you went out to the lumber
pile with Mr. Johnson--and I saw you had on the old coat--you came
back in here and hung it up behind the door."
"And the valuable papers were in the pocket," said Mr. Bunker. "I
remember that."

"Well, perhaps they were," admitted the clerk. "Anyhow, you hung the
ragged coat behind the door. And just before you went home for