Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bells | Page 9

and see if any of them have
seen the tramp that came to my office."
There were not many policemen in Pineville, and most of them knew
Mr. Bunker. He telephoned from his office to the chief, or head
policeman, and asked him to be on the watch for a red-haired tramp
lumberman wearing an old coat.
"Get me back the papers. I don't care about the coat--he may have that,"
said Mr. Bunker.
The chief promised that he and his men would do what they could, and

some of the policemen at once began looking about Pineville for the
tramp.
"But I guess maybe he has traveled on from here," said Mr. Bunker, as
he came away from the telephone. "I'm afraid I'll never see my valuable
papers again."
"Will you be so poor we can't go to Grandma Bell's?" asked Russ. That
would be very dreadful, he thought.
"Oh, no, I won't be as poor as that," answered Daddy Bunker with a
smile. "We'll go to see Grandma Bell all right. But I would like to get
those papers."
He told the clerks in his office and some friends of his about his loss,
and they promised to be on the lookout for the tramp. Then Daddy
Bunker took Rose and Russ back home with him, along Main Street, in
Pineville.
"Did you find them?" asked Mrs. Bunker anxiously, as she saw her
husband coming up the walk toward the house. "Did you get your
papers?"
"No," he answered. "I forgot that I had given the old coat to a tramp,
and the papers were in one of the pockets," and he told his wife what
had happened at the real estate office.
"And we got a letter from Grandma Bell!" exclaimed Rose as soon as
she had a chance to speak.
"And we're going to see her--up to Lake Sagatook, in Maine," added
Russ.
"No? Really?" cried Mrs. Bunker in delight. "Did you get a letter from
mother?" she asked her husband.
"Yes, it came to me at the office," he answered, giving it to his wife.
"Do you think we can go?" she asked, when she had read the letter.

"Why, yes, I guess so," slowly answered Mr. Bunker. "It will do you
good and the children good, too. We'll go to Grandma Bell's!"
"Oh, goody!" cried Russ, and he began to whistle a merry tune. Rose
started to sing a little song, and then she said:
"Oh, but I must go in and help set the table!" for she often did that, as
Norah had so much else to do at meal-time.
"All right, Little Helper!" said Mother Bunker with a smile. "We can
talk about the trip to grandma's when we are eating supper."
Some of the other children heard the good news--the loss of the real
estate papers did not bother them, for they were too little to worry; but
they loved to hear about Grandma Bell.
"And I'm going to take some fire-to'pedos!" exclaimed Laddie. "I'm
going to shoot 'em off for Fourth of July at grandma's."
Daddy Bunker shook his head.
"I think we'd better have our Fourth of July at home here, before we
go," he said. "That will be next week, and we can go to Maine soon
afterward. Grandma Bell doesn't like fire-crackers, anyhow. We'll shoot
them off before we go."
"Goody!" cried Laddie again. Anything suited him as long as he could
have fun. "We'll shoot sky-rockets, too. What makes 'em be called
sky-rockets?" he asked, "Do they go up to the sky?"
"You go and ask Jerry Simms about that," suggested Mr. Bunker.
"Jerry can tell you how they shot signaling rockets in the army. Trot
along!"
Laddie was glad to do this. He liked to hear Jerry talk.
"Maybe he'll tell me a riddle about sky-rockets," said the little fellow.
Russ sat down on the porch and began whittling some bits of wood

with his knife.
"What are you making now, Russ?" asked his father, while Mrs.
Bunker went in to see that Rose was setting the table right, and that
Norah had started to get the meal.
"I'm making a wooden cannon to shoot fire-crackers," the boy
answered. "You can put a fire-cracker in it and light it, and then it can't
hurt anybody."
"That's a good idea," said Mr. Bunker, "You can't be too careful about
Fourth of July things. I'll be at home with you and the other children on
that day, to see that you don't get hurt."
"Are you sure Grandma Bell wouldn't like to have us bring some
shooting things down to her?" asked Russ.
"Oh, yes, I am very sure," answered his father with a laugh. "Grandma
Bell doesn't like much noise. We'll have our Fourth before we go."
"That'll be