Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's Part 10

"Well, Rose can take both of you," said Mrs. Bunker. Rose was a real "mother's helper," and often looked after the two smaller children in such things as getting them drinks of water. The tank was at the end of the car, not far from where the Bunkers were sitting.

Mr. Bunker bought a picture book for Laddie, from the train boy who came through the car every half hour or so, and the little riddle-chap curled up in his seat to look at this.

Russ, with some bits of string, some little sticks he had in his pocket and some paper, was making "something," though just what it was not even he seemed to know. Violet got in the seat with Laddie to look at his picture book. At the same time she may have been thinking up more questions to ask, for all I know.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunker sat together now, near Grandpa Ford, and they talked together in low voices. Russ was too busy with his string and sticks to listen, though, if he had, he might have heard something more about the queer secret.

As for Rose, who shared part of the secret with him, she was taking Margy and Mun Bun to get a drink.

"Ladies first," said Rose to her little brother, when he would have reached for the cup she filled. "Ladies first, Mun Bun. Let Margy have a drink before you."

"Does her doll have to drink, too?" asked Mun Bun. "Is she a lady?"

"She just makes believe drink," said Margy. "I'll give you the cup as soon as I take some, Munny Bunny." Sometimes Margy called her little brother that for fun.

Margy was very thirsty, and wanted two cups of water. But then the cup was not a very large one. Next Mun Bun had to have some, and he tried to drink three cupfuls. But the last one was a little too much for him, and he spilled part of it on himself.

"But I don't care," he said. "It's only like when it rains, or when the water splashes on you when you go in bathing. Only this water isn't salt, like that down in the ocean at Cousin Tom's," he added.

"It's a good thing it isn't salt, or you couldn't drink it," said Rose, as she wiped the water drops off Mun Bun with her handkerchief. "Now come on back to your seats," she went on. "I guess I'd better take you alone first, Margy. Then I'll come back for you, Mun Bun. The train is so jiggily I can't lead you both."

The cars were indeed swaying, for the train was going faster now, and around curves, which always makes it hard to walk along inside a railway coach.

"Stay here, by the water tank, Mun Bun," said Rose. "I'll take Margy to her seat, and then come back for you."

"All right," agreed the little boy. "I'll wait for you."

Now at this end of the car the train boy had left his basket, in which were a number of toys, that he walked up and down the aisles with, selling. He had left the basket there, in a vacant seat, while he went back into the baggage-car to get a magazine for which a lady had asked him.

Mun Bun saw the basket of toys. There were picture books, little dolls, prettily colored boxes, jumping-jacks--things that fathers and mothers might like to buy to amuse their children with on a long railway journey.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mun Bun, as he turned and saw the train boy's basket of toys. "Oh, my! I'm going to have something!"

Then Mun Bun, reaching in his hand, which was, of course, not right to do, took something from the basket, slipped it around behind him, as he saw Rose coming, and toddled up the aisle to meet her.

CHAPTER VIII

A BIG STORM

"Why didn't you wait for me, Mun Bun?" asked Rose, as she caught her little brother just as he was about to topple over in the aisle, from the swaying of the train. "I told you to wait for me. You might be hurt coming up by yourself!"

"I was in a hurry," explained Mun Bun. He gave one hand to Rose, but the other he held behind his back. In it was the thing he had taken from the train boy's basket.

Once more the six little Bunkers were in their seats, looking out of the windows. The train was puffing along, bringing them nearer and nearer to Grandpa Ford's, though it would still be some hours before they reached Tarrington.

"There!" Russ suddenly exclaimed. "I have it all done!" and he whistled a merry tune, as he turned in his seat and held up something for the others to see.

"What is it?" asked his father.

"It's a buzzy-buzzer," answered the boy. "Look, it goes around this way."

He put the loops of two strings over his thumbs, and pulled his hands apart. Then two pieces of cardboard, strung on the strings, began to whirl about very fast.

"Why, that's like a pin-wheel!" exclaimed Grandpa Ford.

"I call it a buzzy-buzzer," laughed Russ. "I was going to make a wind-mill, but I didn't have enough things here in the train. I'll make you a wind-mill when we get to Great Hedge, Grandpa."

After a while a colored man, dressed in a spotless white suit, came through the car, calling:

"First call for dinner in the dining-car! First call for dinner!"

"What does he mean--first call?" asked Violet, who, as usual, was the one who asked the first question.

"He means that dinner is now ready in the dining-car," said Mr. Bunker.

"You see the car is rather small, and every one can't eat at once. So they take turns, so to speak."

"I wish we could eat first," sighed Vi. "I'm terrible hungry!"

"So'm I," said Margy.

"Me, too," added Mun Bun. He had gone back to his seat, after taking something from the train boy's basket, and he had cuddled up by himself.

What he had he showed to no one, and now, when he heard that dinner was ready, he stuffed something down between the edge of the seat and the side of the car next the window.

"This is my seat," Mun Bun announced, "and please don't any one take it when we come back! I got something hid here."

No one paid much attention to him, as it had been decided that they would all go into the dining-car at the first call, and they thought every one else was thinking of that, too.

So the Bunkers and Grandpa Ford walked out of the coach in which they had been riding, to the second car ahead, where dinner was being served at little tables. It took more than two tables to seat the six little Bunkers, their father, their mother, and Grandpa Ford, but soon they were all settled, and the colored waiter, in spotless white, just like the one who had called out that dinner was ready, began to serve the hungry folks.

You may be sure the six little Bunkers were hungry. In fact, they were always that way, except, perhaps, just after a meal, or when they were asleep. Though it was not the first time these little travelers had eaten in dining-cars, and on boats, they always liked the fun it was to sit and eat, and see the trees, fences, and telegraph poles seemingly go whizzing past the windows.

"Have you had enough?" asked Daddy Bunker in about half an hour, as he looked around at his boys and girls. "Anybody want any more?"

"Could I have more pie?" asked Russ.

"Well, a small piece, yes," answered his mother.

"I want a piece, too," declared Laddie. "I didn't have hardly any. Mun Bun reached over and took half of mine."

"I'll have the waiter divide a piece between Russ and Laddie," said Mr.

Bunker. And when this had been done, even the two hungry boys announced that they were satisfied. Then back to the other car the Bunkers and Grandpa Ford went.

Now at home, almost always after dinner, the two youngest of the six little Bunkers went to sleep. Mother Bunker called it taking a "nap,"

and almost always Mun Bun and Margy, and sometimes Laddie and Violet had one.