Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's Part 20

"Wait a minute, Mun Bun, and I'll fix you!" cried Russ. "Stand still.

The more you move the more you pull your own hair."

"I'm not pulling my hair," said Mun Bun. "Somebody behind me is pulling it."

"It's the spinning wheel," said Laddie with a laugh.

Then, when they had untangled Mun Bun's hair, they showed him how it all had happened. He had really pulled his own hair. Of course, he was not hurt very much, for only a little of his hair had stuck to the wheel.

"I can make a riddle up about this," said Laddie when Mun Bun was free once more.

"How?" asked Russ.

"Oh, I don't know just yet, but it'll be something about how can you pull your own hair and not pull it. And the answer will be a spinning wheel."

"Can I make the spinning wheels go 'round?" asked Mun Bun, who wanted to have some fun after his trouble.

"Yes, you can play with 'em," agreed Russ. "That is, with one of 'em.

I'm going to take the other and make it ring the sleigh bells."

"How can you?" asked Laddie.

"I'll show you," answered Russ.

He took the strings off one wheel, letting Mun Bun play with that, and then tied more strings on the second wheel. He also fastened a string of bells on the wheel, and then, standing in a far corner of the attic, and pulling on the string of jingling bells, Russ could make them tinkle and ring.

"This is fun!" cried Laddie, and he and his brother enjoyed themselves very much, and so did Mun Bun. The attic was a great place to have jolly times.

"And I don't believe there's any ghost up there, either," said Russ to Rose that night. "First I thought it might be him pulling Mun Bun's hair, but it wasn't. There's no ghost there."

"I'm glad of it," said Rose.

The weather became somewhat warmer again, and the six little Bunkers could play out in the snow. The hill back of the barn was worn smoother and smoother, and it made a fine place for coasting.

"Let's take our dolls out and give them a ride," said Vi to Rose one day. "They haven't had a sleigh ride for a long while."

"Yes, we'll give 'em a ride," agreed Rose.

"My doll wants a ride, too," said Margy.

Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun were making another snow-man, which was to be a regular "giant," so the girls had the coasting hill to themselves. They took two sleds, for Vi wanted to go by herself. But Margy was almost too little for this.

"You shall ride down with sister," promised Rose. "I'll take care of you."

"And I can hold my doll, can't I?" asked Margy.

"Oh, yes," agreed Rose.

They had brought to Great Hedge with them the j.a.panese dolls that had come ash.o.r.e in the box on the beach at Cousin Tom's, and these the three girls took out with them to coast downhill. They had made new clothes for the dolls, as the j.a.panese dresses were hardly warm enough for the cold weather at Grandpa Ford's.

Reaching the hill, Vi took her place on her sled, holding her doll in her lap, and then, holding to the sled rope, she began pushing herself to the edge of the slope, at the same time calling:

"Gid-ap! Gid-ap!"

"You don't say 'gid-ap' to a sled," objected Rose. "That's only for a horse when you want it to go."

"Well, I want my sled to go, and that's the same thing," declared Vi.

"Why can't I say it if I want to? Gid-ap!" she went on, not waiting for an answer to her question. Very often Vi asked questions to which there was no answer.

"Come on, I want a ride like Vi!" exclaimed Margy.

"All right, you shall have it," answered Rose. "And you may say 'gid-ap'

to our sled, too, if you like."

"All right--gid-ap!" cried Margy, and then Rose pushed the sled on which she and her little sister sat to the edge of the hill, and down they coasted.

The three little Bunker girls had great fun on the hill. Now and then d.i.c.k, who was working around the barn, would come out to watch them.

"Don't you want a ride?" asked Rose, for a few days before d.i.c.k had let her sit on the back of one of Grandpa's horses, and had ridden her around the big barn.

"Oh, I'm afraid my legs are too long for those sleds," laughed the hired man. "I'll have to get a bigger one."

"You can hold my doll if you want to," offered Vi. "I'm going to coast like the boys do, and I can't hold her."

"Well, you had better leave your doll in the barn," said d.i.c.k. "I might lose her if I took her."

Vi stretched out face downward on the sled, to ride "boy fashion," and, of course, she couldn't hold her doll that way. So she left the toy in a warm place in the hay in the barn.

Rose, Vi and Margy had great sport coasting on the hill, and they were thinking of going in and getting some of Grandma Ford's good bread and jam when Margy cried:

"Oh, my doll! Where's my doll? She's gone. She went sliding downhill all by herself, and now she's gone! Oh, dear!" And Margy began to cry.

CHAPTER XV

JINGLING BELLS

d.i.c.k came running out of the barn.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Are any of you hurt?"

But as soon as he asked that he could see that none of the three little Bunker girls was hurt, for they all stood on the hill beside the two sleds.

"What's the matter?" asked d.i.c.k again, for he could see that Margy was crying, and crying hard.

"She's lost her doll," explained Rose. "I guess it dropped in the snow.

Could you find it for her? It's a j.a.panese doll, and we got her out of the ocean."