Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's Part 6

"What?" asked his smaller brother.

"We can make a big balloon."

"How?"

"I'll show you. Come on."

"All right."

Russ, letting his toy balloon float over his head, while Laddie did the same, went out to the barn back of the house. It was not really a barn any longer, as Daddy Bunker kept his automobile in it, but it looked like a barn, so I will call it that instead of a garage.

"How are you going to make a balloon?" asked Laddie as he saw Russ tie his toy to a picket of the fence.

"You wait, I'll show you. First you go in and get the big clothes basket. Don't let Norah see you, or she might stop you. Bring me out the clothes basket."

Laddie did as he was told. As he came back with the basket, which was a large, round one, Laddie said:

"Do you think we can fasten our two balloons to this and go up in it?"

"No, I'm not going to make my balloon that way," Russ answered. "You'll see. Come on into the barn. We have to go upstairs."

Overhead in the barn was a place where hay had once been kept for the horse. There was a little door in the peak of the second story, to which the hay could be hoisted up from the wagon on the ground below. The hay was hoisted by a rope running around a wheel, or pulley, and this rope and pulley were still in place, though they had not been used in some time.

Into the rather dark loft of the barn went Russ and Laddie. They had climbed up the ladder, as they had done oftentimes before.

"It's dark!" Laddie exclaimed.

"I'll make it light," announced Russ.

He opened the little door in the front of the barn, and then he and Laddie could look down to the ground below. Russ loosened the pulley rope and let one end fall to the ground.

"That's how we'll make our balloon," he said. "We'll fasten the rope to the clothes basket, and pull it up like a balloon. Won't that be fun?"

"Lots of fun!" agreed Laddie.

It was about half an hour after this that, as Mother Bunker was beginning to think about supper, she heard, from the direction of the barn, a shrill yell for help.

"Oh, I can't get him down! I can't get him down!" was the cry.

"Dear me! Something else has happened!" cried Mother Bunker. "Come on, Norah. We must see what it is!"

CHAPTER V

THE BIG BANG NOISE

It did not take Mrs. Bunker long to see what the matter was this time.

As she came in sight of the barn she beheld the clothes basket dangling about half-way to the roof, swinging this way and that from one end of a rope.

On the other end of the rope Russ and Laddie were pulling, while in the clothes basket, his little face peering over the side, was Mun Bun.

"What are you doing? Let him down!" cried Mother Bunker, for Mun Bun was crying.

"We can't get him down!" shouted Russ. "The balloon won't come down!"

"Balloon? I don't see any balloon!" cried Mrs. Bunker. She thought, perhaps, as sometimes did happen, a balloonist from a neighboring fairground might have gone up, giving an exhibition as was often the case in the Fall. But all the balloons she saw were the toys Russ and Laddie had tied to the fence.

"Where is the balloon, and what do you mean by pulling Mun Bun up in the basket that way?" she asked.

"Mun Bun's in the balloon!" cried Russ.

"We got him up, but we can't get him down," added Laddie. "The rope's stuck."

And that is just what had happened. I think you can guess the kind of game Russ and Laddie had been playing when the accident happened? They had tied the clothes basket to the rope running over the wheel. The pulley had been used when Mr. Bunker kept a horse, for pulling the hay up from the ground to the second story of the barn.

Then, with the basket tied to the rope, Laddie and Russ had taken turns pulling one another up. The rope went around several pulleys, or wheels, instead of one, and this made it easy for even a small boy, by pulling on the loose end, to lift up quite a weight. So it was not hard for Russ to pull Laddie in the basket up to the little door of the hay-loft.

Laddie could not have pulled Russ up, if Russ, himself, had not taken hold of the rope and pulled also. But they had lots of good times, and they pretended they were going up and down in a balloon.

Then along came Mun Bun.

"I want to play, too!" he cried.

"We'll pull him up!" said Russ. "He's light and little, and we can pull him up fast!"

So Mun Bun got into the clothes basket, and Russ and Laddie, hauling on the rope, pulled him up and let him come down quite swiftly.

"Oh, it's fun!" laughed Mun Bun. "I like the balloon!"

And it was fun, until the accident happened. Then, in some way, the rope became caught in one of the wheels, and when Mun Bun was half-way between the ground and the second story of the barn, there he stuck!

"We'd better holler for mother!" said Laddie, as Mun Bun, looking over the edge of the basket, began to cry.

"Maybe we can get him down ourselves," said Russ. "Pull some more."

He and Laddie pulled as hard as they could. But still Mun Bun was stuck in the "balloon."

"I want to get down! I want to get down!" he cried.

Then Laddie and Russ became frightened and shouted for their mother.

"Oh, you poor, dear little boy!" said Mrs. Bunker, as she saw what the matter was. "Don't be afraid now. I'll soon get you down."

She looked at the rope, saw where it was twisted so it would not run easily over the pulley wheels. Then she untwisted it, and the basket could come down, with Mun Bun in it.

"I don't like that old balloon!" he said, tears in his eyes.