GRANDPA FORD
Eagerly peering from the carriage in which they had ridden from the
Pineville station, the six little Bunkers looked to see who the man was
on their porch. He seemed to be asleep, for he sat very still in the
rocking-chair, which had been forgotten and left on the porch when the
family had gone away.
"Do you know him, Daddy?" asked Rose.
"Maybe he is from your office," said Laddie.
"Maybe he's the old tramp lumberman that had your papers in the old
coat, Daddy," suggested Russ.
Mr. Bunker hurried down from the carriage, and walked up the steps.
As he did so the old man on the porch woke suddenly from his nap. He sat
up, looked at the Bunker family, now crowding up on the steps, and a
kind smile spread over his face.
"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "I got here ahead of you, I see!"
"Why, Father!" cried Mr. Bunker.
"Oh, it's Grandpa Ford!" exclaimed Rose.
"Grandpa Ford!" fairly shouted Russ, dropping the valise he was
carrying, and hurrying to be clasped in the old gentleman's arms.
"Grandpa Ford!" cried Laddie and Vi together, just as twins often do.
"Yes, I'm Grandpa Ford!" said the old gentleman, smiling and kissing the
children one after the other. "You didn't expect to see me, did you?"
"Hardly so soon," said Mrs. Bunker. "But we are glad! Have you been here
long?"
"No, not very. I came on a day sooner than I expected, and as I knew
from your letters that you would be home to-day, I came here to wait for
you."
"I'll get the house open right away and make you a cup of tea," said
Mrs. Bunker. "You must be tired."
"Oh, no, not very. I had a nice little nap in the chair on your shady
porch. Well, how are you all?"
"Fine," answered Mr. Bunker. "You look well, Father!"
"I am well."
"Do you know any riddles?" asked Laddie.
"Do I know any riddles, little man? Well, I don't know. I might think of
one."
"I know one," went on Laddie, not stopping to hear what his grandfather
might say. "It's about which would you rather be, a door or a window?"
"Which would I rather be, a door or a window?" asked Grandpa Ford with a
laugh. "Well, I don't know that there is much difference, Laddie."
"Oh, yes, there is!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I'd rather be a door,
'cause a window always has a pane in it! Ha! Ha!"
"Well, that's pretty good," said Grandpa Ford with a smile. "I see you
haven't forgotten your riddles, Laddie."
"Now you ask me one," said the little boy. "I like to guess riddles."
"Wait until Grandpa has had a cup of tea," said Mrs. Bunker, who had
opened the front door that had been locked so long. "And then you can
tell us, Father," she went on, "why you had to come away from Great
Hedge. Is it something important?"
"Well, it's something queer," said Grandpa Ford. "But I'll tell you
about it after a while."
And while the Bunker home is being opened, after having been closed for
a long vacation, I will explain to my new readers who the children are,
and something about the other books in this series.
First, however, I'll tell you why Daddy Bunker called Grandpa Ford
"Father." You see Daddy Bunker's real father had died many years before,
and this was his stepfather. Mr. Bunker's mother had married a gentleman
named Munroe Ford.
So, of course, after that her name was Mrs. Ford, though Daddy Bunker
kept his own name and called his step-parent "Father."
Grandpa Ford was as kind as any real father could be; and he also loved
the six little Bunkers as much as if he had been their real
grandfather, which they really thought him to be.
Now to go back to the beginning. There were six little Bunkers, as I
have told you, Russ, Rose, Laddie, Vi, Margy, and Mun Bun. I have told
you their ages and how they looked.
They lived in the town of Pineville on Rainbow River, and Daddy Bunker's
real estate office was about a mile from his home. Besides the family of
the six little Bunkers and their father and mother, there was Norah
O'Grady, the cook, and there was also Jerry Simms, the man who cut the
grass, cleaned the automobile, and sprinkled the lawn in summer and took
ashes out of the furnace in winter.
The first book of this series is called "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma
Bell's." In that I told of the visit of the children to Lake Sagatook,
in Maine, where Mrs. Bunker's mother, Grandma Bell, lived. There the
whole family had fine times, and they also solved a real mystery.
After that the children were taken to visit another relative, and in the
second book, "Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's," you may find out all
that happened when they reached Boston--how Rose found a pocketbook, and
how, after many weeks, it was learned to whom it belonged.
Next comes the book just ahead of this one, "Six Little Bunkers at
Cousin Tom's." The children came from there to find Grandpa Ford on
their porch.
Cousin Tom Bunker was Daddy Bunker's nephew, being the son of a dead
brother, Ralph. Cousin Tom had not been married very long, and soon
after he and his wife, Ruth, started housekeeping in a bungalow at
Seaview, on the New Jersey coast, he invited the Bunkers to visit him.
They went there from Aunt Jo's, and many wonderful things happened at
the seashore. Rose lost her gold locket and chain, a queer box was
washed up on the beach, Mun Bun and Margy were marooned on an island,
and there were many more adventures.
"Did you know Grandpa Ford was coming to visit us when we got home?"
asked Rose of her mother, as she helped set the table.
"Yes, that was what he told us in the letter that came the day Mun Bun
fell off the pier. It was Grandpa Ford's letter that made us hurry home,
for he said he would meet us here. But he came on sooner than we
expected, and got here ahead of us," said Mrs. Bunker.
By this time the house had been opened and aired, Norah had come from
where she had been staying all summer, and so had Jerry Simms, so the
Bunkers were really at home again. Grandpa Ford had been shown to his
room, and was getting washed and brushed up ready for tea. The six
little Bunkers, having changed into their old clothes, were running
about the yard, getting acquainted with the premises all over again.
"Now I guess we're all ready to sit down," said Mother Bunker, for, with
the help of Rose and Norah, the table had been set, tea made and a meal
gotten ready in quick time. Norah and Jerry had been told, by telegraph,
to come back to help get the house in order.
"I'm terrible glad you came, Grandpa Ford," said Mun Bun, as he sat
opposite the old gentleman at the table.
"So'm I," said Margy. "Are you going to live with us always?"
"Oh, no, little Toddlekins," laughed Grandpa Ford. "I wish I were. But I
shall soon have to go back to Great Hedge. Though I may not go back
alone."
"Is that a riddle?" asked Laddie eagerly.
"No, not exactly," said Grandpa Ford with a laugh.
"I know another riddle," went on Laddie. "It's about how do the tickets
feel when the conductor punches them. But I never could find an answer."
"I don't believe there is any," said Grandpa Ford.
"Don't you know _any_ riddles?" asked Laddie.
"Well, I might think of _one_, if I tried real hard," said the old
gentleman. "Let me think, now. Here is one we used to ask one another
when I was a boy. See if you can guess it. 'A house full and a hole
full, but you can't catch a bowlful.' What is that, Laddie?"
"'A house full and a hole full, but you can't catch a bowlful,'"
repeated Laddie.
"Is it crabs?" asked Mun Bun. "I helped catch a basketful of crabs,
once."
"No, it isn't crabs," laughed Grandpa Ford.
"I give up. What is it?" asked Laddie, anxious to hear the answer.
"It's smoke!" said Grandpa Ford with a laugh. "A house full and a hole
full of smoke, but, no matter how hard you try, you can't catch a
bowlful. For, if you try to catch smoke it just rolls away from you."
"A house full and a hole full--but you can't catch a bowlful," repeated
Laddie slowly. "That's a good riddle!" he announced, after thinking it
over, and I guess he ought to know, as he asked a great many of them.
They had a jolly time at the meal, even if it was gotten up in a hurry,
and then, just as the children were going out to play again, Daddy
Bunker remarked:
"You haven't yet told us, Father, what brought you away from Great
Hedge."
"No, I haven't, but I will," said Grandpa Ford.
Great Hedge, I might say, was the name of a large estate Grandpa Ford
had bought to live on not a great while before. It was just outside the
city of Tarrington, in New York State, and was a fine, big country
estate.
Grandpa Ford looked around the room. He saw Russ and Rose over by the
sideboard, each taking a cookie to eat out in the yard. The other little
Bunkers had already run out, for it was not yet dark.
"As soon as they go I'll tell you why I came away from Great Hedge,"
said Grandpa Ford in a low voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker. "It's something
of a mystery, and I don't want the children to become frightened,
especially as they may go up there," he went on. "I'll tell you when
they go out."