OFF TO GREAT HEDGE
Russ and Laddie saw Grandpa Ford holding the bridle of a horse harnessed
to a light carriage, in which sat a pretty young lady. The horse was
trying to rise up on its hind legs, and Grandpa Ford was doing his best
to make the animal stand still.
Not far away was a large automobile, and smoke was coming from the back
of this, while a man, who seemed to have just gotten out of the car, was
hurrying toward the prancing horse.
"I guess he's all right now, Miss," said Grandpa Ford. "When that
automobile back-fired, and made such a bang, it scared your horse."
"I never knew him to be afraid of an auto before," said the young lady.
"But then I never heard one, before, make such a loud bang."
"Nor I," returned Grandpa Ford. "It was enough to scare any horse."
"And I am very sorry it happened," said the man who had gotten out of
the car. "My machine is a new one, and it does not run just right, but
this is the first time it ever made such a racket. I thought I was going
to be blown up, and I guess your horse did too, Miss. I'm very sorry for
the fright I caused you. I'll not start my auto again until you drive
on. Then, if it should happen to back-fire again, your horse will not
mind it so much."
"Thank you," the young lady said. "But I do not want to drive on right
away. I came to see you," she announced to Grandpa Ford.
"To see me?" and Mr. Ford was quite surprised. "You drove up here to see
me?"
"Yes, if you are Mr. Munroe Ford." And the young lady smiled pleasantly.
"Yes, that's my name," said Mr. Bunker's stepfather. "And if you don't
believe me you can ask these boys," and he pointed to Russ and Laddie,
who were staring at the pretty young lady. "Only," went on the old
gentleman, "they would probably say I was 'Grandpa Ford,' and so I am,
to them."
"That's who he is," declared Russ.
"He's grandpa to all us six little Bunkers," added Laddie. "We thought
it was a big cannon," he went on, speaking about the noise.
"I seem to have stirred up some excitement," remarked the man who owned
the new automobile. "I had better get away from here before I have the
police after me," and he laughed, to show he was only joking. Of course
it was not his fault that the automobile made so much noise.
"If you are not going to drive on, to get out of the way of my machine,
where your horse won't hear any more explosions, I think I had better
drive on myself. I'll go as quietly as I can," he said.
"And I'll hold her horse," offered Grandpa Ford. "As long as she has
come to see me, and is going to stay, I'll see that her horse doesn't
run away."
"You know how to manage horses," said the automobile man. "I don't. But
I can run an auto."
"Yes, I've been among horses for a number of years," replied Grandpa
Ford. "I have three or four on my place, Great Hedge. I'd rather drive a
horse than an auto. But won't you get down and come in, if you want to
see me?" asked Grandpa Ford of the young lady.
"Thank you, no. I'm only going to stay a few minutes, Mr. Ford," she
answered. "I feel almost like calling you Grandpa Ford myself," she
added. "You look just like a grandfather I used to have."
"Call me that as much as you please," laughed Grandpa Ford. "But what
shall I call you? I don't remember meeting you before." And he led her
horse to a hitching post, where he tied the animal fast. By this time
the loud-banging new automobile had rolled around the corner into the
next street, luckily without making any great noise.
"I am Mabel Ripley," said the young lady. "You called to see my father,
the other day, about the Great Hedge place he sold you, but Daddy was
out. However, he got the message you left, and he sent me over to-day
with an answer. It's about the gh----"
"Ahem!" loudly and suddenly exclaimed Grandpa Ford. "I rather think,
Miss Ripley, you had better come into the house where you can talk to me
alone," he said, with a quick glance at Russ and Laddie. "Little
pitchers have big ears, you know."
"Oh, yes, I understand!" exclaimed the pretty young lady. She, too,
looked at Russ and Laddie in a strange way, smiling the while. "You
don't want the little pitchers to know anything about it?" she asked.
"Not yet," answered Grandpa Ford. "It's a sort of secret, you know. I
think it will all be easily explained, but I wanted to ask your father
about it, since, as he sold me Great Hedge, he would know more about the
house than I do, he having lived there so long."
"I lived there, too," said Miss Ripley with a smile. "Well, as long as
the banging auto is gone, I think my horse will stand all right, so I'll
come in and tell you all I know, and all my father knows, about the
place, and the strange things you heard. I'll go in where the little
pitchers can't be filled up," and again she smiled at the two boys.
"Is that a riddle, Grandpa Ford?" asked Laddie, as Miss Ripley started
toward the front porch.
"Is what a riddle, Laddie boy?"
"About little pitchers and big ears."
"Oh! No, not exactly a riddle. I'll tell you about it some other time.
Here is five cents each, for you and Russ. Run along now while I take
Miss Ripley into the house."
"Will you tell me one thing before you go in?" asked Laddie, as he
slipped into his pocket the nickel his grandfather had given him, while
Russ did the same.
"If your question isn't a hard riddle I'll try to answer it," said
Grandpa Ford. "Let me hear it."
"It's about kites and tails and cats," explained Laddie. "Isn't there a
cat that hasn't a tail, and isn't it a Banks cat?" asked Laddie. "I made
up a riddle why is a cat like a kite because it has a tail. And some
kites haven't any tails, Russ says. But mother showed me a picture of a
Banks cat. And don't they call 'em that because maybe they live in banks
and haven't any tails so they won't get shut in a door? Will you answer
that question, Grandpa?"
"Really, Laddie boy, I should say there were almost a dozen questions
there!" laughed Grandpa Ford. "But I'll answer only one now. About the
cats. There is a kind called Manx, and that sounds like banks, I
suppose. Manx is an island, near England, and cats that come from there
have no tails--or at least they have only little short ones that you can
hardly see. I guess when your mother told you about the Manx cats you
thought she said 'banks.' But now run along and have some fun."
Grandpa Ford turned up the walk with Miss Ripley, and Laddie and Russ
heard her say:
"Father sent me over to tell you not to be alarmed, as he doesn't
believe it is anything. He'll come out and help you look for whatever it
may be, if you want him to."
"Oh, the six little Bunkers and their father and mother are coming with
me," said Mr. Ford. "The six little Bunkers don't know about the strange
goings on, as yet, but their father and mother will help me hunt for
the----"
That was all Russ and Laddie heard, for their grandfather turned a
corner in the path then, and his voice was not so loud.
"I wonder if they're talking about a riddle," said Laddie.
"I don't guess so," returned Russ. He knew, or thought he knew, what
Miss Ripley and Grandpa Ford were talking about. It was the "secret"
about which he and Rose had heard something.
But it was not yet time to tell Laddie anything about it. Russ wished
Rose had been with him to hear what Miss Ripley said. Rose might know
what it all meant.
"But we'll wait until we get to Great Hedge," thought Russ. Then to
Laddie he said: "Come on, we'll go and spend our nickels."
"All right," agreed the little boy. "But I was pretty near right about
the Banks cat; wasn't I?"
"Pretty near," agreed Russ.
When Russ and Laddie reached home again, after a trip to the store, they
found Miss Ripley had gone. And then, for a time, Russ, as well as Rose,
forgot about the "secret," as the whole family, six little Bunkers and
all, were so busy packing up to go away.
At last, after some weeks, the day came. The trunks and valises had been
packed, the house in Pineville had been shut for the winter, the water
being turned off so it would not freeze, and everything was all ready
for the winter visit to Grandpa Ford at Great Hedge.
"Good-bye, Norah! Good-bye, Jerry Simms!" called the six little Bunkers,
waving their hands to the cook and man. "Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" answered Jerry and Norah. "Come back as soon as you can!"
And so they started for Grandpa Ford's. And not even Russ and Rose, who
guessed a little of the "secret," knew all the strange things that were
to happen at Great Hedge.