GREAT HEDGE AT LAST
"Oh, what has happened now?" exclaimed Mother Bunker as she looked
around the depot to see if any of the children was in mischief. She
noticed Rose and Russ, Laddie and Vi, and Margy. But Mun Bun was not in
sight.
"Did he fall out of a window?" asked Violet.
"Mercy! I hope not," cried Mrs. Bunker.
Then they all heard Mun Bun's voice saying, rather tearfully:
"I--I didn't mean to do it. I only wanted a cake!"
"Well, you busted it, an' now somebody's got to pay for it!" came
another voice, and one that was rather angry.
Daddy Bunker hurried around to the other side of the ticket office, and
the others, including Grandpa Ford, followed. There, standing near the
lunch counter, with a broken bowl at his feet, and cakes scattered
around him, stood Mun Bun. In front of him was the young man who had
charge of the station lunch counter.
"Oh, Mun Bun!" sighed his mother.
"Why, Mun Bun! what happened?" asked his father.
"He happened--that!" exclaimed the young man. "He pulled it over, off
the counter, and it smashed. And look at the cakes--all spoiled."
"Not all spoiled," said Mun Bun. "I can eat 'em, an' so can Margy. We're
both hungry!"
"Did you pull over the bowl of cakes?" asked Mr. Bunker.
"Yes," admitted Mun Bun, "I did. I reached up to get one, and the bowl
tipped over on me and they all spilled."
"And the bowl broke," said the lunch-counter young man.
"I'll pay for it, Tom," said Grandpa Ford, who seemed to know the young
man. "That'll be all right. I'll pay for the bowl and the cakes, too.
Some of them are all right. They fell on this newspaper."
And this was true. Mun Bun had reached up, standing on his tip-toes, to
get a cake out of the bowl. As he said, he was hungry, and while Daddy
Bunker and Grandpa Ford were talking about getting the children
something to eat, Mun Bun had wandered off by himself, found the lunch
counter, and started to help himself. But he was not quite tall enough,
and the glass bowl had fallen with a crash.
The cakes had scattered out, but, as Grandpa Ford had said, some of them
had fallen on a clean newspaper which some one had dropped on the depot
floor just before the accident.
Grandpa Ford, Daddy Bunker and Tom, the lunchman, picked up the clean
cakes and put them in another bowl. The broken pieces of the smashed
bowl and the cakes that had gone on the floor were also picked up.
"Well, now that we're all here, we might as well get the children
something to eat," said Grandpa Ford. "Tom can give them hot milk and
cakes, and we grown-folks can have some hot coffee to get us ready for
the ride out to Great Hedge. Tom, can you take care of this big family?"
"Oh, I guess so," was the answer, and the lunchman was not angry now,
for he saw he would lose nothing by what Mun Bun had done.
The six little Bunkers ate well, for the other five, as well as Mun Bun,
were hungry. Then, when the grown-ups had been fed, and the broken bowl
paid for, Grandpa Ford went out into the storm to tell his man, who was
in charge of the horses and sled, that the party was ready to start. The
horses had been kept waiting under a shed so they would be out of the
storm.
"Oh, that sounds just like Santa Claus!" cried Margy, as the sound of
jingling bells was heard outside the depot.
It seemed rather hard to leave the cosy, bright, warm station at that
hour of the night and start out into the darkness and storm. But the
children did not mind it. They were too eager to get to Great Hedge and
see Grandma Ford. That is, most of them were. Perhaps Mun Bun and Margy
were a bit too sleepy to care much what happened.
"But we can cuddle them down in the straw in the bottom of the sled,
cover them with blankets and let them go to sleep," said Grandpa Ford,
as he noted the blinking eyes of the two youngest Bunkers. "They'll go
to sleep and be at Great Hedge before they know it."
"How can you find it in the dark?" asked Vi.
"Oh, the horses know the way," answered the old gentleman. "Come on."
"I'm going to make up a riddle about a horse," began Laddie. "I have it
almost made up. It's about what kind of a tree would you like to drive."
"You can't drive a tree!" exclaimed Russ. "All you can do is to climb
it, or cut it down. So there!"
"Yes, you can!" insisted Laddie. "You can drive my riddle kind of tree."
"You can not! Can you, Mother?" appealed Russ. "You can climb a tree and
cut it down, and that's all you can do to it, isn't it?"
"You can sit in the shade of it," said Rose.
"Oh, yes, well, but that doesn't count!" said Russ.
"Anyhow it's a riddle," went on Laddie. "What kind of a tree would you
like to drive?"
"We haven't any time for riddles now," said Mother Bunker. "Come along,
children, Grandpa is waiting!"
And, with Laddie's riddle still unanswered, they went out into the
darkness and the storm.
At first it rather took away the breath of the children--that is, of the
four oldest. Mun Bun was carried by his mother, while Daddy Bunker took
Margy in his arms. Thus they were cuddled up so the cold wind and snow
could not blow on them. Grandpa Ford wanted to carry Violet from the
depot out to the waiting sled, but she said she was big enough to walk.
The sled stood near the depot platform, and the lights from the station
shone on it, so it was easy to tuck the children in. Down in the warm
straw, and under the warm blankets, the six little Bunkers were placed,
until no cold wind nor snow could get at them.
[Illustration: DOWN IN THE WARM STRAW AND UNDER THE BLANKETS THE SIX
LITTLE BUNKERS WERE PLACED.
_Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's._ --_Page 100_]
"Well, I guess we're all ready, Dick," said Grandpa Ford to his hired
man, who was to drive. "Think we can make it?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. Ford," was the answer. "The horses are anxious to get
home, and the roads aren't as bad as they'll be in the morning."
"Well, when we get to Great Hedge we can stay there a long time," said
Grandpa Ford. "Go ahead, Dick."
"Go 'long, horses!" called Dick, at the same time cracking his whip. Of
course he did not hit the horses with it. He just snapped it in the air
over their backs.
Away they sprang, with a jingle of bells, their feet making no noise in
the soft snow. Away they went, and on down the road which was white with
the crystal flakes that sparkled in the light of a lantern that was hung
underneath the big sled.
"How long a drive is it?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"Oh, about half an hour," answered Grandpa Ford. "We'll be there before
you know it. It's downhill, and the horses are anxious to get to their
warm stable."
And this seemed to be true, for the animals, with the jingling bells
around them, raced bravely along. Mun Bun and Margy fell asleep almost
at once, it was so warm and cosy in Grandpa's sled. But the other
children peered out now and then from beneath the robes. However, they
were soon glad to pull their heads in again, for it was very cold.
The drive, too, was longer than Grandpa Ford thought it would be, as one
of the roads was so blocked with a drift that the sled could not get
through, and they had to drive around it.
"But we'll get through!" said Grandpa Ford.
On and on they went. It was a long, cold ride, but it came to an end at
last. Russ, peering up over a blanket, saw, down the road, a large,
black patch, and from it a light seemed to glow.
"Is that another railroad station?" he asked.
"No, that's Great Hedge," answered Grandpa Ford. "The black part you see
is the hedge around the house, and the light comes from a lantern I
have outside. Here we are at Great Hedge at last!"
The sled turned into a driveway and stopped beneath a sort of covered
porch.
"Whoa!" called Dick to the horses.
A door opened, letting out a glow of warm, cheerful light.
"Are the six little Bunkers there?" asked a voice.
"Yes, every one, and the two big Bunkers, too!" answered Grandpa Ford.
"Come on, children! Here's Grandma Ford all ready with that bread and
jam for you!"
"Oh, I'm so glad!" sighed Rose. "I was getting hungry again."
"So was I," admitted Russ.
"Now I'm going to finish my riddle," declared Laddie, as he untangled
himself from the robes.
"And we can begin to hunt for the ghost," whispered Rose to Russ.
"Yes," he whispered back.
Mun Bun and Margy were awakened and carried in the house. Oh, how nice
and warm it was after the storm!
"Have you really got bread and jam?" asked Vi.
"Yes, indeed, my dear, I have!" laughed Grandma Ford, hugging and
kissing her, and then hugging and kissing, in turn, the other five
little Bunkers.
"Wait till you hear my riddle," began Laddie. "What kind of a tree would
you like----"
And just then a loud noise sounded through the house. It was as if a
giant had uttered a deep groan.
"O-u-g-h-m!"
Grandpa and Grandma Ford looked at each other. So did Daddy and Mother
Bunker. And Rose leaned over and whispered to Russ:
"That's the ghost!"