UP IN THE ATTIC
Russ leaped out of bed and ran into the hall, where a light was burning.
The Bunkers always burned one, turned low.
"Mother! Daddy!" cried Russ. "Come on, quick! The ghost has got one of
us! Come quick!"
For a moment no one answered his call, and then he heard, from the room
where Mun Bun had been put to sleep, the sound of crying.
"What's the matter?" asked Russ, trying to make his voice sound brave.
"Are you hurt, Mun Bun? Or Margy?"
"I--I fell in and I'm all wet," sobbed Mun Bun.
"Oh, Daddy! Come quick!" fairly shouted Russ. "The ghost pushed Mun Bun
in, and he can't get out!"
Feet were heard coming upstairs. Then a voice asked:
"What is the matter? What has happened now, Russ? Are you hurt?"
"No, Mother!" answered the oldest Bunker boy. "But I guess it's Mun Bun.
It sounds like him, and I guess the ghost has him!"
"Nonsense! There are no ghosts! Don't cry, Mun Bun," Mrs. Bunker went
on, as she hurried up the stairs. "I'm coming, and so is Daddy Bunker!
You'll be all right."
"But I'm all wet!" sobbed Mun Bun. "I--I guess I fell in the ocean, and
I can't get out!"
"You're dreaming that you're back at Cousin Tom's," laughed Mrs. Bunker,
as she turned up the light and went into the room where Mun Bun and
Margy slept. "You're dreaming, and--Oh, you poor little dear!" she
cried, as she saw what had happened. "You have fallen out of bed!"
And that is just what happened. Mun Bun, being in a strange bed, had
rolled too near one edge, and had fallen out. That was the bumping,
banging noise Russ heard.
"But what made the splash?" Russ asked as he came in to see his mother
lift Mun Bun from the floor, and put him back in bed.
"That was when he upset a tin cup of water I had put in a chair near his
bed, so it would be handy when I wanted to give him a drink in the
night," said Mrs. Bunker. "It splashed all over Mun Bun, and that made
him think, I guess, that he had fallen into the water. Did it, Mun Bun?"
she asked.
"I--I guess so," he murmured. "I thought I fell into the water, 'cause I
was all wet. I didn't like it."
"I don't blame you," said Mrs. Bunker. "Now I'll put a dry nightgown on
you, and you can go to sleep again. I'll put a chair by the bed so you
won't roll out again, and I'll set the water on the bureau.
"Now, don't make any more noise, Russ, or Mun Bun, and wake up Margy,"
went on Mrs. Bunker. "She is sleeping too nicely to be awakened." Mun
Bun's little sister, though in the same bed with him, had not heard him
fall out, knock over the tin cup of water, and call out that he had
fallen in. She slept through it all.
Mun Bun was soon dressed in a dry garment, the water on the floor was
mopped up, and the light turned down again.
Then the six little Bunkers at Great Hedge quieted down and slept all
the way through until morning.
But that same night, when Mother Bunker went downstairs, after having
put Mun Bun back to bed, she said to her husband and Grandpa and Grandma
Ford:
"What do you suppose has got into Russ to be talking about a ghost?"
"Is that what he said?" asked Grandpa Ford.
"Yes. When he was awakened by Mun's falling out of bed the first thing
he called to me was that the ghost had got Mun. I don't understand where
the children heard anything about such a thing."
"Nor I," said Daddy Bunker.
"We mustn't let them get the idea that anything is wrong here at Great
Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford. "It might frighten them, though, of
course, it is nothing like a ghost. I can't imagine where they got the
idea, but we must not speak of it again in front of them.
"I do wish we could find out what it is that makes such a queer noise.
Your mother and I," he said to Daddy Bunker, "have heard it many times,
and now, the first night you are here, it sounds again."
"But only once," said Mr. Bunker, "and that may have been the wind, as
we said it was."
"No, it wasn't the wind," declared Grandpa Ford. "For I have heard the
same moaning sound when there was hardly any wind. The wind has died
down now. It is quieter. I think the storm has stopped, or soon will."
He went to the window to look out, and, as he did so, there sounded
through the house a deep, dull groan. It seemed to fill many rooms, and
for a moment Daddy and Mother Bunker and Grandpa and Grandma Ford looked
at one another. Then they listened to see if any of the children were
awake. But upstairs all was quiet.
"There it goes again," said Grandpa Ford.
"I heard it," answered Daddy Bunker. "I wonder what it could have been?"
"The wind," said Mrs. Bunker in a low voice.
"But the wind has stopped blowing," remarked Grandma Ford.
"Oh, well, we'll find out what it is soon," said Daddy Bunker. "Don't
let it worry you. We came here, Mother dear, to help you hunt for the
queer noise, and that's what we'll do."
The grown folks listened, but the noise did not sound again, and then,
as it was getting late, they all went to bed. Nothing disturbed them
until morning.
"Hurray! It's stopped snowing!" cried Russ as he ran to the window and
looked out. "Now we can make a snow man."
"And a snow fort!" added Laddie.
"And slide downhill, I hope," said Rose. "I wonder if Grandpa Ford has
any sleds we can take?"
"He said there were some," declared Vi. "I asked him last night. And
there are skates, too. I asked him that."
One might depend on Vi to ask the questions.
"Then we'll have lots of fun!" said Russ. "Come on, now, we'll get our
breakfast and then we can go out and have fun."
"I want to go out and see where the horses slept," remarked Mun Bun.
"Did any of them fall out of bed, I wonder?"
"No," said Grandma Ford with a laugh. "Horses have beds that are right
on the floor. They are made of straw, and the horses can't fall out. But
you shall see for yourself. Come, now, while the cakes are hot. And we
have maple syrup to eat on them."
"Oh, hurray!" cried Russ. "I love buckwheat cakes!"
And you should have seen the breakfast the six little Bunkers ate! No,
on second thought, perhaps it is just as well you didn't see it, for it
might have made you hungry. But I'll tell you this much: It was a very
good one.
"Now we'll go out and have some fun!" cried Russ, as they left the
table. "Shall we make a snow man first, or a fort?"
"A man!" cried Mun Bun.
"A fort!" called Laddie.
"Wait just a minute, all of you," said Mother Bunker. "I don't want any
of you to go out just yet."
"Oh!"
"Oh, dear!"
"Oh, Mother!"
"Why?"
Thus, one after another, cried some of the six little Bunkers. They were
all much disappointed.
"Oh, I'm going to let you go out and play in the snow all you like,"
said Mother Bunker quickly, "only I want you to wait until I can unpack
your rubber boots and leggings. Then you won't get wet. So just wait an
hour or two. That won't hurt you."
"And while you are waiting you can play up in the attic," said Grandma
Ford with a smile. "I think you will like it there. Our attic is very
large and there are a number of old-fashioned things in it with which
you may play. The Ripleys left a lot of things behind. There are old
trunks, and they are filled with old clothes that you can dress up in.
There is a spinning wheel and candle-moulds, there are strings of old
sleigh bells. And there are some things that I used to have when I was a
girl. I moved them here from our old home. Don't you think you would
like to play up there?"
"Oh, of course we would!" cried Rose. "We can take up our dolls!"
"And have a play-party!" added Violet.
"And dress up and play go visiting," added Margy.
"I'm going to make something!" cried Russ, with a jolly whistle.
"I'll think up some new riddles!" declared Laddie.
"What are you going to do, Mun Bun?" asked his grandmother, for the
little chap had said nothing as yet, just listening to the others.
"I--I'm not going to fall out of bed!" he answered, and then he wondered
why all the others laughed.
"Well, trot up to the attic," said Grandma Ford, "and have all the fun
you want. Don't be afraid of playing with things, for I don't believe
you can hurt them. Then your mother and I will be getting out your
rubber boots, and you may play in the snow this afternoon."
With whoops and shouts of delight the six little Bunkers trooped up to
the attic. As Grandma Ford had said, it was a large one. It was over
about half the house of Great Hedge Estate, and the house Grandpa Ford
had bought from Mr. Ripley was a big one.
There were many rooms on the first floor, more on the second and some on
the third. Then came the attic, highest of all, and in this attic were
stored the things thought to be of no use any more.
As Great Hedge was in the country, though not many miles outside the
city of Tarrington, there were country things in the attic, such as a
spinning wheel, two of them, in fact, candlesticks, candle-moulds and so
on. You all know that a candlestick is something in which to stick a
candle so one may carry it around. In the olden days, before we had
electric lights, gas or even kerosene lamps, the people used to read and
work by means of candles.
A candle is a stick of tallow, wax or something like that, with a
string, or wick, in the middle, just as rock candy has a string in the
middle. Only you light the string in a candle, and you throw away the
string in a stick of rock candy.
Candle-moulds are tin tubes, just the shape of candles, and into these
tubes was poured the melted wax or tallow to make the light-givers.
Up into the attic tramped the six little Bunkers. From the windows, high
up, they could look across the snow-covered fields. They could see the
trees, now bare of leaves, and the great black hedge around Grandpa
Ford's house. The big chimney of the house was hot and that kept the
attic fairly warm.
"You wouldn't think a ghost could get in, would you?" asked Rose of Russ
in a low voice.
"Maybe it was here already," suggested Russ. "An attic is a good place
for ghosts. Let's look for one here."
"But don't let the others know," cautioned Rose, motioning to Mun Bun
and Margy, Laddie and Vi.
"No," agreed Russ.
He and his sister began to look about the big attic. As Grandma Ford had
said, there were many things with which to play and have fun.
"Oh, Russ!" cried Laddie. "Here are two spinning wheels. Couldn't you
make something of them--a steamboat or an auto or something?"
"Yes, I guess I could," agreed Russ. "Let's see if they turn around
easy."
He and Laddie were trying the spinning wheels, whirling them around,
when there came a sudden cry from Margy. They turned to see her standing
in one corner of the big attic, and, the next moment, she seemed to
vanish from sight, as if she had fallen down some big hole.
"Oh, Margy! Margy!" cried Rose. "Where are you?"