ANOTHER NIGHT SCARE
You can easily imagine what the six little Bunkers said when Dick asked
this question about his ice boat.
"I want to come!" cried Russ.
"I want a ride!" shouted Laddie.
"Shall we get wet?" asked Rose.
"Oh, no, not in an ice boat," said Grandpa Ford. "I've seen Dick sail
one before. An ice boat is like a big skate, you know. It just slides
over the ice. You may take some of the little Bunkers for a ride in your
ice boat, Dick, if you'll be careful of them."
"I'll be very careful," promised Dick. "Come along!"
With shouts and laughter the six little Bunkers got ready to go down to
the pond with Dick, and ride in his ice boat.
I presume that not many of you have seen ice boats, so I will tell you
a little about them. Those of you who know all about them need not read
this part.
As Grandpa Ford had said, an ice boat, in a way, is like a big skate or
sled. It slides over the frozen ice of a pond, lake or river instead of
sailing through the water, as another boat does. And an ice boat really
has something like skates on it, only they are called runners. Perhaps I
might say they are more like the runners of a sled.
If you will take two long, strong, heavy pieces of wood and fasten them
together like a cross, or as you fasten kite sticks, you will see how
the frame of an ice boat is built. On the ends of the shorter
cross-piece are fastened the runners that slide over the ice. On the end
of the longer cross-piece is another runner, but this one turns about
from side to side with a tiller, like the tiller of a boat that goes in
water, and by this the ice boat is steered.
Where the two sticks cross the mast is set up, and on this is fastened
the sail, and between the sail and the tiller is a sort of shallow box.
This is the cabin of the ice boat, where the people sit when they are
sailing over the frozen pond.
"My ice boat is only a small home-made one," said Dick, "and I can't
take you all at one time. But I'll give you each some turns, and I hope
you'll like it."
Down to the edge of the pond went the six little Bunkers with Dick.
Grandpa Ford and Daddy Bunker went, too, to see the ice boat.
Dick's ice boat was large enough to hold him and two little Bunkers at a
time, and first he said he would take Russ and Mun Bun, for Russ could
hold on to his little brother.
"I have to manage the sail and steer the boat," explained the hired man,
"and sometimes we go pretty fast. Then you have to hold on as tight as
you can. But you'll not spill out, for the ice is smooth."
Russ and Mun Bun took their places on some pieces of old carpet that
Dick had put in the cabin of his boat. It was not like the cabin of any
other boat, for it was open on all sides. Really all it could be called
was a shallow box.
"All ready?" asked Dick.
"All ready!" answered Russ, holding tightly to Mun Bun.
Away they sailed over the ice, turning this way and that, and they went
so fast that, at times, it almost took away the breath of Mun Bun and
Russ. But they liked it, and laughed so gleefully about it that Laddie
and Violet were eager to have their turn.
They, too, liked the ride on the ice boat, as it glided across the
frozen pond. The wind blew on the sail, and made the ice boat go fast.
Then came the turn of Rose and Margy. At first Margy thought she would
not go, but when they told her how much Mun Bun had liked it, and when
Mun Bun himself had said he wanted to go again, Margy let Rose lift her
in.
"Here we go!" cried Dick, and away glided the boat. Back and forth
across the pond it went, and Rose laughed, and so did Margy. She found
she liked it very much.
"Could I have another ride?" asked Russ after a bit.
"I guess so," agreed Dick. "I'll take you and Laddie this time. The wind
is stronger now, and we'll go faster--too fast for the smallest ones,
maybe."
"I like to go fast!" exclaimed Russ. But he went even faster than he
expected to.
As Dick had said, the wind was blowing very strong now, and it stretched
the sail of the ice boat away out. Dick had all he could do to hold it
while Russ and Laddie got on board.
"All ready?"
"All ready!" answered Russ.
The boat swung around and away it whizzed over the ice. Russ and Laddie
clung to the sides of the box-like cabin, and Russ had fairly to shout
to make himself heard above the whistling of the wind.
"This is fast!" he called in Laddie's ear.
"Yes, but I like it," said the smaller boy. "I'm going to make up a
riddle about the ice boat but it goes so fast as soon as I think of
anything in my head I forget it."
"It's fun!" exclaimed Russ. "When I get bigger I'm going to make an ice
boat that goes----"
But what Russ intended to do he never finished telling for, just then,
there came a stronger puff of wind than before, and Dick cried:
"Lookout!"
Just what they were to look out for Russ and Laddie did not know, but
they soon discovered.
The ice boat seemed to tilt up on one side, "as if it wanted to stand on
its ear," Grandpa Ford said afterward, and out spilled Russ, out spilled
Laddie, and Dick, himself, almost spilled out. But he managed to hold
fast, which the two boys could not do.
Out of the ice boat the lads tumbled. But as they had on thick coats,
and as they did not fall very far but went spinning over the frozen
pond, they thought it was fun.
Over the ice they slid, just as a skater slides when he falls down, and
finally they stopped and sat up.
"Huh!" grunted Russ.
"That--that was fun, wasn't it?" asked Laddie.
"Lots of fun!" agreed Russ. "I wonder if he did it on purpose?"
"Let's ask him to do it again," suggested Laddie.
But the spill was an accident. Dick had not meant that it should happen.
"As for giving you more rides," he said, when he had brought the boat
back to shore, "I don't believe I'd better. The wind is getting
stronger, and there might be a real accident next time. Some other day
I'll give you more rides."
"Oh, Dick, please!" pleaded Violet. But Dick said he was sorry, but they
would all have to wait for a calmer day.
So the little Bunkers had to be satisfied with this, and really they had
had fine fun, and all agreed that Dick's ice boat was just grand.
Back to the house they went, and, as it was nearly time to eat, they did
not come out again until after the meal. Then there was more skating,
and some fun on the ice with sleds, until it was time to come in for the
day.
"What'll we do to-morrow?" asked Rose, as she and the other little
Bunkers were getting ready for bed.
"If it snows we can go coasting," said Russ.
"Well, it looks and feels like snow," said Grandpa Ford, who came in
from the barn just then, having gone out to see that the horses and cows
were all right.
The grown folks sat about the fire after supper, talking and telling
stories while the children were asleep in their beds.
"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.
"What is it?" asked her husband.
"I thought I heard one of the children," she answered.
And just then, through the house, there sounded, as from some distance
away, the rattle of a drum.
"Another queer noise!" exclaimed Grandma Ford in dismay. "What will
happen next?"