SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S," "SIX
LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S," "SIX LITTLE BUNKERS
AT UNCLE FRED'S," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1920, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
CONTENTS
I. THE SMOKING CHIMNEY
II. THE CLIMBING MAN
III. THE INVITATION
IV. ANOTHER VACATION
V. THE MISSING WATCH
VI. OFF TO GRAND VIEW
VII. THE STORM
VIII. A QUEER NIGHT
IX. IN THE DITCH
X. THE BAD RAM
XI. THE APPLE BOY
XII. OFFERING HELP
XIII. THE MISSING BOY
XIV. IN THE OLD LOG
XV. THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER
XVI. AN UNEXPECTED RIDE
XVII. THE RAGGED MEN
XVIII. MORE THINGS GONE
XIX. LOTS OF FUN
XX. THE FLOOD
XXI. AN ISLAND PICNIC
XXII. AFTER THE TRAMPS
XXIII. THE OLD SATCHEL
XXIV. TAD'S NEWS
XXV. THE CAPTURE
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S
CHAPTER I
THE SMOKING CHIMNEY
"One, two, three, four, five, six!"
Russ Bunker counted thus, pointing his finger at five children in turn,
until he reached himself, when he stooped down and turned a somersault
on the floor of the attic.
"Oh, look at Russ!" cried Rose, the sister nearest him in age. "How
funny he did it!"
"What made you do it, Russ?" asked Violet, or Vi as she was called for
short. "What made you flop over that way? Did it hurt your head? Did
you get any splinters in your hands? Did you----"
"Say! Hold on a minute! Wait!" cried Russ, with a laugh, as Vi stood
with her mouth open all ready to ask another question. "If we're going
to play the steamboat game I can't answer all those questions."
"Are you going to play the steamboat game?" cried Vi, jumping up and
down so that her curly hair bobbed back and forth in and out of her
grey eyes. "Oh, what fun! But please tell me, Russ, what made you count
us all that way, as if we were going to play tag? And what made you
flop over, and what----"
"There you go again with your questions!" interrupted Russ, with
another laugh. "You can't seem to stop, Vi. You don't give any one else
a chance."
"And I know a nice riddle I can ask, too," broke in Laddie, who was his
sister Violet's twin. "I know a riddle about what makes the paper stick
on the wall and if it falls off----"
"I asked first!" broke in Vi. "Just tell me what made you count us all
out just as if we were going to play tag, Russ, and then what made you
do a flop-over. Tell me that, and then we'll play the steamboat game."
"All right, I'll answer just those questions and no more," promised
Russ. "Then we'll have some fun. I counted you all out--one, two,
three, four, five--six--that's me--because I wanted to see if we were
all here."
As there were six little Bunkers, it was sometimes needful to count
them, one by one, to make sure all were on hand. This was what Russ had
done.
"And I turned a somersault when I came to myself, just because I felt
so good," the dark-haired boy went on with a merry whistle. "Come
on, we'll play the steamboat game now. Rose, you please get out the
spinning wheel, and Margy and Mun Bun, you bring over the littlest
footstools. Don't bring the big ones, 'cause they're too heavy for you."
"Shall we sit on 'em footstools?" asked Mun Bun, as he shook his golden
hair out of his blue eyes.
"Yes, you sit on one footstool and Margy can sit on the other," said
Russ. "Now, don't both of you try to sit on the same one, or there'll
be a fuss, and we'll never get to playing. Can you bring the spinning
wheel all alone, Rose?"
"Yes, it isn't heavy," answered Rose, the oldest girl of the six
little Bunkers. "It drags over the floor easy." And as she pulled to
the middle of the attic, from the dark corner where it had stood all
summer, a big, old-fashioned spinning wheel, Rose hummed a little
song. She generally was humming or singing, when she was not helping
her mother in the housework. For where there were so many children,
there were more matters to attend to than Mrs. Bunker, Norah, the Irish
cook, or Jerry Simms, the odd-chore man, could well look after, and
Rose was glad to aid. She was a regular little "mother's helper," and
her father often called her that.
So while Rose brought over the spinning wheel and Margy and Mun Bun the
footstools, Laddie and Violet appealed to their older brother.
"I want to do something!" complained Vi.
"So do I," added Laddie. "If I don't do something I'm goin' to think up
another riddle. I know one about----"
"No, you don't!" cried Russ, with a laugh. "No more riddles until we
get the steamboat started. Here, you bring over some of the bigger
footstools, Laddie. And Vi can help you. Now we're all working--all six
of us;" and as Russ spoke he began dragging out of the corners of the
attic some chairs and light boards, with which he intended to build the
"steamboat."
Of course it was not a regular vessel, nor did it sail on water. In
fact, there was no water in the attic of the house where the six little
Bunkers lived. There was no water even when it rained, for the roof had
no holes in it, and the attic made a lovely place for the children to
play.
It was not raining now, and, if they had wished, the children could
have had fun out in the yard. But they had just returned from a jolly
vacation spent in the open on Uncle Fred's ranch in the West, and
perhaps they felt that to play indoors would be a welcome change. They
were as brown as berries from having been so much out in the sun and
the wind.
"All aboard! All aboard the steamboat!" called Russ, when the boards,
chairs, footstools, spinning wheel and other things had been put in
place near the center of the attic. "All aboard! Toot! Toot! Don't
anybody fall into the water! Hand me that bundle, Rose, please," said
Russ to his sister nearest him in age.
"Has it got life preservers in it?" asked Violet. "If it has, can I put
one on, and will you let me make-believe fall in the water, Russ? And
will you pull me out, and----"
"There you go again! As bad as ever!" laughed Russ. "No, these aren't
life preservers! They're sugar cookies, and I got them for us to eat on
the steamboat! All aboard! Toot! Toot!"
"Oh, sugar cookies! I'm glad!" cried Mun Bun. "I likes sugar cookies,
don't you, Margy?" he asked, as he sat close to his little sister on
the footstool.
"I 'ikes any kind," she lisped, a form of talk she had not altogether
gotten over since her "baby" days.
"Here we go!" cried Russ at last, and he took his place in a chair in
front of the big spinning wheel, the package of cookies beside him.
The spinning wheel was the only part of the "steamboat" that really
moved. It could be turned around in either direction, and was almost as
large, and almost the same shape, as the big steering wheel on the big,
real steamers. Of course it had no "spokes" on the outer rim to take
hold of, but Russ did not need them. The spinning wheel was an old one
that had belonged to Mrs. Bunker's great-grandmother, and though the
children were allowed to play with it they were always told they must
be very careful not to break it. And I must do them the credit to say
that they were, nearly always, very careful.
"All aboard!" called Russ again, just as he had often heard the men on
real boats say it. "Don't anybody fall off."
"I don't want to fall off till I gets my cookie," remarked Mun Bun.
"And if we fall we don't have to fall as far as Russ does, 'cause he's
so high up on a chair and we're low down, on little stools," added
Margy.
"That's so!" laughed Russ, as he twisted the spinning wheel around, to
make-believe steer the steamboat out into the middle of the pretend
river.
Of course the steamboat did not move at all. It just remained in one
place on the attic floor. But the six little Bunkers did not mind that.
They pretended that they were steaming along, and, every once in a
while, Russ would toot the whistle, or give some order such as might be
given on a real boat.
"When are we goin' to eat?" asked Laddie, after a time, during which
the boat had made make-believe stops at London, Paris and Asbury Park.
"Can't I have a sugar cookie, Russ?"
"Yes, I guess it's time to eat now," agreed the older boy.
"Whoa, then!" cried Laddie.
"What are you saying 'whoa' for?" demanded Russ, looking around.
"'Cause I want the steamboat to stop," answered Laddie. "It jiggles
so--make believe, you know--I'm afraid I'll drop my sugar cookie in the
water."
"You mustn't say 'whoa' on a boat!" went on Russ.
"Laddie was thinking he was out on Uncle Frank's ranch, riding a cow
pony, I guess," said Rose. "That's why he said 'whoa'; didn't you,
Laddie?"
"I guess so," answered the little fellow. "And I know a riddle about a
cow. Why is it that a brown cow eats green grass that makes white milk
and turns into yellow butter?"
"That isn't a riddle--it's just something funny. And, besides, you've
said that before," said Rose.
"Well, anyhow, can't I have a sugar cookie?" asked Laddie. "And we'll
make believe the steamboat has stopped, and we can pretend we're on a
picnic."
"All right," agreed Russ, as he gave the spinning wheel a few more
turns. "I'll bank the fires--that means I'll turn 'em off so they won't
get so hot--and we'll go ashore."
"All ashore!" yelled Laddie.
"Is they enough sugar cookies for all of us?" asked Mun Bun, as he and
Margy arose from the low stools where they had been sitting.
"Oh, yes, plenty," Russ answered. "I asked Norah to put a lot of 'em
in a bag and I guess she did. Here, Rose, you can pass 'em around, and
I'll tie the steamboat fast."
"Do you have to tie it same as Uncle Fred tied his cow ponies?" asked
Vi.
"Pretty near the same," her biggest brother answered. "And after a
while we'll----"
Russ stopped suddenly and looked at his sister Rose. She had just
passed some of the cookies to Mun Bun and Margy, and was getting ready
to hand one each to Laddie and Vi, when she saw something that made her
point to the big brick chimney which passed through the roof in the
middle of the attic.
"Look! Look!" exclaimed Rose.
"What's the matter?" asked Russ.
"The chimney! It's smoking!" went on Rose.
"That's what chimbleys is for," said Laddie. "I know a funny riddle
about smoke in a chimbley and----"
"But the smoke from the chimney shouldn't come out into the _room_ or
the _attic_," interrupted Rose. "I can smell it, and I can see it! Oh,
Russ!" she cried.
"Yes, you can see it and smell it!" agreed Russ. As he spoke quite a
puff of thick smoke came into the attic. It seemed to spurt right out
of the side of the chimney, at a place where some bricks were rather
loose and had large cracks between them.
"Oh, Russ!" cried Rose. "Maybe the house is on fire!"