THE CLIMBING MAN
Almost as soon as she had spoken these words, Rose wished she had not.
For looks of fear came over the faces of Mun Bun and Margy, and Laddie
and Vi, though a little older, also acted as if frightened. And yet
Rose had spoken what was in her mind. The smoke poured out into the
attic through a hole in the chimney. It was getting thicker and more
murky, and Mun Bun began to cough.
"Is there a fire?" asked Violet.
"Yes, I think so," answered Rose. And then it came to her mind that she
must not frighten the smaller children, so she quickly added: "But I
guess it's only a little fire. Maybe Norah is burning up papers in the
stove and they smoke. I heard her tell mother there was a lot of trash
to be burned since we came back from Uncle Fred's ranch."
"Well, she must be burnin' a awful lot!" exclaimed Laddie, and he
choked as he swallowed a mouthful of smoke.
Just then a larger cloud of it seemed to pour out into the attic, and
from outside the home of the six little Bunkers, and from the rooms
below them, came shouts and exclamations.
"Oh, Russ!" exclaimed Rose, looking at her older brother, "something is
the matter, I'm sure!"
"I guess there is," he agreed, as he ran to a window. "I'll let some of
the smoke out and then----"
He suddenly ceased speaking as he looked to the street below. To the
ears of the other children, playing in the attic, came a loud clatter
and clang.
"Is it the puffers?" asked Mun Bun, meaning the fire apparatus.
"Yes, the engines are all out in front of our house!" cried Russ. "We'd
better get down out of here. It's too far to jump!"
"Don't dare jump!" screamed Rose. "Come on, Russ. You take Vi and
Laddie and I'll look after Mun Bun and Margy." And she caught the two
youngest children by their hands and Russ did the same for the twins,
Vi and Laddie.
The smoke continued to grow thicker in the attic, and the cloud of it
was now so dense that the chimney itself, whence the choking fumes
came, could scarcely be seen.
But under the leadership of Russ and Rose the four smaller children
were being led to safety, and while this is going on I shall take the
chance to tell some of my new readers something of the other books in
this series, as well as about the six boys and girls who are to have a
part in this story.
Six was the number of the little Bunkers. That is, there was an even
half dozen of them. Russ, aged nine years, was a great whistler and a
lad who was often engaged in making toys, or building something, like
make-believe steamboats or engines, to amuse his smaller brothers and
sisters.
Next to Russ was Rose, a year younger. As I have told you, she was a
great help to her mother--a girl of cheerful, sunny disposition, always
making the best of everything.
Next came Violet and Laddie. They each had curly hair and gray eyes,
and were twins. As you have noticed Vi was a great one for asking
questions. It did not seem to matter to her what she asked questions
about, nor how many, as long as she could keep some one busy answering
them, or trying to answer. For not always could answers be found to
Vi's questions. Laddie, her twin brother, had a different curious
habit. He was always asking riddles--at least he called them riddles,
though some of them were as funny as Vi's questions.
Last of all in the half dozen little Bunkers were Margy and Mun Bun.
Margy's real name was Margaret, and the complete name of her small
brother was Munroe Ford Bunker.
Now that we have finished with the children we will start on the
grown-ups of the family. Daddy Bunker's name was Charles, and he was in
the real estate business in Pineville, Pennsylvania. Mother Bunker's
name was Amy, and before her marriage she was Miss Amy Bell.
Then there was Norah O'Grady, the good-natured cook, and Jerry Simms,
an old soldier who could tell fine stories about the time he fought
in battle. Of course Norah and Jerry were not real Bunkers--that is,
they were not members of the family. But they had been in the home of
our friends so long that the children began to think of these two kind
servants as almost some of their own relatives.
There were enough other relatives in the Bunker family, too. There
was Grandma Bell, and the first book of this series is named "Six
Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's." After some glorious days at their
grandmother's, the six little Bunkers went to Aunt Jo's, next to Cousin
Tom's, after that to Grandpa Ford's, and then they went out West to a
ranch. The story of their trip there, and what they did, is set down
in the volume just before this one. It is called "Six Little Bunkers
at Uncle Fred's," and Russ, Rose, and the others had not long returned
from this enjoyable visit before they began a new series of adventures.
The first of them I have already started to relate to you. It is about
the fire, or at least the smoke, in the attic where they had been
playing steamboat.
"Russ!" exclaimed Rose, as she made her way through the smoke-filled
room to the stairs, leading Mun Bun and Margy, while her oldest brother
followed with Vi and Laddie, "oh, Russ!" went on Rose, "you didn't
start any fire in the make-believe boiler of the pretend steamboat, did
you?"
"Course--course not!" answered Russ, somewhat choking over the words,
for some smoke got down his throat. "I never play with matches!"
"Well, there's a fire somewhere!" declared Rose.
"Maybe it's across the street," suggested Russ, "and the smoke just
blew in the windows." But, even as he spoke, he looked over his
shoulder and saw smoke pouring out of a place in the attic chimney
where some bricks were broken loose and large cracks showed.
"It's our chimney that's on fire, all right," said Russ to himself.
"It's the first fire we ever had. I want to see the engines work and
squirt water!"
Down the attic stairs to the second floor went the six little Bunkers.
There was very little smoke on the second floor, and as Russ and Rose
were leading the four smaller ones toward the head of the stairs they
were met by their mother and Norah rushing up, each of them out of
breath and much excited.
"Oh, children! are you all right?" gasped Mrs. Bunker. "I have been so
frightened. You're all right, aren't you? Not hurt or burned?"
"We're all right, Mother!" Russ hastened to say.
"Is our house on fire?" demanded Vi. Even in this excitement she could
not forget to ask a question.
"Yes, darlin', the house is burnin'!" cried Norah. "Oh, sorrow the day
I should live to see this. Oh, come to Norah, little darlin's!" and she
tried to gather in her arms all four of the smallest children at once.
"Don't frighten them!" called Mrs. Bunker, as she caught up Mun Bun
in one arm, and Margy in the other. "The house isn't exactly on fire,
children. It's just the chimney. A lot of soot got in while we were at
Uncle Fred's, and it is the soot which is now burning."
"But I heard a fireman say if the chimney fire wasn't soon put out it
might set the house afire!" declared Norah, as all of them started down
the front stairs.
There was plenty of excitement now in the home of the six little
Bunkers. Outside could be heard the whistle of a fire engine and the
shouts of many men and boys.
Russ, Rose, the other four children and Mrs. Bunker and Norah safely
reached the first floor. There was no smoke at all here, as yet. As
Russ hurried out on the porch he saw Jerry Simms running around holding
the garden hose, out of the nozzle of which trickled a little stream of
water.
"Let me get at it!" cried the old soldier, who acted as gardener and
furnace man by turns. "Let me get at the blaze! I'll put the fire out
if I can see it!"
"You won't put much of a blaze out with that stream!" exclaimed a
fireman in a rubber coat, as he hurried up the steps. "There isn't
enough force to it."
"Oh, I forgot to turn the water on full!" said Jerry Simms. "Wait
a minute. I'll go turn it on full force, and then I'll put out the
blaze," he said, putting the hose down on the porch and hurrying to the
faucet which came through the foundation wall of the house.
"That won't be any good for this fire, no matter how much force of
water you have," cried the fireman. "The fire's down inside the
chimney, and we can't get at it until we climb up on the roof and stick
a hose down the flue."
"Is that what you are going to do?" asked Mrs. Bunker, who was not
frightened, now that she knew her children were safe.
"Yes, we want to get up on the roof so we can turn a hose down the
chimney," the fireman answered. "But we can't get up!"
"Why not?" asked Russ, who stood near his mother on the porch, while
the yard and the street around the house were rapidly filling with
people.
"Our ladder isn't long enough," the fireman answered. "We had a long
ladder, but it is broken, and without it we can't get up on the roof to
pull up a hose and squirt water down the chimney."
"But something must be done!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "The more the chimney
fire burns, the hotter it will get, and it may set the whole house
ablaze before long. Something must be done!"
"Yes'm," agreed the fireman. "We're trying to do something. We got two
engines pumping, and the men are on the ground trying to shoot the
water up in the air and let some of it fall down the chimney hole.
But they aren't having very good luck. I came to see if you had a long
ladder."
"Oh, a long ladder!" cried the mother of the six little Bunkers. "You
had better ask Jerry Simms."
"If he's the old man running around with the garden hose, it won't do
much good to ask him," said the fireman with a smile. "He is so excited
he hardly knows what he is doing."
"Here comes Jerry now; ask him," suggested Mrs. Bunker again, while
Norah stood holding to Mun Bun, Laddie, Margy and Violet--at least
she was trying to hold them, though, every now and again, one of the
children would break away and run to the front fence to watch the
puffing engines.
"Have you a long ladder--one that will reach to the roof--so we can
climb up and pull a hose to the chimney top?" asked the fireman, while
the wind blew a swirl of black smoke around those on the porch.
"A long ladder? Oh, I don't know--I--oh, good land! I turned the water
off instead of on," cried Jerry, as he looked at the nozzle of the
garden hose which he had laid down on the porch. Not even a trickle
was coming from it now.
"Never mind that! Get us a ladder!" cried the fireman. "Ours is broken,
and if we don't douse this chimney pretty soon there'll be a bad blaze."
"What is it you want?" cried a man, making his way to the stoop through
a crowd of people in the yard around the Bunker house. "What's the
trouble? Why don't somebody get on the roof with a hose?"
"Because we have no ladder long enough to reach there!" the fireman
answered. "If only somebody could climb up he might----"
"Get me a piece of clothesline, and I'll climb up!" cried the man,
taking off his coat. And as Mrs. Bunker turned to look more closely at
him she gave a cry of surprise.
"Oh, Captain Ben!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.