ANOTHER VACATION
Captain Ben, as both Daddy and Mother Bunker had called him, caught
up in his arms Mun Bun and Margy. He was so big and strong that the
children seemed feathers to him, and he easily held them both on one
arm. Then he reached down his other hand and took the two hands of
Laddie and Vi in his.
"Now come on!" cried Captain Ben, laughing. "I have four of the half
dozen little Bunkers, and the other two can hang on my coat tails.
Let's go in and have a nice talk and visit."
"Yes! Yes!" cried Mun Bun and Margy and Laddie and Violet.
"Where are we going and what are you going to tell us?" asked Vi, not
forgetting, even in all the excitement about the fire, to ask her
usual questions. "What are we going to do?"
"Oh, you'll find plenty to do--all six of you--if you come to my
seashore place!" laughed Captain Ben. "That's what I came especially to
talk about," he went on to Daddy and Mother Bunker. "I want to get out
of my mind all thoughts of the great war, and if I can have this happy
bunch of children around me it will be the best thing in the world.
You'll let them come, and you'll come with them, won't you?" he asked,
as he stood on the door sill.
"We just got back from Uncle Fred's!" answered Mr. Bunker. "I don't
see how we can give the children another vacation so soon after they
have just finished one. But I do want to have you pay us a long visit,
Captain Ben. And we'll go in, as you say, and talk. But I must first
make sure that the fire is out. Some one telephoned to me at the office
that my house was burning up. I ran out, hailed the first man I saw in
an auto, and he brought me here flying. I can't tell you how glad I was
when I saw the house still standing."
"It isn't really harmed at all," said Captain Ben. "The chimney is
used to having a fire in it, and all that happened in the kitchen is
that a little water got spilled. Don't worry about the fire any more.
Let's go in and talk. I want to get down to my place at the shore, and
take you there with me."
Indeed there was no more danger from the fire. The crowd, seeing there
was no further excitement, began to move away. The firemen coiled up
their hose, and the engines and carts rumbled away. Norah shook her
head dubiously as she saw the sloppy kitchen that she always kept so
clean and bright, but Jerry Simms consoled her.
"I'll help you mop it up, Norah!" he kindly offered. "Water is easily
gotten rid of--much more easily than fire. I'll help you clean up."
Norah was very thankful for this, and soon she and Jerry were busy
setting things to rights in the kitchen while Daddy and Mother Bunker,
with the children and Captain Ben, went into the sitting room. There
was a smell of smoke all over, but no one minded this. Norah felt very
bad, thinking that she might be blamed for the fire, since the chimney
caught from the blaze she started in the kitchen range.
Mrs. Bunker realized this, and so she said:
"Don't worry, Norah. It would have happened to anyone. If I had started
the fire the chimney would have caught just the same as it did when you
started it."
"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," remarked Norah, as she and Jerry
continued the cleaning-up work.
The excitement caused by the fire was over now, and a little later the
Bunker family, including the half dozen children of course, and Captain
Ben were sitting down and talking like old friends. In fact, they were
all old friends except the new man who had climbed up on the roof to
put out the fire.
"What makes you call him Captain Ben?" asked Vi, as she looked up at
the stranger.
"Because he is Captain Ben," answered Mrs. Bunker. "And he is one of
our relations, children!"
"My, what a lot of relations we have!" exclaimed Laddie. And when they
all laughed he made haste to add: "But I like 'em all and I like you."
He said this as he stood near the knees of Captain Ben.
"I'm glad you do," said the sailor-soldier. "And I hope we shall all
become better acquainted and have good times together."
"Will you tell us about the war?" asked Rose. "Jerry Simms tells us
lots of funny stories about the war he was in."
"This was a different war," said Captain Ben, "and I may be able to
think of something funny about it. I'll try, anyhow. But now let's talk
about going away. I want to get as far from the war as I can, and I
think my place at the seashore will take my mind off it--especially if
I can have you children with me."
"I'll have to see about that," said Daddy Bunker, with a smile. "But at
least we can talk about it."
So they talked, and Mother Bunker told the children that Captain Ben
was a distant relative of hers, whom she had not seen for a long time.
But his picture had been printed in the paper as one of the heroes of
the war, and though Mrs. Bunker had not seen him for some years, she
knew him the moment he rushed up on the porch to help in putting out
the fire.
"Is Captain Ben like Cousin Fred?" asked Russ, when the matter of
relationship was being talked about.
"He is a sort of cousin," answered Mother Bunker, "but I think it will
be better if we all call him Captain Ben."
"I am most used to hearing that," said the soldier. "That is what I was
in the marine corps--a captain. And though I am discharged now, many of
my friends still call me captain."
"I like a captain," said Rose. "I think it's ever so much nicer than a
general or a major. They always sound like names of dogs; but a captain
is nice."
"I am glad you think so!" laughed Captain Ben, and so he was called
that by the children.
"But what's your last name?" asked Vi. You might have known she would
find some question to ask, and she did.
"My last name is Barsey," was the answer of Captain Ben. "But I don't
imagine you children will have much use for it. Just say Captain Ben
and I'll know who you mean."
There was more talk and laughter, and the six little Bunkers began to
feel very well acquainted with Captain Ben. At dinner he told something
of how he had enlisted and fought in the war, but he did not dwell much
on this, for he guessed, rightly, that Mr. and Mrs. Bunker did not
want to have the children think too much about the terrible fighting
that had taken place in France.
"And so, after I was discharged and was free to leave the army, I
decided to take a long rest," said Captain Ben. "As you know, Cousin
Amy," he said to Mrs. Bunker, "I have a very nice bungalow down on the
Jersey coast at Grand View. It is all ready for me to go down there and
spend the rest of the summer, and I want you all to come with me."
"Is there any more summer?" asked Laddie. "I thought we spent all the
summer at Uncle Fred's."
"There is still some summer left," answered Captain Ben.
"That sounds funny!" laughed Laddie. "_Some summer!_ Maybe I could make
up a riddle about it."
"Do you like riddles?" asked Captain Ben.
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Vi's twin brother. "Do you know any?"
"I might think of one," the young marine replied. "Let me see. Can you
tell me when a door is like a little mouse?"
"A door like a little mouse!" exclaimed Rose. "I never heard of such a
thing. A door can't be like a mouse because it's too big--I mean the
door is."
"Oh, yes it can!" said Laddie, quickly. "Things in riddles can be like
anything they want to. Don't tell me, Captain Ben!" he begged. "Let me
see if I can guess it myself!"
"It isn't very hard," the soldier-sailor said. "I just happened to
think of it, and perhaps you won't call it a riddle at all. But when is
a door like a mouse?"
"Is it when it sticks fast and won't open?" asked Rose.
"A mouse can't open and shut!" objected Russ.
"It can open and shut its mouth, and a door can open and shut," said
Laddie, who seemed to know more about riddles than any of his brothers
or sisters.
"Is that the answer?" inquired Russ, while Mun Bun and Margy stood
silently looking at Captain Ben.
"No, that isn't the answer," replied the soldier from France. "I guess
I'll tell you, for you've had enough excitement to-day. A door is like
a mouse when it squeaks. The door's hinges squeak, you know, and the
little mouse squeaks when he finds a piece of cheese."
"That's a good riddle!" declared Laddie. "I'm going to remember that,
and ask Jerry Simms and Norah."
A little later supper was served, and at the table Captain Ben told
more about his bungalow at Grand View.
"You have been to the seashore," he said to the six little Bunkers, "so
there is no need to tell you how nice the ocean and the beach is to
rest near. But Grand View is especially nice, because my bungalow is up
on a high bluff and you can look away off across the water to a place
called Sandy Hook."
"Do they catch fishes on Sandy Hook?" asked Rose, with a laugh.
"No, not exactly," answered Captain Ben. "Sandy Hook is a place----"
"We know, thank you," said Russ. "We passed near Sandy Hook when we
went to Atlantic Highlands on our way to Cousin Tom's at Seaview."
"How did you like the seashore?" asked Captain Ben.
"Oh, we love it!" cried Rose, and all the other Bunkers echoed this.
"Of course it was nice at Uncle Fred's ranch out West," Rose went on.
"But the seashore is so nice and cool."
"Then I'll take you all there for another vacation!" said Captain Ben.
"You don't need to unpack any more of your things," he went on to Daddy
and Mother Bunker. "Just leave them as they are, load them in my auto,
and we'll all go to my seaside bungalow at Grand View."
"Has you got a big auto?" asked Mun Bun, speaking for the first time in
nearly half an hour.
"Yes, I have a great big machine," said Captain Ben. "I left it at a
garage in town while I looked you folks up, as I was not sure where you
lived. And you can guess how surprised I was to see a crowd of people
in front of the house, to which the postman directed me, and to see
fire and smoke coming out of the chimney."
"We were surprised, too," said Russ, as he started out on the porch
to bring in the evening paper the boy had just tossed up. "We were
playing steamboat in the attic, and a lot of smoke came out and----"
"Don't talk any more about it," begged Mother Bunker. "I don't want it
to get on your minds, or you may not sleep. I shall never forget how
frightened I was."
"All the more reason for the whole family coming and spending the rest
of the season with me," urged Captain Ben. "It is still late summer,
and the fall is really the best part of the year to be at the shore.
You'll come, won't you?" he asked Mr. Bunker.
The father of the six little Bunkers shook his head.
"It is too near school time," he said. "The new term will open next
week. That, really, is what made us come back from the ranch. I don't
want the children, especially the two older ones, to miss any of their
classes. No, Captain Ben, I am sure we're all much obliged to you for
your kind invitation, but it will be impossible for us to go on account
of school."
"Oh, dear!" sighed Rose, and looks of disappointment came over the
faces of the other children when they heard this.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Captain Ben. "Losing a week or so of school will
not matter. I have just set my heart on the six little Bunkers coming
to my seashore bungalow."
Again Daddy Bunker shook his head. But, as the looks of sorrow deepened
on the faces of Rose and the others, Russ came running in off the porch
with the evening paper. He generally opened it and read the headings
before delivering it to his father or mother.
"Oh, look! Look at this!" cried Russ as, holding the opened paper out
in front of him, he hastened in where the others were. "I guess we can
go to Captain Ben's after all! Look what's in the paper!"