THE FLOOD
"Rose! what are you saying?" cried Mrs. Bunker, jumping up out of her
chair and starting toward the door of the bungalow.
"You'd better come and get him out, Mother! He's in and he can't get
out himself, and he's being picked all to pieces, and Mun Bun and Margy
are crying and--and----"
Rose had to stop just here, as she was all out of breath.
"What has happened, Rose?" Mrs. Bunker, herself somewhat breathless,
demanded. "What has Laddie fallen into? Where is he?"
"He's in--but you'd better come and get him out! He's got a stick, but
it isn't much good, and he's being picked and----"
"Being _picked_, Rose? What do you mean? Who's picking him, and where
is Laddie?" cried Mrs. Bunker. "I can't go to him till you tell me
where he is."
"Laddie's in the coop with the big, old rooster that lives next door,"
explained Rose. "And he's picking him--I mean the rooster is picking
Laddie, and he can't get out--I mean Laddie can't get out, and----"
But, once again, Rose had to stop to get her breath, for she talked
very fast in her excitement.
"Oh, the rooster!" Mrs. Bunker hastened on. She remembered that Captain
Ben had told them about a savage rooster that was part of some poultry
kept by the man next door. The rooster was ugly, and would fly at every
one who came near him, and, for this reason, he was usually kept shut
up in the yard, while the other fowls were allowed to go outside. When
the Bunkers had come to Captain Ben's to pay a late summer visit they
had been warned about the rooster and told not to go near his yard, or
if, by chance, he ever got out, they were to run away from him. For
though roosters do not appear to be savage they have strong wings and
sharp spurs and a beak, and they can harm a small child greatly.
Holding Rose by the hand, Mrs. Bunker ran toward the chicken yard
of the man next door. Before she reached it, she could hear a great
commotion there.
A rooster was crowing and flapping his wings, and Mother Bunker could
hear the voices of Laddie, Mun Bun, Margy and Violet, and Laddie seemed
to be making the most noise. Russ, as it happened, was down at the dock
with his father and Captain Ben, or he might have helped his little
brother.
As Mrs. Bunker turned the corner and came within sight of the chicken
yard she saw what was happening. Inside the wire fence, which kept the
savage rooster penned up, was Laddie. Outside, as though looking at
some show, were Mun Bun, Margy and Vi, and they were screaming with
excitement, Vi, every now and then saying:
"Bang him with the stick, Laddie! Bang him with the stick!"
This, as his mother could see, Laddie was trying to do. The small boy
had a stick, and with this he was hitting at the rooster. But the
feathered creature would flap his wings, jump up in the air out of
Laddie's reach and, coming down, would try to hit Laddie with wings,
spurs or beak.
Mrs. Bunker lost no time. Letting go of Rose's hand she rushed into the
chicken yard through the high, wire gate. Then, flapping her skirts at
the rooster, and crying "Shoo! Shoo!" Mrs. Bunker picked her little boy
up in her arms, and before the surprised fowl could attack her she was
safely outside and the gate was closed. The old rooster, with an angry
crow, threw himself against the wire netting, but he would not get out.
Laddie, rather mussed up and with a scratch on his bare leg that was
bleeding, turned around and faced his enemy as soon as his mother put
him down.
"You bad old rooster you!" cried Laddie. "If you were a baseball I'd
knock you over the fence!"
"Laddie, how did you come to go into the rooster's yard?" asked Mrs.
Bunker, when she saw that the little fellow was not any more harmed
than a few scratches.
"I went after my ball," Laddie answered. "It got knocked over into the
chicken yard when we were playing, and I went after it."
"I told him not to," said Rose.
"Well, I thought I could get in and get out again before the bad old
rooster saw me," went on Laddie. "So I went in. But when I wanted to
come out after I got the ball, the gate wouldn't open, and then the bad
old rooster came for me, and I tried to hit him with my ball stick, and
I threw the ball at him, and I hit him, I guess, but he flapped his
wings and he flew at me and--and----"
And then Laddie had to stop for breath, just as Rose had done.
"Dear me!" exclaimed his mother. "It's too bad, but of course you
should not have gone into the chicken yard after your ball. Mr. Wendell
told you not to. He would have got your ball for you. The rooster is
afraid of Mr. Wendell."
"I won't go in any more," said Laddie. "And I wish Mr. Wendell would
get my ball now, for it's in there."
"I'll ask him to," said Mrs. Bunker. "And now you had better come into
the house and let me wash you."
"Oh, o-o-oh, look! Laddie's leg's got the nose bleed!" cried Mun Bun,
pointing to the red spot on his brother's leg. "Laddie's leg's got the
nose bleed!"
"Well, I'm glad it isn't any worse," said Mrs. Bunker, as the others
laughed at Mun Bun's funny remark.
Mr. Wendell, who owned the savage rooster, came over later with
Laddie's ball, which he had got from the chicken yard. Mr. Wendell said
he was sorry for what had happened, and added:
"I'm going to get rid of that bird! He's getting older and more saucy
every day. The best place for him is in a potpie. He won't trouble you
any more, Laddie." And the next day the rooster was sent away.
The six little Bunkers kept on having good times at Captain Ben's. They
went out on the water in his motor boat, and sometimes in a sailboat,
and on these excursions Russ, at least, being the oldest, would look
long and earnestly across the waters of the bay at Grand View.
"What are you looking for?" Rose would ask him. "Are you playing
pirates?"
"No," Russ would answer. "I'm just looking to see if I can find the
tramps that took Captain's Ben's rowboat."
But the tramps were not found, nor did the Bunkers learn whether or not
Tad Munson ever ran back home after having run away. Mrs. Bunker often
said they must take a trip over to Avalon, to inquire about the strange
boy, but something always seemed to happen to put off the journey.
Captain Ben was always thinking of so many things for the six little
Bunkers to do to have fun.
One afternoon the marine, after having taken them all for a ride in his
motor boat, said:
"To-morrow, if it's a nice day, we'll go to that island I was telling
you about, and we'll have a picnic."
"May we take our lunch and stay all day?" asked Rose, breaking off a
song she had started to sing.
"Yes, it will be a regular picnic lunch," the captain said. "That is,
if it's a fair day."
"Do you think it will rain?" asked Russ, who had taken out his knife in
order to make a little jumping jack for Mun Bun.
"It might," the captain remarked. "I don't like the way the sky looks,"
and he gazed up at the clouds that were scuttling along overhead.
"It's about time for the usual storm we get late in the summer, but it
may hold off a week or more. Anyhow, if it does come, we can have the
picnic when it clears."
The six little Bunkers went to bed that night after having talked and
planned for the picnic the next day. But alas for their hopes! The
fears of Captain Ben proved true, and in the morning it was raining
hard.
"Maybe it will clear," said Rose, as she stood at the window with her
nose pressed against the glass, giving her a funny look.
"I hope it does," said Violet. "Say, Daddy, what makes the rain wet?"
she asked. "Wouldn't it be nice if the rain was dry, like snow, and
then we could go out without umbrellas? Wouldn't it be nice?"
"Snow is wet when it melts," her father said. "And if rain were not wet
it would do no good when it fell. Don't complain. Have as much fun as
you can here in the house. I don't believe it is going to clear to-day."
And it did not. It rained harder and harder, but Captain Ben knew how
to provide fun for the six little Bunkers even in a storm. He had many
things of interest in his bungalow, and he knew many stories which
he told the children. Every once in a while, though, he would go to
the door and look out, and Mrs. Bunker saw that the captain's face was
grave.
"Do you think something might happen?" she asked.
"There's a great deal more rain falling than I like to see," answered
Captain Ben.
"Will it make the ocean so high it will wash us away?" asked Violet,
who overheard what was said.
"No," the captain answered. "All the rain that ever fell would not
make the ocean rise any higher. But back of us is a small river, and
sometimes, when it rains too much, this river rises and makes a flood."
"Will it wash this bungalow away?" Russ asked.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. But it sometimes comes into my cellar,"
replied Captain Ben. "However, I don't believe it will this time. Only
I wish it would clear up so I could take my six little Bunkers to the
island on a picnic."
The six little Bunkers wished this themselves, but of course all their
wishes could not stop the rain from falling, and it pelted down all
day.
Rather earlier the next morning than he was in the habit of getting up,
Russ Bunker was awakened by hearing voices out in the bungalow yard
under his window. He quickly jumped from bed, looked out, and what he
saw surprised him. It was still raining hard, and the yard seemed to
be turned into a small lake with chicken coops floating around in it.
Besides the coops, there were planks and boards, and Captain Ben and
other men were wading about with long rubber boots on, trying to secure
the floating coops of chickens.
"Oh, Mother! Dad!" cried Russ in his excitement. "Wake up! The flood
has come!"