ALEXIS IS SPLASHED
"Well, well! Oh, I'm _so_ glad to see you! Now stand still, please,
while I look at you to make sure you're all here!"
This is what Aunt Jo said as she stood smiling on the steps of her
beautiful house in the fashionable Back Bay section of Boston. The six
little Bunkers, with Daddy and Mother, had arrived in a big automobile
that Mr. Bunker had engaged at the steamer dock. It needed a large
machine to take the whole family, with their baggage, through the city.
And when they had rung the bell Aunt Jo was waiting to answer it
herself, as she expected her visitors.
"One, two, three, four, five, six!" she counted, pointing her finger,
first at Russ, as he was the oldest, and ending with Mun Bun, who was
the youngest. "All here! And I'm _so_ glad to see you," she went on.
"And we're glad to see you!" added Daddy Bunker as he kissed his sister,
for Aunt Jo was his sister, you remember. "I'm afraid you won't find
room for us all."
"Oh, yes, I shall," said Aunt Jo, and she laughed and looked so jolly
that the six little Bunkers loved her at once. "I've got lots of room in
this big house," she went on.
Just then a big dog, the kind called a Great Dane, came stalking into
the hall where the Bunker family was gathered. The dog seemed pleased
when he saw the children, and wagged his tail.
"I can sleep with the dog if you haven't got room for me anywhere else,"
said Margy, as she went up to Alexis, which was the dog's name. "I did
sleep with a dog on the boat, and he did love me and I did love him."
"Has you got a cat?" asked Mun Bun. "I want to love something, too," and
he looked at Aunt Jo with big, round eyes.
"No," answered Daddy's sister, "I haven't a cat, but Alexis is large
enough for all you six little Bunkers to love, I guess," and truly the
Great Dane seemed so.
"What makes Alexis so big?" asked Vi.
"Because he's a Great Dane."
"What makes a Great Dane be so big?"
"Vi, Vi!" protested her mother. "Don't ask any more questions now."
"But come in and get your things off," went on Aunt Jo. "I'm keeping you
standing in the hall as if I didn't have room for you inside. Come in,
make yourselves at home and I'll have Parker hurry the lunch. You must
be starved."
"We had breakfast, but it wasn't much," said Russ. "I guess it's on
account of war times." Russ had really eaten a big breakfast, but, of
course, that had been a long time before.
"Well, of course we must all help with the war," said Aunt Jo, "but I
think Parker can give you enough to eat."
"Is Parker a cat?" asked Vi.
"Oh, no!" laughed Aunt Jo. "Parker is my cook. I call her by her last
name instead of her first name, as it is the same as mine. Parker is a
very good cook, you'll find."
"If Parker was a cat maybe I could think up a riddle about her," put in
Laddie. "Anyhow, I know a new riddle, Aunt Jo."
"Do you? Well, I must hear it," she said, as she opened the door to the
sitting-room.
"Oh, Laddie, can't you wait to ask riddles until we get our things off?"
asked his mother.
"I--I'm afraid I might forget it," said the little boy. "It's a hard
riddle."
"Well, let me hear it," said Aunt Jo with a laugh. "I used to be pretty
good at guessing them."
"This is it," said Laddie. "I didn't make it up, but I asked one of the
sailors on the steamer for a good riddle, and he told me this one. It's,
'What can you put in your left hand that you can't put in your right
hand?' That's the riddle."
"Pooh! there can't be any answer to that," said Russ. "If you can put
anything in your left hand you can put it in your right, too. Look!"
He took his knife from his pocket, and put it first in his right hand
and then in his left.
"But I don't mean a knife," said Laddie. "'Tisn't what you _can_ put in
both hands, it's what you _can't_."
"Let me hear the riddle again," begged Aunt Jo.
"What can you put in your left hand that you _can't_ put in your right?"
asked Laddie. "It's awful hard--you'll never guess it," he went on,
laughing at the puzzled look on Aunt Jo's face.
They all tried to guess the riddle--that is all except the smallest
children--Mun Bun and Margy, and they were too much taken up with loving
the dog Alexis. Aunt Jo tried several things, but she found she could
put them in one hand as easily as she could in the other, so that
couldn't be the answer.
"Do you give up?" asked Laddie.
"Yes," said his father, "we all give up. Tell us the answer."
"It's your right elbow," said the little boy with a laugh.
"Your right elbow?" cried Russ.
"Yes," Laddie went on. "Look! You can hold your right elbow in your left
hand, but you can't put your _right_ elbow in your _right_ hand. Nobody
can!"
And, surely enough, when they tried, no one could do it. And you can
quickly prove it for yourself to make sure Laddie was right. You can
easily rest your _right_ elbow in the palm of your _left_ hand. But try
to put your _left_ elbow in your _left_ hand, or the _right_ elbow in
the _right_ hand, and see how hard it is.
"Well, that's a good riddle!" laughed Aunt Jo. "I shall have to put on
my thinking cap when you ask me any more, Laddie."
"Oh, I know _lots_ more riddles," cried Laddie eagerly. "Some I made up
myself. I know one about why don't the railroad tickets get mad when the
conductor punches 'em, but I never can think of an answer for that
riddle."
"Well, a riddle isn't much fun unless you know the answer," agreed Aunt
Jo. "And now I'll show you to your rooms, and you can get ready for
lunch."
They went upstairs, Alexis following, for he seemed to like children.
And the six little Bunkers certainly liked the big dog.
"Does he like dolls?" asked Rose, as she held her Sue close in her arms.
"Well, I never saw him bite any," said Aunt Jo.
"I don't want to put my doll down where he could get her if he would
carry her off," went on the little girl.
"Would Alexis do _that_?" asked Vi.
"No, I don't believe Alexis would hurt the doll," said Aunt Jo. "Here,
we will try him. Come to me, Alexis!" she called.
The dog managed to get away from Mun Bun and Margy, who were trying to
see who could hug him the hardest, and he stood near his mistress.
"Do you see this doll, Alexis?" went on Aunt Jo, holding Sue out for him
to see. "Look at her!"
"Bow-wow!" barked Alexis, and that meant: "Yes, I see her, what about
it?"
"You must be very nice to her, and not chew her nor carry her off and
put her in some hiding-place, as you do your bones," went on Aunt Jo.
Alexis waved his big tail, sniffed at Rose's doll, and then barked
again.
"He will never hurt your toy, Rose," said Aunt Jo. "You may safely leave
her anywhere in the house."
"She's my best doll, and she's been lost in the woods and had lots of
adventures," Rose said. "But I wouldn't like a dog to carry her
off--'specially not such a big dog."
"Well, don't worry about Alexis," said Aunt Jo. "He won't hurt your
Sue."
The visitors were shown to their different rooms, and their baggage was
carried up so the children could change their clothes.
"Why do we have to change our clothes?" asked Vi.
"We want to put on some old things so we can have some fun," returned
Russ.
"Can we sail a boat anywhere around here?" asked Laddie.
"I'm afraid not," said Aunt Jo. "You see this is a big city, and not the
country, as at Grandma Bell's, where you have been staying. True, we are
near the bay, but you couldn't very well sail boats there. I shall have
to think up some other fun for you."
"We like fun," added Violet.
By this time Mun Bun and Margy had been fitted out with their "play
clothes" as they called them; clothes that could not easily be soiled.
Russ and Rose had dressed themselves, and Mrs. Bunker was seeing to
Laddie and Violet.
"And when you're all ready I'll have Parker serve the lunch," said Aunt
Jo. "If you'll just excuse me now, I'll run down and see about it," she
added to her brother.
"Go ahead," said he. "We'll be right down."
"Can Alexis stay up here with us?" asked Mun Bun.
"Oh, yes, he likes to be with children," said Miss Bunker, for that
really was Aunt Jo's name, she being Daddy Bunker's sister.
So Aunt Jo went downstairs to see that the cook got a nice lunch ready
for the six little Bunkers.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunker, now that they had the children ready, could stop
and "get their breaths," as Mother Bunker said. Really it is a good deal
of work to look after six children.
"Come on!" called Daddy Bunker, when he had helped his wife put the
baggage away in the rooms they were to have while at Aunt Jo's house.
"Come down to lunch, children!"
Russ, Rose, Violet and Laddie came from the windows, out of which they
had been looking at scenes in the street.
"Where is Mun Bun?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"And Margy?" added her husband.
"I saw 'em a minute ago," answered Rose.
And just then, from down the hall, came strange sounds.
"Now it's my turn, Mun Bun! It's my turn to splash him!" shouted Margy.
"No, it's mine!" insisted her brother. "You splashed him a lot, an' I'm
goin' to do it now. You let me pull it!"
"Oh, what are those children doing now?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"I'll go and see," offered her husband.
And then, from a room down the hall, came the sound of splashing water
and the barking of Alexis, the big dog, while Mun Bun could be heard
calling:
"Let me pull it! Let me pull it! I want to splash him, too!"
"What are Mun and Margy Bunker doing?" asked Vi.