RUSS DIGS A HOLE
"What's the matter, children? Why are you shouting so?" asked Mrs.
Bunker, who had walked on a little way through the woods to get some
flowers. "Can't you play more quietly? You're as bad as the cowboys!"
"We're hollering for Laddie, Mother!" explained Russ. "We can't find
him."
"Can't find him?"
"No. I was blinding, 'cause I was it, and he went off to hide. I found
all the others, or they came in free, but I can't find Laddie, and he
doesn't answer when I say I'll givie up."
"Perhaps he is hiding near here, and only laughing at you," said Mrs.
Bunker. "We must take a look."
"Come on!" cried Russ to his brother and sisters. "We'll all look for
Laddie. If he's doing this on purpose we won't let him play any more,
either."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said Mrs. Bunker softly. "And, after all,
maybe he went so far away that he can't hear you telling him that he may
come in free. So it wouldn't be fair not to let him play with you again.
First find him, and then you can ask him why he hid away so long."
"All right, we will," agreed Russ.
So he and the others started through the woods, looking behind trees,
under logs and back of bushes, hoping to catch sight of Laddie. But they
did not see him.
Then they shouted and called.
"Givie up! Givie up!" echoed through the woods, that being the way to
call when you want a person to come in from playing hide-and-go-seek.
But Laddie did not answer.
"Where can he be, Mother?" asked Rose. "Is he hiding for fun, or is he
lost?"
"I don't see how he can be lost, my dear," answered Mrs. Bunker. "He
went to hide, and surely he wouldn't go very far away, because he would
want a chance to run in free himself. No, I think Laddie must be doing
a puzzle trick to make you find him. He probably is near by, but he is
so well hidden that you can't find him. Try once more!"
So the children tried again, shouting and calling, but there was no
Laddie.
"I think I'll go and get your father and Uncle Fred," Laddie's mother
said to Rose and Russ. "They'll know how to find Laddie. You children
stay here, and all keep together so none of you will be lost."
Mrs. Bunker did not have to go for help, for, just at that moment, her
husband came up to them.
"Is anything the matter?" asked Daddy Bunker. "I was taking a walk over
to the spring, to see if anything had happened to the water there, when
I heard shouting and calling. Is anything wrong?"
"We can't find Laddie!" exclaimed Russ.
"He went to hide, but he won't come in," added Rose.
"I really am a little worried," said Mrs. Bunker. "Perhaps you had
better get Fred and----"
"I'll find him!" said Daddy Bunker with a laugh. "He can't be far away.
Show me where you blinded, Russ, when the others went to hide."
Russ showed his father where he had stood against a tree, hiding his
head in his arms, so he would not see where the others were hiding.
Standing at the same tree Mr. Bunker looked all around. Then he started
off, walking this way and that, looking up and down and all around in
the woods, until finally he stopped before a rather high stump, and
said:
"Laddie is here!"
"Where?" cried some of the little Bunkers.
"I don't see him," said others.
"What's this?" asked Daddy Bunker, reaching up on the tree stump, and
lifting down a cap.
"Why--why--that's Laddie's!" stammered Russ. "I saw it there before, but
I thought he hung it there so it wouldn't fall off when he was playing."
"Well, we'll see what's inside this stump, for it is hollow," went on
Mr. Bunker with a smile. "Unless I'm much mistaken we'll find in
here----"
And just then, from inside the middle of the stump there stuck up a
tousled head of hair, and Laddie's rather surprised face looked down at
his father and mother and brothers and sisters.
"Oh, you found me!" he exclaimed. "I was going to run in free!"
"Why didn't you?" asked Russ. "I called 'givie up!' a lot of times."
"I--I didn't hear you," said Laddie, rubbing his eyes. "I guess I must
have fallen asleep."
"That's what happened," said Daddy Bunker. "When I saw your cap hanging
on a splinter outside the hollow stump I thought you must have hung it
there while you climbed inside. Did you?"
"Yes," answered Laddie. "I was looking for a good place to hide, and
when I climbed up on a stone, outside, and saw the stump was hollow I
knew I could fool Russ. So I left my cap outside, and I got in. And it
was so nice and soft there that I just snuggled down and--and I fell
asleep. I was sleepy anyhow."
"Didn't you hear us calling?" asked Rose.
"Nope!"
"And didn't you hear me tell you to come in free?" Russ wanted to know.
"Nope. I guess I must have slept a lot," said Laddie.
"Well, I guess you did," agreed his mother. "We were alarmed about you.
Don't do anything like that again."
Laddie promised that he wouldn't, and then he climbed out of the hollow
stump. It was just high enough from the ground to prevent any one,
passing along, from looking down into it. And Laddie could not have
climbed up and gotten in if he had not used a stone to step on. The
other children took a peep inside, Margy and Mun Bun having to be lifted
up, of course.
The stump was partly filled with dried leaves, which made a soft bed on
which Laddie had really gone to sleep. He had just curled up in a sort
of nest and there he had stayed while the others were hunting for him.
"Are we going to play hide-and-go-seek any more?" asked Laddie, when he
had climbed out of the stump and brushed the pieces of leaves off his
clothes.
"I'm hungry," announced Mun Bun. "I want some bread and peaches."
"So do I!" added Margy.
Bill Johnson, the good-natured cook, did not have jam to give the
children, as Grandmother Ford had done when they were at Great Hedge, so
he gave them canned peaches instead. And they liked these almost as
much.
"Well, I'll take Mun Bun and Margy to the house," said Mrs. Bunker. "You
other children can play here in the woods, if you like. But don't any of
you get lost again."
They promised that they would not, and, after Margy and Mun Bun had gone
with their father and mother, Russ and Laddie, with Rose and Violet,
played the hiding game some more.
But finally the two girls grew tired, and said they were going to play
keep house with their dolls.
"Well, it's no fun for us two to play hide from each other," said Russ
to Laddie. "What'll we do?"
"Let's guess riddles," suggested Laddie.
"No, that isn't any fun, either," said Russ. "You'd think of all the
riddles and I'd have to think of all the answers. I know what let's do!"
"What?"
"Let's dig a hole."
"A hole? What for?"
"Oh, just for fun. Let's see how deep we can dig a hole."
"All right," agreed Laddie, after a while. "Maybe we can dig one deep
enough for a well, and then Uncle Fred won't have to go to the creek
after water when the spring goes dry. We'll dig a well!"
"We'll dig a hole, anyhow," said Russ. "Maybe there won't any water come
in it and then it wouldn't be a well. But we'll dig a hole anyhow."
So Russ got some shovels at the barn, and he and Laddie began to dig a
hole, starting it not far from the spring, though not close enough to
get any dirt in the clear water that was so cool and sweet to drink.