Read Ebook: Six little Bunkers at Captain Ben's by Hope Laura Lee Owen Robert Emmett Illustrator

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Ebook has 1452 lines and 49637 words, and 30 pages

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY

"One, two, three, four, five, six!"

Russ Bunker counted thus, pointing his finger at five children in turn, until he reached himself, when he stooped down and turned a somersault on the floor of the attic.

"Oh, look at Russ!" cried Rose, the sister nearest him in age. "How funny he did it!"

"Say! Hold on a minute! Wait!" cried Russ, with a laugh, as Vi stood with her mouth open all ready to ask another question. "If we're going to play the steamboat game I can't answer all those questions."

"There you go again with your questions!" interrupted Russ, with another laugh. "You can't seem to stop, Vi. You don't give any one else a chance."

"I asked first!" broke in Vi. "Just tell me what made you count us all out just as if we were going to play tag, Russ, and then what made you do a flop-over. Tell me that, and then we'll play the steamboat game."

"All right, I'll answer just those questions and no more," promised Russ. "Then we'll have some fun. I counted you all out--one, two, three, four, five--six--that's me--because I wanted to see if we were all here."

As there were six little Bunkers, it was sometimes needful to count them, one by one, to make sure all were on hand. This was what Russ had done.

"And I turned a somersault when I came to myself, just because I felt so good," the dark-haired boy went on with a merry whistle. "Come on, we'll play the steamboat game now. Rose, you please get out the spinning wheel, and Margy and Mun Bun, you bring over the littlest footstools. Don't bring the big ones, 'cause they're too heavy for you."

"Shall we sit on 'em footstools?" asked Mun Bun, as he shook his golden hair out of his blue eyes.

"Yes, you sit on one footstool and Margy can sit on the other," said Russ. "Now, don't both of you try to sit on the same one, or there'll be a fuss, and we'll never get to playing. Can you bring the spinning wheel all alone, Rose?"

"Yes, it isn't heavy," answered Rose, the oldest girl of the six little Bunkers. "It drags over the floor easy." And as she pulled to the middle of the attic, from the dark corner where it had stood all summer, a big, old-fashioned spinning wheel, Rose hummed a little song. She generally was humming or singing, when she was not helping her mother in the housework. For where there were so many children, there were more matters to attend to than Mrs. Bunker, Norah, the Irish cook, or Jerry Simms, the odd-chore man, could well look after, and Rose was glad to aid. She was a regular little "mother's helper," and her father often called her that.

So while Rose brought over the spinning wheel and Margy and Mun Bun the footstools, Laddie and Violet appealed to their older brother.

"I want to do something!" complained Vi.

"No, you don't!" cried Russ, with a laugh. "No more riddles until we get the steamboat started. Here, you bring over some of the bigger footstools, Laddie. And Vi can help you. Now we're all working--all six of us;" and as Russ spoke he began dragging out of the corners of the attic some chairs and light boards, with which he intended to build the "steamboat."

Of course it was not a regular vessel, nor did it sail on water. In fact, there was no water in the attic of the house where the six little Bunkers lived. There was no water even when it rained, for the roof had no holes in it, and the attic made a lovely place for the children to play.

It was not raining now, and, if they had wished, the children could have had fun out in the yard. But they had just returned from a jolly vacation spent in the open on Uncle Fred's ranch in the West, and perhaps they felt that to play indoors would be a welcome change. They were as brown as berries from having been so much out in the sun and the wind.

"All aboard! All aboard the steamboat!" called Russ, when the boards, chairs, footstools, spinning wheel and other things had been put in place near the center of the attic. "All aboard! Toot! Toot! Don't anybody fall into the water! Hand me that bundle, Rose, please," said Russ to his sister nearest him in age.

"There you go again! As bad as ever!" laughed Russ. "No, these aren't life preservers! They're sugar cookies, and I got them for us to eat on the steamboat! All aboard! Toot! Toot!"

"Oh, sugar cookies! I'm glad!" cried Mun Bun. "I likes sugar cookies, don't you, Margy?" he asked, as he sat close to his little sister on the footstool.

"I 'ikes any kind," she lisped, a form of talk she had not altogether gotten over since her "baby" days.

"Here we go!" cried Russ at last, and he took his place in a chair in front of the big spinning wheel, the package of cookies beside him. The spinning wheel was the only part of the "steamboat" that really moved. It could be turned around in either direction, and was almost as large, and almost the same shape, as the big steering wheel on the big, real steamers. Of course it had no "spokes" on the outer rim to take hold of, but Russ did not need them. The spinning wheel was an old one that had belonged to Mrs. Bunker's great-grandmother, and though the children were allowed to play with it they were always told they must be very careful not to break it. And I must do them the credit to say that they were, nearly always, very careful.

"All aboard!" called Russ again, just as he had often heard the men on real boats say it. "Don't anybody fall off."

"I don't want to fall off till I gets my cookie," remarked Mun Bun.

"And if we fall we don't have to fall as far as Russ does, 'cause he's so high up on a chair and we're low down, on little stools," added Margy.

"That's so!" laughed Russ, as he twisted the spinning wheel around, to make-believe steer the steamboat out into the middle of the pretend river.

Of course the steamboat did not move at all. It just remained in one place on the attic floor. But the six little Bunkers did not mind that. They pretended that they were steaming along, and, every once in a while, Russ would toot the whistle, or give some order such as might be given on a real boat.

"When are we goin' to eat?" asked Laddie, after a time, during which the boat had made make-believe stops at London, Paris and Asbury Park. "Can't I have a sugar cookie, Russ?"

"Yes, I guess it's time to eat now," agreed the older boy.

"Whoa, then!" cried Laddie.

"What are you saying 'whoa' for?" demanded Russ, looking around.

"'Cause I want the steamboat to stop," answered Laddie. "It jiggles so--make believe, you know--I'm afraid I'll drop my sugar cookie in the water."

"You mustn't say 'whoa' on a boat!" went on Russ.

"Laddie was thinking he was out on Uncle Frank's ranch, riding a cow pony, I guess," said Rose. "That's why he said 'whoa'; didn't you, Laddie?"

"I guess so," answered the little fellow. "And I know a riddle about a cow. Why is it that a brown cow eats green grass that makes white milk and turns into yellow butter?"

"That isn't a riddle--it's just something funny. And, besides, you've said that before," said Rose.

"Well, anyhow, can't I have a sugar cookie?" asked Laddie. "And we'll make believe the steamboat has stopped, and we can pretend we're on a picnic."

"All right," agreed Russ, as he gave the spinning wheel a few more turns. "I'll bank the fires--that means I'll turn 'em off so they won't get so hot--and we'll go ashore."

"All ashore!" yelled Laddie.

"Is they enough sugar cookies for all of us?" asked Mun Bun, as he and Margy arose from the low stools where they had been sitting.

"Oh, yes, plenty," Russ answered. "I asked Norah to put a lot of 'em in a bag and I guess she did. Here, Rose, you can pass 'em around, and I'll tie the steamboat fast."

"Do you have to tie it same as Uncle Fred tied his cow ponies?" asked Vi.

Russ stopped suddenly and looked at his sister Rose. She had just passed some of the cookies to Mun Bun and Margy, and was getting ready to hand one each to Laddie and Vi, when she saw something that made her point to the big brick chimney which passed through the roof in the middle of the attic.

"Look! Look!" exclaimed Rose.

"What's the matter?" asked Russ.

"The chimney! It's smoking!" went on Rose.

"Yes, you can see it and smell it!" agreed Russ. As he spoke quite a puff of thick smoke came into the attic. It seemed to spurt right out of the side of the chimney, at a place where some bricks were rather loose and had large cracks between them.

"Oh, Russ!" cried Rose. "Maybe the house is on fire!"

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.

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