Six little Bunkers at farmer Joel's

“Supper is all ready, Daddy! We’ll sit right down,” called Mother Bunker, as the happy crowd entered. “I see you have already met Farmer Joel’s man,” she added, nodding and smiling.

“Oh, yes, Adam and I are old friends,” Mr. Bunker said. “And I’m glad supper is ready, for I’m hungry. Let me see now——”

“The secret! The secret!”

“You promised to tell us the secret!”

“Tell us now!”

“Don’t wait until after supper!”

Thus cried the six little Bunkers.

“Quiet, children! Please be quiet!” begged their mother. “What will Adam North think of you?”

“Oh, let ’em go on! I like it!” chuckled the truck driver.

“I think perhaps I had better tell the secret,” said Mr. Bunker. “It is the only way we shall have any peace and quiet. Now all of you sit down to the table,” he ordered, “and when you can compose yourselves I will tell you what I have to say.”

It took some little time for all of the six little Bunkers to get quiet, but finally each one was sitting nicely in his or her chair, with their father at one end of the table and their mother at the other, Adam having a place next to Mr. Bunker.

“Now,” said Mr. Bunker, when all was quiet, “in order that you will not eat too fast, to get through supper quickly to hear the secret, I am going to tell it to you now.”

“Oh, I can hardly wait!” murmured Rose.

“What is it?” asked Violet.

Then came a moment of eager, anxious waiting.

“We are all going to spend the summer at Farmer Joel’s,” said Mr. Bunker suddenly.

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” came the murmurs of delight. Mrs. Bunker, with laughter shining in her eyes, looked at the happy faces around her.

“They sure will have fun out there!” said Adam.

“Do you really mean it?” asked Russ. “Are we going?”

“Surely,” said his father. “Farmer Joel’s sister, who has been keeping house for him, is going away on a visit. When he told me this he said he didn’t know what he was going to do, as he didn’t want a strange woman coming in to look after the place. Then I said I would bring my six little Bunkers up there and they would keep house for him.”

“Did you really say that, Daddy?” Rose asked eagerly.

“I surely did.”

“Well, I can keep house a little bit,” Rose went on. “But to cook for a farmer——”

Rose began to look worried, so her mother said:

“You won’t have to do it all alone. I am going with you, and so is Norah, and we’ll see that Farmer Joel doesn’t get hungry.”

“Oh, if mother is coming it will be all right,” said Violet.

“Fine! Yes!” cried the other little Bunkers. You can see they thought a great deal of their mother.

“So that is how it came about,” went on Mr. Bunker. “Farmer Joel’s sister is going away on a long visit—to remain all summer. We are going up there to live on his farm.”

“And can I help get in the crops?” asked Russ, who liked to be busy.

“Yes, we’ll all help,” his father promised. “I think you need a lot of help on a farm in summer, don’t you, Adam?” he asked.

“That’s right,” answered Farmer Joel’s hired man. “The more help we have the better. I’m pretty well rushed myself in the summer.”

“And can we see the horses?” asked Violet.

“And the cows?” came from Laddie.

“And the sheep?” Mun Bun wanted to know.

“And the apple trees?” asked Margy.

“I’d like to see the bees make honey,” remarked Rose, who, herself, was often as busy as any bee.

“You shall see everything there is to see,” promised Daddy Bunker. “There! Now you know the secret. We are going off to Farmer Joel’s for the summer, and I think we shall have a fine time. Now eat your suppers!”

And the six little Bunkers did.

After supper there was more talk about going to the farm, and Mr. Bunker said:

“I have been talking with Adam, and this seems the best way to go. Cedarhurst, where Farmer Joel lives, is about forty miles from here. It is not on any railroad, so we shall need to go in the automobile. As our car is hardly large enough to take us all and the trunks we shall need this is what we can do.

“Adam and I will ride to Cedarhurst in the big auto truck that brought the flowers. In that we can also take the baggage—the trunks of clothes and the like. The children can also ride in the truck with me. We’ll fill it full of straw.”

“Oh, that will be fun!” cried Russ.

“A regular straw ride!” added Rose.

“But what about mother?” asked Violet. “Is she going in the truck with us?”

“Your mother and Norah will drive up in our own touring car,” said Mr. Bunker.

“When can we go?” asked Russ.

“In a few days,” his father answered.

“Then I won’t bother to make the seesaw here,” went on Russ. “I’ll save the nails and take them to Farmer Joel’s.”

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Rose. “We can make a lovely teeter-totter up there, and have lots of fun.”

In the early evening, after supper, not much was talked of by the six little Bunkers but the coming visit to Farmer Joel’s. Mrs. Bunker, who had been to the farm some years before with her husband, told the children about it. There were many places where they could have fun, she said.

The evening was passing. Mun Bun and Margy, in spite of their hard work to keep awake, were fast falling asleep, their little heads nodding from side to side and their eyes closing.

“It’s time they were in bed!” cried Mrs. Bunker, when she finally noticed them. “It’s long past their hour. And Laddie and Vi, too! They must go to bed!”

“I’ll carry up Mun Bun,” offered Mr. Bunker.

“And I’ll take Margy,” said Adam, for both the smallest children were now asleep.

“Come, Vi,” suggested her mother. “You and Laddie can go up by yourselves.”

“Laddie isn’t here,” said Violet.

“He isn’t? Where is he?” asked her mother. “Perhaps he has fallen asleep in a corner of the porch,” for they were sitting out on the piazza talking over the coming visit to Farmer Joel’s.

“No, he isn’t here,” went on Violet. “He got up and walked off a little while ago.”

“Then I guess he went up to bed by himself,” said Mr. Bunker, as he went into the house carrying Mun Bun, while Adam followed with Margy. “I’ll see if he’s in his room,” he added to his wife.

But a little later, when Mr. Bunker called down: “Laddie isn’t up here!” there was some excitement.

“Where can he be?” asked Mrs. Bunker.

“Maybe he’s out in the yard trying to catch lightning bugs,” suggested Rose, for she and Russ were to be allowed to remain up a little later than the smaller children.

“It’s too early for lightning bugs,” replied Mrs. Bunker. “Where can the child have gone? Laddie! Laddie!” she called, raising her voice. “Where are you?”

But the only sound was the singing of the frogs down in the pond—that is, if you call the noise the frogs make “singing.” There was no answer from Laddie.

“He may have wandered down into the garden, to look at some of the flowers you set out,” suggested Mr. Bunker.

“He couldn’t see flowers in the dark,” objected Mrs. Bunker.

“He might if he took a flashlight,” said Russ. “Maybe that’s what he did. I’ll go and look for him.”

“I’ll come and help you,” offered Adam.

But a search through the garden and more calling of Laddie’s name brought no answer from the little fellow.

“Where can he have gone?” exclaimed Mrs. Bunker. “I’m afraid he’s lost.”