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SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S

by

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Bunny Brown Series," "The Bobbsey
Twins Series," "The Outdoor Girls Series," Etc.

Illustrated







New York
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers
Made in the United States of America



[Illustration: "WE GOT HIM UP, BUT WE CAN'T GET HIM DOWN," CRIED LADDIE.
_Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's._ _Frontispiece_ --(_Page 45_)]



* * * * *


BOOKS

By LAURA LEE HOPE

* * * * *

_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated._ 50 _cents per volume_

* * * * *

THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S

* * * * *

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES

THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA

* * * * *

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY

* * * * *

THE OUTDOOR GIRL SERIES

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE

* * * * *

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1918, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP



* * * * *



Six Little Bunkers at Grandpa Ford's




CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE MAN ON THE PORCH 1

II. GRANDPA FORD 13

III. SOMETHING QUEER 23

IV. RUSS MAKES A BALLOON 31

V. THE BIG BANG NOISE 44

VI. OFF TO GREAT HEDGE 54

VII. MUN BUN TAKES SOMETHING 63

VIII. A BIG STORM 73

IX. AT TARRINGTON 85

X. GREAT HEDGE AT LAST 95

XI. THE NIGHT NOISE 105

XII. UP IN THE ATTIC 113

XIII. THE OLD SPINNING WHEEL 125

XIV. COASTING FUN 137

XV. JINGLING BELLS 145

XVI. THANKSGIVING FUN 153

XVII. RUSS MAKES SNOWSHOES 163

XVIII. ON SKATES 172

XIX. THE ICE BOAT 182

XX. ANOTHER NIGHT SCARE 192

XXI. MR. WHITE 200

XXII. AN UPSET 208

XXIII. IN THE CABIN 219

XXIV. CHRISTMAS JOYS 227

XXV. THE GHOST AT LAST 237




SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S




CHAPTER I

THE MAN ON THE PORCH


"Oh, Daddy, come and take him off! He's a terrible big one, and he's
winkin' one of his claws at me! Come and take him off!"

"All right, Mun Bun. I'll be there in just a second. Hold him under
water so he won't let go, and I'll get him for you."

Daddy Bunker, who had been reading the paper on the porch of Cousin
Tom's bungalow at Seaview, hurried down to the little pier that was
built out into Clam River. On the end of the pier stood a little boy,
who was called Mun Bun, but whose real name was Munroe Ford Bunker.
However, he was almost always called Mun Bun.

"Come quick, Daddy, or he'll get away!" cried Mun Bun, and he leaned a
little way over the edge of the pier to look at something which was on
the end of a line he held. The something was down under water.

"Be careful, Mun Bun! Don't fall in!" cried his father, who, having
caught up a long-handled net, was now running down a little hill to the
pier. "Be careful!" he repeated.

"I will," answered the little boy, shaking his golden hair out of his
blue eyes, as he tried to get a better view of what he had caught. "Oh,
but he's a big one, and he winks his claws at me!"

"Well, as long as the crab doesn't pinch you you'll be all right," said
Daddy Bunker.

There! I meant to tell you before that Mun Bun was catching crabs, and
not fish, as you might have supposed at first. He had a long string,
with a piece of meat on the end, and he had been dangling this in the
water of Clam River, from Cousin Tom's boat pier.

Then a big crab had come along and, catching hold of the chunk of meat
in one claw, had tried to swim away with it to eat it in some hole on
the bottom of the inlet.

But the string, to which the meat was tied, did not let him. Mun Bun
held on to the string and as he slowly pulled it up he caught sight of
the crab. As the little fellow had said, it was a big one, and one of
the claws was "winkin'" at him. By that Mun Bun meant the crab was
opening and closing his claw as one opens and closes an eye.

"Hold him under water, Mun Bun, or he'll let go and drop off," called
Daddy Bunker.

"I will," answered the golden-haired boy, and he leaned still farther
over the edge of the pier to make sure the crab was still holding to the
piece of meat.

"Be careful, Mun Bun!" shouted his father. "Be careful! Oh, there you
go!"

And there Mun Bun did go! Right off the pier he fell with a big splash
into Clam River. Under the water he went, but he soon came up again,
and, having held his breath, as his father had taught him to do whenever
his head went under water, Mun Bun, after a gasp or two, was able to
cry:

"Oh, Daddy, Daddy, don't let him get me! Don't let the crab pinch me!"

Daddy Bunker did not answer for a moment. He was too busy to talk, for
he dropped the long-handled crab net, ran down to the pier and, jumping
off himself, grabbed Mun Bun.

Luckily the water was not deep--hardly over Mun Bun's head--and his
father soon lifted the little fellow up out of danger.

"There!" cried Daddy Bunker, laughing to show Mun Bun that there was no
more danger. "Now the crab can't get you!"

Mun Bun looked around to make sure, and then, seeing that he was sitting
on the pier, where his father had placed him, he looked around again.

"Did you--did you get the crab?" he asked, his voice was a little choky.

"No, indeed I didn't!" laughed Mr. Bunker. "I was only trying to get
you. I told you to be careful and not lean too far over."

"Well, I--I wanted to see my crab!"

"And the crab came near getting you. Well, it can't be helped now. You
are soaking wet. I'll take you up to the bungalow and your mother can
put dry clothes on you. Come along."

"But I want to get my crab, Daddy!"

"Oh, he's gone, Mun Bun. No crab _would_ stay near the pier after all
the splashing I made when I jumped in to get you out."

"Maybe he's on my string yet," insisted the little fellow. "I tied my
string to the pier. Please, Daddy, pull it up and see if it has a crab
on it."

"Well, I will," said Mun Bun's father, as he jumped up on the pier from
the water, after having lifted out his little boy. "I'll pull up the
string, but I'm sure the crab has swum back into the ocean."

Both Mun Bun and his father were soaking wet, but as it was a hot day in
October they did not mind. Mr. Bunker slowly pulled on the string, the
end of which, as Mun Bun had said, was tied to a post on the pier.
Slowly Mr. Bunker pulled in, not to scare away the crab, if there was
one, and a moment later he cried:

"Oh, there is a big one, Mun Bun! It didn't go away with all the
splashing! Run and get me the net and I'll catch it for you!"

Mun Bun ran up on shore and came back with the long-handled net Mr.
Bunker had dropped. Then, holding the string, with the chunk of meat on
it, in one hand, the meat being just under water, Mun Bun's father
carefully dipped the net into the water and thrust it under the bait and
the crab.

A moment later he quickly lifted the net, and in it was a great, big
crab--one of the largest Mr. Bunker had ever seen, and there were some
big ones in Clam River.

"Oh, you got him, didn't you!" cried Mun Bun, capering about. "You
caught my terrible crab, didn't you, Daddy?"

"Well, I rather guess we did, Mun Bun!" exclaimed Mr. Bunker. "He is a
big one, too."

Mr. Bunker turned the net over a peach basket, and the crab, slashing
and snapping his claws, dropped into it. Then Mun Bun looked down at
him.

"I got you, I did!" said the little boy. "My daddy and I got you, we
did."

"But it took a lot of work, Mun Bun!" laughed Mr. Bunker. "If I had to
jump in and pull you out every time you wanted to catch a crab I
wouldn't like it. But he surely is a big one."

Mun Bun and his father were looking at the crab in the peach basket,
when a voice called:

"Oh, what has happened to you? You are all wet!"

Mun Bun's mother came down to the pier.

"What happened?" she repeated.

"Look at the big crab I caught!" cried the little fellow. "Daddy pulled
him out for me."

"Yes, and it looks as if Daddy had pulled out something more than a
crab," said Mrs. Bunker. "Did you fall in, Mun Bun?"

"No, I didn't zactly fall in. I--I just slipped."

"Oh," said Mrs. Bunker. "I thought maybe you'd say the crab pulled you
in."

"Well, he pretty nearly did," said the little fellow.

"He leaned too far over the water," explained Mr. Bunker to his wife.
"But I soon got him out. He's all right."

"Yes, but I'll have to change his clothes. However, it isn't the first
time. I'm getting used to it."

Well might Mrs. Bunker say that, for, since coming to Cousin Tom's
bungalow at Seaview one or more of the children had gotten wet nearly
every day, not always from falling off the pier, but from wading, from
going too near the high waves at the beach, or from playing in the
boats.

"Oh, look at Mun Bun!" cried another voice, as a little girl ran down
the slope from the bungalow to the pier. "He's all wet!"

"Did he fall in?" asked another little boy excitedly.

"Oh, look at the big crab!" exclaimed a girl, who, though older than Mun
Bun, had the same light hair and blue eyes.

"Did you catch him, Mun Bun?" asked a boy, who seemed older than any of
the six children now gathered on the pier. "Did you catch him?"

"Daddy helped me," answered Mun Bun. "And I fell in, I did!"

"That's easy to see!" laughed his mother. "Oh, did the mail come?" she
asked, for she saw that the oldest boy had some letters in his hand.

"Yes, Mother," was the answer. "Oh, look at the crab trying to get out!"
and with a stick Russ, the oldest of the six little Bunkers, thrust the
creature back into the basket.

There were six of the Bunker children. I might have told you that at the
start, but I was so excited about Mun Bun falling off the pier that I
forgot about it. Anyhow now you have time to count them.

There was Russ, aged eight years; Rose, a year younger; and then came
Laddie and Violet, who was called Vi for short.

Laddie and Vi were twins. They were six years old and both had curly
hair and gray eyes.

You could tell them apart, even if they were twins, for one was a girl
and the other was a boy. But there was another way, for Vi was always
asking questions and Laddie was very fond of making up queer little
riddles. So in case you forget who is which, that will help you to know.

Then came Margy, or Margaret, who was five years old. She had dark hair
and eyes, and next to her was the one I have already told you about--Mun
Bun. He was four years old.

While the six little Bunkers were gathered around the basket, in which
the big crab Mun Bun had caught was crawling about, Daddy Bunker and his
wife were reading the letters Russ had handed them.

"Then we'll have to go back home at once," Mrs. Bunker said.

"Yes, I think so," agreed her husband. "We were going at the end of the
week, anyhow, but, since getting this letter, I think we had better
start at once, or by to-morrow, anyhow."

"Oh, are we going home?" cried Rose.

"Yes, dear. Daddy thinks we had better. He just had a letter---- Be
careful, Mun Bun! Do you want to fall in again?" she cried, for the
little fellow, still wet from his first bath, had nearly slipped off the
edge of the pier once more, as he jumped back when the big crab again
climbed to the top of the peach basket.

"Come! I must take you up to the house and get dry clothes on you," said
Mun Bun's mother to him. "Then we must begin to pack and get ready to go
home. Our visit to Cousin Tom is at an end."

"Oh, dear!" cried the six little Bunkers.

But children, especially as young as they were, are seldom unhappy for
very long over anything.

"We can have a lot of fun at home," said Russ to Rose.

"Oh, yes, so we can. It won't be like the seashore, but we can have
fun!"

There was much excitement in Cousin Tom's bungalow at Seaview the next
day, for the Bunkers were packing to go back to their home in Pineville,
Pennsylvania.

"We are very sorry to see you go," said Cousin Tom.

"Indeed we are," agreed his pretty wife, Ruth. "You must come to see us
next summer."

"We will," promised Mr. Bunker. "But just now we must hurry back home. I
hope we shall be in time."

Russ and Rose, who heard this, wondered at the reason for it. But they
did not have time to ask for, just then, along came the automobile that
was to take them from Cousin Tom's house to the railroad station.

Good-byes were said, there was much laughter and shouting; and finally
the six little Bunkers and their father and mother were on their way
home.

It was a long trip, but finally they reached Pineville and took a
carriage from the depot to their house.

"How funny everything looks!" exclaimed Russ, for they had been away
from home visiting around, for some time.

"Yes, it does look funny," agreed Rose. "Oh, I see our house!" she
called, pointing down the street. "There's our house!"

"Yes," answered Russ. "And oh, look! Daddy! Mother! There's a man on our
porch! There's a man asleep on our porch!"

The six little Bunkers, and Daddy and Mother Bunker looked. There was,
indeed, an elderly man asleep in a rocking-chair on the porch.

Who could he be?




CHAPTER II

GRANDPA FORD


Eagerly peering from the carriage in which they had ridden from the
Pineville station, the six little Bunkers looked to see who the man was
on their porch. He seemed to be asleep, for he sat very still in the
rocking-chair, which had been forgotten and left on the porch when the
family had gone away.

"Do you know him, Daddy?" asked Rose.

"Maybe he is from your office," said Laddie.

"Maybe he's the old tramp lumberman that had your papers in the old
coat, Daddy," suggested Russ.

Mr. Bunker hurried down from the carriage, and walked up the steps.

As he did so the old man on the porch woke suddenly from his nap. He sat
up, looked at the Bunker family, now crowding up on the steps, and a
kind smile spread over his face.

"Well, well!" he exclaimed. "I got here ahead of you, I see!"

"Why, Father!" cried Mr. Bunker.

"Oh, it's Grandpa Ford!" exclaimed Rose.

"Grandpa Ford!" fairly shouted Russ, dropping the valise he was
carrying, and hurrying to be clasped in the old gentleman's arms.

"Grandpa Ford!" cried Laddie and Vi together, just as twins often do.

"Yes, I'm Grandpa Ford!" said the old gentleman, smiling and kissing the
children one after the other. "You didn't expect to see me, did you?"

"Hardly so soon," said Mrs. Bunker. "But we are glad! Have you been here
long?"

"No, not very. I came on a day sooner than I expected, and as I knew
from your letters that you would be home to-day, I came here to wait for
you."

"I'll get the house open right away and make you a cup of tea," said
Mrs. Bunker. "You must be tired."

"Oh, no, not very. I had a nice little nap in the chair on your shady
porch. Well, how are you all?"

"Fine," answered Mr. Bunker. "You look well, Father!"

"I am well."

"Do you know any riddles?" asked Laddie.

"Do I know any riddles, little man? Well, I don't know. I might think of
one."

"I know one," went on Laddie, not stopping to hear what his grandfather
might say. "It's about which would you rather be, a door or a window?"

"Which would I rather be, a door or a window?" asked Grandpa Ford with a
laugh. "Well, I don't know that there is much difference, Laddie."

"Oh, yes, there is!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I'd rather be a door,
'cause a window always has a pane in it! Ha! Ha!"

"Well, that's pretty good," said Grandpa Ford with a smile. "I see you
haven't forgotten your riddles, Laddie."

"Now you ask me one," said the little boy. "I like to guess riddles."

"Wait until Grandpa has had a cup of tea," said Mrs. Bunker, who had
opened the front door that had been locked so long. "And then you can
tell us, Father," she went on, "why you had to come away from Great
Hedge. Is it something important?"

"Well, it's something queer," said Grandpa Ford. "But I'll tell you
about it after a while."

And while the Bunker home is being opened, after having been closed for
a long vacation, I will explain to my new readers who the children are,
and something about the other books in this series.

First, however, I'll tell you why Daddy Bunker called Grandpa Ford
"Father." You see Daddy Bunker's real father had died many years before,
and this was his stepfather. Mr. Bunker's mother had married a gentleman
named Munroe Ford.

So, of course, after that her name was Mrs. Ford, though Daddy Bunker
kept his own name and called his step-parent "Father."

Grandpa Ford was as kind as any real father could be; and he also loved
the six little Bunkers as much as if he had been their real
grandfather, which they really thought him to be.

Now to go back to the beginning. There were six little Bunkers, as I
have told you, Russ, Rose, Laddie, Vi, Margy, and Mun Bun. I have told
you their ages and how they looked.

They lived in the town of Pineville on Rainbow River, and Daddy Bunker's
real estate office was about a mile from his home. Besides the family of
the six little Bunkers and their father and mother, there was Norah
O'Grady, the cook, and there was also Jerry Simms, the man who cut the
grass, cleaned the automobile, and sprinkled the lawn in summer and took
ashes out of the furnace in winter.

The first book of this series is called "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma
Bell's." In that I told of the visit of the children to Lake Sagatook,
in Maine, where Mrs. Bunker's mother, Grandma Bell, lived. There the
whole family had fine times, and they also solved a real mystery.

After that the children were taken to visit another relative, and in the
second book, "Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's," you may find out all
that happened when they reached Boston--how Rose found a pocketbook, and
how, after many weeks, it was learned to whom it belonged.

Next comes the book just ahead of this one, "Six Little Bunkers at
Cousin Tom's." The children came from there to find Grandpa Ford on
their porch.

Cousin Tom Bunker was Daddy Bunker's nephew, being the son of a dead
brother, Ralph. Cousin Tom had not been married very long, and soon
after he and his wife, Ruth, started housekeeping in a bungalow at
Seaview, on the New Jersey coast, he invited the Bunkers to visit him.

They went there from Aunt Jo's, and many wonderful things happened at
the seashore. Rose lost her gold locket and chain, a queer box was
washed up on the beach, Mun Bun and Margy were marooned on an island,
and there were many more adventures.

"Did you know Grandpa Ford was coming to visit us when we got home?"
asked Rose of her mother, as she helped set the table.

"Yes, that was what he told us in the letter that came the day Mun Bun
fell off the pier. It was Grandpa Ford's letter that made us hurry home,
for he said he would meet us here. But he came on sooner than we
expected, and got here ahead of us," said Mrs. Bunker.

By this time the house had been opened and aired, Norah had come from
where she had been staying all summer, and so had Jerry Simms, so the
Bunkers were really at home again. Grandpa Ford had been shown to his
room, and was getting washed and brushed up ready for tea. The six
little Bunkers, having changed into their old clothes, were running
about the yard, getting acquainted with the premises all over again.

"Now I guess we're all ready to sit down," said Mother Bunker, for, with
the help of Rose and Norah, the table had been set, tea made and a meal
gotten ready in quick time. Norah and Jerry had been told, by telegraph,
to come back to help get the house in order.

"I'm terrible glad you came, Grandpa Ford," said Mun Bun, as he sat
opposite the old gentleman at the table.

"So'm I," said Margy. "Are you going to live with us always?"

"Oh, no, little Toddlekins," laughed Grandpa Ford. "I wish I were. But I
shall soon have to go back to Great Hedge. Though I may not go back
alone."

"Is that a riddle?" asked Laddie eagerly.

"No, not exactly," said Grandpa Ford with a laugh.

"I know another riddle," went on Laddie. "It's about how do the tickets
feel when the conductor punches them. But I never could find an answer."

"I don't believe there is any," said Grandpa Ford.

"Don't you know _any_ riddles?" asked Laddie.

"Well, I might think of _one_, if I tried real hard," said the old
gentleman. "Let me think, now. Here is one we used to ask one another
when I was a boy. See if you can guess it. 'A house full and a hole
full, but you can't catch a bowlful.' What is that, Laddie?"

"'A house full and a hole full, but you can't catch a bowlful,'"
repeated Laddie.

"Is it crabs?" asked Mun Bun. "I helped catch a basketful of crabs,
once."

"No, it isn't crabs," laughed Grandpa Ford.

"I give up. What is it?" asked Laddie, anxious to hear the answer.

"It's smoke!" said Grandpa Ford with a laugh. "A house full and a hole
full of smoke, but, no matter how hard you try, you can't catch a
bowlful. For, if you try to catch smoke it just rolls away from you."

"A house full and a hole full--but you can't catch a bowlful," repeated
Laddie slowly. "That's a good riddle!" he announced, after thinking it
over, and I guess he ought to know, as he asked a great many of them.

They had a jolly time at the meal, even if it was gotten up in a hurry,
and then, just as the children were going out to play again, Daddy
Bunker remarked:

"You haven't yet told us, Father, what brought you away from Great
Hedge."

"No, I haven't, but I will," said Grandpa Ford.

Great Hedge, I might say, was the name of a large estate Grandpa Ford
had bought to live on not a great while before. It was just outside the
city of Tarrington, in New York State, and was a fine, big country
estate.

Grandpa Ford looked around the room. He saw Russ and Rose over by the
sideboard, each taking a cookie to eat out in the yard. The other little
Bunkers had already run out, for it was not yet dark.

"As soon as they go I'll tell you why I came away from Great Hedge,"
said Grandpa Ford in a low voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker. "It's something
of a mystery, and I don't want the children to become frightened,
especially as they may go up there," he went on. "I'll tell you when
they go out."




CHAPTER III

SOMETHING QUEER


Russ Bunker took a cookie from the dish on the sideboard, handed one to
Rose, and then the two children went out on the porch. Rose was just
going to run along to find Vi, who had taken her Japanese doll to play
with, when Russ caught his sister by her dress.

"Wait a minute, Rose."

"What for?" she asked.

"Hush!" went on Russ. "Not so loud. Didn't you hear what Grandpa Ford
said?"

"I didn't listen," admitted Rose. "I wanted to see if there were any
molasses cookies, but they're all sugar. What was it?" and Rose, too,
talked very low.

They were now out on the side porch, under the dining-room windows,
which were open, for, as I have said, it was warm October weather.

"He said there was something queer about Great Hedge, where he lives
with Grandma," went on Russ. "He didn't want us to hear, 'cause I heard
him tell Daddy and Mother so. But we can hear out here if we listen.
Let's keep still, and maybe we can tell what it is."

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