Laura Lee Hope

“ Why can't we have coal to burn? Who has got our coal?"
Nobody gave her questions much attention, which of course was not unusual. But Daddy Bunker began to laugh.
"I can see what is working in Russ's mind," he said. "You reason from the cause of a lack of coal, to an effect that you need not go to school?"
"I—I don't mind going to school," Rose said, a little doubtfully but looking at her elder brother.
"And I don't mind, either," said Russ promptly. "Only daddy is going to that Cowboy Jack's. And if we can't go to school for a month, why can't we go with daddy? We might as well." ”

“ He and Laddie started on the run to mount the little ridge over which the jackrabbit had disappeared. This ridge crossed the swale, or valley, and divided what lay beyond from the view of the six little Bunkers. When the children climbed the rise and came to the top, they all stopped. Even Russ did not say a word for a full minute; nor did Vi ask a question, so astonished was she by what she saw. ”

“ But Daddy Bunker was heartily concerned over the absent ones.
"Where are Russ and Vi and Mun Bun?" cried Daddy Bunker.
"They're upstairs—under that old thunder stroke," gasped Margy. "But I guess they're not all dead-ed yet."
"I guess not!" exclaimed Captain Ben, who was a very vigorous young man, being both a soldier and a sailor. "They are all very much alive." ”

“ Russ Bunker told himself. "They are not doing anything dangerous. It's a—a play, that's what it is. Why, those men have got moving picture cameras!
"Oh, I know what the surprise is now—Mr. Cowboy Jack's surprise! It's a moving picture company!" said Russ Bunker aloud. "They are make-believe soldiers, even if Black Bear and his people are real Indians. They are making moving pictures—that is what they are doing, Rose." ”

“ Russ had no idea of going himself to the rescue of the victim; he had only thought of waking daddy. But now he put his head outside the curtain and looked into the narrow aisle of the sleeping car. The first thing he saw was the colored porter, his cap on awry, his eyes rolling so that their whites were very [74] prominent, stalking up the aisle in a crouching attitude with the little stool he sometimes sat on in the vestibule gripped by one leg as a weapon.
"It's the porter!" whispered Russ huskily.
"Is—is he being mur—murdered?" stuttered Laddie. ”

“ Just the same, he did not feel as though he could make a riddle out of it.
"Now, Rose, and you, Laddie," said Mother Bunker admonishingly, as she seated them before her in one of the double seats of the Pullman car in which they had their reservations, "I want to know all about how you came to forget the watch and the pin—and just where you forgot them?"
Although Mother Bunker was usually very cheerful and patient with the children, this was a serious matter. Carelessness and inattention were faults that Mother Bunker was always trying to correct. ”

“ Thunder is only a noise."
"I don't care," said Rose, "it's the thunder that scares you—— Oh! Hear it?"
"Does the thunder hit you?" asked Vi.
"Why, nothing is going to hit us," Russ replied bravely, realizing that he must soothe any fears felt by his younger brothers and sisters. Russ was nine, and Daddy Bunker and mother expected him to set a good example to Rose and Laddie and Violet and Margy and Munroe Ford Bunker, who, when he was very little, had named himself "Mun Bun." ”

“ And nobody could ever have imagined that the littlest Bunker could get into trouble just by falling asleep.
He had walked so far and seen so many strange sights that morning that after eating Mun Bun was just as sleepy as he could be. But he was getting old enough now to think that he should be ashamed of taking a nap in the afternoon.
"Only babies take naps, don't they, Muvver?" he said to Mother Bunker. "And I aren't a baby any more."
"You say you are not," agreed his mother quietly. "But of course you must prove it if we are all to believe that you are quite grown up." ”

“ But Russ and Rose were quite as eager to grow up as were Laddie and Vi; so they were not willing to wait, could they have done so. Daddy pointed out the fact of the "march of time" to the little folks and explained that everybody had to grow older each tiny second.
"Why can't we stop and wait?" demanded Vi. "We can stop an automobile and get out and wait."
"Or get lost from a train," put in Laddie, who was sitting on what Cowboy Jack called a "hassock"—a low seat—and studying a paper he had found. "I ought to make up a riddle about Vi and me being lost from the train that time." ”

“ It was rather dark inside the tent; but Cowboy Jack had a hand-torch in his pocket, and he took this out and flashed the light all about the interior of the tent by pressing his thumb on the switch of the torch.
"Never know what you'll find in these Injun shanties," muttered Cowboy Jack. "Black Bear is college bred, but he's Injun just the same——"
"Goodness me! what does he say?" gasped Rose.
"Why, this Black Bear is a man!" exclaimed Russ. "He's an Indian. And I guess he must be a chief of the tribe. Is he, Daddy?" ”

“ The range bosses ride around in automobiles now because it is easier and cheaper than wearing out ponies. And I read only the other day," added Mr. Bunker, "of a Montana ranch where they hunt strays in the mountains from an airplane. What do you think of that?"
"Are you sure Mr. Scarbontiskil got your message, Charles?" asked Mrs. Bunker of daddy. "Perhaps we had better go to a hotel."
"Oh!" cried Laddie, "I want to go right out where the cows and horses are."
"So do I," said Russ. "A hotel isn't very different from a Pullman coach." ”

“ What do they build there, then?"
"Why," cried Laddie, quite delighted at his discovery, "a flagman's house. That is what that little house is, Vi. A flagman stays there to stop people from crossing the tracks when the train is coming. There! There's the flagman now. See him?"
Just as Laddie spoke so excitedly a man came out of the little house, and he bore a flag in his hand. Unnoticed by the children, there had begun behind them a rumbling sound, and the rails between which they walked began to hum. There was a train coming from the east. ”

“ A Pullman coach had halted just opposite the spot where the twins and the flagman stood. They saw several people at two of the windows, waving to them. Then Russ Bunker popped out of the front door of the car and down the steps.
"Look! Look! Here they are!" Russ shouted, as he ran toward his brother and sister and the man who wore earrings.
"Why, Russ Bunker!" ejaculated Vi, "how did you come on that train? Were you left behind, too?"
"Come on! Hurry up!" the oldest Bunker boy replied. "This is our train. And the engineer will stop only a minute. ”

“ Bunker.
"Ask him, Daddy—ask him," urged Laddie eagerly. "He's an awful intelligent pony."
Pinky had been halted before the group at the ranch house. Daddy Bunker said again:
"I wonder if he could show us where he left Rose?"
And when he spoke Pinky began to nod his head up and down and paw with one hoof. The children were delighted—even Russ.
"Oh! I believe he is trying to explain," Russ cried. "Ask him another question, Daddy."
Mr. Bunker laughed rather grimly. "Let Vi ask the pony questions; she can think of them faster than I can. Or let Laddie ask him a riddle. ”

“ He knew he was hungry, and being hungry is not at all a pleasant experience.
Meanwhile the search for the smallest Bunker was carried on all about the Oxbow Bend. In the brush and along the river's edge where the cottonwoods stood, and in every little coulee, or hollow, back of the camps.
"I don't see," complained Rose, "why we Bunkers have to be losing things all the time. There was my wrist-watch and Laddie's pin. Next came Vi and Laddie. Then Mun Bun was lost in the tumble-weed. Then I got lost myself. Now it's Mun Bun again. Somehow, Russ, it does seem as though we must be awful careless." ”

“ But the opening of their school had been postponed for several weeks already, and Russ and Rose, at least, thought they saw the possibility of their father's taking Mother Bunker and all the children with him to the Southwest.
"Only," Russ said gravely, "I don't much care for the name of that man. He sounds like some kind of a foreign man—and you know how those foreign men were that built the railroad down behind our house in Pineville."
"What makes 'em foreign? Their whiskers?" asked Vi, her curiosity at once aroused. "Do all foreigners have whiskers? What makes whiskers grow, anyway? ”

“ Why doesn't he have children of his own?"
"But, my dear, everybody cannot have children just for the wishing," Mother Bunker replied.
"I should think he could," murmured Rose. "See how many children these Indians and Mexicans have; and they are none of them half as nice as Mr.—Mr.—well, Mr. Cowboy Jack."
To Russ and Rose and Laddie and Violet, Black Bear gave stone arrow-heads which may have been used by his forefathers when they roamed the plains, wild and free, as the young Indian said. ”

“ At once Vi's active attention was drawn to another subject.
"Mr. Cowboy Jack," she demanded, "why do grasshoppers jump?"
"Fine!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker. "You brought it on yourself, Jack. Answer her if you can."
"That's an easy one," declared the much amused ranchman.
"Well, why do they jump?" asked the impatient Vi.
"I'll tell you," returned Cowboy Jack seriously. "They jump because their legs are so long that, when they try to walk, they tumble over their own feet. Do you see how that is?" [217]
"No-o, I don't," said Vi slowly. "But if it is so, why don't they have shorter legs?" ”

“ Back daddy and Russ came to the rest of the family.
"I knew they were left behind!" Mother Bunker declared again, and this time nobody tried to reassure her.
Her alarm was shared by daddy and the older children. Even Margy began to cry a little, although, ordinarily, she wasn't much of a cry-baby. She wanted to know if they had to go on to Cowboy Jack's and leave Vi and Laddie behind them—and if they would never find them again.
"Of course we'll find them," Rose assured the little girl. "They aren't really lost. They just missed the train." ”

“ I know!" cried Vi. "Let's call him Cute. He's just as cunning as he can be."
But this name did not appeal to the others, and they were no nearer finding a name for the brown pony when the ride was over and they all came back to the ranch house than at first. They had had so much fun, however, that they had forgotten for the time being the mystery of the Indians and soldiers whom they had seen the day before.
Laddie had thought up a new riddle—and it was a good one. He knew it was good and he told everybody about it, he was so excited. ”

“ She couldn't have any other name but 'Margy.' No other would fit. Now, that's all, isn't it?" added Cowboy Jack, his eyes twinkling very much as he looked right at Mun Bun but appeared not to see him. "Russ, and Rose, and Violet, and Laddie, and Margy? Yes, that must be all."
"There's me!" exclaimed the littlest Bunker, staring up at the big man. ”

“ A rainy day at home was no great cross for the children to bear. There was always the attic to play in. But on the train, with the rain beating against the windows and not much to see as the train hurried on, the children began to grow restless. ”

“ But Rose and Russ could not just understand what the Indians' "business" could be. It was a very great mystery, and no mistake!
Vi and Laddie were so curious that they wished to examine everything in the wikiup. And there were many, many things strange to the children's eyes. Brilliant colored blankets hung from the walls, feather headdresses with what Vi called "trails," so that when a man wore one the tail of it dragged to his heels. There were beaded shirts and pretty moccasins and long-stemmed pipes decorated with beads and feathers in bunches. ”

“ Laddie would not look; but Russ could not take his eyes off the approaching porter. The colored man crept nearer, nearer—and then suddenly he snatched away the curtain almost directly across the aisle from where the two little Bunkers stood.
There was nobody in that lower berth but the fat man before mentioned! He lay on his back with his knees up, his face very red, his eyes tightly closed. Again there issued from his lips the stifled cry of "Mur-r-rder!"
"Fo' de lan's sake!" exclaimed the porter, dropping his stool and grabbing the fat passenger by the shoulder. ”

“ He asked us about our being called 'Bambinoes.'"
"Oh, dear me!" laughed Mother Bunker. "That was his way of saying 'babies.' He called you babies in his mixture of languages."
"Is that the broken English for little boy and little girl?" scoffed Vi. "I guess that man doesn't know very much, even if he does wear earrings."
There was quite a celebration over the return of Vi and Laddie to the train, for the other passengers made a good deal of the two little lost Bunkers. A lady and gentleman made a little party for them that afternoon at their end of the car. ”

“ But, of course, we cannot be sure."
"He would know they belonged to Rose and Laddie, if he found them," said Russ, trying to comfort the others.
"Yes. If he cleans up the house he might [60] find them. But it is likely that he will hire somebody to do that, and we cannot be sure that the person cleaning up is honest."
"Oh, how mean! To steal Rose's watch and Laddie's pin!" cried Russ.
"What makes them steal, Mother?" queried Vi.
"Because they have not been taught that other people's possessions are sacred," said Mrs. Bunker gravely. ”