Laura Lee Hope

“ Daddy said that any Bunker could get into more adventures nailed into a wooden cage no bigger than the turkey crate the great sea-eagle was housed in than other children could find in a ten acre lot!
Living at sea on this great steamship was a good deal like living in a hotel. And the little Bunkers had lived in hotels, and liked the fun of it. Traveling by water was even more fun than traveling on a train. The Kammerboy was a fine big ship and there was so much to see and to learn that was new and surprising that that first night none of them really wanted to go to bed. ”

“ CHAPTER XVIII THE TWINS IN TROUBLE
Laddie and Vi Bunker felt as though they had been cheated. They had not been allowed to go to the fire, "when Mammy June's cabin had been burned all up," Vi declared. They had only seen the fire from an upper window of the big Armatage house.
"But it wasn't burned up, Vi," her twin insisted. "It was burned down."
"Russ said it was burned up when he came back from the fire—so now," Violet declared somewhat warmly.
"How can a house burn up? It just fell all to pieces into the cellar."
"There wasn't any cellar to Mammy June's house," Vi observed. ”

“ Privately, however, and much to Rose's amusement, Russ Bunker often tried to copy Sam's pigeon-wing step.
"If we ever go to Aunt Jo's again—and of course we shall—I am going to get Sam to show me how to do it. I'll get it perfect some time," sighed the oldest Bunker boy.
Vi, looking on at one of her brother's attempts, asked:
"Doesn't it hurt the pigeon to cut its wing?"
But that was a silly question, and they all laughed at her. Laddie grew suddenly excited.
"Oh! I know a new riddle!" he cried. "It's a good riddle!" ”

“ Oh, no!" chorused Russ and Rose.
"Of course not. You're one of those folks, sir, that would kill an American eagle, too—the bird that is supposed to represent the best fighting spirit of this country. No, sir! this bird is going to have his chance. If we can heal his wounds, we will set him free again—hey, little folks?"
"Of course we will," said Russ stoutly.
"Yes, sir! we'll set him free," agreed Rose. "But when you do it I am going down to the stateroom. I think he is pretty savage." ”

“ Even the snapping firecrackers could not drown their voices now. Russ and Rose heard the cries coming from the doghouse, and they knew Mun Bun and Margy were in trouble. They saw Bobo, who had been with them to the swamp, seemingly stuck half way in the doorway of his kennel, and Russ cried:
"I guess that's where they are. Hear 'em, Rose? Come on, save Mun Bun and Margy."
"I'm afraid of that hound," replied Rose, but she followed her brother just the same.
Russ shouted to the dog. The hound backed out and looked around at Russ Bunker. But his red eyes did not scare the boy. ”

“ This delighted Margy and Mun Bun very much. The idea of packing the great Dane in a steamer trunk was really quite ridiculous. Violet did not venture any more questions immediately however; but Laddie suddenly broke out with a new riddle.
"Oh, Mother! Mother!" he cried. "Do you know the difference between a dog and an elephant?"
"I should hope so!" Mother Bunker said, chuckling. "But I suppose you want me to give the riddle up so that you can have the pleasure of telling me what the difference is between Alexis and an elephant."
"Not just Alexis; any dog," urged Laddie. ”

“ She stared at her older sister, round-eyed.
"Do—do diseases have to grow up, too?" she finally gasped.
"Oh, dear me, Vi Bunker!" exclaimed Rose, "I wish you didn't ask so many questions."
"Why not?" promptly inquired the smaller girl.
"We-ell, it's so hard to answer them," Rose frankly admitted. "Diseases don't grow up, I guess, but folks grow up and leave diseases like croup, and measles, and chicken-pox, behind them."
"And cut fingers and bumps?" asked Laddie, who had almost forgotten the riddle about William's croup that he was striving to make. ”

“ But the little folks had been seeing the blue line of the shore ever since leaving Charleston, so they were not much interested in it. As Laddie said, they knew it was there, and that was enough.
"We know the continent of North America didn't get lost while we were out there in the Gulf Stream," said the boy twin, with satisfaction. "So it doesn't matter what part of it we hit—it will be land!"
"If we hit it most any old place," said Vi, "we would be shipwrecked and be castaways like the game we started to play that time and Russ wouldn't let us finish. I wonder why?" ”

“ Laddie said to Rose. "I think I could make up a riddle about that."
"All right," said Rose, with a sigh. "You can make up all the riddles you want to about it. Making a riddle about a panther is lots better than being chased by one."
Laddie, however, did not make the riddle. In fact he forgot all about it in the excitement of what directly followed the rescue of Russ and Rose from the wild animal. Mr. Bunker felt so happy about the recovery of the two children that he determined to do something nice for the colored people who had so enthusiastically aided in hunting for Russ and Rose. ”

“ We used to all call him 'Sneezer,' and it made him awfully mad."
"Didn't he have any better name?" asked Russ.
"His full name is Ebenezer Caliper Spotiswood Meiggs. Of course, their name isn't really Meiggs, like the plantation; but the darkies often take the names of the places where they were born. Sneezer was a real nice boy."
"He isn't dead, is he?" asked Russ.
"Reckon not," said Phillis. "But Mammy June is awful' worried about him. She hasn't heard from him now for more than a year. So she doesn't know what to think."
"But she has got other folks, hasn't she?" Rose asked. ”

“ Mother Bunker swept Mun Bun into her arms then and kissed his chubby neck.
"Of course you have a trunk, honey-boy," she cried. "All your little body between your shoulders and your legs is your trunk. So you all have trunks, and so do the dogs."
The children laughed delightedly at this, but Laddie suddenly stopped laughing.
"Why!" he cried out in great glee, "then the elephant, Mother, has two trunks. I guess I can make a good riddle out of that, can't I?"
Russ and Rose took Alexis downstairs after that so that he would not be in the way. They wanted to see Sam again, anyway. ”

“ It was a piece of drainpipe with a rough rim at the edge of the hole. Laddie poked his head into the hole.
"It's as dark as the inside of your pocket, Vi Bunker," he said, in a muffled voice.
"Shall I run get a candle?" asked his sister.
"No," sighed Laddie; and even his sigh sounded funny from inside the pipe. "If you do they'll want to know what you want it for. And if we are going to catch this—this whatever-it-is, we want to catch it all by ourselves. Wait."
Vi granted that request. She waited, watching Laddie's plump little body wriggling farther and farther into the culvert. ”

“ See! It's beginning to snow!"
[4] "So 'tis," cried Russ, who was the oldest of the six. "Supposing it should be a blizzard, Rose Bunker?"
"S'posing it should!" repeated his sister, quite as much excited as Russ was at such a prospect.
"Buzzards fly and eat dead things. We saw 'em in Texas at Cowboy Jack's," announced Laddie, forgetting his riddle-making for the moment.
"That is right, Laddie," agreed Rose kindly. "But we're not talking about buzzards, but about blizzards. Blizzards are big snowstorms—bigger than you ever remember, I guess." ”

“ Rose Bunker's idea was too good to tell in general. Some ideas are too good to keep; but Russ and Rose decided that this one was not in that class. They determined to tell nobody—not even Mammy June or Daddy or Mother Bunker—about what they proposed to do to help the old colored woman.
They had tried once, and failed. And Philly and Alice and Frane, Junior, had laughed at them. Now they proposed to do what Rose had thought of, and keep it secret from everybody. ”

“ The quartermaster declared that, without much doubt, the bird had been shot at from a small boat and by some idle and thoughtless "sportsman."
"It is wrong," Daddy Bunker said, "to call such people 'sportsmen.' There is no real sport in shooting at and laming an inoffensive creature, one that cannot be made use of for food. That excuse does not hold in this case."
"True word, sir," said the quartermaster. "It was a wicked trick, I'll say. But I think the bird will recover very shortly. Perhaps the little folks can see the bird released before we get to Charleston."
"Not me!" cried Rose again. ”

“ The steamship was pursuing her course so swiftly, but so easily, that Russ and Rose Bunker scarcely realized that the chances of the big bird's landing on the craft were very slim. The children raced along the deck toward the bows, believing that the big bird would alight there. Their friend, the lookout officer, however, remained at his post.
The big wings of the great sea-eagle beat the air heavily. They were covered with almost black feathers above while the feathers on the under side of the wings were pearl-gray, a contrast that Rose said was "awfully pretty." ”

“ The hotel was a nice one, and Rose thought the negro waiters and chambermaids very attentive and very pleasant people.
"They are the smilingest people I ever saw," she confessed to Mother Bunker. "I guess they are thinking of funny things all the time."
"Perhaps," granted her mother. "But they are trained to politeness. And you children must be just as polite."
They all tried to be polite, and Russ grew quite friendly with one of the bellboys who brought them ice water. He asked that boy if he knew how to cut the pigeon wing, and the boy grinned very broadly. ”

“ It's a fine country," said the quartermaster.
"But he will want to see his relations," said the little girl. "Maybe he's got a wife and children. He will be dreadfully lonesome away down here."
"Maybe you had better take him back with you on the Kammerboy," said Russ thoughtfully, to the quartermaster.
But the officer could not do that. There had been some objection made already to the big sea-eagle caged on deck. Besides, the bird's wing was better, and if he was kept much longer confined, the quartermaster said, he might forget how to fly! ”

“ Margy asked.
"Only if they need to," Russ told her, with superior wisdom. "Of course, they most always make pets of them."
"Oh!"
"I guess," said Russ, becoming reflective, "that we might play at castaway."
"When we get ashore, do you mean, Russ?" Vi asked.
"Right here."
"No," said Vi. "We'd get our feet wet. We can't play on the ocean, can we?"
"We can play on this deck. The officers won't mind. Now all of you come up on to this life raft. We'll play you are floating around on the sea waiting for somebody to come along in a boat and rescue you."
"Who is going to be the rescuer?" Vi asked. ”

“ Couldn't he, Miss Phil?"
"Sneezer was a great dancer," admitted the oldest Armatage girl. "Come on, now, Bunkers, and see Mammy June. Keep away from this cabin," she added to the colored children, "or I'll call a ha'nt out of the swamp to chase you."
"I wonder what those 'ha'nts' are, Russ," whispered Rose to her brother. "Do they have feathers? Or don't they fly? They must run pretty fast, for Phil is always saying she will make one chase folks."
"I asked Daddy. There isn't any such thing. It's like we say 'ghosts.'"
"Oh! At Hallowe'en? When we dress up in sheets and things?" ”

“ The officer who had made himself the friend of Russ and Rose was prepared for the bird's coming inboard. He ran with a piece of strong netting in his hands, and as the bird came thumping down on the deck, the man cast this net about the creature.
Then what a flapping and croaking and struggling there was! A sailor ran forward with a boat-stretcher and wanted to hit the bird; but Russ and Rose screamed, and the officer sent the man away.
"We're not going to kill the bird. These little folks want it alive," said the officer. ”

“ So Russ had said, and Rose agreed with him.
"Oh, my dears!" Rose cried out when she saw the little ones so mussed up and with tear-stained faces, "what has happened to you?"
"Don't be afraid of Bobo," said Russ, running too. "He won't hurt you."
"He hurted the goosey-goosey-gander," declared Mun Bun confidently. "He dug his head under the goosey-goosey-gander and flunged him right over on his back." [207]
"But he wouldn't hurt you," declared Rose.
"No," explained Margy. "Bobo came to help us when the gander wanted to bite our legs. At any rate he wanted to bite Mun Bun's legs." ”

“ The smallest Bunkers—Margy, whose real name was Margaret, and Mun Bun, whose real name was Monroe Ford—were quite as anxious to get out from under the heap of boxes as the others. Mother Bunker and Aunt Jo ran to their assistance, and soon the six were on their feet to be hugged and scolded a little by both their mother and aunt.
"But they do get into such mischief all the time," sighed Mother Bunker. "I shall be glad when Daddy gets back and decides what to do for the winter. ”

“ At first, when the dogs came baying to the spot, Russ and Rose were even more frightened than before. The dogs' voices sounded very savage. But soon Bobo smelled the children out and leaped, whining, against the door of the cabin. He was doing that when Daddy Bunker and Mr. Armatage and the negroes reached the clearing.
"The creature is in that hut," said Daddy Bunker.
"Not much!" returned his friend. "Bobo would not make those sounds if it was a panther. Mr. Panther has beat it through the trees. It is something else in the charcoal burner's hut. Come on!" ”