SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

BY LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's," "Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's," "Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's," Etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1920, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP

CONTENTS

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

CHAPTER I

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!"

"What made you do it, Russ?" asked Violet, or Vi as she was called for short. "What made you flop over that way? Did it hurt your head? Did you get any splinters in your hands? Did you——"

"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."

"Are you going to play the steamboat game?" cried Vi, jumping up and down so that her curly hair bobbed back and forth in and out of her grey eyes. "Oh, what fun! But please tell me, Russ, what made you count us all that way, as if we were going to play tag? And what made you flop over, and what——"

"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."

"And I know a nice riddle I can ask, too," broke in Laddie, who was his sister Violet's twin. "I know a riddle about what makes the paper stick on the wall and if it falls off——"

"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.

"So do I," added Laddie. "If I don't do something I'm goin' to think up another riddle. I know one about——"

"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.

"Has it got life preservers in it?" asked Violet. "If it has, can I put one on, and will you let me make-believe fall in the water, Russ? And will you pull me out, and——"

"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.

"Pretty near the same," her biggest brother answered. "And after a while we'll——"

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.

"That's what chimbleys is for," said Laddie. "I know a funny riddle about smoke in a chimbley and——"

"But the smoke from the chimney shouldn't come out into the room or the attic," interrupted Rose. "I can smell it, and I can see it! Oh, Russ!" she cried.

"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!"

CHAPTER II

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.

"Is there a fire?" asked Violet.

"Yes, I think so," answered Rose. And then it came to her mind that she must not frighten the smaller children, so she quickly added: "But I guess it's only a little fire. Maybe Norah is burning up papers in the stove and they smoke. I heard her tell mother there was a lot of trash to be burned since we came back from Uncle Fred's ranch."

"Well, she must be burnin' a awful lot!" exclaimed Laddie, and he choked as he swallowed a mouthful of smoke.

Just then a larger cloud of it seemed to pour out into the attic, and from outside the home of the six little Bunkers, and from the rooms below them, came shouts and exclamations.

"Oh, Russ!" exclaimed Rose, looking at her older brother, "something is the matter, I'm sure!"

"I guess there is," he agreed, as he ran to a window. "I'll let some of the smoke out and then——"

He suddenly ceased speaking as he looked to the street below. To the ears of the other children, playing in the attic, came a loud clatter and clang.

"Is it the puffers?" asked Mun Bun, meaning the fire apparatus.

"Yes, the engines are all out in front of our house!" cried Russ. "We'd better get down out of here. It's too far to jump!"

"Don't dare jump!" screamed Rose. "Come on, Russ. You take Vi and Laddie and I'll look after Mun Bun and Margy." And she caught the two youngest children by their hands and Russ did the same for the twins, Vi and Laddie.

The smoke continued to grow thicker in the attic, and the cloud of it was now so dense that the chimney itself, whence the choking fumes came, could scarcely be seen.

But under the leadership of Russ and Rose the four smaller children were being led to safety, and while this is going on I shall take the chance to tell some of my new readers something of the other books in this series, as well as about the six boys and girls who are to have a part in this story.

Six was the number of the little Bunkers. That is, there was an even half dozen of them. Russ, aged nine years, was a great whistler and a lad who was often engaged in making toys, or building something, like make-believe steamboats or engines, to amuse his smaller brothers and sisters.

Next to Russ was Rose, a year younger. As I have told you, she was a great help to her mother—a girl of cheerful, sunny disposition, always making the best of everything.

Next came Violet and Laddie. They each had curly hair and gray eyes, and were twins. As you have noticed Vi was a great one for asking questions. It did not seem to matter to her what she asked questions about, nor how many, as long as she could keep some one busy answering them, or trying to answer. For not always could answers be found to Vi's questions. Laddie, her twin brother, had a different curious habit. He was always asking riddles—at least he called them riddles, though some of them were as funny as Vi's questions.

Last of all in the half dozen little Bunkers were Margy and Mun Bun. Margy's real name was Margaret, and the complete name of her small brother was Munroe Ford Bunker.

Now that we have finished with the children we will start on the grown-ups of the family. Daddy Bunker's name was Charles, and he was in the real estate business in Pineville, Pennsylvania. Mother Bunker's name was Amy, and before her marriage she was Miss Amy Bell.

Then there was Norah O'Grady, the good-natured cook, and Jerry Simms, an old soldier who could tell fine stories about the time he fought in battle. Of course Norah and Jerry were not real Bunkers—that is, they were not members of the family. But they had been in the home of our friends so long that the children began to think of these two kind servants as almost some of their own relatives.

There were enough other relatives in the Bunker family, too. There was Grandma Bell, and the first book of this series is named "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's." After some glorious days at their grandmother's, the six little Bunkers went to Aunt Jo's, next to Cousin Tom's, after that to Grandpa Ford's, and then they went out West to a ranch. The story of their trip there, and what they did, is set down in the volume just before this one. It is called "Six Little Bunkers at Uncle Fred's," and Russ, Rose, and the others had not long returned from this enjoyable visit before they began a new series of adventures.

The first of them I have already started to relate to you. It is about the fire, or at least the smoke, in the attic where they had been playing steamboat.

"Russ!" exclaimed Rose, as she made her way through the smoke-filled room to the stairs, leading Mun Bun and Margy, while her oldest brother followed with Vi and Laddie, "oh, Russ!" went on Rose, "you didn't start any fire in the make-believe boiler of the pretend steamboat, did you?"

"Course—course not!" answered Russ, somewhat choking over the words, for some smoke got down his throat. "I never play with matches!"

"Well, there's a fire somewhere!" declared Rose.

"Maybe it's across the street," suggested Russ, "and the smoke just blew in the windows." But, even as he spoke, he looked over his shoulder and saw smoke pouring out of a place in the attic chimney where some bricks were broken loose and large cracks showed.

"It's our chimney that's on fire, all right," said Russ to himself. "It's the first fire we ever had. I want to see the engines work and squirt water!"

Down the attic stairs to the second floor went the six little Bunkers. There was very little smoke on the second floor, and as Russ and Rose were leading the four smaller ones toward the head of the stairs they were met by their mother and Norah rushing up, each of them out of breath and much excited.

"Oh, children! are you all right?" gasped Mrs. Bunker. "I have been so frightened. You're all right, aren't you? Not hurt or burned?"

"We're all right, Mother!" Russ hastened to say.

"Is our house on fire?" demanded Vi. Even in this excitement she could not forget to ask a question.

"Yes, darlin', the house is burnin'!" cried Norah. "Oh, sorrow the day I should live to see this. Oh, come to Norah, little darlin's!" and she tried to gather in her arms all four of the smallest children at once.

"Don't frighten them!" called Mrs. Bunker, as she caught up Mun Bun in one arm, and Margy in the other. "The house isn't exactly on fire, children. It's just the chimney. A lot of soot got in while we were at Uncle Fred's, and it is the soot which is now burning."

"But I heard a fireman say if the chimney fire wasn't soon put out it might set the house afire!" declared Norah, as all of them started down the front stairs.

There was plenty of excitement now in the home of the six little Bunkers. Outside could be heard the whistle of a fire engine and the shouts of many men and boys.

Russ, Rose, the other four children and Mrs. Bunker and Norah safely reached the first floor. There was no smoke at all here, as yet. As Russ hurried out on the porch he saw Jerry Simms running around holding the garden hose, out of the nozzle of which trickled a little stream of water.

"Let me get at it!" cried the old soldier, who acted as gardener and furnace man by turns. "Let me get at the blaze! I'll put the fire out if I can see it!"

"You won't put much of a blaze out with that stream!" exclaimed a fireman in a rubber coat, as he hurried up the steps. "There isn't enough force to it."

"Oh, I forgot to turn the water on full!" said Jerry Simms. "Wait a minute. I'll go turn it on full force, and then I'll put out the blaze," he said, putting the hose down on the porch and hurrying to the faucet which came through the foundation wall of the house.

"That won't be any good for this fire, no matter how much force of water you have," cried the fireman. "The fire's down inside the chimney, and we can't get at it until we climb up on the roof and stick a hose down the flue."

"Is that what you are going to do?" asked Mrs. Bunker, who was not frightened, now that she knew her children were safe.

"Yes, we want to get up on the roof so we can turn a hose down the chimney," the fireman answered. "But we can't get up!"

"Why not?" asked Russ, who stood near his mother on the porch, while the yard and the street around the house were rapidly filling with people.

"Our ladder isn't long enough," the fireman answered. "We had a long ladder, but it is broken, and without it we can't get up on the roof to pull up a hose and squirt water down the chimney."

"But something must be done!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "The more the chimney fire burns, the hotter it will get, and it may set the whole house ablaze before long. Something must be done!"

"Yes'm," agreed the fireman. "We're trying to do something. We got two engines pumping, and the men are on the ground trying to shoot the water up in the air and let some of it fall down the chimney hole. But they aren't having very good luck. I came to see if you had a long ladder."

"Oh, a long ladder!" cried the mother of the six little Bunkers. "You had better ask Jerry Simms."

"If he's the old man running around with the garden hose, it won't do much good to ask him," said the fireman with a smile. "He is so excited he hardly knows what he is doing."

"Here comes Jerry now; ask him," suggested Mrs. Bunker again, while Norah stood holding to Mun Bun, Laddie, Margy and Violet—at least she was trying to hold them, though, every now and again, one of the children would break away and run to the front fence to watch the puffing engines.

"Have you a long ladder—one that will reach to the roof—so we can climb up and pull a hose to the chimney top?" asked the fireman, while the wind blew a swirl of black smoke around those on the porch.

"A long ladder? Oh, I don't know—I—oh, good land! I turned the water off instead of on," cried Jerry, as he looked at the nozzle of the garden hose which he had laid down on the porch. Not even a trickle was coming from it now.

"Never mind that! Get us a ladder!" cried the fireman. "Ours is broken, and if we don't douse this chimney pretty soon there'll be a bad blaze."

"What is it you want?" cried a man, making his way to the stoop through a crowd of people in the yard around the Bunker house. "What's the trouble? Why don't somebody get on the roof with a hose?"

"Because we have no ladder long enough to reach there!" the fireman answered. "If only somebody could climb up he might——"

"Get me a piece of clothesline, and I'll climb up!" cried the man, taking off his coat. And as Mrs. Bunker turned to look more closely at him she gave a cry of surprise.

"Oh, Captain Ben!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.

CHAPTER III

THE INVITATION

"Oh, ho! So you know me then, do you?" cried the man who had so suddenly and unexpectedly appeared and offered to climb to the roof of the house where the chimney was on fire.

"Yes, I know you by your picture," answered Mrs. Bunker. "But I never expected to see you so soon. Where did you come from?"

"No time to talk now—excuse me—got to hustle as I did in the army in France!" was the answer. "I'll tell you all about it later. Now, if you'll get me a clothesline, I'll climb to the roof and put out the chimney fire!"

"You can't put out a fire with a clothesline, can you?" asked Violet. "Don't you need a hose?"

"Yes, little girl. I don't know what your name is, but I'll find out later," said the man who had been called "Captain Ben" by Mrs. Bunker. "What I want the clothesline for is to carry it up to the roof with me. I can't take a hose, but I can tie the rope around my waist, climb up, and then the fireman can tie the end of the hose to the line. Then I can haul up the hose, the fireman can turn on the water, I'll squirt the water down the blazing chimney, and the fire will soon be out."

"Oh!" exclaimed Vi. She very seldom had such a long answer given to any of the questions she asked. "Oh," she said again.

"Where's a clothesline?" cried Captain Ben.

"I'll get you one," offered Norah, and she rushed around to the side yard, coming back in a few seconds with a long, trailing length of line she had cut from the posts. Meanwhile more and more black smoke was coming from the chimney, and some was drifting out of the attic window Russ had opened.

"Good! Thank you!" exclaimed Captain Ben.

"Do you think the house is catching fire?" asked Mrs. Bunker of the chief of the department, who came up on the porch just then.

"Not yet; but it may soon," he answered. "What are we going to do?" he went on. "We have no ladder to get to the roof, and——"

"This gentlemen is going to climb up to the roof for us," interrupted the fireman who had been talking to Mrs. Bunker. He pointed to Captain Ben, who was making some loops in the clothesline that Norah had brought him.

"How's he going to get to the top of the high roof of this house when we can't get up ourselves without long ladders?" asked the fire chief. "And our long ladder is broken. How are you going to get up, if I may ask?" he inquired of Captain Ben.

"You don't need to ask one of Uncle Sam's soldier-sailors a question like that," was the answer. "I was one of the marines in the late war, and doing hard things is just what the marines like. I'll show you how I'm going to get up to the roof without a ladder. Be ready to bend on the hose when I give the word."

"We'll be all ready," the fire chief promised. "I'm ashamed of our department for not being able to put out a simple chimney fire before this, but I didn't know our long ladder was broken. That makes all the trouble."

"The trouble will soon be over when I get up there!" declared the young soldier with a look at Russ, Rose, and the other little Bunkers. They all wondered who he was and how it was their mother knew him from having seen his picture. Not even Russ, the oldest, remembered any relative named Captain Ben.

"Now we're all ready!" exclaimed the former marine, as he had called himself. "We'll have this fire out in no time!"

He seemed to know just what to do, and even the fire chief was waiting for Captain Ben. With the clothesline tied around his shoulders in a knot that could quickly be loosed, the stranger ran to a large copper rain pipe fastened to the side of the house. Near the rain pipe, or leader, as it is called, was also a lightning rod, and there was a strong ivy vine growing and climbing up a wire trellis which was nailed on the wall of the house.

"Up I go!" cried Captain Ben, and in another moment he was going up the side of the house, climbing hand over hand by means of the lightning rod, the copper leader, and the vine. None of these, alone, would have been strong enough to have held him, but by using all three together the soldier-sailor managed to get up to the roof.

The roof of the Bunker house, where the blazing chimney came through, was a peaked one, though it was not of a very steep slant. Russ wondered how Captain Ben was going to climb this peak, which was like a hill, only covered with shingles. But the sailor had on low shoes with rubber soles, and these did not let him slip. Stooping down, and helping himself along with his hands when he reached the roof, Captain Ben made his way close to the chimney.

From it now could be seen coming flames and sparks as well as smoke, and it began to look as though the whole house might soon be ablaze.

"Fasten on the hose!" suddenly called Captain Ben.

On the ground below firemen made fast to the lower end of the clothesline the length of hose from which the water had been turned off.

"If their hose isn't enough I'll let 'em have mine," said Jerry Simms, who now had the water turned full on in the garden line. And he was so excited that, before he knew it, he had sent a shower of spray up on the porch.

"Mind what you're doing, Jerry!" called Norah. "Be easy now!"

"Oh, excuse me!" begged the old soldier. "I'm so excited I don't know at all what I'm doing!"

He turned the hose aside, but this time he sprayed the fire chief and one of his men. But as they had on rubber coats and rubber boots, as well as thick helmets, they did not mind the water in the least and only laughed.

By this time other firemen had fastened an empty line of hose to the end of the clothesline. The other end of the rope was held by Captain Ben on the roof of the Bunker home, and now he began hauling up.

"I have it!" he cried as he reached the nozzle, and took off the clothesline. "Wait until I get close to the chimney, and then turn on the water."

"All right!" the chief answered.

Captain Ben, in his rubber-soled shoes that did not slip on the shingle roof, crawled over until he was close to the blazing chimney. It was low enough for him to point the hose right down in it, and when he had done this he shouted:

"Turn on the water!"

"Turn on the water!" echoed the chief. The hose, that was almost like a big snake trying to climb up the side of the house of the six little Bunkers, straightened out and twisted as the water filled it, being pumped in by one of the engines.

Captain Ben directed the stream down the blazing chimney. There were puffs of steam, the white clouds of which mingled with the black smoke of the chimney, and the water poured down into the kitchen, spurting out of the range where the fire had been built. The water put out the fire in the stove, as well as the fire in the chimney, and made muddy puddles on Norah's kitchen floor. But this could not be helped. It was better to have a little water in the house than a lot of fire.

"How are you making out?" the chief called up to Captain Ben on the roof.

"Fine!" was the answer. "The fire is almost out!"

And it was all out a minute or two later. Then the water was shut off, so that the house would not be flooded, and Captain Ben dropped the hose from the roof down to the ground.

"Is he going to jump down, Mother?" asked Vi, who, with the others of the family, stood in the side yard, where they could all get a view of the roof on which stood Captain Ben.

"No, indeed, he will not jump down!" said Mrs. Bunker.

"I guess he'll climb down the same way he went up—like a monkey," said Laddie. "He's a good climber. Some day I'm going to climb up to the roof like Captain Ben did. But who is he, Mother? Is he what Uncle Fred is to us?"

"Not exactly," was the answer. "I'll tell you about Captain Ben a little later when there isn't so much excitement. He is coming down now, and I must thank him for what he did."

"I want to thank him, too," said the fire chief. "I'd never have thought of getting to the roof that way. But it's a good thing he did, or that chimney might be burning yet."

Captain Ben made his way down the vine, the lightning rod, and the copper pipe as he had gone up. Several in the crowd gathered about him, and many told him he had done just the right thing. But Captain Ben paid little attention to these strangers. He made his way to where Mrs. Bunker stood with the six little Bunkers gathered about her.

"I didn't expect my visit would have so much excitement connected with it," he said, with a smile, as he put on his coat. "But I arrived just about the same time as did the engines. I saw what the trouble was, and decided that was the best way to help."

"I am glad you did," remarked Mrs. Bunker. "Though I have not seen you for several years, I knew you at once by your picture, which I recently saw in the paper. You evidently got safely back from the war."

"Yes, I got nothing worse than a few scratches. But, unless I am much mistaken, here comes Mr. Bunker."

"Oh, here's Daddy!" cried Rose, as a very much excited man rushed up the front walk, pushing his way in among the throng that had been attracted by the alarm of fire.

"Are you all right? Is anyone hurt? How did it happen? Is the fire out?" asked Daddy Bunker, and, really, he asked almost as many questions as Violet would have done had she had the chance.

"Yes, we are all safe!" answered Mrs. Bunker. "No one hurt and very little damage done. But I have a surprise for you! Look!" and she stepped from in front of the marine who had put out the blazing chimney.

"Captain Ben!" cried Daddy Bunker. "Where in the world did you come from?"

"Just back from the war," was the answer, as Captain Ben shook hands with Daddy Bunker. "I'm going to take a long rest, and I came to bring an invitation to you—to you and the six little Bunkers," he went on, looking from one of the children to the other.

"An invitation!" cried Rose.

"Yes, and I do hope you will accept," said Captain Ben. "The summer is not quite over," he went on to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker, "and I'm sure these youngsters will be all the better for some more vacation. Let's go in, away from the crowd, and I'll explain about my invitation."

And each and every one of the six little Bunkers wondered what was going to happen.

CHAPTER IV

ANOTHER VACATION

Captain Ben, as both Daddy and Mother Bunker had called him, caught up in his arms Mun Bun and Margy. He was so big and strong that the children seemed feathers to him, and he easily held them both on one arm. Then he reached down his other hand and took the two hands of Laddie and Vi in his.

"Now come on!" cried Captain Ben, laughing. "I have four of the half dozen little Bunkers, and the other two can hang on my coat tails. Let's go in and have a nice talk and visit."

"Yes! Yes!" cried Mun Bun and Margy and Laddie and Violet.

"Where are we going and what are you going to tell us?" asked Vi, not forgetting, even in all the excitement about the fire, to ask her usual questions. "What are we going to do?"

"Oh, you'll find plenty to do—all six of you—if you come to my seashore place!" laughed Captain Ben. "That's what I came especially to talk about," he went on to Daddy and Mother Bunker. "I want to get out of my mind all thoughts of the great war, and if I can have this happy bunch of children around me it will be the best thing in the world. You'll let them come, and you'll come with them, won't you?" he asked, as he stood on the door sill.

"We just got back from Uncle Fred's!" answered Mr. Bunker. "I don't see how we can give the children another vacation so soon after they have just finished one. But I do want to have you pay us a long visit, Captain Ben. And we'll go in, as you say, and talk. But I must first make sure that the fire is out. Some one telephoned to me at the office that my house was burning up. I ran out, hailed the first man I saw in an auto, and he brought me here flying. I can't tell you how glad I was when I saw the house still standing."

"It isn't really harmed at all," said Captain Ben. "The chimney is used to having a fire in it, and all that happened in the kitchen is that a little water got spilled. Don't worry about the fire any more. Let's go in and talk. I want to get down to my place at the shore, and take you there with me."

Indeed there was no more danger from the fire. The crowd, seeing there was no further excitement, began to move away. The firemen coiled up their hose, and the engines and carts rumbled away. Norah shook her head dubiously as she saw the sloppy kitchen that she always kept so clean and bright, but Jerry Simms consoled her.

"I'll help you mop it up, Norah!" he kindly offered. "Water is easily gotten rid of—much more easily than fire. I'll help you clean up."

Norah was very thankful for this, and soon she and Jerry were busy setting things to rights in the kitchen while Daddy and Mother Bunker, with the children and Captain Ben, went into the sitting room. There was a smell of smoke all over, but no one minded this. Norah felt very bad, thinking that she might be blamed for the fire, since the chimney caught from the blaze she started in the kitchen range.

Mrs. Bunker realized this, and so she said:

"Don't worry, Norah. It would have happened to anyone. If I had started the fire the chimney would have caught just the same as it did when you started it."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," remarked Norah, as she and Jerry continued the cleaning-up work.

The excitement caused by the fire was over now, and a little later the Bunker family, including the half dozen children of course, and Captain Ben were sitting down and talking like old friends. In fact, they were all old friends except the new man who had climbed up on the roof to put out the fire.

"What makes you call him Captain Ben?" asked Vi, as she looked up at the stranger.

"Because he is Captain Ben," answered Mrs. Bunker. "And he is one of our relations, children!"

"My, what a lot of relations we have!" exclaimed Laddie. And when they all laughed he made haste to add: "But I like 'em all and I like you." He said this as he stood near the knees of Captain Ben.

"I'm glad you do," said the sailor-soldier. "And I hope we shall all become better acquainted and have good times together."

"Will you tell us about the war?" asked Rose. "Jerry Simms tells us lots of funny stories about the war he was in."

"This was a different war," said Captain Ben, "and I may be able to think of something funny about it. I'll try, anyhow. But now let's talk about going away. I want to get as far from the war as I can, and I think my place at the seashore will take my mind off it—especially if I can have you children with me."

"I'll have to see about that," said Daddy Bunker, with a smile. "But at least we can talk about it."

So they talked, and Mother Bunker told the children that Captain Ben was a distant relative of hers, whom she had not seen for a long time. But his picture had been printed in the paper as one of the heroes of the war, and though Mrs. Bunker had not seen him for some years, she knew him the moment he rushed up on the porch to help in putting out the fire.

"Is Captain Ben like Cousin Fred?" asked Russ, when the matter of relationship was being talked about.

"He is a sort of cousin," answered Mother Bunker, "but I think it will be better if we all call him Captain Ben."

"I am most used to hearing that," said the soldier. "That is what I was in the marine corps—a captain. And though I am discharged now, many of my friends still call me captain."

"I like a captain," said Rose. "I think it's ever so much nicer than a general or a major. They always sound like names of dogs; but a captain is nice."

"I am glad you think so!" laughed Captain Ben, and so he was called that by the children.

"But what's your last name?" asked Vi. You might have known she would find some question to ask, and she did.

"My last name is Barsey," was the answer of Captain Ben. "But I don't imagine you children will have much use for it. Just say Captain Ben and I'll know who you mean."

There was more talk and laughter, and the six little Bunkers began to feel very well acquainted with Captain Ben. At dinner he told something of how he had enlisted and fought in the war, but he did not dwell much on this, for he guessed, rightly, that Mr. and Mrs. Bunker did not want to have the children think too much about the terrible fighting that had taken place in France.

"And so, after I was discharged and was free to leave the army, I decided to take a long rest," said Captain Ben. "As you know, Cousin Amy," he said to Mrs. Bunker, "I have a very nice bungalow down on the Jersey coast at Grand View. It is all ready for me to go down there and spend the rest of the summer, and I want you all to come with me."

"Is there any more summer?" asked Laddie. "I thought we spent all the summer at Uncle Fred's."

"There is still some summer left," answered Captain Ben.

"That sounds funny!" laughed Laddie. "Some summer! Maybe I could make up a riddle about it."

"Do you like riddles?" asked Captain Ben.

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Vi's twin brother. "Do you know any?"

"I might think of one," the young marine replied. "Let me see. Can you tell me when a door is like a little mouse?"

"A door like a little mouse!" exclaimed Rose. "I never heard of such a thing. A door can't be like a mouse because it's too big—I mean the door is."

"Oh, yes it can!" said Laddie, quickly. "Things in riddles can be like anything they want to. Don't tell me, Captain Ben!" he begged. "Let me see if I can guess it myself!"

"It isn't very hard," the soldier-sailor said. "I just happened to think of it, and perhaps you won't call it a riddle at all. But when is a door like a mouse?"

"Is it when it sticks fast and won't open?" asked Rose.

"A mouse can't open and shut!" objected Russ.

"It can open and shut its mouth, and a door can open and shut," said Laddie, who seemed to know more about riddles than any of his brothers or sisters.

"Is that the answer?" inquired Russ, while Mun Bun and Margy stood silently looking at Captain Ben.

"No, that isn't the answer," replied the soldier from France. "I guess I'll tell you, for you've had enough excitement to-day. A door is like a mouse when it squeaks. The door's hinges squeak, you know, and the little mouse squeaks when he finds a piece of cheese."

"That's a good riddle!" declared Laddie. "I'm going to remember that, and ask Jerry Simms and Norah."

A little later supper was served, and at the table Captain Ben told more about his bungalow at Grand View.

"You have been to the seashore," he said to the six little Bunkers, "so there is no need to tell you how nice the ocean and the beach is to rest near. But Grand View is especially nice, because my bungalow is up on a high bluff and you can look away off across the water to a place called Sandy Hook."

"Do they catch fishes on Sandy Hook?" asked Rose, with a laugh.

"No, not exactly," answered Captain Ben. "Sandy Hook is a place——"

"We know, thank you," said Russ. "We passed near Sandy Hook when we went to Atlantic Highlands on our way to Cousin Tom's at Seaview."

"How did you like the seashore?" asked Captain Ben.

"Oh, we love it!" cried Rose, and all the other Bunkers echoed this. "Of course it was nice at Uncle Fred's ranch out West," Rose went on. "But the seashore is so nice and cool."

"Then I'll take you all there for another vacation!" said Captain Ben. "You don't need to unpack any more of your things," he went on to Daddy and Mother Bunker. "Just leave them as they are, load them in my auto, and we'll all go to my seaside bungalow at Grand View."

"Has you got a big auto?" asked Mun Bun, speaking for the first time in nearly half an hour.

"Yes, I have a great big machine," said Captain Ben. "I left it at a garage in town while I looked you folks up, as I was not sure where you lived. And you can guess how surprised I was to see a crowd of people in front of the house, to which the postman directed me, and to see fire and smoke coming out of the chimney."

"We were surprised, too," said Russ, as he started out on the porch to bring in the evening paper the boy had just tossed up. "We were playing steamboat in the attic, and a lot of smoke came out and——"

"Don't talk any more about it," begged Mother Bunker. "I don't want it to get on your minds, or you may not sleep. I shall never forget how frightened I was."

"All the more reason for the whole family coming and spending the rest of the season with me," urged Captain Ben. "It is still late summer, and the fall is really the best part of the year to be at the shore. You'll come, won't you?" he asked Mr. Bunker.

The father of the six little Bunkers shook his head.

"It is too near school time," he said. "The new term will open next week. That, really, is what made us come back from the ranch. I don't want the children, especially the two older ones, to miss any of their classes. No, Captain Ben, I am sure we're all much obliged to you for your kind invitation, but it will be impossible for us to go on account of school."

"Oh, dear!" sighed Rose, and looks of disappointment came over the faces of the other children when they heard this.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Captain Ben. "Losing a week or so of school will not matter. I have just set my heart on the six little Bunkers coming to my seashore bungalow."

Again Daddy Bunker shook his head. But, as the looks of sorrow deepened on the faces of Rose and the others, Russ came running in off the porch with the evening paper. He generally opened it and read the headings before delivering it to his father or mother.

"Oh, look! Look at this!" cried Russ as, holding the opened paper out in front of him, he hastened in where the others were. "I guess we can go to Captain Ben's after all! Look what's in the paper!"

CHAPTER V

THE MISSING WATCH

"What's the matter? Oh, let me see!" begged Rose, as Russ came in with a fluttering paper. "Are we going to have another school play?"

There had been one the previous winter, and Rose and Russ had taken part in it. Their pictures, as well as those of other young performers, were in the newspaper, and Russ and Rose were quite proud of this.

"No, it isn't another school play," Russ answered. "But there was an accident at our school, and now it can't open when it was going to. Oh, I'm glad! Now we don't have to go back to school and we can go to Captain Ben's bungalow at Grand View!"

"Let me see," requested Mr. Bunker, reaching out one hand for the paper, while with the other he sought for his glasses in his vest pocket.

"Yes, that's right," he said, after he had read the item on the front page, the sight of which had so excited Russ. "There has been an accident at Montgomery school, where our children go."

"An accident!" exclaimed Mother Bunker. "Was any one hurt?"

"No, it wasn't that sort of accident," her husband answered. "It was just a break in the water pipes and the boiler that heats the school in cold weather. Of course they will not need heat right away, but the boiler will have to be fixed, and it will take over a month. This article in the paper says that the opening of Montgomery school will be postponed for a month. That means our six little Bunkers will not have to go back to their classes as soon as we thought they would," he added.

"All the better for me!" cried Captain Ben. "Now I can take you all to Grand View in my auto. You won't have any objections now, will you?" he asked Mr. Bunker.

"No," answered the father of Russ and the other five children, "I don't see how I can object. As I told you, we came back from the West mainly on account of school, and if we had known in time that the Montgomery building was not to open we would have stayed at Uncle Fred's ranch."

"I'm glad you didn't," laughed Captain Ben. "For now I can have you visit me. I'll go right uptown and get my automobile, as I see you have a garage here. Then we'll all be ready to start for the seashore in the morning."

"Oh, my goodness! we can't go so soon as that," cried Mrs. Bunker.

"Why not?" asked the captain.

"I have to look over the children's clothes and see what they need for this second, unexpected vacation. We couldn't possibly get ready for to-morrow."

"Well, the next day, then," insisted Captain Ben. "I'll go and get my auto and have it all ready."

"No, we can't go the next day, either," Mrs. Bunker answered with a laugh. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I learned that in the army, I guess," remarked the soldier. "But how soon can you go?"

"In about a week, I think," was the answer, and with that Captain Ben must needs be content.

He arose to go after his automobile, which he had left in a public garage uptown, and Rose and Russ obtained permission to go with him and ride back. The other children also wanted to go, but it was a little too far for their short legs.

"Oh, say, this is a dandy big car!" exclaimed Russ, as he and his sister climbed into it for the ride back home.

"Glad you like it," said Captain Ben. "We'll need all the room there is to take six little Bunkers and all their baggage to the shore for a second vacation."

The next few days were busy ones in the Bunker home. Every one was so occupied, helping to unpack, pack and get ready, that Laddie had no time to ask Norah or Jerry Simms about the riddle of the mouse and the squeaking door. But he did not forget it, and he thought he might find some one at Captain Ben's place at the shore whom he might puzzle with the riddle.

The damage done by the chimney fire was soon cleared away and the chimney repaired, and the day after the newspaper contained an account of the happening. It interested the six little Bunkers almost as much as did the account of the accident to the Montgomery school.

On making some inquiries, Mr. Bunker found that what the paper had stated about the needed repairs at the school was true. No classes could start for more than a month after the date set for the regular opening of the other schools, and therefore the children could remain away without getting any black marks. There was no room for the pupils of Montgomery school in any of the other schools of Pineville.

As I have said, these were busy days at the Bunker home during the visit of Captain Ben, for he stayed at the Bunker residence until it was time to go to the seashore. Captain Ben helped pack, too, and he seemed to know just how to do it.

"This was another thing I learned when I was a marine," he said, as he showed Mrs. Bunker how to get more into a trunk than she had ever supposed it would hold.

Margy and Mun Bun, Laddie and Vi and Rose and Russ also helped pack, though, to tell you the truth, I do not believe that the four smallest children really did much helping. But they thought they did, and this gave them as much joy as if they had done it all themselves.

"Time to stop and eat!" exclaimed Captain Ben one noon, when several valises and trunks had been filled in readiness for the trip next day. "It's twelve o'clock," and he looked at a watch he wore on his wrist.

"Does your watch keep good time?" asked Violet.

"Yes, it is a very good watch," was the answer. "It was given to me by a French soldier who was hurt in the great war. I think a great deal of this watch, and I would not want to lose it. The man who gave it to me was in great danger, and I was able to help him out of it. He gave me this wrist watch as a keepsake. I prize it very much."

Though Captain Ben did not say so, he had really saved the life of the French soldier, venturing out on the battlefield and bringing in the wounded man.

The watch was an expensive gold one, set in a strong leather strap, which was buckled about Captain Ben's wrist. Wearing the watch there enabled the former soldier to see what time it was without stopping to fish in his pocket for his time piece.

As the watch had indicated, it was noon—twelve o'clock—and soon the six little Bunkers were sitting down to the table. They talked over their plans as they ate the meal.

Large as was Captain Ben's auto, it would hardly hold the eight Bunkers, himself and the baggage that first would be needed. So it was decided that Mother Bunker would go down to Grand View on the train, taking Mun Bun and Margy with her. That would leave Daddy Bunker, Captain Ben, Russ, Rose, Laddie and Vi to come in the soldier's big car. They would have room enough then for several valises.

The rest of the afternoon and part of the next morning was spent in packing, while Mrs. Bunker made arrangements for again shutting the house up, after having opened it on her return from the West.

"This year has been the longest vacation the children ever had," she remarked. "Goodness! it doesn't seem any time at all since we started for Uncle Fred's, and here we are starting off on another trip."

"I hope you will like my place," said Captain Ben, as he finished strapping a large valise. "I wish we might have started a little earlier to-day, but I think we shall get there before dark."

"I think I shall be there ahead of you, going as I am in the train with Margy and Mun Bun," said Mrs. Bunker.

"I am not so sure about that!" laughed Captain Ben. "My auto can travel very fast when I get started. But what time does your train go?"

"At ten o'clock," answered the children's mother. "How much time have I?"

Captain Ben thrust out his arm as he always did when he wanted to look at his wrist watch, and, as he glanced down, an appearance of surprise came over his face.

"Why, my watch is gone!" he exclaimed.

"Gone?" echoed Mrs. Bunker. "Did you take it off and put it down somewhere?"

"No, I haven't had it off to-day," was the answer. "I had it on just before I strapped that valise! It must have accidentally come off! I must find it! I wouldn't have that watch lost for anything!"

He began looking about the room.

"I'll call the children," offered Mrs. Bunker. "One of them may have seen it. Oh, Russ! Rose!" she called. "Come, children, and see if you can find Captain Ben's missing watch."

CHAPTER VI

OFF TO GRAND VIEW

The six little Bunkers, who had been scurrying around all over the house, helping, or at least thinking they were helping, to get ready for the trip, gathered in the big living room at the sound of their mother's voice.