CHAPTER VIII
RUSS MAKES A FOUNTAIN
The six little Bunkers, as well as their father and mother, waited whileAunt Jo went to answer the telephone, which kept on ringing as though ina hurry. Vi had asked "Who's ringing?" but of course nobody could tellher until Aunt Jo answered the call.
"Yes! What is it?" asked Aunt Jo into the mouthpiece of the instrument,which stood on a table in the sitting-room. "Oh, it's you, is it, Mr.North?" she went on. "What's that? Did we lose anything? No, not that Iknow of. One of my little guests _found_ something, but I haven't heardof anything being lost. Wait a minute, though, until I count noses. I'llsee if all the six little Bunkers are here. I might have missed one andnot know it."
Laughing, Aunt Jo turned from the telephone to look at the children.They were all there, from Russ the oldest to Mun Bun the youngest. ThenAunt Jo spoke again into the instrument.
"No, we haven't lost anything," she said. "Oh, you'll bring it over,will you, Mr. North? Thank you!"
"Was it something about the pocketbook?" asked Rose eagerly.
"No, it was nothing like that," answered her aunt. "The gentleman whotelephoned was Mr. North, my next-door neighbor. He says he hassomething belonging to one of you children, and he is going to bring itright over. Did any of you leave out any of your toys when you wereplaying in the yard?"
"I didn't," said Russ, and none of his brothers or sisters could thinkof anything of theirs that was missing. In a few minutes the door bellrang, and when this was answered, Mr. North brought in what seemed to bea bundle of rags.
"Your dog Alexis brought this over and left it on my door mat," he saidto Aunt Jo.
"Oh, it's my doll Sue!" cried Rose, as she ran forward to take it. "Iforgot all about her. I left her to sleep on the porch in the sun soshe would get nice and tanned, as I do when I go to the seashore, andthen I went downtown with mother and I forgot all about her."
"Well, I'm glad to bring her back to you," said Mr. North with a smile."I guess I must have been holding her upside down," and so he had. Thatwas what made Sue look so like a bundle of rags. Really she was a nicedoll when she was held right side up.
"It's queer Alexis brought her to your house, instead of in here to me,"said Aunt Jo.
"Oh, Alexis and I are great friends," said Mr. North. "He often bringsme my paper when the boy leaves it at the front gate instead of walkingup to the porch with it, and perhaps your dog might have thought thiswas a paper, though a very large one," and Mr. North smiled at Rose.
Mr. North had been introduced to the six little Bunkers, and also toDaddy and Mother Bunker, when he entered, and he stayed some littletime, talking with them, for he liked children, though all his weregrown into big boys and girls now.
"I found a pocketbook," said Rose, when she had got over her first bitof shyness sufficiently to talk to the visitor.
"Did you, indeed? Well, you are lucky!" said Mr. North. Then he was toldabout the sixty-five dollars, and shown the sad letter in thepocketbook.
"We are going to put an advertisement in the paper," said Aunt Jo. "Andif you hear of any poor woman who has lost this sum of money, or readabout any in the paper, I wish you would tell us."
"I will," promised Mr. North. "Well, Rose, you have had quite anexperience almost as soon as you come to Boston. What are you childrengoing to do the rest of your stay here?"
"I'm afraid I won't know how to provide fun for so many of them," saidAunt Jo. "I want them to have a good time, and remember their visitpleasantly, but I have no toys for girls and boys----"
"That's just what I was going to speak about," said Mr. North. "There isan express wagon in my barn, and an old velocipede, as well as acoaster wagon. They used to belong to my youngsters, but they haveoutgrown them. If the six little Bunkers would like to play with thosetoys they are very welcome."
"That will be splendid!" cried Aunt Jo. "I was just wondering what Icould do to amuse Russ and the others, for I haven't any things thatchildren like, and we can't go on sight-seeing trips or excursions allthe while, though we will go on some. The toys you have, Mr. North, willbe just the thing."
And indeed they did prove so. The next day Russ and his brothers andsisters went over to Mr. North's barn. It was an old-fashioned one, thekind horses and carriages used to be kept in before there wereautomobiles. Mr. North also had a garage for his cars, but the old barnstood far back in his yard, which was a large one next to Aunt Jo's, andin it were the velocipede, the express wagon, a coaster wagon and otherthings with which to have fun.
"Oh, we can have jolly good times now!" cried Russ.
"And I can give my doll a ride, after Alexis carried her in his teeth,"put in Rose.
"Can't we have rides, too?" asked Vi.
"'Course you can," answered Russ. "I'll give you a nice ride."
And then, while Aunt Jo and Mother Bunker went to a Red Cross meetingand while Daddy Bunker went downtown to put an advertisement in thepaper about the pocketbook Rose had found, the children played aroundMr. North's barn and Aunt Jo's yard.
"Will it be all right to leave them while we go out?" asked Aunt Jo ofMrs. Bunker.
"Oh, yes, as long as your man, William, and your cook, Parker, and yourhousemaid, Anne, are around to sort of look after them. I often leavethem with our Norah and Jerry Simms."
So the six little Bunkers were left to themselves. And you can easilyimagine that they had all sorts of good times. There was a stone walkaround Aunt Jo's house, as well as around Mr. North's, and there Russand his brothers and sisters rode in the express wagon, on thevelocipede and on the coaster. They laughed and shouted, and every nowand then there would be an upset, but no one was hurt and they allseemed to like it.
Now and then Parker or William or Anne would come out from the house orthe garage to look and see that the six little Bunkers were coming to noharm, and when they found the children were all right they smiled, forit was fun to watch them play.
"I know what we can do," said Russ to Laddie, after they had taken turnsriding on the velocipede and coaster. Just at this time Margy and MunBun had the coaster and were playing steam-car with it.
"What can we do?" asked Laddie, always ready to have fun with his olderbrother.
"We can make a harness for Alexis, and hitch him to the express wagon,"went on Russ.
"Oh, that'll be lots of fun!" cried Laddie. "But what'll we make aharness of? Aunt Jo hasn't any horses and Mr. North hasn't either."
"We can make it of string," said Russ. "It doesn't need to be verystrong, for we aren't very heavy to pull."
So Russ and Laddie begged pieces of string from Parker, not telling whatthey were going to make.
"If it's a cat's cradle you have cord enough for a dozen," said thegood-natured cook, as she handed out the pieces of string she had savedfrom the grocery packages.
"No, we're not going to make cats' cradles," answered Russ. "You can seeit when we get finished."
It was no very hard matter to catch Alexis and fasten a lot of pieces ofstring around him, as nearly like a harness as the two little boys couldmanage. The dog loved children, and asked nothing better than to be withthem. So he stood very still, just hanging his tongue out of his mouth,as the day was hot, while Laddie and Russ tied the cord around him. Thenthey fastened the ends to the express wagon, tying a number of knots.
"We've got to have lines to drive him with," said Laddie. "Else we can'tguide him the way we want him to go."
"Yes, I'll make some lines," said Russ. He tied two strings around theneck of Alexis, one for the left-hand side and the other for the right.
"I can't put a bit in his mouth, as I could if he was a horse," saidRuss, "'cause Alexis holds his mouth open so much, to cool off histongue, that the bit would fall out."
"That's right," said Laddie. "Anyhow, we don't want a bit. Now can wehave a ride?"
"I guess so," said Russ.
There was quite a collection of strings tied around Alexis and made fastto the little express wagon.
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nbsp; "We'll get in now," said Russ, when he had the cord reins in his hands,"and we'll drive around the walk where Rose and Vi are playing withtheir dolls," for the two girls were having a party, with cookies andsugar water, which had been given to them by Parker.
Into the wagon got Russ and Laddie. Alexis, harnessed to the littlewagon, turned his head to look at them, as if to make sure they were allright.
"Gid-dap!" called Russ, as he would to a horse.
"Bow-wow!" barked the dog, meaning, perhaps: "I will!"
Then he started to walk off.
Now, when I tell you that Alexis was a big, strong dog, and that Laddieand Russ in the express wagon made quite a heavy load, and when I saythat the string harness was not very strong, you can easily imagine whathappened. Alexis had not taken more than two steps before----
Snap! went the string harness, and it broke in several places.
"Whoa! Whoa!" called Russ. "Whoa there, Alexis!"
But Alexis never "whoaed" a bit. He kept on walking, and he walked rightoff with the bits of the string harness clinging to him, leaving theexpress wagon with the two little boys in it on the walk at the side ofthe house.
"Come on back and give us a ride!" called Laddie.
"I guess we'll have to make a stronger harness," said Russ with a laugh.
"I guess so, too," agreed Laddie.
Anyhow, Alexis didn't come back. Just outside Aunt Jo's fence he sawanother dog which he knew, and he ran up to have a "talk" with him, inbow-wow language, of course.
"Well, we didn't get a ride," said Laddie.
"No," agreed Russ, "we didn't. But I know what else we can do."
"What?" asked Laddie.
Russ did not answer for a moment. He was looking at a shovel lying inthe back part of the yard, where William had been spading for a lateflower bed. Then Russ saw the hose with which the man had been washingthe automobile.
"We can make a fountain, Laddie!" exclaimed Russ.
"A fountain! How?"
"Come on, I'll show you!" said Russ.
Then he and his brother began to make a fountain. And I suppose youwonder how they did it.