CHAPTER XIII
THE RED-HAIRED MAN
For a moment or so no one seemed to know what answer to make to Laddie. Hestood there, all out of breath, looking at his father and mother andGrandma Bell, who were sitting on the side porch.
"What--what did you say?" asked Mr. Bunker.
"It's Russ," Laddie answered. "He's going and he can't stop! I tried tomake him, and he tried himself, but he can't stop, and he's running likeanything!"
"What in the world does he mean?" asked Mother Bunker.
"Tell me about it!" said Grandma Bell.
"It's out in the barn," explained Laddie. "Russ got on something, and hecan't stop running!"
"Maybe he's in a trap!" exclaimed Laddie's mother.
"If he was in a trap he couldn't run," said her husband. "I'll go out andsee what it is."
The other little Bunkers were still playing with Muffin, the big gray cat,as Mr. and Mrs. Bunker and Grandma Bell hurried out to the barn.
As they drew near it they heard a voice shouting:
"Oh, make it stop! Make it stop going! I'm so tired! My legs are sotired!"
At the same time a low rumbling could be heard, like that of very distantthunder.
"Oh, what is it?" gasped Mother Bunker. "Oh, Russ, what have you donenow?"
But a moment later they were all relieved to see Tom, the hired man, cometo the door of the barn, leading Russ by the hand. The boy lookedfrightened, but not hurt.
"What was it?" asked his father.
"I got to going and I couldn't stop," explained Russ, who was breathingalmost as hard as Laddie had done after his run.
"What did you get to going on, and why couldn't you stop?" his motherwanted to know.
"Oh, it was a--a sort of wooden hill," explained Russ. "I was running onit and----"
"What does he mean--a _wooden hill_ in the barn?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"It was the treadmill," explained Thomas Hardy. "I was in another part ofthe barn, and I guess Russ must have wandered upstairs, where we keep theold treadmill they used for the threshing machine and churn. He started towalk on the wooden roller platform, and it moved from under him. He had tokeep running so he wouldn't slip down. That's what he meant when he saidhe couldn't stop."
"That was it," explained Russ. "I saw a funny machine upstairs in thebarn, and I got on it. I didn't know it would move."
"Well, you couldn't get hurt on it, that's one good thing," said GrandmaBell. "At the same time it's better not to get on queer machines, or playwith things you don't know about, Russ. The next time you might be hurt."
"I'll be careful," promised the little boy.
"What is the treadmill?" asked Vi, who had come out to the barn to seewhat all the excitement was about.
"It's a sort of engine," Grandma Bell explained. "You see out here, yearsago, when Grandpa Bell ran the farm, we didn't have gasoline engines suchas are now used in automobiles and for pumps and other farm work. So wehad to use a sort of engine that one or two horses could make go. It wascalled a treadmill, and some were made so that even dogs, trotting on amoving wooden platform, could work a churn. We used to have one of those,but the one Russ got on was a treadmill for one horse."
"I saw it," said Laddie. "Russ wanted me to get on, but I wouldn't. He didand then he couldn't stop. He couldn't stop running!"
"That's right!" exclaimed Russ. He could laugh now, as he remembered whathad happened. "Then I told Laddie to run and get somebody to help me," headded.
"I ran, but I didn't run on that funny machine," Laddie said. "And maybe Ican think up a riddle about it, after a while."
By this time the rest of the little Bunkers had come out to the barn and,led by Tom, they went upstairs to see the treadmill. It was a bigmachine, with wheels and rollers; and a wooden platform, made of crosssticks, so the feet of the horse would not slip, was what Russ had run on.As he walked up a "wooden hill," as he called it, the slats moved fromunder his feet, for this is what they were meant to do when the horseshould walk on them. And this moving platform of wood spun a wheel around,which, in its turn, would work a churn, a machine for threshing wheat orrye or do other work on the farm.
"But we haven't used the treadmill for years," said Grandma Bell. "Iforgot about its being in the barn. Well, I'm glad no one was hurt. But becareful after this."
"I'd like to see it work," remarked Rose, so Tom Hardy got on the woodenplatform and walked up the little hill it made. Then came the rumblingsound, and the faster Tom walked the faster the treadmill went around.
The weather was warm, it being early in July, soon after the Fourth, and amore delightful time of year would be hard to find during which to spenda vacation in the woods on the shore of Lake Sagatook.
"May we go down and paddle in the water?" asked Russ of his mother, afterhe and the other little Bunkers had wandered out to the barn and had seenZip, the dog, and Muffin, the cat. "Mayn't we go down and wade in thelake?"
"Do you think it will be safe?" asked Mrs. Bunker of her husband.
"Well, I'll go down there and have a look," he said. "If we are to stayhere for a month or so the children will have to get used to playing nearthe water. If it's safe we'll feel we won't have to be with them all thewhile."
"I think it will be safe if they keep near the shore out on the littlepoint of land that extends into the lake," said Grandma Bell. "There is asandy beach there, and the water is not deep. Let the children play there.You can see them from the house; so, if we look out every now and then,we'll be sure they are all right."
"Very well," said Daddy Bunker. "We'll first have a look at the lake."
"Oh, goody!" cried Russ.
"Now we can have a lot of fun and sail boats!" added Laddie. "We can havea whole lot of fun."
"I'll take my doll down and give her a bath," said Rose.
"Oh, won't water spoil your doll, my dear?" asked Grandma Bell.
"I don't mean my big one, that the lady took for her baby," explained thelittle girl. "I mean my small rubber doll."
"Oh! Well, I guess it will be all right to bathe her in the lake," saidGrandma Bell with a laugh.
Daddy Bunker found that the sandy point, which Grandma Bell told about,was a very nice and safe place for the children to play. So, dressed intheir old clothes which water and sand would not soil, they all troopeddown to Lake Sagatook, and there, in the shade of the big woods, theybegan to have fun.
Russ and Laddie made little boats and set them adrift in the blue water.Rose and Vi played with their dolls, for they had each brought two orthree of them. Mun Bun and Margy dug in the sand with sticks which theypicked up on the shore of the lake.
"It's almost like the seashore," said Rose, when she came back from havinggiven her rubber doll a dip in the lake, "only the water doesn't tastesalty like when you cry tears."
"I like it here," said Vi. "I wish we could stay always."
The children were having lots of fun when, in the midst of their play,they heard the sound of water being splashed and the noise made by theoars of a boat. Looking up, they saw a rowboat not far from shore, and init sat a big man.
And, at the sight of this man, Russ dropped the chip he was floatingabout, pretending it was a submarine, and, in a whisper, said:
"Hi, Laddie! do you see his hair?"
"Yes--it's red," returned Laddie.
"Well, maybe that's the tramp lumberman that took daddy's old coat andreal estate papers," went on Russ. "He had red hair! Maybe this is thesame one! Oh, Laddie! If it should be!"