Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's Part 18

"That's too bad," said Mr. Bunker. "Aunt Jo might do something for her.

But perhaps the girl doesn't like to ask. Anyhow, I'm glad you're not lost any longer. Come along to lunch now."

So that's how Vi was lost and found. And she was soon eating lunch with the other little Bunkers and telling them what had happened.

"What can we do this afternoon to have fun?" asked Russ, as he got up from the table.

"Let's see if we can't make a better harness for Alexis, and have him pull us in the express wagon," suggested Laddie. "I found some strong rope that we can tie on him."

"All right, we'll do that," agreed Russ. "That'll be fun."

"Will you give me a ride?" asked Mun Bun. "I'll help you make the harness if you will."

"Yes, we'll give you a ride," said Russ, "but I guess we can make the harness ourselves. Come on, Laddie."

"I'm going to play with my doll," said Margy. "My rubber doll is all dirty and I'm going to wash her."

"Well, don't turn the hose on her, as Russ and Laddie did to William,"

laughed Aunt Jo. "Just wash your doll in a basin of water, Margy dear."

"Yes, I'll do that, Aunt Jo," answered the little girl.

"I'm going to make a new dress for my big best doll Sue," announced Rose. "I haven't got my little Lily to love now, so I'll make Sue look nice. You didn't find my doll that went up in the airs.h.i.+p, did you, Daddy?" she asked.

"No," answered Mr. Bunker. "And I don't believe I ever shall."

"And we haven't heard who lost that pocketbook with the sixty-five dollars in it," said Mrs. Bunker. "It is very strange no one claims the money."

"Yes," said Aunt Jo, "it is. But some day we may find out who owns it.

Though if we don't by the time you folks are ready to go home, it will belong to Rose, for she found it."

"And then I can buy a new doll," said the little girl.

So, while Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun went to the garage to try to make another harness for Alexis, Rose and Margy played with their dolls.

Violet said she was tired from having walked around so much when she was lost, though I think it was because she had cried, so her mother put her to bed for a short nap. Then Daddy Bunker went downtown and Aunt Jo and Mrs. Bunker sat on the porch sewing.

It was about half an hour after Margy and Rose had begun to play with their dolls, Margy was.h.i.+ng her rubber one in a basin of water, that something happened. Margy got up from the side porch where she was sitting with Rose, and said:

"I'm going to dry her now."

"Dry who?" asked Rose.

"My rubber doll," answered Margy. "She's all wet and I'm going to take her down in the laundry where Parker is, and put my doll by the fire to dry."

"All right," answered Rose, "don't burn yourself."

"I won't," said Margy, as she went toward the laundry, which was in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Aunt Jo's big house.

A little while after this Parker, on going into the kitchen over the laundry, heard a voice crying:

"Oh, I can't get out! I can't get out! I'm stuck in and I can't get out."

"For land sakes! Who are you, and what has happened?" cried the frightened cook. "It's one of the six little Bunkers, I know," she went on, "but what happened?"

"Oh, I went to take a ride," said Margy, "and now I can't get out! Oh, dear!"

And her voice seemed to come from afar.

CHAPTER XIII

MUN BUN DRIVES AWAY

Parker was a good cook, but she did not know much about children. She liked them though, and was kind to them. So when she heard Margy's voice calling, she could not imagine what had happened, nor did she know what to do.

If it had been Mrs. Bunker, or even Daddy Bunker, they would have at once found out what the matter was. But then they were used to things happening to children.

"Oh, where are you?" cried Parker, as Margy kept on screaming.

"I don't know what you call it, but I'm in it," said the little girl, in that queer, faraway voice.

"But where is it?" asked Parker, for, somehow, the voice seemed to come from somewhere between the laundry and the kitchen.

"It's that thing you pull up and down with soap and starch and clothes on," said Margy. "I got in it to have a ride, but my leg is stuck and I can't get out and, oh, dear! I want my mother!"

"Yes, and I guess I want her, too!" exclaimed Parker. "Oh, my! This is worse than having the chimney on fire. I'll go and call your mother, child," she went on, "for I can't see a blessed hair of your head.

Though you must be somewhere around, and maybe hiding to fool me."

"Oh, no, I'm not hiding," answered Margy, who, it seems, could hear Parker very well. "I'm in the pull-up-and-let-down-thing, and I want to get out!"

But Parker did not stay to listen. She ran out to the side porch, where Aunt Jo and Mrs. Bunker were sewing, and cried:

"Oh, come quick! The poor child's caught and can't get out and I can't see her!"

"Where is she? What happened?" asked Aunt Jo and Mrs. Bunker.

"She's somewhere between the laundry and the kitchen," said the maid. "I can't see her, though I can hear her and----"

Mrs. Bunker and her sister-in-law did not stop to listen to any more. To the kitchen they hurried, and there they, too, heard the voice of Margy crying:

"Take me out! Take me out! I'm in the puller-up-and-down-thing!"

Aunt Jo knew right away what Margy meant.

"She must be stuck in the dumbwaiter--that we pull up and down between the kitchen and the laundry," she said. "Are you there, Margy?" she asked as she opened a door in the side wall of the kitchen.

And then, up the shaft, came the voice of the little girl: