Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack\'s
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack\'sSIX LITTLE BUNKERS
AT COWBOY JACK'S
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S,"
"SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S" "THE BOBBSEY
TWINS SERIES," "THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES," "THE
OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
BOOKS
By LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
* * * * *
=THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES=
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COWBOY JACK'S
* * * * *
=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES=
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
* * * * *
=THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES=
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR SHETLAND PONY
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A SHOW
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRISTMAS TREE COVE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE SUNNY SOUTH
* * * * *
=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=
(Eleven titles)
=GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK=
Copyright, 1921, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
* * * * *
Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's
[Illustration: BLACK BEAR CAME TOWARD THE CHILDREN.
_Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's._ _Frontispiece_--(_Page 160_)]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. "A THUNDER STROKE" 1
II. VERY EXCITING NEWS 9
III. THE SILVER LINING 18
IV. WHAT WAS STUCK IN THE MUD? 31
V. GOOD-BYE TO GRAND VIEW 39
VI. THE COAL STRIKE 48
VII. THE SOUP JUGGLER 57
VIII. AN ALARM AND A HOLD-UP 68
IX. THE BIG ROCK THAT FELL DOWN 78
X. WHERE ARE THE TWINS? 87
XI. THE MAN WITH THE EARRINGS 97
XII. CAVALLO AT LAST 104
XIII. A SURPRISE COMING 114
XIV. AN INDIAN RAID 126
XV. A PROFOUND MYSTERY 138
XVI. MUN BUN TAKES A NAP 145
XVII. IN CHIEF BLACK BEAR'S WIGWAM 157
XVIII. THE NEW PONIES 167
XIX. RUSS BUNKER GUESSES RIGHT 177
XX. PINKY GOES HOME 185
XXI. THE LAME COYOTE 195
XXII. A PICNIC 207
XXIII. MOVING PICTURE MAGIC 215
XXIV. MUN BUN IN TROUBLE 226
XXV. SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT EXPECTED 235
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS
AT COWBOY JACK'S
CHAPTER I
"A THUNDER STROKE"
"Whew!" said Russ Bunker, looking out into the driving rain.
"Whew!" repeated Rose, standing beside him.
"Whew!" said Vi, and "Whew!" echoed Laddie, while Margy added "Whew!"
"W'ew!" lisped Mun Bun last of all, standing on tiptoe to see over the
high windowsill. Mun Bun could not quite say the letter "h"; that is why
he said "W'ew!"
Such a September rain the six little Bunkers had never seen before, for
the very good reason that they had never before been at the seashore
during what Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben called "the September equinox."
"That is an awful funny word, anyway," Rose Bunker said.
"What's funny?" Violet asked.
"Can I make a riddle out of it?" added Laddie.
"It is a riddle," replied Rose, quite confidently. "For 'equinox' is
just a rain and wind storm."
"That isn't a riddle," said Laddie promptly. "That's the answer to a
riddle."
And perhaps it was, even if Rose had the equinox and the equinoctial
storms a little mixed in her mind. At any rate, this was a most
surprising storm to all the little Bunkers--the wind blew so hard, the
rain came in such big gusts, flattening the white-capped waves which
they could see, both from Captain Ben's bungalow and from this old house
to which they had come to play. And now, as all six peered out of the
attic window of the old house, there was an unexpected flash of
lightning, followed by a grumble of thunder.
"Oh! just like a bad, bad dog," gasped Vi, not a little frightened by
the noise. "I--I am afraid of thunder."
"I'm not," declared Laddie, her twin.
But perhaps, because he was a boy, he thought he must claim more courage
than he really felt. At any rate, he winced a little, too, and drew
back from the window.
"Maybe we'd better go back to Captain Ben's house--and mother,"
suggested Margy in a wee small voice.
"W'ew!" lisped Mun Bun, the littlest Bunker, once more, but quite as
bravely as before. Like Laddie (whose name really was Fillmore), Mun Bun
wished to claim all the courage a boy should show.
"I guess we can't go back while it rains like this," said Russ, the
oldest of the six.
"And Captain Ben thought it would maybe clear up and not rain any more,
so we came," announced Rose. "Oh! There goes another thunder stroke."
The rumble of thunder seemed nearer.
"I guess," Russ said soberly, "that Norah or Jerry Simms would call this
the clearing-up shower."
"But Norah and Jerry Simms aren't here," Vi reminded him. "Are they?"
"That doesn't make any difference. It can be the clearing-up shower of
this equinox, just the same."
"Can it?" asked Vi.
She was always asking questions, and she asked so many that it was quite
impossible to answer them all, so, for the most part, nobody tried to
answer her. And this was one of the times when nobody answered Vi.
"We'd better keep on playing," Rose said, very sensibly. "Then we won't
bother 'bout the thunder strokes."
"It is lightning," objected Russ. "I don't mind the thunder. Thunder is
only a noise."
"I don't care," said Rose, "it's the thunder that scares you---- Oh!
Hear it?"
"Does the thunder hit you?" asked Vi.
"Why, nothing is going to hit us," Russ replied bravely, realizing that
he must soothe any fears felt by his younger brothers and sisters. Russ
was nine, and Daddy Bunker and mother expected him to set a good example
to Rose and Laddie and Violet and Margy and Munroe Ford Bunker, who,
when he was very little, had named himself "Mun Bun."
"Just the same," whispered Rose in a very small voice, and in Russ's
ear, "I wish we hadn't come over from Captain Ben's bungalow this
morning when it looked like the rain had all stopped."
"Pooh!" said Russ, still bravely, "it thunders over there just as it
does here, Rose Bunker."
Of course that was so, and Rose knew it. But nothing seemed quite so bad
when daddy and mother were close at hand.
"Let's play again," she said, with a little sigh.
"What'll we play?" asked Violet. "Haven't we played everything there
is?"
"I s'pose we have--some time or other," Rose admitted.
"No, we haven't," interposed Russ, who was of an inventive mind. "There
are always new plays to make up."
"Just like making up riddles," agreed Laddie. "I guess I could make up a
riddle about this old storm--if only the thunder wouldn't make so much
noise. I can't think riddles when it thunders."
The thunder seemed to shake the house. The rain dashed against the
windows harder than ever. And there were places in the roof of this
attic where the water began to trickle through and drop upon the floor.
"Oh!" cried Mun Bun, on whose head a drop fell. "It's leaking! I don't
like a leaky house. Let's go home, Rose."
"Do you want to go home to Pineville, Mun Bun?" shouted Russ, for he
could not make his voice heard by the others just then without shouting.
"Well, no. But I'd rather be at that other house where mother is--and
daddy," proclaimed the smallest boy when the noise of the thunder had
again passed.
"I tell you," said Russ soberly, "we'd better go downstairs and play
something till the thunder stops."
"What shall we play?" asked Vi again.
"I'll build an automobile and take you all to ride," said the oldest boy
confidently.
"Oh, Russ! You can't!" gasped Rose.
"A real automobile like the one that we rode down here in from
Pineville?" asked Laddie, opening his eyes very wide.
"Well, no--not just like that," admitted Russ. "But we'll have some fun
with it and we won't bother about the thunder."
Rose looked a bit doubtful over that statement. But she knew it was her
duty to help the younger children forget their fears. She started down
the steep stairs behind Russ. Laddie and Margy came next, while Vi was
helping short-legged little Mun Bun to reach the stairway.
And it was just then that the very awful "thunder stroke" came. It
seemed to burst right over the roof, and the flash of lightning that
came with it almost blinded the children. There was even a smell of
sulphur--just like matches. Only it was a bigger smell than any sulphur
match could make.
The children's cries were drowned by the crash outside. The lightning
had struck a big old tree that overhung the house. The tree trunk was
splintered right down from the top, and before the sound of the thunder
died away the broken-off part of that tree fell right across the roof.
How the old house shook! Such a ripping and tearing of shingles as there
was! Rose could not stifle her shriek. She and Margy and Laddie came
tumbling down the rest of the stairs behind Russ.
"Where's Vi and Mun Bun?" demanded the oldest of the six little Bunkers,
staring up the dust-filled stairway.
"Oh! Oh! Help me up!" shrieked Vi from the attic.
"Help me!" cried Mun Bun, very much frightened too. "Somebody is holding
me down."
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Rose, wringing her hands and looking at
Russ. "That old roof has fallen in and Vi and Mun Bun are caught under
it!"
CHAPTER II
VERY EXCITING NEWS
The old house was still groaning and shaking under the impact of the
lightning-smitten tree. It seemed, indeed, as though the whole roof was
broken in and that gradually the house must be flattened down into the
cellar. Dust and bits of broken wood and plaster were showering down the
open stairway.
Although the house might be falling, Russ felt he had to go up those
stairs to the aid of the shrieking Vi and Mun Bun. They were both caught
under some of the fallen rubbish, and it was Russ Bunker's duty, if
nothing more, to aid the younger children.
Russ did not often shirk his duty. Being the oldest of the six Bunker
children, he felt his responsibility more than other boys of his age
might have done. Anyway, when the others needed help, Russ's first
thought was to aid. He was that kind of boy, as all the readers of this
series of stories know very well.
Almost always Russ Bunker was not far from a set of carpenter's tools,
of which he was very proud, or from other means of "making things." His
brothers and sisters thought him quite wonderful when it came to
planning new means of amusement and building such things as play
automobiles and boats and steam-car trains. It was quite impossible for
Russ now, however, to think up any invention that would help his small
sister and brother out of their trouble in the attic of the old house.
He was quite helpless.
Nine-year-old Russ Bunker was an inventive, cheerful lad, almost always
with a merry whistle on his lips, and quite faithful to the trust his
parents imposed in him regarding the well-being of his younger brothers
and sisters.
With Rose, who was a year younger than Russ, the boy really took much of
the care in the daytime of the other little Bunkers. The older ones
really had to do this--or else there would have been no fun for any of
them. You see, if the older children in a family will not care for the
younger, and cheerfully look after them, there can never be so much
freedom and fun to enjoy as these six little Bunkers had.
Rose was a particularly helpful little girl, and, being eight years old
now, she could assist Mother Bunker a good deal; and she took pride in
so doing. That she was afraid of "thunder strokes" must not be counted
against her. Ordinarily she made the best of everything and was of a
sunny nature.
The twins, Violet and Fillmore, came next in the group of little
Bunkers. These two had their own individual natures and could never be
overlooked for long in any party. Violet was much given to asking
questions, and she asked so many and steadily that scarcely anybody
troubled to answer her. Her twin, called Laddie by all, had early made
up his mind that the greatest fun in the world was asking and answering
riddles.
Margy's real name was Margaret, and, as we have seen, Mun Bun had named
himself (just for ordinary purposes) when he was very small. Not that he
was very large now, but he could make a tremendous amount of noise when
he was--or thought he was--hurt, as he was doing on this very occasion
when he and Vi were caught by the crushing-in of the house roof.
After we got acquainted with the Bunker family at home in Pineville,
Pennsylvania, they all started on a most wonderful vacation which took
them first to the children's mother's mother's house. So, you see,
_that_ story is called "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's."
From that lovely place in Maine the six little Bunkers went to their
Aunt Jo's, then to Cousin Tom's, afterward to Grandpa Ford's, then to
Uncle Fred's. They had no more than arrived home at Pineville after
their fifth series of adventures, than Captain Ben, a distant relative
of Mother Bunker's, and recently in the war, came along and took the
whole Bunker family down with him to his bungalow at the seashore, the
name of that sixth story of the series being "Six Little Bunkers at
Captain Ben's."
And the six certainly had had a fine time at Grand View, as the seashore
place was called, until this very September day when an equinoctial
storm had been blowing for twenty-four hours or more and the
lightning-struck tree had fallen upon the roof of the old house in
which the six little Bunkers were playing.
But now none of the little Bunkers thought it so much fun--no, indeed!
At the rate Vi and Mun Bun were screaming, the accident which held them
prisoners in the attic of the old house seemed to threaten dire
destruction.
Russ Bunker, when he had recovered his own breath, charged up the
dust-filled stairway and reached the attic in a few bounds. But the
floor boards were broken at the head of the stairs, and almost the first
thing that happened to him when he got up there into the dust and the
darkness--yes, and into the rain that drove through the holes in the
roof!--was that his head, with an awful "tunk!" came in contact with a
broken roof beam.
Russ staggered back, clutching wildly at anything he could lay his hands
on, and all but tumbled backwards down the stairs again.
But in clutching for something to break his fall Russ grabbed Vi's curls
with one hand. He could not see her in the dark, but he knew those curls
very well. And he was bound to recognize Vi when the little girl
stammered:
"What's happened? Did the house fall on my legs, Russ? _Must_ you pull
my hair off to get me out?"
Mun Bun was bawling all by himself, but near by. He seemed to be quite
as immovable as Vi. And perhaps Russ would have been unable to get out
either of the unfortunates by himself.
Just then there came a shout of encouragement from outside, and the
rapid pounding of feet. The door below burst open and Daddy Bunker's
welcome voice cried out:
"Here I am, children! Here I am--and Captain Ben, too! Where are you
all?"
In the dusky kitchen it was easy enough to count the three little
Bunkers who remained there. But Daddy Bunker was heartily concerned over
the absent ones.
"Where are Russ and Vi and Mun Bun?" cried Daddy Bunker.
"They're upstairs--under that old thunder stroke," gasped Margy. "But I
guess they're not all dead-ed yet."
"I guess not!" exclaimed Captain Ben, who was a very vigorous young man,
being both a soldier and a sailor. "They are all very much alive."
That was proved by the concerted yells of the three in the attic. Both
men hurried to mount the stairs. The dust had settled to some degree by
this time, and they could see the struggling forms. Russ had almost got
Vi loose, and he had not pulled out her hair in doing so.
Daddy Bunker saw that Mun Bun was only caught by his clothing. Captain
Ben took Vi from Russ and Daddy Bunker released Mun Bun. Then they all
came hurriedly down the stairs.
Mun Bun was still weeping wildly. Laddie looked at him in amazement.
"Why--why," he said, "you're a riddle, Mun Bun."
"I'm not!" sobbed the littlest Bunker.
"Yes, you are," said Laddie. "This is the riddle: Why is Mun Bun like a
sprinkling cart?"
"That is too easy!" laughed Captain Ben, setting Vi down on the floor.
"It's because Mun Bun scatters water so easily out of his eyes."
They all laughed at that--even Mun Bun himself, only he hiccoughed too.
It did not take much to make the children laugh when the danger was
over.
"Why did the old thunder stroke have to do that?" asked Vi. "Why did it
pin me down across my legs?"
Daddy Bunker hurried them all out of the old house. He was afraid it
might fall altogether.
"And then where should we be?" he asked. "I couldn't go away out West to
Cowboy Jack's and leave my little Bunkers under that old house, could
I?"
At this Russ and Rose immediately began to be excited--only for a reason
very different from the effects of the storm. They looked at each other
quite knowingly. _That_ was what Daddy Bunker and Mother Bunker were
talking about so earnestly the night before!
"Oh, Daddy!" burst out Rose, clinging to his hand, "are you going so far
away from us all? Aren't you going to take us to Cowboy Jack's?"
"Why do they call him that?" asked Vi. "Is he part cow and part boy?"
But Daddy Bunker replied to Rose's question quite seriously:
"That is a hard matter to decide. It is a long journey, and you know
school will soon begin at Pineville. And you must not miss school."
"But, Daddy," said Russ, very gravely, "you know you take us 'most
everywhere you go. It--it wouldn't be fair to Cowboy Jack not to take us
to see him, would it?"
Mr. Bunker laughed very much at this suggestion, and hurried them all
through the rain toward Captain Ben's bungalow.
CHAPTER III
THE SILVER LINING
One might think that the accident at the old house would have been
excitement enough for the six little Bunkers for one forenoon. But Russ
and Rose, at least, and soon all the other children, were bubbling with
the thought of Daddy Bunker's going West again to look into a big ranch
property to which one of his customers had recently fallen heir.
To travel, to see new things, to meet wonderfully nice and kind people,
seemed to be the fate of the six little Bunkers. Russ and Rose were sure
that no family of brothers and sisters ever had so much fun traveling
and so many adventures at the places they traveled to as they did. Russ
and Rose were old enough to read about the adventures of other
children--I mean children outside of nursery books--and so far the
older young Bunkers quite preferred their own good times to any they had
ever read about.
"Why!" Russ had once cried confidently, "we have even more fun than
Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday. Of course we do."
"Yes. And _they_ had goats," admitted Rose thoughtfully.
The thought of daddy's going away from them, in any case, would have
excited the children. But the opening of their school had been postponed
for several weeks already, and Russ and Rose, at least, thought they saw
the possibility of their father's taking Mother Bunker and all the
children with him to the Southwest.
"Only," Russ said gravely, "I don't much care for the name of that man.
He sounds like some kind of a foreign man--and you know how those
foreign men were that built the railroad down behind our house in
Pineville."
"What makes 'em foreign? Their whiskers?" asked Vi, her curiosity at
once aroused. "Do all foreigners have whiskers? What makes whiskers
grow, anyway? Daddy doesn't have whiskers. Why do other folks?"
"Mother doesn't have whiskers, either," said Margy gravely.
"Say! Why?" repeated Violet insistently.
"Daddy shaves every morning. That is why he doesn't have whiskers," said
Rose, trying to pacify the inquisitive Violet.
"Well, does mother shave, too?" immediately demanded Vi. "I never saw
her brush. But I've played with daddy's. I painted the front steps with
it."
"And you got punished for it, you know," said Russ, grinning at her.
"But we were not talking about whiskers--nor shaving brushes."
"Yes we were," said the determined Vi. "I was asking about them."
"Is that man father is going to see an _awful_ foreigner, Russ?" Rose
wanted to know.
"I guess not. Father says he's a nice man. He has met him, he says. But
his name--oh, it's awful!"
"What _is_ his name?" asked Vi instantly.
If there was a possible chance of crowding in a question, Vi had it on
the tip of her tongue to crowd in. This was an hour after the "thunder
stroke" had caused such damage to the old house, and Vi was quite her
inquisitive little self again.
"His name----" said Russ.
Then he stopped and began to search his pockets. The others waited, but
Violet was not content to wait in silence.
"What's the matter, Russ? Do you itch?"
"No, I don't itch," said the boy, with some irritation.
"Well, you act so," said Vi. "What are you doing then, if you're not
itching?"
"She means scratching!" exclaimed Rose, but she stared at Russ, too, in
some curiosity.
"Oh! I know!" cried Laddie. "It's a riddle."
"What's a riddle?" asked his twin sister eagerly.
"What Russ is doing," said the little boy. "I know that riddle, but I
can't just think how it goes. Let's see: 'I went out to the woodpile and
got it; when I got into the house I couldn't find it. What was it?'" and
Laddie clapped his hands delightedly to think that he had asked a real
riddle.
"Oh, I know! I know!" shouted Margy eagerly.
"You do?" asked Laddie. "What is it, then?"
"My Black Dinah dolly that I lost somewhere and we never could find."
"That isn't the whole of that riddle, Laddie," said Russ. "You ought to
say: 'And I had it in my hand all the time.' Then you ask 'What was
it?'"
"Well, then," said Laddie, rather disappointed to think he had made a
mistake in the riddle after all. "What _was_ it, Russ?"
"It was a splinter," said Russ, now drawing a scrap of paper from one
pocket. "And here it is----"
"Not the splinter?" gasped Rose.
"No. It was this piece of paper I was hunting for. I wasn't scratching,
either. Here it is. This is that foreign man's name."
"What man's name?" asked Vi, who by this time had forgotten what the
main subject of the discussion was.
"Cowboy Jack's name!" cried Rose.
"Has he got more names than that?" asked Vi. "Isn't Cowboy Jack enough
name for him?"
"His name," said Russ, reading what he had scribbled down on the paper,
"is 'Mr. John Scarbontiskil.' That's foreign."
"Oh!" gasped Rose. "I shouldn't think Daddy Bunker would want to go to
see a man with a name like that."
"I don't suppose," said Russ, "that he can help his name being that."
"Couldn't he make his own name--and make it a better one?" demanded Vi.
"You know, Mun Bun made his name for himself."
"I could not pronounce that name at all," said Rose to Russ. "I guess,
after all, maybe we'd better not go to that place."
"What place?"
"Where daddy is going. To that--that Cowboy Jack's place."
"Why not?" asked Russ, almost as promptly as Vi might have asked it had
she heard Rose's speech.
"Because," said Rose, who was a thoughtful girl, "of course they don't
call him Cowboy Jack to his face, and I should never be able to say
Scar--Scar--Scar--whatever it is to him. Never!"