_ CHAPTER V. PACKING UP
"Somebody for you, Mr. Bell," announced Norah, as she opened wider the door of the sitting room where the six little Bunkers, Uncle Fred and the others were gathered. "It's a boy, and he has a package."
"Then it can't be a telegram containing bad news," said Uncle Fred. "They don't come in packages, unless there's a lot of 'em, and I hardly would get that many. I'll see what it is."
The boy was not a telegraph messenger after all, but a special delivery lad from the post-office, and the package he had for Uncle Fred was a book.
"Oh, it's a book I sent for to New York," said the ranchman after he had given the boy ten cents, and had opened the package.
"It's a book that tells about springs, and the rocks underneath the earth where the water comes from. I thought I'd read about springs so I'd learn something about the queer one on my ranch," Uncle Fred said to Daddy Bunker. "I heard about this book, sent to New York for it, and asked them to send it to me here by special delivery. Now I can read what I want to know about water."
"Will you read us a story out of the book?" asked Margy. "I like stories."
"I don't believe there are any stories in this book," said Uncle Fred with a laugh.
"Could you tell us one?" asked Mun Bun.
"About cowboys!" exclaimed Russ.
"And Indians!" added Laddie.
"Well, I guess I could think of a story, if I tried real hard," answered Uncle Fred, laughing.
The six little Bunkers gathered about his chair, and, laying aside the book that the special delivery messenger had brought, the ranchman told the children some wonderful stories.
He told them how, once, his cattle all ran away in a mad rush called a "stampede," and how he and his cowboys had to ride after them on ponies, firing their big revolvers, to turn the steers back from a deep gully.
"And did you stop 'em?" asked Russ, his eyes wide open in wonder and excitement.
"Oh, yes. But it was hard work," answered his uncle.
Then Mr. Bell told about a big prairie fire. On the flat, level fields, where he pastured his cattle, grew long grass. When this gets dry it burns very easily, and, once started, it is hard to stop.
"And how did you stop it?" asked Rose, when her uncle had told about the blazing miles of grass.
"We got a lot of men and horses and plows," he answered, "and plowed a wide strip of land in front of the fire. When the flames got to the bare ground there was nothing for them to burn, and the wind was not strong enough to carry them over to where there was more grass. So we saved our ranch houses."
"Do you live in a house on your ranch?" asked Laddie.
"Why, of course we do!" laughed Uncle Fred. "What did you think we lived in?"
"Tents, like the Indians."
"Oh, no, we have houses. But they aren't as nice as yours here in Pineville," said the ranchman. "I have a house to myself where I live with Captain Roy, and there is another house where the cowboys live. Then there is still another house where they eat their meals. This has a lot of big windows in it that can be opened wide on a hot day."
"Who is Captain Roy?" asked Russ. "Is he an old soldier, like Jerry Simms?"
"Yes, Captain Robert Roy used to be in the United States army," answered Uncle Fred. "He is retired now, and he helps me at the ranch. He is a partner of mine, and he looks after things while I am away. You six little Bunkers will like him, for he loves children."
"I wish we could hurry up and get out there!" sighed Russ.
"Well, I think the best place for my little chickens to hurry to is--_bed_!" laughed Mother Bunker. "Go to bed now, and morning will soon come, so we can talk about going to Uncle Fred's."
The children did not want to go to bed, but they always minded their mother, unless they forgot and did something she had told them not to. But this time there was no chance to forget.
"Good night, Uncle Fred!" they called, one after another, as they trooped upstairs.
Norah went with Mun Bun and Margy to see that they were properly undressed and covered up. Uncle Fred stayed downstairs to talk with Daddy and Mother Bunker.
He was telling them about the strange spring on his ranch, in which the water sometimes ran out in the night, no one knew where, and he was speaking about his cattle having been taken away, when suddenly Laddie called from upstairs:
"Mother, make Russ stop!"
"I'm not doing anything, Mother!" answered the voice of Russ, quickly enough.
"He is so!" went on Laddie. "He's playing he's a cowboy, and he says I've got to be an Indian, and he's going to lasso me with the sheet off the bed."
"Well, I didn't do it--not yet--did I?" asked Russ.
"No, but you're going to!"
"I am not!"
"You are so! You said you were."
"Well, I said I would if you'd let me."
"And I won't let you! I want to go to sleep so morning will come quick, and we can go to Uncle Fred's," went on Laddie. "I can think of some new riddles there."
"Boys! Boys! Be quiet and go to sleep!" called Mr. Bunker.
And, after a little more talk, Laddie and Russ settled down in bed and nothing more was heard of them until morning.
"Is Uncle Fred here?" eagerly asked Rose, when she came downstairs to breakfast.
"Of course he is," answered her mother. "What made you think he wasn't?"
"Oh, I--I dreamed in the night he went back home, and I couldn't see him any more," answered the little girl. "Did he go?"
"Indeed I didn't, Rose!" answered Uncle Fred himself, as he came softly up behind her and caught her up in his arms. "I'm going to stay here until you all get ready to go back to Three Star Ranch with me."
Then the rest of the little Bunkers came down, each one eager to see Uncle Fred and hear more of his wonderful stories of the West. And he was glad to tell them, for he liked the children, and, knowing they had never been out on a ranch, he realized how strange it all was to them.
"If we are really going West," said Mother Bunker to Daddy Bunker, after breakfast, "I must begin to think of packing up again. It seems we do nothing but travel!"
"The children like it," said her husband.
"Yes, and they'll like it out at my place," added Uncle Fred.
"Yes, I suppose so," said Mrs. Bunker. "But now to think of packing. It's such a long journey we can't take much."
"You won't need it," her brother said. "Though we live out West among the Indians and the cowboys, there are some stores there, and you can buy what you can't take with you. Besides, you won't need much for the children. Let them rough it. Put old clothes on them and let them roll around on the grass. That's the best thing in the world for them.
"Well, I'm going now to have a talk with some water engineers about my spring, and attend to some other business. Do you think you can be ready to go back with me in about a week?"
"Oh, never so soon as that!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "I'll need at least two weeks to pack up."
"All right, then we'll call it two weeks. So, two weeks from to-day, at ten o'clock in the morning," said Uncle Fred, "we start for the West."
"Hurray!" cried Russ, who came in just in time to hear what his uncle said.
The next two weeks were busy ones. The six little Bunkers could not do much toward packing, though Rose, who went about the house singing, as she almost always did, helped her mother as much as she could. Russ went about whistling, but he did not help much. Instead he and Laddie made lassos out of clotheslines, and once Mrs. Bunker heard Norah, out in the kitchen, saying:
"Now you mustn't do that, Russ! I told you that you must not!"
"What's he doing, Norah?" asked Mrs. Bunker.
"He's taking forks from the table and tying them on his shoes," answered the cook.
"You mustn't do that, Russ!" exclaimed his mother. "Why are you doing such a thing? Forks on your shoes--the idea!"
"I'm playing they're spurs, Mother, like those the cowboys at Uncle Fred's ranch wear on their boots," said Russ. "Spurs are sharp and so are forks, so I thought if I tied some forks on my shoes I'd have spurs like the cowboys."
His mother laughed, but told him that forks did not look much like spurs and, moreover, that she did not want to have her forks used for that purpose.
So Russ had to take off his fork-spurs, much to his sorrow. But he soon found something else to play with, and went about whistling merrily.
Two days before the two weeks were up Mrs. Bunker said that all the packing was done, and that she was ready to start for the West with the six little Bunkers. Meanwhile Uncle Fred and Daddy Bunker had been kept busy; the ranchman attending to his business matters, and talking with engineers about his mysterious spring, and Mr. Bunker working at his real estate affairs.
"They tell me to take some photographs of the spring and send them to them," said Uncle Fred. "So I'll do that. I've bought a camera, and we'll take pictures for the engineers."
"I can do that for you," remarked Daddy Bunker. "I often take pictures of the houses I buy and sell."
The last valise and trunk had been packed. Once more the Bunker house was closed for a long vacation and the family was on the porch, waiting for the big automobile that was to take them and Uncle Fred to the station.
"Are we all here?" asked Mother Bunker, "counting noses," as she did before the start of every trip. "Oh, where's Margy?" she suddenly cried, as she did not see her little girl. "Margy isn't here! Where can she be?"
For Margy, who had been there a little while before, was missing. _