CHAPTER XI

THE NIGHT NOISE

Outside of Great Hedge the wind howled and the snow whirled about in white flakes. Inside it was warm, light and cosy. But the queer noise which had sounded, and which had seemed so to startle the grown folk, came from inside, and not outside. At least that is what Rose and Russ thought.

"It's the ghost!" said Rose again.

"Nonsense!" laughed Daddy Bunker. "What do you children know about ghosts? There aren't such things. There never has been a ghost and never will be one. That was the wind."

"Maybe it was," agreed Russ, who was not quite as ready as his sister was to think of ghosts.

"Of course it was!" exclaimed Grandma Ford. "The wind often howls that way in winter. And now come over where it's warmer, and I'll get you all some bread and jam. You must be hungry, aren't you?"

"I am," said Mun Bun. "I went to get some cakes in the depot, and I----"

"Yes, and he pulled over the whole bowl full and it broke," said Margy, interrupting Mun Bun's story. "And the man was awful mad!"

"But we ate the cakes, anyhow," added Mun Bun. "They fell on a paper and most of 'em were clean. Have you got cakes, Grandma?"

"Bless your heart! Lots of 'em. But I don't believe cake will be good for you at night; especially after you've had some, as you did at the depot. But bread and jam and a gla.s.s of milk won't hurt you, and you shall have that. Do any of the rest of you want anything to eat?"

"I do!" cried Vi. "Where do you keep your things to eat, Grandma? Have you got a big pantry?"

"I guess Vi is afraid you won't have enough," laughed Mrs. Bunker.

"Oh, I laid in a big stock of food when I heard the six little Bunkers were coming," said Grandpa Ford.

Neither Russ nor Rose said anything then about the ghost. But they saw that their father and Grandpa Ford were talking together in one corner of the room.

"Maybe they're talking about that," whispered Rose.

"Yes," agreed Russ, also in a whisper. "But let's get something to eat, and then we can hunt by ourselves. You're not afraid, are you, Rose?"

"No. Are you?"

"I--I guess not! No, I'm not afraid," and Russ spoke more firmly now.

"It's so nice and light here I'm not a bit afraid," he went on.

Grandma Ford led the six little Bunkers out to the dining-room, where the table was already set waiting for them. There seemed to be plenty of bread and jam on it, and other things, too.

"Can't I tell my riddle now?" asked Laddie when they were all seated at the table and had eaten something. "Don't you want to hear it, Grandma?"

"Yes, of course I do, my dear. What is it?"

"What kind of a tree would you rather drive?" asked Laddie. "That's the riddle. Russ says you can't drive a tree, that you can only climb it or chop it down, or burn it up."

"And I said you could sit in the shade of it," added Rose.

"Well, all of those things can be done to trees," said Grandma Ford with a smile, as she gave Mun Bun some more bread and jam. "I think I should like best sitting in the shade of a tree. But what is your riddle, Laddie?"

"Oh, you have to guess it!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I ask you the question and you have to answer it. That's what a riddle is for. Now, I ask you, what kind of a tree would you rather drive?"

Grandma Ford thought for a moment, and then said:

"A dogwood tree if it wouldn't bite."

"Is there a dogwood tree?" asked Laddie.

"Yes," answered Grandma Ford. "And very pretty blossoms it has on it, too. Is that the answer to your riddle?"

"No'm," answered Laddie. "It's a horse chestnut tree. That's the kind you'd rather drive, wouldn't you? A _horse_ chestnut!" and he laughed gleefully.

"Well, I guess that would be the most proper sort of tree to drive,"

said Grandpa Ford, who came in just then with Daddy Bunker.

"And I'll take my dogwood tree along to run under the wagon that your horse chestnut is pulling," said Grandma Ford.

"What makes some dogs--the kind with black spots on--trot under wagons?"

asked Vi. "Is it so they won't get rained on?"

"I guess that's as good a reason as any," said her father.

So the six little Bunkers ate their supper--rather a late one, for the storm had delayed them--and then they sat about and talked for a while.

Grandma Ford asked the children all about themselves, where they had been visiting and so on, and they told her about having been to Grandma Bell's, to Aunt Jo's, and to Cousin Tom's.

"It was warm while we were at all those places," said Rose. "And now it is winter."

"I guess you'd say so if you looked outdoors!" exclaimed Russ, who came back from having peered from a window. "It's snowing terrible hard."

"Then we can make lots of snow men!" exclaimed Laddie. "That will be heaps of fun."

"You'll have to be well wrapped up when you go out," remarked Grandma Ford. "It is colder here than it is during the winter at your home, so put on your coats every time you go out."

"The place for them to go now is to bed!" said Mrs. Bunker. "Mun Bun and Margy are asleep in their chairs this very minute, and Vi is almost asleep. Come, children, off to bed with you!"

Outside it was darker than ever, and still snowing and blowing hard. But Grandpa's house at Great Hedge was the nicest place in the world.

"Did the horses go to bed?" sleepily asked Mun Bun as his mother carried him up.

"Yes, they're in bed and asleep long ago. And that's where you will soon be yourself."

The children's rooms were close together, some of them sleeping in the same apartment. And Mr. and Mrs. Bunker had a room down at the end of the hall, so that they could go to any of the six little Bunkers who might call in the night. Often one of the four smaller ones wanted a drink.

Russ and Laddie had a room together, and so did Rose and Vi, and before the two older Bunker children went to bed Rose whispered to her brother: