by A. A. Milne
"I'll be a soldier and you can be an Indian," said Russ to Laddie. "I must live in a log cabin, and you must come in the night and try to get me, and I wake up and yell 'Bang! Bang!' That means you're shot."
"All right, and then I must shoot you, after a while."
"Sure, we'll play that way."
So they did, and had fun. They aimed at one another with the candlestick moulds and shouted so many "bangs!" that the attic echoed with the noise.
Then, suddenly, as they stopped a moment for breath, they heard the voice of Mun Bun crying:
"Oh, stop pulling my hair! Stop pulling my hair! Oh, it hurts!"
Russ and Laddie looked at one another in surprise. Neither of them was near Mun Bun, and yet they could see the little fellow standing close to one of the spinning wheels, and his golden hair stuck straight out behind him, just as if an unseen hand had hold of it and was pulling it hard.
"Oh, stop! Stop! You hurt!" sobbed Mun Bun. "Let go my hair!"
But who had hold of it?
Coasting Fun
Russ and Laddie said, afterward, that they were much frightened at what happened. They were really more frightened than was Mun Bun, for he was not so much frightened as he was hurt. He thought some one had crept up behind him and was pulling his hair, as often happened when some of the six little Bunkers were not as good as they should be.
"Let go my hair! Stop pulling!" cried Mun Bun.
"We're not touching you," said Laddie.
"Is any one there?" asked Russ, looking to see if any one stood back of his brother.
But he could look right through the spokes of the spinning wheel, near which Mun Bun was standing, and see no one except his little brother. And the bobbed, golden hair of Mun Bun still stuck straight out behind him, as stiff as if the wind were blowing it, or as if some one had hold of it.
"Make 'em stop pulling my hair!" begged Mun Bun again. And then, as he moved a little to one side, Laddie saw the spinning wheel turn and he cried:
"I know what it is!"
"What?" asked Russ. "Do you see 'em? Is it Margy or Vi?"
"Neither one," answered Laddie. "It isn't anybody."
"Nobody pulling Mun Bun's hair?" asked Russ. "Then what's he hollering for?"
"'Cause the spinning wheel's pulling it. Look! He's caught in one of the spinning wheels, and his leg is tangled in one of the string belts we left on, and he made the wheel go around himself."
Russ dropped his candle-mould gun and ran over to his little brother. Surely enough it had happened just as Laddie had said.
The golden hair of the little boy had become tangled in the slender spokes of the spinning wheel, some of which were a bit splintery.
As I told you, when Russ and Laddie finished making believe the wheels were an airship, they left some strings on them. By pulling on these strings the spinning wheels could be made to go around. And that was what Mun Bun had done, though he did not know it.
At first he did not feel it when, leaning up against one of the wheels, his hair got caught. Then his legs became entangled in one of the strings, and, as he stepped out, he pulled on the string and the wheel began to spin.
Of course that stretched his hair tightly, and it felt exactly as if some one were pulling it, which was the case. Only it was the spinning wheel, and not a ghost or any person.
All ghost stories will turn out that way if you wait long enough. Every time it is something real which makes the funny noises or does the funny things. For there are no ghosts.
"Wait a minute, Mun Bun, and I'll fix you!" cried Russ. "Stand still. The more you move the more you pull your own hair."
"I'm not pulling my hair," said Mun Bun. "Somebody behind me is pulling it."
"It's the spinning wheel," said Laddie with a laugh.
Then, when they had untangled Mun Bun's hair, they showed him how it all had happened. He had really pulled his own hair. Of course, he was not hurt very much, for only a little of his hair had stuck to the wheel.
"I can make a riddle up about this," said Laddie when Mun Bun was free once more.
"How?" asked Russ.
"Oh, I don't know just yet, but it'll be something about how can you pull your own hair and not pull it. And the answer will be a spinning wheel."
"Can I make the spinning wheels go 'round?" asked Mun Bun, who wanted to have some fun after his trouble.
"Yes, you can play with 'em," agreed Russ. "That is, with one of 'em. I'm going to take the other and make it ring the sleigh bells."
"How can you?" asked Laddie.
"I'll show you," answered Russ.
He took the strings off one wheel, letting Mun Bun play with that, and then tied more strings on the second wheel. He also fastened a string of bells on the wheel, and then, standing in a far corner of the attic, and pulling on the string of jingling bells, Russ could make them tinkle and ring.
"This is fun!" cried Laddie, and he and his brother enjoyed themselves very much, and so did Mun Bun. The attic was a great place to have jolly times.
"And I don't believe there's any ghost up there, either," said Russ to Rose that night. "First I thought it might be him pulling Mun Bun's hair, but it wasn't. There's no ghost there."
"I'm glad of it," said Rose.
The weather became somewhat warmer again, and the six little Bunkers could play out in the snow. The hill back of the barn was worn smoother and smoother, and it made a fine place for coasting.
"Let's take our dolls out and give them a ride," said Vi to Rose one day. "They haven't had a sleigh ride for a long while."
"Yes, we'll give 'em a ride," agreed Rose.
"My doll wants a ride, too," said Margy.
Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun were making another snow-man, which was to be a regular "giant," so the girls had the coasting hill to themselves. They took two sleds, for Vi wanted to go by herself. But Margy was almost too little for this.
"You shall ride down with sister," promised Rose. "I'll take care of you."
"And I can hold my doll, can't I?" asked Margy.
"Oh, yes," agreed Rose.
They had brought to Great Hedge with them the Japanese dolls that had come ashore in the box on the beach at Cousin Tom's, and these the three girls took out with them to coast downhill. They had made new clothes for the dolls, as the Japanese dresses were hardly warm enough for the cold weather at Grandpa Ford's.
Reaching the hill, Vi took her place on her sled, holding her doll in her lap, and then, holding to the sled rope, she began pushing herself to the edge of the slope, at the same time calling:
"Gid-ap! Gid-ap!"
"You don't say 'gid-ap' to a sled," objected Rose. "That's only for a horse when you want it to go."
"Well, I want my sled to go, and that's the same thing," declared Vi. "Why can't I say it if I want to? Gid-ap!" she went on, not waiting for an answer to her question. Very often Vi asked questions to which there was no answer.
"Come on, I want a ride like Vi!" exclaimed Margy.
"All right, you shall have it," answered Rose. "And you may say 'gid-ap' to our sled, too, if you like."
"All right—gid-ap!" cried Margy, and then Rose pushed the sled on which she and her little sister sat to the edge of the hill, and down they coasted.
The three little Bunker girls had great fun on the hill. Now and then Dick, who was working around the barn, would come out to watch them.
"Don't you want a ride?" asked Rose, for a few days before Dick had let her sit on the back of one of Grandpa's horses, and had ridden her around the big barn.
"Oh, I'm afraid my legs are too long for those sleds," laughed the hired man. "I'll have to get a bigger one."
"You can hold my doll if you want to," offered Vi. "I'm going to coast like the boys do, and I can't hold her."
"Well, you had better leave your doll in the barn," said Dick. "I might lose her if I took her."
Vi stretched out face downward on the sled, to ride "boy fashion," and, of course, she couldn't hold
her doll that way. So she left the toy in a warm place in the hay in the barn.
Rose, Vi and Margy had great sport coasting on the hill, and they were thinking of going in and getting some of Grandma Ford's good bread and jam when Margy cried:
"Oh, my doll! Where's my doll? She's gone. She went sliding downhill all by herself, and now she's gone! Oh, dear!" And Margy began to cry.
Jingling Bells
Dick came running out of the barn.
"What's the matter?" he asked. "Are any of you hurt?"
But as soon as he asked that he could see that none of the three little Bunker girls was hurt, for they all stood on the hill beside the two sleds.
"What's the matter?" asked Dick again, for he could see that Margy was crying, and crying hard.
"She's lost her doll," explained Rose. "I guess it dropped in the snow. Could you find it for her? It's a Japanese doll, and we got her out of the ocean."
"Out of the ocean!" exclaimed Dick. "Well, if you got her out of the ocean I suppose I can get her out of a snow bank. For I guess that's where your doll is now, Margy. Don't cry! I'll try to find her."
Dick loved children, and, as it was rather lonesome at Great Hedge, he was very glad the six little Bunkers had come with their father and mother to stay until Spring.
"Where did you lose your doll, Margy?" asked Dick, stooping down and leaning over the little girl, who was crying so hard now that she could hardly see on account of her tears.
"Oh, I—I—don't know," she sobbed. "I—I had her in my arms, and I was giving her a nice ride and, all of a sudden, I didn't have her any m-more."
"I guess she slipped out when you went over a bump, or something like that," said Dick. "But, as I said, if you found her in the ocean, I guess we can find her when she's only in a snow bank. I never saw the ocean. Is it very big?"
"Terrible big," answered Rose. "We were down at Cousin Tom's, and a box was washed up on shore and some Japanese dolls were in it. We each have one—all except Russ and Laddie, 'cause they're too big to play with dolls. But now Margy's is lost. But we've two more home, Margy, 'cause there were half a dozen in the box, and you can have one of them."
"Don't want them!" exclaimed Margy. "I want my own doll that I had on the sled. Where is she?" And Margy cried harder than ever.
"We'll look," said Dick.
He went into the barn and came out again with a big wooden rake. In summer the rake was used to clean the lawn. But now it was to be used in the snow.
"You little girls go up to the top of the hill and sit down on your sleds," said Dick. "Or, better still, go into the barn, like the robin in the song, and keep warm. Then I'll look for your doll, Margy."
Then, with the long, wooden rake the man began "combing," as Vi called it, the snow along the hill. There was no need to look in the middle, where the sleds slid down, for there the snow was packed hard, and anything, even smaller than a good-sized Japanese doll, could be seen easily. But Dick raked on each side in the soft snow.
Pretty soon he cried:
"Hurray!"
"Did you find it?" asked Vi.
"Yes, this time I have it!" replied Dick, and he held up to view Margy's lost doll. She had fallen into the soft snow, and was not hurt a bit.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Margy.
After the snow had been brushed off the Japanese doll, Margy hugged her close in her arms.
"I'm never, never, never going to lose you again!" cried the little girl.
"And we're much obliged to you for finding her," said Rose to Dick.
"Oh, yes, I forgot. Mother said I was always to say thank you, and I do!" exclaimed Margy. "I could give you a kiss, too, if you wanted it," she went on, "and so could my doll."
"Well, I'd rather have one from you," laughed Dick. "But I haven't shaved to-day, and my face is rather whiskery."
"My father's face is like that lots of times—I don't mind," said Margy, so she kissed Dick and was very happy.
Then, after some more coasting, during which time the dolls were left in the barn, the three little Bunker girls went back to the house.
"Ready for bread and jam?" asked Grandma Ford. "That was always what I used to want when I came in out of the cold, and I think you want the same.".
"Yes, please, we do," said Rose.
"Oh, yes, please!" added Vi.
"I lost my doll," said Margy, "but Dick raked her up and I did give him a kiss."
"That was nice!" laughed Grandma Ford.
As she was spreading the bread and jam for Rose, Margy and Vi, in came Russ, Laddie and Mun Bun, leaving, of course, the snow man outside. And you can easily guess what the boys wanted.
Bread and jam!
That's just it, and you may go to the head of the class. I wish I had some bread and jam to give you for guessing right, but I haven't.
The next day when Daddy Bunker, who had come back from business, and Grandpa Ford went out to the barn to look at one of the horses that had a cold, Russ and Laddie followed. On the way they passed a small house, or pen, such as chickens are kept in, and from it came a loud:
"Gobble-obble-obble!"
"What's that?" asked Mun Bun. "Is it a hand-organ monkey?"
"Oh, no!" laughed Grandpa Ford. "That's our prize turkey, and do you know what he says?"
"Did he say anything?" asked Russ.
"Oh, indeed he did!" said Grandpa Ford with a laugh. "You see I understand turkey talk, and this bird just said: 'Thanksgiving is coming, and then I'll be gobbled-obbled-obbled!' That's what he said, and it's going to come true. That's going to be part of our Thanksgiving day dinner."
"I like turkey," said Russ. "Is Thanksgiving coming soon?"
"Next week," his father told him. "You want to get up good appetites between now and then."
"I'm hungry now," said Laddie, though how he could be, having only had breakfast a little while before, I don't know. But lots of children are that way.
There was plenty to see and do around Great Hedge Estate, and after the six little Bunkers had peeped in at the big Thanksgiving turkey, they played around the barn a bit and then romped in the snow.
In the afternoon Grandpa Ford hitched a team of horses to a big sled—the same one that had brought them from the station—and took them all for a long ride, the bells merrily jingling all the way. They stopped in the city of Tarrington on the way home, and bought some things Grandma Ford wanted for the Thanksgiving dinner.
Coming home in the afternoon, the children went up to the attic to play again, taking some apples with them to have a play party.
"Oh, Grandpa Ford's is just a lovely place!" exclaimed Rose that night as she and the others were going to bed.
"And we didn't hear any more funny ghost noises," said Russ in a low voice. "I guess the ghost has gone, Rose."
"I guess so, too. I didn't hear Daddy or Mother or Grandpa or Grandma say any more about it."
That night Mun Bun awakened, and called to his mother to give him a drink of water. As it happened Rose and Russ were also awake, and Margy, hearing her brother ask for water, wanted some, too. So there were several of the Bunkers awake at once.
Just as Mrs. Bunker was giving Mun Bun his drink, there suddenly sounded through the dim and silent house the loud ringing of a string of sleigh bells.
"What's that?" called Grandma Ford from across the hall. "Is some one stopping out in front?"
"I'll look," said Grandpa Ford. It was bright moonlight, and he could see plainly. "No one there," he said.
The bells jingled again, more loudly.
"They're up in the attic!" cried Russ. "Some one is ringing the bells in the attic!"
Thanksgiving Fun
By this time it seemed as if every one in Grandpa Ford's house at Great Hedge was awake. Even Mun Bun and Margy sat up in bed, after having had their drinks, and listened.
"There certainly are bells jingling," said Mother Bunker.
"And they are in this house, too," added Grandma Ford, as she came out in th
e dimly-lighted hall, wearing a dark dressing-gown. "I thought, at first, it might be a sleigh-riding party out in front. Often they stop to ask their way."
"No sleighs out in front that I can see," remarked Grandpa Ford. "Where do the bells seem to you to be?" he asked Daddy Bunker.
"Up in the attic!" called Russ from his room. "That's where they sound."
"I believe he is right," said Grandma Ford. "I have a good ear for sound, and that jingling is certainly up in the attic. Father, you'd better take a look."
"Aren't you—aren't you afraid?" asked Rose, rather hesitating over the words.
"Afraid of what?" inquired Grandpa Ford.
"Well, it's so dark up in the attic," went on Rose, and Russ, hearing what she said, knew what she meant. It was the ghost Rose was thinking of, and not the dark.
"I can take a light," said Grandpa Ford. "Then it won't be dark. But you mustn't be afraid in the dark. It can't hurt any one."
Just then the bells gave a very loud jingle, just as if some one had hold of the string and was shaking it hard.
"Oh!" exclaimed Rose.
"I'm goin' to sleep!" announced Mun Bun, and he covered his head with the bedclothes.
"So'm I," said Margy, and she did as her little brother had done, snuggling under the covers.
Rose and Russ heard their father ask Grandpa Ford:
"Did this ever happen before?"
"No," answered Grandpa Ford. "We have heard many strange noises at Great Hedge, noises we thought were caused by—well, you know what I mean," and he nodded at Mr. Bunker to show that he did not want to use the word "ghost."
Of course, Russ and Rose, being in bed in different rooms, could not see this nod, but they guessed what Grandpa Ford meant.
"Well, we'd better go up and see what it is," said Daddy Bunker. "We can't sleep with all that jingling going on," and even as he spoke the bells rang out again.