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Read Ebook: La Chauve-Souris by Derennes Charles
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Ebook has 1344 lines and 44373 words, and 27 pages
"Hi! Yi!" yelled Mun Bun. "This is fun!"
"Now it's my turn!" exclaimed Margy. "Get off, Mun Bun."
"I have to have a ride back! I've got to have a ride back!" he cried. "Russ said he'd ride me across the attic and back again! Didn't you, Russ?"
"Yes, that's what I did. Well, here we go back."
He had pushed Mun Bun to the far side of the attic, and was pushing the little fellow back again, when Laddie cried:
"Oh, I know a better way than that."
"For what?" asked Russ.
"For having rides," went on Laddie. "We can make a hill and let the scooter slide downhill. Then you won't have to push anybody."
"How can you make a hill?" asked Russ.
"Out of mother's ironing-board," was the answer. "It's down in the kitchen. I'll get it. Don't you know how we used to put it up on a chair and then slide down on the ironing-board?"
"Oh, I remember!" cried Rose.
"Then we can do that," went on Laddie. "It'll be packs of fun!"
"Well, you get the ironing-board," said Russ.
"I'll help," offered Violet. "I'll help you get the board, Laddie."
"All right, come on," he called, and the two children started down the attic stairs.
While he was waiting for them to come back Russ gave Margy and Rose each a ride on the scooter. It really went very well over the smooth floor of the attic, for the roller-skate wheels turned very easily, even if they did get crooked now and then because the strings with which they were tied on, slipped.
Up the stairs, bumpity bump, came Laddie and Vi with the ironing-board.
"Mother wasn't there, and I didn't see Norah, so I just took the board," said Laddie. "Now we'll put one end on a box and the other end on the floor, and we'll have a hill. Then we can ride the scooter downhill just like we rode our sleds at Grandpa Ford's."
"Yes, I guess we can," said Russ.
"Who's going down first?" asked Russ, as he and Laddie fixed the ironing-board hill in place, and wheeled the scooter over to it.
"I will!" exclaimed Mun Bun. "I like to ride."
"You'd better let us try first," said Laddie. "It might go so fast it would knock into something."
"I'll go down!" decided Russ. "It's my scooter, because I made it; and so I'll go down first."
"But I made the hill!" objected Laddie. "It's my hill."
"Then why don't both of you go down together?" asked Rose. "If it will hold you two boys it will be all right for us girls. You go three times, then Vi and I will take three turns."
"All right--that's what we will," said Russ. "Come on, Laddie."
Some boxes had been piled back of the one on which the ironing-board rested in a slanting position, and these boxes made a level place on which to get a start. Russ and Laddie lifted the scooter up there, and got up themselves. Then they carefully sat down on the board to which were fastened the roller-skate wheels.
"All ready?" asked Russ, who was in front, holding to a rope, like a sled rope, by which he hoped to guide the scooter. "All ready, Laddie?"
"All ready," was the answer.
"Here we go!" cried Russ.
He gave a little shove with his feet, and down the ironing-board hill ran the scooter, carrying Russ and Laddie with it. The first time it ran beautifully.
"This is great!" cried Laddie.
"Fine!" exclaimed his brother.
And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The scooter ran off the hill sideways, and started over the attic floor toward Rose, Vi, Mun Bun and Margy. They squealed and screamed and tried to get out of the way. But Mun Bun fell down, and Margy fell over him, and Vi fell over Margy, and Rose fell over Violet. So there the four little Bunkers were, all in a heap, and the scooter, with Russ and Laddie on it, running toward the brother and sisters.
"Stop! Stop it!" cried Laddie.
"I can't!" shouted Russ, pulling on the guide rope. But that did no good.
"Oh, we're going to knock into 'em!" yelled Laddie.
And right into the other children ran the scooter. Russ and Laddie were thrown off, and, for a moment, there was a bumping, thumping, yelling, crying and screaming noise.
Mun Bun, trying to roll out of the way, knocked a box down off a trunk, and the box had some croquet balls in it, which rumbled over the attic floor almost like thunder.
In the midst of all this noise and confusion some one came running up the stairs. A man entered the attic, and took one look at the mass of struggling children on the floor.
"My good land!" he cried. "I wonder if I can save any of 'em! Oh, what a mix-up!"
Then the stranger started in to rescue the six little Bunkers, for they were all tangled up.
UNCLE FRED
"Are you hurt? Are any of you hurt? What happened, anyhow? Did part of the house fall on you?"
The man who had run up the attic stairs went on picking up first one and then another of the six little Bunkers. For a time they were so excited over what had happened that they paid no attention to him.
But when the stranger picked Rose up and set her on her feet, the little girl took a good look at him, and, seeing a strange man in the attic, she cried:
"Oh, it's a burglar! It's a burglar! Oh, Mother! Norah! Jerry Simms! It's a burglar!"
"Hush, child! Don't shout like that or you'll have all the neighbors in!" said the man. "Be quiet, and I'll tell you who I am! Don't yell any more!"
Rose stopped yelling, her mouth still wide open, ready for another shout, and looked at the man. He smiled at her and picked up Mun Bun out from under the box from which the croquet balls had fallen.
"Who is you?" asked Mun Bun.
"I'll tell you in just a moment, if you don't make such a racket," said the stranger, smiling kindly.
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