the attic stairs rushed a strange man, who
pulled Mun Bun out of the tangle of arms and legs. And Rose thought the
strange man was a burglar.

"But I'm not," he said, smiling at the children. "Don't you know who I
am?"

Russ shook his head.

"How did you get in here?" asked Violet. As usual, she was first with a
question.

"I just walked in," said the man in answer. "I was coming here anyhow,
and when I got here I saw the door wide open, so I just walked in."

"Did you come to sell something?" asked Rose. "'Cause if you did I don't
believe my mother wants anything. She's got everything she wants."

"Well, she's got a nice lot of children, anyhow," said the man, smiling
on each and ever one of the six little Bunkers in turn. "I'll say that.
She has a nice lot of children, and I'm very glad none of you is hurt.

"As I said, I was coming here anyhow, and when I got on the porch and
saw the door open, I walked right in. Then I heard a terrible racket up
here in the attic, and up I rushed. I thought maybe the house was
falling down."

"No," said Russ as he pulled his scooter out from between two trunks,
"it was this. We slid down the ironing-board hill, Laddie and I, and it
went off crooked--the scooter did."

"And it knocked into us," said Violet. "But if you didn't come to sell
anything, what did you come for?"

"Well," said the strange man, and he smiled again, "you might say I came
to get you children."

"You--you came to get _us_?" gasped Rose.

"Yes. I'm going to take you away with me."

"Take--take us _away_ with you!" cried Russ. "We won't go! We want to
stay with our daddy and mother."

"I'll take them, too," said the man. "I have room for all you six little
Bunkers and more too, out on my ranch. I've come to take you all away
with me."

What could it mean? Russ and Rose, the oldest, could not understand it.
They looked at the man again. They were sure they had never seen him
before.

"Yes," the stranger went on, "I saw the door open, so I walked in. I was
glad to get out of the rain. It's a cold storm. I hope summer will soon
come. And, as I say, I've come to take you away."

If the man had not smiled so nicely the children might have been
frightened. But, as it was, they knew everything would be all right.

"And now, as long as none of you is hurt, I think I'd better go
downstairs and tell your mother I have come to take you away," went on
the man. "I think I hear her coming up."

And, j