til we get out to the ranch, and then see what happens."
Pretty soon every one in the big sleeping-car was in bed. The Bunkers,
two by two, were sleeping in the berths. Russ and Laddie were together
in one, and Rose and Violet were in another. Mun Bun slept with his
father, and Margy with her mother.
On and on rushed the train through the night, carrying the people
farther West. The weather was fine now, and spring would soon give place
to summer. Uncle Fred had said this was the nicest time of the year out
on his ranch.
It must have been about the middle of the night that Mr. Bunker awakened
suddenly. Just what caused him to do so he did not know, but he found
himself wide awake in a moment. He reached over to see if Mun Bun was
all right, and, to his surprise, he could not find his little son.
"That's queer!" exclaimed Mr. Bunker to himself. "Where can Mun Bun be?
I wonder if he got up in the night to get himself a drink?"
The little fellow had never done this, but that is not saying he might
not try it for the first time.
"Or perhaps he didn't like it in bed with me, and went in with his
mother and Margy," thought Mr. Bunker.
Mrs. Bunker's berth was right across the aisle from the one in which Mr.
Bunker had been sleeping with Mun Bun, and, putting on a bath robe, Mr.
Bunker pushed back the curtains in front of his berth, and opened those
of the one where his wife was sleeping.
"Amy! Amy!" he whispered, his lips close to her ear so as not to awaken
the other passengers on either side. "Amy! is Mun Bun here with you?"
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Bunker, waking up suddenly.
"I woke up just now and I can't find Mun Bun. Is he in here?"
CHAPTER VII
AT THREE STAR RANCH
But as Mr. Bunker parted the curtains over his wife's berth, and looked
inside, he saw, by the dim light that streamed in, that Mun Bun was not
with her. There was Margy, quietly sleeping with her mother, but no Mun
Bun.
"What could have happened to him?" asked Mrs. Bunker, sitting up in bed.
She looked at her husband. "Where is Mun Bun?" she asked.
"I don't know," he answered. "He was sleeping with me, but, all of a
sudden, I woke up and Mun Bun was not with me."
"He must have awakened and got up to get a drink, or something," said
Mrs. Bunker. "Then when he went to go back again, he couldn't find the
place where you were, and he's either crawled in with Russ and Laddie,
or with Rose and Violet. We must look f
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