ck ferns, I do!" cried Mun Bun. "I want to take mother the
biggest bunch of all."

He worked so hard at pulling the ferns that he tired himself out. And
that and the walk to the Dripping Rock and the excitement about the
calf in the mud, added to the walk back to Captain Ben's bungalow, made
Mun Bun very tired and not a little cross when he got home.

"I want to give these ferns to mother. And I want my face and hands
washed. And I want bwead and milk and go to bed right away!" was Mun
Bun's declaration.

Although it was only lunch time, they let him have his way, for Mun Bun
often took a nap in the early afternoon and mother said it made him as
bright as a new penny when he woke up again.

So it was the others, and not Mun Bun, who told their elders about the
calf stuck in the mud.

The end of their stay at Captain Ben's bungalow had now come, and
although all the little Bunkers were sorry to leave Captain Ben and
remembered with delight all the fun they had had here at Grand View,
home at Pineville beckoned them.

"Even if we have to go to school," said Russ, "it will seem like
visiting at first. Don't you think so? Almost as though our vacation
kept on--because we haven't been home much."

"Well," sighed Rose, to whom he spoke, "I sort of like to go to school.
But if father goes 'way out West to that Cowboy Jack's, and without us,"
and she sighed again, "it will seem awfully hard, Russ."

"Maybe something will happen!" cried the oldest little Bunker suddenly.

But just what did happen, even Russ Bunker could not possibly have
imagined.

CHAPTER VI

THE COAL STRIKE

Mother, of course, took Mun Bun and Margy back to Pineville by train. It
was much too long a journey for them in an automobile. Mr. Bunker, with
the four bigger little Bunkers (doesn't that sound funny?) drove in a
motor-car and spent one night's sleep on the way at a very pleasant
country inn.

They did not have quite so much excitement here as they had at the
farmhouse on their way down to the shore. But Rose and Vi had a room all
to themselves, and felt themselves quite grown-up travelers. Russ and
Laddie were in a second bed in Mr. Bunker's room, and in the night
Laddie must have had a very exciting dream because he began to kick
about and thrash with his arms and woke up Russ very suddenly.

"Get off me!" cried Russ. "Stop!"

Then he became wide awake, sat up, and saw that it was not a dog jumping
all over him, as he had su