e could not help thinking about it now
and then.

"This is a lovely place for the children to play," said Mother Bunker. "I
shall never feel worried about them when they are here. The water is so
shallow near the shore."

And so it was. The six little Bunkers--even Mun Bun, the smallest of them
all--could wade out quite a distance from shore on the smooth, sandy
bottom, and not be in danger.

All that day--except when it was time to go in to eat--the children played
on the shore of Lake Sagatook. They saw boats come and go--some with
fishermen in them, like Mr. Hurd, and others that carried lumber and other
things from shore to shore.

"Can we go out in a boat some day?" asked Russ of his father.

"Yes, some day I'll get a boat and take you all for a row," Mr. Bunker
promised.

But there were many other things to do at Grandma Bell's to have fun
besides going out on the lake in a boat. There were chickens and cows to
look at; there was Zip to play with, and Muffin too; and there were
lovely places in the woods where they could take their lunches and have
picnics.

"Grandma Bell's is the nicest place in the world!" said Rose.

"That's what!" exclaimed Russ.

And Laddie tried to think up a riddle about why Grandma Bell's house was
like fairyland, only he couldn't get just the right sort of answer, he
said.

One day Russ, Laddie, and Rose went out to the barn with Tom Hardy to
watch him feed the chickens. He gave them grains of yellow corn.

"Where do you get the corn?" asked Laddie.

"Out of the corn crib," answered Tom. "See it over there," and he pointed
to a shed, through the slat sides of which could be seen the yellow ears
of corn.

"How do you get the little pieces off the cobs?" asked Rose.

"Oh, I shell the corn in a sheller," answered Tom. "Come on, I'll show
you," and he took the children to the corn crib where there was a queer
machine, turned by a handle on a wheel. In an iron spout Tom dropped big,
yellow ears of corn. Then he turned the wheel. There was a grinding noise,
and out of one spout ran the yellow kernels of corn in a stream, while
from another hole dropped the shelled cob, with nothing left on it.

"That's how I shell the corn cobs for the chickens," said the hired man.
"But be careful not to put your hands down the spout where I drop the ears
of corn."

"Why not?" asked Rose, who was catching Vi's trick of asking questions.

"Because if you do that it might shuck the fingerna