where it was
doubled up in the box, and stood up straight.

"So'm I," added Russ. "Did I fall on you, Laddie?"

"Yep--but it didn't hurt me much."

"My dear Mun Bun!" said his mother, pulling the little boy out from under
a chair. "Are _you_ hurt?"

Munroe Bunker was going to cry, but when he saw that Margy had no tears in
her eyes, he made up his mind that he could be as brave as his little
sister. So he squeezed back his tears and said:

"I just got a bounce on my head."

"Well, as long as it wasn't a bump you're lucky," said Russ with a laugh.

Vi pulled her doll out from under the pile of barrel staves. The doll's
bathing-dress was torn, but Rose said that didn't matter because it was an
old one anyhow.

"What made it break?" asked Vi as she did this. "Did somebody hit your
steamboat, Russ? Or did it just sink?"

"I guess it sank all right," Russ answered, laughing.

"Well, what made it?" went on Vi.

"Oh, my dear! Don't ask so many questions," begged Mrs. Bunker.

"I got a new riddle," announced Laddie, as he rubbed his leg where it had
been a little scratched on a box. "It's a riddle about a wheelbarrow
and----"

"You told us that!" interrupted Russ.

"Well, then I can make up another," Laddie went on. He was always ready to
do that. "This one is going to be about a barrel. When does a barrel feel
hungry?"

"Pooh! There can't be any answer to that!" declared Russ. "A barrel can't
ever be hungry."

"Yes it can, too!" cried Laddie. "When a barrel takes a roll, isn't it
hungry? A roll is what you eat," he explained, "I didn't think that
riddle up," he added, for Laddie was quite honest. "Jerry Simms told me.
When is a barrel hungry? When it takes a roll before breakfast--that's the
whole answer."

"That's a very good riddle," said Mrs. Bunker with a smile. "But I haven't
yet heard what happened."

"Didn't you hear the noise?" asked Rose with a laugh. "It made a terrible
bang."

"Oh, yes, I heard _that_," answered Mrs. Bunker. "But what caused it?" she
asked anxiously.

Five little Bunkers looked at Russ, as the one best fitted to tell about
the upset.

"We had a make-believe steamboat," explained the oldest boy. "Laddie was
inside the flour barrel you let me take. He was the fireman. I sat outside
the barrel to steer. But Laddie jiggled and wiggled and joggled inside the
barrel and----"

"I had to, Mother, 'cause I was making believe the steamer was on the
rough ocean where the water i