id Mrs. Bunker. "I'll come down to
the whistling wagon with you and see about it."

Margy and Mun Bun led her down to the front gate, where the peanut man,
still smiling, was waiting. The hot oven on his wagon, in which he
roasted the peanuts, was still whistling. Afterward Daddy Bunker told
the children that the steam came out and made the whistling sound by
puffing itself through a tin thing with holes in it, just as a boy blows
his breath through the same kind of tin thing to make a whistle.

"And the reason the Italian puts water in the top of his peanut-roaster
is so that the peanuts in the bags, where he puts them to keep warm,
will not burn," the father of the six little Bunkers told them. "The
whistling is like the bell the old-fashioned ice-cream man used to ring.
People hear it and come to buy, just as you did."

Mrs. Bunker found the Italian's peanuts fresh and nicely browned and
roasted, and she bought enough for all the children.

"You have to thank Margy and Mun Bun for them," she said to Russ, Rose
and the twins. "They first heard the whistling wagon and ran out to see
what it was."

The children had a sort of little play-party with the peanuts, though
Laddie stuffed some of his in his pocket.

"I'm going to save 'em," he said.

"What for?" asked Russ, who had his kite partly finished.

"Oh, maybe I'll see an elephant in a circus parade," the little boy
answered.

"Circus parades never come up in our Back Bay section," said Aunt Jo
with a smile. "So I don't believe you'll see an elephant, Laddie."

"Oh, well, then I can eat the peanuts myself," he returned. "But maybe I
might see a squirrel."

"Yes, we have some of them in our parks," went on Aunt Jo. "And I have
seen them so tame that they would come up and take a nut from your
fingers. Some day we'll go to the park and look for the little fellows.
But I'm afraid you won't have any peanuts left then, Laddie."

"Well, we can get some more," said the little boy with a laugh.

It was a little later that same afternoon, when Rose, who was out on the
porch, getting her doll dressed for supper, as she said, came running
in, looking very much excited.

"Well, what is it now?" asked her mother. "Has Mun Bun or any of the
others, ridden off on a junk wagon?"

"Oh, no," answered the little girl. "But Laddie went off down the street
with his peanuts in his pocket, and now he's come back and he has a
funny riddle."

"A funny riddle!" exclaimed Mr