e was anything wonderful to be seen, he always
went off to look at it and; whenever there was a meeting of learned
men--scientific men was the right word--they always wanted him to help
them make speeches and show wonders. He was away now: he had gone away
to wear a red cross on his arm, and help to take care of the wounded in
the sad war between the French and Germans.

But he had left Mother Bunch behind him. Nobody knew exactly what was
Mrs. Bunker's nation, indeed she could hardly be said to have had any,
for she had been born at sea, and had been a sailor's wife; but whether
she was mostly English, Dutch, or Danish, nobody knew and nobody cared.
Her husband had been lost at sea, and Uncle Joseph had taken her to look
after his house, and always said she was the only woman who had sense
and discretion enough ever to go into his laboratory or dust his museum.

She was very kind and good-natured, and there was nothing that the
children liked better than a walk to Uncle Joseph's, and, after a game
at play in the garden, a tea-drinking with her--such quantities of
sugar! such curious cakes made in the fashion of different countries!
such funny preserves from all parts of the world! and more delightful to
people who considered that looking and hearing was better sport than
eating, and that the tongue is not _only_ meant to taste with, such
cupboards and drawers full of wonderful things, such stories about them!
The lesser ones liked Mrs. Bunker's room better than Uncle Joseph's
museum, where there were some big stuffed beasts with glaring eyes that
frightened them, and they had to walk round with hands behind, that they
might not touch anything, or else their uncle's voice was sure to call
out gruffly, "Paws off!"

Mrs. Bunker was not a bit like the smart housekeepers at other houses.
To be sure, on Sundays she came out in a black silk gown with a little
flounce at the bottom, a scarlet China crape shawl with a blue dragon
upon it--his wings over her back, and a claw over each shoulder, so
that whoever sat behind her in church was terribly distracted by trying
to see the rest of him--and a very big yellow Tuscan bonnet, trimmed
with sailor's blue ribbon; but in the week and about the house she wore
a green stuff, with a brown holland apron and bib over it, quite
straight all the way down, for she had no particular waist, and her
hair, which was of a funny kind of flaxen grey, she bundled up and tied
round, without any