CHAPTER IX ROSE'S DOLL

 Daddy Bunker, who had started to "count noses," to make sure all his family was together, ready to start in the automobile² with Jerry Simms for the depot³, stopped suddenly when he found that little Margy was not with the other children. At the same time Mother Bunker also saw that one of her little girls was missing.

 

"Where did Margy go?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "I told her not to run back into the house."

 

"She didn't," said Norah. "I was standing⁴ right by the door all the while, and she didn't go in."

 

"Maybe she went in the back way," said Russ.

 

"The back door is locked," returned Norah. "She must have run down the street to say good-bye to some of her playmates while the expressman was loading in the trunks."

 

"I'll go and look," offered Russ.

 

"And you look in the back and side yards, Rose," said Mr. Bunker.

 

Rose ran around to the back yard. A hasty look showed her that her little sister was not there, and she hurried around to the front porch to tell her father and mother.

 

At the same time Russ came back from his trip down the street.

 

"I didn't see her anywhere," he reported, "and I called, but she didn't answer."

 

"Where can the child be?" cried Mrs. Bunker. "Norah, are you sure she isn't in the house?"

 

"Positive. But I'll take a look."

 

Just then Russ cried:

 

"Here comes the expressman back again. Maybe he forgot some of the trunks!"

 

"No, he took them all," said Mr. Bunker. "I don't see——"

 

The express auto¹ stopped in front of the Bunker house.

 

"Did you miss anything?" asked the man, laughing.

 

"Miss anything?" repeated the children's father.

 

"Oh! Margy! We missed her!" said Mrs. Bunker.

 

"Well, I guess I've got her here on my truck," went on the expressman, laughing some more.

 

"You have my little girl?" cried Mrs. Bunker, "How did she get into your auto?"

 

"That I don't know," the expressman said, "but here she is," and he lifted out the big bundle loosely wrapped in an old blanket. The bundle had in it the things that wouldn't go in the trunks. It was open at both ends, and tied with straps⁵ and ropes.

 

Out of one end stuck the dark, and now tangled⁶, curls of Margy Bunker, and Margy was laughing.

 

"Oh, what a girl you are!" cried her mother. "How did you get in there, Margy?"

 

"I—I wiggled in," was the answer, as the expressman carried the bundle, little Bunker and all, to the porch. "I wanted to get my rubber ball that was inside so I just wiggled in, I did."

 

"Did you really find her in that bundle?" asked Mr. Bunker, as the expressman put it down on the porch, and Margy, with the help of her mother, "wiggled" out.

 

"Yes, she was in there," was the man's answer. "I loaded that bundle on last, I remember, because it was soft and I didn't want to crush it with the heavy trunks. It's a good thing I did, though I didn't know there was a little girl inside."

 

"How did you find out she was in there?" asked Mrs. Bunker.

 

"Well, I stopped my machine when I got down the street a way, to take on some more packages," answered the expressman, "and I heard a funny sound. It was like a sneeze."

 

"I did sneeze," said Margy, while Norah was busy smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress. "Some dust got up my nose and I sneezed."

 

"First I thought it was a little puppy dog, or a cat—sometimes people send animals by express," explained the driver. "But when I looked back I saw a little girl's head sticking out of the bundle, and I knew right away where she belonged. I thought you didn't want to ship her as baggage or by express, so I brought her back as fast as I could."

 

"I'm glad you did," said Mrs. Bunker. "We couldn't imagine where she had gone."

 

"What did you do, Margy?" asked Russ.

 

"I—I just crawled inside the bundle," replied the little girl "I 'membered I put my rubber ball inside, and I wanted it, so I wiggled inside. And when I got there I was so tired I went to sleep, I guess."

 

And that is just what happened. Margy had wiggled herself all the way inside the bundle, which was not wrapped very tightly. It was big enough to hold her, and neither her feet nor her head stuck out of either end.

 

The bundle had been put on the porch with the trunks, and Margy found it easy to crawl into it after her ball, which, with other toys of the children, had been put in the bundle at the last minute.

 

"Well, now we'll start off again," said Daddy Bunker. "Don't any of you children crawl into any bundles, or shut yourselves up in trunks! We all want to go to Grandma Bell's together."

 

The expressman once more carried the bundle to his auto truck, and found it a little lighter⁷ this time, for Margy was not snuggled up inside it. Then, after "counting noses," Mr. Bunker, his wife and the children got into the auto with Jerry Simms, and started for the depot.

 

"Now I guess we're all right," said the children's father, as he saw that the baggage was safely put on the train, including the bundle into which Margy had "wiggled" herself. "All aboard!"

 

"That's what you called when we were playing steamboat," said Rose to Russ, as they got into the passenger car.

 

"Yes. We had lots of fun that day, didn't we?" he asked.

 

"Yes. And we'll have a lot of fun at Grandma Bell's," said his sister.

 

As the six little Bunkers were to stay on the train all the rest of that day and night, as well as part of the next day, they did not go in an ordinary day coach. They went in one that had big, deep seats, which, when the time came, could be turned into beds, with sheets, pillow cases, and curtains hanging in front. But, until the beds were needed, the seats were used by the passengers, some riding backward and some forward.

 

As there were eight Bunkers, including the father and mother, they needed several beds for sleeping at night. Daddy would take Mun Bun in with him, and Margy would be tucked in with her mother.

 

Russ and Laddie said they wanted to sleep together, while Rose and Violet were to share a berth⁸ between them, and thus they would be as comfortable as possible on the trip.

 

"But it will be quite a while before the berths⁹ are made up," said Mr. Bunker to the children. "So sit beside the windows and look out."

 

It was lots of fun riding in the train to Grandma Bell's. The smaller children had not traveled much, and everything was new to them. Rose and Russ had been on little trips, though, so they did not so much marvel¹⁰ at the things they saw. But every time the train passed cows or horses in a field, went under a bridge or over one, or through a tunnel, it was something for the other four little Bunkers to wonder at and say:

 

"Oh!" and "Ah!"

 

After a while, though, they grew less excited, and sat in the big, deep seats more quietly, looking at the trees and telegraph poles that seemed to rush by so swiftly. There were a few other passengers in the sleeping-car—that is, it would be a sleeping-car when the berths were made up—and for a time the children looked at the men and women who were traveling.

 

"I wonder if they have any Grandma Bell to go to?" asked Vi of her mother.

 

"Oh, yes, I suppose so," was the answer, for Mrs. Bunker was busy reading, and hardly knew what she said.

 

"Are they going to our Grandma Bell's?" asked Vi quickly.

 

"To our Grandma Bell's? No, I don't suppose that!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker, realizing that Vi was surprised. "But they have some place to go."

 

"I don't believe they have any place as nice as our Grandma Bell's house," went on Vi. "When'll we get there, Mother? Do you know?"

 

"Oh, not for a long while. Now please don't ask so many questions, Vi. I want to read. Look out of the window."

 

Vi did for a little while. Then she turned to her father and asked:

 

"How many telegraph poles are there?"

 

"Oh, I don't know," he answered. Then, knowing that once Vi started to ask questions she would never stop, he bought her a picture book from the train boy.

 

"I want a book, too," demanded Laddie.

 

"So do I," said Margy.

 

"Here! Give 'em each one!" exclaimed Mr. Bunker with a laugh. "Maybe that will keep 'em quiet until bedtime."

 

"I don't want a book now, thank you," said Rose. "I'm going to get my doll to sleep." She had brought with her the largest doll she owned, almost as large, it was, as herself, and this she held in her arms as she sat in the seat away from the others, as the car was not crowded.

 

Five little Bunkers sat looking at the picture books Daddy Bunker had bought them. Mr. and Mrs. Bunker were reading papers and Rose was getting her doll to "sleep." The doll did really shut its eyes, so Rose did not have to pretend very hard that her pet was soon in slumberland.

 

"Now I'm going to put her to bed," she whispered, and, walking down to the end of the car ("where it'll be quiet," the little girl said to herself), she laid the doll, wrapped in a shawl, down in the deep corner of the seat.

 

The afternoon wore on. The little Bunkers looked at their picture books—taking turns—and again gazed out of the window. Rose thought her doll had slept long enough, so she walked down to the end of the car to get her pet.

 

The little girl came back with a bundle in her arms, and, sitting down beside her mother, began unwrapping the shawl.

 

And then something very queer happened. There was a tiny little cry, and the bundle in Rose's arms moved! The little girl cried:

 

"Oh, Mother, look! Look, Mother! My dollie has come alive! It has turned into a real, live baby! Look! Oh, Mother!"

 

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

6 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

7 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

8 berth   

n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊

参考例句：

• She booked a berth on the train from London to Aberdeen.她订了一张由伦敦开往阿伯丁的火车卧铺票。
• They took up a berth near the harbor.他们在港口附近找了个位置下锚。

9 berths   

n.（船、列车等的）卧铺( berth的名词复数 )；（船舶的）停泊位或锚位；差事；船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 )；占铺位

参考例句：

• Berths on steamships can be booked a long while in advance. 轮船上的床位可以提前多日预订。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Have you got your berths on the ship yet? 你们在船上有舱位了吗？ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。