United States or Timor-Leste ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"And we are the six little Bunkers everybody calls us that. 'Course Laddie and I are only two Bunkers there're four more at home Rose, Vi, Margy and Mun Bun." "What's Mun Bun?" asked the gate-man. Nearly every one asked this on hearing the funny name. "Mun Bun is our littlest brother," explained Russ, who was doing all the talking. "His right name is Munroe, but we call him Mun Bun for short."
Jap was very proud to be an exhibitor; but he had all a Cockney's reverence for the upper class, and when on the opening day he went to the door, he was overpowered to see the array of carriages and silk hats. The gate-man looked at him sharply, but passed him on his ticket, doubtless taking him for stable-boy to some exhibitor. The hall had velvet carpets before the long rows of cages.
I was going to tell him there wasn't, when one of the gardeners said the foreman was looking for a man to chop trees. So this red-haired man was hired." "And is he a tramp?" asked Russ. "Well, he did look sort of like that, ragged and dusty." "And did he have a ragged coat?" Russ went on. "I didn't notice particularly," answered the gate-man.
"Oh, yes, Zip is a good puller," said Russ. "He gave us this ride from Lake Sagatook." "And he ran after a rabbit!" added Laddie. "And he might 'a' got it, only the bunny went down a hole." "They mostly do that when a dog chases 'em," said the gate-man.
After a while the lady O'Conor went out searching for him, and when she had gone here and there a long time in the country, she heard that he was reaping in a field with sixty men. She came to the field and she wanted to go in, but the gate-man would not open the gate for her. Then the owner came by, and she told him her story.
It was the most maleless house of revelry I ever saw. Why, even the kakemono were pictures of perfect ladies and the gate-man was a withered old woman. There was absolutely nothing wrong I could name. It was all exquisitely, daintily, lawfully Japanese. But I sat by my window till early morning. There was a very ghost of a summer moon.
When we got there, it was too late, for already some time had passed since Mr. Sheridan saw Bedr. Rechid's gate-man said that Mabella Hanem was suddenly better, and had gone away with her husband. He could talk a little French, so we understood perfectly and, anyhow, you know I'm studying Arabic. It's so discouraging when Arabs answer me in Cockney English, or say "Sure" in American!
"We want to see the lumberman that took daddy's ragged coat with the papers in the pocket only he didn't know they were there and he didn't take the coat. That was given to him." "You want to see a lumberman?" repeated the guard at the gate, for he was a sort of guard. "But we haven't any lumbermen here." "He's red-haired," Russ reminded him. "Oh, I guess I know whom you mean!" said the gate-man.
Up jumped the dog with a bark, as much as to say "Good-bye!" to the gate-man, and down the gravel drive he trotted with the cart. "He was a nice man, wasn't he?" observed Laddie. "Yes, terrible nice," agreed Russ. "I hope we find the red-haired lumberman." "I forgot to ask him a riddle," went on Laddie. "I mean the man at the gate. But I can ask him one when we go back."
"Well, as long as you don't eat him for short I guess it will be all right," said the gate-man with a laugh. "Is that a riddle about eating Mun Bun?" asked Laddie. "No. That's supposed to be a joke," explained the gate-man. "Your brother's nickname is Bun, you say. Well, a bun is something good to eat, but I hope you don't eat your little brother joke, you see." Russ and Laddie laughed.
Word Of The Day