Grandma Bell was Mrs. Bunker’s mother, and lived at Lake Sagatook, Maine.  She was a widow, Grandpa Bell having died some years ago.  Margy, or Margaret, had been named for Grandma Bell.

Then there was Aunt Josephine Bunker, or Aunt Jo, Mr. Bunker’s sister.  She had never married, and now lived in a fine house in the Back Bay section of Boston.  Uncle Frederick Bell, who was Mother Bunker’s brother, lived with his wife, on Three Star Ranch, just outside Moon City in Montana.

And now, when I have mentioned Cousin Tom Bunker, who had recently been married, and who lived with his wife Ruth at Seaview, on the New Jersey coast, I believe you have met the most important of the relatives of the six little Bunkers.  You see they had a grandfather, and two grandmothers, some aunts, an uncle and a cousin.  Well supplied with nice relatives, were the six little Bunkers, and thus they had many places to visit.

But I’ll tell you about that part later on.  Just now we must see what happened after the steamboat broke to pieces because Laddie jiggled himself inside the barrel, when Russ was sitting on the outside of it.

“Are you sure none of you is hurt?  You look so!” cried Mother Bunker, as she saw the confused mass of children, barrel staves, box, footstool and chairs in the middle of the playroom floor.

“I’m all right,” said Laddie, as he pulled his leg out from 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.”