Rose had to stop, she was so out of breath, but she had told all there was need to tell.

Mrs. Bunker and Norah, who had reached the street and could look down and see Mun Bun standing under a tree not far away, came to a sudden stop.

“And then the little darlin’ isn’t caught up by a German airship?” asked the cook.

“No.  It’s just a balloon he bought with the five cents Jerry gave him,” explained Rose, “and it’s caught in a tree, and——­”

“I see how it is,” said Mrs. Bunker, and she laughed.  “Mun Bun doesn’t want to come away without his toy balloon.  We must get it for him, Norah!”

“Sure, that we will!  The saints be praised he isn’t flyin’ above the clouds this blessed minute!” and with Norah, now laughing also, the three of them went to where Mun stood under the tree.  Caught on one of the branches overhead was a big red balloon.  It was fast to a string, and the little boy held the other end of the cord.

“I can’t get it down!” he exclaimed.

“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t climb up after it,” said his mother.  “We’ll get it down for you, Mun.”

She took hold of the string, and Norah, finding a long stick, carefully poked it up among the tree branches until she had loosed the toy balloon.  Then it floated free, and Mun Bun could walk along with it floating on the end of the string above his head.

“It’s a awful nice balloon,” he said.  “If it was bigger I could have a ride in it like Jerry did in the one when he was in the army.”

“Well, I’m glad it isn’t any bigger,” said Mrs. Bunker.  “Small as it is, you gave us enough trouble with it, Mun.”

“But Mun Bun’s all right!  Norah was scared about him,” said the girl, hugging the little boy close to her as they all walked back toward the house.

“Where did you get the balloon?” asked Mrs. Bunker.

“Down at Mrs. Kane’s store,” answered Mun, mentioning a little toy and candy shop on the block on which the six little Bunkers lived.  They spent all their spare pennies there.

And it was in bringing his toy balloon home, on the end of a long string, letting it float in the air over his head that Mun Bun had had the accident at the tree when the blown-up rubber bag got caught in the branch.  He wouldn’t leave it, of course, and Rose ran to tell her mother.  That’s how it all happened.

“Well, come in to lunch now!” called Mrs. Bunker to the other children, who were, playing in the yard.  “And don’t go away from the house this afternoon.  It’s quite warm, and I don’t want any of you to go off in the blazing sun.  If you do we can’t go to Grandma Bell’s.”

This was enough to make them all promise they would spend the afternoon in the shade near the house, while Mrs. Bunker and Norah went on with the packing of the trunks.  A great many things must be taken along on the visit to Maine, when so many children have to be looked after.  They used up much clothing.