“And will that man find the red-haired lumber tramp that took your papers in the old coat?” asked Rose.

“I hope so,” answered her father.

But it was not to happen that way, as you shall see.

The journey to Grandma Bell’s was a long one.  To get to Lake Sagatook, in Maine, the Bunkers would have to travel all of one afternoon, all night and part of the next day.  They would sleep in the queer little beds on the train.

“And that’ll be a lot of fun!” said Russ to Rose.

“Oh, yes, lots!” she agreed.

At the last minute it was found that many things which needed to be taken could not be put in any of the trunks.

“Make a big bundle of them,” said Daddy Bunker.  “Wrap up all the extra things in a bundle and roll ’em in a blanket.  We can express that as we could a trunk.”

So this was done.

At last everything was ready.  The trunks and the big bundle were set out on the front porch for the expressman, and when he came the six little Bunkers, and their father and mother, watched the things being put on the auto truck.

“And now we’ll start ourselves,” said Mr. Bunker, when the expressman had started toward the depot.  “Jerry will take us all down in the auto.”

With final good-byes to Norah and some of the neighbors who gathered to see the party off, Mrs. Bunker started for the car, at the steering wheel of which sat Jerry Simms.

“Are we all here?” asked Daddy Bunker.  “Wait until I count noses.  Let me see:  Russ, Rose, Vi, Laddie, Mun Bun and——­”

Just then Mrs. Bunker uttered a cry.

“Why, where is Margy?”

And where was Margy?  She was not with the other little Bunkers!

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 automobile with Jerry Simms for the depot, 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 standing 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.