Russ and Laddie promised.  They had not really meant to annoy Rose, but they had just not stopped to think.  They did so want to see the yellow shoe buttons pulled off their sister’s doll.  And that’s just what happened.  The doll was shaped something like an ear of corn, and the yellow buttons stuck out like kernels.  And so the doll was “shucked.”

After a while Rose got over feeling bad, and the next day all the yellow buttons were sewed back on the doll.  And Tom kept the corncrib locked, so Laddie and Russ could not get into it again.

“But it was lots of fun seeing the yellow buttons drop out the spout,” said Russ.

“And I could almost make up a riddle about it,” added Laddie.

“I don’t want any riddles about my doll,” objected Rose.  “She’s too nice.  I’m going to sew some yellow buttons on now, and black ones too, ’cause you lost some of the yellow ones.”

“Well, we won’t shuck her any more,” promised Russ.

These were happy days at Grandma Bell’s.  Something new could be played by the children all the while.  They loved it in the woods, and on the shores of beautiful Lake Sagatook.

“When are you going to get the boat, Daddy, and take us out?” asked Russ one afternoon, when they had seen the red-haired fishermen once more.  He came close to the sandy point, and talked to the six little Bunkers, but he said he had not yet found the lumberman who had been given the ragged coat with Mr. Bunker’s papers in the pocket.

“I’ll get a boat next week,” promised Mr. Bunker.  “Then we can all go for a row.”

“And fish, too?” asked Russ.

“Yes, we’ll fish also,” said his father.

But, as it happened, Laddie got tired waiting for the boat, and made one himself.  At least he made a sort of raft.

He nailed some boards and pieces of wood together, and when he pushed the raft into the shallow water, near the shore of Sandy Point, as the children called their play-spot, Laddie found that he could stand up on his raft and push himself along.  The raft floated with him on it, as though it were a boat.  Of course the water came up over the top, but as Laddie went barefooted this did not matter.

One day he went down to the lake with a piece of clothesline.  On the way he whistled to Zip, the playful dog.

“What are you going to do with him?” asked Russ.

“I’m going to see if he’ll give me a ride,” answered Laddie.

“A ride?  How?  There isn’t any express wagon here.”

“I don’t need an express wagon,” said Laddie.  “I’m going to make Zip be a whale, or maybe a shark, and pull me on my raft-boat.”

“How can you?” asked Russ.

“I’ll show you,” Laddie answered.

He tied one end of the piece of clothesline to his raft, and on the other end of the line he made fast a round stick.

“Here, Zip!  Zip!” cried Laddie, “Go after the stick!”