To begin with, there was Russ Bunker.  Russell was his real name, but he was always called Russ.  He was eight years old, and was very fond of “making things.”

Next came Rose Bunker.  She was only seven years old, but she could do some sweeping and lots of dusting, and was quite a little mother’s helper.  Rose had light hair and eyes, while Russ was just the opposite, being dark.

Violet, or Vi, aged six, was a curly-haired girl, with gray eyes, and, as I have told you, she could ask more questions than her father and mother could answer.

Then there was Laddie, or Fillmore, a twin of Vi’s, and, naturally, of the same age.  Just how he happened to be so fond of asking riddles no one knew.  Perhaps he caught it from Jerry Simms, who had served ten years in the army, and who never tired of telling about it.  Jerry was a not-to-be-mistaken Yankee who worked around the Bunker house—­ran the automobile, took out the furnace ashes and, when he wasn’t doing something like that, sitting in the kitchen talking to Norah O’Grady, the jolly, good-natured Irish cook, who had been in the Bunker family longer than even Russ could remember.

Jerry was a great one for riddles, too, only he asked such hard ones—­such as why does the ginger snap, and what makes the board walk?—­that none of the children could answer them.

But I haven’t finished telling about the children.  After Laddie and Violet came Margy, aged five, and then Mun Bun, the youngest and smallest of the six little Bunkers.

Of course there was Daddy Bunker, whose name was Charles, and who had a real estate office on the main street of Pineville.  In his office, Mr. Bunker bought and sold houses for his customers, and also sold lumber, bricks and other things of which houses were built.  He was an agent for big firms.

Mother Bunker’s name was Amy, and sometimes her husband called her “Amy Bell,” for her last name had been Bell before she was married.

The six little Bunkers lived in the city of Pineville, which was on the shore of the Rainbow River in Pennsylvania.  The river was called Rainbow because, just before it got to Pineville, it bent, or curved, like a bow.  And, of course, being wet, like rain, the best name in the world for such a river was “Rainbow.”  It was a very beautiful stream.

The Bunker house, a large white one with green shutters, stood back from the main street, and was not quite a mile away from Mr. Bunker’s real estate office, so it was not too far even for Mun Bun to walk there with his older sister or brother.

The six little Bunkers had many friends and relatives, and perhaps I had better tell you the names of some of these last, so you will know them as we come to them in the stories.

Mr. Bunker’s father had died when he was six years old, and his mother, Mrs. Mary Bunker, had married a man named Ford.  She and “Grandpa Ford” lived just outside the City of Tarrington, New York.  “Great Hedge Estate” was the name of Grandpa Ford’s place, so called because at one side of the house was a great, tall hedge, that had been growing for many years.