“May we come with you?” asked Russ.

“Please let us,” begged Rose.

Mr. Bunker, who did not seem quite so worried now, looked at his wife.

“Take the children, if you have time,” she said.  “At least Rose and Russ.  The others are playing in the sand,” for that’s what they were doing.  Vi, Laddie, Margy and Mun Bun were digging in a pile of sand at one end of the yard.

“All right, come along, Little Flower, and you, too, Whistler,” said Mr. Bunker, giving Russ a pet name he used occasionally.

The two children, delighted to be out after the rain, went down the street with their father, leaving their smaller brothers and sisters playing in the sand.  Russ and Rose felt they were too old for this—­especially just now.

“Did you hear what happened to us?” asked Russ, as he walked along, holding one of his father’s hands, while Rose took the other.

“What happened when?” asked Mr. Bunker.

“When I made a steamboat partly out of a barrel,” went on Russ.  “It got broken when Laddie was inside it and I was outside.  But we didn’t any of us get hurt.”

“Well, I’m glad of that,” said Mr. Bunker with a smile.

“And Laddie made up a funny riddle about the barrel” went on Rose.  “Jerry told it to him, though.  It’s like this—­’Why does a barrel eat a roll for breakfast?’”

“Why does a barrel eat a roll for breakfast?” repeated Mr. Bunker.  “I didn’t know barrels ate rolls.  I thought they always took crackers or oatmeal or something like that.”

“Oh, she hasn’t got it right!” said Russ, with a laugh at his sister.  “The riddle is, ‘When is a barrel hungry?’ and Laddie says Jerry told him it was when the barrel takes a roll before breakfast.”

“Oh, I see!” laughed Mr. Bunker.  “Well, that’s pretty good.  Now I have a riddle for you.  ‘How many lollypops can you buy for two pennies?’” and he stopped in front of a little store with the two children—­one on each side of him.

Russ looked at Rose and Rose looked at Russ.  Then they smiled and looked at their father.

“I think we can find the answer to that riddle in here,” went Mr. Bunker, as he led the way into the candy store, for it was that kind.

And Russ and Rose soon found that they could each get a lollypop for a penny.

“You used to get two for a cent,” said Russ.  “But I guess, on account of everything being so high, they only give you one.”

“Well, one at a time is enough, I should think,” said Mr. Bunker, as they went out of the store.  “If you had two lollypops I’d be afraid you wouldn’t know which one to taste first, and it would take so long to make sure that you might grow old before you found out, and then you wouldn’t have any fun eating them.”

“Oh, you’re such a funny daddy!” laughed Rose.

They walked down Main Street, and soon came to Mr. Bunker’s real estate office.  He hurried inside, followed by the children.