“I know what’s in them,” said Russ.  “I can read it on the box.  It’s marshmallow candies.”

“Oh, are we going to have a marshmallow roast on the beach?” cried Rose.

“Yes, that’s what we are going to have,” her father said.

“Oh, hurray!  Hurray!  Hurray!” cried the six little Bunkers.

CHAPTER XIX

THE SALLIE GROWLER

Have you ever toasted marshmallow candies at the seashore beach?  If you have you need not stop to read this part of the story.  But if you have not, from this and the next page you may learn how to do it.

In the first place you need three things to have a marshmallow roast, and you can easily guess what the first thing is.  It’s a box of the white candies.  Then you need a fire, and, if you are a little boy or girl, it will be best to have your father or mother or some big person make the fire for you, as you might get burned.

Then you need some long, pointed sticks on which to hold the marshmallow candies as you toast them.  If the sticks are too short you will toast your fingers or your face instead of the candies.

“Have you got lots of marshmallows, Daddy?” asked Rose, as she and the other children gathered about their father.

“Plenty, I think,” he answered.  “We don’t want so many that you will be made ill, you know.”

“I can eat a lot of ’em without getting sick,” declared Laddie.

“I like ’em, too,” said Vi.  “Where do the marshmallow candies come from, Daddy?” she asked.

“From the store, of course!” exclaimed Laddie.

“No, I mean before they get to the store,” went on the little girl.  “Does a hen lay the marshmallows, same as chickens lay eggs?”

“Oh, no!” laughed Daddy Bunker.  “Marshmallow candy is made from sugar and other things, just as most candies are.”

As the six little Bunkers, with their father and mother and Cousin Tom and his wife, walked down to the shore of the sea, which was light from the beams of a silvery moon, Laddie said: 

“I have a new riddle!”

“Is it about marshmallows?” asked Vi.

“No.  But the candies made me think of it,” replied her brother.  “It’s about a fire.”

“What is your riddle about a fire?” asked Cousin Ruth, who always liked to hear Laddie ask his funny questions.

“Where does the fire go when it goes out?” Laddie asked.  “That’s my riddle.  Where does the fire go when it goes out?”

“It doesn’t go anywhere,” declared Russ.  “It just stays where it is.”

“Part of it goes away,” declared Laddie.  “Where does it go?  Where does the hot part go when the fire goes out?”

“Up in the air,” said Rose.

“Off in the ocean!” exclaimed Mun Bun, who really did not know what they were talking about.

“Does it, Daddy?” asked Laddie.

“Why, I don’t know,” said Mr. Bunker.  “It’s your riddle; you ought to know what the answer is.”