“Now I guess we’re all ready to sit down,” said Mother Bunker, for, with the help of Rose and Norah, the table had been set, tea made and a meal gotten ready in quick time.  Norah and Jerry had been told, by telegraph, to come back to help get the house in order.

“I’m terrible glad you came, Grandpa Ford,” said Mun Bun, as he sat opposite the old gentleman at the table.

“So’m I,” said Margy.  “Are you going to live with us always?”

“Oh, no, little Toddlekins,” laughed Grandpa Ford.  “I wish I were.  But I shall soon have to go back to Great Hedge.  Though I may not go back alone.”

“Is that a riddle?” asked Laddie eagerly.

“No, not exactly,” said Grandpa Ford with a laugh.

“I know another riddle,” went on Laddie.  “It’s about how do the tickets feel when the conductor punches them.  But I never could find an answer.”

“I don’t believe there is any,” said Grandpa Ford.

“Don’t you know any riddles?” asked Laddie.

“Well, I might think of one, if I tried real hard,” said the old gentleman.  “Let me think, now.  Here is one we used to ask one another when I was a boy.  See if you can guess it.  ’A house full and a hole full, but you can’t catch a bowlful.’  What is that, Laddie?”

“‘A house full and a hole full, but you can’t catch a bowlful,’” repeated Laddie.

“Is it crabs?” asked Mun Bun.  “I helped catch a basketful of crabs, once.”

“No, it isn’t crabs,” laughed Grandpa Ford.

“I give up.  What is it?” asked Laddie, anxious to hear the answer.

“It’s smoke!” said Grandpa Ford with a laugh.  “A house full and a hole full of smoke, but, no matter how hard you try, you can’t catch a bowlful.  For, if you try to catch smoke it just rolls away from you.”

“A house full and a hole full—­but you can’t catch a bowlful,” repeated Laddie slowly.  “That’s a good riddle!” he announced, after thinking it over, and I guess he ought to know, as he asked a great many of them.

They had a jolly time at the meal, even if it was gotten up in a hurry, and then, just as the children were going out to play again, Daddy Bunker remarked: 

“You haven’t yet told us, Father, what brought you away from Great Hedge.”

“No, I haven’t, but I will,” said Grandpa Ford.

Great Hedge, I might say, was the name of a large estate Grandpa Ford had bought to live on not a great while before.  It was just outside the city of Tarrington, in New York State, and was a fine, big country estate.

Grandpa Ford looked around the room.  He saw Russ and Rose over by the sideboard, each taking a cookie to eat out in the yard.  The other little Bunkers had already run out, for it was not yet dark.

“As soon as they go I’ll tell you why I came away from Great Hedge,” said Grandpa Ford in a low voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker.  “It’s something of a mystery, and I don’t want the children to become frightened, especially as they may go up there,” he went on.  “I’ll tell you when they go out.”