CHAPTER III

SOMETHING QUEER

Russ Bunker took a cookie from the dish on the sideboard, handed one to Rose, and then the two children went out on the porch.  Rose was just going to run along to find Vi, who had taken her Japanese doll to play with, when Russ caught his sister by her dress.

“Wait a minute, Rose.”

“What for?” she asked.

“Hush!” went on Russ.  “Not so loud.  Didn’t you hear what Grandpa Ford said?”

“I didn’t listen,” admitted Rose.  “I wanted to see if there were any molasses cookies, but they’re all sugar.  What was it?” and Rose, too, talked very low.

They were now out on the side porch, under the dining-room windows, which were open, for, as I have said, it was warm October weather.

“He said there was something queer about Great Hedge, where he lives with Grandma,” went on Russ.  “He didn’t want us to hear, ’cause I heard him tell Daddy and Mother so.  But we can hear out here if we listen.  Let’s keep still, and maybe we can tell what it is.”

“But that won’t be nice,” protested Rose.  “Mother said we shouldn’t peep through keyholes, or listen behind doors.”

“There isn’t any keyhole here,” said Russ.  “And we’re not behind a door, either.”

“Well, but——­” But Rose could think of nothing else to say.  Besides, just then, she heard her grandfather’s voice.  He was speaking to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker, and saying: 

“Yes, it certainly is very strange.  It’s quite a puzzle to me—­a riddle, I suppose Laddie would call it.  But I don’t want the children to know anything about it.”

“There, you see!” exclaimed Russ in a whisper.  “It’s only a riddle he is going to tell.  We can listen to it, and have some fun.  We won’t tell what the answer is when he asks us.  We’ll make believe we don’t know.”

“Well, if it’s only a riddle, I guess it’s all right to listen to it,” agreed Rose.

So the two eldest Bunker children crouched down on the side porch, under the dining-room windows, and listened to the talk that was going on inside.  Of course this was not right, but they did not know any better, especially after Grandpa Ford spoke about a “riddle.”

And so it came about that Rose and Russ heard what it was not intended they should hear.

“You know,” went on Grandpa Ford, as Russ and Rose listened outside, “that I bought Great Hedge Estate from a Mr. James Ripley, who lives near here.”

“Yes, I know that,” said Daddy Bunker.  “Well, you like it, don’t you, Father?”

“Quite well.  Your mother likes it, too.  It is a large farm, as you know, and there is a big stretch of woods, as well as land where I can raise fruits and vegetables.  There are meadows for grazing, and fields for corn, hay and oats.  Great Hedge is a fine place, and your mother and I like it there very much.