w and arrow."

"I'd rather you wouldn't go now," said their mother. "Don't you want to
come with us?"

"Where are you going?" asked Laddie.

"Off to the woods for a little picnic. Bill Johnson is going to put us
up a little lunch, and we will stay all day and have fun in the woods."

"Oh, yes, we'll go!" cried Russ. "We can ride our ponies some other
time," he added to his brother.

"All right," Laddie agreed. "Maybe I can think of a riddle in the
woods."

"What makes them call it a 'woods,' Mother?" asked Vi later, when the
lunch baskets were ready and the picnic party was about to set off. "Why
don't they call it a 'trees' insteads of a woods? There's a lot of trees
there."

"You may call it that, if you like," said Mother Bunker. "We'll go to
the 'trees' and have some fun. Come on all my six little Bunkers!"

And away they went to the woods or the trees, whichever you like. There
was a large clump of trees not far from the house on Three Star Ranch,
and in that the children had their picnic. They played under the green
boughs, had games of tag and ate their lunch. Then they rested and,
after a while, Russ called:

"Come on! Let's have a game of hide-and-go-seek! I'll be it, and I'll
blind and all the rest of you can hide."

"Oh, that'll be lots of fun!" said Rose.

So they played this game. Russ easily saw where Margy and Mun Bun hid
themselves, behind bushes near the tree where he was "blinding," but he
let them "in free." Then he caught Rose, and she had to be "it" the next
time. Violet came in free, for she had picked out a good hiding-place.

"Now I have to find Laddie!" cried Russ. He hunted all over, but he
could not find his little brother.

"Oh, tell him he can come in free!" exclaimed Rose. "Then we can go on
with the game."

So Russ called:

"Givie up! Givie up! Come on in free, Laddie!"

But Laddie did not come. Where could he be?

CHAPTER XXI

RUSS DIGS A HOLE

"What's the matter, children? Why are you shouting so?" asked Mrs.
Bunker, who had walked on a little way through the woods to get some
flowers. "Can't you play more quietly? You're as bad as the cowboys!"

"We're hollering for Laddie, Mother!" explained Russ. "We can't find
him."

"Can't find him?"

"No. I was blinding, 'cause I was it, and he went off to hide. I found
all the others, or they came in free, but I can't find Laddie, and he
doesn't answer when I say I'll givie up."

"Perhaps he is hiding near h