sit in the shade of it," added Rose.

"Well, all of those things can be done to trees," said Grandma Ford with
a smile, as she gave Mun Bun some more bread and jam. "I think I should
like best sitting in the shade of a tree. But what is your riddle,
Laddie?"

"Oh, you have to guess it!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I ask you the
question and you have to answer it. That's what a riddle is for. Now, I
ask you, what kind of a tree would you rather drive?"

Grandma Ford thought for a moment, and then said:

"A dogwood tree if it wouldn't bite."

"Is there a dogwood tree?" asked Laddie.

"Yes," answered Grandma Ford. "And very pretty blossoms it has on it,
too. Is that the answer to your riddle?"

"No'm," answered Laddie. "It's a horse chestnut tree. That's the kind
you'd rather drive, wouldn't you? A _horse_ chestnut!" and he laughed
gleefully.

"Well, I guess that would be the most proper sort of tree to drive,"
said Grandpa Ford, who came in just then with Daddy Bunker.

"And I'll take my dogwood tree along to run under the wagon that your
horse chestnut is pulling," said Grandma Ford.

"What makes some dogs--the kind with black spots on--trot under wagons?"
asked Vi. "Is it so they won't get rained on?"

"I guess that's as good a reason as any," said her father.

So the six little Bunkers ate their supper--rather a late one, for the
storm had delayed them--and then they sat about and talked for a while.
Grandma Ford asked the children all about themselves, where they had
been visiting and so on, and they told her about having been to Grandma
Bell's, to Aunt Jo's, and to Cousin Tom's.

"It was warm while we were at all those places," said Rose. "And now it
is winter."

"I guess you'd say so if you looked outdoors!" exclaimed Russ, who came
back from having peered from a window. "It's snowing terrible hard."

"Then we can make lots of snow men!" exclaimed Laddie. "That will be
heaps of fun."

"You'll have to be well wrapped up when you go out," remarked Grandma
Ford. "It is colder here than it is during the winter at your home, so
put on your coats every time you go out."

"The place for them to go now is to bed!" said Mrs. Bunker. "Mun Bun and
Margy are asleep in their chairs this very minute, and Vi is almost
asleep. Come, children, off to bed with you!"

Outside it was darker than ever, and still snowing and blowing hard. But
Grandpa's house at Great Hedge was the nicest place in the world.