"But I think I'll have to get her a new cage so she
can't get out. It keeps me busy chasing after her."

"Polly wants a cracker! Polly wants a sweet cracker!" chanted the
parrot.

"Well, you'll get a sour one if you aren't good!" said Mr. Hixon, with a
laugh. "I'm sorry my parrot fooled you, and made you think a child was
lost in the woods," he went on.

"Oh, that's all right," said Mother Bunker. "We didn't mind hunting, and
we're glad no one was lost."

"How are all the six little Bunkers?" asked the owner of the green
parrot, as he started for his home.

"Well, these four, as you see, are fine," said Grandma Bell. "The other
two, Russ and Rose, are playing steamboat on the lake. But I am going to
lose them all."

"Lose them all!" cried Mr. Hixon. "How's that?"

"We are going to pay a visit to Mr. Bunker's sister, who lives in
Boston," explained Mrs. Bunker. "She wrote and asked us to come, and
this is our last week at Grandma Bell's."

"Well, I'm sure we'll miss the six little Bunkers when they go," said
Mr. Hixon.

"Indeed we shall!" said Grandma Bell. "But they are coming to see me
again."

"We love it here," put in Vi.

"And we've had lots of fun," added Margy.

"Maybe we'll have fun at Aunt Jo's," said Laddie.

"I'm sure you will. I guess you could have fun anywhere, you six," said
Mr. Hixon with a laugh. "Well, good-bye, if I don't see you again!"

"Good-bye!" said the others.

"Good-bye," echoed the parrot.

Grandma Bell, Mother Bunker and the four children went back to the shady
cove of the lake.

"Where'd you go?" asked Russ and Rose, who were walking along to meet
them.

"Oh, we thought somebody was lost in the woods," answered Laddie.

"But it was Mr. Hixon's parrot," added Vi.

The children went back to their play.

A day or so later they helped pack the things they had brought with them
to Grandma Bell's.

"We're going to Aunt Jo's! We're going to Aunt Jo's!" shouted Rose,
dancing about.

"In Boston! In Boston!" added Russ. "And we'll have Boston baked beans!"

The next day the children said good-bye to Grandma Bell and, with Daddy
and Mother Bunker, started for Aunt Jo's. They hardly even dreamed of
all the good times they were to have there, nor of the strange things
that were to happen.

CHAPTER III

ON THE BOAT

From Grandma Bell's home, near Lake Sagatook, the six little Bunkers,
with their father and mother, were taken to the railroad station in a
big