en't got room for me anywhere else,"
said Margy, as she went up to Alexis, which was the dog's name. "I did
sleep with a dog on the boat, and he did love me and I did love him."

"Has you got a cat?" asked Mun Bun. "I want to love something, too," and
he looked at Aunt Jo with big, round eyes.

"No," answered Daddy's sister, "I haven't a cat, but Alexis is large
enough for all you six little Bunkers to love, I guess," and truly the
Great Dane seemed so.

"What makes Alexis so big?" asked Vi.

"Because he's a Great Dane."

"What makes a Great Dane be so big?"

"Vi, Vi!" protested her mother. "Don't ask any more questions now."

"But come in and get your things off," went on Aunt Jo. "I'm keeping you
standing in the hall as if I didn't have room for you inside. Come in,
make yourselves at home and I'll have Parker hurry the lunch. You must
be starved."

"We had breakfast, but it wasn't much," said Russ. "I guess it's on
account of war times." Russ had really eaten a big breakfast, but, of
course, that had been a long time before.

"Well, of course we must all help with the war," said Aunt Jo, "but I
think Parker can give you enough to eat."

"Is Parker a cat?" asked Vi.

"Oh, no!" laughed Aunt Jo. "Parker is my cook. I call her by her last
name instead of her first name, as it is the same as mine. Parker is a
very good cook, you'll find."

"If Parker was a cat maybe I could think up a riddle about her," put in
Laddie. "Anyhow, I know a new riddle, Aunt Jo."

"Do you? Well, I must hear it," she said, as she opened the door to the
sitting-room.

"Oh, Laddie, can't you wait to ask riddles until we get our things off?"
asked his mother.

"I--I'm afraid I might forget it," said the little boy. "It's a hard
riddle."

"Well, let me hear it," said Aunt Jo with a laugh. "I used to be pretty
good at guessing them."

"This is it," said Laddie. "I didn't make it up, but I asked one of the
sailors on the steamer for a good riddle, and he told me this one. It's,
'What can you put in your left hand that you can't put in your right
hand?' That's the riddle."

"Pooh! there can't be any answer to that," said Russ. "If you can put
anything in your left hand you can put it in your right, too. Look!"

He took his knife from his pocket, and put it first in his right hand
and then in his left.

"But I don't mean a knife," said Laddie. "'Tisn't what you _can_ put in
both hands, it's what you _can't_."

"Let me hear t