uss to his sister. "We'll have a last ride on
the steamboat."

"I want to come, too!" shouted Laddie, dropping a bundle of pine cones
he had picked up.

"So do I," added Vi. "I want a ride."

"Say, we can't all get on the steamboat at once!" Russ cried. "It'll
sink if we do."

"Then we can play shipwreck," proposed Rose.

"Yes, we could do that," Russ agreed. "But if the steamboat sinks it'll
be on the bottom of the lake, and it won't move and we can't have rides.
That'll be no fun!" And the boy began to whistle, which he almost always
did when he was thinking hard, as he was just now.

"Well, what can we do?" asked Rose. "I want a ride on the steamboat."

It wasn't really a steamboat at all, being only some fence rails and
boards nailed roughly together. It was more of a raft than a boat, but
it would float in the shallow water of the lake near the shore, and the
children could stand on it in their bare feet and paddle about in a
small cove that a bend in the shore-line of the lake made. The reason
they had to take off their shoes and stockings was because the water
came up over the top of the raft, and splashed on the children's feet.
Anyhow, it was more fun to go barefooted, and no sooner had the six
little Bunkers reached the shore of the lake in the midst of the woods,
than off came their shoes and stockings.

"I want to ride on the steamer, too," said Mun Bun.

"No, we don't want to do that," put in Margy, who was standing near him.

"Why?" he asked.

"'Cause."

"But why?"

"Don't you 'member? We're goin' to roll downhill where the pine needles
make it so slippery."

"Oh, yes," agreed Mun Bun. "We'll roll downhill, and then we'll ride on
the steamer."

"But I want a ride now!" insisted Violet.

"So do I," added Laddie.

"I asked first," cried Rose. "But I s'pose mother'll make me give in to
you two, 'cause I'm older'n you; but I don't want to," she added.

"My! what's all this about?" asked Mother Bunker, as she came along with
Grandma Bell, the two women having walked more slowly than the children.
"Has anything happened?" She could tell by the faces of the little ones
that everything was not just right.

"Oh, they all want to ride on the steamboat at once, and it isn't big
enough," explained Russ.

"Then you must take turns," said Mother Bunker quickly. "That's the only
way to do. Rose, dear, you are the oldest; you will let Laddie and
Violet have the first ride, will you not?"

"The