"If the weather keeps nice we'll go down to Nantasket Beach some day,"

said Aunt Jo. "I think they'll like it there. It is a seaside resort."

"They'll be sure to," said Mrs. Bunker. "I do wish we could find the person who owned that sixty-five dollars. I have an idea it must be the savings of some poor woman, or rather, from the letter, money some one sent her. It must be hard for her to lose it, but we can't seem to find to whom it belongs."

"Perhaps we shall, some day," said Aunt Jo. And they were to, in a very strange way, as you shall hear in due time.

Down the street ran the six little Bunkers, to get the toy balloons.

They saw them in the store window--red, green and blue ones, and they picked out different colors.

"Don't they look pretty?" cried Vi, as they marched back with the blown-up rubber bags floating in the air over their heads.

As yet the balloons had only short strings on them, and Rose, to make sure the toys of Mun Bun and Margy would not get away, tied the strings to their wrists.

"They look like big plums or apples," said Laddie. "Maybe I could think up a riddle about the balloons."

"Well, you can be thinking about it when we have a race to see which one goes highest in the air," said Russ. "When we get to Aunt Jo's house, we'll get string and let the balloons sail away up."

Mother Bunker said strong thread would be better than string, as it would not be so heavy, and soon the six little Bunkers were out in the front yard, letting their toys sail high above their heads.

"Mine's the highest!" cried Russ, as he looked at his green balloon floating high above the trees.

"That's 'cause you let out all the thread," said Laddie. "I'm not going to let all mine unwind."

And neither did the other children, for they were afraid their toys might get away. For some time they had fun in this way, pulling the balloons down when they got very far up in the air, and then letting them float upward again.

Then came a call from the house. It was Mother Bunker, saying:

"Here is some bread and jam for hungry children. How many of you want it?"

There was no question as to how many did. Each of the six little Bunkers was hungry.

"Let's tie our balloons to the fence and leave 'em here until we get back," said Russ, and this was done, he and Rose tying the threads of Mun Bun and Margy, who could not make very good knots as yet.

And so, with the balloons floating out in front, the children went back to sit under the grape-arbor and eat bread and jam that Parker spread for them.

It was so good that some of them had two slices, and then William brought the automobile out of the garage and began to get it ready for a run. Aunt Jo was to take the children for a ride.

"What's William doing to the auto?" asked Vi.

"Come on! Let's watch him!" proposed Russ, and he and Laddie, with Vi, Mun Bun and Margy, ran over to where the chauffeur was doing something to the car.

"Will our balloons be all right?" asked Laddie.

"Yes, they can't get away," said Russ.

Well, that was true enough. The balloons could not have gotten away by themselves, but something happened to them.

Rose did not go with her brothers and sisters over to watch William.

Instead, she went into the house, got Lily, one of her dolls, and a small basket. Rose had a queer idea in her little head, and she was going to carry it out.

A day or so before an airship had flown over Boston, circling around the Back Bay section, and right over Aunt Jo's house. The children were much excited by it, and at first Russ was going to make one. But he found it harder than he supposed, so he gave it up.

"But I can make an airship," said Rose to herself. "Anyhow I can make something to give my doll a ride in the air in a basket."

And that is what the little girl was going to do. She had felt how hard one balloon pulled--for they were filled with gas just as a real balloon is--and Rose thought that if one balloon pulled so strongly six would pull harder yet.

"I'll tie all six balloons to the basket, and put Lily in and give her an airship ride," said Rose.

So, while her brothers and sisters were watching the chauffeur, this is what Rose did. She carefully loosed each balloon, besides her own, from the fence, and tied the strings to the handle of the basket in which she put Lily.

Lily was not heavy like Sue, the doll about which I told you before, the one the lady once thought was her baby in the car. The basket was not heavy, either. So that when Rose had tied the last balloon to the handle, she found that it rose into the air with her doll, and would have floated off, only Rose tied a cord to the bottom of the basket, and kept hold of that.

"Now I've got an airship for my doll!" exclaimed the little girl, and, really, she did have one kind of airship.

Up above her head floated the basket with Lily in it, and Rose was quite pleased.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ABOVE HER HEAD FLOATED THE BASKET WITH LILY IN IT.

_Six Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's.--Page 102_]

"I can make things as good as Russ, even if I can't whistle like him,"

she said. "This is fun! Don't you like it, Lily?"

Of course Lily couldn't answer and say that she did, but if dolls like airship rides I'm sure this one of Rose's did.

Up and along floated the balloons, lifting the basket, and then, all of a sudden, something happened.

CHAPTER XI

VI IS LOST

Rose said, afterward, that it was not the fault of Alexis, though the barking of the big dog made her jump and lose her hold on the string that was fast to the basket in which the doll Lily rode as if in an airship. But that is what happened.

As Rose was walking along, letting the balloons float over her head, and giving a ride to Lily, the big dog came bounding out of the side yard.

He wanted to play with Rose, and he raced toward her, jumping up and down. Rose was afraid he would jump up and put his paws on her, and Alexis was so big that when he did this to any of the six little Bunkers he almost always knocked them down. In fact, he had knocked Mun Bun and Margy down more than once, but only in fun, and he had not hurt them.

"Go away, Alexis! Now go away!" exclaimed Rose, as she held the string above her head. "I can't play with you now, because I got to give Lily an airship ride. Go away, Alexis!"

But Alexis didn't want to go away! He barked and he danced around, and he kept coming closer and closer to Rose, until he really almost b.u.mped into her. And then it happened.

Rose let go of the string, by which she was holding the basket that had Lily in it, and up it shot, high in the air, pulled by the gas-filled toy balloons. There were six of them, extra big ten-cent ones, and they could easily lift the small doll in the basket.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Rose, three times. "Look what you made me do, Alexis! Oh! Oh!"

And yet, afterward, Rose said it wasn't the dog's fault.