Mun Bun was still weeping wildly. Laddie looked at him in amazement.
"Why—why," he said, "you're a riddle, Mun Bun."
"I'm not!" sobbed the littlest Bunker.
"Yes, you are," said Laddie. "This is the riddle: Why is Mun Bun like a sprinkling cart?"
"That is too easy!" laughed Captain Ben, setting Vi down on the floor. "It's because Mun Bun scatters water so easily out of his eyes."
They all laughed at that—even Mun Bun himself, only he hiccoughed too. It did not take much to make the children laugh when the danger was over.
"Why did the old thunder stroke have to do that?" asked Vi. "Why did it pin me down across my legs?"
Daddy Bunker hurried them all out of the old house. He was afraid it might fall altogether.
"And then where should we be?" he asked. "I couldn't go away out West to Cowboy Jack's and leave my little Bunkers under that old house, could I?"
At this Russ and Rose immediately began to be excited—only for a reason very different from the effects of the storm. They looked at each other quite knowingly. That was what Daddy Bunker and Mother Bunker were talking about so earnestly the night before!