"Don't you know any riddles?" asked Laddie.
"Well, I might think of one, if I tried real hard," said the old gentleman. "Let me think, now. Here is one we used to ask one another when I was a boy. See if you can guess it. 'A house full and a hole full, but you can't catch a bowlful.' What is that, Laddie?"
"'A house full and a hole full, but you can't catch a bowlful,'" repeated Laddie.
"Is it crabs?" asked Mun Bun. "I helped catch a basketful of crabs, once."
"No, it isn't crabs," laughed Grandpa Ford.
"I give up. What is it?" asked Laddie, anxious to hear the answer.
"It's smoke!" said Grandpa Ford with a laugh. "A house full and a hole full of smoke, but, no matter how hard you try, you can't catch a bowlful. For, if you try to catch smoke it just rolls away from you."
"A house full and a hole full—but you can't catch a bowlful," repeated Laddie slowly. "That's a good riddle!" he announced, after thinking it over, and I guess he ought to know, as he asked a great many of them.
They had a jolly time at the meal, even if it was gotten up in a hurry, and then, just as the children were going out to play again, Daddy Bunker remarked:
"You haven't yet told us, Father, what brought you away from Great Hedge."