"First call for dinner in the dining-car! First call for dinner!"
"What does he mean—first call?" asked Violet, who, as usual, was the one who asked the first question.
"He means that dinner is now ready in the dining-car," said Mr. Bunker. "You see the car is rather small, and every one can't eat at once. So they take turns, so to speak."
"I wish we could eat first," sighed Vi. "I'm terrible hungry!"
"So'm I," said Margy.
"Me, too," added Mun Bun. He had gone back to his seat, after taking something from the train boy's basket, and he had cuddled up by himself. What he had he showed to no one, and now, when he heard that dinner was ready, he stuffed something down between the edge of the seat and the side of the car next the window.
"This is my seat," Mun Bun announced, "and please don't any one take it when we come back! I got something hid here."
No one paid much attention to him, as it had been decided that they would all go into the dining-car at the first call, and they thought every one else was thinking of that, too.
So the Bunkers and Grandpa Ford walked out of the coach in which they had been riding, to the second car ahead, where dinner was being served at little tables. It took more than two tables to seat the six little Bunkers, their father, their mother, and Grandpa Ford, but soon they were all settled, and the colored waiter, in spotless white, just like the one who had called out that dinner was ready, began to serve the hungry folks.
You may be sure the six little Bunkers were hungry. In fact, they were always that way, except, perhaps, just after a meal, or when they were asleep. Though it was not the first time these little travelers had eaten in dining-cars, and on boats, they always liked the fun it was to sit and eat, and see the trees, fences, and telegraph poles seemingly go whizzing past the windows.