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Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 19. The Sallie Growler |
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_ CHAPTER XIX. THE SALLIE GROWLER Have you ever toasted marshmallow candies at the seashore beach? If you have you need not stop to read this part of the story. But if you have not, from this and the next page you may learn how to do it. In the first place you need three things to have a marshmallow roast, and you can easily guess what the first thing is. It's a box of the white candies. Then you need a fire, and, if you are a little boy or girl, it will be best to have your father or mother or some big person make the fire for you, as you might get burned. Then you need some long, pointed sticks on which to hold the marshmallow candies as you toast them. If the sticks are too short you will toast your fingers or your face instead of the candies. "Have you got lots of marshmallows, Daddy?" asked Rose, as she and the other children gathered about their father. "Plenty, I think," he answered. "We don't want so many that you will be made ill, you know." "I can eat a lot of 'em without getting sick," declared Laddie. "I like 'em, too," said Vi. "Where do the marshmallow candies come from, Daddy?" she asked. "From the store, of course!" exclaimed Laddie. "No, I mean before they get to the store," went on the little girl. "Does a hen lay the marshmallows, same as chickens lay eggs?" "Oh, no!" laughed Daddy Bunker. "Marshmallow candy is made from sugar and other things, just as most candies are." As the six little Bunkers, with their father and mother and Cousin Tom and his wife, walked down to the shore of the sea, which was light from the beams of a silvery moon, Laddie said: "I have a new riddle!" "Is it about marshmallows?" asked Vi. "No. But the candies made me think of it," replied her brother. "It's about a fire." "What is your riddle about a fire?" asked Cousin Ruth, who always liked to hear Laddie ask his funny questions. "Where does the fire go when it goes out?" Laddie asked. "That's my riddle. Where does the fire go when it goes out?" "It doesn't go anywhere," declared Russ. "It just stays where it is." "Part of it goes away," declared Laddie. "Where does it go? Where does the hot part go when the fire goes out?" "Up in the air," said Rose. "Off in the ocean!" exclaimed Mun Bun, who really did not know what they were talking about. "Does it, Daddy?" asked Laddie. "Why, I don't know," said Mr. Bunker. "It's your riddle; you ought to know what the answer is." "But I don't," admitted Laddie. "I made up the riddle, but I don't know what the answer is. If some of you could think of a good answer it would be a good riddle." "Yes, I guess it would," agreed Mrs. Bunker. "This is the time you didn't think of a good one, Laddie. A riddle isn't much good unless some one knows the answer." Perhaps some of you who are reading this story can tell the answer. Down on the beach went the six little Bunkers. There was a bright moon shining and here and there were other parties of children and young people, some going to have marshmallow roasts also, and some who only came down to look at the ocean shining under the silver moon. Mun Bun and Margy, with Violet and Laddie, raced about in the sand, while Russ and Rose helped their father and Cousin Tom gather driftwood for the fire. There was plenty of it, and it was dry, for it had been in the hot sun all day. "What makes the sand so sandy?" asked Vi, as she sat down beside her mother and Cousin Ruth and let some of the "beach dust," as Daddy Bunker sometimes called it, run through her fingers. "That's a hard question to answer," laughed Mother Bunker. "You might as well ask what makes the moon so shiny." "Or what makes the water so wet," added Cousin Ruth. "Oh, you are such a funny little girl, Violet!" "What makes me?" asked Vi. "I suppose one reason is that you ask so many funny questions," said Cousin Ruth. "But there, Daddy has lighted the fire, and we can soon begin to roast the marshmallows." On the beach, near Russ and Rose, where they were standing with their father and Cousin Tom, a cheerful blaze sprang up. It looked very pretty in the moonlight night, with the sparkling sea out beyond. "Can we roast 'em now?" asked Laddie, as he got ready one of the long, pointed sticks. "Not quite yet," said his father. "Better to wait until the fire makes a lot of red-hot coals, or embers of wood. Then we can hold our candies over them and they will not get burned or blackened by the blaze. Wait a bit." So they sat about the fire, while Daddy Bunker and Cousin Tom piled on more wood. The boxes of the candies had been opened, so they would be all ready, and each of the ten Bunkers had a long, sharp-pointed stick to use as a toasting-fork. "I guess we are ready now," said Daddy Bunker, after they had listened to a jolly song sung by another party of marshmallow roasters farther down the beach. "There are plenty of hot embers now." Cousin Tom poked aside the blazing pieces of driftwood and underneath were the hot, glowing embers. "Now each one put a candy on a stick and hold the marshmallow over the embers," said Daddy Bunker. "Don't hold it still, but turn it around. This is just the same as shaking corn when you pop it, or turning bread over when you toast it. By turning the marshmallow it will not burn so quickly." So, kneeling in a circle about the fire, the six little Bunkers, and the others, began to roast the candies. But Margy and Mun Bun did not have very good luck. They forgot to turn their marshmallows and they held them so close to the fire that they had accidents. "Oh, Mun Bun's candy is burning!" cried Rose. "And Margy's is on fire, too!" added Russ. "Oh, that's too bad!" cried Mother Bunker. "Never mind," she said, as she saw that the two little tots felt sorry. "I'll toast your candies for you. It's rather hard for you to do it." Mrs. Bunker's own candy was toasted a nice brown and all puffed up, for this is what happens when you toast marshmallows. So she gave Mun Bun and Margy some of hers, and then began to brown more. The other children did very well, and soon they were all eating the toasted candies. Now and then one would catch fire, for sugar, you know, burns faster than wood or coal. But it was easy to blow out the flaming candies, and, if they were not too badly burned, they were good to eat. "Oh, look at the little dog!" cried Rose, as she put a fresh marshmallow on her stick. "He smells our candy! May I give him one, Daddy?" "Yes, but give him one that isn't toasted. He might burn himself on a hot one. Whose dog is he?" "He just ran over to me from down there," and Rose pointed to some boys and girls about another fire farther down the beach, who were also roasting marshmallows. The dog seemed glad to be with Rose and his new friends, and let each of the six little Bunkers pat him. He ate several candies and then ran back where he belonged. "Oh, he was awful cute!" exclaimed Vi. "I wish we could keep him. Couldn't we have a dog some time?" "Maybe, when we get back home again," promised Mother Bunker. The marshmallow roast was fun, and even after the candies had all been eaten the party sat on the beach a little longer, looking at the waves in the moonlight. "Now it's time to go to bed!" called Mother Bunker. "Margy and Mun Bun are so sleepy they can't keep their eyes open. Come on! We'll have more fun to-morrow!" "I'm going crabbing off the pier," declared Russ. "There's lots of crabs now, Mr. Burnett says." "Yes, August is a good month to catch crabs," returned Cousin Tom. "I'm going fishing," said Laddie. "Can you catch fish off your pier, Cousin Tom?" "Oh, yes, sometimes. But don't catch any Sallie Growlers." "What's a Sallie Growler?" asked Vi, before any one else could speak. "Oh, you'll know as soon as you catch one," laughed her cousin. Then he picked up Mun Bun, who was really asleep by this time, and carried him up to the house, while Daddy Bunker took Margy, whose eyes were also closed. True to their promises Russ and Laddie went down to the little boat wharf the next morning after breakfast. Russ had the crab net and a chunk of meat tied to a string. Laddie had a short pole and line and a hook baited with a piece of clam, for that was what fishermen often used, Cousin Tom said. "Now we'll see who catches the first fish!" exclaimed Laddie, as he sat down on the pier. "I'm not fishing for fish, I'm fishing for crabs," said Russ. "Well, in this race we'll count a crab and a fish as the same thing," returned Laddie. "We'll see who gets the first one." The boys waited some time. Now and then Russ would feel a little tug at his line, as if the crabs were tasting his bait, but had not quite made up their minds to take a good hold so he could pull them up and catch them in the net. And the cork float on Laddie's line would bob up and down a little as though he, too, had nibbles. But neither of them had caught anything yet. Suddenly Laddie felt a hard tug, and he yelled: "Oh, I got one! I got one! I got the first bite!" He yanked on his pole. Something brown and wiggling came up out of the water and flopped down on the wharf. At the same time a little dog that had run up behind the two boys and was sniffing around, gave a sudden yelp. "What's the matter?" cried Russ. "He's bit by a Sallie Growler! The Sallie Growler you caught bit my dog on the nose!" exclaimed another boy and he began striking at the brown thing Laddie had caught, which was now fast to the nose of the dog that had been eating marshmallows the night before. _ |
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