"Now I'm all ready, an' so's my doll," said Vi, as she climbed up in one
of the chairs behind the big, empty flour barrel that Mother Bunker had
let Russ take to make his boat. "Gid-dap, Russ!"

"Gid-dap? What you mean?" asked Russ, stopping his whistling and turning
to look at his sister.

"I mean start," answered Vi. "Don't you know what gid-dap means?"

"Sure I know! It's how you talk to a horse. It's what you tell him when
you want him to start."

"Well, I'm ready to start now," said Vi, smoothing out her dress, and
putting the bathing-suit on her doll.

"Pooh! You don't tell a steamboat to 'gid-dap' when you want _that_ to
start!" exclaimed Russ. "You say 'All aboard! Toot! Toot!'"

"All right then. Toot! Toot!" cried Vi, and Margy and Mun, who had climbed
up together in a single chair beside Vi, began to laugh.

"I know another riddle," announced Laddie, as he took his place inside the
barrel, for he was going to be the fireman, and, of course, they always
rode away down inside the steamboat. "I know a nice riddle about a horse,"
went on Laddie. "What makes a horse's shoes different from ours?" he
asked.

"Oh, we haven't time to bother with riddles now, Laddie," said Rose. "You
can tell us some other time. We're going to make-believe steamboat a long