"Do you know any riddles?" asked Laddie.

"Do I know any riddles, little man? Well, I don't know. I might think of
one."

"I know one," went on Laddie, not stopping to hear what his grandfather
might say. "It's about which would you rather be, a door or a window?"

"Which would I rather be, a door or a window?" asked Grandpa Ford with a
laugh. "Well, I don't know that there is much difference, Laddie."

"Oh, yes, there is!" exclaimed the little fellow. "I'd rather be a door,
'cause a window always has a pane in it! Ha! Ha!"

"Well, that's pretty good," said Grandpa Ford with a smile. "I see you
haven't forgotten your riddles, Laddie."

"Now you ask me one," said the little boy. "I like to guess riddles."

"Wait until Grandpa has had a cup of tea," said Mrs. Bunker, who had
opened the front door that had been locked so long. "And then you can
tell us, Father," she went on, "why you had to come away from Great
Hedge. Is it something important?"

"Well, it's something queer," said Grandpa Ford. "But I'll tell you
about it after a while."

And while the Bunker home is being opened, after having been closed for
a long vacation, I will explain to my new readers who the children are,