and something about the other books in this series.

First, however, I'll tell you why Daddy Bunker called Grandpa Ford
"Father." You see Daddy Bunker's real father had died many years before,
and this was his stepfather. Mr. Bunker's mother had married a gentleman
named Munroe Ford.

So, of course, after that her name was Mrs. Ford, though Daddy Bunker
kept his own name and called his step-parent "Father."

Grandpa Ford was as kind as any real father could be; and he also loved
the six little Bunkers as much as if he had been their real
grandfather, which they really thought him to be.

Now to go back to the beginning. There were six little Bunkers, as I
have told you, Russ, Rose, Laddie, Vi, Margy, and Mun Bun. I have told
you their ages and how they looked.

They lived in the town of Pineville on Rainbow River, and Daddy Bunker's
real estate office was about a mile from his home. Besides the family of
the six little Bunkers and their father and mother, there was Norah
O'Grady, the cook, and there was also Jerry Simms, the man who cut the
grass, cleaned the automobile, and sprinkled the lawn in summer and took
ashes out of the furnace in winter.

The first book of this series is called "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma
Bell's." In that I told of the visit of the children to Lake Sagatook,
in Maine, where Mrs. Bunker's mother, Grandma Bell, lived. There the
whole family had fine times, and they also solved a real mystery.