the way Alice spoke of
her mother.

"What ladies have," explained Alice. "Don't your mother have 'em?"

"I guess not. I never heard about them," Rose answered. "Then if your
mother is sick, I don't suppose she can help it. It is lucky you have
got a mammy."

That first afternoon ("evening" all these Southern folks called it) at
Mammy June's was a very pleasant experience. Russ did not mind his
ducking--much. He only grinned a little when Mammy June called him "the
catfish boy."

"Serves me good and right," he confessed to Rose. "I ought not to have
gone into that brook without a bathing suit. And, anyway, I guess a boy
can't catch fish of any kind with his hands."

Mun Bun and Margy and the smaller colored children managed to spread the
molasses taffy over face and hands to a greater or less degree; but they
enjoyed the taffy pull as much as the older children did. Finally, after
Mammy June had washed his face and hands, Mun Bun climbed up into her
comfortable lap and went fast asleep.

The old woman, who loved children so dearly and was so kind to them,
looked at one of her older grandsons, Elias, and ordered him to "get de
boxwagon to take dis bressed baby home in."

A soapbox on a plank between two pairs of wheels being produced and the
box made comfortable with a quilt and a pillow belonging to Mammy June,
Mun Bun was laid, still fast asleep, in this vehicle, and Russ started
to drag his little brother home.

"Yo' 'Lias!" exclaimed Mammy June, from the doorway of her cabin,
"whar's yo' manners? Don't you let that w'ite visitor boy drag that
boxwagon. You get busy, 'Lias."

Russ and the other Bunker children were not used to being waited on at
every step and turn. But they became better used to it as the time
passed. The white folks on the Meiggs Plantation seemed to expect all
this aid from the colored folks, and the latter seemed willing and eager
to attend.

Russ was not scolded for his involuntary plunge into the branch. In fact
his father laughed immensely at the tale. But Mother Bunker had to be
assured that the stream was neither deep nor boisterous before she could
laugh much.

The children had all had a lovely afternoon at Mammy June's and after
that day they found most of their enjoyment in running down to her cabin
and playing there. This delight was shared by the Armatages too. And the
latter's father and mother seemed perfectly content if the children
were in mammy's care.

The days pass