"Now, what do you suppose is the matter with her?" demanded Rose.

"Don't know. But it's something, sure enough!" rejoined Russ, and he
started on a run for the spot where Violet was jumping up and down and
screaming.

As Russ and Rose started down the hill the three Armatage children came
out of the front door of the big house and ran after them, screaming as
well. Then appeared a host of small colored folk--Russ and Rose never
could imagine where they all came from. They seemed to spring right up
out of the ground when anything exciting happened.

All this troop came streaming down the hill, and very quickly Vi found
herself surrounded. Russ demanded:

"What's the matter with you? Has something bitten you?"

"They are biting Laddie!" wailed the twin sister.

"How silly!" exclaimed Phillis Armatage. "Laddie isn't here."

"Yes, he is, so now!" cried Vi.

"Oh! Oh!" screamed Alice. "I see his legs!"

At that they all saw his legs--at least, as much of them as were poked
out of the mouth of the drainpipe. And they certainly were kicking
vigorously. But the children outside made so much noise that the voice
of the boy inside the pipe could not be heard.

"Oh! Oh!" declared Vi, jumping up and down again. "It is biting him."

"What is biting him? Mosquitoes?" demanded Russ, as much puzzled as
anybody.

"The red thing! With the pointed ears! And a big tail!" cried Vi in
gasps.

"What can she mean?" demanded Rose.

[Illustration: PHILLY GRABBED LADDIE'S ANKLE AND STARTED TO PULL HIM
OUT.
_Six Little Bunkers at Mammy Junes._ _Page_ 187]

But Philly Armatage suspected the reason for Vi's fear at once. She
grabbed hold of Laddie's ankles and started to draw him out of the pipe.

"You'd better come out!" she cried. "That old fox will bite your nose
off."

"A fox!" cried Russ, in wonder and alarm. "Does a fox live in that
hole?"

"And she's got puppies. We saw 'em playing out here one day. Father is
only waiting for a chance to smoke 'em out. They are terrible. They eat
hens and other poultry."

Russ was vastly interested, as well as troubled by Laddie's fix. For the
smaller boy was really wedged by his rolled-up jacket tight into the
mouth of the culvert. His muffled cries became more imploring, and the
other children really feared that the mother fox, fearing for her
young, might have attacked the boy.

"I tell you he must be got out!" shouted Russ.

"How you going to do it?" Philly demanded.