party Russ
determined to try to dance as well as Frane, Junior, and the negro boys.

Mammy June was much better now, and she was up and about. To please her
Mr. Armatage had a phaeton brought around and the old nurse was driven
to the scene of the celebration. Mun Bun and Margy rode in the phaeton
with Mammy June and were very proud of this particular honor.

The old nurse was loved by everybody on the plantation, both white and
black. Mother Bunker said that Mammy held "quite a levee" at the
quarters, sitting in state in her phaeton where she could see all that
went on.

The dinner was what the negroes called a barbecue. The six little
Bunkers had never seen such a feast before, for this that their father
gave them was even more elaborate than the dinner the planter had given
his hands at Christmas.

There was a great fire in a pit, and over this fire a whole pig was
roasted on a spit, and poultry, and 'possums that the boys had killed,
and rabbits. There were sweet potatoes, of course. How the little
Northerners liked them! The white children had a table to themselves and
ate as heartily as their colored friends.

Then a place was cleared for the dancing. Mammy June's phaeton was drawn
to the edge of this dance floor. The music struck up, and there was a
general rush for partners.

After a while the dancers got more excited, and many of them danced
alone, "showing off," Frane, Junior, said. They did have the funniest
steps! Russ Bunker was highly delighted with this kind of dancing.

"Now let me! Let me dance!" he cried, starting out from his seat near
Mammy June. "A boy showed me in Boston how to cut a pigeon wing. I guess
I can do it now."

"You can't cut no pigeon wing, w'ite boy," said 'Lias, Mammy's grandson.

"I can try," said Russ bravely, and he danced with much vigor for
several minutes.

"Oh, my, he done cut Sneezer's pigeon wing!" cried one of the darkies
presently.

"What's dat? Cut Sneezer's pigeon wing?" cried Mammy June, sitting up to
watch Russ more closely.

"Dat's jest what he's doin'."

Russ continued to dance, and did his best to imitate the colored boy at
Aunt Jo's house. He was hard at it when Mammy June, with her eyes almost
popping out of her head, cried:

"For de lan's sake, boy, come here! I want to ask you sumpin."

Russ was in the midst of cutting the pigeon wing again, and this time he
was fortunate enough to imitate Sam in almost every particular. Then he
stopped and