faces. Then he glanced
at his wife and smiled.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Had I better say before so many little
pop-eyed, curious folk? I--don't--know----"

"Oh, Daddy!" gasped Rose.

"We want to go with you," breathed Russ.

"I want to go!" cried Vi. "Where is it?"

"If Vi goes, can't I go too?" Margy pleaded.

"I'm not going to stay here, Daddy, if the rest go," declared Laddie.

But Mun Bun just walked gravely over to his father and put up both his
arms.

"Mun Bun go with Daddy," he said confidently.

"The blessed baby!" cried Aunt Jo.

"It doesn't look much as though they appreciated your hospitality,
Josephine," said Daddy Bunker to his sister, smiling over the top of Mun
Bun's head as he held the little fellow.

"Oh!" cried Rose instantly, "we have had an awfully nice time here. We
always do have nice times here. But we want to go with Daddy, and so
does Mother."

"Two words for yourself and one for me, Rose," laughed her mother. "But
if it is going to take some time, Charles, I think we would all like to
go along."

"I had Mr. Armatage on the long distance telephone," said Daddy Bunker,
smiling. "He was in Savannah. His plantation is some distance from that
city. And he has invited us all to spend the Christmas holidays with him
at his country home. What do you think of that?"

It was pretty hard for Mother Bunker to say what she thought of it
because of the gleeful shouts of the children. It did not much matter to
Russ, and Rose, and Violet, and Laddie, and Margy, and Mun Bun where
they went with Daddy Bunker. It was just the idea of going to some new
place and to have new adventures.

"Well," said the gentleman finally, "the boat sails day after to-morrow.
Believing that you would approve, Amy, and knowing Jo couldn't go, I
have already secured reservations for us eight Bunkers--two big
staterooms. The boat is the _Kammerboy_, of the Blue Pennant Line."

The six little Bunkers were so delighted by this news and the prospect
of a boat journey into warmer waters than those that ebb and flow about
Boston, that they almost forgot the colored boy whose entry into the
house had been brought about by Margy and Mun Bun.

But the latter, sitting in Daddy's lap, a little later began to prattle
about his "black snowman," and so the story of Sam came out.

By that time the steampipes were humming and the whole house was warm
and cozy again.

"And we can thank Sam for that, Charles," said Mo