tended to be angry. Sweetest Susan had
wonderful dark eyes that made her face very serious except when she
laughed, but she was as full of fun as Buster John, who was always in
some sort of mischief that did nobody any harm.

These children were not afraid of anything. They scorned to run from
horses, or cows, or dogs. They were born on the big plantation, and
they spent the greater part of the day out of doors, save when the
weather was very cold or very wet. They had no desire to stay in the
house, except when they were compelled to go to bed, and a great many
times they fretted a little because they thought bedtime came too
soon.

Sweetest Susan had a great many dolls, and she was very fond of them.
She had a China Doll, a Jip-jap Doll, a Rag Doll, a Rubber Doll, a
White Doll, a Brown Doll, and a Black Doll. Sometimes she and
Drusilla would play with the Dolls out in the yard, and sometimes
Buster John would join them when he had nothing better to do. But
every evening Sweetest Susan and Drusilla would carry the Dolls into
the bedroom and place them side by side against the wall. Sweetest
Susan wanted them placed there, she said, so she could see her
children the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning.

But one night Sweetest Susan went to bed crying, and this was so
unusual that Drusilla forgot to put the Dolls in their places.
Sweetest Susan's feelings were hurt. She had not been very good, and
her mother had called her Naughty Susan instead of Sweetest Susan.
Buster John, in the next room, wanted to know what the matter was, but
Sweetest Susan wouldn't tell him, and neither would she tell Drusilla.
After a while Sweetest Susan's mother came in and kissed her. That
helped her some, but she lay awake ever so long sobbing a little and
thinking how she must do so as not to be called Naughty Susan.

Drusilla lay on a pallet near Sweetest Susan's bed, but, for a wonder,
Drusilla lay awake too. She said nothing, but she was not snoring,
and Sweetest Susan could see the whites of her eyes shining. The fire
that had been kindled on the hearth so as to give a light (for the
weather was not cold) flickered and flared, and little blue flames
crept about over the sputtering pine-knot, jumping off into the air
and then jumping back. The blue flames flickered and danced and crept
about so, and caused such a commotion among the shadows that were
running about the room and trying to hide themselves behind the c