t been able to find any one who is looking for
a little colored girl, to come up from down South. Perhaps her aunt has
moved away. Anyhow I'll keep Wopsie until I find her folks."

Sometimes Bunny and Sue thought that Wopsie looked sad. Perhaps she did,
when she thought of how she was lost. But she had a good home with Aunt
Lu, and after all, Wopsie was quite happy, especially since Bunny and
Sue had come.

The two Brown children thought riding in the elevator was great fun.
Often they would slip out by themselves and get Henry, the colored boy,
to carry them up and down. And he was very glad to do it, if he was not
busy.

One day Bunny and Sue went out into Aunt Lu's kitchen, where Mary, the
colored cook, was busy. She often gave the children cookies, or a piece
of cake, just as Mother Brown did at home.

This day, after they had eaten their cookies, Bunny and Sue heard a
knocking in the kitchen.

"Somebody's at the door," called Bunny.

"No, chile! Folks don't knock at de kitchen do' heah," said Mary. "Dey
rings de bell."

"But somebody's knocking," said Bunny.

"Yes chile. I s'pects dat's de ice man knockin' on de dumb waiter t'
tell me he's put on a piece ob ice," went on the cook.

She opened a door in the kitchen wall, and Bunny and Sue saw what looked
like a big box, in a sort of closet. In the box was a large piece of
ice.

"Yep. Dat's what it am. Ice on de dumb waiter," said Mary, as she took
off the cold chunk and put it in the refrigerator. It was an extra piece
gotten that day because she was going to make ice cream for dessert.

"What's a dumb waiter?" asked Bunny.

"Dis is," said Mary, pointing to the box, back of the door in the wall.
"It waits on me--it brings up de milk and de ice. It's jest a big box,
and it goes up an' down on a rope dat runs ober a wheel."

"I know--a pulley wheel," said Bunny.

"Dat's it!" cried Mary. "De box goes up an' down inside between de
walls, and when de ice man, or de milk man puts anyt'ing on de waiter in
de cellar, dey pulls on de rope and up it comes to me."

"What makes them call it a dumb waiter?" asked Sue.

"'Cause as how it can't talk, chile. Anyt'ing dat can't talk is dumb,
an' dis waiter, or lifter, can't talk. So it's dumb."

Bunny and Sue looked at the dumb waiter for some time. Mary showed them
how it would go up or down on the rope, very easily.

A little while after that, Mary went to her room to put on a clean
apron; Bunny and Sue were