IN MAMMY JUNE'S ROOM
Russ and Rose had both got up very early the day after Christmas, for
their minds were filled with the idea of helping Mammy June. The poor
old woman's anxiety should be relieved, and the two oldest of the Bunker
children were determined that they would relieve it regarding her son,
"Sneezer," if that were possible.
So Russ found some cardboard boxes that had held certain of their
Christmas presents, and he tore these apart and they wrote carefully a
message to the old woman's absent son on both faces of these cards. At
least, Russ wrote them, for by now he had learned at school to write a
very good hand. Rose was not so sure--especially about her "q's" and
capital "S's." Anybody who could read handwriting at all, however,
could have read those signs that Russ Bunker wrote.
"It doesn't seem like Christmas time at all," Rose said, as the two ran
down the lane right after breakfast toward the branch and the burned
cabin. "See the leaves and grass! And there's a flower!"
It was only a weed, but it was a pretty one and Rose gathered it--of
course for Mother Bunker. When they came in sight of Mammy June's cabin
it was a sad looking place indeed. The little Bunkers had had several
nice visits to the old woman's cabin, and they were really very sorry
that it had burned down.
The disaster was complete. The log walls were tumbled in heaps and were
all charred. The interior of the hut was little but ashes.
"Oh!" cried Rose. "If that Sneezer Meiggs did come home and see all
this, he might go away again, just as his mother says. It would be too
dreadful, Russ. I am so glad you invented this idea of putting up signs
for him."
In fact, Russ was quite proud of his original thought himself. He was
naturally of an inventive turn of mind and this was not the first novel
thought he had expressed. He and Rose stuck up the cards on poles that
they found near by, and they had so many of them that they quite
surrounded the ashes of the old hut.
"He can't help seeing them if he comes here," said Rose, as they
departed from the spot. "But do you s'pose he'll ever want to come back
to the place where everybody called him 'Sneezer'?"
"He ought to want to come back to see Mammy June," declared Russ warmly.
"I think she is just fine."
"So do I," admitted Rose reflectively. "But I wouldn't want to be called
by such a name as Sneezer."
It was when they got back to the big house and around to its front that
the two oldest little Bunkers became aware that something was happening
down by the road. They saw Vi hopping up and down in a funny fashion,
and she was screaming.
"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. Then she called to Laddie:
"Push in farther, Laddie! Then maybe you can back out all right."
But Laddie Bunker was so much afraid of the foxes by now (he still saw
their luminous eyes before him) that he dared not squirm any deeper into
the pipe. What would have happened to him finally--whether or not the
old fox might not have attacked him--will never be known, for Russ
Bunker took desperate means to release his brother.
Russ ran to a pile of cobblestones beside the road, seized a big one,
and staggered back with it in both hands. With the stone he pounded the
rim of the pipe so hard that it broke in pieces.
"Ow! Ow!" cried the muffled voice of Laddie Bunker. "You are breaking my
legs. Don't pound me so!"
"Wriggle out! Hurry up! What's holding you?" demanded Russ, half
angrily because he was so excited.
The smaller boy began to move backward now, the rough rim of the pipe no
longer holding his jacket. Slowly he pushed out. When he appeared, his
face very red and tear-streaked, Russ and Phillis pulled him to his
feet.
"Where's the fox?" demanded Vi, still very much excited.
"Is that a fox?" demanded Laddie, panting.
"Yes," said Phillis Armatage.
"That fox has got five pairs of eyes, then," grumbled Laddie.
"She's got four pups," cried Frane, Junior. "I'm going to run and tell
father," and he ran away up the hill.
"Come on!" cried Russ, immediately in action again. "Let's stop up the
hole. Then the foxes can't get out until Mr. Armatage comes."
They did that--at least, Russ and Vi and the colored boys did. Rose
dusted Laddie off and wiped his face. He soon became more cheerful.
"Well," he said, with a long breath, "they didn't bite me after all;
but I thought they would. And their eyes shone dreadfully."
"What made them shine?" demanded Vi, her usual curiosity aroused.
"Because they were mad," said her twin promptly. "That old mother fox
didn't want me in there."
The adventure was happily ended; that is, for Laddie and Vi. Not so for
the foxes. For Mr. Armatage and the gardener came with shovel and club
and they dug down to the foxes' den. But the children had not done their
work of closing the entrance well, and just as Mr. Armatage broke
through into her den, Mrs. Fox and her puppies scurried out and away
into the pine woods. But she had to look for a new home, for her old one
was completely broken up.
After this the little Bunkers and the Armatage children trooped up to
the house and went to the room where Mammy June had been put to bed. The
doctor had already been to see her this morning.
The old colored woman was propped up with pillows and she wore the usual
turban on her head. She smiled delightedly when she saw the white
children and hailed them as gayly as though she were not in pain.
"Lawsy me, childern!" cried Mammy June. "Has you come to see how I is? I
sure has got good friends, I sure has! An' if Ebenezer Caliper
Spotiswood Meiggs was back home yere where he b'longs, there wouldn't be
a happier ol' woman in all Georgia--no, sir!
"For Mistah Armatage say he's gwine have me another house built before
spring. And it'll be a lot mo' fixy than my ol' house--yes, sir! Wait
till my Sneezer comes home and sees it--Tut, tut! He ain't mebbe comin'
home no mo'!"
"Oh, yes, he will, Mammy June," Philly said comfortingly.
"Don't know. These boys ups and goes away from their mammies and ain't
never seen nor heard of again."
"But Sneezer loved you too well to stay away always," Alice Armatage
said.
"And when these Bunkers go back North," put in Frane, Junior, "they are
going to look for Sneezer everywhere."
"You reckon you'll find him?" asked Mammy June of Rose.
"I hope so," said the oldest Bunker girl.
"Of course we will," agreed Russ stoutly. "And Daddy Bunker will look
out for him too. He said so."
According to Russ's mind, that Daddy Bunker had promised to help find
the lost boy seemed conclusive that Sneezer must be found. He and Rose
began eagerly to tell Mammy June what they had already done to make it
positive that Ebenezer Caliper Spotiswood Meiggs would not come back to
the burned cabin some day and go away, thinking that his old mother was
no longer alive.
"You blessed childern!" exclaimed Mammy June. "And has you fixed it dat
way for me? But--but--you says you writ dem letters to Sneezer?"
"Yes," said Rose happily. "Yes, we did, Mammy June. And stuck them up on
poles all about the burned house."
"I don't know! I don't know!" sighed the old woman. "I reckon dat won't
be much use."
"Why not?" demanded Russ anxiously. "If he comes back he'll see and read
'em."
"No. No, sir! He may see 'em," said Mammy June, shaking her head on the
pillow. "But he won't read 'em."
"Why won't he?" Russ demanded in some heat. "I wrote them just as plain
as plain!"
"But," said Mammy June, still sadly, "you see, my Sneezer never learnt
to read hand-writin'!"