Six Little Bunkers at Mammy Junes | Page 9

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 Mother Bunker.
"William is ill, and you would have had to go down and fight that
furnace if this boy had not come along and proved himself so handy."
"Maybe we'd all better go down and thank him," said Rose soberly.
Daddy Bunker laughed. "I guess you want to get better acquainted with
this wonderful Sam," he said. "A right nice boy, is he, Mother
Bunker?"
"He seems to be," agreed Mother Bunker. "And he certainly needed

friends. I think Jo will keep him for a while. At least, as long as
William is laid up."
A little later the children all trooped down to the big kitchen. The
good-natured cook did not mind their presence. And Alexis, the great
Dane, showed plainly that he was delighted to see his young
playfellows. Alexis was a very intelligent dog and it was no wonder
that the servants and Aunt Jo considered that anybody of whom the dog
approved must be "all right." Alexis had approved of Sam.
Sam had recovered from his weariness, and, no longer hungry and his
next few meals in prospect, his spirits had rebounded from their low
ebb to cheerfulness. The kindness shown him, and the praise the
women had heaped upon him because of his mastery of the difficult
furnace, delighted Sam.
"I'm sure obliged to you child'en for as'in' me into this yere house," he
said, grinning at Margy and Mun Bun. "Dis is sure just as fine folks as
we have down Souf. Dey done fed de hongry an' clothed de naked. An'
mighty good clo'es, too."
He had on the suit Aunt Jo had found for him and almost new shoes,
while an overcoat and a hat which he was to wear when he went out
hung behind the cellar door. There was a small room off the kitchen in
which Sam was to sleep. To the colored boy's mind he was "right good
fixed."
"Let me have dat mouf organ, little boy," said Sam, observing Laddie's
harmonica. "I show yo' sumpin'. Now, cl'ar de way. I's goin' to work de
mouf organ and dance fo' yo'."
The women stopped in their work to watch