"I've got a mother and a mammy too," explained the oldest Armatage girl. "You-all come on and see her. She'll be glad to see you folks from the North. She will ask you if you've seen her Ebenezer, for he went up North. We used to all call him 'Sneezer,' and it made him awfully mad." "Didn't he have any better name?" asked Russ. "His full name is Ebenezer Caliper Spotiswood Meiggs. Of course, their name isn't really Meiggs, like the plantation; but the darkies often take the names of the places where they were born. Sneezer was a real nice boy." "He isn't dead, is he?" asked Russ. "Reckon not," said Phillis. "But Mammy June is awful' worried about him. She hasn't heard from him now for more than a year. So she doesn't know what to think." "But she has got other folks, hasn't she?" Rose asked. "You'd think so! Grandchildren by the score," replied the older Armatage girl, laughing. "Sneezer had lots of older brothers and sisters, and they most all have married and live about here and have big families. The grandchildren are running in and out of mammy's cabin all the time. I have to chase 'em out with a broom sometimes when I go down there. And they eat her pretty near up alive!" Even the smaller Bunkers knew that this was a figure of speech. The grandchildren did not actually eat Mammy June, although they might clean her cupboard as bare as that of Old Mother Hubbard. They followed a winding, grass-grown cart path for nearly half a mile before coming to Mammy June's house. The way was sloping to the border of a "branch" or small stream--a very pretty brook indeed that burbled over stones in some places and then had long stretches of quiet pools where Frane, Junior, told Russ and Laddie that there were many fish--"big fellows." "I'll get a string and a bent pin and fish for them," said Laddie confidently. "I fished that way in the brook at Pineville." "Huh!" said Frane Armatage, Junior, in scorn. "One of these fish here would swallow your pin and line and haul you in." "Oh!" gasped Vi, with big eyes. "What for?" "No, the fish wouldn't!" declared Laddie promptly. "Yes, it would. And swallow you, too." "No, the fish wouldn't," repeated Laddie, "for I'd let go just as soon as it began to tug." "Smartie!" said Phillis to her brother. "You can't fool these Bunker boys. Let Laddie alone." Of course the troop of white children, walking down the cart path to Mammy June's, was followed by a troop of colored children. The latter sang and romped and chased about the bordering woods like puppies out for a rample. Sometimes they danced. "Can you cut a pigeon wing?" Russ asked one of the older lads. "I want to learn to do that." "No, I can't do that. Not good. We've got some dancers over at the quarters that does it right well," was the reply. "You ought to've seen Sneezer do it!" cried another of the colored children. "Sneezer could do it fine. Couldn't he, Miss Phil?"