"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."