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'!" CHAPTER XX GOOSEY-GOOSEY-GANDER