mitted Russ rather ruefully.

Rose came to the door and begged to know if Russ was all right.

"He's going to be just as soon as I get him made a hot drink," declared
Mammy June.

"Has he got all over being drowned?" Margy demanded.

And even Mun Bun was a good deal troubled because Russ had got so wet.
"If you had any candy in your pocket, Russ," the little boy said, "it
must be all soft now. It won't be good to eat."

"I didn't have any candy, Mun Bun," Russ told him. Russ was feeling a
whole lot better now. Mammy June gave him a nice hot, sweet drink. He
didn't mind if it was a little "stingy" too.

"Yo' all come in yere--yo' little w'ite folks," said Mammy June, "and
we'll make some 'lasses taffy. I got plenty sorgum 'lasses. We can make
it w'ile this catfish boy is getting dry."

She continued to call Russ "the catfish boy" and chuckled over his
adventure. But she warned him, when his clothing was dry, that he must
be more careful when he was playing about the water.

"An' yo' got to tell yo' mudder and daddy about it," she instructed
Russ. "Don't never hide nothin' from 'em."

"Oh, we don't!" Rose broke in. "We always tell Mother and Daddy
everything."

"That's what I tell my Philly and Ally and Frane, Junior. Always must
tell they parents."

"And get scolded for it," said Phillis rather crossly.

"Well, then," said Mammy June cheerfully, "you mustn't do things to get
scolded for. So I tell all these grandchildren of mine. Scat, you
children!" for she saw several of the smaller colored boys and girls
trying to steal in at the cabin door. "Ain't room for you in here
noways. Yo' shall have yo' share of the 'lasses candy when it's done."

That "taffy pull" was a famous one. The six little Bunkers thought they
had never eaten such nice molasses candy as Mammy June made. Phillis
Armatage made believe that she did a lot to help for she buttered the
pans. But it was Mammy June who really did it all.

"I think," confessed Rose to Alice, "that it is awfully nice to have
both a mammy and a mother, as you girls have. Of course, a mammy can't
be just what Mother Bunker is to us; but Mammy June is nice."

"She's lots better to us than our mother, in some ways," said Alice
bluntly. "Mother doesn't want us to play noisy in the house. She has
headaches and stays on the couch a lot. We have to step soft and can't
talk loud. But Mammy June never has the fidgets."

"What's 'fidgets'?" asked Rose, quite shocked by