a
word about it, not even to Philly and Alice."

With this plan dancing in her head Rose soon fell asleep while Russ
stole back to the room where he slept with the smaller boys. After that
the big house on the Meiggs Plantation became quiet for the rest of the
long night.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE TWINS IN TROUBLE

Laddie and Vi Bunker felt as though they had been cheated. They had not
been allowed to go to the fire, "when Mammy June's cabin had been burned
all up," Vi declared. They had only seen the fire from an upper window
of the big Armatage house.

"But it wasn't burned _up_, Vi," her twin insisted. "It was burned
_down_."

"Russ said it was burned up when he came back from the fire--so now,"
Violet declared somewhat warmly.

"How can a house burn up? It just fell all to pieces into the cellar."

"There wasn't any cellar to Mammy June's house," Vi observed.

"Well, it fell down; so of course, it burned down."

"The flames went up," repeated Vi, quite as determinedly. "And the wood
went with 'em--with the flames and smoke. So the cabin burned up."

What might have been the result of this discussion it would be hard to
say had not the twins both felt so keenly their disappointment. Russ had
gone to the fire and brought Mammy June out of the cabin and brought her
up here to the big house! To tell the truth, Russ was so excited when he
got back that in telling of the adventure he gave the younger children
to understand that he had done it all himself. Daddy Bunker and Mr.
Armatage did not appear much in his story.

"Russ is always doing the big things," sighed Laddie. "It's just like a
riddle----"

"What is?" almost snapped Vi, for she was just as disappointed as her
twin brother.

"Why, Russ getting the best of everything. Why is it?" muttered Laddie,
kicking a pebble before him in the path.

"If that's a riddle, I can't answer it," said Vi.

"It isn't any worse to ask riddles than it is to ask questions--so now."

The twins were not always in accord, of course; but they were seldom so
near to a quarrel as upon this morning. Perhaps, for one thing, the day
before, they had rather over-done and possibly had over-eaten. They were
on the verge of doing something that the Bunker children seldom
did--quarreling. Fortunately something suddenly attracted Laddie's
attention and he stopped kicking the pebble and pointed down the yard in
front of them.

"Oh, Vi! See that cunning thing! What is it?"