TER XX

GOOSEY-GOOSEY-GANDER

The Bunker children, especially Russ and Rose, felt truly anxious
because of Mammy June's unhappiness about her absent son. The boy they
all called Sneezer should have been home now when his mother was
crippled with rheumatism and had lost her home and all her little
possessions.

She worried audibly and continually about Sneezer. Russ and Rose took
counsel together more than once. They had hoped that their signs put up
at the site of the burned cabin would have satisfied Mammy June that her
son would come up to the big house whenever, or if ever, he returned to
his old home. Now the Bunker children were not so sure.

When Russ and Rose told Philly Armatage what they had done she said:

"Mebbe he'll think the writing is just to keep ha'nts away. He can't
read writing. He always worked in the fields or up here at the house.
Those signs aren't any good--just as Mammy June says."

This opinion caused Russ and Rose additional anxiety. They did not know
what to do about it. Even the boy's inventive mind was at fault in the
emergency.

While the older Bunker brother and sister were troubled in this way and
Laddie and Vi were recovering from their adventure with the red fox,
Margy and Mun Bun were, as usual, having their own pleasures and
difficulties. The littlest Bunker was a born explorer. Daddy Bunker said
so. And Margy was quite as active as the little fellow.

Hand in hand they wandered all about the big house and out-of-doors as
well. There was always supposed to be somebody to watch them, especially
if they went near the barns or paddocks where the horses and mules were.
But sometimes the little folks slipped away from even Mother Bunker's
observation.

The gardener often talked to the littlest Bunkers, and he saw, too, that
they did no more mischief around the greenhouse. When he saw them that
afternoon trotting down the hill toward the poultry houses he failed to
follow them. He had his work to do, of course, and it did not enter his
head that Mun Bun and Margy could get into much trouble with the
poultry.

Margy and Mun Bun were delighted with the "chickens" as they called most
of the fowl the Armatages kept. But there were many different kinds--not
alone of hens and roosters; for there were peafowl, and guineas, and
ducks, and turkeys. And in addition there was a flock of gray geese.

"Those are gooseys," Margy announced, pointing through the slats of the
low fence whic