the hotel," said Dumps, as Dilsey came up rolling the
wheelbarrow--"me an' my three little chil'en."

"Yes, marm, jes git in," said Dilsey, and Dumps, with her wax baby and
a rag doll for her little daughters, and a large cotton-stalk for her
little boy, took a seat in the omnibus. Dilsey wheeled her up to the
hotel, and Diddie met her at the door.

"What is your name, madam?" she inquired.

"My name is Mrs. Dumps," replied the guest, "an' this is my little boy,
an' these is my little girls."

"Oh, Dumps, you play so cur'us," said Diddie; "who ever heard of anybody
bein' named Mrs. Dumps? there ain't no name like that."

"Well, I don't know nothin' else," said Dumps; "I couldn't think of
nothin'."

"Sposin' you be named Mrs. Washington, after General Washington?" said
Diddie, who was now studying a child's history of America, and was very
much interested in it.

"All right," said Dumps; and Mrs. Washington, with her son and
daughters, was assigned apartments, and Chris was sent up with
refreshments, composed of pieces of old cotton-bolls and gray moss,
served on bits of broken china.

The omnibus now returned with Tot and her family, consisting of an
India-rubber baby with a very cracked face, and a rag body that had once
sported a china head, and now had no head of any kind; but it was nicely
dressed, and there were red shoes on the feet, and it answered Tot's
purpose very well.

"Dese my 'itty dirls," said Tot, as Diddie received her, "an' I tome in
de bumberbuss."

"What is your name?" asked Diddie.

"I name--I name--I name--Miss Ginhouse," said Tot, who had evidently
never thought of a name, and had suddenly decided upon gin-house, as her
eye fell upon that object.

"No, no, Tot, that's a _thing_; that ain't no name for folks," said
Diddie. "Let's play you're Mrs. Bunker Hill, that's a nice name."

"Yes, I name Miss Unker Bill," said the gentle little girl, who rarely
objected to playing just as the others wished. Miss "Unker Bill" was
shown to her room; and now Riar came out, shaking her hand up and down,
and saying, "Ting-er-ling--ting-er-ling--ting-er-ling!" That was the
dinner-bell, and they all assembled around a table that Riar had
improvised out of a piece of plank supported on two bricks, and which
was temptingly set out with mud pies and cakes and green leaves, and
just such delicacies as Riar and Diddie could pick up.

As soon as Mrs. Washington laid eyes on the mud cakes and pies, she
e