Rose became friendly with Alice almost at once.
And the way they treated the colored children of their own age and older
was just as strange as anything else about the three Armatages. They
petted and quarreled with them; they expected all kinds of service from
them; and they were on their part, constantly doing things for the
children of "the quarters" and giving them presents. Wherever the white
children went about the plantation there was sure to be a crowd of
colored boys and girls tagging them.
After the first day Mother Bunker was reassured that nothing could
happen to her brood, because there were so many of the colored men about
the grounds to look after them. As in the house, a black or brown face,
broadly a-smile, was likely to appear almost anywhere.
The quarters, as the cabins occupied by the colored people were called,
were not far from the house, but not in sight of it. Even the kitchen
was in a separate house, back of the big house. After bedtime there was
not a servant left in the big house unless somebody was sick.
"Mammy used to live here," Mrs. Armatage explained, in her languid
voice, "while the children were small. I couldn't have got along without
mammy. She was my mammy too. But she's too old to be of much use now,
and Frane has pensioned her. She has her own little house and plot of
ground and if her boy--her youngest boy--had stayed with her, mammy
would get along all right.
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