"Oh, Russ! if
Daddy Bunker doesn't come after us, maybe it will tear the house down."
"It can't," declared Russ.
"How do you know it can't?"
"Why, cats--even big ones--don't tear houses to pieces, Rose. You know
they don't! We'll be safe as long as we stay in this place."
"But how long shall we have to stay here?"
"Until that thing goes away," said Russ confidently.
"And maybe it won't go away at all. We'll have to stay here till the
folks come to find us, Russ. I--I want--my mo-mother!"
"Now, Rose Bunker, don't be a baby!" said her brother. "That thing can't
get at us in here----"
Just then something thumped heavily on the roof of the hut. Russ could
not say another word. They heard the great claws of the big cat
scratching at the roof boards.
Rose screamed again and this time her brother's voice joined with hers
in a hopeless cry for help.
CHAPTER XXIV
AN EXCITING TIME
Russ and Rose Bunker had slipped out of the house on the hill without
saying a word to anybody as to where they were going. Since coming to
the Meiggs Plantation there had been a certain amount of laxness in
regard to what the children did. They had a freedom that Mother Bunker
never allowed when they were at home.
Because the Armatage children went and came as they wished, the little
Bunkers began to do likewise. The house was so big, too, that the
children might be playing a long way from the room in which their mother
and father and Mr.
Pages:
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164