Frane Armatage and his wife sat.
The servants who were supposed to keep some watch upon the children were
now all in the quarters. Servants in the South seldom sleep in "the big
house." And perhaps Mother Bunker forgot this fact.
At any rate, when she came to look for her brood late in the evening she
found the four little ones fast asleep in their beds, as she had
expected them to be. But Rose was not with Phillis and Alice Armatage,
and Russ's bed was likewise empty.
"Where are those children?" Mother Bunker demanded of Daddy, when she
had run downstairs again. "Do you know? They should be in bed."
"They were in the library earlier in the evening," Mrs. Armatage said.
"I think they were writing again."
"Writing?" repeated Mother Bunker. "Making more of those signs to set up
at the burned house?"
Mr. Armatage chuckled. "Those won't do much good. Sneezer never could
read writing."
"Let us ask Mammy. Rose and Russ may be with her," suggested Mrs.
Armatage.
Upstairs went the two ladies and into Mammy June's room. There was a
night light burning there, but nobody was with the old woman.
"Lawsy me!" exclaimed the old nurse when Mrs. Bunker asked her. "I ain't
seen them childern since I had my supper. No'm. They ain't been here."
The house was searched from cellar to garret by the two gentlemen.
Meanwhile the anxious mother and her hostess went to the library.
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