notwithstanding all that, the children were uneasy, and made Aunt Milly
sit by the bedside until they went to sleep, to keep the "swords and the
famines" from getting them.




CHAPTER XIV.

DIDDIE AND DUMPS GO VISITING.


It was some time in June that, the weather being fine, Mammy gave the
children permission to go down to the woods beyond the gin-house and
have a picnic.

They had a nice lunch put up in their little baskets, and started off in
high glee, taking with them Cherubim and Seraphim and the doll babies.
They were not to stay all day, only till dinner-time; so they had no
time to lose, but set to playing at once.

First, it was "Ladies come to see," and each of them had a house under
the shade of a tree, and spent most of the time in visiting and in
taking care of their respective families. Dumps had started out with
Cherubim for her little boy; but he proved so refractory, and kept her
so busy catching him, that she decided to play he was the yard dog, and
content herself with the dolls for her children. Riar, too, had some
trouble in _her_ family; in passing through the yard, she had inveigled
Hester's little two-year-old son to go with them, and now was desirous
of claiming him as her son and heir--a position which he filled very