"Oh yes," said Dumps, "that will be the very thing, an' Mammy won't
never know it, 'cause we'll be sho' ter come back befo' snack-time."

"But something might happen to us, you know," said Diddie, "like the boy
in my blue book, who went off fishin' when his mother told him not to,
an' the boat upsetted and drownded him."

"Tain't no boat there," urged Dumps; "tain't no water even, an' I don't
b'lieve we'd be drownded; an' tain't no bears roun' this place like them
that eat up the bad little chil'en in the Bible; and tain't no Injuns in
this country, an' tain't no snakes nor lizards till summer-time, an' all
the cows is out in the pasture; an' tain't no ghos'es in the daytime,
an' I don't b'lieve there's nothin' ter happen to us; an' ef there wuz,
I reckon God kin take care of us, can't he?"

"He won't do it, though, ef we don't mind our mother," replied Diddie.

"Mammy ain't none of our mother, and tain't none of her business not to
be lettin' us play on the lumber, neither. Please come, Diddie, we'll
have such a fun, an' nothin' can't hurt us. If you'll come, we'll let
you keep the hotel, an' me an' Tot'll be the boarders."

The idea of keeping the hotel was too much for Diddie's scruples, and
she readily agreed to the plan. Dilsey was then despatched to the
nursery to bring the dolls, and Chris ran off to the wood-pile to get
the wheelbarrow, which was to be the omnibus for carrying passengers to
and from the hotel.

These details being satisfactorily arranged, the next thing was to slip
off from Cherubim and Seraphim, for they followed the little girls