That "taffy pull" was a famous one. The six little Bunkers thought they
had never eaten such nice molasses candy as Mammy June made. Phillis
Armatage made believe that she did a lot to help for she buttered the
pans. But it was Mammy June who really did it all.

"I think," confessed Rose to Alice, "that it is awfully nice to have
both a mammy and a mother, as you girls have. Of course, a mammy can't
be just what Mother Bunker is to us; but Mammy June is nice."

"She's lots better to us than our mother, in some ways," said Alice
bluntly. "Mother doesn't want us to play noisy in the house. She has
headaches and stays on the couch a lot. We have to step soft and can't
talk loud. But Mammy June never has the fidgets."

"What's 'fidgets'?" asked Rose, quite shocked by the way Alice spoke of
her mother.

"What ladies have," explained Alice. "Don't your mother have 'em?"

"I guess not. I never heard about them," Rose answered. "Then if your
mother is sick, I don't suppose she can help it. It is lucky you have
got a mammy."

That first afternoon ("evening" all these Southern folks called it) at
Mammy June's was a very pleasant experience. Russ did not mind his
ducking--much. He only grinned a little when Mammy June called him "the
catfish boy."

"Serves me good and right," he confessed to Rose. "I ought not to have
gone into that brook without a bathing suit. And, anyway, I guess a boy