"Of course I do," said Rose, with a glad little jump in her bed. "I
think you're just the smartest boy, Russ, to think of it. I won't say a
word about it, not even to Philly and Alice."

With this plan dancing in her head Rose soon fell asleep while Russ
stole back to the room where he slept with the smaller boys. After that
the big house on the Meiggs Plantation became quiet for the rest of the
long night.




CHAPTER XVIII

THE TWINS IN TROUBLE


Laddie and Vi Bunker felt as though they had been cheated. They had not
been allowed to go to the fire, "when Mammy June's cabin had been burned
all up," Vi declared. They had only seen the fire from an upper window
of the big Armatage house.

"But it wasn't burned _up_, Vi," her twin insisted. "It was burned
_down_."

"Russ said it was burned up when he came back from the fire--so now,"
Violet declared somewhat warmly.

"How can a house burn up? It just fell all to pieces into the cellar."