"Why not?" demanded Laddie, with quite as much curiosity as his twin
sister might have shown.

"Very true, why not?" repeated Mrs. Bunker, with some gravity. "You are
wrong, Russ. Our Uncle Sam is just as much this Sam's uncle as he is
ours. Now go down to the kitchen, Sam. I hear Parker calling for you.
Eat your fill. And wait down there, for we shall want to see you
again."




CHAPTER IV

DADDY'S NEWS


Aunt Jo found the garments she meant to give to Sam, the strange colored
boy, and she and Rose and Vi came downstairs with them to the room in
which the children had been playing at first. Russ and Laddie had set up
the sectional bookcase once more and the room looked less like the wreck
of an auction room, Mother Bunker said.

She had returned with Margie and the boys. They thought it better--at
least, the adults did--to leave Sam in the kitchen with Parker and
Annie, the maid.

"But I hate to see that boy go away from here in this storm," said
kind-hearted Aunt Jo. "Perhaps what he says about us Boston people in