any boys and girls whom the Bunkers had ever known before.

Phillis was twelve--quite a "grown up young lady" she seemed to consider
herself. Yet she broke out now and then in wild, tomboyish activities,
racing with Russ and Frane, Junior, climbing fences and trees, and
riding horses bareback in the home lot. It seemed as though Phil, as
they called her, "held in" just as long as she could, trying to put on
the airs of grown-ups, and then just had to break out.

"If you tell mother I did this I'll wish a ha'nt after you!" she would
say to her brother, who was the age of Vi and Laddie, and her sister
Alice, who was two years younger than herself, but no bigger than Rose.
Alice had a very low, sweet, contralto voice, like Mrs. Armatage, and a
very demure manner. Rose became friendly with Alice almost at once.

And the way they treated the colored children of their own age and older
was just as strange as anything else about the three Armatages. They
petted and quarreled with them; they expected all kinds of service from
them; and they were on their part, constantly doing things for the
children of "the quarters" and giving them presents. Wherever the white
children went about the plantation there was sure to be a crowd of
colored boys and girls tagging them.

After the first day Mother Bunker was reassured that nothing could
happen to her brood, because there were so many of the colored men about
the grounds to look after them. As in the house, a black or brown face,
broadly a-smile, was likely to appear almost anywhere.

The quarters, as the cabins occupied by the colored people were called,
were not far from the house, but not in sight of it. Even the kitchen