"He isn't dead, is he?" asked Russ.

"Reckon not," said Phillis. "But Mammy June is awful' worried about him.
She hasn't heard from him now for more than a year. So she doesn't know
what to think."

"But she has got other folks, hasn't she?" Rose asked.

"You'd think so! Grandchildren by the score," replied the older
Armatage girl, laughing. "Sneezer had lots of older brothers and
sisters, and they most all have married and live about here and have big
families. The grandchildren are running in and out of mammy's cabin all
the time. I have to chase 'em out with a broom sometimes when I go down
there. And they eat her pretty near up alive!"

Even the smaller Bunkers knew that this was a figure of speech. The
grandchildren did not actually eat Mammy June, although they might clean
her cupboard as bare as that of Old Mother Hubbard.

They followed a winding, grass-grown cart path for nearly half a mile
before coming to Mammy June's house. The way was sloping to the border
of a "branch" or small stream--a very pretty brook indeed that burbled
over stones in some places and then had long stretches of quiet pools
where Frane, Junior, told Russ and Laddie that there were many
fish--"big fellows."

"I'll get a string and a bent pin and fish for them," said Laddie
confidently. "I fished that way in the brook at Pineville."

"Huh!" said Frane Armatage, Junior, in scorn. "One of these fish here