Just back of the gin-house was a pile of lumber that Major Waldron had had hauled in build a new pick-room, and which was piled so as to form little squares, large enough to hold three of the children at once.  During the last ginning season they had gone down once with Mammy to “ride on the gin,” but had soon abandoned that amusement to play housekeeping on the lumber, and have the little squares for rooms.  They had often since thought of that evening, and had repeatedly begged Mammy to let them go down to the lumber pile; but she was afraid they would tear their clothes, or hurt themselves in some way, and would never consent.

So one day in the early spring, when Mammy and Aunt Milly were having a great cleaning-up in the nursery, and the children had been sent into the yard to play, Chris suggested that they should all slip off, and go and play on the lumber pile.

“Oh, yes,” said Dumps, “that will be the very thing, an’ Mammy won’t never know it, ‘cause we’ll be sho’ ter come back befo’ snack-time.”

“But something might happen to us, you know,” said Diddie, “like the boy in my blue book, who went off fishin’ when his mother told him not to, an’ the boat upsetted and drownded him.”

“Tain’t no boat there,” urged Dumps; “tain’t no water even, an’ I don’t b’lieve we’d be drownded; an’ tain’t no bears roun’ this place like them that eat up the bad little Chil’en in the Bible; and tain’t no Injuns in this country, an’ tain’t no snakes nor lizards till summer-time, an’ all the cows is out in the pasture; an’ tain’t no ghos’es in the daytime, an’ I don’t b’lieve there’s nothin’ ter happen to us; an’ ef there wuz, I reckon God kin take care of us, can’t he?”

“He won’t do it, though, ef we don’t mind our mother,” replied Diddie.

“Mammy ain’t none of our mother, and tain’t none of her business not to be lettin’ us play on the lumber, neither.  Please come, Diddie, we’ll have such a fun, an’ nothin’ can’t hurt us.  If you’ll come, we’ll let you keep the hotel, an’ me an’ Tot ’ll be the boarders.”

The idea of keeping the hotel was too much for Diddie’s scruples, and she readily agreed to the plan.  Dilsey was then despatched to the nursery to bring the dolls, and Chris ran off to the wood-pile to get the wheelbarrow, which was to be the omnibus for carrying passengers to and from the hotel.

These details being satisfactorily arranged, the next thing was to slip off from Cherubim and Seraphim, for they followed the little girls everywhere, and they would be too much trouble on this occasion, since they couldn’t climb up on the pile themselves, and would whine piteously if the children left them.

The plan finally decided upon was this:  Diddie was to coax them to the kitchen to get some meat, while the other children were to go as fast as they could down the avenue and wait for her where the road turned, and she was to slip off while the puppies were eating, and join them.