"I want ter go to the hotel," said Dumps, as Dilsey came up rolling
the wheelbarrow-- "me an' my three little chil'en."
"Yes, marm, jes git in," said Dilsey, and Dumps, with her wax baby and
a rag doll for her little daughters, and a large cotton-stalk for her
little boy, took a seat in the omnibus. Dilsey wheeled her up to the
hotel, and Diddie met her at the door.
"What is your name, madam?" she inquired.
"My name is Mrs. Dumps," replied the guest, "an' this is my little
boy, an' these is my little girls."
"Oh, Dumps, you play so cur'us," said Diddie; "who ever heard of
anybody bein' named Mrs. Dumps? there ain't no name like that."
"Well, I don't know nothin' else," said Dumps; "I couldn't think of
nothin'."
"Sposin' you be named Mrs. Washington, after General Washington?" said
Diddie, who was now studying a child's history of America, and was
very much interested in it.
"All right," said Dumps; and Mrs. Washington, with her son and
daughters, was assigned apartments, and Chris was sent up with
refreshments, composed of pieces of old cotton-bolls and gray moss,
served on bits of broken china.
The omnibus now returned with Tot and her family, consisting of an
India-rubber baby with a very cracked face, and a rag body that had
once sported a china head, and now had no head of any kind; but it was
nicely dressed, and there were red shoes on the feet; and it answered
Tot's purpose very well.
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