In the middle of the attic, extending up through the roof, was a big chimney. It could not be seen in the rest of the house, but here in the attic the bricks were in plain view, and Charlie said, on cold Winter days, when it snowed, it was warm in the attic because of the heat from the chimney.
Just now the boys were more interested in the guns and the swords, of which a goodly number were hanging on rafters and beams back of the chimney.
"Oh, what a lot of guns!" cried Bunny.
"And they shoot, too," added Charlie. "I mean you can pull the trigger and the hammer will snap down. Course we only use make-believe powder."
"Course," agreed Bunny. "But we can holler 'Bang!' whenever we shoot a gun."
"And we can each have a sword."
So the boys began to play soldier, sometimes both being on the same side, hunting Indians through the secret mazes of the attic, and again one being a white-settler soldier, and the other a red man.
Meanwhile Sue and Rose were playing a different game. They had found some old-fashioned and big silk dresses in some of the trunks, and they at once dressed themselves up in these and made believe pay visits one to the other. The two little girls talked as they imagined grown-up ladies would talk when "dressed up," and they had great fun, while on the other side of the attic Charlie and Bunny were bang-banging away at one another in the soldier game.
The children had been playing in the attic about an hour, the boys at their soldiering game and the girls at visiting, when Rose came to Bunny and Charlie with a queer look on her face.
"What's the matter?" asked Charlie. "Have you had a fuss and stopped playing?"