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diff --git a/38742-h/38742-h.htm b/38742-h/38742-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d67b3a --- /dev/null +++ b/38742-h/38742-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9132 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> + <meta name="generator" content="pph (1.18)"/> + <meta name="title" content="The Corner House Girls Under Canvas"/> + <meta name="author" content="Grace Brooks Hill"/> + <meta name="date" content="1915"/> + <title>The Corner House Girls Under Canvas</title> + <style type="text/css"> + p.center {text-align:center} + p.caption {text-align:center; margin-left:20%; margin-right:20%;} + h2.chapter {font-size:1.2em; text-align:center; margin: 2em auto 1em auto; font-weight:normal} + div.bq {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS +HOW THEY REACHED PLEASANT COVE AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD ***</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink01' src='images/illus-001.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>Before either Tess or Dot thought to cry out for help, they were out of sight of the camp.</p> +</div> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0em;'>THE CORNER HOUSE</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;'>GIRLS UNDER CANVAS</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +HOW THEY REACHED PLEASANT COVE<br/> +AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0;'>BY</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>GRACE BROOKS HILL</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:0.8em;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Author of “The Corner House Girls,”</span></p> +<p class='center' style='font-size:0.8em;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“The Corner House Girls at School,” etc.</span></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>ILLUSTRATED BY</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>R. EMMETT OWEN</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0em;'>NEW YORK</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:0em;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:2em;'>PUBLISHERS</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0;'>BOOKS FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>The Corner House Girls Series</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>By Grace Brooks Hill</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>Illustrated.</i></p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>(<i>Other volumes in preparation</i>)</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Publishers—New York</span></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0;'>Copyright, 1915,</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>by</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Barse & Hopkins</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>The Corner House Girls Under Canvas</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Printed in U. S. A.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>CONTENTS</p> + +<table id='toc' style='margin:auto' summary='TOC'> +<tr><td> + <a href='#clink01'>I. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Tom Jonah</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink02'>II. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Something to Look Forward To</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink03'>III. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Dance at Carrie Poole’s</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink04'>IV. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Mystery of June Wildwood</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink05'>V. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Off for the Seaside</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink06'>VI. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>On the Train</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink07'>VII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Something Ahead</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink08'>VIII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Gypsy Camp</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink09'>IX. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Spoondrift Bungalow</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink10'>X. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Some Excitement</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink11'>XI. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink12'>XII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Picnic with Agamemnon</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink13'>XIII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Night of the Big Wind</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink14'>XIV. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>An Important Arrival</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink15'>XV. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Two Girls in a Boat—to Say Nothing of the Dog!</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink16'>XVI. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Gypsies Again</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink17'>XVII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>On Wild Goose Island</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink18'>XVIII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Search</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink19'>XIX. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Startling Meeting</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink20'>XX. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Frankfurter Man</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink21'>XXI. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Mrs. Bobster’s Mysterious Friend</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink22'>XXII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Yarn of the “Spanking Sal”</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink23'>XXIII. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Shadow</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink24'>XXIV. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Brought to Book</span></a><br/> + <a href='#clink25'>XXV. <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The End of the Outing</span></a><br/> +</td></tr> +</table> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +Before either Tess or Dot thought to cry out for help,<br/> +they were out of sight of the camp<br/> +<br/> +A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging<br/> +with both hands to the ridge of it<br/> +<br/> +Ruth actually went back, groping through the<br/> +gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled<br/> +out upon the shingles<br/> +<br/> +The dog was perplexed. He started after the man;<br/> +he started back for the girls. He whined and he<br/> +barked<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink01'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER I—TOM JONAH</a></h2> + +<p>“Come here, Tess! Come quick and look at +this poor dog. He’s just drip-ping-<i>wet</i>!”</p> + +<p>Dot Kenway stood at a sitting-room window +of the old Corner House, looking out upon Willow +Street. It was a dripping day, and anything or +anybody that remained out-of-doors and exposed +to the downpour for half an hour, was sure to be +saturated.</p> + +<p>Nothing wetter or more miserable looking than +the dog in question had come within the range of +the vision of the two younger Corner House girls +that Saturday morning.</p> + +<p>Tess, who was older than Dot, came running. +Anything as frightfully despondent and hopeless +looking as that dog was bound to touch the tender +heart of Tess Kenway.</p> + +<p>“Let’s—let’s take him to the porch and feed +him, Dot,” she cried.</p> + +<p>“Will Ruthie let us?” asked Dot.</p> + +<p>“Of course. She’s gone for her music lesson +and won’t know, anyway,” declared Tess, recklessly.</p> + +<p>“But maybe Mrs. MacCall won’t like it?”</p> + +<p>“She’s upstairs and won’t know, either. Besides,” +Tess said, bolstering up her own desire, +“she says she hasn’t ever sent anybody away +hungry from her door; and that poor dog looks +just as hungry as any tramp that ever came to +the old Corner House.”</p> + +<p>The girls ran out of the sitting-room into the +huge front hall which, in itself, was almost big +enough for a ballroom. It was finished in dark, +dark oak; there was a huge front door—like the +door of a castle; the furniture was walnut, upholstered +in haircloth, worn shiny by more than +three generations of use; and out of the middle +of the hall a great stairway arose, dividing when +half-way up into two sections, while a sort of +gallery was built all around the hall at the second +floor, out of which the doors of the principal chambers +opened.</p> + +<p>There was a third story above, and above that +a huge garret—often the playroom of the Corner +House girls on such days as this. In the rear +were two wings built on to the house, each three +stories in height. The house had its “long” side +to Willow Street, and only a narrow grass plot +and brick walk separated the sitting-room windows +from the boundary fence.</p> + +<p>It faced Main Street, at its head, where the +Parade Ground began. The dripping trees on +the Parade were now in full leaf and the lush +grass beneath them was green. The lawns of the +old Corner House needed the mower, too; and at +the back Uncle Rufus—the general factotum of +the establishment—had laid out a wonderful +kitchen garden which already had yielded radishes +and tender onions and salad, and promised +green peas to accompany the spring lamb to the +table on the approaching Fourth.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot Kenway crossed the big hall of +the Corner House, and went on through the dining-room +with its big table, huge, heavily carved sideboard +and comfortably armed chairs, through the +butler’s pantry into the kitchen. As Tess had +said, Mrs. MacCall, their good-natured and lovable +housekeeper, was not in sight. Nobody delayed +them, and they stepped out upon the half-screened +porch at the back. The woodshed +joined it at the far end. The steps faced Willow +Street.</p> + +<p>On the patch of drying green a goat was +tethered, lying down in the rain, reflectively chewing +a cud. He bleated when he saw the girls, +but did not offer to rise; the rain did not disturb +him in the least.</p> + +<p>“Billy Bumps likes the rain,” Dot said, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>The dog outside the gate did not seem to be +enjoying himself. He had dropped down upon +the narrow strip of sward between the flagged +walk and the curbing; his sides heaved as though +he had run a long way, and his pink tongue lolled +out of his mouth and dripped.</p> + +<p>“My!” Dot murmured, as she saw this, “the +rain’s soaked right through the poor doggy—hasn’t +it? And it’s just dripping out of him!”</p> + +<p>Tess, more practical, if no more earnest in her +desire to relieve the dog’s apparent misery, ran +down to the gate through the falling rain and +called to him:</p> + +<p>“Poor, poor doggie! Come in!”</p> + +<p>She opened the gate temptingly, but the strange +dog merely wagged his tail and looked at her out +of his beautiful brown eyes. He was a Newfoundland +dog, with a cross of some breed that +gave him patches of deep brown in his coat and +very fine, long, silky hair that curled up at the +ends. He was strongly built and had a good +muzzle which was powdered with the gray hairs +of age.</p> + +<p>“Come here, old fellow,” urged Tess, “<i>Do</i> +come in!”</p> + +<p>She snapped her fingers and held the gate more +invitingly open. He staggered to his feet and +limped toward her. He did not crouch and slink +along as a dog does that has been beaten; but +he eyed her doubtfully as though not sure, after +all, of this reception.</p> + +<p>He was muddied to his flanks, his coat was +matted with green burrs, and there was a piece +of frayed rope knotted about his neck. The dog +followed Tess doubtfully to the porch. Billy +Bumps climbed to his feet and shook his head +threateningly, stamping his feet; but the strange +dog was too exhausted to pay the goat any attention.</p> + +<p>The visitor at first refused to mount the steps, +but he looked up at Dot and wagged his tail in +greeting.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tess!” cried the smallest girl. “He +thinks he knows me. Do you suppose we have +ever seen him before?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe so,” said Tess, bustling into +the woodshed and out again with a pan of broken +meat that had been put aside for Sandyface and +her children. “I know I should remember him +if I had ever seen him before. Come, old fellow! +Good doggie! Come up and eat.”</p> + +<p>She put the pan down on the porch and stood +back from it. The brown eyes of the dog glowed +more brightly. He hesitatingly hobbled up the +steps.</p> + +<p>A single sniff of the tidbits in the pan, and the +dog fell to wolfishly, not stopping to chew at all, +but fairly jerking the meat into his throat with +savage snaps.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t gobble so!” gasped Dot. “It—it’s +bad for your indigestions—and isn’t polite, anyway.”</p> + +<p>“Guess you wouldn’t be polite if you were as +hungry as he is,” Tess observed.</p> + +<p>The dog was so tired that he lay right down, +after a moment, and ate with his nose in the pan. +Dot ventured to pat his wet coat and he thumped +his tail softly on the boards, but did not stop eating.</p> + +<p>At this juncture Uncle Rufus came shuffling up +the path from the hen-coop. Uncle Rufus was a +tall, stoop-shouldered, pleasantly brown negro, +with a very bald crown around which was a narrow +growth of tight, grizzled “wool.” He had +a smiling face, and if the whites of his eyes were +turning amber hued with age he was still “purty +pert”—to use his own expression—save when the +rheumatism laid him low.</p> + +<p>“Whar’ yo’ chillen done git dat dawg?” he +wanted to know, in astonishment.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Uncle Rufus!” cried Dot. “He came +along looking <i>so</i> wet——”</p> + +<p>“And he was <i>so</i> tired and hungry,” added Tess.</p> + +<p>“I done spec’ yo’ chillen would take in er +wild taggar, ef one come erlong lookin’ sort o’ +meachin’,” grumbled the colored man.</p> + +<p>“But he’s so good!” said Tess. “See!” and +she put her hand upon the handsome head of the +bedraggled beast.</p> + +<p>“He jes’ er tramp dawg,” said Uncle Rufus, +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“He’s only tired and dirty,” said Tess, earnestly. +“I don’t believe he wants to be a tramp. +He doesn’t look at all like the tramps Mrs. MacCall +feeds at the back door here.”</p> + +<p>“Nor like those horrid Gypsies that came to +the house the other day,” added Dot eagerly. “I +was afraid of them.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it suah ain’t b’long ’round yere—dat +dawg,” muttered Uncle Rufus. “It done run +erway f’om somewhar’ an’ hit trabbel far—ya-as’m!”</p> + +<p>He pulled the ears of the big dog himself, in +a kindly fashion, and the dog pounded the porch +harder with his tail and rolled a trusting eye up +at the little group. Evidently the tramp dog was +convinced that this would be a good place to remain +in, and “rest up.”</p> + +<p>A pretty girl of twelve or thirteen, with flower-like +face, plump, and her blue eyes dancing and +laughing in spite of her, ran in at the side gate. +She had a covered basket of groceries on her arm, +and was swathed in a raincoat with a close hood +about her face.</p> + +<p>“Agnes!” screamed Dot. “See what we’ve +got! Just the nicest, friendfulnest dog——”</p> + +<p>“Mercy, Dot! More animals?” was the older +sister’s first comment.</p> + +<p>“But he’s such a <i>nice</i> dog,” wailed Dot.</p> + +<p>“And so hungry and wet,” added Tess.</p> + +<p>“What fine eyes he has!” exclaimed Agnes, +stooping down to pat the noble head. Instantly +the dog’s pink tongue sought her hand and—Agnes +was won!</p> + +<p>“He’s splendid! he’s a fine old fellow!” she +cried. “Of course we’ll keep him, Dot.”</p> + +<p>“If Ruthie says so,” added Tess, with a loyalty +to the oldest Corner House girl born of the fact +that Ruth had mothered the brood of three +younger sisters since their real mother had died +three years previous.</p> + +<p>“I dunno wot yo’ chillen want er dawg for,” +complained Uncle Rufus.</p> + +<p>“To keep chicken thieves away,” said Agnes, +promptly, laughing roguishly at the grumbling +black man.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Tess. “You said yourself, Uncle +Rufus, that those Gypsies that stopped here +might be looking at Ruth’s chickens.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I done guess dat tramp dawg knows +when he’s well off,” said the old man, chuckling +suddenly. “He’s layin’ down lak’ he’s fixin’ tuh +stay—ya-as’m!”</p> + +<p>The dog had crept to the most sheltered corner +of the porch and curled up on an old rag mat +Mrs. MacCall had left there for the cats.</p> + +<p>“He ought to have that dirty old rope taken +off,” said Agnes.</p> + +<p>Uncle Rufus drew out his clasp knife and opened +the blade. He approached the weary dog and +knelt down to remove the rope.</p> + +<p>“Glo-<i>ree</i>!” he exclaimed, suddenly. “He +done got er collar on him.”</p> + +<p>It was hidden in the thick hair about the dog’s +neck. The three girls crowded close to see, +Uncle Rufus unbuckled it and handed the leather +strap to Agnes.</p> + +<p>“See if there is any name and address on it, +Aggie!” gasped Tess. “Oh! I hope not. Then, +if we don’t know where he came from, he’s ours +for keeps.”</p> + +<p>There was a small brass plate; but no name, +address, or license number was engraved upon it. +Instead, in clear script, it was marked:</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>“THIS IS TOM JONAH. HE IS A</p> +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>GENTLEMAN.”</p> + +<p>“There!” cried Dot, as though this settled the +controversy. “What did I tell you? He <i>can’t</i> +be any tramp dog. He’s a gentleman.”</p> + +<p>“‘Tom Jonah,’” murmured Agnes. “What +a funny name!”</p> + +<p>When Ruth came home the younger girls bore +her off at once to see Tom Jonah sleeping comfortably +on the porch. The old dog raised his +grizzled muzzle, wagged his tail, and beamed at +her out of his soft brown eyes.</p> + +<p>“The dear love!” cried Tess, clasping her +hands. “Isn’t he beautiful, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“Beautifully dirty,” said Ruth, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, but Uncle Rufus says he will wash him +to-morrow. He’s got some insect—insecty-suicide +soap like he puts on the henroosts——”</p> + +<p>“Insecticide, Dot,” admonished Tess. “I wish +you wouldn’t try to say words that you <i>can’t</i> +say.”</p> + +<p>Dot pouted. But Ruth patted her head and +said, soothingly:</p> + +<p>“Never mind, honey. We’ll let the poor dog +stay till he rests up, anyway. He looks like a +kind creature.”</p> + +<p>But she, as well as the adults in the old Corner +House, did not expect to see Tom Jonah the next +morning when they awoke. He was allowed to +remain on the porch, and despite the objections of +Sandyface, the mother cat, and the army of +younger felines growing up about her, Tom Jonah +was given a bountiful supper by Mrs. MacCall +herself.</p> + +<p>Dot and Tess ran to peep at the dog just before +going to bed that night. He blinked at them +in the lampshine from the open door, and thumped +the porch flooring with his tail.</p> + +<p>It was past midnight before anything more was +heard of Tom Jonah. Then the whole house was +aroused—not to say the neighborhood. There +was a savage salvo of barks from the porch, and +down the steps scrambled Tom Jonah. They +heard him go roaring down the yard.</p> + +<p>Then there arose a great confusion at the hen +house—a squawking of frightened hens, the loud +“cut, cut, ca-da-cut!” of the rooster, mingling +with which was the voice of at least one human +being and the savage baying of Tom Jonah.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink02'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER II—SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO</a></h2> + +<p>Uncle Rufus was too old and too stiff to get +out of bed and down from his third-story room +in the old Corner House, to be of any assistance +at this midnight incident. But the girls were +awakened the moment Tom Jonah began barking.</p> + +<p>“It’s a hen thief!” squealed Tess, leaping out +of her own warm nest.</p> + +<p>“I hope that dog bites him!” cried Agnes, savagely, +from the other room.</p> + +<p>She ran to the window. It was a starlit, but +foggy night. She could see only vaguely the objects +out of doors.</p> + +<p>Ruth was scrambling into a skirt and dressing +sacque; she thrust her feet into shoes, too, and +started downstairs. Mrs. MacCall’s window +went up with a bang, and the girls heard the +housekeeper exclaim:</p> + +<p>“Shoo! shoo! Get out of there!”</p> + +<p>Whoever it was that had roused Tom Jonah, +the person was evidently unable to “get out of +there.” The dog’s threatening growls did not +cease, and the man’s voice which had first been +heard when the trouble started, was protesting.</p> + +<p>Agnes followed her older sister downstairs. +Of course, Aunt Sarah Maltby, who slept in one +of the grand front rooms in the main part of the +house, did not even hear all the disturbance. +And there were not any houses really near the +Stower Homestead, which Milton people knew by +the name of “the old Corner House.”</p> + +<p>Therefore, the sounds of conflict at the Kenway +hennery were not likely to arouse many people. +But when Ruth and Agnes reached out-of-doors, +the younger girl remembered one person +who might hear and be of assistance.</p> + +<p>“Let’s call Neale O’Neil!” she cried to Ruth. +“He’ll help us.”</p> + +<p>“We’d better call a policeman,” said Ruth, +running down the brick path.</p> + +<p>“Huh! you wouldn’t find a policeman in Milton +at this hour of the night, if you searched for a +week of Sundays,” was the younger girl’s ambiguous +statement. Then she raised her voice and +shouted: “Neale! Neale O’Neil! Help!”</p> + +<p>Meantime the dog continued his threatening +bayings. The fowls fluttered and squawked. +Billy Bumps began to blat and butt the partition +in his pen. Whoever had ventured into the hennery +had gotten into hot quarters and no mistake!</p> + +<p>Ruth stopped suddenly in the path and clutched +at Agnes’ arm. Agnes was as lightly dressed +as herself; but it was a warm June night and +there was no danger of their getting cold.</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink02' src='images/illus-002.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging with both hands to the ridge of it.</p> +</div> + +<p>“Suppose the dog does not remember us?” the +older girl gasped in Agnes’ ear. “Maybe—maybe +he’ll tear us to pieces. How savage he +sounds!”</p> + +<p>Agnes was frightened; but she had pluck, too. +“Come on, Ruth!” she said. “He is only mad +at the thief.”</p> + +<p>“If it <i>is</i> a thief,” quavered Ruth. “I—I am +afraid to go on, Aggie.”</p> + +<p>At that moment the sound of little feet pattering +behind them made both girls turn. There +were Dot and Tess, both barefooted, and Dot with +merely a doubled-up comforter snatched from +her bed, wrapped over her night clothes.</p> + +<p>“Mercy me, children!” gasped Ruth. “What +are you doing here?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we mustn’t let Tom Jonah <i>bite</i> that man,” +Tess declared, and kept right on running toward +the henhouse.</p> + +<p>“If that dog bites——” screamed Ruth, and +ran after her smaller sister.</p> + +<p>There was the big dog leaping savagely toward +the low eaves of the hennery. A kicking figure +was sprawled on the roof, clinging with both +hands to the ridge of it. The girls obtained a +glimpse of a dark face, with flashing teeth, and +big gold rings in the marauder’s ears.</p> + +<p>“Tak’ dog away! Tak’ dog away!” the man +said, in a strangled voice.</p> + +<p>“He’s one of those Gypsies,” whispered Agnes, +in an awed voice.</p> + +<p>A tribe of the nomads in question had passed +through Milton but a day or two before, and the +girls had been frightened by the appearance of +the men of the tribe who had called at the old +Corner House.</p> + +<p>Now, whether this marauder belonged to the +same people or not, Ruth saw that he looked like +a Gypsy. For another reason, too, her mind was +relieved at once; Tom Jonah was only savage +toward the man on the roof.</p> + +<p>When Tess ran right up to the leaping dog, he +stopped barking, and wagged his tail, as though +satisfied that he had done his duty in drawing +the family to the scene. But he still kept his eyes +on the man, and occasionally uttered a growl deep +in his throat.</p> + +<p>“What are you doing up there?” Ruth demanded +of the man.</p> + +<p>“Tak’ away dog!” he whined.</p> + +<p>“No. I think I will let the dog hold you till a +policeman comes. You were trying to rob our +henroost.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, Missee! You wrong. No do that,” +stammered the man.</p> + +<p>“What were you doing here, then?”</p> + +<p>Before the fellow could manufacture any plausible +tale, a shout came from beyond the back +fence, and somebody was heard to scramble into +the Corner House yard.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter, girls?” demanded Neale +O’Neil’s cheerful voice.</p> + +<p>“Oh, come here, Neale!” cried Agnes. “Tom +Jonah’s caught a Gypsy.”</p> + +<p>“Tom <i>Who</i>?” demanded the tall, pleasant-faced +boy of fifteen, who immediately approached the +henhouse.</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah,” announced Tess. “He’s just +the <i>nicest</i> dog!”</p> + +<p>The boy saw the group more clearly then. He +looked from the savagely growling animal to the +man sprawling on the roof, and burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>“Yes! I guess that fellow up there feels that +the dog is very ‘nice.’ Where did you get the +dog, and where did <i>he</i> get his name?”</p> + +<p>“We’ll tell you all about that later, Neale,” +said Ruth, more gravely. “At least, we’ll tell +you all we know about the dear old dog. Isn’t +he a splendid fellow to catch this man at my +hens?”</p> + +<p>“And the fellow had some in this bag!” exclaimed +Neale, finding a bag of flopping poultry +at the corner of the hen-run.</p> + +<p>“Tak’ away dog!” begged the man on the roof +again.</p> + +<p>“That’s all he’s afraid of,” said Agnes. “I +bet he has a knife. Isn’t he a wicked looking fellow?”</p> + +<p>“Regular brigand,” agreed Neale. “What we +going to do with him?”</p> + +<p>“Give him to a policeman,” suggested Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose the policeman would <i>want</i> +him?” chuckled Neale. “To awaken a Milton +officer at this hour of the night would be almost +sacrilege, wouldn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“What <i>shall</i> we do?” demanded Agnes.</p> + +<p>Ruth had been thinking more sensibly for a few +moments. Now she spoke up decisively:</p> + +<p>“The man did not manage to do any harm. +Put the poultry back in the house, Neale. If he +ever comes again he will know what to expect. +He thought we had no dog; but he sees we have—and +a savage one. Let him go.”</p> + +<p>“Had we better do that, sister?” whispered +Agnes. “Oughtn’t he to be punished?”</p> + +<p>“I expect so,” Ruth said, grimly. “But for +once I am going to shirk my duty. We’ll take +away the dog and let him go.”</p> + +<p>“Who’ll take him away?” demanded Agnes, +suddenly.</p> + +<p>Neale had taken the sack in which the fowl +struggled, to the door of the henhouse, opened +it, and dumped the fowl out. Tom Jonah evidently +recognized him for a friend, for he wagged +his tail, but still kept his eye on the man upon +the roof.</p> + +<p>“I declare!” said Ruth. “I hadn’t thought. +Whom will he mind?”</p> + +<p>“Come here, Tom Jonah!” said Neale, snapping +his fingers.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah still wagged his tail, but he remained +ready to receive the Gypsy (if such the +fellow was) in his jaws, if he descended.</p> + +<p>“Come away, Tom!” exclaimed Agnes, confidently. +“Come on back to the house.”</p> + +<p>The man on the roof moved and Tom Jonah +stiffened. He refused to budge.</p> + +<p>“Guess you’ll have to call a cop after all,” +said Neale, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Here, sir!” commanded Ruth. “Come away. +You have done enough——”</p> + +<p>But the dog did not think so. He held his +place and growled.</p> + +<p>“I guess you’re bound to stay up there, till daylight—or +a policeman—doth appear, my friend,” +called up Neale to the besieged.</p> + +<p>“Tak’ away dog!” begged the frightened fellow.</p> + +<p>“Why, Tom Jonah!” exclaimed Tess, walking +up to the big dog and putting a hand on his collar. +“You must come away when you are spoken +to. You’ve caught the bad man, and that’s +enough.”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah turned and licked her hand. Then +he moved a few steps away with her and looked +back.</p> + +<p>“Come on with me, Tom Jonah,” commanded +the little girl, firmly. “Let the bad man go.”</p> + +<p>“What do you know about <i>that</i>?” demanded +Neale.</p> + +<p>The next minute the fellow had scrambled up +the roof, caught the low hanging limb of a shade +tree that stood near the fence, and swinging himself +like a cat into the tree, he got out on another +branch that overhung the sidewalk, dropped, and +ran.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah sprang to the fence with a savage +bay; but the man only went the faster. The incident +was closed in a minute, and the little +party of half-dressed young folk went back to +their beds, while the strange dog curled up on +his mat in the corner of the porch again and slept +the sleep of the just till morning.</p> + +<p>And now that the excitement is over, let us +find out a little something about the Corner House +girls, their friends, their condition in life, and +certain interesting facts regarding them.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Howbridge, the lawyer from Milton +and Uncle Peter Stower’s man of affairs and the +administrator of his estate, came to the little tenement +on Essex Street, Bloomingsburg, where the +four orphaned Kenway girls had lived for some +years with Aunt Sarah Maltby, he first met Tess +and Dot returning from the drugstore with Aunt +Sarah’s weekly supply of peppermint drops.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sarah had been a burden on the Kenways +for many years. The girls had only their +father’s pension to get along on. Aunt Sarah +claimed that when Uncle Peter died, his great +estate would naturally fall to her, and then she +would return all the benefits she had received +from the Kenway family.</p> + +<p>But the lawyer knew that queer old Uncle +Peter Stower had made a will leaving practically +all his property to the four girls in trust, and to +Aunt Sarah only a small legacy. But this will +had been hidden somewhere by the old man before +his recent death and had not yet been found.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be no other claimants to the +Stower Estate, however, and the court allowed +Mr. Howbridge to take the Kenway girls and +Aunt Sarah to Milton and establish them in the +Stower Homestead, known far and wide as the +old Corner House.</p> + +<p>Here, during the year that had passed, many +interesting and exciting things had happened to +Ruth and Agnes and Tess and Dot.</p> + +<p>Ruth was the head of the family, and the lawyer +greatly admired her good sense and ability. She +was not a strikingly pretty girl, for she had +“stringy” black hair and little color; but her +eyes were big and brown, and those eyes, and her +mouth, laughed suddenly at you and gave expression +to her whole face. She was now completing +her seventeenth year.</p> + +<p>Agnes was thirteen, a jolly, roly-poly girl, who +was fond of jokes, a bit of a tomboy, up to all +sorts of pranks—who laughed easily and cried +stormily—had “lots of molasses colored hair” +as she said herself, and was the possessor of a pair +of blue eyes that could stare a rude boy out of +countenance, but who <i>would</i> spoil the effect of +this the next instant by giggling; a girl who had +a soulmate among her girl friends all of the time, +but not frequently did one last for long in the +catalog of her “best friends.”</p> + +<p>Nobody remembered that Tess had been named +Theresa. She was a wise little ten-year-old who +possessed some of Ruth’s dignity and some of +Agnes’ prettiness, and the most tender heart in +the world, which made her naturally tactful. +She was quick at her books and very courageous.</p> + +<p>Dorothy, or Dot, was the baby and pet of the +family. She was a little brunette fairy; and if +she was not very wise as yet, she was faithful and +lovable, and not one of “the Corner House girls,” +as the Kenways were soon called by Milton people, +was more beloved than Dot.</p> + +<p>The girls’ best boy friend lived with the old +cobbler, Mr. Con Murphy, on the rear street, and +in a little house the yard of which adjoined the +larger grounds of the old Corner House. We +have seen how quickly Neale O’Neil came to the +assistance of the Kenway girls when they were +in trouble.</p> + +<p>Neale had been brought up among circus people, +his mother having traveled all her life with +Twomley & Sorber’s Herculean Circus and Menagerie. +The boy’s desire for an education and +to win a better place in the world for himself, +had caused him to run away from his uncle, Mr. +Sorber, and support himself in Milton while he +attended school.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls had befriended Neale +and when his uncle finally searched him out and +found the boy, it was they who influenced the +man against taking Neale away. Neale had +proved himself an excellent scholar and had made +friends in Milton; now he was about to graduate +with Agnes from the highest grammar grade to +high school.</p> + +<p>The particulars of all these happenings have +been related in the first two volumes of the series, +entitled respectively, “The Corner House Girls” +and “The Corner House Girls at School.”</p> + +<p>When Agnes woke up in the morning following +the unsuccessful raid of the Gypsy man on the +hennery, she had something of wonderful importance +to tell Ruth. She had seen her “particular +friend,” Trix Severn, on the street Saturday +afternoon and Trix had told her something.</p> + +<p>“You’ve heard the girls talking about Pleasant +Cove, Ruthie?” said Agnes, earnestly. “You +know Mr. Terrence Severn owns one of the big +hotels there?”</p> + +<p>“Of course. Trix talks enough about it,” said +the older Kenway girl.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you don’t like Trix——”</p> + +<p>“I’m not exceedingly fond of her. And there +was a time when you thought her your very deadliest +enemy,” laughed Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Well! Trix has changed,” declared the unsuspicious +Agnes, “and she’s proposed the very +nicest thing, Ruth. She says her mother and +father will let her bring all four of us to the Cove +for the first fortnight after graduation. The +hotel will not be full then, and we will be Trix’s +guests. And we’ll have loads of fun.”</p> + +<p>“I—don’t—know——” began Ruth, but Agnes +broke in warmly:</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t you say ‘No,’ Ruthie Kenway! +Don’t you say ‘No!’ I’ve just made up my mind +to go to Pleasant Cove——”</p> + +<p>“No need of flying off, Ag,” said Ruth, in the +cool tone that usually brought Agnes “down to +earth again.” “We have talked of going there +for a part of the summer. A change to salt air +will be beneficial for us all—so Dr. Forsythe says. +I have talked to Mr. Howbridge, and he says +‘Yes.’”</p> + +<p>“Well, then!”</p> + +<p>“But I doubt the advisability of accepting Trix +Severn’s invitation.”</p> + +<p>“Now, isn’t that mean——”</p> + +<p>“Hold your horses,” again advised Ruth. “We +will go, anyway. If all is well we will stay at the +hotel a while. Pearl Harrod’s uncle owns a +bungalow there, too; <i>she</i> has asked me to come +there for a while, and bring you all.”</p> + +<p>“Well! isn’t that nice?” agreed Agnes. “Then +we can stay twice as long.”</p> + +<p>“Whether it will be right for us to accept the +hospitality offered us when we have no means +of returning it——”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me, Ruth! don’t be a fuss-cat.”</p> + +<p>“There is a big tent colony there—quite removed +from the hotel,” suggested Ruth. “Many +of our friends and their folks are going <i>there</i>. +Neale O’Neil is going with a party of the boys +for at least two weeks.”</p> + +<p>“Say! we’ll have scrumptious times,” cried +Agnes, with sparkling eyes. Her anticipation of +every joy in life added immensely to the joy itself.</p> + +<p>“Yes—if we go,” said Ruth, slowly. But it +was something for the others to look forward to +with much pleasure.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink03'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER III—THE DANCE AT CARRIE POOLE’S</a></h2> + +<p>Tess and Dot Kenway had something of particular +interest to hold their attention, too, the +minute they awoke on this Sunday morning. Dot +voiced the matter first when she asked:</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose that dear Tom Jonah is here +yet, Tess?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hope so!” cried the older girl.</p> + +<p>“Let’s run see,” suggested Dot, and nothing +loth Tess slipped into her bathrobe and slippers, +too, and the two girls pattered downstairs. +Their baths, always overseen by Ruth, were neglected. +They must see, they thought, if the good +old dog was on the porch.</p> + +<p>Nobody was astir downstairs; Mrs. MacCall +had not yet left her room, and on Sunday mornings +even Uncle Rufus allowed himself an extra +hour in bed. There was the delicious smell of +warm baked beans left over night in the range +oven; the big, steaming pot would be set upon the +table at breakfast, flanked with golden-brown +muffins on one side and the sliced “loaf,” or +brownbread, on the other.</p> + +<p>Sandyface came yawning from her basket +behind the stove when Tess and Dot entered the +kitchen. She had four little black and white blind +babies in that basket which she had found in a +barrel in the woodshed only a few days before.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall said she did not know what was +to be done with the four kittens. Sandyface’s +original family was quite grown up, and if these +four were allowed to live, too, that would make +nine cats around the old Corner House.</p> + +<p>“And the goodness knows!” exclaimed the +housekeeper, “that’s a whole lot more than any +family has a business to keep. We’re overrun +with cats.”</p> + +<p>Tess unlocked the door and she and Dot went +out on the porch, Sandyface following. There +was no sign of the big dog.</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah’s gone!” sighed Dot, quaveringly.</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t have thought it—when we treated +him so nicely,” said Tess.</p> + +<p>Sandyface sniffed suspiciously at the old mat +on which the dog had lain. Then she looked all +about before venturing off the porch.</p> + +<p>The sunshine and quiet of a perfect Sunday +morning lay all about the old Corner House. +Robins sought their very souls for music to tell +how happy they were, in the tops of the cherry +trees. Catbirds had not yet lost their love songs +of the spring; though occasionally one scolded +harshly when a roaming cat came too near the +hidden nest.</p> + +<p>Wrens hopped about the path, and even upon +the porch steps, secure in their knowledge that +they were too quick for Sandyface to reach, and +with unbounded faith in human beings. An oriole +burst into melody, swinging in the great snowball +bush near the Willow Street fence.</p> + +<p>There was a moist, warm smell from the garden; +the old rooster crowed raucously; Billy +Bumps bleated a wistful “Good-morning” from +his pen. Then came a scramble of padded feet, +and Sandyface went up the nearest tree like a +flash of lightning.</p> + +<p>“Here is Tom Jonah!” cried Tess, with delight.</p> + +<p>From around the corner of the woodshed appeared +the big, shaggy dog. He cocked one ear +and actually smiled when he saw the cat go up +the tree. But he trotted right up on the porch to +meet the delighted girls.</p> + +<p>His brown eyes were deep pools where golden +sparks played. The mud had been mostly shaken +off his flanks and paws. He was rested, and he +acted as though he were sure of his position here +at the old Corner House.</p> + +<p>“Good old fellow!” cried Tess, putting out a +hand to pat him.</p> + +<p>At once Tom Jonah put up his right paw to +shake hands. He repeated the feat with Dot the +next moment, to the delight of both girls.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Dot, “he’s a trick dog.”</p> + +<p>“He’s just what his collar says; he’s a +gentleman,” sighed Tess, happily. “Oh! I hope his +folks won’t ever come after him.”</p> + +<p>Ruth had to come down for Tess and Dot or +they would not have been bathed and dressed in +time for breakfast. The smaller girls were very +much taken with Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>They found that he had more accomplishments +than “shaking hands.” When Agnes came down +and heard about his first manifestation of education, +she tried him at other “stunts.”</p> + +<p>He sat up at the word of command. He would +hold a bit of meat, or a sweet cracker, on his nose +any length of time you might name, and never +offer to eat it until you said, “Now, sir!” or something +of the kind. Then Tom Jonah would jerk +the tidbit into the air and catch it in his jaws as +it came down.</p> + +<p>And those jaws! Powerful indeed, despite +some of the teeth having been broken and discolored +by age. For Tom Jonah was no puppy. +Uncle Rufus declared him to be at least twelve +years old, and perhaps more than that.</p> + +<p>But he had the physique of a lion—a great, +broad chest, and muscles in his shoulders that +slipped under the skin when he was in action like +a tiger’s. Now that he was somewhat rested +from the long journey he had evidently taken, he +seemed a very powerful, healthy dog.</p> + +<p>“And he would have eaten that tramp up, if +he’d gotten hold of him,” Agnes declared, as they +gathered at the breakfast table.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, Aggie; I don’t think Tom Jonah would +really have <i>bitten</i> that Gypsy man,” Tess hastened +to say. “But he might have grabbed his +coat and held on.”</p> + +<p>“With those jaws—I guess he would have held +on,” sighed Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Anyway,” said Dot, “he saved Ruthie’s hens. +Didn’t he, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll gladly pay his license fee if he wants to +stay with us,” said Ruth, gaily.</p> + +<p>The cornmeal muffins chanced to be a little +over-baked that morning; at least, one panful +was. Dot did not like “crusts”; she had been +known to hide very hard ones under the edge of +her plate.</p> + +<p>She played with one of these muffin crusts more +than she ate it, and Aunt Sarah Maltby (who was +a very grim lady indeed with penetrating eyes +and a habit of seldom speaking) had an accusing +eye upon the little girl.</p> + +<p>“Dorothy,” she said, suddenly, “you will see +the time, I have no doubt, when you will be +hungry for that crust. You had better eat it now +like a nice girl.”</p> + +<p>“Aunt Sarah, I really do not want it,” said +Dot, gravely. “And—and if I don’t, do you +think I shall really some day be hungry for just +<i>this</i> pertic’lar crust?”</p> + +<p>“You will. I expect nothing less,” snapped +Aunt Sarah. “The Kenways was allus +spend-thrifts. Why! when I was your age, Dorothy, I +was glad to get dry bread to eat!”</p> + +<p>Dot looked at her with serious interest. “You +must have been awfully poor, Aunt Sarah,” she +said, sympathetically. “You have a much better +time living with us, don’t you?”</p> + +<p>Ruth shook her head admonishingly at the +smallest girl; but for once Aunt Sarah was rather +nonplussed, and nobody heard her speak again +before she went off to church.</p> + +<p>Neale came over later, dressed for Sunday +school, and he was as much interested in the new +boarder at the Corner House as the girls themselves.</p> + +<p>“If he belongs anywhere around Milton, somebody +will surely know about him,” said the boy. +“I’ll make inquiries. Wherever he comes from, +he must be well known in that locality.”</p> + +<p>“Why so?” demanded Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Because of what it says on his collar,” +laughed Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>“Because of what it <i>doesn’t</i> say, I guess,” explained +Ruth, seeing her sister’s puzzled face. +“There is no name of owner, or license number. +Do you see?”</p> + +<p>“It—it would be an insult to license a dog like +Tom Jonah,” sputtered Tess. “Just—just like +a tag on an automobile!”</p> + +<p>“Yo’ right, honey,” chuckled Uncle Rufus. +“He done seem like folkses—don’ he? I’se gwine +tuh give him a reg’lar barf an’ cure up dem sore +feetses ob his. He’ll be anudder dawg—sho’ +will!”</p> + +<p>The old man took Tom Jonah to the grass plot +near the garden hydrant, and soaped him well—with +the “insect-suicide” soap Dot had talked +about—and afterward washed him down with the +hose. Tom Jonah stood for it all; he had evidently +been used to having his toilet attended to.</p> + +<p>When the girls came home from Sunday school, +they found him lying on the porch, all warm and +dried and his hair “fluffy.” They had asked +everybody they met—almost—about Tom Jonah; +but not a soul knew anything regarding him.</p> + +<p>“He’s going to be ours for keeps! He’s going +to be ours for keeps!” sang Tess, with delight.</p> + +<p>Sandyface’s earlier family—Spotty, Almira, +Bungle and Popocatepetl—had taken a good look +at the big dog, and then backed away with swelling +tails and muffled objections. But the old +cat had to attend to the four little blind mites behind +the kitchen range, so she had grown familiar +enough with Tom Jonah to pass him on her +way to and from the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>He was too much of a gentleman, as his collar +proclaimed, to pay her the least attention save +for a friendly wag of his bushy tail. To the four +half-grown cats he gave little heed. But Tess +and Dot thought that he ought to become acquainted +with the un-named kittens in the basket +immediately.</p> + +<p>“If they get used to him, you know,” said Tess, +“they’ll all live together just like a ‘happy +family.’”</p> + +<p>“Like <i>us</i>?” suggested Dot, who did not quite +understand the reference, having forgotten the +particular cage thus labeled in the circus they +had seen the previous summer.</p> + +<p>“Why! of course like us!” laughed Tess, and +Sandyface being away foraging for her brood, +Tess seized the basket and carried it out on the +porch, setting it down before Tom Jonah who +was lying in the sun.</p> + +<p>The big dog sniffed at the basket but did not +offer to disturb the sleeping kittens. That would +not do for the curious girls. They had to delve +deeper into the natural lack of affinity between +the canine and the feline families.</p> + +<p>So Tess lifted one little black and white, +squirmy kitten—just as its mother did, by the +back of its neck—and set it upon the porch before +the dog’s nose. The kitten became awake instantly. +Blind as it was, it stiffened its spine +into an arch, backed away from the vicinity of the +dog precipitately, and “spit” like a tiny teakettle +boiling over.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh! the horrid thing,” wailed Dot. “And +poor Tom Jonah didn’t do a thing to it!”</p> + +<p>“But see him!” gasped Tess, in a gale of giggles.</p> + +<p>For really, Tom Jonah looked too funny for +anything. He turned away his head with a most +embarrassed expression of countenance and +would not look again at the spitting little animal. +He evidently felt himself in a most ridiculous +position and finally got up and went off the porch +altogether until the girls returned the basket of +kittens to its proper place behind the stove.</p> + +<p>At dinner that Sunday, when Uncle Rufus +served the roast, he held the swinging door open +until Tom Jonah paced in behind him into the +dining-room. Seeing the roast placed before +Mrs. MacCall, Tom Jonah sat down beside her +chair in a good position to observe the feast; but +waited his turn in a most gentlemanly manner.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall cut some meat for him and put +it on a plate. This Uncle Rufus put before Tom +Jonah; but the big dog did not offer to eat it +until he was given permission. And now he no +longer “gobbled,” but ate daintily, and sat back +when he was finished like any well-bred person, +waiting for the next course.</p> + +<p>Even Aunt Sarah looked with approval upon +the new acquisition to the family of the old Corner +House. She had heard the tale of his rescue +of Ruth’s poultry from the marauding Gypsy, +and patted Tom Jonah’s noble head.</p> + +<p>“It’s a good thing to have a watch-dog on the +premises,” she said, “with all that old silver and +trash you girls insist upon keeping out of the +plate-safe. Your Uncle Peter would turn in his +grave if he knew how common you was makin’ the +Stower plate.”</p> + +<p>“But what is the good of having a thing if you +don’t make use of it?” queried Ruth, stoutly.</p> + +<p>Ruth was a girl with a mind of her own, and +not even the carping criticisms of Aunt Sarah +could turn her from her course if once she was +convinced that what she did was right. Nor was +she frightened by her schoolmates’ opinions—as +note her friendship with Rosa Wildwood.</p> + +<p>Bob Wildwood was a “character” in Milton. +People smiled at him and forgave his peculiarities +to a degree; but they could not respect him.</p> + +<p>In the first place, Bob was a Southerner—and +a Southerner in a New England town is just as +likely to be misunderstood, as a Northerner in +a Georgian town.</p> + +<p>Bob and his daughter, Rosa, had drifted to +Milton a couple of years previous. They had +been “drifting” for most of the girl’s short life; +but now Rosa was quite big enough to have some +influence with her shiftless father, and they +had taken some sort of root in the harsh New +England soil, so different from their own rich +bottom-lands of the South.</p> + +<p>Besides, Rosa was in ill health. She was +“weakly”; Bob spoke of her as having “a mis’ry +in her chest.” Dr. Forsythe found that the girl +had weak lungs, but he was sane and old-fashioned +enough to scout the idea that she was in +danger of becoming a victim of tuberculosis.</p> + +<p>“If you go to work, Bob, and earn for her +decent food and a warm shelter, she will pull +through and get as hearty and strong as our +Northern girls,” declared the doctor, sternly. +“You say you lost her twin two years ago——”</p> + +<p>“But I didn’t done los’ Juniper by no sickness,” +muttered Bob, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls thought Bob Wildwood +a most amusing man, for he talked just like a +darky (to their ears); but Uncle Rufus shook his +head in scorn at Wildwood. “He’s jes’ no-’count +white trash,” the old colored man observed.</p> + +<p>However, spurred by the doctor’s threat, Bob +let drink alone for the most part, and went to +work for Rosa, his remaining daughter, who was +just Ruth’s age and was in her class at High—when +she was well enough to get there. In spite +of her blood and bringing up, Rosa Wildwood had +a quick and retentive mind and stood well in her +classes.</p> + +<p>Bob became a coal-heaver. He worked for +Lovell & Malmsey. He drove a pair of mules +without lines, ordering them about in a most wonderful +manner in a tongue entirely strange to +Northern teamsters; and he was black with coal-dust +from week-end to week-end. Ruth said there +only was one visible white part of Rosa’s father; +that was the whites of his eyes.</p> + +<p>The man must have loved his daughter very +much, however; for it was his nature to be shiftless. +He would have gone hungry and ragged +himself rather than work. He now kept steadily +at his job for Rosa’s sake.</p> + +<p>On Monday Rosa was not at school, and coming +home to luncheon at noon, Ruth ran half a +block out of her way to find out what was the +matter. Not alone was the tenement the Wildwoods +occupied a very poor one, but Rosa was no +housekeeper. It almost disgusted the precise +and prim Ruth Kenway to go into the three-room +tenement.</p> + +<p>Rosa had a cold, and of course it had settled +on her chest. She was just dragging herself +around to get something hot for Bob’s dinner. +Ruth made her go back to bed, and she finished +the preparations.</p> + +<p>When she came to make the tea, the Corner +House girl was horrified to observe that the metal +teapot had probably not been thoroughly washed +out since the day the Wildwoods had taken up +their abode in Milton.</p> + +<p>“Paw likes to have the tea set back on the +stove,” drawled Rosa, with her pleasant Southern +accent. “When he gets a chance, he runs in +and ‘takes a swig,’ as he calls it, out of the pot. +He says it’s good for the gnawin’ in his stomach—it +braces him up an’ is <i>so</i> much better than +when he useter mix toddies,” said the girl, gratefully. +“We’d have had June with us yet, if it +hadn’t been for paw’s toddies.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Ruth, startled. “I thought your +sister June died?”</p> + +<p>Rosa shook her head and the tears flowed into +her soft eyes. “Oh, no. She went away. She +couldn’t stand the toddies no more, she said—and +her slavin’ to keep the house nice, and us +movin’ on all the time. June was housekeeper—she +was a long sight smarter’n me, Ruth.”</p> + +<p>“But the teachers at school think you are +awfully smart,” declared the Corner House girl.</p> + +<p>“June warn’t so smart at her books,” said +Rosa. “But she could do <i>anything</i> with her +hands. You’d thunk she was two years older’n +me, too. She was dark and handsome. She got +mad, and run away, and then we started lookin’ +for her; but we’ve never found her yet,” sighed +Rosa. “And now I’ve got so miserable that I +can’t keep traveling with paw. So we got to stop +here, and maybe we won’t ever see June again.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I hope you will,” cried Ruth. “Now, +your father’s dinner is all ready to dish up. And +I’ll come back after school this afternoon and rid +up the house for you; don’t you do a thing.”</p> + +<p>Ruth had time that noon for only a bite at home, +and explained to Mrs. MacCall that she would be +late in returning from school. She carried a +voluminous apron with her to cover her school +frock when she set about “ridding up” the Wildwood +domicile.</p> + +<p>Ruth wanted to help Rosa; she hoped Rosa +would keep up with the class and be promoted at +the end of the term, as she was sure to be herself. +And she was sorry for sooty, odd-talking Bob +Wildwood.</p> + +<p>What Rosa had said about her lost twin sister +had deeply interested Ruth Kenway. She +wanted, too, to ask the Southern girl about +“June,” or Juniper.</p> + +<p>“We were the last children maw had,” said +Rosa. “She just seemed to give up after we were +born. The others were all sickly—just drooped +and faded. And they all were girls and had +flower names. Maw was right fanciful, I reckon.</p> + +<p>“I wish June had held on. She’d stuck it out, +I know, if she’d believed paw could stop drinking +toddies. But, you see he <i>has</i>. He ‘swigs’ an +awful lot of tea, though, and I expect it’s tanning +him inside just like he was leather!”</p> + +<p>Ruth really thought this was probable—especially +with the teapot in the condition she had +found it. But she had put some washing soda in +the pot, filled it with boiling water, and set it +back on the stove to stew some of the “tannin” +out of it.</p> + +<p>While the Corner House girl was talking with +Rosa in the little bedroom the girl called her own, +Bob brought his mules to a halt before the house +with an empty wagon, and ran in as usual.</p> + +<p>The girls heard him enter the outer room; but +Ruth never thought of what the man’s object +might be until Rosa laughed and said:</p> + +<p>“There’s paw now, for a swig at the teapot. +I hope you left it full fo’ him, Ruthie, dear.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, goodness mercy me!” cried the Corner +House girl, and darted out to the kitchen to warn +the man.</p> + +<p>But she was too late. Already the begrimed +Bob Wildwood had the spout of the teapot to +his lips and several swallows of the scalding and +acrid mixture gurgled down his throat before he +discovered that it was not tea!</p> + +<p>“Woof! woof! woof!” he sputtered, and flung +pot and all away from him. “Who done tryin’ +poison me! Woof! I’s scalded with poison!”</p> + +<p>He coughed and spluttered over the sink, and +then tried a draught of cold water from the spigot—which +probably did him just as much good as +anything.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me, Mr. Wildwood!” gasped Ruth, +standing with clasped hands and looking at the +sooty man, half frightened. “I—I was just boiling +the teapot out.”</p> + +<p>“Boilin’ it out?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir. With soda. I—I——It won’t +poison you, I guess.”</p> + +<p>“My Lawd!” groaned Bob. “What won’t yo’ +Northerners do nex’? Wash out er teapot!” +and he grumblingly went forth to his team and +drove away.</p> + +<p>Ruth felt that her good intentions were misunderstood—to +a degree. But Rosa thanked her +very prettily for what she had done, and the next +day she was able to come to school again.</p> + +<p>It was only a few days later that Carrie Poole +invited a number of the high school girls and +boys—and some of the younger set—to the last +dance of the season at her home. She lived in a +huge old farmhouse, some distance out of town +on the Buckshot road, and the Corner House +girls and Neale O’Neil had spent several pleasant +evenings there during the winter and spring.</p> + +<p>The night before this party there was a big +wind, and a part of one of the chimneys came +down into the side yard during the night with +a noise like thunder; so Ruth had to telephone for +a mason before breakfast.</p> + +<p>Had it not been for this happening, the Corner +House girls—at least, Ruth and Agnes—and +Neale O’Neil, would have escaped rather an embarrassing +incident at the party.</p> + +<p>Neale came over to supper the evening of the +party, and he brought his pumps in a newspaper +under his arm.</p> + +<p>“Come on, girls, let’s have your dancing slippers,” +he said to the two older Corner House +girls, who were going to the dance. “I’ll put +them with mine.”</p> + +<p>And he did so—rolling the girls’ pretty slippers +up in the same parcel with his own. He +left the parcel in the kitchen. Later it was discovered +that the mason’s helper had left a similarly +wrapped parcel there, too.</p> + +<p>When the three young folk started off, it was +Agnes who ran back after the bundle of dancing +slippers. Neale carried it under his arm, and +they walked briskly out through the suburbs of +Milton and on along the Buckshot road.</p> + +<p>“Are you really going to Pleasant Cove this +summer, Neale?” demanded Agnes, as they went +on together.</p> + +<p>“If I can. Joe has asked me. And you +girls?”</p> + +<p>“Trix says we must come to her father’s hotel +for two weeks at least,” Agnes declared.</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Neale, doubtfully. “Are you +going, Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“I—don’t—know,” admitted the older Corner +House girl.</p> + +<p>“Now, isn’t that just too mean?” complained +Agnes. “You just say that because you don’t +like Trix.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know whether Trix will be of the same +mind when the time comes,” said Ruth, firmly.</p> + +<p>“I believe you,” grunted Neale.</p> + +<p>Agnes pouted. “It’s just mean of you,” she +said. “Of course she will want us to go.” +While Agnes was “spoons” with a girl, she was +always strictly loyal to her. She could not possibly +see Trix Severn’s faults just now.</p> + +<p>They arrived at the farmhouse and found a +crowd already assembled. There was a great +deal of talking and laughter, and while Neale +stood chatting with some of the boys in the hall, +Ruth and Agnes came to him for their slippers.</p> + +<p>“Sure!” said the boy, producing the newspaper-wrapped +bundle he carried. “Guess I’ll put on +my own pumps, too.”</p> + +<p>He unrolled the parcel. Then a yell of derision +and laughter arose from the onlookers; instead of +three pairs of dancing slippers, Neale produced +two pairs of half-worn and lime-bespattered shoes +belonging to the masons who had repaired the +old Corner House chimney!</p> + +<p>“Now we can’t dance!” wailed Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale!” gasped Ruth, while the young +folk about them went off into another gale of +laughter.</p> + +<p>“Well, it wasn’t my fault,” grumbled Neale. +“Aggie went after the bundle.”</p> + +<p>“Shouldn’t have left them right there with the +masons’ bundle—so now!” snapped Agnes.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink04'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER IV—THE MYSTERY OF JUNE WILDWOOD</a></h2> + +<p>Now, Trix Severn had maneuvered so as to get +the very first dance with Neale O’Neil. Among +all the boys who attended the upper grammar +grades, and the High, of Milton, the boy who had +been brought up in a circus was the best dancer. +The older girls all were glad to get him for a +partner.</p> + +<p>Time had been when Trix sneered at “that +circus boy,” but that was before he and the two +older Corner House girls had saved Trix from +a collapsing snow palace back in mid-winter.</p> + +<p>Since that time she had taken up with Agnes +Kenway as her very closest chum, and she had +visited the old Corner House a good deal. When +Agnes and her sister arrived at the party on this +evening, with Neale as escort, Trix determined +to have at least <i>one</i> dance with the popular boy.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale!” she whispered, fluttering up to +him in her very nicest way, “Ruth and Agnes will +be half an hour primping, upstairs. The music +is going to strike up. Do let <i>us</i> have the first +dance.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Neale, good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>It was the moment later that the discovery was +made of the masons’ shoes in the bundle he carried +under his arm.</p> + +<p>“Now we can’t dance,” repeated Agnes, when +the laughter had somewhat subsided.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale can dance just as well,” Trix said, +carelessly. “Come on, Neale! You know this is +<i>our</i> dance.”</p> + +<p>Of course Neale could dance in his walking +shoes. But he saw Agnes’ woebegone face and +he hesitated.</p> + +<p>“It’s too bad, Aggie,” he said. “If it wasn’t +so far——”</p> + +<p>“Why, Neale O’Neill” snapped Trix, unwisely. +“You don’t mean to say you’d be foolish enough +to go clear back to the Corner House for those +girls’ slippers?”</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was just this opposition that was +needed to start Neale off. He pulled his cap +from his pocket and turned toward the door, with +a shrug. “I guess I can get back in an hour, +Ag. Don’t you and Ruth dance much in your +heavy shoes until then. You’ll tire yourselves all +out.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Neale O’Neill” cried Trix. “You +won’t do it?”</p> + +<p>Even Ruth murmured against the boy’s making +the trip for the slippers. “We can get along, +Neale,” she said, in her quiet way.</p> + +<p>“And you promised to dance with me this first +dance,” declared Trix, angrily, as the music began.</p> + +<p>Neale did not pay much attention to her—at the +moment. “It’s my fault, I guess,” he said, +laughing. “I’ll go back for them, Ag.”</p> + +<p>But Trix got right between him and the door. +“Now! you sha’n’t go off and leave me in the +lurch that way, Neale O’Neill” she cried, shrilly.</p> + +<p>“Aw——There are other dances. Wait till I +come back,” he said.</p> + +<p>“You can dance in the shoes you have on,” +Trix said, sharply.</p> + +<p>“What if?”</p> + +<p>“But <i>we</i> can’t, Trix,” interposed Agnes, much +distressed. “Ruth and I, you know——”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care!” interrupted Trix, boiling over +at last. “You Corner House girls are the most +selfish things! You’d spoil his fun for half the +party——”</p> + +<p>“Aw, don’t bother!” growled Neale, in much +disgust.</p> + +<p>“I will bother! You——”</p> + +<p>“Guess she thinks she owns you, Neale,” +chuckled one of the boys, adding fuel to the flames. +Neale did not feel any too pleasant after that. +He flung away from Trix Severn’s detaining +grasp.</p> + +<p>“I’m going—it isn’t any of <i>your</i> concern,” he +muttered, to the angry girl.</p> + +<p>Ruth bore Agnes away. She was half crying. +The rift in the intimacy between her soulmate and +herself was apparent to all.</p> + +<p>To make the matter worse—according to Trix’s +version—when Neale finally returned, almost +breathless, with the mislaid slippers, he insisted, +first of all, upon dancing with Ruth and Agnes. +Then he would have favored Trix (Ruth had advised +it), but the angry girl would not speak to +him.</p> + +<p>“He’s nothing but a low circus boy, anyway!” +she told Lucy Poole. “And I don’t think really +well-bred girls would care to have anything to +do with him.”</p> + +<p>Those who heard her laughed. They had +known Trix Severn’s ways for a long time. She +had been upon her good behavior; but it did not +surprise her old acquaintances that she should +act like this.</p> + +<p>It made a difference to the Corner House girls, +however, for it made their plans about going to +Pleasant Cove uncertain.</p> + +<p>The other girls knew that Trix had invited the +Corner House girls for the first two weeks after +graduation, and that Ruth had tentatively accepted. +Therefore even Pearl Harrod—who +wanted Ruth and her sisters, herself—scarcely +knew whether to put in a claim for them or not.</p> + +<p>Graduation Day was very near at hand; the +very day following the closing of the Milton High, +several family parties were to leave for the seaside +resort which was so popular in this part of +New England.</p> + +<p>They had to pass through Bloomingsburg to +get to it, but when the Kenways had lived in that +city, they had never expected to spend any part +of the summer season at such a beautiful summer +resort as Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>It was a bungalow colony, with several fine +hotels, built around a tiny, old-fashioned fishing +port. There was a still cove, a beautiful river +emptying into it, and outside, a stretch of rocky +Atlantic coast on which the ocean played grim +tunes during stormy weather.</p> + +<p>This was as much as the Corner House girls +knew about it as yet. But they all looked forward +to their first visit to the place with keen delight. +Tess and Dot were talking about the expected +trip a good deal of the time they were +awake. Most of their doll-play was colored now +by thoughts of Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>They were not too busy to help Mrs. MacCall +take the last of the winter clothing to the garret, +however, and see her pack it away in the chests +there. As she did this the housekeeper sprinkled, +with lavish hand, the camphor balls among the +layers of clothing.</p> + +<p>Dot had tentatively tasted one of the hard, +white balls, and shuddered. “But they <i>do</i> look +so much like candy, Tess,” she said. Then she +suddenly had another thought:</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mrs. MacCall! what do you suppose the +poor moths had to live on ’way back in the Garden +of Eden before Adam and Eve wore any +clothes?”</p> + +<p>“Now, can you beat <i>that</i>?” demanded the +housekeeper, of nobody in particular. “What +won’t that young one get in her head!”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ruth was helping Rosa Wildwood +all she could, so that the girl from the South would +be able to pass in the necessary examinations and +stand high enough in the class to be promoted.</p> + +<p>Housework certainly “told on” Rosa. Bob +said “it jest seems t’ take th’ puckerin’ string +all out’n her—an’ she jest draps down like a +flower.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll help her, Mr. Wildwood,” Ruth said. +“But she really ought to have a rest.”</p> + +<p>“Hi Godfrey!” ejaculated the coal heaver. “I +tell her she kin let the housework go. We don’t +have no visitors—savin’ an’ exceptin’ <i>you</i>, +ma’am.”</p> + +<p>“But she wants to keep the place decent, you +see,” Ruth told him. “And she can scarcely do +that and keep up with her studies—now. You +see, she’s so weak.”</p> + +<p>“Hi Godfrey!” exclaimed the man again. +“Ain’t thar sech a thing as bein’ a mite <i>too</i> +clean?”</p> + +<p>But Bob Wildwood had an immense respect +for Ruth; likewise he was grateful because she +showed an interest in his last remaining daughter.</p> + +<p>“I tell you, sir,” the oldest Corner House girl +said, gravely. “Rosa needs a change and a rest. +And all us girls are going to Pleasant Cove this +summer. Will you let Rosa come down, too, for +a while, if I pay her way and look out for her?”</p> + +<p>The man was somewhat disturbed by the question. +“Yuh see, Miss,” he observed, scratching +his head thoughtfully, “she’s all I got. I’d +plumb be lost ’ithout Rosa.”</p> + +<p>“But only for a week or two.”</p> + +<p>“I know. And I wouldn’t want tuh stand in +her way. I crossed her sister too much—that’s +what <i>I</i> did. Juniper was a sight more uppity +than Rosa—otherwise she wouldn’t have flew the +coop,” said Bob Wildwood, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>Ruth, all tenderness for his bereavement, hastened +to say: “Oh, you’ll find her again, sir. +Surely you don’t believe she’s dead?”</p> + +<p>“No. If she ain’t come to a <i>bad</i> end, she’s all +right somewhar. But she’d oughter be home +with her sister—and with me. Ye see, she was +pretty—an’ smart. No end smart! She went +off in bad comp’ny.”</p> + +<p>“How do you mean, Mr. Wildwood?” asked +Ruth, deeply interested.</p> + +<p>“Travelin’ folks. They had a van an’ a couple +team o’ mules, an’ the man sold bitters an’ corn-salve. +The woman dressed mighty fine, an’ she +took June’s eye.</p> + +<p>“We follered ’em a long spell, me an’ Rosa. +But we didn’t never ketch up to ’em. If we had, +I’d sure tuck a hand-holt of that medicine man. +He an’ his woman put all the foolishness inter +Juniper’s haid.</p> + +<p>“An’ Rosa misses her sister like poison, too,” +finished Bob Wildwood, slowly shaking his head.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be a mystery connected with +the disappearance of Rosa’s sister, and Ruth +Kenway was just as curious as she could be about +it; but she stuck to her subject until Bob Wildwood +agreed to spare his remaining daughter for +at least a week’s visit to Pleasant Cove, while +the Corner House girls would be there.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink05'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER V—OFF FOR THE SEASIDE</a></h2> + +<p>The last hours of the school term were busy +ones indeed. Even Tess had her troublesome +“’zaminations.” At the study table on the last +evening before her own grade had its closing exercises, +Tess propounded the following:</p> + +<p>“Ruthie, what’s a ’scutcheon?”</p> + +<p>“Um—um,” said Ruth, far away.</p> + +<p>“A <i>what</i>, child?” demanded Agnes.</p> + +<p>“‘’Scutcheon?’”</p> + +<p>“‘Escutcheon,’ she means,” chuckled Neale, +who was present as usual at study hour.</p> + +<p>“Well, what <i>is</i> it?” begged Tess, plaintively.</p> + +<p>“Why?” demanded Ruth, suddenly waking up. +“That’s a hard word for a small girl, Tess.”</p> + +<p>“It says here,” quoth Tess, “that ‘There was +a blot upon his escutcheon.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes—sure,” drawled Neale, as Ruth hesitated. +“That must mean a fancy vest, Tess. +And he spilled soup on it—sure!”</p> + +<p>“Now Neale! how horrid!” admonished Ruth, +while Agnes giggled.</p> + +<p>“I do think you are all awful mean to me,” +wailed Tess. “You don’t tell me a thing. +You’re almost as mean as Trix Severn was to +me to-day. I don’t want to go to her father’s +hotel, so there! Have we got to, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“What did she do to you, Tess?” demanded +Agnes, with a curiosity she could not quench. +For, deep as the chasm had grown between her +and her former chum, she could not ignore Trix.</p> + +<p>“She just turned up her nose at me,” complained +Tess, “when I went by; and I heard her +say to some girl she was with: ‘There goes one +of them now. They pushed their way into our +party, and I s’pose we’ve got to entertain them.’ +Now, <i>did</i> we push our way in, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>Ruth was angry. It was not often that she displayed +indignation, so that when she did so, the +other girls—and even Neale—were the more impressed.</p> + +<p>“Of course she was speaking of that wretched +invitation she gave us to stay at her father’s +hotel at Pleasant Cove,” said Ruth. “Well!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruthie! don’t say you won’t go,” begged +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“I’ll never go to that Overlook House unless +we pay our way—be sure of that,” declared the +angry Ruth.</p> + +<p>“But we <i>are</i> going to the shore, Ruthie?” +asked Tess.</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe Pearl Harrod will ask us again,” murmured +Agnes, hopefully.</p> + +<p>“I guess we can pay our way and be beholden +to nobody,” said Ruth, shortly. “I will hire one +of the tents, if nothing else. And we’ll start the +very day after High closes, just as we planned.”</p> + +<p>Despite the loss of her “soulmate,” Agnes +was pretty cheerful. She was to graduate from +grammar school; and although she was sorry to +lose Miss Georgiana Shipman as a teacher, she +was delighted to get out of “the pigtail classes,” +as she rudely termed the lower grades.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to do up my hair, Ruthie, whatever +you say,” she declared, “just as soon as I +get into high school next fall. I’m old enough +to forget braids and hair-ribbons, I should hope!”</p> + +<p>“Not yet, my child, not yet,” laughed Ruth. +“Why! there are more girls in High who wear +their hair <i>down</i> than <i>up</i>.”</p> + +<p>“But I’m so big——”</p> + +<p>“You mean, you’d be big,” chuckled Neale, “if +you were only rolled out,” for he was always +teasing Agnes about her plumpness.</p> + +<p>“Well! I want to celebrate some way,” sighed +Agnes. “Can’t we have a specially nice supper +that night?”</p> + +<p>“Surely, child,” said her sedate sister. +“What do you want?”</p> + +<p>“Well!” repeated Agnes, slowly; “you know +I’ll never graduate from Grammar again. +Couldn’t we kill some of those nice frying +chickens of yours, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my!” cried Neale. “What have the poor +chickens done that they should be slaughtered to +make a Roman holiday?”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Smartie!” snapped Agnes. “You be +good, or you sha’n’t have any.”</p> + +<p>“If that Tom Jonah hadn’t been busy on a +certain night, none of us would have eaten those +particular frying chickens,” laughed Neale. “I +wonder if that Gypsy is running yet?”</p> + +<p>“He didn’t get the frying chickens in the bag,” +said Agnes. “They were in another coop. We +hatched them in January and brought them up +by hand. Say! I don’t believe you know much +about natural history, Neale, anyway.”</p> + +<p>“I guess he knows more than Sammy Pinkney +does,” Tess said, again drawn into the conversation. +“Teacher asked him to tell us two breeds +of dairy cattle and which gives the most milk. +She’d been reading to us about it out of a book. +So Sammy says:</p> + +<p>“‘The bull and the cow, Miss Andrews; and +the cow gives the most milk.’”</p> + +<p>Dot’s school held its closing exercises one +morning, and Tess’ in the afternoon. Then came +the graduation of Agnes and Neale O’Neil from +the grammar school. Ruth was excused from +her own classes at High long enough to attend +her sister’s graduation.</p> + +<p>Although the plump Corner House girl was +no genius, she always stood well in her classes. +Ruth saw to that, for what Agnes did not learn +at school she had to study at home.</p> + +<p>So she stood well up in her class, and she <i>did</i> +look “too distractingly pretty,” as Mrs. MacCall +declared, when she gave the last touches to Agnes’ +dress before she started for school that last day. +Miss Ann Titus, Milton’s most famous seamstress +and “gossip-in-ordinary,” had outdone +herself in making Agnes’ dress. No girl in her +class—not even Trix Severn—was dressed so becomingly.</p> + +<p>The envious Trix heard the commendations +showered on her former friend, and her face grew +sourer and her temper sharper. She well knew +she had invited the Corner House girls to be her +guests at Pleasant Cove; but she did not want +them in her party now. She did not know how to +get out of “the fix,” as she called it in her own +mind.</p> + +<p>She had intimated to two or three other girls +who were going, however, that Agnes and Ruth +had forced the invitation from her in a moment of +weakness. If she had to number them of her +party, Miss Trix proposed to make it just as unpleasant +for the Kenway sisters as she could.</p> + +<p>High school graduation was on Thursday. On +Friday a special through train was put on by the +railroad from Milton to Pleasant Cove. It was +scheduled to leave the former station at ten +o’clock.</p> + +<p>Luckily Mrs. MacCall had insisted upon having +all the trunks and bags packed the day before, for +on this Friday morning the Corner House girls +had little time for anything but saying +“good-bye” to their many friends, both human and +dumb.</p> + +<p>“Whatever will Tom Jonah think?” cried +Tess, hugging the big dog that had taken up his +abode at the Corner House so strangely. “He’ll +think we have run away from him, poor fellow!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! <i>don’t</i> you think that, Tom Jonah!” +begged Dot, seizing the dog on the other side. +“We all love you so! And we’ll come back to +you.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll give him just the best care ever, won’t +you, Uncle Rufus?” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Sho’ will!” agreed the old colored man.</p> + +<p>“<i>Can’t</i> we take him with us, Ruthie?” asked +Dot.</p> + +<p>Ruth would have been tempted to do just this +had she been sure that they would hire a tent in +the colony as soon as they reached Pleasant Cove. +Tom Jonah was just the sort of a protector the +Corner House girl would have chosen under those +circumstances.</p> + +<p>But Ruth was puzzled. She had not seen +Pearl Harrod, and was not sure whether Pearl +had completely filled her uncle’s bungalow with +guests or not. Of one thing Ruth was sure: if +they went to the Overlook House (Mr. Terrence +Severn’s hotel), they would pay their board and +refuse to be Trix’s guests.</p> + +<p>When the carriage came for them, Tom Jonah +stood at the gate and watched them get in and +drive away with a rather depressed air. Dot and +Tess waved their handkerchiefs from the carriage +window at him as long as they could see the big +dog.</p> + +<p>There was much confusion at the station. +Many people whom the girls knew were on the +platform, or in the cars already. Trix Severn +was very much in evidence. The Kenway sisters +saw the other girls who were going to accept Miss +Severn’s hospitality in a group at one side, but +they hesitated to join this party.</p> + +<p>Trix passed the Kenways twice and did not +even look at them. Of course, she knew the sisters +were there, but Ruth believed that the mean-spirited +girl merely wished them to speak to her +so that she could snub them publicly.</p> + +<p>“Well, Ruthie Kenway!” exclaimed a voice +suddenly behind the Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>It was Pearl Harrod. Pearl was a bright-faced, +big girl, jovial and kind-hearted. “I’ve +just been looking for you everywhere,” pursued +Pearl. “Here it is the last minute, and you +haven’t told me whether you and the other girls +are going to my uncle’s house or not.”</p> + +<p>“Why—if you are sure you want us?” queried +Ruth, with a little break in her voice.</p> + +<p>“I should say yes!” exclaimed Pearl. “But +I was afraid you had been asked by some one +else.”</p> + +<p>Trix turned and looked the four sisters over +scornfully. Then she tossed her head. +“Waiting like beggars for an invitation from <i>some</i>body,” +she said, loudly enough for all the girls +nearby to hear. “You’d think, if those Corner +House girls are as rich as they tell about, that +they’d pay their way.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink06'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VI—ON THE TRAIN</a></h2> + +<p>“Don’t you mind what that mean thing says,” +whispered Pearl Harrod, quickly.</p> + +<p>She had seen Ruth flush hotly and the tears +spring to Agnes’ eyes when Trix Severn had +spoken so ill-naturedly. The younger Corner +House girls did not hear, but Ruth and Agnes +were hurt to the quick.</p> + +<p>“You are very, very kind, Pearl,” said Ruth. +“But we had thought of going to the tent +colony——”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t Trix Severn ask you to her place?” +demanded Pearl, hotly. “I <i>know</i> she did. And +now she insults you. If she hadn’t asked you +first, and seemed so thick with your sister, Ruth, +I would have insisted long ago that you all come +to uncle’s bungalow. There’s plenty of room, +for my aunt and the girls won’t be down for a +fortnight.”</p> + +<p>“But, Pearl——”</p> + +<p>“I’ll be mad if you don’t agree—now I know +that Trix has released you, Ruth Kenway,” cried +the good-hearted girl. “Now, don’t let’s say +another word about it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t be angry!” begged Ruth. “But +won’t it look as though we <i>were</i> begging our way—as +Trix says?”</p> + +<p>“Pooh! who cares for Trix Severn?”</p> + +<p>“You—you are very kind,” said Ruth, yielding +at length.</p> + +<p>“Then you come on. Hey, girls!” she shouted, +running after her own particular friends who +were climbing aboard the rear car. “I’ve gotten +them to promise. The Corner House girls +are going with us—for two weeks, anyway.”</p> + +<p>At once the other girls addressed cheered and +gathered the four Kenways into their group, with +great rejoicing. The sting of Trix Severn’s unkindness +was forgotten.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge, their guardian, came to the +station to see them off, and shook hands with Ruth +through the window of the car. When the train +actually moved away, Neale O’Neil was there in +the crowd, swinging his cap and wishing them +heaps of fun. Neale expected to go to Pleasant +Cove himself, later in the season.</p> + +<p>This last car of the special train was a day +coach; but the light-hearted girls did not mind +the lack of conveniences and comforts to be obtained +in the chair cars. The train was supposed +to arrive at Pleasant Cove by three o’clock, and +a five hour ride on a hot June day was only “fun” +for the Corner House girls and their friends.</p> + +<p>Ruth first of all got the brakeman to turn over +a seat so that she and her three sisters could +sit facing each other. Mrs. MacCall had put +them up a nice hamper of luncheon and the older +girl knew this would be better enjoyed if the +seats were thus arranged.</p> + +<p>Of course, there was the usual desire of some +of the travelers to have windows open while +others wished them closed. Cinders and dust +flew in by the peck if the former arrangement prevailed, +while the heat was intense if the sashes +were down.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were little disturbed by these +physical ills. But they had their own worries. +Dot, who had insisted on carrying the Alice-doll +in her arms, was troubled mightily to remember +whether she had packed the whole of the doll’s +trousseau (this was supposed to be a wedding +journey for the Alice-doll—a wedding journey in +which the bridegroom had no part); while Tess +wondered what would happen to Tom Jonah and +Sandyface’s young family while they were all +gone from the old Corner House.</p> + +<p>“I feel condemned—I do, indeed, Dot,” sighed +Tess. “We ought, at least, to have named those +four kittens before we left. They’ll be awfully +old before the christening—if we don’t come back +at the end of our first two weeks.”</p> + +<p>“What could happen to them?” demanded Dot.</p> + +<p>“Why—croup—or measles—or chicken-pox. +They’re only babies, you know. And if one +should die,” added Tess, warmly, “we wouldn’t +even know what name to put on its gravestone!”</p> + +<p>“My! lots of things can happen in two weeks, +I s’pose,” agreed Dot. “Do you think we ought +to stay away from home so long?”</p> + +<p>“I guess we’ll have to if Ruth and Aggie stay,” +said Tess. “But I shall worry.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Agnes, who sat with her back to +the engine beside Ruth, had become interested in +a couple sitting together not far down the car. +They were strangers—and strangely dressed, as +well.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth!” Agnes exclaimed, under her +breath, “they look like Gypsies.”</p> + +<p>“If they are, they are much better dressed than +any Gypsies we ever saw before,” observed her +sister.</p> + +<p>“But how gay!”</p> + +<p>This comment was just enough. The older +one had shocking taste in millinery. She wore, +too, long, pendant ear-rings and her fingers were +covered with gaudy looking jewels. Her garments +were rich in texture, but oddly made, and +the contrasts in color were, as Agnes whispered, +“fierce!”</p> + +<p>“That girl with her is handsome, just the +same,” Ruth declared.</p> + +<p>“Oh! isn’t she!” whispered the enthusiastic +Agnes. “A perfectly stunning brunette.”</p> + +<p>If she were a Gypsy girl she was a very beautiful +one. Her features were lovely and her complexion +brilliant. When she smiled she flashed +two rows of perfect teeth upon the beholder. She +might have been a year or two older than Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know—somehow—she reminds me of +somebody,” murmured the latter.</p> + +<p>“Who?”</p> + +<p>“The girl.”</p> + +<p>“She reminds me of that chicken-thief Tom +Jonah treed on the henhouse roof,” chuckled +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Ruth; “all Gypsies can’t be +alike.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! you never heard a good word said +for them,” sniffed Agnes.</p> + +<p>“But that doesn’t prove there are not good +ones. They are a wandering people and have no +particular trade or standing in any community. +Naturally they have a lot of crimes laid upon +their shoulders that they never commit,” said the +just Ruth.</p> + +<p>“That was one of them that tried to steal your +hens, just the same,” said Agnes.</p> + +<p>“I suppose so,” admitted her sister. “But +surely <i>these</i> two cannot belong to the same kind +of Gypsies. See how richly they are dressed.”</p> + +<p>“I guess that doesn’t make any difference,” +said Agnes. “They are all cut off the same piece +of goods,” and immediately she lost interest in +the strange couple when Lucy Poole came up the +aisle to speak to her.</p> + +<p>Ruth had the gaily dressed woman and her +companion on her mind a good deal. She often +looked at them when they did not notice her. The +woman must have been forty, but was straight, +lithe, and of good figure. She sat on the outer +end of the seat, having the girl between her and +the window.</p> + +<p>The latter seemed more and more familiar in +appearance to Ruth as she looked, yet the Corner +House girl could not say whom the girl looked +like.</p> + +<p>The latter scarcely spoke to her companion. +Indeed, she kept her face toward the window for +the most part, and seemed to be in a sullen mood. +She had smiled once at Dot and the Alice-doll, +and that was the only time Ruth had seen the +dark, beautiful face with an attractive expression +upon it.</p> + +<p>The woman seemed talkative enough, but what +language she jabbered to her companion the Corner +House girl could not tell. She frequently +leaned toward the dark girl, her bejeweled fingers +seizing the sleeve of her waist, and her speech +was both emphatic and loud.</p> + +<p>The rattle of the train drowned, however, most +of the woman’s words. Ruth arose and went the +length of the car for a drink, just for the purpose +of overhearing the strange speech of the +Gypsy (if such the woman was) for she was sure +the language was not English.</p> + +<p>She heard nothing intelligible. Ruth folded a +cup, filled it at the ice-water tank, and brought it +back for the children. Pearl Harrod was sitting +directly behind the two strangers, in a seat with +Carrie Poole.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I say, Ruth!” Pearl said, “is it a fact +that Rosa Wildwood is coming down to the Cove +next week?”</p> + +<p>Ruth turned to answer. As she did so the girl +in the seat with the Gypsy sprang to her feet, +her face transfigured with amazement, or alarm—Ruth +did not know which. The woman grabbed +her by the elbow and pulled her back into the +seat, saying something of a threatening nature to +her companion.</p> + +<p>In her excitement the woman knocked the cup +of water from Ruth’s hand. She turned to apologize, +and Ruth, looking over her head, saw the +dark-skinned girl sitting back in her corner quite +colorless and broken. The Corner House girl +was sure, too, that the strange girl’s lips formed +the name “Rosa Wildwood”—but she made no +sound.</p> + +<p>“It is all right,” Ruth assured the Gypsy +woman. “No harm done.”</p> + +<p>“I am the ver’ awkward one—eh?” repeated +the woman, with a hard smile.</p> + +<p>“It does not matter,” said Ruth. “I can get +another cup of water.”</p> + +<p>She returned to do so. All the while she was +wondering what the incident meant. It was not +merely a chance happening, she was sure. Something +about the name of her schoolmate, Rosa +Wildwood, had frightened the beautiful girl who +was evidently in the Gypsy woman’s care.</p> + +<p>Ruth grew quite excited as she drew another +cup of water, and she swiftly planned to discover +the mystery, as she started up the aisle of the +coach a second time.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink07'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VII—SOMETHING AHEAD</a></h2> + +<p>Pearl Harrod was now busily talking with +Carrie Poole again; she had probably forgotten +about Rosa Wildwood for the time being. But +Ruth stopped at her seat—the seat directly behind +that occupied by the two strangers.</p> + +<p>“You asked about Rosa, Pearl?” said Ruth, +speaking loudly enough, she was sure, for the girl +in front to hear.</p> + +<p>“Oh, hello! don’t spill that water again, +Ruthie,” laughed Pearl. “Yes. I asked if she +were coming down to the Cove!”</p> + +<p>“Yes. Rosa Wildwood expects to come next +week. I am going to find her a boarding place.”</p> + +<p>Ruth spoke very distinctly, and she kept her +eyes fastened upon the back of the strange girl’s +head. But the latter gave no sign of having +heard—at least, she appeared not to be interested +in the name which had before so startled her.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see how the poor girl can afford it,” +Carrie Poole said, not unkindly. “They say she +and her father are very poor.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Bob Wildwood works regularly. He +doesn’t drink any more,” Ruth explained, +intentionally speaking so that those in the forward +seat could hear if they wished to listen.</p> + +<p>“Rosa is an awfully sweet girl,” said Carrie.</p> + +<p>“I love that little Southern drawl of hers!” +cried Pearl. “She says ‘Ah reckon so’ in just +the <i>cunningest</i> way!”</p> + +<p>“She is very frail,” Ruth continued, clearly. +“I was afraid she would break down before the +school term closed. Now it has been arranged for +her to stay at Pleasant Cove until she gains +strength. Dr. Forsythe says it will do her a +world of good.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll give her a good time, all right,” declared +Pearl. “Wish we could have her with +us——”</p> + +<p>“Not at the bungalow,” said Ruth. “Nor at +the hotel. We want a quiet place for her. I +shall find it.”</p> + +<p>Not a sign did the girl in front give that she +heard any of this conversation. Yet Ruth believed +there was a curious intentness in her manner—she +held her head very still as though she +were secretly listening, while apparently giving +all her attention to what the train passed.</p> + +<p>“What does your uncle call his bungalow—where +we shall stop?” asked Ruth of Pearl.</p> + +<p>“Why, the Spoondrift—don’t you remember? +It’s at this end of the cove, near the river, and +we have bathing rights on the shore. It’s a fine +place. You’ll <i>love</i> it, Ruth Kenway.”</p> + +<p>“I expect to,” said Ruth, seriously. “And you +were very kind to ask me to stay two whole weeks +with you,” and Ruth passed on.</p> + +<p>She had intentionally said enough so that, if +the strange girl <i>were</i> listening, she would learn +just where Ruth could be found at Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>For the Corner House girl felt that the dark +beauty with the Gypsy woman held some keen interest +in Rosa Wildwood. Of course—right at +the start—the story of Rosa’s lost sister, June, +had come into Ruth’s mind.</p> + +<p>Yet, as the Corner House girl looked at the +stranger, she could not say truthfully that it was +Rosa of whom <i>this</i> girl reminded her. Ruth conjured +before her mind’s eye the fair, delicate +beauty of Bob Wildwood’s daughter; the two +girls possessed no feature in common—and in +complexion they were, of course, diametrically +opposed.</p> + +<p>This girl was dark enough and savage enough +looking to be a Gypsy. Ruth scouted the idea +that she might be Juniper Wildwood, who had run +away with a traveling “medicine man” and his +wife.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Ruth believed that the strange +girl must know something about the lost June +Wildwood. She had been startled when Rosa’s +name was mentioned. The Corner House girl +was deeply interested in the affair; but at present +she did not want to take anybody into her confidence +about it—not even Agnes.</p> + +<p>The girls did not remain quietly in their seats, +by any manner of means. First there was a +crowd blocking the aisle in one part of the car, +then in another. Agnes was in and out of her +seat half a dozen times between stations. The +heat and dust was ignored as the girls shouted +pleasantries back and forth; the air was vibrant +with laughter.</p> + +<p>“I’m just as anxious to see the ocean as I can +be,” declared Lucy Poole who, like the Corner +House girls, had never been to Pleasant Cove before.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” scoffed her cousin Carrie. +“It’s only a big, big pond! Our frog pond at +home looks like a piece of the ocean—when it’s +calm.”</p> + +<p>The others laughed and Pearl said: “Guess +Lucy wants to see Old Ocean in its might, eh? +Big storm, whales, great ships——”</p> + +<p>“A sea serpent!” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Of course—if there is such a thing,” admitted +Lucy. “A sea serpent must be an awfully interesting +sight.”</p> + +<p>“There aren’t any more,” said Pearl. “Father +Neptune’s all out of stock.”</p> + +<p>“I guess the sea serpent is something like the +<i>snakes</i> alcoholic victims think they see,” proposed +Carrie.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” proclaimed Agnes. “Here’s what +I read about the sea serpent:</p> + +<p> +       “‘The old sea serpent used to rave<br/> +         And fiercely roam about;<br/> +       He hit a prohibition wave,<br/> +         And that’s what knocked him out.’”<br/> +</p> + +<p>“‘Perils of the Deep!’” laughed Ruth. “But +even if we don’t see serpents in the ocean, I expect +we’ll have plenty of adventures down there +at the shore.”</p> + +<p>Which prophecy was strangely fulfilled.</p> + +<p>The train reached Bloomingsburg about one +o’clock, and was immediately shifted to the single-tracked +branch line that connected that small city +with Pleasant Cove. The speed of the train after +leaving Bloomingsburg was not great, for it was +often held up for trains coming from the shore +to pass.</p> + +<p>The adult passengers grew impatient and +wearied. There were many complaints, and the +babies began to fret and cry. But our friends in +the last coach remained in a jolly and—for the +most part—kindly mood.</p> + +<p>Trix Severn had taken her crowd into a forward +coach. Her father owning one of the big +hotels at the Cove, the railroad company had +presented him with a sheaf of chair coupons. +So, as Pearl Harrod laughingly said, “Trix’s +party was as swell as a wet sponge.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t suppose any of that crowd at the Overlook +House will talk to <i>us</i>,” said Pearl. “Just +the same, I guess I can show you girls a good time +at Spoondrift. Uncle always lets us do just as +we like. He’s the <i>dearest</i> man.”</p> + +<p>The train rattled on and on. The alternate +pine forests and swamp lands seemed interminable. +Now and then they went through a cut, +the railroad bisecting a hickory ridge.</p> + +<p>But soon there was a change in the air. When +the cinders and dust did not sift into the windows, +there was a smell of salt marsh. The air +seemed suddenly cleaner. At one station where +they stopped, a salt creek came in, and there was +a dock, and boats, and barrels of clams and fish +piled on the platform ready for the next up-train.</p> + +<p>“Regular maritime smell——whew!” sighed +Carrie Poole, holding her nose delicately.</p> + +<p>“Oh! The <i>whole</i> of Pleasant Cove doesn’t +smell like this, does it?” demanded her cousin.</p> + +<p>“Only the old part of it—the old village.”</p> + +<p>“Well! that’s lucky,” said Lucy. “If this +odor prevailed I should say the place ought to +be called <i>Un</i>-pleasant Cove.”</p> + +<p>“How far are we from the jumping-off place?” +demanded Agnes. “I’d like to get out and run.”</p> + +<p>Pearl stooped to look out under one of the +drawn shades. “Why!” she said, “there are +only two more stops before we reach the Cove +station. It’s a winding way the railroad follows. +But if we got off about here and went right +through those woods yonder, we’d reach the +Spoondrift bungalow in an hour. I’ve walked +over here to Jumpertown many a time.”</p> + +<p>“Jumpertown?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. That’s what they called it before the +real estate speculators gave it the fancy name of +‘Ridgedale Station.’”</p> + +<p>At that moment the train suddenly slowed +down. The brakes grated upon the wheels and +everybody clung to the seats for support. One +of the brakemen ran through from the front and +the girls clamored to know the cause of the stoppage.</p> + +<p>“Bridge down up front,” said the railroad employee. +“Tide rose last night and loosened the +supports. We’ve got to wait.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” was the general wail. When +they could get hold of the conductor the girls demanded +to know the length of time they would +be delayed.</p> + +<p>“Can’t tell you, young ladies,” declared the +man of the punch. “There’s a repair gang at +work on it now.”</p> + +<p>“An hour?” demanded Pearl Harrod.</p> + +<p>“Oh, longer than that,” the conductor assured +her.</p> + +<p>“But what shall we do? We want to get to the +bungalow and air the bedclothes, and all that, +before dark,” she cried.</p> + +<p>“Guess you’ll have to walk, then,” said the +conductor, laughing, and went away.</p> + +<p>“That’s just what we’ll do,” Pearl said to her +friends. “Can the children walk three miles, +Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“Surely they can!” Agnes cried. “If they +can’t, we’ll carry them.”</p> + +<p>Ruth was doubtful of the wisdom of the move, +but her opinion was not asked.</p> + +<p>“Come on! let’s get out quietly. We’ll fool all +these other folks,” said Pearl. “We’ll get to +Pleasant Cove long before they do.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink08'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VIII—THE GYPSY CAMP</a></h2> + +<p>There were two things that encouraged Ruth +Kenway, the oldest Corner House girl, to accompany +Pearl Harrod’s party through the +woods without objection. Pearl told her that +when they reached the highway on the other side +of the timber in all probability they would be +overtaken by an auto-bus that ran four times a +day between a station on a rival railroad line +and the Cove.</p> + +<p>This was one thing. The other reason for +Ruth’s leaving the train with her sisters, and +without objection, was the fact that the strangely +dressed woman and the pretty, dark girl had left +it already.</p> + +<p>When the train first stopped and the brakeman +announced the accident ahead, the woman had +spoken to the girl and they both had risen and +left the car. Perhaps nobody had noticed them +but Ruth. The strange girl had not looked at +Ruth when she passed her, but the woman had +bowed and smiled in a cat-like fashion.</p> + +<p>Pearl said they would follow a path through +the timber to the road; and she pointed out the +direction through the window. Ruth saw the +woman and girl strike into this very path and +disappear.</p> + +<p>So curiosity, too, led the oldest Corner House +girl to agree to Pearl’s plan. The party of ten +girls, including Ruth, Agnes, Tess and Dot Kenway, +slipped out of the car without being questioned +by any of the older people there. Nobody +observed them enter the cool and fragrant +woods. Chattering and laughing, they were +quickly in the shadowy depths and out of sight +of the hot train.</p> + +<p>“Oh, isn’t this heavenly!” cried Agnes, tossing +up her hat by the ribbons that were supposed to +tie it under her plump chin.</p> + +<p>The green tunnel of the wood-path stretched a +long way before them. It was paved with pine +needles and last-year’s oak leaves.</p> + +<p>Ruth looked sharply ahead, but did not see +either the woman or the girl, in whom she was +so much interested. Either they had gone on +very rapidly, or had turned aside into the wood.</p> + +<p>Dot had made no complaint upon being forced +to leave the train; but she clung very tightly now +to the Alice-doll, and finally ventured to ask +Tess:</p> + +<p>“What—what do you think is the chance for +<i>bears</i> in this wood, Tess? Don’t you think there +may be some?”</p> + +<p>“Bears? Whoever heard the like? Of course +not, child,” said Tess, in her most elder-sisterly +way. “What gave you such an idea as that?”</p> + +<p>“Well—it’s a strange woods, Tess. We aren’t +really acquainted here.”</p> + +<p>“But Pearl is,” declared Tess, stoutly.</p> + +<p>“I don’t care. I’d rather have Tom Jonah +with us. Suppose a bear should jump out and +grab Alice?” and she hugged the doll all the +closer in her arms. For her own safety she evidently +was not anxious.</p> + +<p>The girls, after their ride in the train, were +like young colts let loose in a paddock. They +sang and laughed and capered; and when they +came to a softly carpeted hollow, Pearl Harrod +led the way and rolled down the slope, instead +of walking down in a “decorous manner, as high +school young ladies should,” quoth Carrie.</p> + +<p>“If our dear, <i>de-ar</i> teachers should see us +now!” gasped Pearl sitting up at the foot of the +slide, with a peck of pine needles in her hair and +her frock all tousled.</p> + +<p>Their only baggage was the lunch baskets and +boxes. All other of their personal possessions +were on the train, in the baggage car. But the +remains of the luncheons came in very nicely. +Before they had gone a mile through the wood +they were all loudly proclaiming their hunger.</p> + +<p>So they found a spring, and camped about it, +eating the remainder of the lunches to the very +last crumb. And such a hilarious “feed” as it +was!</p> + +<p>Ruth forgot all about the Gypsy woman and the +girl who had so puzzled her by her actions. The +rest by the spring refreshed even Dot. She was +plucky, if she <i>was</i> little; and she made no complaint +at all about the long walk through the +stretch of timber.</p> + +<p>The party did not hurry after that rest. It +was still early in the afternoon and Pearl, referring +to her watch, said they would surely +catch the auto-stage that passed on the main road +about four o’clock.</p> + +<p>“You see, there are no servants at the bungalow +yet,” Pearl explained. “Uncle has been taking +his meals at one of the small boarding-houses +nearby, that opens early. He is a great fisherman, +and always goes down early and ‘roughs +it’ at the bungalow until my aunt comes down.</p> + +<p>“But she thought we girls would be able to get +on all right—with Uncle Phil to give us a hand +if we need him. We’ll have to air bedclothes, +and get in groceries, and otherwise start housekeeping +to-night.”</p> + +<p>“Why! it will be great fun,” Ruth said. “Just +like playing house together.”</p> + +<p>“Say!” cried Agnes. “We want more than +‘play-house’ food to eat—now I warn you! No +sweet crackers and ‘cambric tea’ for mine, if you +please!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! if I ask him,” said Pearl, laughing, “I +know Uncle Phil will take us to his boarding-house +to supper to-night—if we get there late. +But I want to show him what ten girls can do +toward housekeeping.”</p> + +<p>“There’ll be plenty of cooks to spoil the broth,” +sighed Agnes. “Did you ever see <i>me</i> fry an +egg?”</p> + +<p>Ruth began to laugh. The single occasion when +Agnes had tried her hand at the breakfast eggs +was a day marked for remembrance at the old +Corner House.</p> + +<p>“What can you do to a defenseless egg, +Aggie?” Lucy Poole demanded.</p> + +<p>“Plenty!” declared Agnes, shaking her head. +“When I get through with an egg, a lump of butter, +and a frying-pan, there is left a residue of +charred ‘what is it?’ in the bottom of the pan, +an odor of burned grease in the kitchen—and me +in hysterics! It was an awful occasion when I +tackled that egg. I’ve not felt just right about +approaching an egg since that never-to-be-forgotten +day.”</p> + +<p>“I was left home to cook for my father, once,” +said Carrie Poole, seriously, “and he asked to +have boiled rice for supper. Mother never let +me cook much, and I didn’t know a thing about +<i>rice</i>.</p> + +<p>“But I saw the grains were awfully small, and +I knew my father liked a great, heaping bowlful +when he had it, so I told the grocery boy to bring +two pounds, and I tried to cook it all.”</p> + +<p>A general laugh hailed this announcement. +Agnes asked: “What happened, Carrie? I +don’t know anything about rice myself—’cepting +that it’s good in cakes and you throw it after +brides for luck—and—and Chinamen live on it.”</p> + +<p>“Wait!” urged Carrie, solemnly. “It’s nothing +to laugh at. I began cooking it in a four +quart saucepan, so as to give it plenty of room; +and when father came in just before supper time, +I had the whole top of our big range covered +with pots and pans into which I had dipped the +overflow of that two pounds of rice!</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, I had!” said Carrie, warmly, while +the others screamed with laughter. “And I had +gotten so excited by that time that I begged father +to go out to the washhouse and bring in the big +clothes boiler, so’s to see if I could keep the stuff +from running over onto the stove.</p> + +<p>“You never saw such a mess,” concluded Carrie, +shaking her head. “And we had to eat rice +for a week!”</p> + +<p>It was just here that Agnes spied something +far ahead beside the woodspath.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” she cried, “are we in sight of the tent +colony you tell about, so soon?”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed Pearl Harrod. “We’re +nowhere near the river.”</p> + +<p>“But there’s a tent!” exclaimed Agnes, earnestly.</p> + +<p>“And I see the top of another,” said Lucy +Poole.</p> + +<p>“Dirty brown things, both of them. Look +more like Indian wigwams,” announced Ann +Presby.</p> + +<p>“My goodness, girls! there are the Gypsies +Uncle Phil wrote about,” said Pearl, in some excitement. +“Let’s get our fortunes told.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me,” said Ruth, rather worriedly. +“I don’t just <i>like</i> Gypsies.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you haven’t got to hug and kiss them!” +laughed Pearl. “Come on! they’re lots of fun.”</p> + +<p>But when the party of girls drew nearer to the +Gypsy camp, this particular tribe of Nomads did +not appear to be “lots of fun,” after all.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the tents—as Ann had said—were +very shabby and dirty. The two covered +wagons were dilapidated, too. Gypsies usually +have good horses, but those the girls saw feeding +in the little glade were mere “crowbaits.”</p> + +<p>Several low-browed, roughly dressed men sat +in a group on the grass playing cards. They +were smoking, and one was tipping a black bottle +to his lips just as the girls from Milton came +near.</p> + +<p>“Let’s hurry right by, Pearl!” begged Ruth.</p> + +<p>Pearl, however, was not as observant as the +Corner House girl. She failed to see danger in +the situation, or in the looks the disturbed men +cast upon the unprotected party of girls. As +several of the fellows rose, Pearl called to them:</p> + +<p>“Where’s your Pythoness? Where is the +Queen of the Gypsies? We want our fortunes +told.”</p> + +<p>One man—a tall fellow with a scarred face—turned +and shouted something in a strange tongue +at the tents. Ruth recognized the language in +which the woman had talked to the dark-faced girl +on the train.</p> + +<p>And then, the next moment, Ruth caught sight +of the face of the very woman in question, peering +from between the flaps of one of the dingy +tents.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink09'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER IX—THE SPOONDRIFT BUNGALOW</a></h2> + +<p>“I don’t think these are very nice looking men, +do you, Tess?” Dot seriously asked her sister as +the party halted before the Gypsy camp.</p> + +<p>“Why, Dot!” gasped Tess. “That man <i>there</i> +is the very fellow who tried to steal Ruth’s +chickens!”</p> + +<p>“Oh—o-o!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, he is,” whispered the amazed Tess. +“He’s the young man Tom Jonah chased up on +to the henhouse roof.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said the philosophical Dot, “he can’t +steal our chickens <i>here</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Just the same I wish Tom Jonah was here +with us. I—I’d feel better about meeting him,” +confessed Tess.</p> + +<p>The other girls did not hear this conversation +between the two youngest Kenways. Ruth and +Agnes, however, were really troubled by the meeting +with the Gypsies; the former was, in addition, +suspicious of the woman who had been on the +train with them.</p> + +<p>This strange woman did not come out of the +tent. Indeed, almost at once she disappeared, +dropping the curtain. She did not wish to be +observed by the girls from Milton.</p> + +<p>“Oh, come on!” cried the reckless Pearl. +“They’ll only ask us a dime each. ‘Cross their +palms with silver,’ you know. And they do tell +the <i>queerest</i> things sometimes.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe we’d better stop this afternoon, +Pearl,” ventured Ruth, as one of the rough +fellows drew nearer to the girls.</p> + +<p>“Let the little ladies wait but a short time,” +said this man. “They will have revealed to them +all they wish to know.”</p> + +<p>He had an ugly leer, and had Pearl looked at +him she would have been frightened by his expression. +But she was searching her chain-purse +for dimes. It did not look to Ruth Kenway as +though that purse would last long in the company +of these evil fellows.</p> + +<p>Now the same tent flap was pushed aside again +and into the open hobbled an old crone. She +seemed to be a toothless creature, and leaned +upon a crutch. Gray strands of coarse hair +straggled over her wrinkled forehead. She had +a hump on her back—or seemed to have, for she +wore a long cloak, the bedraggled tail of which +touched the ground.</p> + +<p>She hobbled across the lawn toward the girls. +Ruth watched her closely for, it seemed, she came +more hurriedly than seemed necessary.</p> + +<p>A dog—one of the mongrels that infested the +camp—ran at her, and the old crone struck at the +creature with her crutch; he ran away yelping. +She was plainly more vigorous of arm than one +would have believed from her decrepit appearance.</p> + +<p>The grinning fellows separated as the old hag +came forward. She did not speak to them, but +she was muttering to herself.</p> + +<p>“Incantations!” whispered Pearl. “Isn’t she +enough to give you the delicious shudders? Oh!”</p> + +<p>Pearl was evidently enjoying the adventure to +the full, but some of the girls besides Ruth and +Agnes, did not feel so very pleasant. When +one of the fellows took hold of Carrie Poole’s +wrist-watch with a grimy finger and thumb, she +screamed.</p> + +<p>“Don’t fear, little lady,” said the tall, grim +man, and he struck the officious fellow with his +elbow in the ribs. “He means nothing harmful. +Here is Zaliska, the Queen of the Romany. She +is very old and very wise. She will tell you much +for a silver shilling; but she will tell you more for +two-bits.”</p> + +<p>“He means a quarter,” said Pearl, explaining. +“But a quarter’s too much. Show her your +palms, girls. This is my treat. I have ten +dimes.”</p> + +<p>The tall man had motioned his fellows back, +but they were arranged around the party of girls +in such a way that, no matter which way they +turned, one of the ruffians was right before them!</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth! I am frightened!” whispered +Agnes in her sister’s ear.</p> + +<p>“Sh! don’t scare the children,” Ruth said, her +first thought for Tess and Dot.</p> + +<p>The old crone hobbled directly to Ruth and put +out a brown claw. Ruth extended her own right +hand tremblingly. The hag was mumbling something +or other, but Ruth could not hear what she +said at first, the other girls were chattering so.</p> + +<p>Then she noticed that the grip of the old Gypsy +was a firm one. The back of her hand seemed +wrinkled and puckered; but suddenly Ruth knew +that this was the effect of grease paint!</p> + +<p>This was a made-up old woman—not a real old +woman, at all!</p> + +<p>The discovery frightened the Corner House +girl almost as much as the rough men frightened +her. “Zaliska” was a disguised creature.</p> + +<p>She clung to Ruth’s hand firmly when the girl +would have pulled it away, and now Ruth heard +her hiss:</p> + +<p>“Get you away from this place. Get you away +with your friends—quick. And do not come back +at all.”</p> + +<p>Ruth was shaking with hysterical terror. The +creature clung to her hand and mumbled this +warning over and over again.</p> + +<p>“What’s she telling you, Ruth?” demanded the +hilarious Pearl.</p> + +<p>“Trouble! trouble!” mumbled the supposed +fortune-teller, shaking her head, but accepting the +next girl’s dime.</p> + +<p>Ruth whispered swiftly to Pearl: “Oh! let us +get out of here. These men mean to rob us—I +am sure.”</p> + +<p>“They would not dare,” began the startled +Pearl.</p> + +<p>Just then there was a creaking of heavy +wheels, and a voice shouting to oxen. The +Gypsies glanced swiftly and covertly at one another, +falling back farther from the vicinity of +the girls.</p> + +<p>Indeed, several of them returned to the card +game. The fortune-teller mumbled her foolish +prophecies quickly. Into the glade, along a wood-path +from the thicker timber, came two spans of +oxen dragging three great logs. A pleasant-faced +young man swung the ox-goad and spoke +cheerily to the slow-moving, ponderous animals.</p> + +<p>“Let’s go at once, Pearl!” begged Ruth. +“We’ll keep close to this lumberman. Dot and +Tess can ride on the logs.”</p> + +<p>“Come on, girls! I think this old woman is +a faker,” cried Pearl. “She can’t even tell me +whether I’m going to marry a blond man, or a +brunette!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t go yet, little ladies,” said the tall man, +suavely. “Zaliska can tell you much——”</p> + +<p>“Let’s go, girls!” cried Carrie Poole, snatching +her hand away from the supposed old woman.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes had already seized their sisters +and were hurrying them toward the lumberman.</p> + +<p>“Whoa, Buck! Whoa, Bright!” shouted the +teamster, cracking the whiplash before the leading +span of oxen. “Sh-h! Steady. What’s the +matter, girls?”</p> + +<p>“Won’t you take us to the main road where we +can get the stage for Pleasant Cove?” cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Sure, Miss. Going right there. Want to +ride?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, sir!” cried the Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>“That will be great fun!” shouted some of the +others. “Come on!”</p> + +<p>They clambered all over the logs, that were +chained together and swung from the axle of the +rear pair of wheels. The Gypsies began gathering +around and some of them muttered threateningly, +but the lumberman cracked his whip and +the oxen started easily.</p> + +<p>“Cling on, girls!” advised the driver. “No +skylarking up there. Soon have you out to the +pike road. And you want to keep away from that +Gypsy camp. They are a tough lot—very different +from the crowd that camped there last +year and the year before. We farmers are getting +about ready to run them out, now I tell ye!”</p> + +<p>Ruth said nothing—not even to Agnes—about +what she had discovered. She had penetrated +“Queen Zaliska’s” disguise. She believed that +the supposed old crone was the handsome, dark +girl whom she had observed so narrowly on the +train.</p> + +<p>Perhaps nobody but Ruth, of the party of ten +girls, really understood that they had been in +peril from the Gypsies. <i>She</i> believed that, had +they not gotten away from the camp as they had, +the men would have robbed them.</p> + +<p>The Gypsies were afraid of the husky lumberman, +and they did not follow the girls. Once on +the highway, Pearl declared the auto-stage would +be along in ten minutes or so, and they bade the +lumberman good-bye with a feeling of perfect +safety.</p> + +<p>The Gypsies had not dared follow the party. +Soon the stage came along, and for ten cents each +the girls rode into Pleasant Cove. There were +only a few other passengers, and the party from +Milton sat on top and had a lot of fun.</p> + +<p>Pearl pointed out the byroad that led down to +the river beach where the tent colony was set up, +but the stage went right past Spoondrift bungalow, +and the girls got down and charged that +dwelling “like a horde of Huns,” Agnes declared.</p> + +<p>Uncle Phillip Harrod was at home, and welcomed +them kindly. “Help yourselves, girls, +and go as far as you like,” he said, waving both +hands, and retired to a corner of the piazza with +his book and a pipe.</p> + +<p>The girls took him at his word. They were +very busy till nightfall. Then, however, +everything was ready for their occupancy of the bungalow, +and supper was cooking on the kerosene +range.</p> + +<p>They had forgotten the Gypsies—all but Ruth. +She was bound to be puzzled by the disguised +“queen” and wondered secretly what the masquerade +meant, and who the beautiful girl was +who posed as “Zaliska”?</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink10'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER X—SOME EXCITEMENT</a></h2> + +<p>“But <i>why</i> ‘Spoondrift’?” demanded Lucy. +“What does it mean?”</p> + +<p>“‘Spoondrift’ is the spray from the tops of the +waves,” explained Pearl. “We think the name +is awfully pretty.”</p> + +<p>“And so is the bungalow—and the Cove,” +sighed Ruth.</p> + +<p>“And we’re going to have a scrumptious time +here!” declared Agnes.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were frankly sleepy, and Lucy +begged the privilege of seeing them to bed.</p> + +<p>“That’s real kind of you, I’m sure, Lute,” said +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you praise her,” sniffed Carrie. “I +know Lute. She’s sleepy, herself. You won’t +see her downstairs again to-night.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care,” yawned Lucy Poole, following +Tess and Dot. “I sleep so slowly that it takes +a long time for me to get a good night’s rest.”</p> + +<p>“Well! of all things!” ejaculated Carrie, as +her cousin departed, following the two smaller +girls. “What do you know about <i>that</i>?”</p> + +<p>“Almost as stupid as the inhabitants of London,” +chuckled Agnes.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by that, Ag?” demanded +Ann Presby. “The people of London aren’t +any more stupid than those of other cities, are +they?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” returned Agnes; “but the +book says ‘the population of London is very +dense.’”</p> + +<p>“Fine! fine!” cried Carrie Poole, laughing. +“Oh! these ‘literal’ folk. You know, my Grandfather +Poole has an awfully bald head. He was +telling us once that in some famous battle of the +Civil War in which he took part, his head was +grazed by a bullet. My little brother Jimmy +stared at his head thoughtfully for a minute, and +then he said:</p> + +<p>“‘My, Grandpa, there’s not much grazing up +there now, is there?’”</p> + +<p>These stories began the evening. Everybody +had some story or joke to relate, and finally the +girls began to guess riddles. Somebody propounded +the old one about the wind: “What +is it that goes all around the house and yet makes +no tracks?” and Agnes had a new answer for +it:</p> + +<p>“Germs!” she shouted. “You know, Miss +Georgiana gave us a lecture about them, and I +bet we’re just surrounded by deadly bacilli right +now.”</p> + +<p>“Those aren’t germs—they’re mosquitos, +Ag!” laughed Pearl, slapping vigorously at one +of the pests. “Pleasant Cove isn’t entirely free +from them.”</p> + +<p>“And they are presenting their bills pretty +lively, too,” yawned Ruth. “The bedrooms are +screened. I believe we’d all better seek the haven +of bed unless we want to be splotchy to-morrow +from mosquito bites.”</p> + +<p>In the morning the older girls divided the +housework between them, and so got it all done +in short order. The baggage had come up from +the station the evening before, and they unpacked.</p> + +<p>Then they set forth to explore the fishing port, +as well as the more modern part of Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>As they brisked along the walk past Mr. Terrence +Severn’s Overlook House, they spied Trix +and her party on the big veranda. The girls +hailed each other back and forth; only Trix and +the Corner House girls did not speak.</p> + +<p>“We can’t speak to her if she won’t speak to +us,” said Ruth to Agnes. “Now, never you +mind, Aggie. She’ll get over her tantrum in +time.”</p> + +<p>The party from Spoondrift bungalow got back +in season to get luncheon; after which they rested +and then bathed. It was the Corner House girls’ +first experience of salt water bathing and they +all enjoyed it—even Dot.</p> + +<p>“It <i>does</i> make you suck in your breath awfully +hard when the waves lap upon you,” she confessed. +“But there was the Alice-doll sitting on +the shore watching me, and so I couldn’t let her +see that I was <i>afraid</i>!”</p> + +<p>Ruth, more than the other girls, aided Pearl +in looking after housekeeping affairs. It was +she who discovered the broken lamp in the front +hall.</p> + +<p>The bungalow was lighted by oil-lamps, and +they used candles in the bed chambers; while +there was a marvelous “blue-flame” kerosene +range in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Not all of the girls understood the handling of +kerosene lamps, and Pearl told a funny story +about her own little sister who had never seen +any lights but gas or electric.</p> + +<p>“When she came down here to Uncle Phil’s +bungalow for the first time, she was all excited +about the lamps. She told mamma that ‘Uncle +Phil had his ’lectricity in a lamp right on the +supper table. It’s a queer kind of a light, for +they fill it with water out of a can.’”</p> + +<p>The hanging lamp in the front hall was set +inside a melon-shaped globe. Finding that, as +Ruth pointed out, it could not be used, Pearl made +another trip to the village before teatime and in +the local “department store” bought another +lamp.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid you ought not to use that lamp, +Pearl,” Ruth said, when she saw that the chimney +was not tall enough to stick out of the top of +the globe.</p> + +<p>“Pooh! why not? Guess it’s just as good as +the old chimney was,” said Pearl.</p> + +<p>“Seems to me Mrs. MacCall says that chimneys +should always be tall enough to come up +through the globe. I don’t know just why——”</p> + +<p>“Oh, pshaw!” interrupted Pearl. “It’s all +right, I fancy.”</p> + +<p>Neither girl had recourse to “applied physics.” +Had she done so she could easily have discovered +just <i>why</i> it was unwise to use a lamp with a short +chimney inside such a shaped globe as that hanging +in chains in the front hall of the bungalow.</p> + +<p>Ruth forgot the matter. It was Pearl herself +who lit the hall lamp that evening. As before, +they sat on the porch and played games and sang +or told stories, all the long, bright evening.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot had gone to bed at half after +eight. It was an hour later that Lucy suddenly +said:</p> + +<p>“I smell smoke.”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t Mr. Harrod,” said Ann. “He’s gone +down to the Casino.”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t tobacco smoke I smell,” declared +Lucy, springing up.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Lute!” shrieked Agnes. “Look at the +door!”</p> + +<p>A cloud of black, thick smoke was belching out +of the front hall upon the veranda. One of the +other girls shrieked “Fire!”</p> + +<p>Those next few minutes were terribly exciting +for all hands at the Spoondrift bungalow. A +single glance into the hall showed Ruth Kenway +that the hanging lamp had burst, and the place +was all ablaze.</p> + +<p>There was but one stairway, and the children +were in one of the low-ceilinged rooms above. +Tess and Dot could only be reached by climbing up +the long, sloping roof of the bungalow, and getting +in at the chamber window.</p> + +<p>While some of the girls ran for water—which +was useless in the quantity they could bring from +the kitchen tap in pots and pans—and others ran +screaming along the street for help, Ruth “shinnied” +right up one of the piazza pillars and +squirmed out upon the shingled roof.</p> + +<p>She tore her dress, and hurt her knees and +hands; but she did not think of this havoc at the +moment. She got to the window of the room in +which her sisters slept, and screamed for Tess +and Dot, but in their first sleep the smaller girls +were completely “dead to the world.”</p> + +<p>There was the screen to be reckoned with before +the oldest Corner House girl could enter. +It was set into the window from the inside, and +she could neither lift the window-sash nor stir +the screen. So she beat the tough wire in with +her fists, and they bled and hurt her dreadfully! +Nevertheless, she got through, falling into the +room just as the stifling smoke from below began +to pour in around the bedroom door.</p> + +<p>“Tess! Dot! Hurry up! Get up!” she +shrieked, shaking them both.</p> + +<p>Tess aroused, whimpering. Ruth seized Dot +bodily, flung a blanket around her, and put her +out of the window upon the roof. Then she +dragged Tess to the window and made her climb +out after her sister.</p> + +<p>“Oh, oh!” gasped Tess, alive at last to the +cause of the excitement. “Save the Alice-doll, +Ruthie. Save Dot’s Alice-doll!”</p> + +<p>And Ruth actually went back, groping through +the gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she +scrambled out upon the shingles.</p> + +<p>By that time the street was noisy with shouting +people. Mr. Harrod came with a fire extinguisher +and attacked the flames. Other men +came and helped the girls down from the roof.</p> + +<p>Agnes had fainted when she realized the danger +her sisters were in. Some of the other girls +were quite hysterical. Neighbors took them all +in for the night.</p> + +<p>It was quite an hour before the fire was completely +out. Then the Spoondrift bungalow certainly +was in a mess.</p> + +<p>“It will take carpenters and painters a fortnight +and more to repair the damage,” said Mr. +Harrod the next morning. “Luckily none of +your guests lost their clothing, Pearl; but you +will all have to go to the hotel to finish your visit +to Pleasant Cove.”</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink03' src='images/illus-003.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles.</p> +</div> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink11'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XI—THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE</a></h2> + +<p>The Overlook House was nearest. Mr. Harrod +made arrangements for the girls to go there +and occupy several rooms. At least, he presumed +he had made that arrangement with Mr. +Severn when he left on the forenoon train for +Bloomingsburg to arrange his insurance and hire +mechanics to at once repair the bungalow.</p> + +<p>The Spoondrift cottage was really not fit for +occupancy and there seemed nothing else for the +girls to do but follow his advice and go over to +the Overlook. But Ruth Kenway had her doubts.</p> + +<p>After the excitement of the fire, and the general +“stir-about” which ensued, Pearl Harrod had +quite forgotten that the Corner House girls were +not on terms of intimacy with Trix Severn, the +hotel keeper’s daughter. It probably never entered +her good-natured mind that Trix would behave +meanly when all hands from the Spoondrift +had escaped the peril of the fire.</p> + +<p>The girls trooped over to the hotel, after repacking +their baggage, to look at the rooms which +had been secured for them. Mr. Severn was not +there, nor was the clerk on duty. Their schoolmate, +Trix, was behind the desk.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” she said carelessly, “I presume we +can find rooms for you. But father doesn’t care +much to take in people who won’t stay the season +out—especially at this time of the year. It’s +a great inconvenience.”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” said Pearl, frankly, “I guess your +father is running his hotel for money—not for +sport. And Uncle Phil is going to pay him for +all the accommodation we get.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed?” returned Trix. “You seem to +know a lot about our business, Miss Harrod.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you put on any of your high and mighty +airs with me, Miss!” snapped Pearl. “For they +don’t go down, let me tell you! Didn’t Uncle +Phil secure rooms for us?”</p> + +<p>“Well—he spoke of your coming here. There +is Number 10, and 11, and 14; they’re all three +double rooms, so you and Ann can have one, +Maud and Lulu another, and Carrie and Lucy the +third.”</p> + +<p>“But, goodness gracious! there are ten of us!” +cried Pearl. “You know that very well.”</p> + +<p>“Those three rooms,” said Trix, with elaborate +carelessness, “are all your uncle provided.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Uncle Phil must be crazy! Didn’t he +get a big room for the Kenways?”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” said Trix, maliciously. “Are <i>they</i> +with you, Miss Harrod? Your uncle must have +quite overlooked them. All the rooms I know +anything about his securing for your party are +the three I’ve mentioned.”</p> + +<p>“Well, where’s your father——”</p> + +<p>“He’s gone fishing,” said Trix, promptly, and +with a flash of satisfaction in her eyes. “He +won’t be back till late to-night.”</p> + +<p>“Then, where’s the clerk?” demanded Pearl, +much worried.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Cheever doesn’t know anything about it. +I was here when your uncle made his bargain. +Nothing was said about those Corner House girls—so +there! There is no room for them here.”</p> + +<p>“Well! I call that the meanest thing!” began +Pearl, but Ruth, who had stood close by, interrupted:</p> + +<p>“Don’t let it worry you in the least, Pearl. +We have plenty of time to find accommodations +before night.”</p> + +<p>“You won’t find them here, Miss!” snapped +Trix.</p> + +<p>“Nothing would make me remain under this +roof for a night,” said Ruth, indignantly. “My +sisters and I have never done you any harm, +Trix; quite the contrary, as you would remember +had you any gratitude at all. This hotel is not +the only place at Pleasant Cove where we can +find shelter, I am sure.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth! don’t go!” begged Pearl. “This +mean girl is not telling the truth, I am sure. +You’ll break up our party,” Pearl wailed.</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t stay here now,” the oldest Corner +House girl declared. “I am going to secure a +tent for us. I am quite sure we will be +comfortable in one. If other people can stand it +under canvas, of course <i>we</i> can.”</p> + +<p>She took Agnes by the hand and they went out +of the hotel. Tess and Dot had not come with +them, but had been left at the neighbor’s where +they had all spent the night.</p> + +<p>Pearl and the other girls could not very well +follow them; they were not so independently situated +as the Corner House girls. Ruth had a +well filled pocket-book, as well as checks from +Mr. Howbridge and an introductory letter to the +branch bank at Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>She had been so used to going ahead, and arranging +matters for the whole family, during the +past three years, that she was not troubled much +by this emergency. She was sorry that the pleasant +party had to be broken up, that was all. She +was not sure that she and her sisters knew any +of the campers along the riverside.</p> + +<p>There were two men who supplied tents and +outfits for those who wished to live under canvas, +and so there were two distinct tent colonies, +though they were side by side.</p> + +<p>One was called Camp Enterprise, and the other +Camp Willowbend. The latter was just at the +bend of the river, and there were a few willows +on the low bluff back of it.</p> + +<p>There were not more than a dozen tents erected +in either camp as yet, for it was early in the season. +The Corner House girls rode quite a mile +from the hotel to Willowbend Camp and selected +a tent that was already erected.</p> + +<p>It was a large wall-tent and it was divided in +half by a canvas partition that made a bedroom +of one end and a living-room of the front part. +In the latter was a small sheetiron cookstove, +with a pipe that led the smoke outside of the tent. +But there was an oilstove, too, and Ruth decided +that they would make arrangements for buying +most of their food cooked, so as to reduce the +details of housekeeping.</p> + +<p>Agnes cheered up at once when she saw the +tent-cities. And the smaller girls were delighted +with the prospect of living under canvas.</p> + +<p>There were four cots in the tent, with sheets +and blankets, and apologies for pillows; there was +matting laid down on the sand, too, in this bedroom +part of the tent.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the furnishings consisted of +four camp-chairs, a plain deal table, a chest of +drawers that contained the chinaware and cooking +utensils, and a small icebox. This front +apartment had a plank floor, made in sections.</p> + +<p>It was a rough enough shelter, and the camping +arrangements were crude; nevertheless, the +Corner House girls saw nothing but fun ahead +of them, and they were as busy as bees all that +day “getting settled.”</p> + +<p>There were pleasant people in the other tents +of Camp Willowbend, but none of them chanced +to be Milton people. There were several girls +of ages corresponding to those of the Corner +House girls, and the latter were sure they would +find these neighbors good sport.</p> + +<p>The Kenways were so busy at noon that they +only “took a bite in their fists,” as good Mrs. +MacCall would have expressed it. Ruth had been +wise enough to buy some cooked food in the village +before they came over to the camp, but she +learned from some of the ladies in the tents that +there was a woman in the neighborhood who +baked bread to sell, and sometimes cookies and +pies.</p> + +<p>“You go to see Mrs. Bobster. She’s the nicest +old lady!” declared one city matron. “Make +your arrangements for bread now, Miss Kenway, +for after she takes orders for as many as she can +well supply, she wouldn’t agree to bake another +loaf. She has a real New England conscience, +and she wouldn’t promise to bake a single biscuit +more than she knows she can get in her +oven.”</p> + +<p>The directions for finding Mrs. Bobster interested +and amused the Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>“She is the little old woman who lives in the +shoe,” laughed their informant. “You can’t +miss the house, if you go along the beach road +toward town. It’s just beyond the other camp.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Dot, eagerly, “<i>I</i> want to see the +lady who lives in a shoe. She must have lots of +children, for they were a great bother.”</p> + +<p>“And,” said Tess, “do you suppose she <i>does</i> +whip them all soundly and send them to bed with +a piece of bread to eat?”</p> + +<p>“We’ll discover all that,” promised Ruth, and +soon after luncheon, having fixed up the tent, and +set to rights their things that the expressman had +brought over from the Spoondrift bungalow, the +four sisters set out to find Mrs. Bobster.</p> + +<p>The girls had ridden over from the village +along the highroad, on which they had traveled +two days before in the auto-stage. This lower, +or “beach” road was a much less important +thoroughfare. In places it followed the line of +the shore so closely that the unusual high tides +that had prevailed that spring, had washed a +great deal of white sand across the swamp-grass +and out upon it.</p> + +<p>So, in places, the girls plodded through sand +over their shoe tops. “Might as well go barefooted,” +declared Agnes, sitting down for the +third time to take off her oxfords and shake out +the sand.</p> + +<p>“You’d find it pretty different, if you tried it,” +laughed Ruth. “This sand is hot.”</p> + +<p>“It does seem as though you slipped back half +a step each time you tried to go forward,” said +Tess, seriously. “Aren’t we ever going to get +there, Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Dot, suddenly, “isn’t that a giraffe? +And there’s a camel!”</p> + +<p>“For goodness’ sake!” gasped Agnes, +plunging to her feet, and hopping along after her sisters, +trying to get on her left shoe. “Is this the +African desert?”</p> + +<p>“It looks like it,” said Ruth, herself amazed.</p> + +<p>“And it’s hot enough,” grumbled Agnes. +“Oh! I see! it’s a wrecked carousel.”</p> + +<p>There were decrepit lions and tigers, too; the +rain-washed and broken animals were the remains +of a carousel, the machinery of which had been +taken away. Once somebody had tried to finance +a small pleasure resort between the real village +of Pleasant Cove and the two tent colonies, but +it had been unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>The wreck of a “shoot the chutes,” the carousel, +a dancing pavilion and a short boardwalk +with adjacent stands, had been abandoned by the +unfortunate promoters. There was a tower—now +a “leaning” tower; broken-down swings; an +abandoned moving picture palace; and back from +the rest of the wreckage, several hundred yards +from the sandy shore, the girls saw a rusty looking +frame structure, shaped like a shoe, with a +flagstaff sticking out of the roof.</p> + +<p>“There it is!” cried Tess, eagerly. “And it +<i>does</i> look like a shoe.”</p> + +<p>Originally the house had been a tiny brown +cottage set in the midst of a garden. The fence +surrounding the place was still well kept. The +second story of the cottage had been transformed +into the semblance of a congress-gaiter, with windows +in the sides and front. It looked as though +that huge shoe had been carefully placed upon the +rafters of the first floor rooms of the cottage.</p> + +<p>“What a funny looking place!” exclaimed +Agnes. “Did you ever see the like, Ruth? I +wonder if Mrs. Bobster is as funny as her +house.”</p> + +<p>At that moment a figure bobbed up among the +beanpoles in the garden, and the girls saw that +it was a little woman in a calico sunbonnet. Her +face was very small and hard and rosy—like +a well-shined Baldwin apple. She had twinkling +blue eyes, as sharp as file-points.</p> + +<p>“Shoo!” exclaimed the little woman. “Shoo, +Agamemnon! Git aout o’ them pea-vines like I +told you!”</p> + +<p>For a moment the Corner House girls did not +see Agamemnon; they could not imagine who he +was.</p> + +<p>“Shoo, I tell ye!” exclaimed the little old +woman who lived in a shoe, and she struck out +with the short-handled hoe she was using.</p> + +<p>There was a squawk, and out leaped, with awkward +stride, a long legged rooster—of what “persuasion” +it was impossible to tell, for he was +swathed from neck to spurs in a wonderful garment +which had undoubtedly been made out of a +red flannel undershirt!</p> + +<p>Two or three bedraggled tail-feathers appeared +at the aperture in the back of this garment; otherwise +Agamemnon seemed to be quite featherless. +And when, clear of his mistress’ reach, he flapped +his almost naked wings and crowed, he was the +most comical looking object the Corner House +girls had ever seen.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink12'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XII—A PICNIC WITH AGAMEMNON</a></h2> + +<p>“You see, gals, Agamemnon’s been the most +unlucky bird that ever was hatched,” said the little +old woman, coming across the tiny lawn to the +fence where the Corner House girls were staring, +round-eyed, at the strange apparition of a +rooster in a red-flannel sleeping-suit.</p> + +<p>“But he’s the pluckiest! Yes, ma’am! He +was only a pindling critter when he pipped the +shell, an’ the vi-cis-<i>si</i>-tudes that bird’s been +through since he fust scratched would ha’ made +a human lay right down and die.</p> + +<p>“The other chickens never would let him raise +a pin-feather ter cover his nakedness; they picked +on him suthin’ <i>awful</i>. I shet him up till his +wings and tail growed, an’ a rat got in an’ gnawed +the feathers right off him in one night; but +Agamemnon picked and clawed so’t the old rat +didn’t bleed him much.</p> + +<p>“And now here, lately, a neighbor got a half-breed +game rooster, an’ thet pesky fightin’ bird +got down here an’ sasses Agamemnon on his own +premises.</p> + +<p>“Ag wouldn’t stand for that,” said the old +lady, her blue eyes fairly crackling. “He sailed +right inter that game chicken—an’ Neighbor +Lincoln et his rooster the nex’ Sunday for dinner. +’Twas all he could do with the critter after +Agamemnon got through with him.</p> + +<p>“But that game rooster had tore ev’ry <i>important</i> +feather off’n poor Agamemnon’s carcass. +I had to do suthin’. ’Twarn’t decent for him to +go ’round bare. So I made him that smock out +of one o’ poor Eddie’s old shirts. And there ye +be!” she finished breathlessly, smiling broadly +upon the interested Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>“I guess you are Mrs. Bobster?” asked Ruth, +smiling in return.</p> + +<p>“Are you <i>really</i> the—the lady who lives in the +shoe?” asked Dot, round-eyed.</p> + +<p>“That’s what they call me, pet,” said Mrs. +Bobster, smiling at the smallest Kenway. “I’m +the only little old woman who lives in <i>this</i> shoe. +Poor Eddie thought we’d make a mint of money +if we built over the top of our house like that, +and I sold gingercakes and sweeties to the children +who came down here to the beach. Eddie +was allus mighty smart in thinkin’ up schemes +for me to make money. But the Beach Company +went up in smoke, as the sayin’ is; so we didn’t +make our fortun’ after all.”</p> + +<p>She laughed. Indeed, this little, apple-faced old +lady was almost always laughing, it seemed.</p> + +<p>“Poor Eddie!” she added. “I guess the +Beach Company failin’ took about all the tuck +out o’ him. He said himself it was the last straw +on the camel’s back. He jest settled right down +inter his chair, like; and he didn’t last that winter +out. He was allus weakly, Eddie was.”</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls knew she must be +speaking of her husband. So now she was all +alone in the house that had such a grotesque upper +story.</p> + +<p>“No. There ain’t no children here—only them +that comes in to see me,” Mrs. Bobster said in +answer to a question from Tess. “We never did +have no children; but we allus loved ’em.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile she had opened the gate and invited +the Corner House girls into the yard. +There was an arbor which was already shaded +by quick-growing vines. The little kitchen garden, +with its border of gooseberries and currants, +was as neat as it could be.</p> + +<p>“I gotter cow of my own out back, and hens, +too. I make a bare livin’ in winter, and put frills +onto it in summer,” and the old lady laughed. +“These folks from the city that come livin’ in +tents here, like my bread and cookies.”</p> + +<p>“That is what we have come to arrange for, +Mrs. Bobster,” said Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I dunno. Most all I can comferbly bake three +times a week, is bespoke,” said the little old +woman who lived in a shoe. “How many is +there in your fam’bly, Miss?”</p> + +<p>When she heard that there were just four of +them—these girls alone—and that they were to +live by themselves in a tent, she grew greatly interested.</p> + +<p>“Surely I’ll bake for you—and cookies, too. +Maybe a fruit pie oncet in a while—’specially if +you’ll go over beyond the bend when berries is +ripe and pick ’em yourself. And you gals a-livin’ +all alone? Sho! I’d think you’d be scaret to +death.”</p> + +<p>“Why, no!” said Ruth. “Why should we?”</p> + +<p>“After dark,” said the old woman, shaking her +hand.</p> + +<p>“Who would hurt us?” asked the Corner House +girl in wonder.</p> + +<p>“Can’t most always sometimes tell,” said the +old woman, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>“But <i>you</i> live here alone!”</p> + +<p>“No,” she said, quickly. “Not after dark. I +ain’t never alone. Oh, no!”</p> + +<p>She spoke as though she were afraid Ruth +might not believe her, and repeated the denial +several times.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were very anxious to go upstairs +and see the rooms in the “shoe,” and they made +the request to Ruth in an audible whisper.</p> + +<p>“For sure!” cried Mrs. Bobster. “All the +children that come here want to go upstairs. If +I had ’em of my own, that’s where I’d put ’em +all to bed after I’d fed ’em bread and ‘whipped +’em all soundly,’” and she laughed.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe you’d have whipped the children, +if you’d been the really truly little old +woman that lived in the shoe,” quoth Dot, putting +a confiding hand into the apple-faced lady’s +hard palm.</p> + +<p>“I bet <i>you</i> wouldn’t have had to be whipped,” +laughed Mrs. Bobster, leading Dot away, with +Tess following.</p> + +<p>Later the hostess of the shoe-house brought out +a pitcher of milk and glasses with a heaping plate +of ginger cookies—the old-fashioned kind that +just <i>melt</i> on your tongue!</p> + +<p>“Sho!” she said, when Ruth praised them. +“It’s easy enough to make good merlasses cookies. +But ye don’t wanter have no conscience +when it comes to butter—no, indeed!”</p> + +<p>Agamemnon came to the feast. In his ridiculous +red flannel suit he waddled up to his mistress +and pecked crumbs off her lap when she sat +down on the bench in the arbor.</p> + +<p>“He looks just like a person ready to go in +swimming,” chuckled Agnes. “It’s a red bathing +suit.”</p> + +<p>“That’s one thing Agamemnon can’t stand. +He don’t like water,” said Mrs. Bobster. “But +if I let him out at low tide he’ll beau a flock of +hens right down to the clamflats. But now, poor +thing! they won’t go with him.”</p> + +<p>“Who—the hens!” asked Ruth, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“Yes. They don’t think he looks jest right, +I s’pose. If he chassés up to one of my old biddies, +she tries to tear that flannel suit right off’n +him. It’s hard on poor Agamemnon; but until +his feathers start to grow good again, I don’t +dare have him go without it. He’d git sunburned +like a brick, in the fust place.”</p> + +<p>This tickled Agnes so that she almost fell off +the bench.</p> + +<p>“But I should think the red flannel would tickle +him awfully,” murmured Tess, quite seriously +disturbed over the plight of the rooster.</p> + +<p>“Sho! keeps away rheumatics. So poor Eddie +allus said,” declared the widow. “That’s why +he wore red flannel for forty year—and he never +had a mite of rheumatism. Agamemnon ought +to be satisfied he’s alive, after all he’s been +through.”</p> + +<p>It was really very funny to see the rooster +strutting about the yard in what Agnes called +his red bathing suit.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls remained for some +time with Mrs. Bobster. When they went back +to the camp at the bend they carried their first +supply of bread and cookies.</p> + +<p>They arrived at their tent to find a wagonette +Pearl had hired in the port, and all the other girls +who had been at the Spoondrift bungalow had +come visiting.</p> + +<p>The crowd was delighted with the way Ruth +and her sisters were situated. It looked as +though to live under canvas would be great fun +indeed.</p> + +<p>“Wish I’d spoken to Uncle Phil about it, and +gotten him to hire tents instead of putting us up +at that old hotel,” declared Pearl. “And do you +know, girls, that Trix Severn told a story?”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t suppose she’d be above being untruthful,” +Ruth said, rather indignantly.</p> + +<p>“And you’re quite right. We found out that +her father set aside a big, double-bedded room +for you four girls. Trix says she did not know +anything about it. But of course Uncle Phil +would not have forgotten you.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” said Agnes. “I’m glad she +acted so. We’re a whole lot better off here.”</p> + +<p>“I believe you!” said Carrie Poole.</p> + +<p>“You going to have Rosa Wildwood here in the +tent with you when she comes?” asked Ann +Presby.</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid she ought to have a better place,” +said Ruth. “And I believe I know just where she +would get the attention—and food—that she +needs,” and the oldest Corner House girl told +the crowd about Mrs. Bobster—the little old lady +who lived in a shoe.</p> + +<p>“If I can get the dear old thing to take Rosa +to board, I know she’ll give her just what she +needs—good food, plenty of it, well cooked, and +Rosa will be in a quiet place where she can rest +all she wants to,” said Ruth.</p> + +<p>She had no idea at the time of the strange adventure +that would arise out of this plan of +hers to bring Rosa Wildwood to stay for a part +of the summer with the little old woman who lived +in a shoe.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink13'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIII—THE NIGHT OF THE BIG WIND</a></h2> + +<p>“Ruthie! there’s another man wants to sell you +a boat.”</p> + +<p>“Ruthie! there’s another man wants to sell an +elephant—and it’s <i>so</i> cute!”</p> + +<p>“For the land’s sake!” gasped Ruth, throwing +down a sputtering pen, where she was writing on +the chest of drawers in the tent. “<i>How</i> can a +body write? And an elephant, no less!”</p> + +<p>She rushed out to see Dot’s elephant, as that +seemed more important than Tess’ announcement +that a man had merely a boat for sale. +Dot’s man was a gangling young fellow with a +covered basket from which he was selling sugar +cakes made into fancy shapes. So Dot had her +elephant for the Alice-doll (almost everything +that appealed to Dot was bought for that pampered +child of hers!) and was appeased.</p> + +<p>But the man with the boat was a different matter. +He proved to be a boat owner and he wanted +to hire one of his craft to the Corner House girls +by the week. Agnes was just crazy (so she said) +to add rowing to her accomplishments, and Ruth +thought it would be a good thing herself.</p> + +<p>The boat was a safe, cedar craft, with two pairs +of light oars and a portable kerosene engine and +propeller to use if the girls got tired of rowing. +Ruth made the bargain after thoroughly looking +over the boat, which had had only one season’s +use.</p> + +<p>There was a chain and padlock for mooring it +to a post at the edge of the water just below the +tent.</p> + +<p>The older girls had already learned to swim +in the school gymnasium at Milton. Milton was +pretty well up to date in its school arrangements.</p> + +<p>Tess had been taught to “strike out” and could +be left safely to paddle by herself in shallow +water while Ruth and Agnes taught little Dot.</p> + +<p>The latter refused to own to any fear of the +water. Up here in the river the waves were seldom +of any consequence, and of course on stormy +days the girls would not go bathing at all.</p> + +<p>Others of the Willowbend campers had rowboats +for the season; and some even owned their +own motorboats. The girls were well advised regarding +fishing-tackle and the like. Crabbing +was a favorite sport just then, for several small +creeks emptied into the river nearby and soft-shell +crabs and shedders were plentiful.</p> + +<p>“I’d be afraid of these crabs if their teeth were +hard,” Dot declared, for she insisted that the +“pincers” of the crustaceans were teeth.</p> + +<p>“They are dreadfully <i>squirmy</i>, anyway,” +sighed Tess. “Just like spiders. And yet, we +eat them!”</p> + +<p>“But—but I always shut my eyes when I eat +them; just as I do when I swallow raw oysters,” +confessed Dot. “They taste so much better than +they look!”</p> + +<p>Having the boat, the Corner House girls rowed +to the village for their supplies and to visit their +friends. They did not go to the Overlook House; +but Pearl Harrod and her party were at the +burned bungalow almost all day. They always +bathed there, and the Corner House girls went +down to bathe with them. The beach was better +there than at the camp.</p> + +<p>It was Monday when Ruth Kenway and her sisters +were established in their tent. On Thursday +of that week they rowed over to Spoondrift +bungalow in the morning. Pearl greeted them +before they got ashore with:</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth! The funniest thing has happened. +You’d never guess.”</p> + +<p>“Trix Severn has the mumps!” exclaimed +Agnes. “I knew she was all swelled up.”</p> + +<p>“Not as good as <i>that</i>,” laughed Pearl. “But +worse may happen to that girl than mumps. +However, it’s nothing to do with Trix.”</p> + +<p>“What is it?” asked Ruth, calmly. “I’m not +a good guesser, Pearl.”</p> + +<p>“You remember those Gypsies?”</p> + +<p>“That are camped up in the woods!”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“If they <i>are</i> Gypsies,” said Ruth, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Of course they are!” cried Pearl. “Well, +they’ve been around here looking for you.”</p> + +<p>“For goodness’ sake!” gasped Agnes. “What +for?”</p> + +<p>Ruth herself looked startled. But Pearl began +to laugh again.</p> + +<p>“At least, that queer old woman has been asking +for you,” she explained.</p> + +<p>“Zaliska!” exclaimed Ruth, although she was +very sure that was not the person’s name. Of +course the name was part of the strange girl’s +masquerade.</p> + +<p>“It was this morning,” Pearl went on to say. +“We didn’t see many of the women of the tribe +when we came past that camp last week. But a +number of them came down into the village this +morning—selling baskets and telling fortunes +from door to door. We saw them over by the +hotel—didn’t we, girls?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I bought a basket from one of them,” +admitted Carrie Poole.</p> + +<p>“But when we came up here to the bungalow,” +pursued Pearl, “one of the men working here +asked me if I’d seen ‘my friend, the Gypsy +queen’? So, I said ‘No,’ of course.</p> + +<p>“Then he told me that that Zaliska had asked +him where the girl was who was called Ruth Kenway. +He told her that after the bungalow got +afire, all the girls went to the hotel.”</p> + +<p>“Then she’ll never find you there, Ruth,” interposed +Agnes, with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Ruth was not sure that she did not wish the +supposed Gypsy queen to find her. She knew +that “Zaliska” was really the very pretty, dark-skinned +girl whom she had been so much interested +in on the train coming down from Milton.</p> + +<p>And that strange girl was interested in Rosa +Wildwood. Of that Ruth was as sure as she +could be.</p> + +<p>“Maybe she’ll follow you up to the camp,” +said Lucy Poole. “I’d be afraid to live all alone +in that tent if I were you girls.”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” exclaimed Agnes. “What’s going +to hurt us!”</p> + +<p>“The crabs might come up the beach at night +and pinch your toes,” laughed Maud Everts.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” Pearl said, seriously. “I +wouldn’t want those Gyps interested in <i>me</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Now you are trying to frighten us,” laughed +Ruth. “We have plenty of neighbors. Don’t +you come up there and try to play tricks on us +in the tent. You might get hurt.”</p> + +<p>“Bet she has a gatling gun,” chuckled Carrie +Poole.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to have something better than +that,” declared Ruth, smiling. But she refused +to tell them <i>what</i>.</p> + +<p>Ruth remembered that the little old woman who +lived in a shoe had spoken of being afraid, too; +so the oldest Corner House girl made her plans +accordingly, but kept them to herself.</p> + +<p>After their bath the sisters dressed in the +Harrod tent that had been pitched on the lawn behind +the bungalow, and then went on to the village. +Ruth and Agnes rowed very nicely, for the +former, at least, had had some practise at this +sport before coming to Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>They tied the painter of their boat to a ring +in one of the wharf stringers, and went “up +town” to the stores. The village of Pleasant +Cove was never a bustling business center. +There were but few people on the main street, +and most of those were visitors.</p> + +<p>“There are two of those Gypsy women, Ruth!” +hissed Agnes in her sister’s ear, as they came +out of a store.</p> + +<p>Ruth looked up to see the woman who had been +in the train, and another. They were both humbly +dressed, but in gay colors. Ruth looked up +and down the street for the disguised figure of +the young girl, but <i>she</i> was not in sight.</p> + +<p>“My goodness, Ruth!” said Agnes, “what do +you suppose that old hag of a Gypsy wants you +for?”</p> + +<p>“She isn’t——” began Ruth. Then she +thought better of taking Agnes into her confidence +just then and did not finish her impulsively +begun speech, but said:</p> + +<p>“We won’t bother about it. She probably +won’t find us up at Willowbend Camp.”</p> + +<p>“I should hope <i>not</i>!” cried Agnes. “I don’t +want to get any better acquainted with those +Gyps.”</p> + +<p>The matter, however, caused Ruth to think +more particularly of Rosa Wildwood. She had +not yet found a boarding place for the Southern +girl, and Rosa was to come down to Pleasant +Cove the next Monday.</p> + +<p>Ruth wanted to see Mrs. Bobster, and she did +so that very afternoon. On their way back to +the camp they tied the boat up at the foot of the +wrecked pleasure park and walked up the broken +boardwalk to the shoe-house.</p> + +<p>“Here’s your bread, girls—warm from the +oven,” said the brisk little woman. “And if you +want a pan of seed cookies——”</p> + +<p>“Oh! don’t we, just!” sighed Agnes.</p> + +<p>The girls sat down to eat some of the delicacies +right then and there, and Mrs. Bobster brought +a pitcher of cool milk from the well-curb. Ruth +at once opened the subject of getting board for +Rosa with the little old woman who lived in a +shoe.</p> + +<p>“Wal, I re’lly don’t know what ter say to ye,” +declared Mrs. Bobster. “I ain’t never kalkerlated +ter run a boardin’ house——</p> + +<p>“But one young lady! I dunno. They wanted +me to take old Mr. Kendricks ter board last winter; +the town selectmen did. But I told ’em ‘No.’ +I warn’t runnin’ a boardin’ house—nor yet the +poorfarm.”</p> + +<p>“Poorfarm?” questioned Ruth, puzzled by the +reference.</p> + +<p>“Yep. Ye see, there ain’t been no town poor +here in Pleasant Cove for a number o’ years. +Last winter old Mr. Kendricks see fit to let the +town board him. He’s spry enough to go clammin’ +in the summer; an’ he kin steer a boat when +his rheumatics ain’t so bad. But winters is +gittin’ hard on him.</p> + +<p>“It didn’t seem good jedgment,” Mrs. Bobster +said, reflectively, “to open the poorfarm jest for +<i>him</i>. B’sides, they’d got the old farm let to good +advantage for another year to Silas Holcomb. +So they come to me.</p> + +<p>“Now, Mr. Kendricks is as nice an old man as +ever you’d wish ter see,” pursued Mrs. Bobster. +“He comes of good folks—jest as good as my +poor Eddie’s folks.</p> + +<p>“The town selectmen had consid’rable trouble +gettin’ Mr. Kendricks took, ’count o’ his being so +pertic’lar. Yeast bread seemed ter be his chief +objection. He couldn’t make up his mind to it +on account of havin’ had sour milk biscuit all his +life; but finally, after I’d said ‘No,’ they got Mis’ +Ann ’Liza Cobbles to agree to give him hot bread +three times a day like he was used to.</p> + +<p>“But, lawsy me! She ain’t a com-<i>plete</i> cook—no, +indeed! Mr. Kendricks said her cookin’ +warn’t up to the mark, an’ if he has to go on the +town this comin’ winter he shouldn’t go to Mis’ +Cobbles.</p> + +<p>“The selectmen may be driv’ to open the poorfarm +ag’in, an’ to gittin’ somebody ter do for Mr. +Kendricks proper.</p> + +<p>“Maybe it’s a sort of lesson to the folks of +Pleasant Cove,” sighed Mrs. Bobster, “for bein’ +sort o’ proud-like through reason of not havin’ +no town poor for endurin’ of ten years. I view +it that way myself.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Kendricks says he feels as if he was +meant ter be a notice to ’em; ter be ready an’ +waitin’ ter help people in a proper way; not to +be boardin’ of ’em ’round where they might git +dyspepsia fastened on ’em through eatin’ of unproper +food.”</p> + +<p>Agnes was giggling; but Ruth managed to get +the talkative old lady back into the track she +wanted her in. The Corner House girl expatiated +upon how little trouble Rosa would be, +and what a nice girl she was.</p> + +<p>“Well!” said Mrs. Bobster, “I might try her. +You offer awful temptin’ money, Miss. And +poor Eddie allus said I’d do anything for +money!”</p> + +<p>It had been fortunate for the deceased Mr. +Bobster, as Ruth had learned, that his wife <i>had</i> +been willing to earn money in any honest way; +for Mr. Bobster himself seldom had done a day’s +work after his marriage to the brisk little woman.</p> + +<p>So the matter of Rosa Wildwood’s board and +lodging was arranged, and the Kenways went +back to their boat. Evening was approaching, +and with it dark clouds had rolled up from the +horizon, threatening a bad night.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes found a head wind to contend +with when they pushed off the cedar boat. Ruth +had learned to run the little motor propeller, and +she started it at once. Otherwise they would +have a hard time pulling up to Willowbend +Camp.</p> + +<p>During the week there were few men at the +tent colonies. On Saturdays and Sundays the +husbands and fathers were present in force; but +now there was not a handful of adult males in +either the Enterprise or Willowbend encampments.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls were helped ashore, +however, and they hauled their boat clear up to +the front of their tent. There was quite a swell +on, and the waves ran far up the beach, hissing +and spattering spray into the air. The wind +swept this spray against the tents in gusts, like +rain.</p> + +<p>But there was no rain—only wind. The black +clouds threatened, but there was no downpour. +There was no such thing as having a coal fire, +however; the wind blew right down the stack and +filled the tent with choking smoke.</p> + +<p>They lit a lantern and ate a cold supper. The +flaps of the tent were laced down, for they had +been warned against letting the wind get under. +Now and then, however, a chill draught blew over +them and the partition creaked.</p> + +<p>“It’s just like a storm at sea,” said Agnes, +rather fearfully, yet enjoying the novel sensation. +“We might as well be on a sailing ship.”</p> + +<p>“Not much!” exclaimed Ruth. “At least, +we’re on an even keel.”</p> + +<p>They agreed to go to bed early. Lying in the +cots, well covered with the blankets, seemed the +safest place on such a night. There was no shouting +back and forth from tent to tent, and no +visiting.</p> + +<p>Lights went out early. The wind shrieked in +the treetops back from the shore, and in the lulls +the girls could hear the breakers booming on the +rocks outside the cove.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot went to sleep—tired with the +day’s activities. Not so the older girls. They +lay and listened, and shivered as the booming +voice of the wind grew in volume, and the water +seemed to drive farther and farther up the +beaches.</p> + +<p>Forever after, this night was known at Pleasant +Cove as “the night of the big wind.” But as +yet it had only begun and the Corner House girls +had no idea of what was in store for them.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink14'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIV—AN IMPORTANT ARRIVAL</a></h2> + +<p>Agnes <i>did</i> fall asleep; but Ruth only dozed, if +she closed her eyes at all. The rumble of the +storm shook the nerves of the oldest Corner +House girl—and no wonder!</p> + +<p>Ruth felt the weight of responsibility for her +sisters’ safety. If anything happened while they +were under canvas she knew that she would be +blamed.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the spray swept in from the river +and spattered on the canvas like a drenching +shower. The walls of the tent shook. She heard +many sounds without that she could not explain—and +some of these sounds frightened her.</p> + +<p>Suppose the tent should blow down? The way +the wind sometimes shook it reminded Ruth of a +dog shaking a bit of rag.</p> + +<p>Then, when the wind held its breath for a +moment, the roaring of the sea in the distance +was a savage sound to which the girl’s ears were +not attuned.</p> + +<p>She had left the lantern lit and it swung from +a rope tied to the ridgepole of the tent, and beyond +the half partition of canvas. Its flickering +light cast weird shadows upon the canvas roof.</p> + +<p>Now and then the spray beat against the front +of the tent, while the roof shook and shivered as +though determined to tear away from the walls. +Ruth wished she had gone all around the tent +before dark to make sure the pegs were driven +well into the sand.</p> + +<p>Occasionally children cried shrilly, for the +noise of the elements frightened them; Ruth was +thankful that Tess and Dot slept on.</p> + +<p>She slept herself at last; how long she did not +know, for when she awoke she was too greatly +frightened to look at her watch. The wind +seemed suddenly to have increased. It seemed +struggling to tear the tent up by the roots!</p> + +<p>And as the canvas shook, and swelled, and +strove to burst its fastenings, there came a sudden +snap on one side and one of the pegs flew +high in the air at the end of its rope, coming +down slap on the roof of the tent!</p> + +<p>“The peg has pulled out!” gasped Ruth, sitting +up in her cot and throwing off the blanket.</p> + +<p>The canvas was straining and bellying fearfully +at the point where the peg had drawn. It +was likely to draw the pegs on either side. Ruth +very well knew that if a broad enough opening +was made for the wind to get under, the tent +would be torn from its fastenings.</p> + +<p>She hopped out upon the matting and shook +Agnes by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Get up! Get up, Ag!” she called, breathlessly. +“Help me.”</p> + +<p>She ran to the front of the tent for the maul—a +long-handled, heavy-headed croquet-mallet. +When she returned with it, Agnes was trying to +rub her eyes open.</p> + +<p>“Come quick, Ag! We’ll be blown away,” declared +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I—I——What’ll we do?” whimpered Agnes.</p> + +<p>“We must hold the tent down. Come on! Get +into your mackintosh. I’ll get the lantern.”</p> + +<p>Around the upright pole in the sleeping part +of the tent were hung the girls’ outer garments. +Ruth got into her own raincoat and buttoned it +to her ankles. She left Agnes struggling with +hers while she ran to unhang the lantern. She +knew the night must be as black as a pocket outside.</p> + +<p>“Wha—what you going to do?” stuttered +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Drive the pegs in deeper. One of them pulled +out.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear! <i>Can</i> we?”</p> + +<p>“I guess we’ll have to, if we don’t want to +lose our tent. Hear that wind?”</p> + +<p>“It—it sounds like cannon roaring.”</p> + +<p>“Come on!”</p> + +<p>“But that isn’t the front flap——”</p> + +<p>“Think I’m going to unlace that front flap +when the wind’s blowing right into it?”</p> + +<p>“Can’t we get out yonder, where the peg has +been pulled?”</p> + +<p>“But how’ll we get in again when all the stakes +are driven down hard?” snapped Ruth, beginning +to unlace the flaps of the rear wall of the tent.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh!” moaned Agnes. “Hear that +wind?”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t care if it only <i>hollered</i>,” gasped +Ruth. “It’s what it will do if it ever gets under +this tent, that troubles me!”</p> + +<p>She unlaced the flaps only a little way. “Come +along with that lantern, Ag. We’ve got to crawl +under.”</p> + +<p>“‘Get down and get under,’” giggled Agnes, +hysterically.</p> + +<p>But she brought the lantern and followed Ruth +out of the tent, on hands and knees. When they +stood up and tried to go around to that side of +the tent where the peg had pulled out, the wind +almost knocked them down.</p> + +<p>“And how the sleet cuts!” gasped Agnes, her +arm across her eyes for protection.</p> + +<p>“It’s sand,” explained Ruth. “I thought it +was spray from the river. But a good deal of it +is sand—just like a sand-storm in the desert.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” grumbled Agnes, “I hope it’s killing +a lot of those sandfleas that bother us so. I don’t +see how they can live and be blown about this +way.”</p> + +<p>Ruth tackled the first post at the corner and +beat it down as hard as she could, Agnes holding +the lantern so that the older girl could see where +to strike.</p> + +<p>They went from one peg to the next, taking +each in rotation. And when they reached the one +that had pulled out entirely, Ruth drove that into +the ground just as far as it would go.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, throughout all this business, +Tess and Dot did not awake. Ruth went clear +around the tent, driving the stakes. The wind +howled; the sand and spray blew; and the voices +of the Night and of the Storm seemed fairly to +yell at them. Still the smaller Corner House +girls slept through it all. Ruth and Agnes crept +back into the tent and laced the flaps down in +safety.</p> + +<p>A little later, before either of them fell asleep +again, they heard shouting and confusion at a +distance. In the morning they learned that two +of the tents in the Enterprise Camp had blown +down.</p> + +<p>The shore was strewn with wreckage, too, when +daybreak came; but the wind seemed to have +blown itself out. Many small craft had come +ashore, and some were damaged. It was not +often that the summer visitors at Pleasant Cove +saw any such gale as this had been.</p> + +<p>Everything was all right with the Corner +House girls, and Ruth decided they would stick +to the tent, in spite of the fact that some of the +camping families were frightened away from the +tent colonies by this disgraceful exhibition of +Mr. Wind!</p> + +<p>The smaller Kenways, as well as the bigger +girls, were enjoying the out-of-door life immensely. +They were already as brown as berries. +They ran all day, bare-headed and bare-legged, +on the sands. It was plain to be seen that +the change from Milton to Pleasant Cove was doing +all the Corner House girls a world of good.</p> + +<p>And during the extremely pleasant days that +immediately followed the night of the big wind, +many new colonists came to the tents. Two big +tents were erected in the Willowbend Camp, for +Joe Eldred and <i>his</i> friends—and that included, +of course, Neale O’Neil. But the Milton boys +would not arrive until the next week.</p> + +<p>On Monday afternoon the Corner House girls +walked down to the railroad station to greet Rosa +Wildwood. It had been a very hot day in town +and it was really hot at Pleasant Cove, as well.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you poor thing!” gasped Ruth, receiving +Rosa in her strong arms as she stumbled off +the car steps with her bag.</p> + +<p>“I’m as thin as the last run of shad, am I not?” +asked Rosa, laughing. “That train was <i>awful</i>! +I am baked. It’s never like this down South. +The air is so much dryer there; there isn’t this +humidity. Oh!”</p> + +<p>“Well, you’re here all right now, Rosa,” cried +Ruth. “We have a nice, easy carriage for you +to ride in. And the <i>dearest</i> place for you to +live!”</p> + +<p>“And scrumptious eating, Rose,” added Agnes.</p> + +<p>“With the little old woman who lives in a +shoe,” declared Tess, eager to add her bit of information.</p> + +<p>Dot’s finger had strayed to the corner of her +mouth, as she stared. For she had never met +Rosa before, and she was naturally rather a +bashful child.</p> + +<p>“Now!” cried Ruth, again. “Where is he?”</p> + +<p>“Who?” demanded Agnes, staring all about. +“Neale didn’t come, did he?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, he’s up in the baggage-car ahead,” said +Rosa, laughing.</p> + +<p>“You sit right down here till I get him,” Ruth +commanded.</p> + +<p>“Here’s the check,” Rosa said, and to the +amazement of the other Corner House girls Ruth +ran right away toward the head of the train with +the baggage check, and without saying another +word.</p> + +<p>There were two baggage cars on the long train +and from the open door of the first one the man +was throwing trunks and bags onto the big wheel-truck.</p> + +<p>So Ruth ran on to the other car. The side-door +was wheeled back just as she arrived, and +a glad bark welcomed her appearance.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah stood in the doorway, straining at +his leash held in the hands of the baggageman. +His tongue lolled out on his chest like a red necktie, +and he was laughing just as plainly as ever a +dog <i>did</i> laugh.</p> + +<p>“I see he knows you, Miss,” said the man. +“You don’t have to prove property. He sure is +glad to see you,” and he accepted the check.</p> + +<p>“No gladder than I am to see him,” said Ruth. +“Let him jump down, please.”</p> + +<p>She caught the leather strap as the baggageman +tossed it toward her, and Tom Jonah +bounded about her in an ecstasy of delight.</p> + +<p>“Down, sir!” she commanded. “Now, Tom +Jonah, come and see the girls. But behave.”</p> + +<p>He barked loudly, but trotted along beside her +most sedately. Tess and Dot had heard him, +and deserting Rosa and Agnes, they came flying +up the platform to meet Ruth and the big dog.</p> + +<p>The two younger Corner House girls hugged +Tom Jonah, and he licked their hands in greeting. +Agnes was as extravagantly glad to see him as +were the others.</p> + +<p>“How did you come to send for him, Ruthie?” +Agnes cried.</p> + +<p>“I thought we might need a chaperon at the +tent,” laughed Ruth.</p> + +<p>“The Gyps!” exclaimed Agnes, under her +breath. “Let them come now, if they want to. +You’re a smart girl, Ruthie.”</p> + +<p>“Sh!” commanded the older sister. “Don’t +let the children hear.”</p> + +<p>They helped Rosa into the wagonette and then +climbed in after her. Ruth had taken off Tom +Jonah’s leash and the good old dog trotted after +the carriage as it rolled through Main Street and +out upon the Shore Road toward the tent colonies.</p> + +<p>Rosa brought all the news of home to the Corner +House girls and many messages from Mrs. +MacCall and Uncle Rufus. Of course, they could +expect no word from Aunt Sarah, for it was not +her way to be sympathetic or show any deep interest +in what her adopted nieces were doing.</p> + +<p>The girls from the old Corner House might +have been a little homesick had there not been +so much to take up their attention each hour at +Pleasant Cove.</p> + +<p>They brought Rosa to the little old woman who +lived in a shoe, and the moment Mrs. Bobster saw +how weak and white she was her sympathy went +out to her.</p> + +<p>“Tut, tut, tut!” she said, clucking almost as +loudly as Agamemnon himself. “We’ll soon fix +you up, my dear. If you stay long enough here +at the beach, you’ll be as brown and strong as +these other gals.”</p> + +<p>Rosa put her arm about Ruth’s neck when the +Corner House girls were about to leave.</p> + +<p>“This is a heavenly place, Ruth Kenway, and +you are an angel for bringing me down heah. I +don’t know what greater thing anybody could do +fo’ me—and you aren’t even kin!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t bother, Rosa. I haven’t done +much——”</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing in the world—but one thing—that +could make me happier.”</p> + +<p>Ruth looked at her curiously, and Rosa added:</p> + +<p>“To find June. I hope to find her some day—yes, +I do.”</p> + +<p>“And suppose I should help you do <i>that</i>?” +laughed the oldest Corner House girl.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink15'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XV—TWO GIRLS IN A BOAT—TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG!</a></h2> + +<p>“Oh, Dot! do come here. Did you ever see +such a funny thing in all your life?”</p> + +<p>Tess Kenway was just as earnest as though +the discovery she had made was really of great +moment. The two bare-legged girls were on the +sands below the tent colony of Willowbend, and +the tide was out.</p> + +<p>The receding waves had just left this wet flat +bare. Here and there the sand still dimpled to +the heave of the tide, and little rivers of water +ran into the hollows and out again.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter, Tess?” asked Dot, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“See!”</p> + +<p>Tess pointed down at her feet—where the drab, +wet sand showed lighter-colored under the pressure +of her weight.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” gasped the amazed Dot.</p> + +<p>There was a tiny round hole in the sand—just +like an ant hole, only there was no “hill” thrown +up about it. As Tess tip-tilted on her toes to +bring more pressure to bear near the orifice in +the sand, a little fountain of water spurted into +the air—shot as though from a fairy gun buried +in the sand.</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” gasped Dot again. “What <i>is</i> +that?”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I say,” responded Tess. “Did +you ever see the like?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! here’s another,” cried Dorothy, who +chanced to step near a similar vent. “See it +squirt, Tess! See it squirt!”</p> + +<p>“What kind of a creature do you suppose can +be down there?” asked the bigger girl.</p> + +<p>“It—it can’t be anything very big,” suggested +Dot. “At least, it must be awfully narrow to get +down through the little hole, and pull itself ’way +out of sight.”</p> + +<p>This suggestion certainly opened a puzzling +vista of possibilities to the minds of both inland-bred +girls. What sort of an animal could possibly +crawl into such a small aperture—and yet +throw such a comparatively powerful stream of +water into the air?</p> + +<p>They found several more of the little air-holes. +Whenever they stamped upon the sand beside one, +up would spring the fountain!</p> + +<p>“Just like the books say a whale squirts water +through its nose,” declared Tess, who had rather +a rough-and-ready knowledge of some facts of +natural history.</p> + +<p>A man with a basket on his arm and a four-pronged, +short-handled rake in his hand, was +working his way across the flats; sometimes +stooping and digging quickly with his rake, when +he would pick something up and toss it into his +basket.</p> + +<p>He drew near to two Corner House girls, and +Dot whispered to Tess:</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose he’d know what these holes +are for? You ask him, Tess.”</p> + +<p>“And he’s digging out something, himself. Do +you suppose he’s collecting clams? Ruth says +clams grow here on the shore and folks dig them,” +Tess replied.</p> + +<p>“Let’s ask about the holes,” determined Dot, +who was persistent whether the cause was good or +bad.</p> + +<p>The two girls approached the clam-digger, hand +in hand. Dot hugged tight in the crook of one +arm her Alice-doll.</p> + +<p>“Please, sir,” Tess ventured, “will you tell us +what grows down under this sand and squirts +water up at us through such a teeny, weeny hole?”</p> + +<p>The man was a very weather-beaten looking +person, with his shirt open at the neck displaying +a brawny chest. He smiled down upon the girls.</p> + +<p>“How’s that, shipmet?” he asked, in a very +husky voice. “Show me them same holes.”</p> + +<p>The sisters led the way, and the very saltish +man followed. It was not until then that Tess +and Dot noticed that one of his legs was of wood, +and he stumped along in a most awkward manner.</p> + +<p>“Hel-<i>lo</i>!” growled the man, seeing the apertures +in the sand. “Them’s clams, an’ jest what +I’m arter. By your lief——”</p> + +<p>He struck the rake down into the sand just beyond +one of the holes and dug quickly for half +a minute. Then he tossed out of the hole he had +dug a nice, fat clam.</p> + +<p>“There he be, shipmets,” declared the clam-digger, +who probably had a habit of addressing +everybody as “shipmate.”</p> + +<p>“Oh—but—did <i>he</i> squirt the water up at us, +sir?” gasped Dot.</p> + +<p>The wooden-legged man grinned again and +seized the clam between a firm finger and thumb. +When he pinched it, the bivalve squirted through +its snout a fine spray.</p> + +<p>“Oh, mercy!” exclaimed Tess, drawing back.</p> + +<p>“But—but <i>how</i> did he get down into the sand +and only leave such a tiny hole behind him?” demanded +Dot, bent upon getting information.</p> + +<p>“Ah, shipmet! there ye have it. I ain’t a +l’arned man. I ain’t never been to school. I +went ter sea all my days till I got this here leg +shot off me and had to take to wearin’ a timber-toe. +I couldn’t tell ye, shipmets, how a clam does +go down his hole an’ yet pulls the hole down arter +him.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” sighed Dot, disappointedly.</p> + +<p>“It’s one o’ them wonders of natur’ ye hear +tell on. I never could understand it myself—like +some ignerant landlubbers believin’ the world is +flat! I know it’s round, ’cos I been down one side +o’ it an’ come up the other!</p> + +<p>“As for science, an’ them things, shipmets, I +don’t know nothin’ ’bout ’em. I digs clams; I +don’t pester none erbout how they grows——”</p> + +<p>And he promptly dug another and then a third. +The girls watched him, fascinated at his skill. +Nor did the “peg-leg” seem to trouble him at +all in his work.</p> + +<p>“Please, sir,” asked Tess, after some moments, +“how did you come to lose your leg—your really +truly one, I mean?”</p> + +<p>“Pi-<i>rats</i>,” declared the man, with an unmoved +countenance. “Pi-<i>rats</i>, shipmet—on the Spanish +Main.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” breathed both girls together. Somehow +that expression was faintly reminiscent to +them. Agnes had a book about pirates, and she +had read out loud in the evenings at the sitting-room +table, at the old Corner House. Tess and +Dot were not aware that “the Spanish Main” had +been cleared of pirates, some years before this +husky-voiced old clam-digger was born.</p> + +<p>The clam-digger offered no details about his +loss, and Tess and Dot felt some delicacy about +asking further questions. Besides, Tom Jonah +came along just then and evinced some distaste +for the company of the roughly dressed one-legged +man. Of course, he could not dig clams +in his best clothes, as Tess pointed out; but Tom +Jonah had confirmed doubts about all ill-dressed +people. So the girls accompanied the dog back +towards the tents.</p> + +<p>The big girls had been out in the boat and Ruth +had left Agnes to bring up the oars and crab nets, +as well as to moor the boat, while she hastened +to get dinner.</p> + +<p>The tide being on the turn they could not very +well pull the boat up to the mooring post; but +there was a long painter by which it could be tied +to the post. Agnes, however, carried the oars +up to the tent and then forgot about the rest of +her task as she dipped into a new book.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot came to the empty boat and at +once climbed in. Tom Jonah objected at first. +He ran about on the sand—even plunged into the +water a bit, and put both front paws on the gunwale.</p> + +<p>If ever a dog said, “Please, <i>please</i>, little mistresses, +get out of the boat!” old Tom Jonah said +it!</p> + +<p>But the younger Corner House girls paid no attention +to him. They went out to the stern, which +was in quite deep water, and began clawing overboard +with the crab nets. With a whine, the dog +leaped into the craft.</p> + +<p>Now, whether the jar the dog gave it as he +jumped into the boat, or his weight when he joined +the girls in the stern, set the cedar boat afloat, +will never be known. However, it slid into the +water and floated free.</p> + +<p>“We can catch some crabs, too, maybe, Tess,” +Dot said.</p> + +<p>Neither of them noticed that the oars were gone, +but had they been in the boat, Tess or Dot could +not have used them—much. And surely Tom +Jonah could not row.</p> + +<p>They did not even notice that they were afloat +until the tide, which was just at the turn, twisted +the boat’s nose about and they began drifting up +the river.</p> + +<p>“Oh, my, Dot!” gasped Tess. “Where are we +going?”</p> + +<p>“Oh-oo-ee!” squealed Dot, raking wildly with +one of the nets. “I almost caught one.”</p> + +<p>“But we’re adrift, Dot!” cried Tess.</p> + +<p>The younger girl was not so much impressed at +first. “Oh, I guess they’ll come for us,” she said.</p> + +<p>“But Ruth and Aggie can’t reach us—’nless +they swim.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t we float ashore again? We floated out +here,” said Dot.</p> + +<p>She refused to be frightened, and Tess bethought +her that she had no right to let her little +sister be disturbed too much. She was old +enough herself, however, to see that there was +peril in this involuntary voyage. The tide was +coming in strongly and the boat was quickly passing +the bend. Before either Tess or Dot thought +to cry out for help, they were out of sight of the +camp and there was nobody to whom to call.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah had crouched down in the stern, +with his head on his paws. He felt that he had +done his duty. He had not allowed the two small +girls to go without him on this voyage. He was +with them; what harm could befall?</p> + +<p>“I—I guess Alice would like to go ashore, +Tess,” hesitated Dot, at last, having seized her +doll and sat down upon one of the seats. The +boat was jumping a good deal as the little waves +slapped her, first on one side and then on the +other. Without anybody steering she made a +hard passage of it.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to get ashore myself, child,” snapped +Tess. “But I don’t see how we are going to do +it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tess! are we going to be carried ’way out +to sea?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a goosey! We’re going <i>up</i> the river, +not <i>down</i>,” said the more observant Tess.</p> + +<p>“Well, then!” sighed Dot, relieved. “It isn’t +so bad, is it? Of course, we’ll stop somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“But it will soon be dinnertime,” said her sister. +“And I guess Ruth and Aggie won’t know +where we’ve gone to.”</p> + +<p>In fact, nobody about the tent colony had noticed +the cedar boat floating away with the two +girls in it—to say nothing of the dog!</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink16'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVI—THE GYPSIES AGAIN</a></h2> + +<p>When Ruth shouted to Agnes from the kitchen, +where she was frying crabs, to call the children, +Agnes dropped the book she had been reading and +remembered for the first time that she had neglected +to tie the boat.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth!” she shrieked. “See what I’ve +done!”</p> + +<p>Ruth came to the opening in the front of the +tent, flushed and disheveled, demanding:</p> + +<p>“Well, <i>what</i>? This old fat snaps so!”</p> + +<p>“The boat!” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>Ruth stared up and down the shore. There +were other boats drawn up on the sand and a few +moored beyond low-water mark; but their boat +was not in sight.</p> + +<p>“Have you let it get away, Agnes Kenway?” +Ruth demanded.</p> + +<p>“Well! you don’t suppose I went down there +and pushed it off, do you?”</p> + +<p>“This is no laughing matter——”</p> + +<p>“I guess I—I’m not laughing,” gulped Agnes. +“It—it’s go-o-one! See! the tide is flowing in +and I forgot to tie it.”</p> + +<p>She was a little mixed here; it was the boat she +had forgotten to tie.</p> + +<p>“So,” murmured Ruth; “if the boat had been +tied, the tide wouldn’t have carried it away,” and +she had no intention of punning, either! “<i>Now</i> +what shall we do? That boat cost seventy-five +dollars, the man said.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruthie!”</p> + +<p>“What will Mr. Howbridge say?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruthie!”</p> + +<p>“No use crying about it,” said the oldest Corner +House girl, with decision. “<i>That</i> won’t help.”</p> + +<p>“But—but it’s gone out to sea.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense! The tide has taken it up the river. +It’s gone round the bend. I hope it won’t be +smashed on the rocks, that’s all. We must go +after it.”</p> + +<p>“How?” asked the tearful Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Get another boat, of course. But let’s eat. +The children will be hungry, and—— My goodness! +the crabs are burning up!” and she ran +back into the tent. “Get Tess and Dot, and tell +them to hurry!” she called from inside.</p> + +<p>But Tess and Dot were not to be found. The +beach just then was practically deserted. It was +the dinner hour and the various campers all had +the sort of appetites that demands meals served +promptly on time.</p> + +<p>Agnes ran to the other tents in Camp Willowbend; +but her small sisters were not with any of +the neighbors. It was strange. They had been +forbidden to go out of sight of their own tent +when neither Ruth nor Agnes was with them; and +Tess and Dot were remarkably obedient children.</p> + +<p>“I certainly do not understand it,” Ruth said, +when Agnes brought back the news.</p> + +<p>At that moment a shuffling step sounded outside +the tent and a husky voice demanded:</p> + +<p>“Any clams terday, lady? Fresh clams—jest +dug. Ten cents a dozen; two-bits for fifty; half a +dollar a hundred. Fresh clams!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Agnes, springing to the tent entrance +so suddenly that the wooden-legged clam-man +started back in surprise. “Oh! have you +seen my sisters anywhere on the beach?”</p> + +<p>“Hel-<i>lo</i>!” growled the startled man. “I dunno +’bout thet thar, shipmet. What kind o’ sisters +be they?”</p> + +<p>“Two little girls,” said Ruth, eagerly, joining +Agnes at the opening. “One of them carried a +doll in her arms. She is dark. The bigger one +is fair.”</p> + +<p>The saltish old fellow chuckled deep in his +hairy throat. “Guess I seen ’em, shipmets,” he +said. “Them’s the leetle gals that didn’t know +clam-holes.”</p> + +<p>“Well! what became of them?” demanded the +impatient Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Why——I dug ’em, shipmet, an’ they air in +this i-den-ti-cal basket now,” declared the clam-digger.</p> + +<p>“Well!” gasped Agnes, behind her hand. +“Maybe the children didn’t know clam-holes; but +<i>he</i> doesn’t know beans!”</p> + +<p>Ruth asked again: “We mean, what became +of the girls, sir?”</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t tell ye, shipmet. D’ye want any +clams?” pursued this man of one idea. “Ten +cents a dozen; two-bits for——”</p> + +<p>“I’ll buy some clams—yes,” cried Ruth, in +some desperation. “But tell us where you last +saw our sisters, sir?”</p> + +<p>“How many you want, shipmet?” demanded +the quite unmoved old fellow.</p> + +<p>“Two!” cried Agnes. “There were only two +of them. Two little girls——Oh!”</p> + +<p>Ruth had pinched her, and now said, calmly: +“Please count out a hundred for us, sir. Here is +fifty cents. And please tell us where you saw our +little sisters?”</p> + +<p>“I seed two small gals, shipmet, down on the +flats yonder,” said the clam digger, setting down +his basket and squatting with the wooden leg +stretched out before him. He began to busily +count the clams onto the little platform before +the tent.</p> + +<p>“Where did they go, sir?” asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t take no pertic’lar notice of ’em, shipmet. +They had a dratted dog with them——”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Tom Jonah is with them. Then they +<i>can’t</i> be lost,” gasped Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Las’ time I ’member of cockin’ me eye at +’em,” declared the old clam digger, “they was +inter a boat right down here below this tent. The +dog was with ’em.”</p> + +<p>He counted out the last clam, took his fifty +cents, and departed. The two older Corner +House girls looked at each other. Agnes was +very white.</p> + +<p>“Do—do you suppose they drifted away in the +boat?” she whispered.</p> + +<p>“I expect so,” agreed Ruth. “Come on, Ag. +We’ll go up beyond the bend and see if we can +sight the boat.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! if they fall overboard——”</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah would bring them both ashore if +they did, I believe,” said Ruth, though her voice +shook a little. “Do you want something to eat +before you go?”</p> + +<p>Agnes looked at her scornfully. “I don’t ever +want to eat again if Dot and Tess aren’t found,” +she sobbed. “Come on!”</p> + +<p>“We’ll take something along to eat, if you +don’t want to eat here,” Ruth said, sensibly. +“The children will be hungry enough when we +find them, you may be sure.”</p> + +<p>“<i>If</i> we find them,” suggested the desperate +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk like a goose, Ag!” exclaimed the +older sister. “Of course we’ll find them. +They’ve only drifted away.”</p> + +<p>“But you said yourself the boat might be +smashed against the rocks.”</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah’s with them,” said Ruth, +confidently. “He could live in the water altogether, +you know. Don’t be worried about the children +being drowned—— Oh, Agnes!”</p> + +<p>The change in her sister’s voice startled +Agnes, who had gone into the back part of the +tent. She ran out to where Ruth was wrapping +the fried soft-shell crabs in a sheet of brown paper.</p> + +<p>Ruth was staring through the open flap of the +tent. Outside, about where the clam digger had +stood a few moments before, was the tall, scarred-faced +Gypsy tramp that they had seen at the +nomads’ camp the day they came to Pleasant +Cove!</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth!” echoed Agnes, coming to Ruth’s +side.</p> + +<p>But the older sister quickly recovered her self-possession. +Her first thought was:</p> + +<p>“If Tom Jonah were only here!”</p> + +<p>Ruth went to the door. The man leered at her +and doffed his old cap.</p> + +<p>“Good day, little lady,” he said. “She remember +me—Big Jim—heh?”</p> + +<p>“I remember you,” Ruth said, shortly.</p> + +<p>“Ver’ proud,” declared the Gypsy, bowing +again.</p> + +<p>“What do you want?” asked the oldest Corner +House girl, with much more apparent courage +than she really felt.</p> + +<p>“You remember Zaliska—heh?” asked the man, +shrewdly.</p> + +<p>“I remember her,” said Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Little lady seen Zaliska since that day—heh?”</p> + +<p>“What do you want to know for?” demanded +Ruth, puzzled, yet standing her ground. She remembered +in a flash all her suspicions regarding +the young girl who masqueraded as the Gypsy +Queen.</p> + +<p>“Zaliska come here, heh?” said the man, doggedly, +and with something besides curiosity in his +narrow eyes.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know why I should tell you if she had +been here,” declared Ruth, while Agnes clung to +her arm in fear.</p> + +<p>“The little lady would fool Big Jim. No! +We want find Zaliska.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t come here for her,” said Ruth, sharply. +“She’s not here.”</p> + +<p>“But she been here—heh?” repeated the fellow. +“She come here like she was dressed at the +camp—heh? Then she go away different—heh?”</p> + +<p>Ruth knew well enough what he meant. He +hinted that the masquerading girl had come here +to see Ruth, and discarded her queen’s garments +and slipped away in her own more youthful character.</p> + +<p>“I’m not sure that I know what you mean,” she +said to the evil-faced man. “But one thing I can +tell you—and you can believe it. I have not seen +Zaliska since that day we girls came by your +camp.”</p> + +<p>“Ha! she come here to see you——”</p> + +<p>“No. She went to the hotel and to a friend’s +house in the village,” said Ruth, “asking for me. +I did not see her. She has not come here.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grunted the man, and backed away, +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Now we are busy and you must not trouble us +any more,” declared Ruth, hurriedly. “Come, +Agnes!”</p> + +<p>“He’ll come in the tent and search it,” whispered +Agnes, in her sister’s ear.</p> + +<p>“I will speak to Mr. Stryver. He is here to-day,” +said Ruth, mentioning a neighbor in the +camp.</p> + +<p>“Big Jim,” as the Gypsy called himself, had +backed away from the tent, but he watched the +departing girls with lowering gaze. At Mr. +Stryver’s tent Ruth halted long enough to tell +the gentleman to keep his eye on the Gypsy man +who was hanging about the camp.</p> + +<p>“The women were here to sell baskets and such +like truck while you girls were off crabbing, this +morning,” said Mrs. Stryver. “It gives me the +shivers to have those folks around. I think we +ought to have these tent camps policed.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll ’tend to this fellow,” promised Mr. +Stryver, who was a burly man, and not afraid of +anything.</p> + +<p>Ruth hurried Agnes away toward the bend without +another word.</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you tell them Tess and Dot were +lost?” asked Agnes, gulping down a sob.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want anybody to know it, if we can +help,” returned Ruth. “It just looks as though +we didn’t take sufficient care of them.”</p> + +<p>“It—it was all my fault,” choked Agnes. “If +I had tied the boat as you told me——”</p> + +<p>“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” said Ruth, +quickly. “Or, if it is anybody’s fault! We don’t +want folks to say that the Corner House girls +from Milton don’t know enough to take care of +each other while they are under canvas.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink17'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVII—ON WILD GOOSE ISLAND</a></h2> + +<p>“My!” Tess gasped, sitting in the stern of the +drifting boat, “how fast the shores go past, Dot! +We’re going up the river awfully quick.”</p> + +<p>“And so j-j-jerky!” exclaimed her sister, clinging +to the Alice-doll.</p> + +<p>“You aren’t really afraid, are you, Dot?”</p> + +<p>“No-o. Only for Alice. She’s always been +weakly, you know, since that awful time she got +buried alive,” said Dot, seriously. “And if she +should get wet and catch her death of cold——”</p> + +<p>“But you mustn’t drop her overboard,” warned +Tess.</p> + +<p>“Do you s’pose I <i>would</i>, Tess Kenway?” demanded +Dot, quite hurt by the suggestion.</p> + +<p>“If she did fall overboard, Tom Jonah would +save her, of course,” went on Tess.</p> + +<p>“Oh! don’t you say such things,” cried Dot. +“And <i>do</i>, please, stop the boat from jerking so!”</p> + +<p>“I—I guess it wants to be steered,” Tess said.</p> + +<p>The tiller ropes were at hand and Tess had observed +Ruth and Agnes use them. She began experimenting +with them and soon got the hang of +using the rudder. But as the boat was propelled, +only by the tide, it <i>would</i> “wabble.”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah watched all the small girls did with +his keen eyes. But he scarcely moved. The boat +floated on and on. Tess did not know how to +work the boat ashore—indeed, caught as the craft +was in the strong tide-rip, it would have taken +considerable exertion with the oars to have driven +it to land.</p> + +<p>There chanced to be no other boats beyond the +bend on this day. On either hand there were +farms, but the houses were too far from the +shores for the dwellers therein to notice the plight +of the two small girls and the big dog in the bobbing +cedar boat.</p> + +<p>The shores at the river’s edge were wooded for +the most part, as was the long and narrow island +in the middle of the river, not far ahead. This +latter was called Wild Goose Island, as Tess and +Dot knew.</p> + +<p>“Maybe the boat will go ashore there,” said +Dot, more cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“There are berries on that island,” cried Tess. +“Only they were not ripe when we were there +last week.” She was beginning to feel hungry; +it was past midday.</p> + +<p>“But we can’t walk back to the tent from +there,” objected Dot.</p> + +<p>“No-o,” admitted Tess. “It’ll be land, just +the same!”</p> + +<p>But the tide swept the cedar boat out from the +lower end of the island and up the northern channel. +It was this fact that hid the drifting boat +from the anxious eyes of Ruth and Agnes when +they came around the bend, expecting to see the +missing craft. The island hid it.</p> + +<p>Wild Goose Island was more than half a mile +long. In the channel where the boat floated, the +current of the river and the inflowing tide began +to battle.</p> + +<p>There were eddies that seized the boat and +swept it in circles. The surface of the channel +was rippled by small waves. The boat bobbed +every-which-way, for Tess could not control the +rudder.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” gasped Dot. “I—I am afraid +my Alice-doll will be sick. Do—don’t you s’pose +we can get ashore, Tess?”</p> + +<p>But Tess did not see how they could do that, +although the boat was now and then swept very +close to the shore of the island.</p> + +<p>The island was a famous picnicking place; but +there were no pleasure seekers there to-day. +The shore seemed deserted as the girls were +swept on by the resistless tide.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Dot stood right up and squealed—pointing +at the island. Tom Jonah lifted his head +and barked.</p> + +<p>“There’s somebody, Tess!” declared Dot.</p> + +<p>The bigger Corner House girl had seen the face +break through the fringe of bushes on the island +shore. It was a dark, beautiful face, and it was +a girl’s.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh! Let’s call her,” gasped Tess. +“She’ll help us.”</p> + +<p>The two small Kenways had a strong belief in +the goodness of humanity at large. They expected +that anybody who saw their plight would +come to their rescue if possible.</p> + +<p>For fully a minute, however, the girl in the +bushes of Wild Goose Island did not come out into +the open. Tess and Dot shouted again and again, +while Tom Jonah lifted up his head and bayed +most mournfully.</p> + +<p>If the girl on the island did not want general +attention attracted to the place, it behooved her +to come out of concealment and try to pacify the +drifting trio in the cedar boat.</p> + +<p>Her face was very red when she reappeared in +an open place on the shore. The distance between +her and the boat, which was now caught in +a small eddy, was only a few yards.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with you?” she demanded, +in rather a sharp tone.</p> + +<p>“We—we can’t stop the boat,” responded Tess.</p> + +<p>“We want to get ashore,” added Dorothy,</p> + +<p>“How did you get out there?” asked the strange +girl. She was older than Ruth, and although she +was very pretty, Tess and Dot were quite sure +they did not like her—much!</p> + +<p>“We got in it, and it floated away with us,” +said Tess.</p> + +<p>“Where from?” asked the girl on shore.</p> + +<p>“Oh! ’way down the river. ’Round that turn. +We live at Willowbend Camp with Ruth and +Aggie.”</p> + +<p>“Ruth <i>Who</i>?” the other demanded, sharply.</p> + +<p>“Our sister, Ruth Kenway,” said Tess.</p> + +<p>The girl on the island was silent for a moment, +while the boat turned lazily in the eddy. It now +was headed up stream again, when she said:</p> + +<p>“Is that dog good for anything?”</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah?” cried Tess and Dot together. +“Why, he’s the best dog that ever <i>was</i>,” Dot +added.</p> + +<p>“Does he know anything?” insisted the strange +girl.</p> + +<p>“Uncle Rufus says he’s just as knowin’ as any +human,” Tess said, impressively.</p> + +<p>“Does he mind?” pursued the girl on the shore.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” said Tess. “He’ll sit up and beg—and +shakes hands—and lies down and rolls over—and——”</p> + +<p>“Say! those tricks won’t help you any,” cried +the other. “Can you make him swim ashore +here?”</p> + +<p>“Why—ee—I don’t know,” stammered Tess.</p> + +<p>“We wouldn’t want to let you have Tom +Jonah,” Dorothy hastened to explain.</p> + +<p>“Goodness knows, <i>I</i> don’t want him,” said the +big girl, still tartly. “But if he can swim ashore +with the end of that rope you have coiled there in +the bow of your boat, tied to his collar, he may +be of some use.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Tess, scrambling toward the +bow at once.</p> + +<p>“See that the other end is fast to your boat,” +commanded the girl on the island.</p> + +<p>It was. Tess quickly knotted the free end of +the long painter to Tom Jonah’s collar.</p> + +<p>“Now send him ashore, child!” cried the big +girl.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah was looking up at Tess with his +wonderfully intelligent eyes. He seemed to understand +just what was expected of him when the +rope was tied to his collar.</p> + +<p>“Go on, Tom Jonah! Overboard!” cried Tess, +firmly.</p> + +<p>“He—he’ll get all wet, Tess,” objected Dot, +plaintively.</p> + +<p>“That won’t hurt him, Dot,” explained her +sister. “You know he loves the water.”</p> + +<p>“Come on, here!” cried the girl on the island, +snapping her fingers. “Push him overboard.”</p> + +<p>But Tom Jonah did not need such urging. +With his forepaws on the gunwale of the boat he +barked several times. The boat tipped a little +and Dot screamed, clutching the Alice-doll tighter +to her bosom.</p> + +<p>“Go on, Tom Jonah!” shouted Tess. “You’re +rocking the boat!”</p> + +<p>The big dog leaped over the gunwale into the +river, leaving the light craft tossing in a most +exciting fashion. Some water even slopped over +the side.</p> + +<p>“Come on, sir! come on!” shouted the girl +ashore.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah swam directly for the beach where +she stood. The line uncoiled freely behind him, +slipping into the water. It was long enough to +reach the shore where the big girl stood; but none +too long.</p> + +<p>The sag of the rope in the water began to +trouble Tom Jonah, strong as he was. Quickly +the girl drew off her shoes and stockings and +waded in to meet the laboring dog.</p> + +<p>“Come on, sir! now we’ll get them!” she urged, +laying hold of the line.</p> + +<p>The dog scrambled ashore, barking loudly. +The line was taut and the boat had swung around, +tugging on the other end like a thing of life.</p> + +<p>“Now we have them!” cried the girl.</p> + +<p>She pulled hard on the rope. Tom Jonah, seeing +what she was doing, caught the rope in his +strong jaws, and set back to pull, too. Tess and +Dot screamed with delight.</p> + +<p>As the big girl slowly drew in the rope the dog +backed up the beach, and so the cedar boat, with +its two remaining passengers, came to land.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me! Oh, dear me!” gasped Dot, +standing in the bow of the boat. “I’m so glad +to get ashore. And so’s my Alice-doll,” she +added, seriously.</p> + +<p>Tess helped her sister to jump down upon the +sand and then followed, herself. Tom Jonah +dropped the rope and bounded about them, barking +his satisfaction. But the strange girl was +looking up and down the river, and over at the +opposite shore, with a mind plainly disturbed.</p> + +<p>“Come on, now!” she said, sharply. “Unfasten +the rope from that dog’s collar. We’ll +keep <i>that</i>. It may come in handy.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you want it to pull the boat up on the +beach?” asked Tess, as she obeyed the command.</p> + +<p>The strange girl was already unfastening the +rope from the ring in the bow of the boat. She +threw the line ashore and then pushed the boat +off with such vigor that she ran knee deep into the +river again.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh!” squealed Dot. “You’ll lose our +boat.”</p> + +<p>“I want to lose it,” declared the girl, coming +back very red in the face from her exertions. “I +got you kids ashore, ’cause you might have been +tipped over, or hurt in some way. I’m not going +to be bothered by that boat.”</p> + +<p>“But that’s Ruthie’s boat,” exclaimed Tess.</p> + +<p>“I can’t help it! You young ones go into the +bushes there and sit down. Keep quiet, too. +Take the dog with you and keep <i>him</i> quiet. +Don’t let him run about, or bark. If he does I’ll +tie him to a tree and muzzle him.”</p> + +<p>“Why—why, I don’t think that’s very nice of +you,” said Tess, who was too polite, and had too +deep a sense of gratitude, to say just what she +really thought of this conduct on the part of the +strange girl. “We might have saved the boat +for Ruth.”</p> + +<p>“And it would give me dead away,” declared +the big girl, angrily. “You children be satisfied +that I took you ashore. Now keep still!”</p> + +<p>“I—I don’t believe I like her very much, Tess,” +Dot whispered again.</p> + +<p>The older Corner House girl was not only +puzzled by the strange girl’s actions and words, +but she was somewhat frightened. She and Dot +sat down among the bushes, where they were completely +hidden from the river and the opposite +shore, and called Tom Jonah to them.</p> + +<p>He lay at their feet. He had shaken himself +comparatively dry, and now he put his head on +his paws and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>“Well,” sighed Tess, caressing the dog’s head. +“I’m glad we have him with us.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink18'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVIII—THE SEARCH</a></h2> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes went around the wooded +point, called “Willowbend,” and looked up the +river. As we already know, the drifting boat, +with Tess and Dot and Tom Jonah in it, had gone +out of sight on the other side of Wild Goose +Island.</p> + +<p>“It never came this way, Ruth!” groaned the +frightened Agnes. “They’ve drifted out to sea, +just as I said.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing of the kind,” Ruth declared, bound +to keep up her sister’s courage, and knowing well +that her conscience was punishing her cruelly. +“The tide is coming in. They were bound to +float up the river. But maybe the boat’s gone +ashore somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“Or it’s sunk,” said the lugubrious Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Now you stop that, Aggie Kenway!” cried +Ruth, stamping her foot. “I won’t have it. +With Tom Jonah those children would not easily +get into trouble.”</p> + +<p>“They could fall out of the boat,” urged Agnes, +wiping her eyes.</p> + +<p>“They’d not be foolish enough to rock the boat. +It’s all right, I tell you. I <i>did</i> expect to see +the boat from this spot; but it’s floated into +some cove somewhere. The children are safe +enough——”</p> + +<p>“You don’t know!” blubbered Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Keep still! Yes, I <i>do</i> know—I know as well +as I want to. But we’ll have to ask for help to +find them.”</p> + +<p>“What kind of help?” asked Agnes.</p> + +<p>“We’ll get Mr. Stryver’s motorboat,” said the +oldest Corner House girl, with decision.</p> + +<p>As they went back around the bend they heard +a chorus of shouts from the camp. Agnes was +startled, being in a nervous state, anyway.</p> + +<p>“What is that, Ruth? The Gypsies?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>“If it is, then the Gypsies have adopted the +Milton high school yell. Don’t you recognize it?” +returned Ruth. “The boys have arrived.”</p> + +<p>“Neale O’Neil!”</p> + +<p>“I suppose Neale is with them.”</p> + +<p>“He will help us,” cried the delighted Agnes, +sure in the ability of Neale O’Neil to do almost +anything.</p> + +<p>“Well—I suppose he may,” admitted Ruth, +slowly.</p> + +<p>Ruth had made no mistake in identifying the +school yell of their boy friends. There was a +crowd of boys at the two big tents reserved for +Joe Eldred and his friends. They had just come +on the auto-stage.</p> + +<p>Already an American flag and the school pennant +were being raised on the flag-pole before the +tents. The scene at Willowbend Camp had been +a most quiet one ten minutes before; now it +seemed to be alive in every part, and the boys +from Milton were all over it.</p> + +<p>They were like a herd of young colts let loose +in a new pasture. They got the flags up before +the girls came back, and then began running +races, and playing leap-frog on the sand. The +midday heat made no difference to them.</p> + +<p>“Doesn’t that water look inviting?” shouted +Ben Truman to Joe and some of the bigger boys. +“When do we go in swimming, Joe?”</p> + +<p>“<i>You</i> can go when you like, Bennie,” returned +Eldred.</p> + +<p>“I’d like right now,” declared the youngster.</p> + +<p>“Clothes and all, I suppose, Ben?” drawled +Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>“What’s clothes? I’m not afraid to go in just +as I am.”</p> + +<p>“I dare you, Ben!” shouted another of the +boys, knowing the spirit of Truman.</p> + +<p>“Done!” exclaimed Ben, and sprang away +toward the in-coming tide. He splashed half-knee +deep into the river before the others could +call him back. He probably had no intention of +going any deeper; but inadvertently he stepped +into one of the holes the wooden-legged man had +recently made when he dug for clams there, and +over Ben pitched upon his nose!</p> + +<p>There was a great shout of laughter. Ben was +submerged—every bit! He came up blowing like +a porpoise.</p> + +<p>“Come on in, fellows! the water’s fine!” he +gasped, not embarrassed by the accident.</p> + +<p>“Thank you. We’ll wait till the bathing suits +arrive,” returned Neale. “Hello! Here are +the Corner House girls—two of them, at least.”</p> + +<p>He hurried forward to greet Ruth and Agnes. +The other boys simmered down a little when they +observed the girls; most of them doffed their +caps politely, but only Joe and Neale knew Ruth +and Agnes very well.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale!” was the latter’s greeting to her +boy friend. “Don’t tell the other fellows, but +Tess and Dot are lost.”</p> + +<p>“Great goodness, Ag! You don’t mean it?” +cried Neale, keenly troubled by her statement.</p> + +<p>“It’s not as bad as <i>that</i>,” Ruth interposed. +“They are out in our boat with Tom Jonah.”</p> + +<p>“I knew you had him down here. He’ll take +care of them,” said Neale, with confidence.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know,” agreed Ruth. “But they all +got in the boat unbeknown to Aggie and me, and +the tide’s carried them up the river.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t <i>know</i>!” burst out Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Well, they couldn’t have drifted out into the +cove, that’s sure!” returned the older Corner +House girl. “I’m going to get Mr. Stryver’s +motorboat. Will you take us out in it and look +for the children, Neale? You can run a motorboat, +can’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Sure! And I’ll do anything I can to help find +the children,” declared Neale O’Neil. “Now, +don’t you girls turn on the sprinklers——”</p> + +<p>“Who’s crying?” gulped Agnes, angrily.</p> + +<p>“You are—pretty nearly. And your eyes are +all red.”</p> + +<p>“Hay fever,” sniffed Agnes, trying to joke.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to get the boat right away. Come +on, Neale,” cried Ruth, and she started for the +Stryver tent. “I’m worried about those children,” +she added, over her shoulder. “There are +Gypsies about.”</p> + +<p>She hurried on and Neale took Agnes by the +elbow and led her out of all possible earshot of +the other boys.</p> + +<p>“Buck up, Aggie,” he said, gruffly, as a boy +will. “You’ve been a good little sport—always. +Don’t blubber about it.”</p> + +<p>“But it was I who forgot to tie the boat,” +Agnes said.</p> + +<p>“Tell me about it,” urged Neale. So Agnes +gave him the particulars. “Funny how the boat +should have drifted out of sight so quickly,” was +the boy’s comment.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it? But it’s go-o-one——”</p> + +<p>“There, there! We’ll find it and the children +will be all right,” he assured her.</p> + +<p>Ruth came running with the key to the padlock +that moored the <i>Nimble Shanks</i> to the mooring +stake. They got out to her—just the two girls +and Neale—in a dory.</p> + +<p>The <i>Nimble Shanks</i> was a blue boat with a high +prow and long, sweeping lines to the low stern. +It was not a large boat, but was built for speed. +The engine and steering-gear were amidships and +were arranged so that one man could handle the +craft.</p> + +<p>Neale was naturally of a mechanical turn, as +well as an athlete. He had built a kerosene engine +during the winter, with some assistance from +Mr. Con Murphy, the shoemaker with whom he +lived in Milton. Moreover, he had driven a boat +just like this one of Mr. Stryver’s on the Milton +river.</p> + +<p>While Ruth was unlocking the chain of the +<i>Nimble Shanks</i>, and fastening the dory in its +place, Neale whirled the fly-wheel and caught the +ignition spark; immediately the exhaust began to +pop and Neale shouted:</p> + +<p>“All free, there, Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“Let her go, Neale!” returned Agnes, eagerly. +“I can’t wait, it seems to me.”</p> + +<p>“Sit tight, then, ladies,” said Neale, as Ruth +scrambled aft. “I believe this craft can be made +to travel.”</p> + +<p>The girls obeyed as the <i>Nimble Shanks</i> started. +She shot right out into the middle of the river, +and the wave thrown up by her wedge-like bow +rose higher and higher on either hand. Actually, +when the motorboat had been running for five +minutes, the girls in the sternsheets seemed sitting +at a much lower level than the surface of the +river.</p> + +<p>“Goodness! if this boat stopped suddenly we’d +be drowned by that wave,” gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>Neale headed up the river in a grand curve. +They could see the shores on either hand. The +boys ashore cheered their departure, though they +did not know their errand.</p> + +<p>They shot by the wooded bend like an express +train. The girls kept watch on either hand for +the boat. They hoped to see her rocking in some +cove along one shore or the other.</p> + +<p>But it was Neale himself who first sighted the +drifting craft. The motorboat took the south +channel in passing Wild Goose Island. Neale +suddenly brought the speed of the craft down to +one-half.</p> + +<p>“There’s a boat ahead,” he said to the girls. +“It appears to be empty. Stand up and see if it’s +the one.”</p> + +<p>Ruth rose and clung to Agnes’ shoulder to +steady herself. She saw the empty cedar boat, +bobbing on the little waves beyond the far point +of Wild Goose Island.</p> + +<p>“It’s her!” she said, breathlessly. “But +where are the children?”</p> + +<p>“We’ll find out,” said Neale, quickly. “Sit +down again.”</p> + +<p>“And Tom Jonah?” urged Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Make up your mind that wherever the children +are, <i>he</i> is, too,” said Neale, and he let the +<i>Nimble Shanks</i> out again, and Ruth tumbled +promptly into her seat.</p> + +<p>The motorboat fairly leaped ahead. In five +minutes they were near the empty boat, and Neale +shut off the engine entirely. Under the momentum +she had gained she slid right up beside the +tossing cedar boat.</p> + +<p>“Oh, oh!” groaned Agnes. “Where <i>have</i> they +gone?”</p> + +<p>“Not overboard, that’s sure,” said Neale, +cheerfully. “They would have overturned the +boat.”</p> + +<p>“I—don’t—know,” began Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth!” shrieked Agnes. “Maybe they +were not in her after all.”</p> + +<p>“But that clam man said he saw them.”</p> + +<p>“He didn’t see them in the boat when it was +afloat,” said Agnes, clinging to the safer possibility.</p> + +<p>“I know. But where else did they go?”</p> + +<p>“Down the beach, maybe,” said Neale, slowly.</p> + +<p>“The Gypsies have gotten them!” exclaimed +Agnes, in despair.</p> + +<p>“Stop it, Ag!” cried Ruth, shaking her sister. +“You can think up the most perfectly awful +things——”</p> + +<p>“Bet they got out of the boat on the shore +somewhere, and let it drift away again,” suggested +Neale, rather feebly.</p> + +<p>“It wouldn’t be like Tess to do such a foolish +thing,” said Ruth, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>“They didn’t have anything to tie the boat up +with. There’s no painter in her,” said the observant +Neale.</p> + +<p>“Of course there’s a painter!” cried Agnes, +jumping up. “A nice long one——”</p> + +<p>“Where is it?” demanded the boy.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth! <i>That’s</i> gone!” gasped Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Say!” said Neale, very seriously; “ropes +don’t come untied of themselves. Sure it was +fastened to the boat?”</p> + +<p>“To that ring,” Ruth declared, confidently.</p> + +<p>“And little Tess, or Dot, wouldn’t think to untie +it themselves—I’m sure,” the boy observed. +“They are with somebody who has taken them +out of the boat—be sure of that.”</p> + +<p>“You only—only say so to comfort us,” sobbed +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ag! stop being a ‘leaky vessel’!” cried +Neale, with a boy’s exasperation at a girl’s tears. +“Crying won’t help you any.”</p> + +<p>Ruth had been examining the cedar boat, carefully. +There was a little water in the bottom of +it. She knew it did not leak. And floating on +the water was a tiny russet leather slipper.</p> + +<p>“That belongs to Dot’s Alice-doll!” she cried, +leaning over the gunwale and fishing for the slipper. +“They <i>were</i> in the boat.”</p> + +<p>“We knew that before. The clam man said +so,” sniffed Agnes.</p> + +<p>“But they got out in a hurry. Otherwise Dot +would have noticed that the doll had lost her +slipper.”</p> + +<p>“That seems reasonable,” admitted Neale +O’Neil. “But what’s become of them? Where +did they go? Where are they now?”</p> + +<p>He was staring all about the river, while the +two boats gently rubbed together, bobbing and +courtesying on the tide.</p> + +<p>“Don’t see anybody on the shores—and not +another boat in sight,” the boy added.</p> + +<p>“Maybe they went ashore on the island?” suggested +Agnes, looking back.</p> + +<p>“There’s nobody there,” said her sister, looking +back, too. “Not a soul.”</p> + +<p>“Guess you’re right. If there were anybody +besides the girls there they’d have some kind of a +boat, and we’d see it.”</p> + +<p>“That’s so, Neale,” Ruth said. “And surely +any grown person who rescued the girls wouldn’t +have let the boat drift away again.”</p> + +<p>The trio of searchers gazed at each other in +trouble and amazement. They could not explain +this mystery in any satisfactory way.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink19'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIX—A STARTLING MEETING</a></h2> + +<p>Tess and Dot, sitting in the middle of a brush +clump on Wild Goose Island, never saw the blue +motorboat with their sisters and Neale O’Neil in +it, fly past.</p> + +<p>But the dark-faced girl, dressed in her bedraggled +Gypsy finery, saw the <i>Nimble Shanks</i>, for +she was on the watch at one side or the other of +the island, all the time.</p> + +<p>She observed the motorboat overtake the drifting +craft, and saw Neale carry a line aboard the +latter and then start up the engine of the power +boat again. The two boats went up the lake at +a fair pace; but the searching party could not +travel so fast now, for fear of swamping the +towed boat.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think this is much fun,” said Dot, +plaintively, when the big girl came back to them. +“It’s hot here—and I’m hungry—and my Alice-doll +has lost one of her shoes.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll go up into the woods and pick some +berries,” said the strange girl, not unkindly. “I +know where there are some strawberries—and +they’re just as sweet.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! that will be fine. I <i>do</i> love strawberries,” +declared Dot, easily appeased.</p> + +<p>Tess was more troubled than her sister by this +strange situation. She felt, somehow, as though +the big girl were holding them prisoners. Yet +she could not understand <i>why</i>.</p> + +<p>She got up from the ground and at once Tom +Jonah started up, barking and bounding about.</p> + +<p>“Stop that dog!” exclaimed the big girl, +crossly. “Make him walk beside you. I’ll tie +him up,” she threatened.</p> + +<p>“Then he’ll howl <i>awful</i>,” cried Dot. “We +tried that once at home. Don’t you ’member, +Tess?”</p> + +<p>“Well, you keep him still,” snapped the big +girl.</p> + +<p>At a word from Tess the old dog drooped his +tail and fell in behind them, in a most subdued +manner. They went up through the thick woods +to the higher part of the island. At no point +could the little procession have been seen from +the water.</p> + +<p>There was a hillock up there, bare of trees, +the southern side of which was sown thickly with +strawberries. The bed was rich in berries, and +how sweet and delicate was their flavor!</p> + +<p>“Oh, <i>so</i> much nicer than boughten berries!” +Tess declared, forgetting for the time all her +anxiety.</p> + +<p>Indeed, both of the Corner House girls were +so busy satisfying their appetites with +strawberries that they forgot about the unpleasant side +to their adventure. Nor did they see the girl +who had helped them ashore from the boat, creep +over the knoll to watch the motorboat and its tow +going down the river again, by way of the northern +channel.</p> + +<p>It was fully half past one. While Tess and +Dot feasted in the wild strawberry patch, their +sisters and Neale O’Neil munched cold, fried +crabs on the <i>Nimble Shanks</i>.</p> + +<p>It took a lot of berries to satisfy the healthy +appetites of two girls like Tess and Dot whose +dinner had been indefinitely postponed. Dot +finally rolled right over in the shade, fast asleep, +her dress and fingers berry-stained and the last +plump one she had picked between her rosy lips!</p> + +<p>The big girl came back and Tess whispered: +“We’d best not wake her, for she usually takes +a nap afternoons. When she wakes up, I guess +we’d best be going. Ruth and Agnes will be +<i>awfully</i> scared for us. And we’ve lost Ruth’s +boat, too,” she added, disconsolately.</p> + +<p>“How do you expect to get off this island?” +demanded the strange girl.</p> + +<p>“Why! how did you get <i>on</i>?” returned Tess.</p> + +<p>“I paddled myself over on a raft of logs, early +this morning before anybody else was up,” said +the girl, after a minute. “I wasn’t going back +till night. But if I keep you children all day +there’ll be a big row, I s’pose,” she added, sullenly.</p> + +<p>“I expect there will,” was Tess’ calm response.</p> + +<p>“They’d get me for kidnapping, like enough,” +said the girl, as though talking to herself. +“Wish I hadn’t taken you out of that boat. But +you and the dog were raising an awful noise.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry,” said Tess, politely, “if we have +been a nuisance. But of course we’ve got to get +back to the tent before dark.”</p> + +<p>“I s’pose so,” admitted the older girl.</p> + +<p>“It’s funny Ruth hasn’t been up here before +now looking for us,” Tess observed.</p> + +<p>The big girl turned her head so Tess should +not see her face. “Suppose she did not know you +went sailing in the boat?” she said.</p> + +<p>“Why! perhaps that is the reason,” Tess +agreed. “They couldn’t have seen us; for if +they had, Ruth would have been after the boat +in a hurry.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said the strange girl, “I’ll have to +get you across to the river bank. I wasn’t going +till night. But——”</p> + +<p>“We are very much obliged to you,” Tess hastened +to say. “But we <i>couldn’t</i> stay that long.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well! I’ll leave you children at a farmer’s +over there. They’ll have a telephone and they’ll +get word to your sisters. You’ll get back by +suppertime.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” Tess said, simply.</p> + +<p>But she was more than a little disturbed in her +mind. A raft of logs did not encourage her to +look forward to the trip to the mainland with +much pleasure.</p> + +<p>Besides, the mystery regarding this pretty girl +made Tess feel <i>un</i>comfortable. Tess Kenway +was quite old enough to know the difference between +right and wrong; and there was something +about the strange girl that was decidedly wrong!</p> + +<p>Why had she come out here to Wild Goose +Island in the early morning—before anybody in +the neighborhood was up? Was she a runaway? +Had she done something really <i>naughty</i>? and was +she afraid to have her folks find her?</p> + +<p>It was all a great puzzle and Tess sighed and +shook her head. Finally she asked: “If you +please, where <i>is</i> the raft of logs?”</p> + +<p>“Right down there,” said the girl, pointing to +the southern side of the island. “You can’t see +it. I dragged it into shallow water and covered +it up with branches and brush.”</p> + +<p>“Is—is it safe?” queried Tess.</p> + +<p>“Well, it didn’t drown me coming over,” said +the girl, with a short, hard laugh. “But the logs +came near parting.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!”</p> + +<p>“I’ll fix ’em before we start back. That painter +off your boat will help. We will be all right,” +said the big girl, carelessly.</p> + +<p>Dot awoke after a little, and so did Tom Jonah. +The whole party went down to the brush-fringed +shore. Tess saw that the girl had hidden her +raft very ingeniously. And it was evident, too, +that she hated to leave the island so long before +evening.</p> + +<p>“Got myself in a nice mess!” the Corner +House girl heard her mutter, as she went about +binding the three logs together more tightly with +the strong rope from the cedar boat.</p> + +<p>She worked hard for half an hour, standing +almost waist deep in the water as she made the +logs secure. It was not a heavy raft—nor was +it very safe looking, to Tess’ mind.</p> + +<p>But fortunately Dot thought it would be great +fun to ride on such a craft, and Tess was too +brave to say anything that would really frighten +Dorothy.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah became restless and wanted to wander +about; but the big girl was very sharp with +him. “If he were my dog I’d make him mind +better!” she threatened. “If anything gives us +away, it will be that dog.”</p> + +<p>Tess did not understand this; and like Dot she +felt hurt when anybody criticised Tom Jonah. +“Love me, love my dog” was the motto of the +younger Kenway sisters.</p> + +<p>Finally the big girl pronounced the raft strong +enough, and she waded out of the water and put +on her skirts again. “Now, get aboard there,” +she commanded. “If we’ve got to go, we might +as well start. The tide will be less strong now.”</p> + +<p>Dot skipped aboard the raft with her Alice-doll, +in great glee; Tess followed more slowly. +But when Tom Jonah tried to come, too, the big +girl, with the broken oar she used for a paddle, +drove him back.</p> + +<p>“It won’t hold him up, too!” she cried. “Get +out!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! don’t hurt Tom Jonah!” wailed Dot, +shrilly. “Don’t!”</p> + +<p>“You look out!” warned Tess. “He’ll grab +you!”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah certainly <i>did</i> grab the paddle. +And he nearly wrenched it from the hands of the +big girl, strong as she was.</p> + +<p>“He’ll tip us all over!” declared the girl, angrily, +flushed and breathing heavily. “Don’t you +see how deep in the water we are? Any little +wave will come right over the logs and wet us.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” cried Tess. “We’re barefooted. +And we can’t leave Tom Jonah behind.”</p> + +<p>“He can swim, can’t he? Silly!” exclaimed +the big girl. She pushed off the raft suddenly, +leaving the troubled dog on the bank. The current +caught the raft instantly and headed it down +stream. The big girl hurried to dip her paddle +in the water on the lower side and swerve the +head of the raft around.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tom Jonah! Come! Come!” cried Dot, +fearful that the dog would be lost.</p> + +<p>He plunged right in and swam to the rear of the +raft. He did not try to climb aboard, but he rested +his nose on the logs and paddled quietly behind. +The big girl paid him no further attention. She +had her hands full as it was, keeping the raft +from being swept down stream.</p> + +<p>The current of the river had now conquered the +inflowing tide. The force of the latter was +spent; but the channel on this side of the island +was not rough. The little waves did not break +over their feet as yet.</p> + +<p>The passage of the river was not, however, so +hard. The handsome dark girl was strong, and +she plied the broken oar with vigor. In half an +hour they drew near to the tree-fringed southern +bank.</p> + +<p>The girls saw nobody along the shore, nor had +any boat put out to meet them. It was a day +when all the farmers seemed to be busy in their +fields, and this was a wild spot toward which the +raft had been aimed.</p> + +<p>At last the end of the logs touched a shelving, +narrow beach. The big girl leaped off and commanded +Tess and Dot to follow immediately. +Already Tom Jonah had scrambled ashore and +was shaking himself, as a dog will.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the big dog uttered a throaty growl. +None of the three girls paid any attention. The +strange girl was busy helping Tess and Dot to +land.</p> + +<p>Again Tom Jonah uttered his warning, and +then barked sharply.</p> + +<p>“Shut up!” commanded the big girl, turning +on him fiercely.</p> + +<p>At that moment a man walked out of the wood. +He was a fierce little fellow with a black mustache +and a dirty red tie. His velveteen suit was +worn and greasy and his hat broken.</p> + +<p>The strange girl turned suddenly and saw him. +She uttered a stifled scream and the fellow folded +his arms and said something to her sternly in +a language that afterwards Tess said “sounded +like powder-crackers exploding!”</p> + +<p>The girl was terrified in the extreme. She +looked from side to side as though contemplating +escape. The fellow took another stride toward +her.</p> + +<p>And then Tom Jonah intervened. The big +dog sprang with an awful growl, hurling himself +straight at the man’s chest. The fellow went +over backward and Tom Jonah held him down +with both paws on his chest and his bared teeth +at the victim’s brown throat!</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink20'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XX—THE FRANKFURTER MAN</a></h2> + +<p>Dot screamed shrilly; but Tess said, with conviction: +“Well! I think it serves him right. +Let him holler. He had no business trying to +steal Ruthie’s chickens.”</p> + +<p>For the young man that Tom Jonah held on the +ground, and threatened so dreadfully, was the +very Gypsy that had gotten into the hen-coop at +the old Corner House in Milton, weeks before.</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t you be afraid for him, Dot,” +added Tess, quite calmly. “Tom Jonah won’t +really <i>bite</i> him—not as long as he keeps still and +doesn’t try to get up——”</p> + +<p>The fellow was moaning and begging just as +he had when the big dog “treed” him on the henhouse +roof.</p> + +<p>“Tak’ away dog! Tak’ away dog!” he begged.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know why we should—do you, Dot?” +pursued Tess, undisturbed. “He was going to +hurt <i>her</i>——”</p> + +<p>Tess turned around. The strange girl who +had helped them out of the cedar boat and later +had brought them to the river bank from Wild +Goose Island, had disappeared like a shadow!</p> + +<p>“Why—why,” stammered Tess. “And she +never said ‘Good-bye’!”</p> + +<p>“I guess she was afraid of this man,” Dot +said, eyeing the prostrate and miserable victim of +Tom Jonah’s attack without much pity. “What +shall we do with him?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Tess, with a sudden sharp idea. +“She <i>was</i> afraid of him. Let us help her. She +helped us.”</p> + +<p>“How will we?” inquired the smaller girl.</p> + +<p>“Just let Tom Jonah hold him where he is. +We will give that pretty girl a good chance to +get away. Won’t we?”</p> + +<p>“That will be just the thing,” agreed Dot. +“We can sit down and wait. I hope it isn’t too +long a walk to the camp, Tess. Somehow those +strawberries didn’t stay by me—much. I’m +hungry right now!”</p> + +<p>“We’ll keep him here a few minutes. Then +we’ll find the road and start right back home. I +know the direction,” said Tess, with confidence.</p> + +<p>The frightened Gypsy moaned and begged for +them to call off the dog; and Tom Jonah growled +most frightfully every time the man squirmed. +Under other circumstances the girls would have +been quite stricken with pity for the poor man; +but he had tried to steal Ruth’s hens, and he had +now frightened their new friend away, and, as +Dot whispered, “it served him right.”</p> + +<p>Of course, they knew that the big dog would +not really harm the fellow.</p> + +<p>After some fifteen minutes Tess got up and +motioned Dot to do the same. “We’d better +start. The afternoon is going,” she said to her +younger sister. “And I guess it’s a long walk +home. Come on, Tom Jonah.”</p> + +<p>The old dog lifted his head enquiringly. The +muscles of his shoulders and fore-paws relaxed.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” commanded Tess. “Leave him +alone. Let him up, Tom Jonah! I guess he has +been punished enough. Don’t you think so, +Dot?”</p> + +<p>The smaller girl nodded seriously, staring at +the trembling Gypsy. “I hope you won’t ever +try to steal our Ruthie’s hens again,” she said, +pointedly.</p> + +<p>The moment the fellow knew he was free, he +scrambled up and dodged into the bushes. He +did not stay for a word.</p> + +<p>“That big girl must have gotten away by this +time,” Tess said, cheerfully. “And he is too +scared to catch her, anyway.”</p> + +<p>Which was probably true. The two small girls +walked away from the river bank in the direction +where they knew the auto-stage road lay. Tom +Jonah paced beside them, looking about suspiciously, +and licking his lips now and then with +his red tongue.</p> + +<p>It was remarkable how ferocious he had been +with that Gypsy, and how perfectly kind he was to +the small Kenways. And nothing much could +have overtaken them just then that Tom Jonah +would not have attacked.</p> + +<p>They came out of the fringe of wood that bordered +the river and crossed a farmer’s fields. +But the house was at a distance, and in the other +direction from Pleasant Cove and the camps; so +the girls did not go to that house.</p> + +<p>In fact, Tess felt quite brave now that she was +again on the mainland. She was sure that they +could easily find Willowbend Camp.</p> + +<p>They came out into the hot, dusty road. It +stretched before them as bare as a tennis-court +and as hot as a sea-beach. The trees that bordered +it were white with dust far up their trunks +and the leaves of their lower branches, too, were +dust-covered.</p> + +<p>This was the result of rapidly passing automobiles +on the road; but none of these vehicles +was in sight now. The road seemed deserted.</p> + +<p>Save for just one thing. Dot saw it before +Tess.</p> + +<p>“Oh, look!” the smaller girl cried. “Isn’t +that a peanut man, Tess? Don’t you wish you +had a nickel?”</p> + +<p>“He isn’t a peanut man,” said Tess, after a +sharp look at the man pushing the little wagon +along the road before them.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t he?” returned Dot, disappointedly.</p> + +<p>“It’s a hot-frankfurter man,” declared Tess.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tess! a nickel would buy two frankfurter +sandwiches,” gasped Dot. “And I’m <i>so</i> hungry.”</p> + +<p>So was Tess. The thought of the steaming +sausages lying on the split Vienna roll, with a +spoonful of mustard on each half-sausage, was +enough to make <i>any</i> hungry person’s mouth +water. At least, any hungry person of the age +of Tess and Dot Kenway.</p> + +<p>Where the frankfurter man had been with his +wagon away up this country road, the girls did +not know; but before they overtook him they +smelled the warm sausages and saw that the top +of his boxlike wagon was covered over with a +glass case and that everything was clean about +his outfit.</p> + +<p>So eager and hungry were they that Tess and +Dot fairly trotted through the hot dust to overtake +the man. He was a short, sturdy man in +a blue shirt, khaki trousers, and a broad-brimmed +straw hat. When Tom Jonah bounded along beside +him, sniffing in a friendly fashion, he turned +around and saw the girls.</p> + +<p>“How-de-do!” he said, smiling. “You want +a hot frankfurter, little girls?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Dot, frankly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, we can’t, sir—not till we get to Willowbend +Camp,” Tess hastened to say, squeezing +Dot’s hand admonishingly.</p> + +<p>Dot’s lower lip trembled and the man asked:</p> + +<p>“Why can’t you have ’em now?”</p> + +<p>“We—we should have to ask Ruthie,” said +Tess, slowly.</p> + +<p>“Who’s she?”</p> + +<p>“Our sister. We—we don’t carry any money +in these old clothes. She’s afraid we’ll lose it +out of our pockets,” said Tess, honestly.</p> + +<p>“Oh-ho!” exclaimed the man.</p> + +<p>“But we’re awful hungry,” ventured Dot. +“And so’s my Alice-doll. We been shipwrecked, +you see.”</p> + +<p>“Shipwrecked?” asked the man, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“Not just <i>that</i>, Dot,” said Tess, doubtfully. +“We were sort of castaways.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we lost our boat, didn’t we?” demanded +Dot. “And isn’t that being shipwrecked?” +She was just hungry and tired +enough to be rather “touchy.”</p> + +<p>“Tell me about it,” said the frankfurter man, +as the girls and Tom Jonah trotted along beside +his little wagon.</p> + +<p>So Tess—with much assistance from Dot—related +their exciting adventures since the wooden-legged +clam-digger had shown them what it was +that squirted water up through the tiny holes +on the clam-flat.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the frankfurter man laughed, or +chuckled; at other times he looked quite grave. +And finally he insisted upon stopping under a +broad, shady tree beside the road, and resting +while he listened to the remainder of the story.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile he opened the glass case and took +out a couple of paper napkins and two rolls which +were as white as snow when he split them with +a very sharp knife. He buttered both sides of +these rolls lavishly.</p> + +<p>Then he opened the steaming frankfurter pot +and oh! how the luscious steam gushed out! Dot +grabbed Tess’ hand hard. She thought she was +going to faint, for a moment—it smelled so good!</p> + +<p>He selected two fat frankfurters and split them +evenly. He placed them on the buttered rolls. +He put on mustard with a lavish hand. And then +he closed the rolls and wrapped the napkins about +them.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he saw Tom Jonah standing, too, +watching him with wistful intentness, his pink +tongue hanging out of his mouth. If ever a dog’s +countenance expressed hunger, it was shown now +in Tom Jonah’s face. But he was too much of +a gentleman, just as his collar said, to bark.</p> + +<p>So the frankfurter man, without saying a word, +opened the pot again and took out a third sausage. +This he did not split or put mustard on.</p> + +<p>“Would you little girls like to eat a lunch now +and pay me for it the next time you see me?” +he asked, smiling at Tess and Dot.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Dot, clasping her hands and almost +letting the Alice-doll fall.</p> + +<p>“You—you are <i>so</i> kind!” said Tess, her voice +fairly trembling.</p> + +<p>He passed the two wrapped sandwiches over +with a polite bow. “You are very welcome,” he +said. “And I am going to give your dog one for +himself because he grabbed that Gypsy. He’s a +brave dog and deserves one.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! if you would be so good!” cried Tess.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah made one mouthful of the frankfurter. +You see, <i>he</i> had not cared at all for the +strawberries!</p> + +<p>“Now,” said the frankfurter man, as the girls +walked on beside him again, munching their sandwiches, +“that road yonder to the left leads right +down to the beach and to those tents. You can +see the flags flying above them now—see?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, sir!” returned Tess and Dot, in delight.</p> + +<p>“Then you can easy find your way. Good-day, +young ladies. I know your sisters will be anxious +to see you.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you, sir,” Tess said, not forgetting +her manners. “And we shall not forget that we +owe you for the sausages.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right. Always pay your debts,” said +the man, laughing, and trundled his cart on +through the dust, while the Kenway sisters +trudged down the shadier road toward the beach.</p> + +<p>In fifteen minutes they were seen coming. The +entire encampment had turned out to search for +the lost children. The boys from Milton had +gone in all directions to look for Tess and Dot.</p> + +<p>It was only to Ruth and Agnes that the small +girls related the details of their surprising adventure. +And Agnes did not understand entirely, +and was much troubled over the identity +of the girl who had befriended her sisters in so +strange a fashion.</p> + +<p>Ruth had no difficulty in guessing who she was. +It was the girl with the Gypsies who had masqueraded +as the queen. The oldest Corner +House girl was sure that it was she. And Ruth +understood that she must be striving to get away +from the Gypsies.</p> + +<p>“I hope she won’t go so far from here that I +shall never see her again,” thought Ruth. “For +she was interested in Rosa Wildwood, I am sure; +and it might be that she could tell me something +about Rosa’s missing sister.”</p> + +<p>While Agnes put forth many “guesses” and +“supposin’s” about the strange girl, Dot had +quite another problem in her enquiring mind. +And finally, as they were getting ready for bed +that night, she threw out a leading question which +attracted the immediate attention of her three +sisters:</p> + +<p>“Say, Ruthie,” she asked, “how do frankfurters +grow?”</p> + +<p>“What?” gasped Agnes, and clapped a hand +over her own mouth to keep from laughing.</p> + +<p>“How do they <i>grow</i>, dear?” returned Ruth, +rather taken aback herself.</p> + +<p>“Goodness gracious, child!” exclaimed Tess. +“They don’t grow on bushes like pea-pods.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, of course not!” ejaculated Dot, who +did not like to be considered ignorant. “A frankfurter +flies, doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“Mercy!” murmured Ruth. “Hear her!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I mean it crawls—it <i>creeps</i>. Of +course,” Dot hurried to add.</p> + +<p>Agnes exploded here. She could not keep in +any longer.</p> + +<p>“Well, I think you’re real mean!” complained +Dot. “You won’t tell me. I guess it’s a fish, +then. Does it <i>swim</i>?”</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” cried Tess.</p> + +<p>“Then they come in bunches like bananas!” +declared the frantic Dot.</p> + +<p><i>This</i> was the worst yet. Agnes rolled on the +matting of the bedroom and almost choked. +Ruth herself was laughing heartily at her small +sister as she gathered her into her arms and told +her just how the sausage-meat was stuffed into +the frankfurters’ skins.</p> + +<p>“Well!” murmured Dot, at last, and rather +sleepily. “I don’t care. I believe they are the +very <i>nicest</i> things there are to eat—so there! +Those the frankfurter man gave us were perfectly +lovely.”</p> + +<p>That was what suggested the Frankfurter +Party, and the Frankfurter Party was one of the +very happiest thoughts that Ruth Kenway ever +evolved. We shall have to hear about it, in +another chapter.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink21'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXI—MRS. BOBSTER’S MYSTERIOUS FRIEND</a></h2> + +<p>Rosa Wildwood quickly showed improvement +after her arrival at Pleasant Cove. Under the +ministrations of the little old woman who lived +in a shoe the Southern girl could not help feeling +a measure of contentment, if nothing else.</p> + +<p>Her hostess was such a cheerful body! And, +as Agnes had promised, Rosa was supplied with +good, hearty food—and plenty of it.</p> + +<p>There was a glass of warm milk, fresh from the +cow, on the stand beside the head of her little +chintz-hung bed every morning when Rosa awoke. +For Mrs. Bobster was up and about by daybreak.</p> + +<p>When Rosa came down to the sunlit kitchen, +breakfast was ready and the little old woman who +lived in a shoe declared she had all her “outside” +chores done, saving her regular work in her garden.</p> + +<p>Rosa sometimes helped about the housework. +The doctor had told her that certain forms of +housework would be good for her. But she had +to be very exact and careful in doing the work +about the shoe-house, for Mrs. Bobster was a +New England housekeeper of the old school and +was as methodical as Grandfather’s Clock.</p> + +<p>The girls from Milton did not neglect Rosa +Wildwood. At least, the Corner House girls and +their friends did not. Pearl Harrod and the girls +at Spoondrift Bungalow came with a wagonette +and took her driving. The repairs had been +made upon the bungalow and Pearl’s party was +there again—all but the Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>Ruth had decided to stick to the tent for the +remainder of their stay at Pleasant Cove. And +Willowbend Camp was becoming the liveliest spot +along the entire beach-front.</p> + +<p>Ruth and her sisters came after Rosa and took +her out in their boat. The boys who were living +at Willowbend, too, took an interest in the frail +Southern girl. For Rosa Wildwood, with the +color stealing back into her cheeks and lips, and +her eyes bright again, was a very attractive girl +indeed!</p> + +<p>Dot Kenway’s birthday came at this time, and +that was the date set for the Frankfurter Party. +Dot’s guesses about the origin and nature of the +hearty and inviting, if not delicate, frankfurter, +had delighted the campers who heard the story; +and Dot’s sisters and Neale spent some time and +a good deal of ingenuity in preparing for the +festive occasion.</p> + +<p>Rosa came over to the tent colony and helped +the girls prepare for the party. Moreover, she +had a secret to impart to Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Don’t let the other girls hear, Ruth Kenway,” +she said, with much mystery. “But Mrs. Bobster +is the oddest thing!”</p> + +<p>“Well! I guess she is,” laughed Ruth. “But +she’s <i>good</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Good as gold,” agreed Rosa. “But she has +some funny ways. Of course I go to bed early. +The doctor told me I should.”</p> + +<p>“Well?”</p> + +<p>“You’d think she’d go to bed early, too, when +she’s up so soon in the morning?”</p> + +<p>“Well——I suppose that’s a matter of taste,” +Ruth observed.</p> + +<p>“Anyway, you know how lonesome it is over +there?”</p> + +<p>“I guess there are not many people about—after +dark.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just it!” cried Rosa. “Mrs. Bobster +scurries around and does all her out of doors +chores before dark. And she locks and bolts all +the doors. She is really afraid after dark.”</p> + +<p>Ruth nodded. She remembered how once the +little old woman who lived in a shoe had spoken +to her about being afraid.</p> + +<p>“Well, she locks and bolts the doors,” said +Rosa, “and then we have supper and I go to bed. +Sometimes, like a good child, I go right to sleep. +Sometimes, like a bad child, I <i>don’t</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Well—what then?”</p> + +<p>“Then I hear Mrs. Bobster talking. She has +company. I never hear the company come in, +or go out; but she has it every night.”</p> + +<p>“And never says anything about it?”</p> + +<p>“Not a word,” said Rosa. “I hinted once or +twice that she must have company every night, +and all she said was that she didn’t like sitting +alone.”</p> + +<p>“Is it a man or a woman?” asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” laughed Rosa. “That’s one +of the funny things about it. Although I hear +Mrs. Bobster sometimes chattering like a magpie, +I never hear an answer.”</p> + +<p>“What?” gasped Ruth, in amazement.</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” said Rosa, nodding confidently. +“Whoever it is talks so low that I haven’t heard +his, or her, voice yet!”</p> + +<p>“A dumb person?” suggested Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Maybe. At any rate, I couldn’t tell you for +the life of me whether it is a man or a woman that +comes to see the little old woman who lives in a +shoe. Isn’t it odd, Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“I should say it was,” admitted Ruth.</p> + +<p>“But she treats me well,” sighed Rosa. “I +wouldn’t do her any harm for the world. But I +<i>am</i> awfully curious!”</p> + +<p>It was this day, too—the day of Dot’s party—that +the wooden-legged clam-digger came along +through the Willowbend tent colony again. He +always came to the tent of the Corner House girls +when he appeared; Ruth was a regular customer, +for she and her sisters were fond of shellfish.</p> + +<p>“I’ll have fifty to-day, Mr. Kuk,” she said to +the saltish individual when he hailed her from +outside the tent. Ruth had learned that his name +was Habakuk Somes; everybody along the beach +called him “Kuk,” and Ruth, to be polite, tagged +him with “Mister” in addition.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah appeared and showed his disapproval +of the clam man by a throaty growl. +“That thar dawg don’t like me none too well,” +said the clam man. “What d’yeou call him?”</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah.”</p> + +<p>“Thet’s enough to sink him,” said the man with +a grin. “How’d ye come ter call him that?”</p> + +<p>“It’s his name,” said Ruth. “It was engraved +on his collar when he came to our house in Milton.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! then he ain’t allus been your dawg, shipmet?” +demanded the man.</p> + +<p>“No. He came to us. We don’t know where +from. But he is a gentleman, and he is going to +stay with us as long as he will.”</p> + +<p>The clam man blinked, and said nothing more. +But he cast more than one glance at Tom Jonah +before he went away.</p> + +<p>The preparations made for the birthday party +included the purchase of a good many pounds of +first quality frankfurters. And when they were +delivered to the Corner House girls’ tent, the fun +began.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were sent away for the morning +to play with some of the children at Enterprise +Camp. Then Ruth and Agnes and Rosa and +Neale set to work to make frankfurters into the +very funniest looking things that you could imagine!</p> + +<p>With bits of tinsel and colored paper and pins +and other small wares, the young folks set to work. +They made frankfurters look like caricatures of +all kinds of beasts and birds, and insects as well. +One was the body of a huge, gaily-winged butterfly. +Another was striped and horned like a worm +of ferocious aspect.</p> + +<p>They were made into fishes, with tails and fins. +Neale made a nest with several “young” frankfurters +poking their heads out for food, while the +mother frankfurter was just poised upon the +edge of the nest, her wings spread to balance her.</p> + +<p>There were short-legged frankfurters, with +long, flapping ears, like dachshunds, and long, +stiff-legged frankfurters, with abbreviated tails, +and appearing to gambol like lambs. There were +several linked together and apparently creeping +about like a species of jointed, horrid caterpillar.</p> + +<p>Then they actually <i>were</i> bunched like bananas! +while some grew, husked, like sweetcorn, and +some had the green, fluffy tops of carrots cunningly +fastened to them and were tied together +as carrots are bunched in the market.</p> + +<p>Neale’s ingenuity, however, rose to its height +when he stretched a slanting wire across the tent, +higher than the partition, and made several +“aeroplanes” with bodies of the succulent sausage, +which he could start at one end of the wire +to “fly” to the other end.</p> + +<p>The young folks came to Willowbend Camp +about five o’clock to enjoy the festivities. The +older Corner House girls, with the help of some +of their friends, served the crowd a hearty supper, +the main course of which was hot frankfurters, +prepared by the “frankfurter man” +whose acquaintance Tess and Dot had made.</p> + +<p>When the fun was over the guests took the +fancy-dressed sausages home as souvenirs.</p> + +<p>Neale and Agnes and Ruth went home with +Rosa, for it was a long walk, and part of the way +it was lonely. One of the ladies who had chaperoned +the party remained with Tess and Dot +while their sisters were absent.</p> + +<p>The young folk had a pleasant walk, for there +was a moon. Coming finally in sight of the home +of the little old woman who lived in a shoe, Ruth +said to Rosa, who walked with her:</p> + +<p>“It is a lonely spot, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“But I never feel afraid. Only I’m curious +about Mrs. Bobster’s friend——There! See it?” +she cried, suddenly, but under her breath.</p> + +<p>“See what?” Ruth asked.</p> + +<p>“The shadow on the curtain,” said Rosa.</p> + +<p>At the same moment Agnes said: “Hello! +Mrs. Bobster has company.”</p> + +<p>There was a lamp lit in the tiny front room of +the cottage. Plainly silhouetted upon the white +shade was a man sitting in a chair.</p> + +<p>“What! With his hat on?” exclaimed Ruth. +“Who can it be?”</p> + +<p>“He isn’t very polite, whoever he is,” said +Neale.</p> + +<p>“Let’s see about it,” suggested Agnes. “Do +you know anything about him, Rosa?”</p> + +<p>“I only know she has had a visitor sometimes—after +I’m in bed,” said the Southern girl.</p> + +<p>“Come on! let’s go in the side door,” said +Agnes, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>But when they had tiptoed to the door they +found it locked. Rosa laughed. “I tell you she +never leaves a door or window unfastened after +dark,” she said.</p> + +<p>They heard the little old woman who lived in +a shoe coming to the door to let them in. But +Rosa had to assure her who it was before Mrs. +Bobster unlocked the door.</p> + +<p>“But you had company?” said Agnes, rather +pertly.</p> + +<p>“Eh?” returned Mrs. Bobster, setting the +broom behind the hall door. “Oh, yes! I don’t +never kalkerlate ter be alone many evenings.”</p> + +<p>“Is he here now?” demanded Neale, laughing.</p> + +<p>“Who? <i>Him?</i> No,” said the widow, calmly. +“He’s bashful. He went out jest as you young +folks come in. Sit right down, children, an’ I’ll +find a pitcher of milk an’ some cookies.”</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls and Rosa—to say nothing +of Neale O’Neil—were amazed. They looked +at each other wonderingly as the widow bustled +out to the pantry.</p> + +<p>“I’d give a penny,” murmured Rosa Wildwood, +“to know who her mysterious friend is.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink22'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXII—THE YARN OF THE “SPANKING SAL”</a></h2> + +<p>The wooden-legged clam digger, Habakuk +Somes, seemed suddenly to have acquired a great +interest in Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>He appeared almost every day at the tent of +the Corner House girls and did his best to become +friendly with the dog. Tom Jonah grew +used to his presence, but he would allow no familiarities +from the dilapidated waterside character.</p> + +<p>The girls thought “Kuk” Somes only queer; +the boys “joshed” him a good deal. Nobody +minded having him around, considering merely +that he was a peculiar fellow, and harmless.</p> + +<p>His tales of sea-going and sea-roving were wonderful +indeed. How much of them was truth and +how much pure invention, the older Corner House +girls and Neale O’Neil did not know. However, +they forgave his “historical inaccuracies” because +of the entertainment they derived from his +yarns.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot listened to the old fellow with +perfect confidence in his achievements. Had he +not known—in a moment—what it was that shot +water up through the holes in the clam flat? The +smaller girls listened to old Kuk Somes with unshaken +confidence.</p> + +<p>“And how did the pirates get your leg, Mr. +Kuk?” asked Tess. “Your really truly leg, I +mean.”</p> + +<p>She and Dot were sitting on the edge of the +tent-platform, under the awning, with their bare +feet in the sand, with Tom Jonah lying comfortably +between them. The dog had a brooding eye +upon the clam digger, who sat on a broken lobster +trap a few feet away.</p> + +<p>“Huh! them pi-<i>rats</i>?” queried the clam digger. +“Well—er—now, did I say it was pi-<i>rats</i> +as got my leg, shipmet?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, you did, sir.” Dot hastened to bolster +up her sister’s statement of fact. “And you said +it was on the Spanish Main.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” declared the old man, “so it was, an’ +so they did. Pi-<i>rats</i> it was, shipmet. An’ I’ll +tell yer the how of it.</p> + +<p>“I was carpenter’s mate on the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i>, +what sailed from Bosting to Rio, touchin’ at some +West Injy ports on the way—pertic’larly Porto +Rico, which is a big merlasses port. We had a +good part of our upper holt stowed with warmin’ +pans for the merlasses planters——”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Kuk!” ejaculated Tess in rather a +pained voice. “Isn’t that a mistake? <i>Warming +pans?</i>”</p> + +<p>“Not by a joblot it ain’t no mistake!” returned +the old man. “Warming pans I sez, an’ +warming pans I sticks to.”</p> + +<p>“But my geogoraphy,” Tess ventured, timidly, +and mispronouncing the word as usual, “says +that the West Indies are tropical. Porto Rico +is near the Equator.”</p> + +<p>“Now, ain’t that wonderful—jest wonderful?” +declared the clam digger, smiting his knee with +his palm. “Shows what it is to be book l’arned, +shipmet.</p> + +<p>“’Course, <i>I</i> knowed them was tropical places, +but I didn’t know ’twas all writ down in books—joggerfries, +do they call ’em?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Tess, seriously. “And it is +so hot down there they couldn’t possibly need +warming pans.”</p> + +<p>“Now, ye’d think that, wouldn’t ye, shipmet? +And I’d think it. But the skipper of the <i>Spankin’ +Sal</i>, he knowed dif’rent.</p> + +<p>“A master brainy man was Captain Roebuck. +That was his name—Roebuck,” declared the clam +digger, solemnly. “Hev you ever seen a warming +pan, shipmet—an old-fashioned warmin’ +pan?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Tess and Dot together. +“There’s one hangs over the mantelpiece in the +sitting-room of the old Corner House,” added +Tess. “That’s where we live when we’re at +home in Milton.</p> + +<p>“And it is a round brass pan, with a cover +that has holes in it, and a long handle. Mrs. MacCall +says folks used to put live coals in it and +iron the beds before folks went to bed, in the cold +weather. But we got furnace heat now, and +don’t need the warming pan.”</p> + +<p>“Surely, surely, shipmet,” agreed the clam +digger. “Them’s the things. And Cap’n Roebuck +of the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i>, plagued near crammed +the upper holt with them.</p> + +<p>“It looks right foolish, shipmet; but that skipper +got a chancet ter buy up a whole lot o’ them +brass warmin’ pans cheap. If he’d seen ’em +cheap enough, he’d bought up a hull cargo of +secon’ hand hymn books, and he’d took ’em out +to the heathen in the South Seas and made a profit +on ’em—he would that!” pursued Kuk, confidently.</p> + +<p>“He must have been a wonderful man, sir,” +said Tess, while Dot sat round-eyed and listened.</p> + +<p>“Wonderful! wonderful!” agreed the clam +digger. “But about them warmin’ pans. When +we got ter Porto Rico we broke out the first of +them things. Looked right foolish. All them +dons in Panama hats and white pants, an’ barefooted +comin’ aboard to look over samples of +tradin’ stock, an’ all they can see is warmin’ pans.</p> + +<p>“‘What’s them things for?’ axed the first +planter, in the Spanish lingo.</p> + +<p>“‘Them’s skimmers,’ says Cap’n Roebuck, +knowin’ it warn’t no manner o’ use to try to explain +the exact truth to a man what ain’t never +seed snow, or knowed there was a zero mark on +the almanack.</p> + +<p>“He grabbed up one o’ them warmin’ pans and +made a swing with it like you’d use a crab-net. +‘See! See!’ says the dons. ‘Skim-a da merlasses.’ +That’s Spanish for ‘Yes, yes! skim the +merlasses,’” explained Kuk, seriously.</p> + +<p>“‘But what’s the cover for?’ axed the don. +‘Ye don’t hafter have no cover,’ says Cap’n Roebuck, +and he yanks the cover off the warmin’ pan +an’ throws it away.</p> + +<p>“And there them dons had the finest merlasses +dipper that ever went inter the islan’s. Cap’n +Roebuck seen their eyes snap an’ put a good, stiff +price on the things, and inside of a week there +warn’t a warmin’ pan left on the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i>.</p> + +<p>“Then,” pursued the clam digger, “we stowed +away in our upper holt goods what would bring +a fancy price at Rio, and laid our course for the +Amazon.</p> + +<p>“But we was all hands mighty worritted,” admitted +Kuk, lowering his voice mysteriously. +“Ye see, ye never could tell in them old days, an’ +in the West Injies, who it was safe to trust, an’ +who it was safe ter <i>dis</i>-trust.</p> + +<p>“Yer see, so many of them snaky Spanish +planters was hand an’ glove with the pi-<i>rats</i>. +And ev’rybody on the island knowed the <i>Spankin’ +Sal</i> was takin’ away a great treasure that had been +exchanged for them warmin’ pans. We was a +fair mark, as ye might say, for them pi-<i>rats</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Dot, hugging her Alice-doll the +tighter.</p> + +<p>“How much treasure was there, Mr. Kuk?” +asked the ever-practical Tess.</p> + +<p>“A chist full,” announced the clam digger without +a moment’s hesitation. “A reg’lar treasure-chist +full. All them planters hadn’t had ready +cash money to pay for the warmin’ pans, and +they’d give in exchange di’monds and other jools—and +the exchange rates for American money was +high anyway. So the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i> was a mighty +good ketch if the pi-<i>rats</i> ketched her.</p> + +<p>“So, when we sailed from Porto Rico we kep’ a +weather eye open for black-painted schooners with +rakin’ masts an’ skulls and shinbones on their +flags. When we seed them signs we’d know they +was pi-<i>rats</i>,” declared Kuk, gravely.</p> + +<p>The small Corner House girls sighed in unison—and +in delight! “The plot thickens!” whispered +Agnes to Ruth behind the flap of the tent +where they were listening, likewise, though unbeknown +to Kuk and the children.</p> + +<p>“Go on, please, Mr. Kuk,” breathed Tess.</p> + +<p>“Oh, do!” said Dot.</p> + +<p>“Well, shipmets,” said the old clam digger, +“bein’ peaceful merchantmen, as ye might say, we +hadn’t shipped aboard the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i> to fight no +pi-<i>rats</i>,” declared Kuk, with energy. “We wasn’t +no sogers, and we told the skipper so.</p> + +<p>“‘We’ll fight,’ says I. Bein’ an officer—carpenter’s +mate, as I told ye—I was spokesman for +the crew. ‘But we wants ter fight with weepons +as we air fermiliar with. Let you and the ossifers +fire the cannon, skipper,’ says I, ‘and give us +fellers that was bred along shore an’ on the farms +some o’ them scythes out’n the lower holt.</p> + +<p>“‘Cutlasses an’ muskets,’ says I, ‘is all right +for them as has been brought up with ’em,’ says I, +‘but, skipper, me an’ my shipmets has been better +used ter cuttin’ swamp-grass an’ mowin’ oats. +Give us the weepons we air fermiliar with.’</p> + +<p>“And he done it,” declared Kuk, wagging his +sinful old head. “We broke out some cases of +scythes and fixed ’em onto their handles after +grindin’ of ’em sharp as razers on the grin’stone +in the waist of the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i>.</p> + +<p>“Pretty soon we seen one o’ them black-hulled +schooners comin’. She couldn’t be mistook for +anythin’ but a pi-<i>rat</i>, although she didn’t fly no +black flag yet.</p> + +<p>“‘Let ’em come to close quarters, skipper,’ says +I. ‘Let ’em board us. Then me an’ my shipmets +can git ’em on the short laig. We’ll mow ’em +down like weeds along a roadside ditch.’</p> + +<p>“He done it, an’ we did,” pursued Kuk, rather +heated now with the interest of his own narrative. +“When they run their schooner alongside of us +and the two ships clinched, and they broke out the +black flag at their peak, me an’ my shipmets stood +there ready to repel boarders.</p> + +<p>“Them pi-<i>rats</i>,” proceeded Kuk, “fought like +a passel of cats—tooth an’ nail! They come over +aour bulwarks jest like peas pourin’ out o’ a sack. +‘Steady, lads!’ I sings out. ‘Take a long, sweepin’ +stroke, an’ each o’ ye cut a good swath!’</p> + +<p>“An’ we done so,” the clam digger said, nodding. +“Our scythes was longer than the cutlasses +of them pi-<i>rats</i>; and before they could git at us, +we’d reach ’em with a side-swipe of the scythes, +and mow ’em down like ripe hay.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear, me!” gasped Dot.</p> + +<p>“How awful!” murmured Tess.</p> + +<p>“’Twas sartain sure a bloody field of battle,” +declared the clam digger, nodding again. “If it +hadn’t been for my leg I wouldn’t never have +fought no pi-<i>rats</i> again. A man has his feelin’s, +ye see. Our scuppers run blood. The enemy was +piled along the deck under our bulwarks in a reg’lar +windrow.”</p> + +<p>“And did you kill them <i>all</i>—every one?” demanded +Tess, in amazement.</p> + +<p>“No. We jest cut ’em down for the most part,” +explained Kuk. “Ye see, we cut a low swath with +our scythes; mostly we mowed off their feet and +mebbe their legs purty near to their knees. After +that there battle there was a most awful lot o’ +wooden legged pi-<i>rats</i> on the Spanish Main.</p> + +<p>“An’ <i>that</i>,” declared the clam digger, rising and +getting ready to move on, “was the main reason +why I left the sea; leastwise I never wanted to go +sailin’ much in them parts again.</p> + +<p>“In the scrimmage I got a shot in this leg as +busted my knee-cap. I kep’ hoppin’ ’round on +that busted leg as long as there was any pi-<i>rats</i> +to mow down; and I did the knee a lot of harm the +doctors in the horspital said.</p> + +<p>“So I had ter have the leg ampertated. That +made folks down that-a-way ax me was I a pi-<i>rat</i>, +too. I’m a sensitive man,” said Kuk, wagging +his head, “an’ it hurt my feelin’s to be classed in +with all them wooden-legged fellers as we mowed +down in the <i>Spankin’ Sal</i>. So I come hum an’ left +the sea for good and all,” concluded Habakuk +Somes, and at once pegged off with his clam basket +on his arm.</p> + +<p>“What an awful, <i>awful</i> story!” cried Dot.</p> + +<p>“Too awful to believe,” answered Tess, wisely.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink23'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXIII—THE SHADOW</a></h2> + +<p>The four Corner House girls planned to start +for town one morning early, and they were going +by road instead of by boat.</p> + +<p>Agnes ran over to the boys’ tents to ask Neale +O’Neil to see that their fresh fish was put upon +the ice in the icebox when the fishman came; +and she found Neale doing duty on the housekeeping +staff that morning, being busily engaged in +shaking up the pillows and beating mattresses in +the sun. The latter exertion was particularly for +the dislodgment of the ubiquitous sandflea!</p> + +<p>“Hello, Ag! What’s the good word?” cried +Neale.</p> + +<p>Agnes told him what they were going to do and +asked the favor.</p> + +<p>“I’ll see that you get the fish all right,” Neale +agreed. “But what about the iceman? He’ll +never come near your tent with Tom Jonah there.”</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah is going with us,” Agnes said, +promptly. “Did you suppose we’d leave him all +day alone, poor fellow?”</p> + +<p>When they started Tom Jonah showed his delight +at being included in the girls’ outing by the +most extravagant gyrations. As they went up the +shaded lane toward the auto-stage road, he chased +half a dozen imaginary rabbits into the woods in as +many minutes.</p> + +<p>It was right at the head of the lane that they +met the man. He was not a bad looking man at +all, and he was driving a nice horse to a rubber-tired +runabout.</p> + +<p>He drew in the horse, that seemed to have already +traveled some miles that morning, and +looked hard at Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, cheerfully, “there’s the old +tramp himself. How long have you girls had +him?”</p> + +<p>The four Corner House girls stood stock-still, +and even Ruth was smitten dumb for the moment.</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah, you rascal!” said the man, not +unkindly. “Don’t you know your old master?”</p> + +<p>At first the dog had not seen him; but the moment +he heard the man’s voice, he halted and his +whole body stiffened. The plume of his tail began +to wave; his jaws stretched wide in a doggish +smile. Then, as the man playfully snapped the +whip at him, Tom Jonah barked loudly.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get him!” the man repeated, +looking at the Corner House girls again.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were clinging to each other’s +hands. Agnes stared at the man belligerently. +Ruth said—and her voice was not quite steady:</p> + +<p>“Do you think you know Tom Jonah, sir?”</p> + +<p>“What do you think yourself, Miss?” responded +the man, rather gruffly. “I guess there’s no mistake +about whether he knows me and I know him.”</p> + +<p>“No, sir,” said Ruth, bravely. “But lots of +people may know him.”</p> + +<p>“Do you mean to put in a claim for the dog?” +interrupted the man, quickly.</p> + +<p>“Tom Jonah came to our house in Milton,” began +Ruth, when again the man interrupted with:</p> + +<p>“Of course. He was on his way home to me. +I sold him to a man who lives forty miles beyond +Milton.”</p> + +<p>“Then you do <i>not</i> own him?” Ruth said, with a +feeling of relief.</p> + +<p>The man looked at her steadily for a minute. +Ruth had recovered her self-possession. Tess and +Dot were now on either side of Tom Jonah, with +their arms about the dog’s neck. Agnes was very +angry, but remained silent.</p> + +<p>“I raised that dog from a pup, Miss. I owned +his mother. I raised him. I put his name on his +collar. He has it there yet, hasn’t he?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” admitted Ruth.</p> + +<p>“He’s always been a good dog. He’s a gentleman +if ever a dog was! He had the run of the +house. My wife and the girls made a great pet +of him. But by and by they said he was too big +and clumsy for the house. They have a couple of +little <i>fice</i>—lap-poodles, or the like. Tom Jonah +was put out, and he got jealous. Yes, sir!” and +the man laughed. “Just as jealous as a human.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Agnes. She <i>disliked</i> that man!</p> + +<p>“My name’s Reynolds,” said the man. “Everybody +knows me about Shawmit. I run a lumber-yard +there.</p> + +<p>“Well! Tom Jonah got to running away to +the neighbors. Stayed a while with one, then with +another. Always liked kids, Tom Jonah did, and +he’d stay longest where there were kids in the +family.</p> + +<p>“But it got to be a nuisance. I didn’t know +whether the dog belonged to me or somebody else. +So I sold him to a relative of my wife’s who came +on visiting us, and took a fancy to Tom Jonah, and +who lives—as I said—forty miles beyond Milton. +So the old fellow was on his way back home when +you took him in, eh?”</p> + +<p>“He came to us at Milton,” Ruth replied. “He +wanted to stay. I brought him down here to take +care of my little sisters. We’re living in a tent +down on the shore yonder——”</p> + +<p>“And we’re going to keep him!” interrupted +Agnes, angrily.</p> + +<p>“Hush! Be still, Aggie!” begged Ruth, in a +low tone.</p> + +<p>“You don’t claim you bought him, I suppose?” +said the man who called himself Reynolds.</p> + +<p>“But we <i>will</i>!” cried Ruth, instantly. “We +will gladly pay for him.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, he’s not for sale again,” laughed the man. +“I sold him once and he wouldn’t stay sold, you +see.”</p> + +<p>“Then he doesn’t belong to you now, any more +than he does to us, really,” Ruth hastened to say.</p> + +<p>“Well——that’s so, I suppose,” admitted the +man.</p> + +<p>“We won’t give Tom Jonah up to anybody,” +said Agnes again.</p> + +<p>Dot was crying and Tess could scarcely keep +from following her lead. Tom Jonah stood solemnly, +his eyes very bright, his tail waving slowly. +He looked from the girls to the man in the runabout, +and back again. He knew they were discussing +him; but he did not know just what it was +all about.</p> + +<p>“If we have to,” said Ruth, with much more +confidence in her voice than she felt in her heart, +“we will give Tom Jonah up to the person who +really owns him. We do not know you, sir. We +do not know if what you say is true. You must +prove it.”</p> + +<p>“Well! I like that!” said the man in a tone +that showed he did not like it at all. “You are a +pretty pert young lady, you are. I guess I’ll take +my own dog home. I heard he was over here to +the beach and I drove over particularly to get +him.”</p> + +<p>“Take him, then!” exclaimed Ruth, desperately. +“If Tom Jonah will go with you, all right. You +call him.”</p> + +<p>“Come here, boy!” commanded the man.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah did not move. Ruth took a hand +of each of the smaller girls and led them away +from the big dog.</p> + +<p>“Come, children,” she said. “We’ll go on. If +Tom Jonah really loves us, he’ll come, too.”</p> + +<p>The dog whined. He looked from the red-faced, +angry man to the four girls who loved him so well.</p> + +<p>“Come here, Tom Jonah!” commanded the man +again. He had turned his horse and was evidently +headed for home. “Come, sir!”</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls were moving sadly +away. Agnes glanced back and actually made a +face at the man in the runabout. Fortunately he +did not see it.</p> + +<p>“Come on, Tom Jonah!” said the man for the +third time.</p> + +<p>The dog was perplexed. He showed it plainly. +He started after the man; he started back for the +girls. He whined and he barked. He was torn +by the conflicting emotions in his doggish soul.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with him?” exclaimed the +man, and snapped his whiplash at Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>At that, Dot uttered a shriek of anguish. Tess +burst into tears. Agnes started back as though +to protect the dog. Even Ruth could not forbear +to utter a cry.</p> + +<p>“Here, Tom Jonah! here, sir!” Agnes shouted. +“Come on, you dear old fellow.”</p> + +<p>The dog barked, circled the moving carriage +once, and then raced down the road toward the +Corner House girls. The man shouted and +snapped his whip. Tom Jonah did not even look +back at him when he caught up with the girls.</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink04' src='images/illus-004.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>The dog was perplexed. He started after the man; started back for the girls. He whined and he barked.</p> +</div> + +<p>“Hurry up! let’s run with him, Ruthie,” begged +Agnes.</p> + +<p>But there was no need of that. The man did not +turn his horse and follow. He was quickly out of +sight and Tom Jonah gave no sign of wishing to +follow his old master.</p> + +<p>The incident troubled the Corner House girls +vastly. Even Ruth was devoted to the good old +dog by this time. If he were taken away by this +Mr. Reynolds, it would be like losing one of the +Corner House family.</p> + +<p>Ruth feared that Mr. Reynolds would find some +legal way of getting possession of Tom Jonah. +She wished Mr. Howbridge were here to advise +them what to do. She even wished now that she +had not brought Tom Jonah to Pleasant Cove to +act as their “chaperon.”</p> + +<p>The smaller girls dried their eyes after a time. +Agnes, “breathing threatenings,” as Ruth said, +promised Tess and Dot that the man never should +take Tom Jonah away. But Ruth wondered what +they would do about it if Mr. Reynolds came to +Willowbend Camp with a police constable and a +warrant for the dog?</p> + +<p>And, too, who had sent Mr. Reynolds word that +Tom Jonah was at the beach? He particularly +said that he had been informed of the fact. It +seemed to Ruth that the informer must be their +enemy.</p> + +<p>Then, out of a dust cloud that had been drawing +near the Corner House girls for some few moments, +appeared the forefront of a big touring +car. In it were Trix Severn and some of her +friends from the Overlook House.</p> + +<p>“Oh! there’s Trix!” murmured Agnes to her +older sister.</p> + +<p>The hotel-keeper’s daughter would not look at +the Corner House girls. She, certainly, had +proved herself their enemy. Ruth wondered if +Trix had had anything to do with bringing Mr. +Reynolds to Pleasant Cove, searching for his dog.</p> + +<p>Ruth knew that the hotel-keeper’s daughter often +rode over to Shawmit; she was probably on +her way there now with her party. And after the +way Trix had acted at the time the Spoondrift +bungalow was burned, one might expect anything +mean of Trix. For once Ruth allowed her suspicions +to color her thoughts.</p> + +<p>“She has awfully good times, just the same,” +murmured Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Who does?” demanded Ruth, tartly.</p> + +<p>“Trix.”</p> + +<p>“I declare!” exclaimed Ruth, with more vexation +than she usually displayed. “I’d be ashamed +that I ever knew her after the way she’s acted. +And I believe, Agnes, that we can thank her for +setting that man after Tom Jonah.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruth! Do you believe so?”</p> + +<p>“I do,” said the older Corner House girl, and +she explained why she thought so.</p> + +<p>Mr. Severn bought many of his supplies in +Shawmit, and Trix was forever running over there +in the car. It did not strain one’s imagination +very much to picture Trix hearing about Mr. +Reynolds’ dog and recognizing Tom Jonah from +the description. Besides, the Severns had been +coming to Pleasant Cove for several seasons, and +Trix might easily have seen the dog when he lived +with his first master.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me!” sighed Agnes. “It does seem +too bad that one’s very <i>best</i> friends sometimes +turn out to be one’s enemies. Who’d have +thought Trix Severn would do such a thing?”</p> + +<p>“Of course, we don’t <i>know</i>,” admitted Ruth, +trying to be fair. “But who else could have told +Mr. Reynolds about Tom Jonah?”</p> + +<p>Ruth went into the first store in the village that +sold such things and bought a new leash. This +she snapped into the ring of his collar and made +the old dog walk beside them more decorously.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot could scarcely keep from hugging +him all the time; they wanted Ruth to agree to +take the very next train back to Milton, for they +thought with the dog once at the old Corner +House, nobody could take him away from them.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t like that man at all, anyway,” Tess +declared. “He had red whiskers.”</p> + +<p>“Is—is that a sign that a man’s real mean if he +has red whiskers, Tess?” asked Dot, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“It’s a sign Tess doesn’t like him,” laughed +Agnes. “But I don’t like that Reynolds man +myself. Do you, Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“We’re all agreed on that point I should hope,” +said Ruth. “But we won’t run away with Tom +Jonah. If that man comes for him again, I’ll find +some way to circumvent him. The good old dog +belongs to us, if he does to anybody. And as long +as he wants to live with us, he shall. So now!”</p> + +<p>The other Corner House girls finally forgot +their worriment about Tom Jonah. Ruth +warned them not to talk about it to the girls they +met. They did their errands in the village and +then went on to Spoondrift bungalow where they +spent a very enjoyable day.</p> + +<p>Neale O’Neil and Joe Eldred came after supper +to escort the Corner House girls back to Willowbend +Camp. Tess and Dot had taken a nap during +the afternoon, so were not a drag on the procession, +going home.</p> + +<p>They went around by the home of the little old +woman who lived in the shoe. Ruth and Agnes +had been talking with the boys about the mystery +of the strange girl who had shared in the adventures +of Tess and Dot on Wild Goose Island. +They all agreed she must be a Gypsy; but Ruth +had kept to herself the knowledge of the girl’s +identity as the Gypsy “queen.”</p> + +<p>“I saw several of the Gypsies about the beach +to-day,” Joe Eldred said. “That snaky, scarred-faced +fellow was one of them.”</p> + +<p>“He’s the ring-leader, I believe,” Ruth hastened +to say.</p> + +<p>“Can’t just see what they are after, hanging +about here,” Neale observed. “There isn’t much +to steal. Everybody’s brought just the oldest +things they own down here to the beach.”</p> + +<p>“And there are no hens to steal,” chuckled +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“I bet none of them will come near the tents +while Tom Jonah is on guard,” Neale added, snapping +his fingers for the dog who was running +ahead in the moonlit path.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Tom Jonah stopped and growled. +They had arrived in sight of the queer little cottage +where Rosa Wildwood lived with Mrs. Bobster. +The young folk could even see the drawn +shade of the sitting-room window.</p> + +<p>“There’s that man again!” exclaimed Agnes.</p> + +<p>“What man?” Joe Eldred asked.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Bobster’s mysterious friend,” giggled +Agnes. “See his shadow on the curtain?”</p> + +<p>“And he’s sitting there with his hat on,” murmured +Neale.</p> + +<p>But it was Ruth who saw the other—and more +important—shadow. This was the figure of a tall +man slipping along the outer side of Mrs. Bobster’s +picket fence. It was <i>this</i> shadow at which +Tom Jonah was growling.</p> + +<p>The man came to the gate, opened it softly, and +stole in. His furtive movements gave the big dog +his cue. He leaped forward, barking vociferously, +leaped the fence, and followed the running figure +around the corner of the house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bobster shrieked—the young folk outside +could hear her. But her “company” did not +move. He still sat there with his derby hat on.</p> + +<p>The boys started after the dog. The girls stood, +clinging to one another’s hands, at the corner of +the fence.</p> + +<p>From around the house appeared another running +figure; but this was a girl. She flung herself +headlong over the fence, and her skirt caught on a +picket. Ruth ran forward to release her.</p> + +<p>“Oh, my dear!” she gasped. “Where did you +come from?”</p> + +<p>It was the girl she had first noticed in the train +with the Gypsy woman—the very girl who had +been on Wild Goose Island with Tess and Dot. It +was she who had masqueraded as Zaliska, the +Gypsy queen.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink24'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXIV—BROUGHT TO BOOK</a></h2> + +<p>“Let me go! Let me go!” gasped the girl in +Ruth’s arms. “He will get me.”</p> + +<p>“Who’ll get you?” demanded the wondering +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Big Jim, the Gypsy. He’s after me,” said the +strange girl.</p> + +<p>“And Tom Jonah and the boys are after <i>him</i>,” +declared Ruth. “Don’t you fret; Big Jim won’t +come back here.”</p> + +<p>“Who <i>is</i> she, Ruth?” asked Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Never mind who I am,” said the girl, rather +sharply. “Let me go.”</p> + +<p>“I know why you were lurking about here,” +Ruth said, calmly. “You heard that Rosa Wildwood +is stopping here.”</p> + +<p>“Well?” demanded the other.</p> + +<p>“Then you are June Wildwood. You’re her sister. +I don’t know how you came to be with those +Gypsies, and masquerading as an old woman——”</p> + +<p>“My goodness!” gasped Agnes. “Was <i>she</i> +that Gypsy queen?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” Ruth said, confidently. “Now, weren’t +you?” to the strange girl. “And aren’t you +Rosa’s sister who ran away two years ago?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I am! I am!” groaned the girl.</p> + +<p>“Well, Rosa’s just crazy to see you. And your +father has been searching for you everywhere,” +said Ruth, quickly. “You must come in and see +Rosa. There’s Mrs. Bobster opening the front +door.”</p> + +<p>The shadow of the man with the derby hat on +his head still was motionless upon the shade; but +the widow had opened the front door on its chain, +and now demanded:</p> + +<p>“Who’s there? what do you want?”</p> + +<p>“It’s only me, Mrs. Bobster,” cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot were already running toward the +cottage door. “Oh, Mrs. Bobster!” Tess cried, +“here’s the girl that helped us on the island—me +and Dot.”</p> + +<p>“And my Alice-doll,” concluded Dot, likewise +excited. “And Ruthie says she’s Rosa’s sister.”</p> + +<p>“For the good land of liberty’s sake!” ejaculated +Mrs. Bobster, throwing wide the door. +“Come in! Come in!”</p> + +<p>The girl whom Ruth had seized hesitated for a +moment. Ruth whispered in her ear:</p> + +<p>“Rosa is wearing her heart out for you, June +Wildwood. And your father isn’t drinking any +more. He has a steady job. You come back to +them and you needn’t be afraid of those Gypsies.”</p> + +<p>“They’ll try to get me back. Doc. Raynes’ wife +was one of them. The old doctor died a year ago, +and since then I’ve been with that gang,” said +June Wildwood.</p> + +<p>“Were the doctor and his wife the folks you ran +away with?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I danced and sang and dressed up in +character to help entertain their audiences when +he sold bitters and salve,” the girl explained. +“The old doctor treated me all right. But these +thieving Gypsies are different. Mrs. Doc. Raynes +is Big Jim’s sister.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you be afraid of them any more. We’ll +set the police after them,” Ruth declared. +“Where have you been since the day my sisters +were with you?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve been washing dishes at a hotel here in +Pleasant Cove. But I kept under cover. I was +afraid of them,” said the girl.</p> + +<p>They reached the door then, and went into the +cottage. Mrs. Bobster ushered them right into +the sitting-room and at once all the girls halted in +amazement. There was an armchair standing between +the window and the center table, where the +lamp sat. Leaning against the chair was the +broom, and on the business end of that very useful +household implement was a hat that had probably +once belonged to the husband of the little old +woman who lived in a shoe.</p> + +<p>“My goodness sake!” ejaculated Agnes, the +first to get her breath. “Then it was not company +you had at all, Mrs. Bobster?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said the widow, in a business-like way, +removing the hat from the broom and standing the +latter in the corner. “But I didn’t want folks to +know it. There’s some stragglers around here +after dark, and I wanted ’em to think there was a +man in the house.”</p> + +<p>At that moment Rosa Wildwood came running +downstairs in wrapper and slippers. “I heard +her! I heard her!” she shrieked, and the next +moment the two sisters were hugging each other +frantically.</p> + +<p>Explanations were in order; and it took some +time for the little old lady who lived in a shoe to +understand the reunion of her boarder and the girl +who had lived with the Gypsies.</p> + +<p>The boys and Tom Jonah came back, having +chased the lurking Big Jim for quite a mile +through the woods. “And Tom Jonah brought +back a piece of his coat-tail,” chuckled Neale +O’Neil. “He can consider himself lucky that the +dog didn’t bite deeper!”</p> + +<p>“I guess that dog doesn’t like Gypsies,” said +June Wildwood, patting Tom Jonah’s head.</p> + +<p>The boys were just as much interested as their +girl friends in the reunion of Rosa and her sister. +Meanwhile Mrs. Bobster bustled about and found +the usual pitcher of cool milk and a great platter +of cookies. The young folk feasted beyond reason +while they all talked.</p> + +<p>Ruth arranged with the little old woman who +lived in a shoe to let June stay with her sister, and +she promised June, as well, that if she would return +to Milton with Rosa, employment would be +found for her so that she could be self-supporting, +yet live at home with Rosa and Bob Wildwood.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girls offered to leave Tom +Jonah to guard the premises for that night. But +Mrs. Bobster said:</p> + +<p>“I reckon I won’t be scaret none with two great +girls in the house with me. Besides, when I am +asleep, being lonesome don’t bother me none—no, +ma’am!”</p> + +<p>“Well, we don’t know how long we’re going to +have old Tom Jonah ourselves,” sighed Agnes, as +the party bound for the tent colony started on +again.</p> + +<p>“How’s that!” demanded Neale, quickly.</p> + +<p>They told him about the man named Reynolds, +from Shawmit, and the claim he had made to the +big dog. Neale was equally troubled with the Corner +House girls over this, and he advised Ruth and +Agnes to take the dog wherever they went.</p> + +<p>“Don’t give the fellow a chance to find Tom +Jonah alone, or with the little girls,” said Neale. +“I don’t believe he can get the dog legally without +considerable trouble. And Tom Jonah has shown +whom he likes best.”</p> + +<p>This uncertainty about Tom Jonah, however, +did not keep the Corner House girls from continuing +their good times at Pleasant Cove. With +one of the ladies of the tent colony for chaperon +the girls and their boy friends had many a “junket”—up +the river, down the bay, and even outside +upon the open sea.</p> + +<p>It was on one of these latter occasions that +Ruth and Agnes joined Neale and his friends on +the “double-ender,” <i>Hattie G.</i>, and with her crew +spent a night and a day chasing the elusive swordfish.</p> + +<p>That <i>was</i> an adventure; and one not soon to be +forgotten by the older Corner House girls. Of +course Tess and Dot were too small to go on this +trip and they were fast asleep in one of the neighboring +tents when Neale O’Neil came and +scratched on the canvas of that in which Ruth and +Agnes slept.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Agnes. “What’s that!”</p> + +<p>“Is that you, Neale?” demanded Ruth, calmly.</p> + +<p>“Of course. Get a bustle on,” advised the boy. +“The motorboat will be ready in ten minutes.”</p> + +<p>“Mercy!” ejaculated Agnes, giggling. “You +know we don’t wear bustles, Neale. They are too +old-fashioned for anything.”</p> + +<p>She and Ruth quickly dressed. There wasn’t +much “prinking and preening” before the mirror +on this morning, that was sure. In ten minutes +the two Corner House girls were running down +the beach, with their bags (packed over-night) and +their rain-coats over their arms. Tom Jonah +raced after them.</p> + +<p>Everywhere save on the beach itself the shadows +lay deep. There was no moon and the stars +twinkled high overhead—spangles sewed on the +black-velvet robe of Night.</p> + +<p>Out upon the quietly heaving waters sounded +voices—then the pop of a launch engine.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” urged Neale’s voice. “They’re +getting the boat ready, girls.”</p> + +<p>“But we’re not going out to the banks in the +<i>Nimble Shanks</i>—surely!” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>“No. But we’re going down the cove in her to +catch the <i>Hattie G.</i> Skipper Joline sent up a +rocket for us half an hour ago. The tide’s going +out. He won’t wait long, I assure you.”</p> + +<p>“It would be lots more comfortable to go all the +way in the motorboat—wouldn’t it?” asked Ruth, +stepping into the skiff after Agnes and the dog.</p> + +<p>“Skipper Joline would have a fit,” laughed Joe +Eldred. “A motorboat engine would scare every +swordfish within a league of the Banks—so <i>he</i> +says. He declares <i>that</i> is what makes them so +hard to catch the last few seasons. These motorboats +running about the sea are a greater nuisance +than the motor cars ashore—so he declares.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose the swordfish shy at the motorboats +just like the horses shy at automobiles!” giggled +Agnes, as Neale and Joe pushed off and seized the +oars.</p> + +<p>“Yep,” grunted Neale O’Neil. “And the motorboats +have frightened all the horse-mackerel +away. That’s a joke. I’ll tell the Skipper <i>that</i>.”</p> + +<p>Several shadowy figures—being those of the +other boys and Mr. and Mrs. Stryver, who were +members of the swordfishing party, too—were +spied about the deck and cockpit of the <i>Nimble +Shanks</i>. The boys shot the skiff in beside the +motorboat and helped the girls aboard. Then +they moored the skiff to the motorboat’s buoy and +soon the <i>Nimble Shanks</i> was away, down the cove.</p> + +<p>It was past two o’clock—the darkest minutes of +a summer’s morning. Seaward, a light haze hung +over the water—seemingly a veil of mist let down +from the sky to shut out the view of all distant +objects from the out-sailing mariners.</p> + +<p>As the party neared the fishing fleet, voices carried +flatly across the water, and now and then a +dog barked. Tom Jonah answered these canines +ashore with explosive growls. He stood forward, +his paws planted firmly on the deck, and snuffing +the sea air. Tom Jonah was a good sailor.</p> + +<p>“Got your scare?” a voice came out of the darkness, +quavering across the cove. “Going to be +thick outside.”</p> + +<p>Neale grabbed the fish-horn and blew a mighty +blast on it. Similar horns answered from all +about the fleet.</p> + +<p>A towering mast, with its big sail bending to the +breeze, shot past them—the big cat-boat, <i>Susie</i>, +bound for her lines of lobster-pots just off the +mouth of the cove. Her crew hailed the launch +and her party—four sturdy young fellows in jerseys +and high sea-boots.</p> + +<p>“Whew!” said Joe. “Smell that lobster bait! +I’d hate to go for a pleasure trip on the <i>Susie</i>.”</p> + +<p>The <i>Hattie G.</i> was just ahead and Mr. Stryver +shut off the engine. The drab, dirty looking old +craft tugged sharply at her taut mooring cable. +She had two short masts, and on these heavy canvas +was being spread by the crew, which consisted +of five men and a boy.</p> + +<p>One of the men was the skipper, another the +mate, a third the cook; but all hands had to turn +to to make sail. There were several sweeps +(heavy oars) held in bights of rope along the rail. +Both ends of the <i>Hattie G.</i> were sharp; in other +words she had two bows. Thus the name, “double-ender”—a +build of craft now almost extinct +save in a few New England ports out of which ply +the swordfishermen.</p> + +<p>Skipper Joline came to the rail. He was a +hoarse, red-faced man with a white beard, cut like +a paintbrush, on his chin.</p> + +<p>“Climb aboard, folks,” he said. “Steve will +get breakfast shortly. There’s a bit of fog and +some swell outside. Better all lay in a good +foundation of scouse and sody biscuit. Ye’ll need +it later.”</p> + +<p>“That sounds rather suggestive, Ruth,” whispered +Agnes. “Do you suppose he expects us +landlubbers to be really <i>sick</i>?”</p> + +<p>“I hope not,” replied her sister. “But I don’t +care! I’m going to eat that breakfast if it kills +me! I was never so hungry in all my life before.”</p> + +<p>They left the <i>Nimble Shanks</i> moored at the double-ender’s +anchor-buoy, and the latter lurched +away on the short leg of her tack for the entrance +to the cove. There was a fresh breeze and the +water began to sing under the sharp bows of the +<i>Hattie G.</i></p> + +<p>The cook got busy in the galley and the fragrance +of coffee and fried fish smothered all +other smells about the craft—for it must be confessed +that the double-ender had an ancient and +fishy smell of her own that was not altogether +pleasant to the nostrils of a fastidious person.</p> + +<p>These hearty boys and girls were out for fun, +however, and they had been long enough at Pleasant +Cove to get used to most fishy odors. Before +breakfast was over the <i>Hattie G.</i> had run through +the “Breach,” as the cove entrance was called, +and they were sailing straight out to sea.</p> + +<p>The mournful wail of a horn in the fog now and +then announced the location of some lobsterman. +The <i>Hattie G.</i> answered these “scares” with her +own horn and swept on through the fog.</p> + +<p>But now the mist began to lift. A golden glow +rose, increased, and spread all along the eastern +horizon. Suddenly they shot out of the fog and +sailed right into the bright path of the rising sun.</p> + +<p>This wonderful sight of sunrise at sea delighted +Ruth and Agnes intensely. It was just as +though they had sailed suddenly into a new world.</p> + +<p>The fog masked the land astern. Ahead was +nothing but the heaving, greenish-gray waves, +foam-streaked at their crowns to the distant skyline, +with only a few sails crossing the line of +vision. Not a speck of land marred the seascape.</p> + +<p>Later, when the <i>Hattie G.</i> reached the Banks, +there was something beside the view to interest +and excite the Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>The big sails were lowered and only a riding +sail spread to keep the <i>Hattie G.</i> on an even keel. +A “pulpit” was set up on each of her short booms—both +fore and aft.</p> + +<p>At the top of a mast was rigged a barrel-like +thing in which the lookout stood with a glass, on +the watch for the swordfish.</p> + +<p>These can only be caught asleep on the surface +of the sea. When one is sighted either the sails +are hoisted, or the sweeps are used, to bring the +vessel near enough for the skipper or his mate to +make a cast of the harpoon.</p> + +<p>Once one of the huge fish was spied, everybody +aboard the <i>Hattie G.</i> was on the <i>qui vive</i>. The +boys climbed the ratlines to see. The girls borrowed +the cook’s old-fashioned spyglass to get a +better view of the creature.</p> + +<p>The <i>Hattie G.</i> was brought softly near the fish. +Skipper Joline had warned his guests to keep +quiet. Ruth kept her hand upon Tom Jonah’s collar +so that he should not disturb the proceedings.</p> + +<p>The skipper stepped into the pulpit—a framework +of iron against which he leaned when he cast +the harpoon. All was ready for the supreme moment.</p> + +<p>The coil of the line was laid behind him. The +crew brought the <i>Hattie G.</i> just to the spot Skipper +Joline indicated with a wave of his hand.</p> + +<p>Back swung the mighty arm of the skipper, the +muscles swelling like cables under the sleeve of +his blue jersey.</p> + +<p>“Now!” breathed the mate, as eager as any of +the boys or girls among the spectators.</p> + +<p>Ping!</p> + +<p>The skipper had let drive. The harpoon sank +deeply into the fish. For a brief instant they saw +blood spurt out and dye the sea.</p> + +<p>Then the huge fish leaped almost its length from +the sea. The crew drove the <i>Hattie G.</i> back. +Good reason why the swordfishing craft are built +sharp at both ends!</p> + +<p>How the fish thrashed and fought! Its sword +beat the water to foam. Had it found the double-ender, +the latter’s bottom-planks would have been +no protection against the creature’s blows.</p> + +<p>A swordfish has been known to thrust its weapon +through the bottom of a boat and break it off in its +struggles to get free.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Agnes!” gasped Ruth, when the fight was +over and the huge fish killed. “Who would ever +believe, while buying a slice of swordfish, that it +was so dangerous to capture one of the creatures?”</p> + +<p>The crew of the <i>Hattie G.</i> got four ere they set +sail for Pleasant Cove again, and the Corner +House girls became quite used to the methods of +the fishermen and the tactics of the swordfish on +being struck.</p> + +<p>They sailed back to Pleasant Cove with what +was called the prize catch of the season. When +a fish is as big as a good-sized dining-table and +sells for twenty-five cents a pound, retail, it does +not take many to make a good catch.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes, and Neale and the other boys, +were glad they went on the trip. They arrived at +the camp late in the evening, filled with enthusiasm +over the adventures of the day.</p> + +<p>And Skipper Joline presented the Corner House +girls with a four-foot sword which, later, occupied +a place of honor over the sitting-room mantelpiece +in the old Corner House at Milton.</p> + +<p>Ruth took Tom Jonah up to see the Wildwood +girls with her the very next time she went to call.</p> + +<p>The Corner House girl found Rosa and June +shelling peas under the arbor, while Mrs. Bobster +was talking with Kuk Somes over a “mess” of +clams she had bought.</p> + +<p>“You ain’t honest enough to count out a hunderd +clams, Kuk,” declared the plain-spoken old +lady. “Ye got such a high-powered imagination +that ye can’t count straight.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Mis’ Bobster, thet thar’s a hard statement +ter make,” said Kuk, shaking his head, but +grinning. “Don’t make me out so ’fore these here +young ladies.”</p> + +<p>“I reckon they know ye!” cried the widow. “If +they’ve ever hearn ye spin one o’ yer sea-farin’ +yarns——”</p> + +<p>“And we have,” interposed Ruth, smiling. +“He’s told us about how he sailed in the <i>Spanking +Sal</i> and lost his leg fighting pirates.”</p> + +<p>“For the good land o’ liberty!” gasped Mrs. +Bobster. “He never told ye <i>that</i>?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. It was very interesting,” laughed +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Why,” said the widow, angrily, “that fellow +never sailed in a deep-water craft in his life. The +only time he ever went out in a double-ender as +fur as the swordfish banks, he was so sick they had +ter bring him ashore on a stretcher!”</p> + +<p>“Now, Mis’ Bobster——” began the clam digger, +faintly.</p> + +<p>“Ain’t that <i>so</i>? Ye daren’t deny it,” she declared. +“He ain’t no sailor. He’s jest an old +beach-comber. Don’t never go in <i>any</i> boat outside +of the cove. Lost his leg fightin’ pirates, did he? +Huh!”</p> + +<p>“So he told us,” said the much amused Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Why, th’ ridiculous old thing!” exclaimed +Mrs. Bobster, laughing herself now. “He lost +that leg in Mr. Reynolds’ sawmill at Shawmit—that’s +how he did it. And he was tipsy at the +time or he wouldn’t never have got hurt.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Ruth, staring at the sheepish clam +digger.</p> + +<p>“And he goes over there to Shawmit ev’ry +month an’ collects ten dollars from Reynolds, +who’s good-natured and helps him out with a pension. +Ain’t that so, Kuk Somes!”</p> + +<p>The wooden-legged clam digger nodded. +“Whar’s the harm?” he murmured. “Ye know +these city folks likes ter hear my yarns. An’ it +don’t hurt ’em none.”</p> + +<p>“But that’s how Mr. Reynolds heard about our +having Tom Jonah,” declared Ruth, accusingly. +“You told him.”</p> + +<p>“Yep. That’s his old dawg,” said Kuk.</p> + +<p>“Well, you’ve made us a lot of trouble,” said +Ruth, sadly. “For I am afraid that Mr. Reynolds +will try to take Tom Jonah away. And,” she +added, in secret, “how wrong I was to accuse Trix +Severn, without stronger evidence.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink25'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXV—THE END OF THE OUTING</a></h2> + +<p>Tess and Dot Kenway had a very serious matter +to decide. Ruth had determined that, as they +were all enjoying themselves at Pleasant Cove so +much, the Corner House flag should continue to +wave for a time longer over their tent in the Willowbend +Camp.</p> + +<p>But there was something at home in Milton, at +the old Corner House itself, that the younger girls +thought they <i>must</i> attend to.</p> + +<p>“It’s really a <i>nawful</i> state of affairs,” Tess declared, +nodding her sunny head, gravely, and with +her lips pursed up. “They are growing right up +without knowing their own names. Why! I don’t +see how their own mother knows them apart.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Dot, to whom this was a new idea +indeed. “I never thought of that.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s so,” said Tess. “I—I wish Ruth +had sent for them and had had them brought down +here when Rosa and Tom Jonah came.”</p> + +<p>“But they couldn’t leave their mother, Tess,” +objected Dot. “They’re too small.”</p> + +<p>“I—don’t—know,” said Tess, doubtfully. “At +any rate, it’s high time they were named. You +know, Mrs. MacCall says so herself.”</p> + +<p>Dot picked up the letter that the kind housekeeper +at the old Corner House had written especially +to the two smaller Kenway girls.</p> + +<p>“She says they chase their tails all day long +and they have had to put them out in the woodshed +to keep them from being under foot,” Dot said, +reading slowly, for Mrs. MacCall’s writing was +not like print.</p> + +<p>“They must be named,” repeated Tess, with +conviction.</p> + +<p>“But Ruth won’t let us go home to do it,” quoth +Dot.</p> + +<p>“And I don’t want to. Do <i>you</i>?” demanded +Tess, hastily. “I don’t want to leave the beach +now, just when we’re having so much fun.”</p> + +<p>Neither did Dot. But the state of the unchristened +kittens—the youngest family of Sandyface—troubled +her exceedingly.</p> + +<p>Tess, however, suddenly had one of her very +brilliant ideas. “I tell you what let’s do!” she +cried.</p> + +<p>“What?”</p> + +<p>“Let’s write Mrs. MacCall and Uncle Rufus a +letter, and ask them to name Sandyface’s children +their own selves.”</p> + +<p>“But—but <i>we</i> want to name them,” cried Dot.</p> + +<p>“Goosey!” exclaimed Tess. “We’ll choose the +names; but Mrs. MacCall and Uncle Rufus can +give them to the kittens. Don’t you see?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tess! we might,” agreed Dot, delighted.</p> + +<p>Tess ran to the tent for paper and pencil, and +bespoke the favor of an envelope addressed in ink +to Mrs. MacCall.</p> + +<p>“Of course, I’ll address one for you,” said Ruth, +kindly. “But what’s all the hurry about writing +home?”</p> + +<p>Tess explained the necessity that had arisen. +Sandyface’s family of kittens was growing up +without being christened—and something might +happen to them.</p> + +<p>“You know,” said Tess, gravely, “it would be +dreadful if one of them died and we didn’t know +what to put on the headboard. It would be dreadful!”</p> + +<p>“And what names shall we send Mrs. MacCall?” +Dot wanted to know, when Tess had started the +letter “Deare Missus Mcall” and was chewing the +pencil as an aid to further thought.</p> + +<p>“Let’s call them by seashore names,” suggested +Tess. “Then they’ll remind us of the fun we had +here at Pleasant Cove.”</p> + +<p>“Oh-oo! Let’s,” agreed Dot.</p> + +<p>“Well, now,” said Tess, promptly. “What will +be the very first one? I’ll write Mrs. MacCall +what we want,” and she proceeded to indite the +following paragraph to begin the letter:</p> + +<div class='bq'> +<p>“We are having so much fun down here at plesent cove that we cant +find time to come home and name Sandface’s babbies. But we want +you and unc rufs to do it for us and we are going to send you the +names we chose. They are——”</p> +</div> + +<p>Here Tess’s laboring pencil came to a full stop. +“Now, you got the first name, Dot?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“I got two,” declared Dot, confidently.</p> + +<p>“What are they!” queried Tess. “Now, we +want them to be real salt-water names. Just like +fishes’ names—or boats’ names—or like that.”</p> + +<p>“I got two,” declared Dot, soberly. “Lots of +men must be named those names about here. I +hear them hollerin’ to each other when they are +out in the boats.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well!” cried Tess, impatiently. “What +are the names?”</p> + +<p>“One’s ‘Starboard’ and the other’s ‘Port,’” +declared Dot, seriously. “And they are real nice +names, <i>I</i> think.”</p> + +<p>Tess was rather taken aback. She had a hazy +opinion that “Starboard” and “Port” were not +Christian names; they <i>might</i> be, however, and she +had heard them herself a good deal. Besides, she +wanted to agree with Dot if she could, and so she +sighed and wrote as follows:</p> + +<div class='bq'> +<p>“We got to names alreddy, Missus Mcall, and one’s Starborde and the +other is Port. They are very pretty names, we think and we hope you +an unc rufs and Sandface will like them, to. You give them to the +kittens that they seem to fit the best, pleas.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Neale, and Ruth, and Agnes came along some +time afterward and found the smaller Corner +House girls reduced almost to a state of +distraction. They had been unable to decide upon two +more names. “Starboard” and “Port” had been +inspired, it seemed. Now they were “stuck.”</p> + +<p>“It <i>does</i> seem as though there should be some +other seashore names that would sound good for +kittens,” sighed Tess. “I think ‘Starboard’ and +‘Port’ are real pretty—don’t you, Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“Very fine,” agreed her older sister, while +Agnes restrained her giggles.</p> + +<p>“Why not call one of the others ‘Hard-a-Lee’?” +suggested Neale, gravely.</p> + +<p>“Is <i>that</i> a seashore name?” asked Tess, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Just as salt as a dried codfish,” declared +Neale, confidently.</p> + +<p>“I think it is real pretty,” Dot ventured.</p> + +<p>“Then we’ll call the third one ‘Hard-a-Lee,’” +declared Tess. “I’ll tell Mrs. MacCall so,” and +she laboriously went at the misspelled letter again.</p> + +<p>“But how about the fourth one?” asked Agnes, +laughing. “He’s not going to be a step-child, is +he? Isn’t he to have a name?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. We must have one more,” Tess said, +wearily. “Won’t <i>you</i> give us one, Aggie?”</p> + +<p>“Sure!” said Agnes, promptly. “Main-sheet.’”</p> + +<p>“‘Starboard, Port, Hard-a-Lee and Main-sheet.’ +Some names, those!” declared Neale.</p> + +<p>“I like them,” Tess said, reflectively. “They +don’t sound like other cats’ names—do they, +Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>“They most certainly do not,” admitted the +oldest Corner House girl.</p> + +<p>“And are they pretty, Ruthie?” asked Dot.</p> + +<p>“They are better than ‘pretty,’” agreed Ruth, +kindly. “If you children are suited, I am sure +everybody else—including the kittens themselves—will +be pleased!”</p> + +<p>The labored letter was therefore finished and +sent away. As Dot said, “it lifted a great load +from their minds.”</p> + +<p>But there was another matter that served to +trouble all four of the Corner House girls for some +days. That was what Mr. Reynolds, the lumberman, +was going to do about Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>The girls seldom left their tent now without +taking the dog with them. He was something of a +nuisance in the boat when they went crabbing; but +Agnes would not hear of going out without him.</p> + +<p>“I know that man will come back here some time +and try to get him away,” she declared. “But +Tom Jonah will never go of his own free will—no, +indeed!”</p> + +<p>“And he won’t sell him again, he said,” sighed +Ruth. “I don’t just see what we can do.”</p> + +<p>However, this trouble did not keep the Corner +House girls from having many good times with +their girl friends at the Spoondrift bungalow, and +their boy friends on the beach.</p> + +<p>There were fishing trips, and picnics on Wild +Goose Island. They sometimes went outside the +cove in bigger boats, and fished on the “banks,” +miles and miles off shore. There was fun in the +evenings, too, at the hotel dances, although the +Corner House girls did not attend any of those +held at the Overlook House, for they were not exactly +friendly with Trix Severn.</p> + +<p>One day Pearl Harrod’s Uncle Phil arranged to +take a big party of the older girls to Shawmit, +which was some miles up the river. Ruth and +Agnes went along and that day they left Tom +Jonah at Willowbend to take care of the smaller +girls.</p> + +<p>Ruth determined to see Mr. Reynolds, so when +they reached Shawmit, she hunted up the lumberman’s +office. She found him in a more amiable +mood than he had been on the morning he drove +to Pleasant Cove to get Tom Jonah.</p> + +<p>“Well, Miss!” he said. “How do you feel +about giving up that dog?”</p> + +<p>“Just the same, sir,” said Ruth, honestly. +“But I hope you will tell me who the man is you +sold Tom Jonah to, so that we can go to him and +buy the dog.”</p> + +<p>“Do you girls really want old Tom Jonah as +much as <i>that</i>?” asked Mr. Reynolds.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said the girl, simply.</p> + +<p>“Willing to buy the old rascal? And he’s nothing +but a tramp.”</p> + +<p>“He’s a gentleman. You said so yourself on +his collar,” said Ruth.</p> + +<p>The man looked at her seriously and nodded. +“I guess you think a whole lot of him, eh?”</p> + +<p>“A great deal, sir,” admitted Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Well! I guess I’ll have to tell you,” said the +man, smiling. “Old Tom evidently thinks more +of you girls than he does of me. Tell you what: +After I got home the other day I thought it over. +I reckon Tom Jonah’s chosen for himself. I paid +my brother-in-law back the money he gave me for +him. So you won’t be bothered again about him.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, sir——”</p> + +<p>“You keep him. Rather, let Tom Jonah stay as +long as he wants to. But if he comes back to me +I sha’n’t let him go again. No! I don’t want +money for him. I guess the old dog likes it where +he is, and his days of usefulness are pretty nearly +over anyway. I’m convinced he’ll have a good +home with you Corner House girls.”</p> + +<p>“Just as long as he lives!” declared Ruth, fervently.</p> + +<p>So Mr. Reynolds did not prove to be a hardhearted +man, after all. Agnes and Tess and Dot +were delighted. There was a regular celebration +over Tom Jonah that evening after Ruth got home +and told the news.</p> + +<p>It is doubtful if Tom Jonah understood when +Dot informed him that he was going to be their +dog “for keeps.” But he barked very intelligently +and the two smaller girls were quite convinced +that he understood every word that was +said to him.</p> + +<p>“Of course, he can’t talk back,” Tess said. +“Dogs don’t speak our language. But if we could +understand the <i>barking language</i>, I am sure we +would hear him say he was glad.”</p> + +<p>And as our story of the Corner House girls’ +visit to Pleasant Cove began with Tom Jonah, we +may safely end it with the assurance that the good +old dog will spend the rest of his life with Ruth +and Agnes and Tess and Dot, at the old Corner +House in Milton.</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE END</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:0.8em;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em;'>(From eight to twelve years old)</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SERIES</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BY GRACE BROOKS HILL</p> + +<p>Four girls from eight to fourteen +years of age receive word that a rich +bachelor uncle has died, leaving them +the old Corner House he occupied. +They move into it and then the fun +begins. What they find and do will +provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, +they enter school and make many +friends. One of these invites the +girls to spend a few weeks at a bungalow +owned by her parents; and the +adventures they meet with make very +interesting reading. Clean, wholesome +stories of humor and adventure, +sure to appeal to all young girls.</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +1 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS.<br/> +2 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL.<br/> +3 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS.<br/> +4 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY.<br/> +5 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND.<br/> +6 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR.<br/> +7 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP.<br/> +8 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND.<br/> +9 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT.<br/> +10 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES.<br/> +11 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND.<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL</p> + +<p>Polly Pendleton is a resourceful, wide-awake +American girl who goes to a boarding +school on the Hudson River some miles +above New York. By her pluck and resourcefulness, +she soon makes a place for +herself and this she holds right through the +course. The account of boarding school +life is faithful and pleasing and will attract +every girl in her teens.</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +1 POLLY’S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL<br/> +2 POLLY’S SUMMER VACATION<br/> +3 POLLY’S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL<br/> +4 POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR<br/> +5 POLLY AND LOIS<br/> +6 POLLY AND BOB<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated.</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>PUBLISHERS</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>By LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE</p> + +<p>Chicken Little Jane is a +Western prairie girl who +lives a happy, outdoor life +in a country where there +is plenty of room to turn +around. She is a wide-awake, +resourceful girl +who will instantly win her +way into the hearts of +other girls. And what +good times she has!—with +her pets, her friends, and +her many interests. +“Chicken Little” is the affectionate +nickname given to her when she is +very, very good, but when she misbehaves it is +“Jane”—just Jane!</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +Adventures of Chicken Little Jane<br/> +Chicken Little Jane on the “Big John”<br/> +Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>With numerous illustrations in pen and ink</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>PUBLISHERS</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Dorothy Whitehall Series</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>For Girls</i></p> + +<p>Here is a sparkling new +series of stories for girls—just +what they will like, +and ask for more of the +same kind. It is all about +twin sisters, who for the +first few years in their +lives grow up in ignorance +of each other’s existence. +Then they are at +last brought together and +things begin to happen. +Janet is an independent +go-ahead sort of girl; +while her sister Phyllis is—but meet the twins +for yourself and be entertained.</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em;'>6 Titles, Cloth, large 12mo., Covers in color.</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +1. JANET, A TWIN<br/> +2. PHYLLIS, A TWIN<br/> +3. THE TWINS IN THE WEST<br/> +4. THE TWINS IN THE SOUTH<br/> +5. THE TWINS’ SUMMER VACATION<br/> +6. THE TWINS AND TOMMY JR.<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>PUBLISHERS</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE MARY JANE SERIES</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BY CLARA INGRAM JUDSON</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated.</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>With picture inlay and wrapper.</p> + +<p>Mary Jane is the typical American little +girl who bubbles over with fun and the +good things in life. We meet her here on +a visit to her grandfather’s farm where she +becomes acquainted with farm life and farm +animals and thoroughly enjoys the experience. +We next see her going to +kindergarten and then on a visit to Florida, and then—but +read the stories for yourselves.</p> + +<p>Exquisitely and charmingly written are these books which +every little girl from five to nine years old will want from the +first book to the last.</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +1 MARY JANE—HER BOOK<br/> +2 MARY JANE—HER VISIT<br/> +3 MARY JANE’S KINDERGARTEN<br/> +4 MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH<br/> +5 MARY JANE’S CITY HOME<br/> +6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND<br/> +7 MARY JANE’S COUNTRY HOME<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>PUBLISHERS</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS +HOW THEY REACHED PLEASANT COVE AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/38742-h/images/illus-001.jpg b/38742-h/images/illus-001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2005e4a --- /dev/null +++ b/38742-h/images/illus-001.jpg diff --git a/38742-h/images/illus-002.jpg b/38742-h/images/illus-002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aeaa3ac --- /dev/null +++ b/38742-h/images/illus-002.jpg diff --git a/38742-h/images/illus-003.jpg b/38742-h/images/illus-003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..267042e --- /dev/null +++ b/38742-h/images/illus-003.jpg diff --git a/38742-h/images/illus-004.jpg b/38742-h/images/illus-004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..916477c --- /dev/null +++ b/38742-h/images/illus-004.jpg |
