diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/38742.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/38742.txt | 7735 |
1 files changed, 7735 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/38742.txt b/old/38742.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59be2e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/38742.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7735 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Corner House Girls Under Canvas, by Grace Brooks Hill + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Corner House Girls Under Canvas + How they reached Pleasant Cove and what happened afterward + +Author: Grace Brooks Hill + +Illustrator: R. Emmett Owen + +Release Date: February 1, 2012 [EBook #38742] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Before either Tess or Dot thought to cry out for +help, they were out of sight of the camp.] + + + + +THE CORNER HOUSE + +GIRLS UNDER CANVAS + + HOW THEY REACHED PLEASANT COVE + AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD + +BY + +GRACE BROOKS HILL + +Author of "The Corner House Girls," +"The Corner House Girls at School," etc. + +_ILLUSTRATED BY_ + +_R. EMMETT OWEN_ + +NEW YORK + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +BOOKS FOR GIRLS + +The Corner House Girls Series + +By Grace Brooks Hill + +_Illustrated._ + + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS' ODD FIND + THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR + +(_Other volumes in preparation_) + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +Publishers--New York + +Copyright, 1915, + +by + +Barse & Hopkins + +_The Corner House Girls Under Canvas_ + +Printed in U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. Tom Jonah + II. Something to Look Forward To + III. The Dance at Carrie Poole's + IV. The Mystery of June Wildwood + V. Off for the Seaside + VI. On the Train + VII. Something Ahead + VIII. The Gypsy Camp + IX. The Spoondrift Bungalow + X. Some Excitement + XI. The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe + XII. A Picnic with Agamemnon + XIII. The Night of the Big Wind + XIV. An Important Arrival + XV. Two Girls in a Boat--to Say Nothing of the Dog! + XVI. The Gypsies Again + XVII. On Wild Goose Island + XVIII. The Search + XIX. A Startling Meeting + XX. The Frankfurter Man + XXI. Mrs. Bobster's Mysterious Friend + XXII. The Yarn of the "Spanking Sal" + XXIII. The Shadow + XXIV. Brought to Book + XXV. The End of the Outing + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +Before either Tess or Dot thought to cry out for help, +they were out of sight of the camp + +A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging +with both hands to the ridge of it + +Ruth actually went back, groping through the +gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled +out upon the shingles + +The dog was perplexed. He started after the man; +he started back for the girls. He whined and he +barked + + + + +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +TOM JONAH + + +"Come here, Tess! Come quick and look at this poor dog. He's just +drip-ping-_wet_!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Let's--let's take him to the porch and feed him, Dot," she cried. + +"Will Ruthie let us?" asked Dot. + +"Of course. She's gone for her music lesson and won't know, anyway," +declared Tess, recklessly. + +"But maybe Mrs. MacCall won't like it?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Billy Bumps likes the rain," Dot said, thoughtfully. + +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. + +"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!" + +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: + +"Poor, poor doggie! Come in!" + +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. + +"Come here, old fellow," urged Tess, "_Do_ come in!" + +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. + +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. + +The visitor at first refused to mount the steps, but he looked up at +Dot and wagged his tail in greeting. + +"Oh, Tess!" cried the smallest girl. "He thinks he knows me. Do you +suppose we have ever seen him before?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, don't gobble so!" gasped Dot. "It--it's bad for your +indigestions--and isn't polite, anyway." + +"Guess you wouldn't be polite if you were as hungry as he is," Tess +observed. + +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. + +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. + +"Whar' yo' chillen done git dat dawg?" he wanted to know, in +astonishment. + +"Oh, Uncle Rufus!" cried Dot. "He came along looking _so_ wet----" + +"And he was _so_ tired and hungry," added Tess. + +"I done spec' yo' chillen would take in er wild taggar, ef one come +erlong lookin' sort o' meachin'," grumbled the colored man. + +"But he's so good!" said Tess. "See!" and she put her hand upon the +handsome head of the bedraggled beast. + +"He jes' er tramp dawg," said Uncle Rufus, doubtfully. + +"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." + +"Nor like those horrid Gypsies that came to the house the other day," +added Dot eagerly. "I was afraid of them." + +"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!" + +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." + +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. + +"Agnes!" screamed Dot. "See what we've got! Just the nicest, +friendfulnest dog----" + +"Mercy, Dot! More animals?" was the older sister's first comment. + +"But he's such a _nice_ dog," wailed Dot. + +"And so hungry and wet," added Tess. + +"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! + +"He's splendid! he's a fine old fellow!" she cried. "Of course we'll +keep him, Dot." + +"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. + +"I dunno wot yo' chillen want er dawg for," complained Uncle Rufus. + +"To keep chicken thieves away," said Agnes, promptly, laughing +roguishly at the grumbling black man. + +"Oh!" cried Tess. "You said yourself, Uncle Rufus, that those Gypsies +that stopped here might be looking at Ruth's chickens." + +"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!" + +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. + +"He ought to have that dirty old rope taken off," said Agnes. + +Uncle Rufus drew out his clasp knife and opened the blade. He +approached the weary dog and knelt down to remove the rope. + +"Glo-_ree_!" he exclaimed, suddenly. "He done got er collar on him." + +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. + +"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." + +There was a small brass plate; but no name, address, or license number +was engraved upon it. Instead, in clear script, it was marked: + + "THIS IS TOM JONAH. HE IS A + GENTLEMAN." + +"There!" cried Dot, as though this settled the controversy. "What did +I tell you? He _can't_ be any tramp dog. He's a gentleman." + +"'Tom Jonah,'" murmured Agnes. "What a funny name!" + +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. + +"The dear love!" cried Tess, clasping her hands. "Isn't he beautiful, +Ruthie?" + +"Beautifully dirty," said Ruth, doubtfully. + +"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----" + +"Insecticide, Dot," admonished Tess. "I wish you wouldn't try to say +words that you _can't_ say." + +Dot pouted. But Ruth patted her head and said, soothingly: + +"Never mind, honey. We'll let the poor dog stay till he rests up, +anyway. He looks like a kind creature." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO + + +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. + +"It's a hen thief!" squealed Tess, leaping out of her own warm nest. + +"I hope that dog bites him!" cried Agnes, savagely, from the other +room. + +She ran to the window. It was a starlit, but foggy night. She could +see only vaguely the objects out of doors. + +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: + +"Shoo! shoo! Get out of there!" + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"Let's call Neale O'Neil!" she cried to Ruth. "He'll help us." + +"We'd better call a policeman," said Ruth, running down the brick +path. + +"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!" + +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! + +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. + +[Illustration: A kicking figure was sprawled on the roof, clinging +with both hands to the ridge of it.] + +"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!" + +Agnes was frightened; but she had pluck, too. "Come on, Ruth!" she +said. "He is only mad at the thief." + +"If it _is_ a thief," quavered Ruth. "I--I am afraid to go on, Aggie." + +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. + +"Mercy me, children!" gasped Ruth. "What are you doing here?" + +"Oh, we mustn't let Tom Jonah _bite_ that man," Tess declared, and +kept right on running toward the henhouse. + +"If that dog bites----" screamed Ruth, and ran after her smaller +sister. + +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. + +"Tak' dog away! Tak' dog away!" the man said, in a strangled voice. + +"He's one of those Gypsies," whispered Agnes, in an awed voice. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What are you doing up there?" Ruth demanded of the man. + +"Tak' away dog!" he whined. + +"No. I think I will let the dog hold you till a policeman comes. You +were trying to rob our henroost." + +"Oh, no, Missee! You wrong. No do that," stammered the man. + +"What were you doing here, then?" + +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. + +"What's the matter, girls?" demanded Neale O'Neil's cheerful voice. + +"Oh, come here, Neale!" cried Agnes. "Tom Jonah's caught a Gypsy." + +"Tom _Who_?" demanded the tall, pleasant-faced boy of fifteen, who +immediately approached the henhouse. + +"Tom Jonah," announced Tess. "He's just the _nicest_ dog!" + +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. + +"Yes! I guess that fellow up there feels that the dog is very 'nice.' +Where did you get the dog, and where did _he_ get his name?" + +"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?" + +"And the fellow had some in this bag!" exclaimed Neale, finding a bag +of flopping poultry at the corner of the hen-run. + +"Tak' away dog!" begged the man on the roof again. + +"That's all he's afraid of," said Agnes. "I bet he has a knife. Isn't +he a wicked looking fellow?" + +"Regular brigand," agreed Neale. "What we going to do with him?" + +"Give him to a policeman," suggested Agnes. + +"Do you suppose the policeman would _want_ him?" chuckled Neale. "To +awaken a Milton officer at this hour of the night would be almost +sacrilege, wouldn't it?" + +"What _shall_ we do?" demanded Agnes. + +Ruth had been thinking more sensibly for a few moments. Now she spoke +up decisively: + +"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." + +"Had we better do that, sister?" whispered Agnes. "Oughtn't he to be +punished?" + +"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." + +"Who'll take him away?" demanded Agnes, suddenly. + +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. + +"I declare!" said Ruth. "I hadn't thought. Whom will he mind?" + +"Come here, Tom Jonah!" said Neale, snapping his fingers. + +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. + +"Come away, Tom!" exclaimed Agnes, confidently. "Come on back to the +house." + +The man on the roof moved and Tom Jonah stiffened. He refused to +budge. + +"Guess you'll have to call a cop after all," said Neale, doubtfully. + +"Here, sir!" commanded Ruth. "Come away. You have done enough----" + +But the dog did not think so. He held his place and growled. + +"I guess you're bound to stay up there, till daylight--or a +policeman--doth appear, my friend," called up Neale to the besieged. + +"Tak' away dog!" begged the frightened fellow. + +"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." + +Tom Jonah turned and licked her hand. Then he moved a few steps away +with her and looked back. + +"Come on with me, Tom Jonah," commanded the little girl, firmly. "Let +the bad man go." + +"What do you know about _that_?" demanded Neale. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Here, during the year that had passed, many interesting and exciting +things had happened to Ruth and Agnes and Tess and Dot. + +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. + +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 _would_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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?" + +"Of course. Trix talks enough about it," said the older Kenway girl. + +"Oh! you don't like Trix----" + +"I'm not exceedingly fond of her. And there was a time when you +thought her your very deadliest enemy," laughed Ruth. + +"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." + +"I--don't--know-----" began Ruth, but Agnes broke in warmly: + +"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----" + +"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.'" + +"Well, then!" + +"But I doubt the advisability of accepting Trix Severn's invitation." + +"Now, isn't that mean----" + +"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; _she_ has asked me to come there for a while, and +bring you all." + +"Well! isn't that nice?" agreed Agnes. "Then we can stay twice as +long." + +"Whether it will be right for us to accept the hospitality offered us +when we have no means of returning it----" + +"Oh, dear me, Ruth! don't be a fuss-cat." + +"There is a big tent colony there--quite removed from the hotel," +suggested Ruth. "Many of our friends and their folks are going +_there_. Neale O'Neil is going with a party of the boys for at least +two weeks." + +"Say! we'll have scrumptious times," cried Agnes, with sparkling eyes. +Her anticipation of every joy in life added immensely to the joy +itself. + +"Yes--if we go," said Ruth, slowly. But it was something for the +others to look forward to with much pleasure. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DANCE AT CARRIE POOLE'S + + +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: + +"Do you suppose that dear Tom Jonah is here yet, Tess?" + +"Oh, I hope so!" cried the older girl. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +Tess unlocked the door and she and Dot went out on the porch, +Sandyface following. There was no sign of the big dog. + +"Tom Jonah's gone!" sighed Dot, quaveringly. + +"I wouldn't have thought it--when we treated him so nicely," said +Tess. + +Sandyface sniffed suspiciously at the old mat on which the dog had +lain. Then she looked all about before venturing off the porch. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Here is Tom Jonah!" cried Tess, with delight. + +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. + +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. + +"Good old fellow!" cried Tess, putting out a hand to pat him. + +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. + +"Oh!" gasped Dot, "he's a trick dog." + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"And he would have eaten that tramp up, if he'd gotten hold of him," +Agnes declared, as they gathered at the breakfast table. + +"Oh, no, Aggie; I don't think Tom Jonah would really have _bitten_ +that Gypsy man," Tess hastened to say. "But he might have grabbed his +coat and held on." + +"With those jaws--I guess he would have held on," sighed Agnes. + +"Anyway," said Dot, "he saved Ruthie's hens. Didn't he, Ruthie?" + +"I'll gladly pay his license fee if he wants to stay with us," said +Ruth, gaily. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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 +_this_ pertic'lar crust?" + +"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!" + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Why so?" demanded Agnes. + +"Because of what it says on his collar," laughed Neale O'Neil. + +"Because of what it _doesn't_ say, I guess," explained Ruth, seeing +her sister's puzzled face. "There is no name of owner, or license +number. Do you see?" + +"It--it would be an insult to license a dog like Tom Jonah," sputtered +Tess. "Just--just like a tag on an automobile!" + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +"He's going to be ours for keeps! He's going to be ours for keeps!" +sang Tess, with delight. + +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. + +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. + +"If they get used to him, you know," said Tess, "they'll all live +together just like a 'happy family.'" + +"Like _us_?" 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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh! oh! the horrid thing," wailed Dot. "And poor Tom Jonah didn't do +a thing to it!" + +"But see him!" gasped Tess, in a gale of giggles. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"But what is the good of having a thing if you don't make use of it?" +queried Ruth, stoutly. + +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. + +Bob Wildwood was a "character" in Milton. People smiled at him and +forgave his peculiarities to a degree; but they could not respect him. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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----" + +"But I didn't done los' Juniper by no sickness," muttered Bob, shaking +his head. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 _so_ 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." + +"Oh!" cried Ruth, startled. "I thought your sister June died?" + +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." + +"But the teachers at school think you are awfully smart," declared the +Corner House girl. + +"June warn't so smart at her books," said Rosa. "But she could do +_anything_ 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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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 _has_. He +'swigs' an awful lot of tea, though, and I expect it's tanning him +inside just like he was leather!" + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"There's paw now, for a swig at the teapot. I hope you left it full +fo' him, Ruthie, dear." + +"Oh, goodness mercy me!" cried the Corner House girl, and darted out +to the kitchen to warn the man. + +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! + +"Woof! woof! woof!" he sputtered, and flung pot and all away from him. +"Who done tryin' poison me! Woof! I's scalded with poison!" + +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. + +"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." + +"Boilin' it out?" + +"Yes, sir. With soda. I--I----It won't poison you, I guess." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Neale came over to supper the evening of the party, and he brought his +pumps in a newspaper under his arm. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Are you really going to Pleasant Cove this summer, Neale?" demanded +Agnes, as they went on together. + +"If I can. Joe has asked me. And you girls?" + +"Trix says we must come to her father's hotel for two weeks at least," +Agnes declared. + +"Humph!" said Neale, doubtfully. "Are you going, Ruth?" + +"I--don't--know," admitted the older Corner House girl. + +"Now, isn't that just too mean?" complained Agnes. "You just say that +because you don't like Trix." + +"I don't know whether Trix will be of the same mind when the time +comes," said Ruth, firmly. + +"I believe you," grunted Neale. + +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. + +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. + +"Sure!" said the boy, producing the newspaper-wrapped bundle he +carried. "Guess I'll put on my own pumps, too." + +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! + +"Now we can't dance!" wailed Agnes. + +"Oh, Neale!" gasped Ruth, while the young folk about them went off +into another gale of laughter. + +"Well, it wasn't my fault," grumbled Neale. "Aggie went after the +bundle." + +"Shouldn't have left them right there with the masons' bundle--so +now!" snapped Agnes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MYSTERY OF JUNE WILDWOOD + + +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. + +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. + +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 _one_ dance with the popular +boy. + +"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 _us_ have the first dance." + +"All right," said Neale, good-naturedly. + +It was the moment later that the discovery was made of the masons' +shoes in the bundle he carried under his arm. + +"Now we can't dance," repeated Agnes, when the laughter had somewhat +subsided. + +"Oh, Neale can dance just as well," Trix said, carelessly. "Come on, +Neale! You know this is _our_ dance." + +Of course Neale could dance in his walking shoes. But he saw Agnes' +woebegone face and he hesitated. + +"It's too bad, Aggie," he said. "If it wasn't so far-----" + +"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?" + +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." + +"Why, Neale O'Neill" cried Trix. "You won't do it?" + +Even Ruth murmured against the boy's making the trip for the slippers. +"We can get along, Neale," she said, in her quiet way. + +"And you promised to dance with me this first dance," declared Trix, +angrily, as the music began. + +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." + +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. + +"Aw----There are other dances. Wait till I come back," he said. + +"You can dance in the shoes you have on," Trix said, sharply. + +"What if?" + +"But _we_ can't, Trix," interposed Agnes, much distressed. "Ruth and +I, you know----" + +"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----" + +"Aw, don't bother!" growled Neale, in much disgust. + +"I will bother! You----" + +"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. + +"I'm going--it isn't any of _your_ concern," he muttered, to the angry +girl. + +Ruth bore Agnes away. She was half crying. The rift in the intimacy +between her soulmate and herself was apparent to all. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +It made a difference to the Corner House girls, however, for it made +their plans about going to Pleasant Cove uncertain. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Dot had tentatively tasted one of the hard, white balls, and +shuddered. "But they _do_ look so much like candy, Tess," she said. +Then she suddenly had another thought: + +"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?" + +"Now, can you beat _that_?" demanded the housekeeper, of nobody in +particular. "What won't that young one get in her head!" + +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. + +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." + +"We'll help her, Mr. Wildwood," Ruth said. "But she really ought to +have a rest." + +"Hi Godfrey!" ejaculated the coal heaver. "I tell her she kin let the +housework go. We don't have no visitors--savin' an' exceptin' _you_, +ma'am." + +"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." + +"Hi Godfrey!" exclaimed the man again. "Ain't thar sech a thing as +bein' a mite _too_ clean?" + +But Bob Wildwood had an immense respect for Ruth; likewise he was +grateful because she showed an interest in his last remaining +daughter. + +"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?" + +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." + +"But only for a week or two." + +"I know. And I wouldn't want tuh stand in her way. I crossed her +sister too much--that's what _I_ did. Juniper was a sight more uppity +than Rosa--otherwise she wouldn't have flew the coop," said Bob +Wildwood, shaking his head. + +Ruth, all tenderness for his bereavement, hastened to say: "Oh, you'll +find her again, sir. Surely you don't believe she's dead?" + +"No. If she ain't come to a _bad_ 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." + +"How do you mean, Mr. Wildwood?" asked Ruth, deeply interested. + +"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. + +"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. + +"An' Rosa misses her sister like poison, too," finished Bob Wildwood, +slowly shaking his head. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +OFF FOR THE SEASIDE + + +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: + +"Ruthie, what's a 'scutcheon?" + +"Um--um," said Ruth, far away. + +"A _what_, child?" demanded Agnes. + +"''Scutcheon?'" + +"'Escutcheon,' she means," chuckled Neale, who was present as usual at +study hour. + +"Well, what _is_ it?" begged Tess, plaintively. + +"Why?" demanded Ruth, suddenly waking up. "That's a hard word for a +small girl, Tess." + +"It says here," quoth Tess, "that 'There was a blot upon his +escutcheon.'" + +"Oh, yes--sure," drawled Neale, as Ruth hesitated. "That must mean a +fancy vest, Tess. And he spilled soup on it--sure!" + +"Now Neale! how horrid!" admonished Ruth, while Agnes giggled. + +"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?" + +"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. + +"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, _did_ we push our way in, Ruthie?" + +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. + +"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!" + +"Oh, Ruthie! don't say you won't go," begged Agnes. + +"I'll never go to that Overlook House unless we pay our way--be sure +of that," declared the angry Ruth. + +"But we _are_ going to the shore, Ruthie?" asked Tess. + +"Yes." + +"Maybe Pearl Harrod will ask us again," murmured Agnes, hopefully. + +"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." + +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. + +"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!" + +"Not yet, my child, not yet," laughed Ruth. "Why! there are more girls +in High who wear their hair _down_ than _up_." + +"But I'm so big----" + +"You mean, you'd be big," chuckled Neale, "if you were only rolled +out," for he was always teasing Agnes about her plumpness. + +"Well! I want to celebrate some way," sighed Agnes. "Can't we have a +specially nice supper that night?" + +"Surely, child," said her sedate sister. "What do you want?" + +"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?" + +"Oh, my!" cried Neale. "What have the poor chickens done that they +should be slaughtered to make a Roman holiday?" + +"Mr. Smartie!" snapped Agnes. "You be good, or you sha'n't have any." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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: + +"'The bull and the cow, Miss Andrews; and the cow gives the most +milk.'" + +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. + +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. + +So she stood well up in her class, and she _did_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +"Oh! _don't_ 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." + +"You'll give him just the best care ever, won't you, Uncle Rufus?" +cried Agnes. + +"Sho' will!" agreed the old colored man. + +"_Can't_ we take him with us, Ruthie?" asked Dot. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Well, Ruthie Kenway!" exclaimed a voice suddenly behind the Corner +House girls. + +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." + +"Why--if you are sure you want us?" queried Ruth, with a little break +in her voice. + +"I should say yes!" exclaimed Pearl. "But I was afraid you had been +asked by some one else." + +Trix turned and looked the four sisters over scornfully. Then she +tossed her head. "Waiting like beggars for an invitation from +_some_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." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ON THE TRAIN + + +"Don't you mind what that mean thing says," whispered Pearl Harrod, +quickly. + +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. + +"You are very, very kind, Pearl," said Ruth. "But we had thought of +going to the tent colony----" + +"Didn't Trix Severn ask you to her place?" demanded Pearl, hotly. "I +_know_ 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." + +"But, Pearl----" + +"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." + +"Oh, don't be angry!" begged Ruth. "But won't it look as though we +_were_ begging our way--as Trix says?" + +"Pooh! who cares for Trix Severn?" + +"You--you are very kind," said Ruth, yielding at length. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"What could happen to them?" demanded Dot. + +"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!" + +"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?" + +"I guess we'll have to if Ruth and Aggie stay," said Tess. "But I +shall worry." + +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. + +"Oh, Ruth!" Agnes exclaimed, under her breath, "they look like +Gypsies." + +"If they are, they are much better dressed than any Gypsies we ever +saw before," observed her sister. + +"But how gay!" + +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!" + +"That girl with her is handsome, just the same," Ruth declared. + +"Oh! isn't she!" whispered the enthusiastic Agnes. "A perfectly +stunning brunette." + +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. + +"I don't know--somehow--she reminds me of somebody," murmured the +latter. + +"Who?" + +"The girl." + +"She reminds me of that chicken-thief Tom Jonah treed on the henhouse +roof," chuckled Agnes. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth; "all Gypsies can't be alike." + +"Humph! you never heard a good word said for them," sniffed Agnes. + +"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. + +"That was one of them that tried to steal your hens, just the same," +said Agnes. + +"I suppose so," admitted her sister. "But surely _these_ two cannot +belong to the same kind of Gypsies. See how richly they are dressed." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, I say, Ruth!" Pearl said, "is it a fact that Rosa Wildwood is +coming down to the Cove next week?" + +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. + +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. + +"It is all right," Ruth assured the Gypsy woman. "No harm done." + +"I am the ver' awkward one--eh?" repeated the woman, with a hard +smile. + +"It does not matter," said Ruth. "I can get another cup of water." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOMETHING AHEAD + + +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. + +"You asked about Rosa, Pearl?" said Ruth, speaking loudly enough, she +was sure, for the girl in front to hear. + +"Oh, hello! don't spill that water again, Ruthie," laughed Pearl. +"Yes. I asked if she were coming down to the Cove!" + +"Yes. Rosa Wildwood expects to come next week. I am going to find her +a boarding place." + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"Rosa is an awfully sweet girl," said Carrie. + +"I love that little Southern drawl of hers!" cried Pearl. "She says +'Ah reckon so' in just the _cunningest_ way!" + +"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." + +"We'll give her a good time, all right," declared Pearl. "Wish we +could have her with us----" + +"Not at the bungalow," said Ruth. "Nor at the hotel. We want a quiet +place for her. I shall find it." + +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. + +"What does your uncle call his bungalow--where we shall stop?" asked +Ruth of Pearl. + +"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 _love_ it, Ruth Kenway." + +"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. + +She had intentionally said enough so that, if the strange girl _were_ +listening, she would learn just where Ruth could be found at Pleasant +Cove. + +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. + +Yet, as the Corner House girl looked at the stranger, she could not +say truthfully that it was Rosa of whom _this_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +The others laughed and Pearl said: "Guess Lucy wants to see Old Ocean +in its might, eh? Big storm, whales, great ships----" + +"A sea serpent!" cried Agnes. + +"Of course--if there is such a thing," admitted Lucy. "A sea serpent +must be an awfully interesting sight." + +"There aren't any more," said Pearl. "Father Neptune's all out of +stock." + +"I guess the sea serpent is something like the _snakes_ alcoholic +victims think they see," proposed Carrie. + +"Oh, no," proclaimed Agnes. "Here's what I read about the sea serpent: + + "'The old sea serpent used to rave + And fiercely roam about; + He hit a prohibition wave, + And that's what knocked him out.'" + +"'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." + +Which prophecy was strangely fulfilled. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"I don't suppose any of that crowd at the Overlook House will talk to +_us_," 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 +_dearest_ man." + +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. + +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. + +"Regular maritime smell----whew!" sighed Carrie Poole, holding her +nose delicately. + +"Oh! The _whole_ of Pleasant Cove doesn't smell like this, does it?" +demanded her cousin. + +"Only the old part of it--the old village." + +"Well! that's lucky," said Lucy. "If this odor prevailed I should say +the place ought to be called _Un_-pleasant Cove." + +"How far are we from the jumping-off place?" demanded Agnes. "I'd like +to get out and run." + +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." + +"Jumpertown?" + +"Yes. That's what they called it before the real estate speculators +gave it the fancy name of 'Ridgedale Station.'" + +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. + +"Bridge down up front," said the railroad employee. "Tide rose last +night and loosened the supports. We've got to wait." + +"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. + +"Can't tell you, young ladies," declared the man of the punch. +"There's a repair gang at work on it now." + +"An hour?" demanded Pearl Harrod. + +"Oh, longer than that," the conductor assured her. + +"But what shall we do? We want to get to the bungalow and air the +bedclothes, and all that, before dark," she cried. + +"Guess you'll have to walk, then," said the conductor, laughing, and +went away. + +"That's just what we'll do," Pearl said to her friends. "Can the +children walk three miles, Ruth?" + +"Surely they can!" Agnes cried. "If they can't, we'll carry them." + +Ruth was doubtful of the wisdom of the move, but her opinion was not +asked. + +"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." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE GYPSY CAMP + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, isn't this heavenly!" cried Agnes, tossing up her hat by the +ribbons that were supposed to tie it under her plump chin. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"What--what do you think is the chance for _bears_ in this wood, Tess? +Don't you think there may be some?" + +"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?" + +"Well--it's a strange woods, Tess. We aren't really acquainted here." + +"But Pearl is," declared Tess, stoutly. + +"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. + +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. + +"If our dear, _de-ar_ 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. + +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. + +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! + +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 _was_ little; and she made no complaint at all about +the long walk through the stretch of timber. + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"Why! it will be great fun," Ruth said. "Just like playing house +together." + +"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!" + +"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." + +"There'll be plenty of cooks to spoil the broth," sighed Agnes. "Did +you ever see _me_ fry an egg?" + +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. + +"What can you do to a defenseless egg, Aggie?" Lucy Poole demanded. + +"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." + +"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 _rice_. + +"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." + +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." + +"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! + +"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. + +"You never saw such a mess," concluded Carrie, shaking her head. "And +we had to eat rice for a week!" + +It was just here that Agnes spied something far ahead beside the +woodspath. + +"Oh!" she cried, "are we in sight of the tent colony you tell about, +so soon?" + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Pearl Harrod. "We're nowhere near the river." + +"But there's a tent!" exclaimed Agnes, earnestly. + +"And I see the top of another," said Lucy Poole. + +"Dirty brown things, both of them. Look more like Indian wigwams," +announced Ann Presby. + +"My goodness, girls! there are the Gypsies Uncle Phil wrote about," +said Pearl, in some excitement. "Let's get our fortunes told." + +"Oh, dear me," said Ruth, rather worriedly. "I don't just _like_ +Gypsies." + +"Oh, you haven't got to hug and kiss them!" laughed Pearl. "Come on! +they're lots of fun." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"Let's hurry right by, Pearl!" begged Ruth. + +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: + +"Where's your Pythoness? Where is the Queen of the Gypsies? We want +our fortunes told." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SPOONDRIFT BUNGALOW + + +"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. + +"Why, Dot!" gasped Tess. "That man _there_ is the very fellow who +tried to steal Ruth's chickens!" + +"Oh--o-o!" + +"Yes, he is," whispered the amazed Tess. "He's the young man Tom Jonah +chased up on to the henhouse roof." + +"Well," said the philosophical Dot, "he can't steal our chickens +_here_." + +"Just the same I wish Tom Jonah was here with us. I--I'd feel better +about meeting him," confessed Tess. + +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. + +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. + +"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 +_queerest_ things sometimes." + +"I don't believe we'd better stop this afternoon, Pearl," ventured +Ruth, as one of the rough fellows drew nearer to the girls. + +"Let the little ladies wait but a short time," said this man. "They +will have revealed to them all they wish to know." + +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. + +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. + +She hobbled across the lawn toward the girls. Ruth watched her closely +for, it seemed, she came more hurriedly than seemed necessary. + +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. + +The grinning fellows separated as the old hag came forward. She did +not speak to them, but she was muttering to herself. + +"Incantations!" whispered Pearl. "Isn't she enough to give you the +delicious shudders? Oh!" + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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! + +"Oh, Ruth! I am frightened!" whispered Agnes in her sister's ear. + +"Sh! don't scare the children," Ruth said, her first thought for Tess +and Dot. + +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. + +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! + +This was a made-up old woman--not a real old woman, at all! + +The discovery frightened the Corner House girl almost as much as the +rough men frightened her. "Zaliska" was a disguised creature. + +She clung to Ruth's hand firmly when the girl would have pulled it +away, and now Ruth heard her hiss: + +"Get you away from this place. Get you away with your friends--quick. +And do not come back at all." + +Ruth was shaking with hysterical terror. The creature clung to her +hand and mumbled this warning over and over again. + +"What's she telling you, Ruth?" demanded the hilarious Pearl. + +"Trouble! trouble!" mumbled the supposed fortune-teller, shaking her +head, but accepting the next girl's dime. + +Ruth whispered swiftly to Pearl: "Oh! let us get out of here. These +men mean to rob us--I am sure." + +"They would not dare," began the startled Pearl. + +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. + +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. + +"Let's go at once, Pearl!" begged Ruth. "We'll keep close to this +lumberman. Dot and Tess can ride on the logs." + +"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!" + +"Don't go yet, little ladies," said the tall man, suavely. "Zaliska +can tell you much----" + +"Let's go, girls!" cried Carrie Poole, snatching her hand away from +the supposed old woman. + +Ruth and Agnes had already seized their sisters and were hurrying them +toward the lumberman. + +"Whoa, Buck! Whoa, Bright!" shouted the teamster, cracking the +whiplash before the leading span of oxen. "Sh-h! Steady. What's the +matter, girls?" + +"Won't you take us to the main road where we can get the stage for +Pleasant Cove?" cried Ruth. + +"Sure, Miss. Going right there. Want to ride?" + +"Oh, yes, sir!" cried the Corner House girls. + +"That will be great fun!" shouted some of the others. "Come on!" + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +Perhaps nobody but Ruth, of the party of ten girls, really understood +that they had been in peril from the Gypsies. _She_ believed that, had +they not gotten away from the camp as they had, the men would have +robbed them. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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"? + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SOME EXCITEMENT + + +"But _why_ 'Spoondrift'?" demanded Lucy. "What does it mean?" + +"'Spoondrift' is the spray from the tops of the waves," explained +Pearl. "We think the name is awfully pretty." + +"And so is the bungalow--and the Cove," sighed Ruth. + +"And we're going to have a scrumptious time here!" declared Agnes. + +Tess and Dot were frankly sleepy, and Lucy begged the privilege of +seeing them to bed. + +"That's real kind of you, I'm sure, Lute," said Agnes. + +"Don't you praise her," sniffed Carrie. "I know Lute. She's sleepy, +herself. You won't see her downstairs again to-night." + +"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." + +"Well! of all things!" ejaculated Carrie, as her cousin departed, +following the two smaller girls. "What do you know about _that_?" + +"Almost as stupid as the inhabitants of London," chuckled Agnes. + +"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?" + +"I don't know," returned Agnes; "but the book says 'the population of +London is very dense.'" + +"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: + +"'My, Grandpa, there's not much grazing up there now, is there?'" + +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: + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +Then they set forth to explore the fishing port, as well as the more +modern part of Pleasant Cove. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"It _does_ 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 +_afraid_!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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.'" + +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. + +"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. + +"Pooh! why not? Guess it's just as good as the old chimney was," said +Pearl. + +"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----" + +"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Pearl. "It's all right, I fancy." + +Neither girl had recourse to "applied physics." Had she done so she +could easily have discovered just _why_ 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. + +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. + +Tess and Dot had gone to bed at half after eight. It was an hour later +that Lucy suddenly said: + +"I smell smoke." + +"It isn't Mr. Harrod," said Ann. "He's gone down to the Casino." + +"It isn't tobacco smoke I smell," declared Lucy, springing up. + +"Oh, Lute!" shrieked Agnes. "Look at the door!" + +A cloud of black, thick smoke was belching out of the front hall upon +the veranda. One of the other girls shrieked "Fire!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"Tess! Dot! Hurry up! Get up!" she shrieked, shaking them both. + +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. + +"Oh, oh!" gasped Tess, alive at last to the cause of the excitement. +"Save the Alice-doll, Ruthie. Save Dot's Alice-doll!" + +And Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering smoke, for +the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles. + +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. + +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. + +It was quite an hour before the fire was completely out. Then the +Spoondrift bungalow certainly was in a mess. + +"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." + +[Illustration: Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering +smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Indeed?" returned Trix. "You seem to know a lot about our business, +Miss Harrod." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"But, goodness gracious! there are ten of us!" cried Pearl. "You know +that very well." + +"Those three rooms," said Trix, with elaborate carelessness, "are all +your uncle provided." + +"Why, Uncle Phil must be crazy! Didn't he get a big room for the +Kenways?" + +"Humph!" said Trix, maliciously. "Are _they_ 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." + +"Well, where's your father----" + +"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." + +"Then, where's the clerk?" demanded Pearl, much worried. + +"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." + +"Well! I call that the meanest thing!" began Pearl, but Ruth, who had +stood close by, interrupted: + +"Don't let it worry you in the least, Pearl. We have plenty of time to +find accommodations before night." + +"You won't find them here, Miss!" snapped Trix. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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 _we_ can." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Agnes cheered up at once when she saw the tent-cities. And the smaller +girls were delighted with the prospect of living under canvas. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +The directions for finding Mrs. Bobster interested and amused the +Corner House girls. + +"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." + +"Oh!" cried Dot, eagerly, "_I_ want to see the lady who lives in a +shoe. She must have lots of children, for they were a great bother." + +"And," said Tess, "do you suppose she _does_ whip them all soundly and +send them to bed with a piece of bread to eat?" + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"You'd find it pretty different, if you tried it," laughed Ruth. "This +sand is hot." + +"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?" + +"Oh!" cried Dot, suddenly, "isn't that a giraffe? And there's a +camel!" + +"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?" + +"It looks like it," said Ruth, herself amazed. + +"And it's hot enough," grumbled Agnes. "Oh! I see! it's a wrecked +carousel." + +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. + +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. + +"There it is!" cried Tess, eagerly. "And it _does_ look like a shoe." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"Shoo!" exclaimed the little woman. "Shoo, Agamemnon! Git aout o' them +pea-vines like I told you!" + +For a moment the Corner House girls did not see Agamemnon; they could +not imagine who he was. + +"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. + +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! + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A PICNIC WITH AGAMEMNON + + +"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. + +"But he's the pluckiest! Yes, ma'am! He was only a pindling critter +when he pipped the shell, an' the vi-cis-_si_-tudes that bird's been +through since he fust scratched would ha' made a human lay right down +and die. + +"The other chickens never would let him raise a pin-feather ter cover +his nakedness; they picked on him suthin' _awful_. 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"But that game rooster had tore ev'ry _important_ 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. + +"I guess you are Mrs. Bobster?" asked Ruth, smiling in return. + +"Are you _really_ the--the lady who lives in the shoe?" asked Dot, +round-eyed. + +"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 _this_ +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." + +She laughed. Indeed, this little, apple-faced old lady was almost +always laughing, it seemed. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"That is what we have come to arrange for, Mrs. Bobster," said Ruth. + +"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?" + +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. + +"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." + +"Why, no!" said Ruth. "Why should we?" + +"After dark," said the old woman, shaking her hand. + +"Who would hurt us?" asked the Corner House girl in wonder. + +"Can't most always sometimes tell," said the old woman, shaking her +head. + +"But _you_ live here alone!" + +"No," she said, quickly. "Not after dark. I ain't never alone. Oh, +no!" + +She spoke as though she were afraid Ruth might not believe her, and +repeated the denial several times. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"I bet _you_ wouldn't have had to be whipped," laughed Mrs. Bobster, +leading Dot away, with Tess following. + +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 _melt_ on your tongue! + +"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!" + +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. + +"He looks just like a person ready to go in swimming," chuckled Agnes. +"It's a red bathing suit." + +"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." + +"Who--the hens!" asked Ruth, wonderingly. + +"Yes. They don't think he looks jest right, I s'pose. If he chasses 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." + +This tickled Agnes so that she almost fell off the bench. + +"But I should think the red flannel would tickle him awfully," +murmured Tess, quite seriously disturbed over the plight of the +rooster. + +"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." + +It was really very funny to see the rooster strutting about the yard +in what Agnes called his red bathing suit. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"I didn't suppose she'd be above being untruthful," Ruth said, rather +indignantly. + +"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." + +"Never mind," said Agnes. "I'm glad she acted so. We're a whole lot +better off here." + +"I believe you!" said Carrie Poole. + +"You going to have Rosa Wildwood here in the tent with you when she +comes?" asked Ann Presby. + +"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. + +"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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE NIGHT OF THE BIG WIND + + +"Ruthie! there's another man wants to sell you a boat." + +"Ruthie! there's another man wants to sell an elephant--and it's _so_ +cute!" + +"For the land's sake!" gasped Ruth, throwing down a sputtering pen, +where she was writing on the chest of drawers in the tent. "_How_ can +a body write? And an elephant, no less!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There was a chain and padlock for mooring it to a post at the edge of +the water just below the tent. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"They are dreadfully _squirmy_, anyway," sighed Tess. "Just like +spiders. And yet, we eat them!" + +"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!" + +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. + +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: + +"Oh, Ruth! The funniest thing has happened. You'd never guess." + +"Trix Severn has the mumps!" exclaimed Agnes. "I knew she was all +swelled up." + +"Not as good as _that_," laughed Pearl. "But worse may happen to that +girl than mumps. However, it's nothing to do with Trix." + +"What is it?" asked Ruth, calmly. "I'm not a good guesser, Pearl." + +"You remember those Gypsies?" + +"That are camped up in the woods!" + +"Yes." + +"If they _are_ Gypsies," said Ruth, doubtfully. + +"Of course they are!" cried Pearl. "Well, they've been around here +looking for you." + +"For goodness' sake!" gasped Agnes. "What for?" + +Ruth herself looked startled. But Pearl began to laugh again. + +"At least, that queer old woman has been asking for you," she +explained. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"Yes. I bought a basket from one of them," admitted Carrie Poole. + +"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. + +"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." + +"Then she'll never find you there, Ruth," interposed Agnes, with +satisfaction. + +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. + +And that strange girl was interested in Rosa Wildwood. Of that Ruth +was as sure as she could be. + +"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." + +"Pooh!" exclaimed Agnes. "What's going to hurt us!" + +"The crabs might come up the beach at night and pinch your toes," +laughed Maud Everts. + +"I don't know," Pearl said, seriously. "I wouldn't want those Gyps +interested in _me_." + +"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." + +"Bet she has a gatling gun," chuckled Carrie Poole. + +"I'm going to have something better than that," declared Ruth, +smiling. But she refused to tell them _what_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"There are two of those Gypsy women, Ruth!" hissed Agnes in her +sister's ear, as they came out of a store. + +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 +_she_ was not in sight. + +"My goodness, Ruth!" said Agnes, "what do you suppose that old hag of +a Gypsy wants you for?" + +"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: + +"We won't bother about it. She probably won't find us up at Willowbend +Camp." + +"I should hope _not_!" cried Agnes. "I don't want to get any better +acquainted with those Gyps." + +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. + +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. + +"Here's your bread, girls--warm from the oven," said the brisk little +woman. "And if you want a pan of seed cookies----" + +"Oh! don't we, just!" sighed Agnes. + +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. + +"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---- + +"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." + +"Poorfarm?" questioned Ruth, puzzled by the reference. + +"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. + +"It didn't seem good jedgment," Mrs. Bobster said, reflectively, "to +open the poorfarm jest for _him_. B'sides, they'd got the old farm let +to good advantage for another year to Silas Holcomb. So they come to +me. + +"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. + +"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. + +"But, lawsy me! She ain't a com-_plete_ 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. + +"The selectmen may be driv' to open the poorfarm ag'in, an' to gittin' +somebody ter do for Mr. Kendricks proper. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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!" + +It had been fortunate for the deceased Mr. Bobster, as Ruth had +learned, that his wife _had_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Not much!" exclaimed Ruth. "At least, we're on an even keel." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AN IMPORTANT ARRIVAL + + +Agnes _did_ 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! + +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. + +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. + +Suppose the tent should blow down? The way the wind sometimes shook it +reminded Ruth of a dog shaking a bit of rag. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Occasionally children cried shrilly, for the noise of the elements +frightened them; Ruth was thankful that Tess and Dot slept on. + +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! + +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! + +"The peg has pulled out!" gasped Ruth, sitting up in her cot and +throwing off the blanket. + +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. + +She hopped out upon the matting and shook Agnes by the shoulder. + +"Get up! Get up, Ag!" she called, breathlessly. "Help me." + +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. + +"Come quick, Ag! We'll be blown away," declared Ruth. + +"I--I----What'll we do?" whimpered Agnes. + +"We must hold the tent down. Come on! Get into your mackintosh. I'll +get the lantern." + +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. + +"Wha--what you going to do?" stuttered Agnes. + +"Drive the pegs in deeper. One of them pulled out." + +"Oh, dear! _Can_ we?" + +"I guess we'll have to, if we don't want to lose our tent. Hear that +wind?" + +"It--it sounds like cannon roaring." + +"Come on!" + +"But that isn't the front flap----" + +"Think I'm going to unlace that front flap when the wind's blowing +right into it?" + +"Can't we get out yonder, where the peg has been pulled?" + +"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. + +"Oh! oh!" moaned Agnes. "Hear that wind?" + +"I wouldn't care if it only _hollered_," gasped Ruth. "It's what it +will do if it ever gets under this tent, that troubles me!" + +She unlaced the flaps only a little way. "Come along with that +lantern, Ag. We've got to crawl under." + +"'Get down and get under,'" giggled Agnes, hysterically. + +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. + +"And how the sleet cuts!" gasped Agnes, her arm across her eyes for +protection. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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 _his_ +friends--and that included, of course, Neale O'Neil. But the Milton +boys would not arrive until the next week. + +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. + +"Oh! you poor thing!" gasped Ruth, receiving Rosa in her strong arms +as she stumbled off the car steps with her bag. + +"I'm as thin as the last run of shad, am I not?" asked Rosa, laughing. +"That train was _awful_! I am baked. It's never like this down South. +The air is so much dryer there; there isn't this humidity. Oh!" + +"Well, you're here all right now, Rosa," cried Ruth. "We have a nice, +easy carriage for you to ride in. And the _dearest_ place for you to +live!" + +"And scrumptious eating, Rose," added Agnes. + +"With the little old woman who lives in a shoe," declared Tess, eager +to add her bit of information. + +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. + +"Now!" cried Ruth, again. "Where is he?" + +"Who?" demanded Agnes, staring all about. "Neale didn't come, did he?" + +"Oh, he's up in the baggage-car ahead," said Rosa, laughing. + +"You sit right down here till I get him," Ruth commanded. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _did_ +laugh. + +"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. + +"No gladder than I am to see him," said Ruth. "Let him jump down, +please." + +She caught the leather strap as the baggageman tossed it toward her, +and Tom Jonah bounded about her in an ecstasy of delight. + +"Down, sir!" she commanded. "Now, Tom Jonah, come and see the girls. +But behave." + +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. + +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. + +"How did you come to send for him, Ruthie?" Agnes cried. + +"I thought we might need a chaperon at the tent," laughed Ruth. + +"The Gyps!" exclaimed Agnes, under her breath. "Let them come now, if +they want to. You're a smart girl, Ruthie." + +"Sh!" commanded the older sister. "Don't let the children hear." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +Rosa put her arm about Ruth's neck when the Corner House girls were +about to leave. + +"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!" + +"Don't bother, Rosa. I haven't done much----" + +"There's nothing in the world--but one thing--that could make me +happier." + +Ruth looked at her curiously, and Rosa added: + +"To find June. I hope to find her some day--yes, I do." + +"And suppose I should help you do _that_?" laughed the oldest Corner +House girl. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +TWO GIRLS IN A BOAT--TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG! + + +"Oh, Dot! do come here. Did you ever see such a funny thing in all +your life?" + +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. + +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. + +"What is the matter, Tess?" asked Dot, wonderingly. + +"See!" + +Tess pointed down at her feet--where the drab, wet sand showed +lighter-colored under the pressure of her weight. + +"What is it?" gasped the amazed Dot. + +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. + +"Goodness!" gasped Dot again. "What _is_ that?" + +"That's what I say," responded Tess. "Did you ever see the like?" + +"Oh! here's another," cried Dorothy, who chanced to step near a +similar vent. "See it squirt, Tess! See it squirt!" + +"What kind of a creature do you suppose can be down there?" asked the +bigger girl. + +"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." + +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? + +They found several more of the little air-holes. Whenever they stamped +upon the sand beside one, up would spring the fountain! + +"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. + +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. + +He drew near to two Corner House girls, and Dot whispered to Tess: + +"Do you suppose he'd know what these holes are for? You ask him, +Tess." + +"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. + +"Let's ask about the holes," determined Dot, who was persistent +whether the cause was good or bad. + +The two girls approached the clam-digger, hand in hand. Dot hugged +tight in the crook of one arm her Alice-doll. + +"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?" + +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. + +"How's that, shipmet?" he asked, in a very husky voice. "Show me them +same holes." + +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. + +"Hel-_lo_!" growled the man, seeing the apertures in the sand. "Them's +clams, an' jest what I'm arter. By your lief----" + +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. + +"There he be, shipmets," declared the clam-digger, who probably had a +habit of addressing everybody as "shipmate." + +"Oh--but--did _he_ squirt the water up at us, sir?" gasped Dot. + +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. + +"Oh, mercy!" exclaimed Tess, drawing back. + +"But--but _how_ did he get down into the sand and only leave such a +tiny hole behind him?" demanded Dot, bent upon getting information. + +"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." + +"Oh!" sighed Dot, disappointedly. + +"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! + +"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----" + +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. + +"Please, sir," asked Tess, after some moments, "how did you come to +lose your leg--your really truly one, I mean?" + +"Pi-_rats_," declared the man, with an unmoved countenance. +"Pi-_rats_, shipmet--on the Spanish Main." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +If ever a dog said, "Please, _please_, little mistresses, get out of +the boat!" old Tom Jonah said it! + +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. + +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. + +"We can catch some crabs, too, maybe, Tess," Dot said. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, my, Dot!" gasped Tess. "Where are we going?" + +"Oh-oo-ee!" squealed Dot, raking wildly with one of the nets. "I +almost caught one." + +"But we're adrift, Dot!" cried Tess. + +The younger girl was not so much impressed at first. "Oh, I guess +they'll come for us," she said. + +"But Ruth and Aggie can't reach us--'nless they swim." + +"Won't we float ashore again? We floated out here," said Dot. + +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. + +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? + +"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. + +"I'd like to get ashore myself, child," snapped Tess. "But I don't see +how we are going to do it." + +"Oh, Tess! are we going to be carried 'way out to sea?" + +"Don't be a goosey! We're going _up_ the river, not _down_," said the +more observant Tess. + +"Well, then!" sighed Dot, relieved. "It isn't so bad, is it? Of +course, we'll stop somewhere." + +"But it will soon be dinnertime," said her sister. "And I guess Ruth +and Aggie won't know where we've gone to." + +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! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GYPSIES AGAIN + + +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. + +"Oh, Ruth!" she shrieked. "See what I've done!" + +Ruth came to the opening in the front of the tent, flushed and +disheveled, demanding: + +"Well, _what_? This old fat snaps so!" + +"The boat!" cried Agnes. + +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. + +"Have you let it get away, Agnes Kenway?" Ruth demanded. + +"Well! you don't suppose I went down there and pushed it off, do you?" + +"This is no laughing matter----" + +"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." + +She was a little mixed here; it was the boat she had forgotten to tie. + +"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! +"_Now_ what shall we do? That boat cost seventy-five dollars, the man +said." + +"Oh, Ruthie!" + +"What will Mr. Howbridge say?" + +"Oh, Ruthie!" + +"No use crying about it," said the oldest Corner House girl, with +decision. "_That_ won't help." + +"But--but it's gone out to sea." + +"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." + +"How?" asked the tearful Agnes. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"I certainly do not understand it," Ruth said, when Agnes brought back +the news. + +At that moment a shuffling step sounded outside the tent and a husky +voice demanded: + +"Any clams terday, lady? Fresh clams--jest dug. Ten cents a dozen; +two-bits for fifty; half a dollar a hundred. Fresh clams!" + +"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?" + +"Hel-_lo_!" growled the startled man. "I dunno 'bout thet thar, +shipmet. What kind o' sisters be they?" + +"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." + +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." + +"Well! what became of them?" demanded the impatient Agnes. + +"Why----I dug 'em, shipmet, an' they air in this i-den-ti-cal basket +now," declared the clam-digger. + +"Well!" gasped Agnes, behind her hand. "Maybe the children didn't know +clam-holes; but _he_ doesn't know beans!" + +Ruth asked again: "We mean, what became of the girls, sir?" + +"I couldn't tell ye, shipmet. D'ye want any clams?" pursued this man +of one idea. "Ten cents a dozen; two-bits for----" + +"I'll buy some clams--yes," cried Ruth, in some desperation. "But tell +us where you last saw our sisters, sir?" + +"How many you want, shipmet?" demanded the quite unmoved old fellow. + +"Two!" cried Agnes. "There were only two of them. Two little +girls----Oh!" + +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?" + +"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. + +"Where did they go, sir?" asked Ruth. + +"I didn't take no pertic'lar notice of 'em, shipmet. They had a +dratted dog with them----" + +"Oh! Tom Jonah is with them. Then they _can't_ be lost," gasped Agnes. + +"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." + +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. + +"Do--do you suppose they drifted away in the boat?" she whispered. + +"I expect so," agreed Ruth. "Come on, Ag. We'll go up beyond the bend +and see if we can sight the boat." + +"Oh! if they fall overboard----" + +"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?" + +Agnes looked at her scornfully. "I don't ever want to eat again if Dot +and Tess aren't found," she sobbed. "Come on!" + +"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." + +"_If_ we find them," suggested the desperate Agnes. + +"Don't talk like a goose, Ag!" exclaimed the older sister. "Of course +we'll find them. They've only drifted away." + +"But you said yourself the boat might be smashed against the rocks." + +"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!" + +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. + +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! + +"Oh, Ruth!" echoed Agnes, coming to Ruth's side. + +But the older sister quickly recovered her self-possession. Her first +thought was: + +"If Tom Jonah were only here!" + +Ruth went to the door. The man leered at her and doffed his old cap. + +"Good day, little lady," he said. "She remember me--Big Jim--heh?" + +"I remember you," Ruth said, shortly. + +"Ver' proud," declared the Gypsy, bowing again. + +"What do you want?" asked the oldest Corner House girl, with much more +apparent courage than she really felt. + +"You remember Zaliska--heh?" asked the man, shrewdly. + +"I remember her," said Ruth. + +"Little lady seen Zaliska since that day--heh?" + +"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. + +"Zaliska come here, heh?" said the man, doggedly, and with something +besides curiosity in his narrow eyes. + +"I don't know why I should tell you if she had been here," declared +Ruth, while Agnes clung to her arm in fear. + +"The little lady would fool Big Jim. No! We want find Zaliska." + +"Don't come here for her," said Ruth, sharply. "She's not here." + +"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?" + +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. + +"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." + +"Ha! she come here to see you----" + +"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." + +"Huh!" grunted the man, and backed away, doubtfully. + +"Now we are busy and you must not trouble us any more," declared Ruth, +hurriedly. "Come, Agnes!" + +"He'll come in the tent and search it," whispered Agnes, in her +sister's ear. + +"I will speak to Mr. Stryver. He is here to-day," said Ruth, +mentioning a neighbor in the camp. + +"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. + +"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." + +"I'll 'tend to this fellow," promised Mr. Stryver, who was a burly +man, and not afraid of anything. + +Ruth hurried Agnes away toward the bend without another word. + +"Why didn't you tell them Tess and Dot were lost?" asked Agnes, +gulping down a sob. + +"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." + +"It--it was all my fault," choked Agnes. "If I had tied the boat as +you told me----" + +"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." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ON WILD GOOSE ISLAND + + +"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." + +"And so j-j-jerky!" exclaimed her sister, clinging to the Alice-doll. + +"You aren't really afraid, are you, Dot?" + +"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----" + +"But you mustn't drop her overboard," warned Tess. + +"Do you s'pose I _would_, Tess Kenway?" demanded Dot, quite hurt by +the suggestion. + +"If she did fall overboard, Tom Jonah would save her, of course," went +on Tess. + +"Oh! don't you say such things," cried Dot. "And _do_, please, stop +the boat from jerking so!" + +"I--I guess it wants to be steered," Tess said. + +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 +_would_ "wabble." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Maybe the boat will go ashore there," said Dot, more cheerfully. + +"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. + +"But we can't walk back to the tent from there," objected Dot. + +"No-o," admitted Tess. "It'll be land, just the same!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +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. + +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. + +Suddenly Dot stood right up and squealed--pointing at the island. Tom +Jonah lifted his head and barked. + +"There's somebody, Tess!" declared Dot. + +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. + +"Oh! oh! Let's call her," gasped Tess. "She'll help us." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What's the matter with you?" she demanded, in rather a sharp tone. + +"We--we can't stop the boat," responded Tess. + +"We want to get ashore," added Dorothy, + +"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! + +"We got in it, and it floated away with us," said Tess. + +"Where from?" asked the girl on shore. + +"Oh! 'way down the river. 'Round that turn. We live at Willowbend Camp +with Ruth and Aggie." + +"Ruth _Who_?" the other demanded, sharply. + +"Our sister, Ruth Kenway," said Tess. + +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: + +"Is that dog good for anything?" + +"Tom Jonah?" cried Tess and Dot together. "Why, he's the best dog that +ever _was_," Dot added. + +"Does he know anything?" insisted the strange girl. + +"Uncle Rufus says he's just as knowin' as any human," Tess said, +impressively. + +"Does he mind?" pursued the girl on the shore. + +"Oh, yes," said Tess. "He'll sit up and beg--and shakes hands--and +lies down and rolls over--and----" + +"Say! those tricks won't help you any," cried the other. "Can you make +him swim ashore here?" + +"Why--ee--I don't know," stammered Tess. + +"We wouldn't want to let you have Tom Jonah," Dorothy hastened to +explain. + +"Goodness knows, _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." + +"Oh, yes!" cried Tess, scrambling toward the bow at once. + +"See that the other end is fast to your boat," commanded the girl on +the island. + +It was. Tess quickly knotted the free end of the long painter to Tom +Jonah's collar. + +"Now send him ashore, child!" cried the big girl. + +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. + +"Go on, Tom Jonah! Overboard!" cried Tess, firmly. + +"He--he'll get all wet, Tess," objected Dot, plaintively. + +"That won't hurt him, Dot," explained her sister. "You know he loves +the water." + +"Come on, here!" cried the girl on the island, snapping her fingers. +"Push him overboard." + +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. + +"Go on, Tom Jonah!" shouted Tess. "You're rocking the boat!" + +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. + +"Come on, sir! come on!" shouted the girl ashore. + +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. + +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. + +"Come on, sir! now we'll get them!" she urged, laying hold of the +line. + +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. + +"Now we have them!" cried the girl. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"Come on, now!" she said, sharply. "Unfasten the rope from that dog's +collar. We'll keep _that_. It may come in handy." + +"Don't you want it to pull the boat up on the beach?" asked Tess, as +she obeyed the command. + +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. + +"Oh! oh!" squealed Dot. "You'll lose our boat." + +"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." + +"But that's Ruthie's boat," exclaimed Tess. + +"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 _him_ quiet. +Don't let him run about, or bark. If he does I'll tie him to a tree +and muzzle him." + +"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." + +"And it would give me dead away," declared the big girl, angrily. "You +children be satisfied that I took you ashore. Now keep still!" + +"I--I don't believe I like her very much, Tess," Dot whispered again. + +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. + +He lay at their feet. He had shaken himself comparatively dry, and now +he put his head on his paws and went to sleep. + +"Well," sighed Tess, caressing the dog's head. "I'm glad we have him +with us." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE SEARCH + + +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. + +"It never came this way, Ruth!" groaned the frightened Agnes. "They've +drifted out to sea, just as I said." + +"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." + +"Or it's sunk," said the lugubrious Agnes. + +"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." + +"They could fall out of the boat," urged Agnes, wiping her eyes. + +"They'd not be foolish enough to rock the boat. It's all right, I tell +you. I _did_ expect to see the boat from this spot; but it's floated +into some cove somewhere. The children are safe enough----" + +"You don't know!" blubbered Agnes. + +"Keep still! Yes, I _do_ know--I know as well as I want to. But we'll +have to ask for help to find them." + +"What kind of help?" asked Agnes. + +"We'll get Mr. Stryver's motorboat," said the oldest Corner House +girl, with decision. + +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. + +"What is that, Ruth? The Gypsies?" she demanded. + +"If it is, then the Gypsies have adopted the Milton high school yell. +Don't you recognize it?" returned Ruth. "The boys have arrived." + +"Neale O'Neil!" + +"I suppose Neale is with them." + +"He will help us," cried the delighted Agnes, sure in the ability of +Neale O'Neil to do almost anything. + +"Well--I suppose he may," admitted Ruth, slowly. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Doesn't that water look inviting?" shouted Ben Truman to Joe and some +of the bigger boys. "When do we go in swimming, Joe?" + +"_You_ can go when you like, Bennie," returned Eldred. + +"I'd like right now," declared the youngster. + +"Clothes and all, I suppose, Ben?" drawled Neale O'Neil. + +"What's clothes? I'm not afraid to go in just as I am." + +"I dare you, Ben!" shouted another of the boys, knowing the spirit of +Truman. + +"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! + +There was a great shout of laughter. Ben was submerged--every bit! He +came up blowing like a porpoise. + +"Come on in, fellows! the water's fine!" he gasped, not embarrassed by +the accident. + +"Thank you. We'll wait till the bathing suits arrive," returned Neale. +"Hello! Here are the Corner House girls--two of them, at least." + +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. + +"Oh, Neale!" was the latter's greeting to her boy friend. "Don't tell +the other fellows, but Tess and Dot are lost." + +"Great goodness, Ag! You don't mean it?" cried Neale, keenly troubled +by her statement. + +"It's not as bad as _that_," Ruth interposed. "They are out in our +boat with Tom Jonah." + +"I knew you had him down here. He'll take care of them," said Neale, +with confidence. + +"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." + +"You don't _know_!" burst out Agnes. + +"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?" + +"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----" + +"Who's crying?" gulped Agnes, angrily. + +"You are--pretty nearly. And your eyes are all red." + +"Hay fever," sniffed Agnes, trying to joke. + +"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." + +She hurried on and Neale took Agnes by the elbow and led her out of +all possible earshot of the other boys. + +"Buck up, Aggie," he said, gruffly, as a boy will. "You've been a good +little sport--always. Don't blubber about it." + +"But it was I who forgot to tie the boat," Agnes said. + +"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. + +"Isn't it? But it's go-o-one----" + +"There, there! We'll find it and the children will be all right," he +assured her. + +Ruth came running with the key to the padlock that moored the _Nimble +Shanks_ to the mooring stake. They got out to her--just the two girls +and Neale--in a dory. + +The _Nimble Shanks_ 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. + +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. + +While Ruth was unlocking the chain of the _Nimble Shanks_, 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: + +"All free, there, Ruth?" + +"Let her go, Neale!" returned Agnes, eagerly. "I can't wait, it seems +to me." + +"Sit tight, then, ladies," said Neale, as Ruth scrambled aft. "I +believe this craft can be made to travel." + +The girls obeyed as the _Nimble Shanks_ 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. + +"Goodness! if this boat stopped suddenly we'd be drowned by that +wave," gasped Ruth. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"There's a boat ahead," he said to the girls. "It appears to be empty. +Stand up and see if it's the one." + +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. + +"It's her!" she said, breathlessly. "But where are the children?" + +"We'll find out," said Neale, quickly. "Sit down again." + +"And Tom Jonah?" urged Ruth. + +"Make up your mind that wherever the children are, _he_ is, too," said +Neale, and he let the _Nimble Shanks_ out again, and Ruth tumbled +promptly into her seat. + +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. + +"Oh, oh!" groaned Agnes. "Where _have_ they gone?" + +"Not overboard, that's sure," said Neale, cheerfully. "They would have +overturned the boat." + +"I--don't--know," began Ruth. + +"Oh, Ruth!" shrieked Agnes. "Maybe they were not in her after all." + +"But that clam man said he saw them." + +"He didn't see them in the boat when it was afloat," said Agnes, +clinging to the safer possibility. + +"I know. But where else did they go?" + +"Down the beach, maybe," said Neale, slowly. + +"The Gypsies have gotten them!" exclaimed Agnes, in despair. + +"Stop it, Ag!" cried Ruth, shaking her sister. "You can think up the +most perfectly awful things----" + +"Bet they got out of the boat on the shore somewhere, and let it drift +away again," suggested Neale, rather feebly. + +"It wouldn't be like Tess to do such a foolish thing," said Ruth, +shaking her head. + +"They didn't have anything to tie the boat up with. There's no painter +in her," said the observant Neale. + +"Of course there's a painter!" cried Agnes, jumping up. "A nice long +one----" + +"Where is it?" demanded the boy. + +"Oh, Ruth! _That's_ gone!" gasped Agnes. + +"Say!" said Neale, very seriously; "ropes don't come untied of +themselves. Sure it was fastened to the boat?" + +"To that ring," Ruth declared, confidently. + +"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." + +"You only--only say so to comfort us," sobbed Agnes. + +"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." + +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. + +"That belongs to Dot's Alice-doll!" she cried, leaning over the +gunwale and fishing for the slipper. "They _were_ in the boat." + +"We knew that before. The clam man said so," sniffed Agnes. + +"But they got out in a hurry. Otherwise Dot would have noticed that +the doll had lost her slipper." + +"That seems reasonable," admitted Neale O'Neil. "But what's become of +them? Where did they go? Where are they now?" + +He was staring all about the river, while the two boats gently rubbed +together, bobbing and courtesying on the tide. + +"Don't see anybody on the shores--and not another boat in sight," the +boy added. + +"Maybe they went ashore on the island?" suggested Agnes, looking back. + +"There's nobody there," said her sister, looking back, too. "Not a +soul." + +"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." + +"That's so, Neale," Ruth said. "And surely any grown person who +rescued the girls wouldn't have let the boat drift away again." + +The trio of searchers gazed at each other in trouble and amazement. +They could not explain this mystery in any satisfactory way. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A STARTLING MEETING + + +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. + +But the dark-faced girl, dressed in her bedraggled Gypsy finery, saw +the _Nimble Shanks_, for she was on the watch at one side or the other +of the island, all the time. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Oh! that will be fine. I _do_ love strawberries," declared Dot, +easily appeased. + +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 _why_. + +She got up from the ground and at once Tom Jonah started up, barking +and bounding about. + +"Stop that dog!" exclaimed the big girl, crossly. "Make him walk +beside you. I'll tie him up," she threatened. + +"Then he'll howl _awful_," cried Dot. "We tried that once at home. +Don't you 'member, Tess?" + +"Well, you keep him still," snapped the big girl. + +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. + +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! + +"Oh, _so_ much nicer than boughten berries!" Tess declared, forgetting +for the time all her anxiety. + +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. + +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 _Nimble Shanks_. + +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! + +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 _awfully_ scared for us. +And we've lost Ruth's boat, too," she added, disconsolately. + +"How do you expect to get off this island?" demanded the strange girl. + +"Why! how did you get _on_?" returned Tess. + +"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. + +"I expect there will," was Tess' calm response. + +"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." + +"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." + +"I s'pose so," admitted the older girl. + +"It's funny Ruth hasn't been up here before now looking for us," Tess +observed. + +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. + +"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." + +"Well," said the strange girl, "I'll have to get you across to the +river bank. I wasn't going till night. But----" + +"We are very much obliged to you," Tess hastened to say. "But we +_couldn't_ stay that long." + +"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." + +"Thank you," Tess said, simply. + +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. + +Besides, the mystery regarding this pretty girl made Tess feel +_un_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! + +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 _naughty_? and was she afraid to have +her folks find her? + +It was all a great puzzle and Tess sighed and shook her head. Finally +she asked: "If you please, where _is_ the raft of logs?" + +"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." + +"Is--is it safe?" queried Tess. + +"Well, it didn't drown me coming over," said the girl, with a short, +hard laugh. "But the logs came near parting." + +"Oh!" + +"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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"It won't hold him up, too!" she cried. "Get out!" + +"Oh! don't hurt Tom Jonah!" wailed Dot, shrilly. "Don't!" + +"You look out!" warned Tess. "He'll grab you!" + +Tom Jonah certainly _did_ grab the paddle. And he nearly wrenched it +from the hands of the big girl, strong as she was. + +"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." + +"Well!" cried Tess. "We're barefooted. And we can't leave Tom Jonah +behind." + +"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. + +"Oh, Tom Jonah! Come! Come!" cried Dot, fearful that the dog would be +lost. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Again Tom Jonah uttered his warning, and then barked sharply. + +"Shut up!" commanded the big girl, turning on him fiercely. + +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. + +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!" + +The girl was terrified in the extreme. She looked from side to side as +though contemplating escape. The fellow took another stride toward +her. + +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! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FRANKFURTER MAN + + +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." + +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. + +"Now, don't you be afraid for him, Dot," added Tess, quite calmly. +"Tom Jonah won't really _bite_ him--not as long as he keeps still and +doesn't try to get up----" + +The fellow was moaning and begging just as he had when the big dog +"treed" him on the henhouse roof. + +"Tak' away dog! Tak' away dog!" he begged. + +"I don't know why we should--do you, Dot?" pursued Tess, undisturbed. +"He was going to hurt _her_----" + +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! + +"Why--why," stammered Tess. "And she never said 'Good-bye'!" + +"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?" + +"Oh!" cried Tess, with a sudden sharp idea. "She _was_ afraid of him. +Let us help her. She helped us." + +"How will we?" inquired the smaller girl. + +"Just let Tom Jonah hold him where he is. We will give that pretty +girl a good chance to get away. Won't we?" + +"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!" + +"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. + +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." + +Of course, they knew that the big dog would not really harm the +fellow. + +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." + +The old dog lifted his head enquiringly. The muscles of his shoulders +and fore-paws relaxed. + +"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?" + +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. + +The moment the fellow knew he was free, he scrambled up and dodged +into the bushes. He did not stay for a word. + +"That big girl must have gotten away by this time," Tess said, +cheerfully. "And he is too scared to catch her, anyway." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In fact, Tess felt quite brave now that she was again on the mainland. +She was sure that they could easily find Willowbend Camp. + +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. + +This was the result of rapidly passing automobiles on the road; but +none of these vehicles was in sight now. The road seemed deserted. + +Save for just one thing. Dot saw it before Tess. + +"Oh, look!" the smaller girl cried. "Isn't that a peanut man, Tess? +Don't you wish you had a nickel?" + +"He isn't a peanut man," said Tess, after a sharp look at the man +pushing the little wagon along the road before them. + +"Isn't he?" returned Dot, disappointedly. + +"It's a hot-frankfurter man," declared Tess. + +"Oh, Tess! a nickel would buy two frankfurter sandwiches," gasped Dot. +"And I'm _so_ hungry." + +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 _any_ hungry person's mouth water. At least, any hungry +person of the age of Tess and Dot Kenway. + +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. + +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. + +"How-de-do!" he said, smiling. "You want a hot frankfurter, little +girls?" + +"Yes, sir," said Dot, frankly. + +"Oh, we can't, sir--not till we get to Willowbend Camp," Tess hastened +to say, squeezing Dot's hand admonishingly. + +Dot's lower lip trembled and the man asked: + +"Why can't you have 'em now?" + +"We--we should have to ask Ruthie," said Tess, slowly. + +"Who's she?" + +"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. + +"Oh-ho!" exclaimed the man. + +"But we're awful hungry," ventured Dot. "And so's my Alice-doll. We +been shipwrecked, you see." + +"Shipwrecked?" asked the man, wonderingly. + +"Not just _that_, Dot," said Tess, doubtfully. "We were sort of +castaways." + +"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." + +"Tell me about it," said the frankfurter man, as the girls and Tom +Jonah trotted along beside his little wagon. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"Oh!" gasped Dot, clasping her hands and almost letting the Alice-doll +fall. + +"You--you are _so_ kind!" said Tess, her voice fairly trembling. + +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." + +"Oh! if you would be so good!" cried Tess. + +Tom Jonah made one mouthful of the frankfurter. You see, _he_ had not +cared at all for the strawberries! + +"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?" + +"Oh, yes, sir!" returned Tess and Dot, in delight. + +"Then you can easy find your way. Good-day, young ladies. I know your +sisters will be anxious to see you." + +"Thank you, sir," Tess said, not forgetting her manners. "And we shall +not forget that we owe you for the sausages." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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: + +"Say, Ruthie," she asked, "how do frankfurters grow?" + +"What?" gasped Agnes, and clapped a hand over her own mouth to keep +from laughing. + +"How do they _grow_, dear?" returned Ruth, rather taken aback herself. + +"Goodness gracious, child!" exclaimed Tess. "They don't grow on bushes +like pea-pods." + +"Oh, no, of course not!" ejaculated Dot, who did not like to be +considered ignorant. "A frankfurter flies, doesn't it?" + +"Mercy!" murmured Ruth. "Hear her!" + +"Oh! I mean it crawls--it _creeps_. Of course," Dot hurried to add. + +Agnes exploded here. She could not keep in any longer. + +"Well, I think you're real mean!" complained Dot. "You won't tell me. +I guess it's a fish, then. Does it _swim_?" + +"Goodness!" cried Tess. + +"Then they come in bunches like bananas!" declared the frantic Dot. + +_This_ 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. + +"Well!" murmured Dot, at last, and rather sleepily. "I don't care. I +believe they are the very _nicest_ things there are to eat--so there! +Those the frankfurter man gave us were perfectly lovely." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MRS. BOBSTER'S MYSTERIOUS FRIEND + + +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. + +Her hostess was such a cheerful body! And, as Agnes had promised, Rosa +was supplied with good, hearty food--and plenty of it. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +Rosa came over to the tent colony and helped the girls prepare for the +party. Moreover, she had a secret to impart to Ruth. + +"Don't let the other girls hear, Ruth Kenway," she said, with much +mystery. "But Mrs. Bobster is the oddest thing!" + +"Well! I guess she is," laughed Ruth. "But she's _good_." + +"Good as gold," agreed Rosa. "But she has some funny ways. Of course I +go to bed early. The doctor told me I should." + +"Well?" + +"You'd think she'd go to bed early, too, when she's up so soon in the +morning?" + +"Well----I suppose that's a matter of taste," Ruth observed. + +"Anyway, you know how lonesome it is over there?" + +"I guess there are not many people about--after dark." + +"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." + +Ruth nodded. She remembered how once the little old woman who lived in +a shoe had spoken to her about being afraid. + +"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 _don't_." + +"Well--what then?" + +"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." + +"And never says anything about it?" + +"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." + +"Is it a man or a woman?" asked Ruth. + +"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." + +"What?" gasped Ruth, in amazement. + +"That's right," said Rosa, nodding confidently. "Whoever it is talks +so low that I haven't heard his, or her, voice yet!" + +"A dumb person?" suggested Ruth. + +"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?" + +"I should say it was," admitted Ruth. + +"But she treats me well," sighed Rosa. "I wouldn't do her any harm for +the world. But I _am_ awfully curious!" + +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. + +"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. + +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?" + +"Tom Jonah." + +"Thet's enough to sink him," said the man with a grin. "How'd ye come +ter call him that?" + +"It's his name," said Ruth. "It was engraved on his collar when he +came to our house in Milton." + +"Oh! then he ain't allus been your dawg, shipmet?" demanded the man. + +"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." + +The clam man blinked, and said nothing more. But he cast more than one +glance at Tom Jonah before he went away. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Then they actually _were_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +When the fun was over the guests took the fancy-dressed sausages home +as souvenirs. + +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. + +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: + +"It is a lonely spot, isn't it?" + +"But I never feel afraid. Only I'm curious about Mrs. Bobster's +friend----There! See it?" she cried, suddenly, but under her breath. + +"See what?" Ruth asked. + +"The shadow on the curtain," said Rosa. + +At the same moment Agnes said: "Hello! Mrs. Bobster has company." + +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. + +"What! With his hat on?" exclaimed Ruth. "Who can it be?" + +"He isn't very polite, whoever he is," said Neale. + +"Let's see about it," suggested Agnes. "Do you know anything about +him, Rosa?" + +"I only know she has had a visitor sometimes--after I'm in bed," said +the Southern girl. + +"Come on! let's go in the side door," said Agnes, in a low voice. + +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. + +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. + +"But you had company?" said Agnes, rather pertly. + +"Eh?" returned Mrs. Bobster, setting the broom behind the hall door. +"Oh, yes! I don't never kalkerlate ter be alone many evenings." + +"Is he here now?" demanded Neale, laughing. + +"Who? _Him?_ 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." + +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. + +"I'd give a penny," murmured Rosa Wildwood, "to know who her +mysterious friend is." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE YARN OF THE "SPANKING SAL" + + +The wooden-legged clam digger, Habakuk Somes, seemed suddenly to have +acquired a great interest in Tom Jonah. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"And how did the pirates get your leg, Mr. Kuk?" asked Tess. "Your +really truly leg, I mean." + +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. + +"Huh! them pi-_rats_?" queried the clam digger. "Well--er--now, did I +say it was pi-_rats_ as got my leg, shipmet?" + +"Yes, you did, sir." Dot hastened to bolster up her sister's statement +of fact. "And you said it was on the Spanish Main." + +"Well!" declared the old man, "so it was, an' so they did. Pi-_rats_ +it was, shipmet. An' I'll tell yer the how of it. + +"I was carpenter's mate on the _Spankin' Sal_, 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----" + +"Oh, Mr. Kuk!" ejaculated Tess in rather a pained voice. "Isn't that a +mistake? _Warming pans?_" + +"Not by a joblot it ain't no mistake!" returned the old man. "Warming +pans I sez, an' warming pans I sticks to." + +"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." + +"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. + +"'Course, _I_ knowed them was tropical places, but I didn't know 'twas +all writ down in books--joggerfries, do they call 'em?" + +"Yes, sir," said Tess, seriously. "And it is so hot down there they +couldn't possibly need warming pans." + +"Now, ye'd think that, wouldn't ye, shipmet? And I'd think it. But the +skipper of the _Spankin' Sal_, he knowed dif'rent. + +"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?" + +"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. + +"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." + +"Surely, surely, shipmet," agreed the clam digger. "Them's the things. +And Cap'n Roebuck of the _Spankin' Sal_, plagued near crammed the +upper holt with them. + +"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. + +"He must have been a wonderful man, sir," said Tess, while Dot sat +round-eyed and listened. + +"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. + +"'What's them things for?' axed the first planter, in the Spanish +lingo. + +"'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. + +"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. + +"'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. + +"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 _Spankin' Sal_. + +"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. + +"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 +_dis_-trust. + +"Yer see, so many of them snaky Spanish planters was hand an' glove +with the pi-_rats_. And ev'rybody on the island knowed the _Spankin' +Sal_ 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-_rats_." + +"Oh!" gasped Dot, hugging her Alice-doll the tighter. + +"How much treasure was there, Mr. Kuk?" asked the ever-practical Tess. + +"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 _Spankin' Sal_ was a mighty good ketch +if the pi-_rats_ ketched her. + +"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-_rats_," +declared Kuk, gravely. + +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. + +"Go on, please, Mr. Kuk," breathed Tess. + +"Oh, do!" said Dot. + +"Well, shipmets," said the old clam digger, "bein' peaceful +merchantmen, as ye might say, we hadn't shipped aboard the _Spankin' +Sal_ to fight no pi-_rats_," declared Kuk, with energy. "We wasn't no +sogers, and we told the skipper so. + +"'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. + +"'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.' + +"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 +_Spankin' Sal_. + +"Pretty soon we seen one o' them black-hulled schooners comin'. She +couldn't be mistook for anythin' but a pi-_rat_, although she didn't +fly no black flag yet. + +"'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.' + +"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. + +"Them pi-_rats_," 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!' + +"An' we done so," the clam digger said, nodding. "Our scythes was +longer than the cutlasses of them pi-_rats_; 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." + +"Oh, dear, me!" gasped Dot. + +"How awful!" murmured Tess. + +"'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-_rats_ 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." + +"And did you kill them _all_--every one?" demanded Tess, in amazement. + +"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-_rats_ on the +Spanish Main. + +"An' _that_," 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. + +"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-_rats_ to mow down; and I did the knee a lot of harm the doctors in +the horspital said. + +"So I had ter have the leg ampertated. That made folks down that-a-way +ax me was I a pi-_rat_, 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 _Spankin' Sal_. 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. + +"What an awful, _awful_ story!" cried Dot. + +"Too awful to believe," answered Tess, wisely. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE SHADOW + + +The four Corner House girls planned to start for town one morning +early, and they were going by road instead of by boat. + +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! + +"Hello, Ag! What's the good word?" cried Neale. + +Agnes told him what they were going to do and asked the favor. + +"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." + +"Tom Jonah is going with us," Agnes said, promptly. "Did you suppose +we'd leave him all day alone, poor fellow?" + +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. + +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. + +He drew in the horse, that seemed to have already traveled some miles +that morning, and looked hard at Tom Jonah. + +"Well," he said, cheerfully, "there's the old tramp himself. How long +have you girls had him?" + +The four Corner House girls stood stock-still, and even Ruth was +smitten dumb for the moment. + +"Tom Jonah, you rascal!" said the man, not unkindly. "Don't you know +your old master?" + +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. + +"Where did you get him!" the man repeated, looking at the Corner House +girls again. + +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: + +"Do you think you know Tom Jonah, sir?" + +"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." + +"No, sir," said Ruth, bravely. "But lots of people may know him." + +"Do you mean to put in a claim for the dog?" interrupted the man, +quickly. + +"Tom Jonah came to our house in Milton," began Ruth, when again the +man interrupted with: + +"Of course. He was on his way home to me. I sold him to a man who +lives forty miles beyond Milton." + +"Then you do _not_ own him?" Ruth said, with a feeling of relief. + +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. + +"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?" + +"Yes, sir," admitted Ruth. + +"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 _fice_--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." + +"Oh!" gasped Agnes. She _disliked_ that man! + +"My name's Reynolds," said the man. "Everybody knows me about Shawmit. +I run a lumber-yard there. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"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----" + +"And we're going to keep him!" interrupted Agnes, angrily. + +"Hush! Be still, Aggie!" begged Ruth, in a low tone. + +"You don't claim you bought him, I suppose?" said the man who called +himself Reynolds. + +"But we _will_!" cried Ruth, instantly. "We will gladly pay for him." + +"Oh, he's not for sale again," laughed the man. "I sold him once and +he wouldn't stay sold, you see." + +"Then he doesn't belong to you now, any more than he does to us, +really," Ruth hastened to say. + +"Well----that's so, I suppose," admitted the man. + +"We won't give Tom Jonah up to anybody," said Agnes again. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Take him, then!" exclaimed Ruth, desperately. "If Tom Jonah will go +with you, all right. You call him." + +"Come here, boy!" commanded the man. + +Tom Jonah did not move. Ruth took a hand of each of the smaller girls +and led them away from the big dog. + +"Come, children," she said. "We'll go on. If Tom Jonah really loves +us, he'll come, too." + +The dog whined. He looked from the red-faced, angry man to the four +girls who loved him so well. + +"Come here, Tom Jonah!" commanded the man again. He had turned his +horse and was evidently headed for home. "Come, sir!" + +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. + +"Come on, Tom Jonah!" said the man for the third time. + +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. + +"What's the matter with him?" exclaimed the man, and snapped his +whiplash at Tom Jonah. + +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. + +"Here, Tom Jonah! here, sir!" Agnes shouted. "Come on, you dear old +fellow." + +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. + +[Illustration: The dog was perplexed. He started after the man; +started back for the girls. He whined and he barked.] + +"Hurry up! let's run with him, Ruthie," begged Agnes. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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? + +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. + +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. + +"Oh! there's Trix!" murmured Agnes to her older sister. + +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. + +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. + +"She has awfully good times, just the same," murmured Agnes. + +"Who does?" demanded Ruth, tartly. + +"Trix." + +"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." + +"Oh, Ruth! Do you believe so?" + +"I do," said the older Corner House girl, and she explained why she +thought so. + +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. + +"Oh, dear me!" sighed Agnes. "It does seem too bad that one's very +_best_ friends sometimes turn out to be one's enemies. Who'd have +thought Trix Severn would do such a thing?" + +"Of course, we don't _know_," admitted Ruth, trying to be fair. "But +who else could have told Mr. Reynolds about Tom Jonah?" + +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. + +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. + +"I didn't like that man at all, anyway," Tess declared. "He had red +whiskers." + +"Is--is that a sign that a man's real mean if he has red whiskers, +Tess?" asked Dot, wonderingly. + +"It's a sign Tess doesn't like him," laughed Agnes. "But I don't like +that Reynolds man myself. Do you, Ruthie?" + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"I saw several of the Gypsies about the beach to-day," Joe Eldred +said. "That snaky, scarred-faced fellow was one of them." + +"He's the ring-leader, I believe," Ruth hastened to say. + +"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." + +"And there are no hens to steal," chuckled Agnes. + +"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. + +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. + +"There's that man again!" exclaimed Agnes. + +"What man?" Joe Eldred asked. + +"Mrs. Bobster's mysterious friend," giggled Agnes. "See his shadow on +the curtain?" + +"And he's sitting there with his hat on," murmured Neale. + +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 _this_ shadow at which Tom Jonah was +growling. + +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. + +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. + +The boys started after the dog. The girls stood, clinging to one +another's hands, at the corner of the fence. + +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. + +"Oh, my dear!" she gasped. "Where did you come from?" + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +BROUGHT TO BOOK + + +"Let me go! Let me go!" gasped the girl in Ruth's arms. "He will get +me." + +"Who'll get you?" demanded the wondering Agnes. + +"Big Jim, the Gypsy. He's after me," said the strange girl. + +"And Tom Jonah and the boys are after _him_," declared Ruth. "Don't +you fret; Big Jim won't come back here." + +"Who _is_ she, Ruth?" asked Agnes. + +"Never mind who I am," said the girl, rather sharply. "Let me go." + +"I know why you were lurking about here," Ruth said, calmly. "You +heard that Rosa Wildwood is stopping here." + +"Well?" demanded the other. + +"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----" + +"My goodness!" gasped Agnes. "Was _she_ that Gypsy queen?" + +"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?" + +"Oh, I am! I am!" groaned the girl. + +"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." + +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: + +"Who's there? what do you want?" + +"It's only me, Mrs. Bobster," cried Ruth. + +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." + +"And my Alice-doll," concluded Dot, likewise excited. "And Ruthie says +she's Rosa's sister." + +"For the good land of liberty's sake!" ejaculated Mrs. Bobster, +throwing wide the door. "Come in! Come in!" + +The girl whom Ruth had seized hesitated for a moment. Ruth whispered +in her ear: + +"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." + +"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. + +"Were the doctor and his wife the folks you ran away with?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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. + +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. + +"My goodness sake!" ejaculated Agnes, the first to get her breath. +"Then it was not company you had at all, Mrs. Bobster?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +"I guess that dog doesn't like Gypsies," said June Wildwood, patting +Tom Jonah's head. + +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. + +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. + +The Corner House girls offered to leave Tom Jonah to guard the +premises for that night. But Mrs. Bobster said: + +"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!" + +"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. + +"How's that!" demanded Neale, quickly. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +It was on one of these latter occasions that Ruth and Agnes joined +Neale and his friends on the "double-ender," _Hattie G._, and with her +crew spent a night and a day chasing the elusive swordfish. + +That _was_ 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. + +"Oh!" gasped Agnes. "What's that!" + +"Is that you, Neale?" demanded Ruth, calmly. + +"Of course. Get a bustle on," advised the boy. "The motorboat will be +ready in ten minutes." + +"Mercy!" ejaculated Agnes, giggling. "You know we don't wear bustles, +Neale. They are too old-fashioned for anything." + +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. + +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. + +Out upon the quietly heaving waters sounded voices--then the pop of a +launch engine. + +"Come on!" urged Neale's voice. "They're getting the boat ready, +girls." + +"But we're not going out to the banks in the _Nimble Shanks_--surely!" +cried Agnes. + +"No. But we're going down the cove in her to catch the _Hattie G._ +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." + +"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. + +"Skipper Joline would have a fit," laughed Joe Eldred. "A motorboat +engine would scare every swordfish within a league of the Banks--so +_he_ says. He declares _that_ 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." + +"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. + +"Yep," grunted Neale O'Neil. "And the motorboats have frightened all +the horse-mackerel away. That's a joke. I'll tell the Skipper _that_." + +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 _Nimble Shanks_. 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 _Nimble +Shanks_ was away, down the cove. + +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. + +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. + +"Got your scare?" a voice came out of the darkness, quavering across +the cove. "Going to be thick outside." + +Neale grabbed the fish-horn and blew a mighty blast on it. Similar +horns answered from all about the fleet. + +A towering mast, with its big sail bending to the breeze, shot past +them--the big cat-boat, _Susie_, 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. + +"Whew!" said Joe. "Smell that lobster bait! I'd hate to go for a +pleasure trip on the _Susie_." + +The _Hattie G._ 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. + +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 +_Hattie G._ 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. + +Skipper Joline came to the rail. He was a hoarse, red-faced man with a +white beard, cut like a paintbrush, on his chin. + +"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." + +"That sounds rather suggestive, Ruth," whispered Agnes. "Do you +suppose he expects us landlubbers to be really _sick_?" + +"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." + +They left the _Nimble Shanks_ 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 _Hattie G._ + +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. + +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 _Hattie G._ had run through the +"Breach," as the cove entrance was called, and they were sailing +straight out to sea. + +The mournful wail of a horn in the fog now and then announced the +location of some lobsterman. The _Hattie G._ answered these "scares" +with her own horn and swept on through the fog. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Later, when the _Hattie G._ reached the Banks, there was something +beside the view to interest and excite the Corner House girls. + +The big sails were lowered and only a riding sail spread to keep the +_Hattie G._ on an even keel. A "pulpit" was set up on each of her +short booms--both fore and aft. + +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. + +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. + +Once one of the huge fish was spied, everybody aboard the _Hattie G._ +was on the _qui vive_. The boys climbed the ratlines to see. The girls +borrowed the cook's old-fashioned spyglass to get a better view of the +creature. + +The _Hattie G._ 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. + +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. + +The coil of the line was laid behind him. The crew brought the _Hattie +G._ just to the spot Skipper Joline indicated with a wave of his hand. + +Back swung the mighty arm of the skipper, the muscles swelling like +cables under the sleeve of his blue jersey. + +"Now!" breathed the mate, as eager as any of the boys or girls among +the spectators. + +Ping! + +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. + +Then the huge fish leaped almost its length from the sea. The crew +drove the _Hattie G._ back. Good reason why the swordfishing craft are +built sharp at both ends! + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +The crew of the _Hattie G._ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Ruth took Tom Jonah up to see the Wildwood girls with her the very +next time she went to call. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"I reckon they know ye!" cried the widow. "If they've ever hearn ye +spin one o' yer sea-farin' yarns----" + +"And we have," interposed Ruth, smiling. "He's told us about how he +sailed in the _Spanking Sal_ and lost his leg fighting pirates." + +"For the good land o' liberty!" gasped Mrs. Bobster. "He never told ye +_that_?" + +"Oh, yes. It was very interesting," laughed Ruth. + +"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!" + +"Now, Mis' Bobster----" began the clam digger, faintly. + +"Ain't that _so_? Ye daren't deny it," she declared. "He ain't no +sailor. He's jest an old beach-comber. Don't never go in _any_ boat +outside of the cove. Lost his leg fightin' pirates, did he? Huh!" + +"So he told us," said the much amused Ruth. + +"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." + +"Oh!" cried Ruth, staring at the sheepish clam digger. + +"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!" + +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." + +"But that's how Mr. Reynolds heard about our having Tom Jonah," +declared Ruth, accusingly. "You told him." + +"Yep. That's his old dawg," said Kuk. + +"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." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE END OF THE OUTING + + +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. + +But there was something at home in Milton, at the old Corner House +itself, that the younger girls thought they _must_ attend to. + +"It's really a _nawful_ 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." + +"Oh!" gasped Dot, to whom this was a new idea indeed. "I never thought +of that." + +"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." + +"But they couldn't leave their mother, Tess," objected Dot. "They're +too small." + +"I--don't--know," said Tess, doubtfully. "At any rate, it's high time +they were named. You know, Mrs. MacCall says so herself." + +Dot picked up the letter that the kind housekeeper at the old Corner +House had written especially to the two smaller Kenway girls. + +"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. + +"They must be named," repeated Tess, with conviction. + +"But Ruth won't let us go home to do it," quoth Dot. + +"And I don't want to. Do _you_?" demanded Tess, hastily. "I don't want +to leave the beach now, just when we're having so much fun." + +Neither did Dot. But the state of the unchristened kittens--the +youngest family of Sandyface--troubled her exceedingly. + +Tess, however, suddenly had one of her very brilliant ideas. "I tell +you what let's do!" she cried. + +"What?" + +"Let's write Mrs. MacCall and Uncle Rufus a letter, and ask them to +name Sandyface's children their own selves." + +"But--but _we_ want to name them," cried Dot. + +"Goosey!" exclaimed Tess. "We'll choose the names; but Mrs. MacCall +and Uncle Rufus can give them to the kittens. Don't you see?" + +"Oh, Tess! we might," agreed Dot, delighted. + +Tess ran to the tent for paper and pencil, and bespoke the favor of an +envelope addressed in ink to Mrs. MacCall. + +"Of course, I'll address one for you," said Ruth, kindly. "But what's +all the hurry about writing home?" + +Tess explained the necessity that had arisen. Sandyface's family of +kittens was growing up without being christened--and something might +happen to them. + +"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!" + +"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. + +"Let's call them by seashore names," suggested Tess. "Then they'll +remind us of the fun we had here at Pleasant Cove." + +"Oh-oo! Let's," agreed Dot. + +"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: + + "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----" + +Here Tess's laboring pencil came to a full stop. "Now, you got the +first name, Dot?" she asked. + +"I got two," declared Dot, confidently. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Well, well!" cried Tess, impatiently. "What are the names?" + +"One's 'Starboard' and the other's 'Port,'" declared Dot, seriously. +"And they are real nice names, _I_ think." + +Tess was rather taken aback. She had a hazy opinion that "Starboard" +and "Port" were not Christian names; they _might_ 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: + + "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." + +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." + +"It _does_ 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?" + +"Very fine," agreed her older sister, while Agnes restrained her +giggles. + +"Why not call one of the others 'Hard-a-Lee'?" suggested Neale, +gravely. + +"Is _that_ a seashore name?" asked Tess, doubtfully. + +"Just as salt as a dried codfish," declared Neale, confidently. + +"I think it is real pretty," Dot ventured. + +"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. + +"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?" + +"Yes. We must have one more," Tess said, wearily. "Won't _you_ give us +one, Aggie?" + +"Sure!" said Agnes, promptly. "Main-sheet.'" + +"'Starboard, Port, Hard-a-Lee and Main-sheet.' Some names, those!" +declared Neale. + +"I like them," Tess said, reflectively. "They don't sound like other +cats' names--do they, Ruthie?" + +"They most certainly do not," admitted the oldest Corner House girl. + +"And are they pretty, Ruthie?" asked Dot. + +"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!" + +The labored letter was therefore finished and sent away. As Dot said, +"it lifted a great load from their minds." + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +"And he won't sell him again, he said," sighed Ruth. "I don't just see +what we can do." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Well, Miss!" he said. "How do you feel about giving up that dog?" + +"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." + +"Do you girls really want old Tom Jonah as much as _that_?" asked Mr. +Reynolds. + +"Yes, sir," said the girl, simply. + +"Willing to buy the old rascal? And he's nothing but a tramp." + +"He's a gentleman. You said so yourself on his collar," said Ruth. + +The man looked at her seriously and nodded. "I guess you think a whole +lot of him, eh?" + +"A great deal, sir," admitted Ruth. + +"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." + +"Oh, sir----" + +"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." + +"Just as long as he lives!" declared Ruth, fervently. + +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. + +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. + +"Of course, he can't talk back," Tess said. "Dogs don't speak our +language. But if we could understand the _barking language_, I am sure +we would hear him say he was glad." + +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. + + +THE END + + + + +CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS + +(From eight to twelve years old) + +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SERIES + +BY GRACE BROOKS HILL + +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. + + 1 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS. + 2 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL. + 3 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. + 4 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY. + 5 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS' ODD FIND. + 6 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR. + 7 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP. + 8 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND. + 9 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT. + 10 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES. + 11 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND. + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + +THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES + +BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL + +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. + + 1 POLLY'S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL + 2 POLLY'S SUMMER VACATION + 3 POLLY'S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL + 4 POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR + 5 POLLY AND LOIS + 6 POLLY AND BOB + +_Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated._ + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +_PUBLISHERS_ + +NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + +CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES + +By LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE + +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! + + Adventures of Chicken Little Jane + Chicken Little Jane on the "Big John" + Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town + +_With numerous illustrations in pen and ink_ + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +_PUBLISHERS_ + +NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + +Dorothy Whitehall Series + +_For Girls_ + +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. + +6 Titles, Cloth, large 12mo., Covers in color. + + 1. JANET, A TWIN + 2. PHYLLIS, A TWIN + 3. THE TWINS IN THE WEST + 4. THE TWINS IN THE SOUTH + 5. THE TWINS' SUMMER VACATION + 6. THE TWINS AND TOMMY JR. + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +_PUBLISHERS_ + +NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + +THE MARY JANE SERIES + +BY CLARA INGRAM JUDSON + +Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated. + +With picture inlay and wrapper. + +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. + +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. + + 1 MARY JANE--HER BOOK + 2 MARY JANE--HER VISIT + 3 MARY JANE'S KINDERGARTEN + 4 MARY JANE DOWN SOUTH + 5 MARY JANE'S CITY HOME + 6 MARY JANE IN NEW ENGLAND + 7 MARY JANE'S COUNTRY HOME + +BARSE & HOPKINS + +_PUBLISHERS_ + +NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Corner House Girls Under Canvas, by +Grace Brooks Hill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS *** + +***** This file should be named 38742.txt or 38742.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/4/38742/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |