The Corner House Girls Read online

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  Finding the will. In a moment the panel dropped down,leaving in view a very narrow depository for papers. _Frontispiece._]

  THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS

  HOW THEY MOVED TO MILTON WHAT THEY FOUND AND WHAT THEY DID

  BY

  GRACE BROOKS HILL

  Author of "The Corner House Girls at School," "TheCorner House Girls Under Canvas," etc.

  _ILLUSTRATED BY_

  _R. EMMETT OWEN_

  BARSE & HOPKINS

  PUBLISHERS

  NEW YORK, N. Y.--NEWARK, N. J.

  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_

  Printed in U. S. A.

  CONTENTS

  I "Left High and Dry" II Uncle Peter's Will III The Old Corner House IV Getting Settled V Getting Acquainted VI Uncle Rufus VII Their Circle of Interest Widens VIII The Cat that Went Back IX The Vanishing Kittens X Ruth Sees Something XI In the Garret XII Mrs. Kranz Comes to Call XIII The Maronis XIV Five Cents' Worth of Peppermints XV "A Dish of Gossip" XVI More Mysteries XVII "Mrs. Trouble" XVIII Ruth Does what She Thinks is Right XIX "Double Trouble" XX Mr. Howbridge is Perplexed XXI The Corner House Girls Win Public Approval XXII Callers--and the Ghost XXIII Not Entirely Explained XXIV Aunt Sarah Speaks Out XXV Laying the Ghost

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Finding the will. In a moment the panel dropped down, leaving in viewa very narrow depository for papers

  She forgot her kittens and everything else, and scrambled up the treefor dear life

  "Looker yere! Looker yere! Missie Ruth! There's dem dried apples,buried in de groun'"

  Up came Tommy again, his eyes open, gurgling a cry, and fighting tokeep above the surface

  THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS

  CHAPTER I

  "LEFT HIGH AND DRY"

  "Look out, Dot! You'll fall off that chair as sure as you live,child!"

  Tess was bustling and important. It was baking day in the Kenwayhousehold. She had the raisins to stone, and the smallest Kenway wasclimbing up to put the package of raisins back upon the cupboardshelf.

  There was going to be a cake for the morrow. Ruth was a-flour to herelbows, and Aggie was stirring the eggs till the beater was just"a-whiz."

  Crash! Bang! Over went the chair; down came Dot; and the raisinsscattered far and wide over the freshly scrubbed linoleum.

  Fortunately the little busy-body was not hurt. "What did I tell you?"demanded the raisin-seeder, after Ruth had made sure there were nobroken bones, and only a "skinned" place on Dot's wrist. "What did Itell you? You are such a careless child!"

  Dot's face began to "cloud up," but it did not rain, for Aggie saidkindly:

  "Don't mind what she says, Dot. Leave those raisins to me. You run getyour hat on. Tess has finished seeding that cupful. Now it's time youtwo young ones went on that errand. Isn't that so, Ruth?"

  The elder sister agreed as she busily mixed the butter and flour.Butter was high. She put in what she thought they could afford, andthen she shut her eyes tight, and popped in another lump!

  On a bright and sunny day, like this one, the tiny flat at the top ofthe Essex Street tenement was a cheerful place. Ruth was a verycapable housekeeper. She had been such for two years previous to theirmother's death, for Mrs. Kenway had been obliged to go out to work.

  Now, at sixteen, Ruth felt herself to be very much grown up. It isoften responsibility and not years that ages one.

  If Ruth had "an old head on green shoulders," there was reason for it.For almost all the income the Kenways had was their father's pension.

  The tide of misfortune which had threatened the family when the fatherwas killed in the Philippines, had risen to its flood at Mrs. Kenway'sdeath two years before this day, and had now left the Kenway girlshigh and dry upon the strand of an ugly tenement, in an ugly street,of the very ugliest district of Bloomingsburg.

  The girls were four--and there was Aunt Sarah Stower. There were noboys; there never had been any boys in the Kenway family. Ruth saidshe was glad; Aggie said _she_ was sorry; and as usual Tess sided withthe elder sister, while Dot agreed with the twelve-year-old Aggie thata boy to do the chores would be "sort of nice."

  "S'pose he was like that bad Tommy Rooney, who jumps out of the darkcorners on the stairs to scare you, Dot Kenway?" demanded theten-year-old Tess, seriously.

  "Why, he couldn't be like Tommy--not if he was _our_ brother," saidthe smallest girl, with conviction.

  "Well, he might," urged Tess, who professed a degree of experience andknowledge of the world far beyond that of her eight-year-old sister."You see, you can't always sometimes tell about _boys_."

  Tess possessed a strong sense of duty, too. She would not allow Dot,on this occasion, to leave the raisins scattered over the floor. Downthe two smaller girls got upon their hands and knees and picked up thevery last of the dried fruit before they went for their hats.

  "Whistle, Dot--you must whistle," commanded Tess. "You know, that'sthe only way not to yield to temptation, when you're picking upraisins."

  "I--I can't whistle, Tess," claimed Dot.

  "Well! pucker up, anyway," said Tess. "You can't do _that_ withraisins in your mouth," and she proceeded to falteringly whistleseveral bars of "Yankee Doodle" herself, to prove to the older girlsthat the scattered raisins _she_ found were going into their properreceptacle.

  The Kenway girls had to follow many economies, and had learned earlyto be self-denying. Ruth was so busy and so anxious, she declaredherself, she did not have time to be pretty like other girls of herage. She had stringy black hair that never would look soft and wavy,as its owner so much desired.

  She possessed big, brown eyes--really wonderful eyes, if she had onlyknown it. People sometimes said she was intellectual looking; that wasbecause of her high, broad brow.

  She owned little color, and she had contracted a nervous habit ofpressing her lips tight together when she was thinking. But shepossessed a laugh that fairly jumped out at you from her eyes andmouth, it was so unexpected.

  Ruth Kenway might not attract much attention at first glance, but ifyou looked at her a second time, you were bound to see something inher countenance that held you, and interested you.

  "Do smile oftener, Ruth," begged jolly, roly-poly Agnes. "You alwayslook just as though you were figuring how many pounds of round steakgo into a dollar."

  "I guess I _am_ thinking of that most of the time," sighed the oldestKenway girl.

  Agnes was as plump as a partridge. When she tried to keep her facestraight, the dimples just _would_ peep out. She laughed easily, andcried stormily.

  She said herself that she had "bushels of molasses colored hair," andher blue eyes could stare a rude boy out of countenance--only she hadto spoil the effect the next moment by giggling. Another thing, Agnesusually averaged two "soul chums" among her girl friends at school,per week!

  Tess (nobody ever remembered she had been christened Theresa) had someof Ruth's dignity and some of Aggie's good looks. She was the quickgirl at her books; she always got along nicely with grown-ups; theysaid she had "tact"; and she had the kindest heart of any girl in theworld.

  Dot, or Do
rothy, was the baby, and was a miniature of Ruth, as far asseriousness of demeanor, and hair and eyes went. She was a littlebrunette fairy, with the most delicately molded limbs, a faint blushin her dark cheeks, and her steady gravity delighted older people.They said she was "such an old-fashioned little thing."

  It was Saturday. From the street below shrill voices rose in anightmare of sound that broke in a nerve-racking wave upon the ears.Numerous wild Red Indians could make no more savage sounds, if theywere burning a captive at the stake.

  It was the children on the block, who had no other playground. Dotshuddered to venture forth into the turmoil of the street, and Tesshad to acknowledge a faster beating of her own heart.

  Dot had her "Alice-doll"--her choicest possession. They were going tothe green grocer's, at the corner, and to the drug store.

  At the green grocer's they were to purchase a cabbage, two quarts ofpotatoes, and two pennies' worth of soup greens. At the drug storethey would buy the usual nickel's worth of peppermint drops for AuntSarah.

  Every Saturday since Dot could remember--and since Tess couldremember--and since Agnes could remember--even every Saturday sinceRuth could remember, there had been five cents' worth of peppermintdrops bought for Aunt Sarah.

  The larder might be very nearly bare; shoes might be out at toe andstockings out at heel; there might be a dearth of food on the table;but Aunt Sarah must not be disappointed in her weekly treat.

  "It is the only pleasure the poor creature has," their mother was wontto say. "Why deprive her of it? There is not much that seems to pleaseAunt Sarah, and this is a small thing, children."

  Even Dot was old enough to remember the dear little mother sayingthis. It was truly a sort of sacred bequest, although their mother hadnot made it a mandatory charge upon the girls.

  "But mother never forgot the peppermints herself. Why should we forgetthem?" Ruth asked.

  Aunt Sarah Stower was a care, too, left to the Kenway girls' charge.Aunt Sarah was an oddity.

  She seldom spoke, although her powers of speech were not in the leastimpaired. Moreover, she seldom moved from her chair during the day,where she sewed, or crocheted; yet she had the active use of herlimbs.

  Housework Aunt Sarah abhorred. She had never been obliged to do it asa girl and young woman; so she had never lifted her hand to aid indomestic tasks since coming to live with the Kenways--and Ruth couldbarely remember her coming.

  Aunt Sarah was only "Aunt" to the Kenway girls by usage. She wasmerely their mother's uncle's half-sister! "And _that's_ arelationship," as Aggie said, "that would puzzle a Philadelphia lawyerto figure out."

  As Tess and Dot came down the littered stoop of the tall brick housethey lived in, a rosy, red-haired boy, with a snub nose and twinklingblue eyes, suddenly popped up before them. He was dressed in fringedleggings and jacket, and wore a band of feathers about his cap.

  "Ugh! Me heap big Injun," he exclaimed, brandishing a wooden tomahawkbefore the faces of the startled girls. "Scalp white squaw! Killpapoose!" and he clutched at the Alice-doll.

  Dot screamed--as well she might. The thought of seeing her mostbeloved child in the hands of this horrid apparition----

  "Now, you just stop bothering us, Tommy Rooney!" commanded Tess,standing quickly in front of her sister. "You go away, or I'll tellyour mother."

  "Aw--'Tell-tale tit! Your tongue shall be split!'" scoffed the dancingIndian. "Give me the papoose. Make heap big Injun of it."

  Dot was actually crying. Tess raised her hand threateningly.

  "I don't want to hurt you, Tommy Rooney," she said, decisively, "but Ishall slap you, if you don't let us alone."

  "Aw--would you? would you? Got to catch first," shouted Tommy, makingdreadful grimaces. His cheeks were painted in black and red stripes,and these decorations added to Dot's fright. "You can't scare me!" heboasted.

  But he kept his distance and Tess hurried Dot along the street. Therewere some girls they knew, for they went to the public school withthem, but Tess and Dot merely spoke to them and passed right on.

  "We'll go to the drug store first," said the older girl. "Then wewon't be bothered with the vegetable bags while we're getting AuntSarah's peppermints."

  "Say, Tess!" said Dot, gulping down a dry sob.

  "Yes?"

  "Don't you wish we could get something 'sides those old peppermintdrops?"

  "But Ruthie hasn't any pennies to spare this week. She told us so."

  "Never _does_ have pennies to spare," declared Dot, with finality."But I mean I wish Aunt Sarah wanted some other kind of candy besidespeppermints."

  "Why, Dot Kenway! she always has peppermints. She always takes some inher pocket to church on Sunday, and eats them while the ministerpreaches. You know she does."

  "Yes, I know it," admitted Dot. "And I know she always gives us eachone before we go to Sunday School. That's why I wish we could buy hersome other kind of candy. I'm tired of pep'mints. I think they are amost unsat--sat's_fac_tory candy, Tess."

  "Well! I am amazed at you, Dot Kenway," declared Tess, with her mostgrown-up air. "You know we couldn't any more change, and buywintergreen, or clove, or lemon-drops, than we could _fly_. AuntSarah's got to have just what she wants."

  "Has she?" queried the smaller girl, doubtfully. "I wonder why?"

  "Because she _has_," retorted Tess, with unshaken belief.

  The drops were purchased; the vegetables were purchased; the sisterswere homeward bound. Walking toward their tenement, they overtook andpassed a tall, gray haired gentleman in a drab morning coat and hat.He was not a doctor, and he was not dressed like a minister; thereforehe was a curious-looking figure in this part of Bloomingsburg,especially at this hour.

  Tess looked up slyly at him as she and Dot passed. He was a cleanlyshaven man with thin, tightly shut lips, and many fine lines about thecorners of his mouth and about his eyes. He had a high, hooked nose,too--so high, and such a barrier to the rest of his face, that hissharp gray eyes seemed to be looking at the world in general over ahigh board fence.

  Dot was carrying the peppermint drops--and carrying them carefully,while Tess' hands were occupied with the other purchases. So MasterTommy Rooney thought he saw his chance.

  "Candy! candy!" he yelled, darting out at them from an areaway. "Heapbig Injun want candy, or take white squaw's papoose! Ugh!"

  Dot screamed. Tess tried to defend her and the white bag ofpeppermints. But she was handicapped with her own bundles. Tommy wasas quick--and as slippery--as an eel.

  Suddenly the gentleman in the silk hat strode forward, thrust hisgold-headed walking stick between Tommy's lively legs, and trippedthat master of mischief into the gutter.

  Tommy scrambled up, gave one glance at the tall gentleman and fled,affrighted. The gentleman looked down at Tess and Dot.

  "Oh, thank you, sir!" said the bigger girl. "We're much obliged!"

  "Yes! A knight to the rescue, eh? Do you live on this block, littlelady?" he asked, and when he smiled his face was a whole lotpleasanter than it was in repose.

  "Yes, sir. Right there at Number 80."

  "Number 80?" repeated the gentleman, with some interest. "Is there afamily in your house named Kenway?"

  "Oh, yes, sir! _We're_ the Kenways--two of them," declared Tess, whileDot was a little inclined to put her finger in her mouth and watch himshyly.

  "Ha!" exclaimed the stranger. "Two of Leonard Kenway's daughters? Isyour mother at home?"

  "We--we haven't any mother--not now, sir," said Tess, more faintly.

  "Not living? I had not heard. Then, who is the head of the household?"

  "Oh, you want to see Ruth," cried Tess. "She's the biggest. It must beRuth you want to see."

  "Perhaps you are right," said the gentleman, eyeing the girlscuriously. "If she is the chief of the clan, it is she I must see. Ihave come to inform her of her Uncle Peter Stower's death."