The Corner House Girls on a Houseboat Read online

  CHAPTER II

  NEALE HAS NEWS

  Deep, and perhaps portentous, silence had succeeded the crash. But bothRuth and Agnes knew enough of the goings and comings in the Corner Housenot to take this silence for serenity. It meant something, as the crashhad.

  "What was it?" murmured Ruth again, and she fairly ran out into thehall, followed by her sister.

  Then came a series of bumps, as if something of no small size wasrolling down the porch steps. By this time it was evident that theracket came from without and not from within. Then a voice cried:

  "Hold it! Hold it! Don't let it roll down!"

  "That's Dot!" declared Ruth.

  And then a despairing voice cried:

  "I can't! I can't hold it! Look out!"

  Once again the rumbling, rolling, bumping sound came, and with it wasmingled the warning of the Scotch housekeeper and the wail of Dot whocried:

  "Oh, she's dead! She's smashed!"

  "Something really has happened this time!" exclaimed Ruth, and her facebecame a little pale.

  "If only it isn't serious," burst out Agnes. "Oh, dear, what thoseyoungsters don't think of for trouble!"

  "They don't mean to get into trouble, Agnes. It's only theirthoughtlessness."

  "Well then, they ought to think more. Oh, listen to that, will you!"Agnes added, as another loud bumping reached the two sisters' ears.

  "It's something that's sure," cried Ruth, and grew paler than ever.

  The happening was not really as tragic as it seemed, yet it wassufficiently momentous to cause a fright to the two older girls.Especially to Ruth, who felt herself to be, as she literally was, amother to the other three; though now that Agnes was putting up her hairand putting down her dresses a new element had come into the household.

  While yet in tender years the responsibilities of life had fallen on theshoulders of Ruth Kenway. In their former home--a city more pretentiousin many ways than picturesque Milton, their present home--the Kenwayshad lived in what, literally, was a tenement house. Their father andmother were dead, and the small pension granted Mr. Kenway, who had beena soldier in the Spanish war, was hardly sufficient for the needs offour growing girls.

  Then, almost providentially, it seemed, the Stower estate had come toRuth, Agnes, Dot and Tess. Uncle Peter Stower had passed away, and Mr.Howbridge, the administrator of the estate, had discovered the foursisters as the next of kin, to use his legal phrase.

  Uncle Peter Stower had lived for years in the "Corner House" as it wascalled. The mansion stood opposite the Parade Ground in Milton, andthere Uncle Rufus, the colored servant of his crabbed master, had spentso many years that he regarded himself as a fixture--as much so as theroof.

  At first no will could be found, though Mr. Howbridge recalled havingdrawn one; but eventually all legal tangles were straightened out, andthe four sisters came to live in Milton, as related in the first book ofthe series, entitled "The Corner House Girls."

  There was Ruth, the oldest and the "little mother," though she was notso very little now. In fact she had blossomed into a young lady, a factof which Mr. Howbridge became increasingly aware each day.

  So the four girls had come to live at the Corner House, and that wasonly the beginning of their adventures. In successive volumes arerelated the happenings when they went to school, when they had a jollytime under canvas, and when they took part in a school play.

  The odd find made in the garret of the Corner House furnished materialfor a book in itself and paved the way for a rather remarkable tour inan auto.

  In those days the Corner House girls became acquainted with a brotherand sister, Luke and Cecile Shepard. Luke was a college youth, and thefriendship between him and Ruth presently ripened into a deep regard foreach other. But Luke had to go back to college, so Ruth saw very littleof him, though the young folks corresponded freely.

  All this was while the Corner House girls were "growing up." In fact, itbecame necessary to tell of that in detail, so that the reason for manythings that happened in the book immediately preceding this, which iscalled "The Corner House Girls Snowbound," could be understood.

  In that volume the Corner House girls become involved in the mysteriousdisappearance of two small twins, and after many exciting days spent inthe vicinity of a lumber camp a clue to the mystery was hit upon.

  But now the memory of the blizzard days spent in the old Lodge wereforgotten. For summer had come, bringing with it new problems, not theleast of which was to find a place where vacation days might be spent.

  Ruth proposed to speak of that when her guardian called this Saturdayafternoon. As she had hinted to Agnes, Ruth had invited a number of girlfriends to luncheon. It was the plan to form a sort of young people'sCivic Club, to take up several town matters, and Ruth was the movingspirit in this, for she loved to work toward some definite end.

  This Saturday was no exception in being a busy one at the Corner House.

  In pursuance of her plans she had enlisted the whole household inpreparing for the event, from Mrs. MacCall, who looked after matters ingeneral, Linda, who helped with the baking, Uncle Rufus, who wascleaning the lawn, down to Dot and Tess, who had been sent for flowers.

  And then had come the bribing of Dot and Tess to go to the store and,following that, the crash.

  "What can it be?" murmured Ruth, as she and Agnes hastened on. "Some onesurely must be hurt."

  "I hope not," half whispered Agnes.

  From the side porch came the sound of childish anguish.

  "She's all flatted out, that's what she is! She's all flatted out, myAlice-doll is, and it's all your fault, Tess Kenway! Why didn't you holdthe barrel?"

  "I couldn't, I told you! It just rolled and it rolled. It's a good thingit didn't roll on Almira!"

  "Gracious! did you hear that?" cried Agnes. "What can they have beendoing?"

  The two older sisters reached the porch together, there to find Mrs.MacCall holding to Tess, whom she was brushing off and murmuring to in alow voice, filled with much Scotch burring.

  Dot stood at the foot of the steps holding a rather crushed doll out atarm's length, for all who would to view. And stalking off over the lawnwas Almira, the cat, carrying in her mouth a wee kitten. Uncle Rufus washobbling toward the scene of the excitement as fast as his rheumatismwould allow. Scattered on the ground at the foot of the steps was acollection of odds and ends--"trash" Uncle Rufus called it. The trashhad come from an overturned barrel, and it was this barrel rolling downthe steps and off the porch that had caused the noise.

  "What happened?" demanded Ruth, breathing more easily when she saw thatthe casualty list was confined to the doll.

  "It was Tess," declared Dot. "She tipped the barrel over and it rolledon my Alice-doll and now look at her."

  Dot referred to the doll, not to her sister, though Tess was rather asight, for she was covered with feathers from an old pillow that hadbeen thrown into the barrel and had burst open during the progress ofthe accident.

  At first Tess had been rather inclined to cry, but finding, to her greatrelief, that she was unhurt, she changed her threatened tears intolaughter and said:

  "Ain't I funny looking? Just like a duck!"

  "What were you trying to do, children?" asked Ruth, trying to speakrather severely in her capacity as "mother."

  "I was trying to put Almira and one of her kittens into the barrel,"explained Tess, now that Mrs. MacCall had got off most of the feathers."I leaned over to put Almira in the barrel, soft and easy like, down onthe other pillow, and it upset--I mean the barrel did. It began to roll,and I couldn't stop it and it rolled right off the porch and--"

  "Right over my Alice-doll it rolled, and she's all squashed!" voicedDot.

  "Oh, be quiet! She isn't hurt a bit," cried Tess. "Her nose was flat,anyhow."

  "Did the barrel roll over you?" asked Agnes, smiling now.

  "Almost," said Tess. "But I got out of the way in time, and Almiragrabbed up her kitten and ran. Where is she?" she asked.
/>   "Never mind the cat," advised Ruth. "She's caused enough excitement forone Saturday morning. Why were you putting her in the barrel, anyhow,Tess?"

  "So I'd know where she was when I came back. I wanted her and one kittento play with if Dot is going to play with her Alice-doll when we getback from the store. But I guess I leaned too far over."

  "I guess you did," assented Ruth. "Well, I'm glad it was no worse. Isyour doll much damaged, Dot?"

  "Maybe I can put a little more sawdust or some rags in her and stuff herout. But she's awful flat. And look at her nose!"

  "Her nose was flat, anyhow, before the barrel rolled over her," saidTess. "But I'm sorry it happened. I guess Almira was scared."

  "We were all frightened," said Ruth. "It was a terrible racket. Now letthe poor cat alone, and run along to the store. Oh, what a mess thisis," and she looked at the refuse scattered from the trash barrel. "Andjust when I want things to look nice for the girls. It always seems tohappen that way!"

  Uncle Rufus shuffled along.

  "Doan you-all worry now, honey," he said, speaking to all the girls asone. "I'll clean up dish yeah trash in no time. I done got de lawn likea billiard table, an' I'll pick up dish yeah trash. De ash man ought tohave been along early dis mawnin' fo' to get it. I set it dar fo' him."

  That explained the presence on the side porch of the barrel of odds andends collected for the ash man to remove. He had not called, and seeingthe receptacle there, with an old feather pillow among the other refuse,Tess thought she had her opportunity.

  "Run along now, my bonny bairns! Run along!" counseled the old Scotchwoman. "'Tis late it's getting, and the lassies will be here to lunchbefore we know it."

  "Yes, do run along," begged Ruth. "And then come back to be washed andhave your hair combed. I want you to look nice if, accidentally, youappear on the scene."

  Thus bidden, and fortified with another cookie each, Tess and Dothurried on to the store, Dot tenderly trying to pinch into shape theflattened nose of her Alice-doll.

  Rufus got a broom and began to clean the scattered trash to put backinto the barrel, and Mrs. MacCall hurried into her kitchen, where Lindawas humming a Finnish song as she clattered amid the pots and pans.

  "Oh, we must finish the parlor and library," declared Ruth. "Do come andhelp, Agnes."

  "Coming, Ruth. Oh, here's Neale!" she added, pausing to look toward thegate through which at that moment appeared a sturdy lad of pleasantcountenance.

  "He acts as though he had something on his mind," went on Agnes, as theyouth broke into a run on seeing her and her sister on the steps. "Waita moment, Ruth. He may have something to tell us."

  "The fates forbid that it is anything more about Tess and Dot!" murmuredRuth, for the children had some minutes before disappeared down thestreet.

  "News!" cried Neale O'Neil, as he swung up the steps. "I've got suchnews for you! Oh, it's great!" and his face fairly shone.