Oh, my! exclaimed Dot. Do you have busy seasons, and slack seasons, like the peddlers?
I should say we did, miss, agreed the other, still in a complaining tone.
My! What makes this time of year a busy one? demanded the inquisitive Dorothy.
The frost, miss.
The frost? repeated the little girl, quite puzzled.
Yes, miss. The frost catches folks napping, as ye may say.
Dot puzzled over that for a moment, too. Did folks sleep harder when it was frosty and dark out-of-doors, than in summer? The young man stood and watched her. It must be rather embarrassing to be interrupted in the midst of a burglary.
Dont dont mind me, said Dot, politely. Dont let me stop your work.
No, miss. Im a-waiting for my boss, said the other.
There! Dot had known he must be only an apprentice burglar he was so young.
Then then theres more of you? she asked.
More of me? No, maam, said the amazed young man. You see all there is of me. I never was very husky no, maam.
He seemed to be a very diffident burglar. He quite puzzled Dot.
Dont dont you ever get afraid in your business? she asked. I should think you would.
Yep. Im some afraid when I wipe a joint, admitted the young man. Ye see, I aint used to the hot lead, yet.
Dot thought over that answer a good while. Of course, she could not be expected to understand the professional talk of burglars never having associated with that gentry. What wiping a joint meant she could not imagine; and what burglars did with hot lead was quite as puzzling.
I I suppose your boss is a journeyman burglar? queried the little girl, at last.
Wha-at! gasped the young man. Then he grinned hugely. Thats what some of his customers calls him, miss, he agreed.
Dont dont you think there is some danger in your staying here alone? asked Dot. Suppose Uncle Rufus should come down stairs and catch you?
Hullo! whos Uncle Rufus? asked the young man.
Why why, hes Uncle Rufus. He works for us
Oh! hes the colored man?
Yes, sir.
Why, he is down, said the young man, coolly. He let us in. We had to come early, cause weve got so much work to do, and we didnt get through at Pinkneys till nine oclock last night.
At Pinkneys? cried Dot, as the young man yawned. Did did you burgle Sammys house, too?
What dye mean burgle? asked the young man, biting off the yawn and staring again at Dot.
I beg your pardon, said Dot, gently. But but what do you call it?
Just then the door of the butlers pantry opened and Uncle Rufus looked in.
Dat oddah plumber done come, young man, he said. Dis aint no time in de mawnin fo six oclock t come t folkss houses nohow t mend a busted watah-pipe nossir! Yuh got all ob dem silber pieces out ob de safe?
Theyre all out, Uncle, said the young man.
Whuffo dey run dat pipe trough de silber closet, I dunno, complained the old darkey. I use t tell Mistah Peter Stowah dat it was one piece of plain foolishness. What if de batroom is ober dis closet
He disappeared, his voice trailing off into silence, and the young man followed him. Dot was left breathless and rather abashed. Then the young man was not a burglar after all; he was only a plumber!
She crept back to bed, and said nothing to anybody about her early morning visit to the lower floor. But the young man told Uncle Rufus, and Uncle Rufus, chuckling hugely, told Mrs. MacCall.
Id like to know, for goodness sake, what you would have done if it had been a really truly burglar, Dot Kenway? Agnes demanded, when the story was repeated at the breakfast table.
Id have given him my silver knife and fork and mug, and asked him to go away without waking up Ruthie, declared the smallest Corner House girl, having thought it all out by that time.
I believe you would you blessed child! cried Ruth, jumping up to kiss her.
But suppose it had been Santa Claus? Tess murmured, and you had disturbed him filling our stockings?
Pooh! said Dot. If hed felled down the chimbley like that brick, he wouldnt have been filling stockings.
CHAPTER IV THE FAMILY ALBUM AND OTHER THINGS
The day before Christmas was the busiest day of all. The dressing of the tree must be finished and the trimming and festooning of the big dining room completed. Neale ONeil came over early to help the Corner House girls. He was a slim, rosy-cheeked, flaxen-haired boy, as agile as a monkey, and almost always smiling.
Ruth and Agnes would not hear to his helping trim the tree; but it was Neales agility that made it possible for the rope of green to be festooned from the heavy ceiling cornices. Uncle Rufus was much too stiff with rheumatism for such work.
Well! boys are some good, you must admit, Agnes said to Ruth, for the oldest Corner House girl was inclined to be a carping critic of the mere male.
All right. If hes so awfully useful, just let him clear up all this mess on the carpet, and then dust the rugs. Mercy, Agnes! exclaimed Ruth, what a lot of this green stuff there is all over the floor.
Yes, I know, admitted Agnes.
And there is other rubbish, too. Look at this old book you brought down from the attic and flung in the corner.
Ruth picked it up. It was heavy, and she carried it over to the broad window-seat on which she sat to open the family album, as Agnes had called it.
The latter and Neale, having brought in basket and broom, began to gather up the litter. Ruth became very still at the window with the old volume in her lap. The smaller girls were out of the room.
Whats in the old thing pictures? asked Agnes of her elder sister.
Ye yes, pictures, Ruth said hesitatingly.
Must be funny ones, chuckled Neale, by the look of her face.
Ruth did look serious as she sat there, turning the pages of the big, old volume. Had the others noticed particularly they would have seen that the countenance of the oldest Corner House girl had become very pale.
It was so when Mrs. MacCall looked in and said to her: Oh, Ruth! I do wish youd come out here and see what that Sammy Pinkneys brought. I dunno whether to laugh, to scream, or to spank him!
Ill be there in a moment, Mrs. Mac, Ruth said nervously, jumping up and closing the book.
Then she glanced at Agnes and Neale, seized the volume in her arms, and instead of going out through the butlers pantry after Mrs. MacCall, she crossed the front hall to the sitting room at the rear of the house.
I like that! cried Agnes. Why! I found that old album myself; and I havent had a chance to look into it yet.
Ruth was only a moment in the sitting room. Then she ran to the kitchen and out upon the cold porch, where Sammy Pinkney, done up in the folds of a huge red comforter like a boa-constrictor suffering from scarlet fever, stood, holding a cage-trap in one mittened hand.
What do you know about this? demanded Mrs. MacCall, spectacles on nose and eyeing the contents of the round trap in alarm and disgust.
Uncle Rufus was chuckling hugely in the background. Sandyface, the mother cat, was arching her back and purring pleadingly about Sammys sturdy legs.
Uncle Rufus was chuckling hugely in the background. Sandyface, the mother cat, was arching her back and purring pleadingly about Sammys sturdy legs.
What are they? demanded Ruth.
Mice, grunted Sammy, gruffly. For Tess cats. They like em, dont they? But my mother says Ive got to bring the trap back.
Whats to be done with a boy like that? demanded Mrs. MacCall. Being kicked to death with grasshoppers would be mild punishment for him, wouldnt it? Whats to be done with eight mice?
One kitten will have to go without, said Dot, the literal, as she and Tess joined the party on the porch.
Come on, now! You gotter let em out. I gotter have the trap, was Sammys gruff statement. He saw that his present was not entirely appreciated by the human members of the Corner House family, whether the feline members approved or not.
Oh, Ill call the family! cried Dot, and raised her voice in a shrill cry for Spotty, Almira, Popocatepetl, Bungle, Starboard, Port, Hard-a-Lee and Mainsheet! She was breathless when she had finished.
Cats came from all directions. Indeed, they seemed to appear most mysteriously from the ground. Big cats and little cats, black cats and gray cats, striped cats and spotted cats.
If there were any more of them theyd eat us out of house and home, declared Mrs. MacCall.
But Almira isnt here! wailed Dot. Oh, Ruthie! dont let him open the cage till Almira comes. She wants a chance to catch a mouse.
I believe you children are little cannibals! exclaimed the housekeeper. How can you? Wanting those cats to catch the poor little mice!
Dyou want em for pets? demanded Sammy, grinning at the housekeeper.
Ugh! I hate the pests! cried Mrs. MacCall.
Do find Almira, Ruthie, begged Dot.
I gotter take this cage back, said Sammy. Cant fool here all day with a parcel of girls.
But Almira
But Ruth had gone into the woodshed. She peered into the corners and all around the barrels. Suddenly she heard a cat purring purring hard, just like a mill!
Where are you, Almira? she asked, softly.
Purr! purr! purr! went Almira oh, so loud, and so proudly!
What is it, Almira? asked Ruth. There! I see you down in that corner. Why, youre on Uncle Rufus old coat! Oh! Whats this?
The eight mice had been caught by the other cats and killed. Tess came to the woodshed door.
Oh, Ruth, she asked, has anything happened to Almira?
I should say there had! laughed the oldest Corner House girl.
Oh! what is it? cried Dot, running, too, to see.
Santa Claus came ahead of time to Almira, anyway, declared Ruth. Did you ever see the like? You cunning ittle sings! Look, children! Four tiny, little, black kittens.
Oh-oh-ee! squealed Tess, falling right down on her knees to worship. But Dot looked gravely at the undisturbed Sandyface, rubbing around her feet.
Goodness me, Sandyface, youre a grandmother! she said.
CHAPTER V NO NEWS FOR CHRISTMAS
Almiras addition to the Corner House family was not the only happening which came on this eventful day to fill the minds and the hearts of the Kenway sisters.
Ruth went around with a very serious face, considering the holiday season and all that she and Agnes and Tess and Dot had to make them joyful. Nor was her expression of countenance made any more cheerful by some news bluff Dr. Forsyth gave her when he stopped, while on his afternoon round of calls, to leave four packages marked Ruth, Agnes, Tess and Dot.
Not to be opened till to-morrow, mind, said the doctor. Thats what the wife says. Now, I must hurry on. Ive got to go back to the hospital again to-night. Ive a bothersome patient there.
Oh! Not Miss Pepperill? Ruth cried, for the red-haired school teacher and the matron of the hospital, her sister, were to be the guests of the Corner House girls on the morrow.
Dr. Forsyth took off his hat again and frowned into it. No, he said, not her not now.
Why, Doctor! what do you mean? Isnt she getting on well?
Well? No! blurted out the physician. She doesnt please me. She doesnt get back her strength. Her nerves are jumpy. I hear that she was considered a Tartar in the schoolroom. Is that right?
Ask Tommy Pinkney, smiled Ruth. I believe she was considered strict.
Humph! yes. Short tempered, sharp tongued, children afraid of her, eh?
I believe so, admitted Ruth.
Good reason for that, said the doctor, shaking his head. Her nerves are worn to a frazzle. Im not sure that it isnt a teachers disease. Its prevalent among em. The children just wear them out if they dont take things easily.
But, Miss Pepperill?
I cant get her on her pins again, growled the doctor.
Oh, Doctor! Cant she come over here with her sister to-morrow?
Yes, shell come in my machine, said the good physician, putting on his hat once more. What I am talking about is her lack of improvement. She stands still. She makes no perceptible gain. She talks about going back to teaching, and all that. Why, she is no more fit to be a teacher at present than I am fit to be an angel!
Ruth smiled up at him and patted his burly shoulder. I am not so sure that you are not an angel, Doctor, she said.
Yes. Thats what they tell me when Ive pulled em out of trouble by the very scruff of their necks, growled Dr. Forsyth. Other times, when I am giving them bad tasting medicine, they call me anything but an angel, and he laughed shortly.
But now in this case shes not a bad patient. She cant help her nerves. They have gotten away from her. Out of control. Shes not fit to go back to her work and wont be for a couple of years.
Oh! cried Ruth, with pain. She knew what such a thing meant to the two sisters at the hospital. It was really tragic. Mrs. Elands salary was small, and Miss Pepperill was not the person to wish to be a burden upon her sister. The poor thing! Ruth added.
She ought to have a year perhaps two away from all bothersome things, said Dr. Forsyth, preparing to go. Id like to have her go away, and her sister with her for a time, to some quiet place, and to a more invigorating climate. And that well, we doctors can prescribe such medicine for our rich patients only, and Dr. Forsyth went away, shaking his head.
Ruth said nothing to the other girls about this bad report upon Miss Pepperills condition. They all were interested in Mrs. Elands sister more for Mrs. Elands sake, it must be confessed, than because of any sweetness of disposition that had ever been displayed by the red-haired school teacher.
The two women had lived very unhappy lives. Left orphans at an early age, they were separated, and Miss Pepperill was brought up by people who treated her none too kindly. She was trained as a teacher and had never married; whereas Mrs. Eland was widowed young, had become a nurse, and finally had come to be matron of the Milton Womens and Childrens Hospital in the very town where her sister taught school.
The coming together of the sisters, after Miss Pepperill was knocked down by an automobile on the street, seemed quite a romance to the Corner House girls, and they had been vastly interested for some weeks in the affairs of the matron and the school teacher.