Grace Brooks Hill

“ Out of this trip to the grocery arose a misunderstanding that was very funny in the end. Ruth had chosen the very room, at the back of the house, in which the lady from Ipsilanti and her little daughter had slept, for the use of Neale O'Neil. After supper she had gone up there to make the bed afresh, and she was there when Tess and Dorothy returned home from the store, filled to the lips, and bursting, with a wonderful piece of news.
"Oh, dear me, Ruthie!" cried Dot, being the leader, although her legs were not the longest. ”

“ The arc light at the corner of Main Street vied with a faint moon in illuminating the passages and corridors of the old Corner House. Deep shadows lay in certain corners and at turns in the halls and staircases; but Neale O'Neil was not afraid of the dark.
The distant laughter spurred him to find the girls' room. He wanted to get square with Agnes, whom he believed had put the bag of crackers beside his bed. ”

“ I don't want any kids out to the house Friday night," said Carrie.
"Do you mean to say you haven't asked Aggie and Ruth?" gasped Pearl.
"Not yet."
"Why not?" demanded Lucy, bluntly.
"Why——I don't know them very well," said Carrie, hastily. "But I do want that Neale O'Neil. So few boys know how to act at a party. And I wager he dances."
"I can tell you right now," said Lucy, "you'll never get him to come unless the Corner House girls are invited. Why! they're the only girls of us all who know him right well."
"I am going to try him," said Carrie Poole, with sudden decision. ”

“ Then she giggled and added in a whisper to Ruth: "It will be as brilliant as Neale's hair was when he dyed it!"
"Well, you showed us what you could do in the first heat, Aggie," said Pearl, cheerfully. "I believe that you can easily beat Trix."
"Oh, yes!" snarled the latter girl, who over-heard this. "A poor excuse for not racing is better than none."
"Well! I declare, Trix, if you'd fallen down," began Eva; but Agnes interrupted:
"I haven't said I wasn't going to skate the third heat."
"Oh! you can't, Aggie," Ruth said. ”

“ Kranz's parlor and then Neale drove away, leaving the four Corner House girls to play their parts of Lady Bountiful without his aid.
They had just sallied forth for their first visit when, out of the Stower tenement in which the Goronofskys lived, boiled a crowd of shrieking, excited children. Sadie Goronofsky was at their head and a man in a blue suit and the lettered cap of a gas collector seemed the rallying point of the entire savage little gang.
"Oh! what is the matter, Sadie?" cried Tess, running to the little Jewish girl's side.
"He's a thief! he's a gonnif! he's a thief!" ”

“ The Corner House girls too, were proud of him. But Trix Severn, who disliked Neale because he paid her no attention, hearing Agnes praising the boy's courage and skill, exclaimed in her sneering way:
"That circus boy! Why wouldn't he be able to do all sorts of tricks like that? It was what he was brought up to, no doubt."
"What do you mean by that, Trix Severn?" demanded Agnes, immediately accepting her enemy's challenge. "Neale is not a circus boy."
"Oh! he isn't?"
"No. He's never even seen a circus," the positive Agnes declared. ”

“ To tell the truth, Agnes had always thought that "a boy around the house would be awfully handy"—and had often so expressed herself. Dot had agreed with her, while Ruth and Tess held boys in general in much disfavor.
Neale O'Neil had stood aside, not listening, but well aware that the sisters were discussing his suggestion. Finally he flung in: "I ain't afraid to work. And I'm stronger than I look."
"You must be strong, Neale," agreed Ruth, warmly, "if you did what Aggie says you did. But we have Uncle Rufus, and he does most everything, though he's old. ”

“ Trix's mother is some relation to Mrs. Poole. That Trix girl is so mean I know she'll just work us out of any invitation to the party."
Agnes' eyes flashed and it looked as though a storm was coming. But Ruth remained tranquil.
"There will be other parties," the older girl said. "It won't kill us to miss this one."
"Speak for yourself!" complained Agnes. "It just kill us with some of the girls. The Pooles are very select. If we are left out of Carrie's party, we'll be left out of the best of everything that goes on this winter." ”

“ The long, silky hair of the dog saved her from any injury. But she was so scared that she yelped as though the claws of both cats had torn her.
"Oh! my poor Tootsie!" wailed the doctor's wife. "They will kill her."
Dot stood, open mouthed. She could not quench the fury of the angered cats.
"That—that's my Alice-doll's next-to-best dress, Bungle!" she managed to say. "You're tearing it! you're tearing it!"
Just then the door opened. Uncle Rufus came tottering in with the feather duster. The old man's rheumatism still troubled him and he was not steady on his feet. ”

“ Agnes said. "It's you we're thinking of——"
"We'll drive around and get Ruth," Neale said, decisively, and he began to turn the horses.
"Oh, Neale!" groaned Agnes. "What an awful man your uncle must be. He says he used to put you in a cage full of lions——"
Neale O'Neil suddenly began to laugh. Agnes looked at him in surprise. For a moment—as she told Ruth afterward—she was afraid that the shock of what she had told him about Mr. Sorber's appearance, had "sort of turned his brain."
"Why, Neale!" she exclaimed.
"Those poor, old, toothless, mangy beasts," chuckled Neale. ”

“ It was an awful moment—especially awful for everybody in the Kenway pew. The girls' cheeks burned. Mrs. MacCall glared at the boy in utter stupefaction.
Deacon Abel was a very stern man indeed—much more so than the clergyman himself. All the young folk of the congregation stood in particular awe of him.
But poor Neale O'Neil, unconscious of any wrong intent, merely gazed at the old gentleman in surprise. "Wha—wha—what?" he gasped.
"Get out of here, young man!" exclaimed the deacon. "You have got the whole crowd by the ears. A most disgraceful exhibition. ”

“ Neale told her how he had found the bag of crackers on the table beside his bed. "Nobody but Aggie would be up to such a trick, I know," chuckled Neale. "So I just pitched 'em all through the transom at her."
"What transom?" gasped Ruth, in dismay. "Where did you throw them?"
"Why, right through that one," and Neale pointed. "Isn't that the room you and Aggie occupy?"
"My goodness' sakes alive!" cried Ruth, awe-struck. "What have you done, Neale O'Neil? That's Aunt Sarah's room." ”

“ Tess was reflective. "Boys are always getting into trouble, aren't they?" she observed. "It's lucky we haven't any in this family."
"I think so myself, Tess," agreed Ruth.
"Well! Nice boys like Neale," spoke up the loyal Dot, "wouldn't hurt any family."
"But there aren't many nice ones like Neale," said Tess, with conviction. "'Most always they seem to be getting into trouble and being punished. The teachers don't like them much."
"Oh, our teacher does," said Dot, eagerly. "There's Jacob Bloomer. You know—his father is the German baker on Meadow Street. Our teacher used to like him a lot." ”

“ What cumbersome clothes girls have to wear!"
"What do you want to wear—overalls and a jumper?" demanded Ruth, tartly.
"Fine!" cried her reckless sister. "If the suffragettes would demand the right to wear male garments instead of to vote, I'd be a suffragette in a minute!"
"Disgraceful!" murmured Ruth.
"What?" cried Agnes, grinning. "To be a suffragette? Nothing of the kind! Lots of nice ladies belong to the party, and we may yet."
They had already been to the front of the old Corner House. A huge drift filled the veranda; they could not see Main Street save from the upper windows. ”

“ If Mrs. Kranz should be up," gasped Agnes, "she'd take us in and let you dry your feet, Neale."
"We'll get her up," declared Ruth. "She's as good-hearted as she can be, and she won't mind."
"But it's midnight," chattered Neale, beginning to feel the chill.
They hurried over the culvert and along the rough street. Far ahead there was an arc light burning on the corner of Meadow Street. But not a soul was astir in the neighborhood as the trio came nearer to the German woman's grocery store, and the corner where Joe Maroni, the father of Maria, had his vegetable and fruit stand. ”

“ Dot reminded her, with awe. "Oh, dear, me! Maybe Billy Bumps will be expensive, after all."
"Say! Ruth hasn't said you can keep him yet," said Agnes. "He looks dangerous to me. He has a bad eye."
"Why! he's just as kind!" cried Tess, and immediately walked up to the old goat. At once Billy stopped shaking his head, looked up, and bleated softly. He was evidently assured of the quality of Tess Kenway's kindness.
"He likes me," declared Tess, with conviction. ”

“ Howbridge took us to one of those that came to Milton."
"What circus was it you went to?" the boy asked, quickly.
"Aaron Wall's Magnificent Double Show," repeated Agnes, carefully. "There was another came—Twomley & Sorter's Herculean Circus and Menagerie; but we didn't see that one."
The boy listened as though he considered the answer of some importance. At the end he sighed. "No; I never went to a circus," he repeated.
"But you're just wonderful," Agnes declared. "I never saw a boy like you." ”

“ CHAPTER XIV UNCLE RUFUS' STORY OF THE CHRISTMAS GOOSE
"Trix is going to stay all night with Carrie. If we go back she will only laugh at us," Ruth Kenway said, decidedly.
"We-ell," sighed Agnes. "I don't want to give that mean thing a chance to laugh. We can't really get lost out here, can we, Neale?"
"I don't see how we can," said Neale, slowly. "I'm game to go ahead if you girls are."
"It looks to me just as bad to go back," Ruth observed.
"Come on!" cried Agnes, and started forward again through the snow. ”

“ I's moughty glad yo's got yo' freedom."
Neale, too, was glad. The four Corner House girls got around him, joined hands, and danced a dance of rejoicing in the big front hall.
"And now you need not be afraid of what's going to happen to you all the time," said Ruth, warmly.
"Oh, Neale! you'll tell us all about what happened to you in the circus, won't you, now?" begged Agnes.
"Will you please show me how to do cartwheels, Neale?" asked Tess, gravely. "I've always admired seeing boys do them." ”