Margaret Sidney

“ As Julian was still asleep, Chris shut the bedroom door gently and went down stairs very much elated with his work, to wait for the cook. About nine o'clock a person as thin as Ann her predecessor had been fat, rang the front door bell, and presented a dingy paper on which Miss Higgins gave her all the possible and impossible virtues and graces of womankind.
"You can go down to the kitchen," said Chris ignoring the paper and pointing to the basement stairs. ”

“ He is?" the man gave an easy lounge up toward the door, which Chris immediately clapped to, at the risk of shutting in the visitor's nose, and turned the key.
"What did you tell him that for, you goose?" he demanded in a loud whisper of Julian. "He's a tramp, or a burglar, and I wanted him to think father was coming home."
"A burglar, good!" cried Julian. "I've never seen one. I'm going up-stairs to look out of the window."
"You better go down-stairs and see if the kitchen door is locked," said Chris. "He'll be there the first thing you know." ”

“ Stebbins, her face now of a lively red; "they said they just saw it. Here, I'll give you another," trying to find the back breadth of her dress for her pocket-book again.
"Just saw it!" repeated the conductor, ready to enjoy his privilege of conversation where no well-behaved person ought to answer back. "Yes, you might see it till doomsday, and never set your thumb on it. Come!" ”

“ Which they did, first lighting the gas at the top of the stairs.
"Mee-ew—mee-ew"—and then a soft purring, and a pat- pat over the hall matting—and a big maltese with the air of a pet, ran in between their feet, to the two brothers waiting within the guest-room.
"Phoh! it's the cat!" roared Claude doubling up—"Jule Stebbins, flung your tongs down stairs at the cat. Hoh hoh!"
It seemed to Julian as if they never would get through with their amusement. At last Jack peered again down stairs. "I see something white on the floor—it's all in little bits. You've smashed something, Jule Stebbins!" ”

“ Don't worry about me. I don't need a bag. I'll buy what I want. Take good care of yourself and the boys. I shall be home Saturday.
Your affectionate husband,
Ezra Stebbins."
"Here's a lark!" cried Chris, pounding the table with his brawny fist while Julian squealed in a transport. "Father catching the one o'clock train, mother running for the twelve, and best of all, Charlotte safe at Uncle Henry's. What can't we do?"
"I sha'n't eat this hash, I know. It's three days that Ann's made us swallow this. Tell her to cook me something else," commanded Julian, the first delightful shock over. ”

“ Stebbins, fishing out a quarter of a dollar from the pocket-book, "those boys never can wait a minute. Hurry, Norah, before he rings again," thrusting into the girl's hand the message, the receipt and the money, the last of which jingled out of Norah's stiff fist at the top of the stairs. Mrs. Stebbins could hear it roll, thumping each step to drop on the hall floor below, so she ran out and called over the balustrade, "Never mind, Norah; do stop prowling around. Come get another quarter. You can find that afterward."
Chris and Julian nudged each other, and made a mental note of the incident. ”

“ Who's going to cook breakfast, say?"
Ann airily wiped her hands on the first dish-towel that presented itself and winked at Norah, who now lent herself to the scene, leaning against the door. The housemaid burst out into a noisy laugh.
"Orders is it?" cried Norah shrilly. "Oh the likes of it! B'yes is it, yez are, or p'raps yez ud like to make us belave yez are min."
"We are the heads of this house anyway," cried Chris in a hot wrath, while Julian pranced up and down crying out pompously, "Who is if we aren't, say? Well, you sha'n't be paid any wages if you run off this way. ”

“ She was now clashing her freshly-sharpened shears, and only pausing to call out to her two boys bustling around in the next room, "Hurry, boys, you will be late for school," now seated herself at her work-table and began. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1924, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 99 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”