The Corner House Girls Part 20

"This is Agnes," Ruth said, gladly changing the subject for a moment.

"And this is Tess, and _this_, Dot-Dorothy, you know. We have had no mother for more than two years."

"Ach!" said Mrs. Kranz, in a tone denoting sympathy, and she made a funny clucking noise in her throat. "De poor kinder! Undt _you_ haf de haus.m.u.tter been-no?"

"Yes," replied Ruth. "I have _loved_ to take care of the little ones.

Agnes is a great help. And now, since we have come here to the old Corner House, we have Mrs. McCall and Uncle Rufus. Besides, there has always been Aunt Sarah."

Mrs. Kranz's big face looked rather blank, but in a moment her thought returned to the subject of her visit.

"Vell!" she said. "Undt vot about dot Joe Maroni?"

"Dear Mrs. Kranz," Ruth said, "I do not know anything about the property Uncle Peter left, as yet. I shall speak to Mr. Howbridge about it. He is our guardian, you understand, and a lawyer. I am sure we can find some way of relieving you."

Mrs. Kranz grunted: "Vell!"

"I shall come to see you," promised Ruth. "And I shall see these Italians and try to get them to clean up their cellar. I am sorry you should be so troubled by them."

Meanwhile she had whispered to Tess and sent her running to Mrs.

McCall. Mrs. Kranz gradually lost her offended look. She even took Dot upon her broad lap-though that was a precarious position and Dot was in danger of sliding off all the time.

"Mine oldt man undt I nefer have no kinder," said Mrs. Kranz, sighing windily. "Ve both vor-r-k-Oh! so hard!-ven young we are. Ven we marry we are alretty oldt yet. Undt now mine oldt man iss dead for sefen year, undt I am all alone."

Tears came to the good lady's eyes. Ruth, seeing a propitious moment, said a word for Joe Maroni's children.

"I should think you would like those Italian children, Mrs. Kranz.

Aren't they pretty? 'Most always I think they are."

Mrs. Kranz raised her two hands in a helpless gesture. "Ach! heafens!

if dey vos clean yet I could lofe dem!" she declared.

Just then Uncle Rufus, in his official coat and spats and white vest, arrived with the tray. It was evident that Mrs. Kranz was immensely impressed by the presence of the old serving man. She accepted a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, and nibbled the one and sipped the other amidst a running fire of comment upon the late Mr. Stower, and his death, and the affairs of the tenements and stores Uncle Peter had owned in her neighborhood.

Ruth learned much about this property that she had never heard before.

Uncle Peter had once collected his own rents-indeed, it was during only the last few years of his life that a clerk from Mr. Howbridge's office had done the collecting.

Uncle Peter had been in touch with his tenants. He had been a hard man to get repairs out of, so Mrs. Kranz said, but he had always treated the good tenants justly. With a record of ten years of steady rent paying behind her, Mrs. Kranz considered that she should be recognized and her complaint attended to. As she could get no satisfaction from the lawyer's clerk (for Joe Maroni was a prompt paying tenant, too), she had determined to see the owners.

These were the facts leading to the good lady's visit. Before she went away again Mrs. Kranz was much pacified, and openly an admirer of the Corner House girls.

"Ach! if I had madchens like you of my own yet!" she said, as she descended the porch steps, on her departure.

Agnes gazed after her more seriously than was her wont. She did not even laugh at Mrs. Kranz, as Ruth expected.

"And I believe she's an old dear at that," Ruth said, reflectively.

"Maybe we can get her to help those little Italian children-if we can once get their parents to clean them up."

"Well!" breathed Agnes, finally. "I wasn't thinking particularly about her-or of the Joe Maroni kids. I was just thinking that perhaps it is not always so nice to be rich, after all. Now! we didn't have to worry about tenement house property, and the quarrels of the tenants, when we lived on Ess.e.x Street in Bloomingsburg."

CHAPTER XIII

THE MARONIS

It was on this day, too, that Agnes received a letter from Bloomingsburg. Kitty Robelle wrote a long and "newsy" letter, for Kitty had been one of Agnes' most cherished friends.

Kitty lived right next door to the house in which the Kenways had lived so long, so she had all the news to impart of the old neighborhood. One item interested the four Corner House girls immensely.

"Little Tommy Rooney has run away and his mother can't find out what's become of him. He swapped his Indian suit with Patsy Link for a cowboy suit, and has been gone a week. The police, even, can't find him."

"There now!" cried Tess. "What did I tell you? I _knew_ I saw him go past here in the rain."

"Oh, but, Tess," said Ruth, "you can't be sure. And how could he ever have gotten to Milton?"

"I don't know," said the confident Tess. "But he's here."

Dot agreed with her. "You know," the latter said, gravely, "he said he was coming to Milton to shoot Indians."

"The foolish boy!" exclaimed Ruth. "Indians, indeed!"

"Did he expect to eat them after he shot them?" demanded Agnes. "How would he live?"

"Perhaps he's hungry, poor boy," said Ruth. "I wish you girls had run after him that day-if it was Tommy."

"He looked awfully ragged," said Tess, with pity. "Boys must be a _naw_ful burden. Isn't it lucky we haven't any brothers to look after, Ruth?"

"Very fortunate, I think," agreed the oldest Kenway.

"Well," sighed Dot, "Tommy was a real bad boy, but Mrs. Rooney thinks just as much of him, I s'pose, as though he was a girl."

"Not a doubt of it," chuckled Agnes. "And if we find Tommy, we'll send him home to her."

Having made a promise to Mrs. Kranz, Ruth was not the girl to neglect its fulfillment. She was doubtful, however, whether or no she should first see Mr. Howbridge.

The lawyer was a busy man; perhaps he would not thank her for bringing such complaints as this of the grocery store-keeper to his attention.

Agnes said:

"He's got troubles of his own, you may be sure, Ruth. And, honest-I don't see as Mrs. Kranz has any business to bring her complaints to us."

"But I said I'd see what I could do."

"Of course. And I'll go with you. I'm awfully eager to see this Joe Maroni and his family-especially the 'kinder like steps,' as Mrs.

Kranz says."

Ruth agreed to let only Aggie go with her after the younger girl had given her word not to laugh. "It is nice to have a sense of humor, I guess, Ag," said the older girl, "but you want to have tact with it.

Don't hurt people's feelings by laughing at them."