The Corner House Girls Part 24

"You young-uns have sartain-sure got pluck to come to this old place to live," Miss t.i.tus declared on the second day. The wind was rising, the shutters shook, and loose cas.e.m.e.nts rattled.

"It's a very nice house, we think," said Ruth.

The smaller girls were not present, but Miss t.i.tus lowered her voice: "Ain't you none afraid of what they say's in the garret?"

"What is in the garret?" asked Ruth, calmly. "We have cleaned it all up, and have found nothing more dangerous than old clothes and spiders. We play up there on rainy days."

"I wouldn't do it for a farm!" gasped Miss t.i.tus.

"So you believe in that ghost story?"

"Yes, I do. They say some man, 'way back before Peter Stower's father lived, hung himself up there."

"Oh!" cried Ruth. "How wicked it is to repeat such stories."

"I dunno. I can find you half a dozen good, honest folks, that have seen the ghost at the garret window."

Ruth could not help shivering. She had begun to refuse to acknowledge the evidence of her own eyes, and _that_ had helped. But Miss t.i.tus seemed so positive.

"Is-is it because they are afraid of ghosts, that so few people have come to call on us, do you suppose?" Ruth asked.

The seamstress glanced at her through her spectacles. She had very sharp eyes and she snipped off threads with a bite of her sharp teeth, and stuck a sharp needle into her work in a very sharp manner.

Altogether, Miss Ann t.i.tus was a very sharp person.

"I shouldn't wonder if there was another reason," she said. "Ain't the minister's wife been?"

"Oh, yes. And we think she is lovely. But not many of the girls we meet at church have called. I thought maybe they were afraid. The house has had a bad name, because it was practically shut up so long."

"Yes," agreed Miss t.i.tus. "And Peter Stower acted funny, too. They say _his_ ghost haunts it."

"How foolish!" said Ruth, flushing. "If people don't want to come because of _that_--"

"Maybe there _is_ another reason," said the gossip.

"I'd like to know what it is!" demanded Ruth, determined to learn the worst. And Miss t.i.tus _did_ look so knowing and mysterious.

"Well, now," said Miss t.i.tus, biting off another thread. "Speakin' for myself, I think you gals are just about right, and Mr. Howbridge did the right thing to put you into Peter's house. But there's them that thinks different."

"What _do_ you mean?" begged the puzzled Ruth.

"There's been a deal of talk. Mr. Howbridge is blamed. They say he did it just to keep the property in his own hands. He must make a good speck out of it."

"But you are puzzling me, more and more," cried Ruth. "I suppose Mr.

Howbridge does not handle Uncle Peter's estate for nothing. How could he?"

"Trust Howbridge for feathering his nest all right," said the seamstress, bitingly. "But that ain't it. You see, there's them that believes other folks than you Kenway gals should have the old Corner House and all that goes with it!"

"Oh!" gasped Ruth. "You do not mean Aunt Sarah?"

"Sally Maltby?" snapped Miss t.i.tus. "Well, I should say _not_. She ain't got no rights here at all. Never did have. Never would have, if Peter had had his way."

"I am sure _that_ is not so," began Ruth. Then she stopped. She realized that Miss t.i.tus would carry everything she said to her next customer. She did not know that either Mr. Howbridge, or Aunt Sarah, would care to have the news bandied about that Uncle Peter had left Aunt Sarah a legacy.

"Well, you're welcome to your own belief, Ruthie," said Miss t.i.tus, curiously eyeing her. "But it ain't Sally Maltby that folks are talking about."

"Who can possibly have any right here?" queried Ruth. "Mr. Howbridge declares there are no other heirs."

"He ain't heard of 'em-or else he don't want to acknowledge 'em,"

declared Miss t.i.tus. "But these folks live at a distance. They're another branch of the Stower family, I reckon, and 'tis said that they've got a better right than you gals."

"Oh!" gasped Ruth again.

"That's why folks don't come to congratulate you, I reckon. They ain't sure that you'll stay here long. Maybe them other relatives will come on, or begin suit in the courts, or something. And the neighbors don't like to mix in, or take sides, until the matter's straightened out."

"Oh, dear, me!" sighed Ruth. "We love staying here at the old Corner House, but we never wished to take anybody's rights away from them.

Mr. Howbridge a.s.sured us that we were the only heirs, and that the estate would in time be settled upon us. It makes me feel very badly-this news you tell me, Miss t.i.tus."

"Well! let sleepin' dogs lie, is _my_ motter," declared the seamstress. "You might as well enjoy what you got, while you got it."

If Ruth had been troubled before by the circ.u.mstances that had brought her and her sisters to the old Corner House, she was much more troubled now. Uncle Peter had made a will, she had been a.s.sured by Mr.

Howbridge, which left the bulk of the old man's estate to the Kenway girls; but that will was lost. If other claimants came forward, how should Ruth and her sisters act toward them?

That was Ruth's secret trouble. Without the will to make their own claim good, did not these other relatives Miss t.i.tus had spoken of have as good a right to shelter in the old Corner House, and a share of the money left by Uncle Peter, as they had?

Ruth could not talk about it with her sisters-not even with Agnes.

The latter would only be troubled, while Tess and Dot would not understand the situation very well. And Aunt Sarah was no person in whom to confide!

Mr. Howbridge had gone away on business again. She had written him a note to his office about Joe Maroni and Mrs. Kranz, and Mr. Howbridge had sent back word-just before his departure on the sudden trip-that she should use her own judgment about pacifying the tenants in the Meadow Street houses.

"You know that every dollar you spend on those old shacks reduces the revenue from the property. You girls are the ones interested. Now, let us test your judgment," Mr. Howbridge had written.

It put a great responsibility upon Ruth's shoulders; but the girl of sixteen had been bearing responsibilities for some years, and she was not averse to accepting the lawyer's test.

"We want to help those Maronis," she said to Agnes. "And we want Mrs.

Kranz to help them, too. We'll just clean up that old house, and that will help all the families in it."

She ordered the whitewashing materials, and Joe promised to whiten his cellar. She hired the boy, Iky, and another, to clean the yard, too, and paid them out of her own pocket. Mrs. Kranz smiled broadly, while the Maronis considered "the litla Padrona" almost worthy to be their patron saint!

Ruth had begged Miss t.i.tus to say nothing before Agnes or the little girls regarding those possible claimants to Uncle Peter's property.

She was very sorry Mr. Howbridge had gone away before she could see him in reference to this gossip the seamstress had brought to the house.

It seemed that a certain Mrs. Bean, a friend of Miss Ann t.i.tus, who did not attend the First Church, but another, knew all about the people who claimed relationship with Uncle Peter Stower. Ruth was sorely tempted to call on Mrs. Bean, but then, she feared she had no business to do so, until she had talked with the lawyer.

Mr. Howbridge had given her a free hand in many things, but this matter was too important, it seemed to Ruth, for her to touch without his permission. With the expectation of other claimants to the property looming before her, Ruth was doubtful if she ought to go ahead with the frocks for her sisters and herself, or to increase their bills at the stores.

However, their guardian had already approved of these expenditures, and Ruth tried to satisfy her conscience by curtailing the number of her own frocks and changing the engagement of Miss t.i.tus from three weeks to a fortnight only.

"I must confer with Mr. Howbridge first, before we go any farther,"

the girl thought. "Mercy! the bills for our living expenses here at the old Corner House are mounting up enormously."