The Corner House Girls Part 34

"I don't believe Alfredia could be any nicer, if she was bleached white," Dot said, seriously, on one occasion. "But I know she'd like to be like us-and other folks, Tess."

"I expect she would," agreed Tess. "But we must treat her just as though her skin was like ours. Ruth says she is sure Alfredia's heart is white."

"Oh!" gasped Dot. "And they showed us in school before we left Bloomingsburg, pictures of folks' hearts, and lungs, and livers-don't you remember? And the heart was painted _red_."

"I don't expect they were photographs," said Tess, decidedly. "And there aren't any pictures exact but photographs-and movies."

The Pease girls came frequently to play with Tess and Dot, and the younger Kenways went to _their_ house. None of the Corner House girls could go out on the street now without being spoken to by the Milton people. Many of these friendly advances were made by comparative strangers to the four sisters.

The tangle of Uncle Peter Stower's affairs had gotten even into the local newspapers, and one newspaper reporter came to Ruth for what he called "an interview." Ruth sent him to Mr. Howbridge and never heard anything more of it.

The friends Agnes had made among the girls of her own, and Ruth's, age began to come to call more frequently. Eva Larry admitted she felt shivery, whenever she approached the old house, and she could not be hired to come on a stormy day. Just the same, she was so sorry for the girls, and liked Agnes so much, that she just _had_ to run in and cheer them up a bit.

Older people came, too. Ruth's head might have been turned, had she been a less sensible girl. The manner in which she handled the situation which had risen out of Mrs. Treble's coming east to demand a share of the property left by Peter Stower, seemed to have become public knowledge, and the public of Milton approved.

n.o.body called on Mrs. Treble. Perhaps that was because she was quarantined upstairs, with Lillie convalescent from her attack of the measles. However, the Corner House girls, as they were now generally called, seemed to be making friends rapidly.

Public approval had set its seal upon their course.

CHAPTER XXII

CALLERS-AND THE GHOST

"I do wonder!" said Tess, with a sigh.

"What do you wonder?" asked Ruth, mildly.

"Sounds like a game," Agnes observed, briskly. The Corner House girls were sitting on the porch with their sewing, and it was a very warm August forenoon. "'c.u.mjuc.u.m-what do you come by? I come by the letter T'-which stands for 'Tess' and 'Trouble,' which last is the expression on Tess' face," concluded Agnes, with a laugh.

Tess' train of thought was not to be sidetracked so easily. "I wonder whatever became of Tommy Rooney?" she said.

"You don't really believe that was Tommy you saw the day it rained so hard?" cried Agnes.

"Yes, I do. And we know that Tommy stole cherries from Mr. Pease, and milk from Mrs. Adams. Didn't he, Dot? And then, we saw Mr. Pinkney and that bulldog chasing him."

"He ran into our yard to escape the dog," said Dot, seriously.

"Well," said Ruth, "if it was Tommy, I wish he had come to the house, so we could have fed him. Mrs. Rooney must be awfully worried about him. It's been a month since we heard he had run away."

"And he'd been gone a week, then," added Agnes.

"Well," said Tess, "I guess he hasn't killed any Indians here in Milton, or we would have heard about it."

"I guess not," chuckled Agnes.

"I always look for him, when I'm on the street," said Dot.

"We'll look for him to-day," said Tess, "when we go to see Maria."

Tess and Dot were going over to Meadow Street that afternoon to call on the Maronis and Mrs. Kranz. The condition of the Maronis had greatly improved during these weeks. Not only Joe and Maria, but the whole family had begun to be proud of living "like Americans."

Mrs. Kranz, out of the kindness of her heart, had helped them a great deal. Maria helped the good German lady each forenoon, and was learning to be a careful little housekeeper.

"She iss a goot madchen," declared the large lady. "Aind't idt vonderful how soon dese foreigners gets to be respectable, ven dey iss learndt yet?"

Tess and Dot went up stairs to make themselves ready for their visit, before luncheon. Upon their departure, Eva Larry and Myra Stetson appeared at the front gate.

"Oh, do come in, girls!" shouted Agnes, dropping her sewing.

"We will, if you'll tie up your ghost," said Eva, laughing.

"Hush!" commanded Ruth. "Don't say such things-not out loud, please."

"Well," Eva said, as she and Myra joined them on the porch, "I understand you have ransacked that old garret. Did you chase out Mr.

Ghost?"

"What is that?" demanded Mrs. Treble's shrill voice in the doorway.

"What does that girl mean by 'ghost'?"

"Oh, Mrs. Treble!" cried the teasing Eva. "Haven't you heard of the famous Garret Ghost of the old Corner House-and you here so long?"

"Oh, don't!" begged Ruth, sotto voce.

Mrs. Treble was not to be denied. Something evidently had escaped her curiosity, and she felt cheated of a sensation. "Go on and tell me, girl," she commanded Eva.

Eva, really nothing loath, related the story of the supposed supernatural occupant of the garret. "And it appears on stormy, windy days. At least, that's when it's been seen. It comes to the window up there and bows, and flutters its grave clothes-and-and all that."

"How ridiculous!" murmured Ruth. But her face was troubled and Mrs.

Treble studied her accusingly.

"That's why you forbade my Lillie going up there," she said. "A ghost, indeed! I guess you have something hidden up there, my girl, that you don't want other folks to see. You can't fool me about ghosts. I don't believe in them," concluded the lady from Ypsilanti.

"Now you've done it, Eva," said Agnes, in a low voice, when Mrs.

Treble had departed. "There isn't a place in this house that she hasn't tried to put her nose in _but_ the garret. Now she'll go up there."

"Hush," begged Ruth, again. "Don't get her angry, Agnes."

"Oh! here comes Mr. Howbridge!" exclaimed the other Kenway girl, glad to change the subject.

Ruth jumped up to welcome him, and ushered him into the dining-room, while the other girls remained upon the porch. As she closed the door, she did not notice that Mrs. Treble stood in the shadow under the front stairs.

"I have been to see this Mrs. Bean," said the lawyer, to Ruth, when they were seated. "She is an old lady whose memory of what happened when she was young seems very clear indeed. She does not know this Mrs. Treble and her child personally. Mrs. Treble has not been to see her, since she came to Milton."

"No. Mrs. Treble has not been out at all," admitted Ruth.