Have you made any vacation plans at all?
Not yet, Agnes. I thought Id wait until I saw Mr. Howbridge at the club meeting this afternoon.
What has he to do with our vacation unless hes going along?
Oh, no, I didnt mean that, at all! But the financial question does enter into it; and as he is our guardian and has charge of our money, I want to know just how much we can count on spending.
Why, have we lost any money?
Not that I know of. I hope not! But I always have consulted him before we made any summer plans, and I dont see why we should not now.
Well, I suppose its all right, assented Agnes, as she took up another bunch of flowers. But I wonder
She never finished that sentence. From somewhere, inside or outside the house, a resounding crash sounded. It shook the walls and floors.
Oh, my! whats that? cried Ruth, dropping the blossoms from her hands and hastening to the hall.
CHAPTER II NEALE HAS NEWS
What was it? murmured Ruth again, and she fairly ran out into the hall, followed by her sister.
Then came a series of bumps, as if something of no small size was rolling down the porch steps. By this time it was evident that the racket came from without and not from within. Then a voice cried:
Hold it! Hold it! Dont let it roll down!
Thats Dot! declared Ruth.
And then a despairing voice cried:
I cant! I cant hold it! Look out!
Once again the rumbling, rolling, bumping sound came, and with it was mingled the warning of the Scotch housekeeper and the wail of Dot who cried:
Oh, shes dead! Shes smashed!
Something really has happened this time! exclaimed Ruth, and her face became a little pale.
If only it isnt serious, burst out Agnes. Oh, dear, what those youngsters dont think of for trouble!
They dont mean to get into trouble, Agnes. Its only their thoughtlessness.
Well then, they ought to think more. Oh, listen to that, will you! Agnes added, as another loud bumping reached the two sisters ears.
Its something thats sure, cried Ruth, and grew paler than ever.
The happening was not really as tragic
as it seemed, yet it was sufficiently momentous to cause a fright to the two older girls. Especially to Ruth, who felt herself to be, as she literally was, a mother to the other three; though now that Agnes was putting up her hair and putting down her dresses a new element had come into the household.
While yet in tender years the responsibilities of life had fallen on the shoulders of Ruth Kenway. In their former home a city more pretentious in many ways than picturesque Milton, their present home the Kenways had lived in what, literally, was a tenement house. Their father and mother were dead, and the small pension granted Mr. Kenway, who had been a soldier in the Spanish war, was hardly sufficient for the needs of four growing girls.
Then, almost providentially, it seemed, the Stower estate had come to Ruth, Agnes, Dot and Tess. Uncle Peter Stower had passed away, and Mr. Howbridge, the administrator of the estate, had discovered the four sisters as the next of kin, to use his legal phrase.
Uncle Peter Stower had lived for years in the Corner House as it was called. The mansion stood opposite the Parade Ground in Milton, and there Uncle Rufus, the colored servant of his crabbed master, had spent so many years that he regarded himself as a fixture as much so as the roof.
At first no will could be found, though Mr. Howbridge recalled having drawn one; but eventually all legal tangles were straightened out, and the four sisters came to live in Milton, as related in the first book of the series, entitled The Corner House Girls.
There was Ruth, the oldest and the little mother, though she was not so very little now. In fact she had blossomed into a young lady, a fact of which Mr. Howbridge became increasingly aware each day.
So the four girls had come to live at the Corner House, and that was only the beginning of their adventures. In successive volumes are related the happenings when they went to school, when they had a jolly time under canvas, and when they took part in a school play.
The odd find made in the garret of the Corner House furnished material for a book in itself and paved the way for a rather remarkable tour in an auto.
In those days the Corner House girls became acquainted with a brother and sister, Luke and Cecile Shepard. Luke was a college youth, and the friendship between him and Ruth presently ripened into a deep regard for each other. But Luke had to go back to college, so Ruth saw very little of him, though the young folks corresponded freely.
All this was while the Corner House girls were growing up. In fact, it became necessary to tell of that in detail, so that the reason for many things that happened in the book immediately preceding this, which is called The Corner House Girls Snowbound, could be understood.
In that volume the Corner House girls become involved in the mysterious disappearance of two small twins, and after many exciting days spent in the vicinity of a lumber camp a clue to the mystery was hit upon.