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The big man got up heavily, his face red, and refused to eat. That settles it! he growled. Id like to know what you keep a hotel for?
To feed people, said the waitress, wearily. She had evidently experienced a like incident before.
Thats Jim Brady! whispered Agnes, in excitement, to Neale ONeil.
Neale sat near a window. When the politician from Milton had stamped out, Neale peered around the window blind. The big French car was standing before the hotel.
But say! that isnt the freckled-faced fellow with him, Agnes declared, peering around the other side of the window frame.
No. New chauffeur. There they go aiming for home. Guess hes left Saleratus Joe somewhere.
Id just like to know where, sighed Agnes, returning reluctantly to her supper.
By the time supper was over Sammy was again nodding like one of those mechanical figures shop-keepers sometimes put in their show windows to attract attention. Neale had almost to carry him up to the bedroom, and did have to help him undress after he was there.
Cricky! ejaculated the flaxen-haired youth, I didnt start out on this tour with the expectation of nursing along a child, as well as an automobile. Im going to have a lot of fun myself if Ive got to play nursemaid for this kid.
Neale was really good-natured, however, and, for all his scolding, he helped Sammy off with his clothing gently enough. As Ruth had threatened, there was a bath made ready for Sammy, and that rite had to be administered before the sleepy little boy could creep between the sheets.
While Sammy was splashing in the bath a shout of laughter from Neale brought Mrs. Heard and the two older girls to the door of the boys bedroom.
What is the matter, Neale ONeil? demanded Ruth.
Neale was sitting cross-legged on the floor, rocking himself to and fro, and weak from laughter. Look what the kids brought with him in his bag! gasped the older boy. I was looking for his night clothes and something clean for him to put on in the morning. See the mess of stuff I found, will you?
It was a self-evident fact that Mrs. Pinkney, Sammys mother, did not pack her little sons suitcase.
Neale had hauled out first of all a tangle of fishing tackle; a baking-powder box, well filled with a supply of squirmy fish-worms, kept moist in black soil that had sifted all over the contents of the bag through the holes in the cover of the box punched to give the worms air. There was Sammys air-rifle in two sections and a plentiful supply of ammunition; a banana reduced
to pulp; a bottle of matches; a sling-shot; a much-rusted bread-knife with its edge patiently ground upon a whetstone evidently Sammys idea of a hunting-knife or a bowie-knife.
In addition there was a very grubby-looking pocket-handkerchief in which were tightly tied two slimy garden snails; there was a piece of candy in a soiled paper, with a buffalo nickel imbedded in the confection; two brass wheels out of the works of a clock; last Sundays lesson paper; two horse-chestnuts; and a pint flask with very suggestive looking contents.
What? gasped Mrs. Heard. That boy carrying liquor?
And snails! ejaculated Agnes.
Such a mess! exclaimed Ruth.
But snails or the worms or anything else there, said the widow, severely, will not steal away mens brains and make them ill. Where did that boy get whisky or is it brandy? she added.
Neale had finally extracted the cork. He first smelled and then tasted the suggestive looking liquor. Mrs. Heard gasped in horror. Agnes squealed. Ruth demanded:
What is it?
Its what I thought! said Neale. Licorice water. Wonder the flask didnt break and drench everything with the stuff. And he has brought a few clothes.
I see very plainly, Mrs. Heard said, when the laughter had subsided, that the first town we come to of any size, we shall have to buy Sammy some needfuls. Goodness! how ashamed his mother will be when she learns of this.
Sammy was too sleepy to be questioned at that time about the wonderful contents of the suitcase; but in the morning he confessed that after his mother had packed the bag for him, he had been obliged to take out a lot of useless duds to make room for the necessary miscellany listed above which, to his boyish mind, was far more important.
However, it afforded the party a hearty laugh and Mrs. Heard (who declared her nephew the now dignified county surveyor had been just like Sammy) cheerfully purchased a proper outfit for the lad.
I knew Sammy would be an awful nuisance, Ruth said.
But, goodness! isnt he funny? giggled Agnes.
The party made a good start from the Bristow House about nine oclock. They were to run that day to Parmenter Lake, where they might spend some time, and to one of the hotels at that resort the trunks had been sent. They expected to have their lunch again in the open, and the hamper had been filled at the Bristow House.
Ever since the day the Corner House girls had first met Mrs. Heard and her brown pony, Jonas, there had been a matter puzzling Tess and Dot; and as time passed and the curiosity of their two active young minds was not satisfied, the children had grown more and more insistent in their demands on Neale ONeil.