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CHAPTER II WHAT MRS. HEARD HEARD
Or wait upon the pleasure of a ridiculous beast like that, snapped Agnes, more than a little exasperated herself.
The woman looked around again. She had a pleasant face, and Tess smiled at her. Tess knew that the lady must feel a good deal worse than they did about it.
You dont know how ridiculous he is, said the woman, hopelessly. He may start any minute; then again he may stay here until he gets hungry. And hes only just eaten his breakfast.
He looks as if hed live as long without eating as a camel can go without drinking, chuckled Neale ONeil.
Its no laughing matter, protested Agnes. We want to get somewhere.
You cant want to get somewhere worse than I do, my dear, said the woman, with a sigh. And only think! I have sat behind this pony hours and hours during the past ten years.
Cant cant he be cured? asked Tess, doubtfully.
Hes a real pretty pony, I think, said Dot.
Handsome is as handsome does, Mrs. Mac would say, Ruth declared. Is there no way of turning, Neale? she repeated.
I dont see how. We dont want to scratch the car all up in those bushes and on those stumps. And if we back to where the road is wider well have to back for half a mile.
A trolley car is lots better than an auto, then, declared Dot, with conviction.
Why, Dottie! how can you say that? cried Tess, in utter disapproval.
Cause if it gets stuck the motorman can go to the back end and run it just as well as at the front end, said the smallest Corner House girl, promptly.
Some kid that! murmured Neale, while the others laughed. Have you tried the whip, maam? he asked of the woman in the basket phaeton.
Ive broken it on him, confessed the woman, shaking her
head. He doesnt even feel it. The flies bother him more than a whip. He is just the most tantalizing brute of a horse that ever was. Jonas! Get up!
Jonas stood still. He merely flicked flies and wagged his ears. He was really the most peaceful animate object visible in the whole landscape.
The Corner House girls, since coming to Milton to live in the old dwelling that Uncle Peter Stower had left them at his death, had enjoyed many adventures, but few more ridiculous than this. Here they sat in their new, high-powered car, ready and anxious to spin over the country roads to their goal a famous picnicking grounds fifty miles from Milton and a little old fat brown pony, with a stubborn disposition and a cropped mane, held them up as certainly as though he had been a highway robber!
The four young Kenways Ruth, Agnes, Tess and Dot with Aunt Sarah Maltby (who really was only an adopted aunt) had been very poor indeed before Uncle Peter Stower had died and left the girls the bulk of his estate and a small legacy to Aunt Sarah.
Mr. Howbridge, the administrator of the estate and the girls guardian, had come to the Kenways poor tenement in the city where they lived, and had taken them to the old Corner House quite an old mansion overlooking the Parade Ground in Milton, and supposed by some of the neighbors to be haunted.
How the girls laid the garret ghost and how they proved their right and title to Uncle Peters estate against the claims of a certain Mrs. Treble (known as Mrs. Trouble to the rather pert Agnes) and her little girl, Double-Trouble, is told in the first volume of this series, entitled The Corner House Girls.
Afterward the little Adamless Eden on the corner of Willow and Main Streets is trespassed upon by a boy who has run away from a circus to get an education Neale ONeil. He proves to be a thoroughly likable boy, and even Ruth and Tess, who do not much approve of the opposite sex, are prone to like Neale.
In The Corner House Girls at School Neale becomes a fixture in the neighborhood, living with Mr. Con Murphy, the little old cobbler on the street back of the Stower place, and doing chores for the Corner House girls and other neighbors to help support himself while he attends school.
The girls extend their acquaintance widely during this first school year at Milton, and when summer comes they visit Pleasant Cove, where they befriend Rosa and June Wildwood, two Southern girls, and meanwhile have adventures galore along the shore. Indeed, The Corner House Girls Under Canvas introduces many new friends to both the girls themselves and to the reader, notable among whom is Tom Jonah, who, although only a dog, is a thorough gentleman.
The girls friendliness to all living creatures gathers about them, as is natural, a galaxy of pets, including a rapidly growing menagerie of cats, the dog in question, a goat, and (this is Agnes inclusion) Sammy Pinkney, the little boy who is determined to be a pirate when he grows up.
The fall following this summer vacation just mentioned, sees all the Corner House girls taking part in a play produced by the combined effort of the town schools. Their failures and successes in producing The Carnation Countess is interwoven with a mystery surrounding the punishment of Agnes and some of her fellow-classmates for an infraction of the rules a punishment that promises at one time to spoil the play entirely. The Corner House Girls in a Play is interesting and it turns out happily in the end. One of the best things about it is the fact that three thousand dollars is raised by means of the play for the Womens and Childrens Hospital, and Mrs. Eland, the matron, is able to retain her position in that institution.