Aunt Sarah had been a burden on the Kenways for many years. The girls had only their fathers pension to get along on. Aunt Sarah claimed that when Uncle Peter died, his great estate would naturally fall to her, and then she would return all the benefits she had received from the Kenway family.
But the lawyer knew that queer old Uncle Peter Stower had made a will leaving practically all his property to the four girls in trust, and to Aunt Sarah only a small legacy. But this will had been hidden somewhere by the old man before his recent death and had not yet been found.
There seemed to be no other claimants to the Stower Estate, however, and the court allowed Mr. Howbridge to take the Kenway girls and Aunt Sarah to Milton and establish them in the Stower Homestead, known far and wide as the old Corner House.
Here, during the year that had passed, many interesting and exciting things had happened to Ruth and Agnes and Tess and Dot.
Ruth was the head of the family, and the lawyer greatly admired her good sense and ability. She was not a strikingly pretty girl, for she had stringy black hair and little color; but her eyes were big and brown, and those eyes, and her mouth, laughed suddenly at you and gave expression to her whole face. She was now completing her seventeenth year.
Agnes was thirteen, a jolly, roly-poly girl, who was fond of jokes, a bit of a tomboy, up to all sorts of pranks who laughed easily and cried stormily had lots of molasses colored hair as she said herself, and was the possessor of a pair of blue eyes that could stare a rude boy out of countenance, but who would spoil the effect of this the next instant by giggling; a girl who had a soulmate among her girl friends all of the time, but not frequently did one last for long in the catalog of her best friends.
Nobody remembered that Tess had been named Theresa. She was a wise little
ten-year-old who possessed some of Ruths dignity and some of Agnes prettiness, and the most tender heart in the world, which made her naturally tactful. She was quick at her books and very courageous.
Dorothy, or Dot, was the baby and pet of the family. She was a little brunette fairy; and if she was not very wise as yet, she was faithful and lovable, and not one of the Corner House girls, as the Kenways were soon called by Milton people, was more beloved than Dot.
The girls best boy friend lived with the old cobbler, Mr. Con Murphy, on the rear street, and in a little house the yard of which adjoined the larger grounds of the old Corner House. We have seen how quickly Neale ONeil came to the assistance of the Kenway girls when they were in trouble.
Neale had been brought up among circus people, his mother having traveled all her life with Twomley & Sorbers Herculean Circus and Menagerie. The boys desire for an education and to win a better place in the world for himself, had caused him to run away from his uncle, Mr. Sorber, and support himself in Milton while he attended school.
The Corner House girls had befriended Neale and when his uncle finally searched him out and found the boy, it was they who influenced the man against taking Neale away. Neale had proved himself an excellent scholar and had made friends in Milton; now he was about to graduate with Agnes from the highest grammar grade to high school.
The particulars of all these happenings have been related in the first two volumes of the series, entitled respectively, The Corner House Girls and The Corner House Girls at School.
When Agnes woke up in the morning following the unsuccessful raid of the Gypsy man on the hennery, she had something of wonderful importance to tell Ruth. She had seen her particular friend, Trix Severn, on the street Saturday afternoon and Trix had told her something.
Youve heard the girls talking about Pleasant Cove, Ruthie? said Agnes, earnestly. You know Mr. Terrence Severn owns one of the big hotels there?
Of course. Trix talks enough about it, said the older Kenway girl.
Oh! you dont like Trix
Im not exceedingly fond of her. And there was a time when you thought her your very deadliest enemy, laughed Ruth.
Well! Trix has changed, declared the unsuspicious Agnes, and shes proposed the very nicest thing, Ruth. She says her mother and father will let her bring all four of us to the Cove for the first fortnight after graduation. The hotel will not be full then, and we will be Trixs guests. And well have loads of fun.
I dont know began Ruth, but Agnes broke in warmly:
Now, dont you say No, Ruthie Kenway! Dont you say No! Ive just made up my mind to go to Pleasant Cove
No need of flying off, Ag, said Ruth, in the cool tone that usually brought Agnes down to earth again. We have talked of going there for a part of the summer. A change to salt air will be beneficial for us all so Dr. Forsythe says. I have talked to Mr. Howbridge, and he says Yes.
Well, then!
But I doubt the advisability of accepting Trix Severns invitation.
Now, isnt that mean
Hold your horses, again advised Ruth. We will go, anyway. If all is well we will stay at the hotel a while. Pearl Harrods uncle owns a bungalow there, too; she has asked me to come there for a while, and bring you all.