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CHAPTER XII MISS PEPPERILLS DISASTER
Say, Aggie! isnt that Billy Quirks wagon right ahead?
Oh, yes! Oh, yes, Joe! Agnes agreed. He hasnt got so far, after all.
Do you believe hes got the kid? demanded Joe, in doubt. Look here! The back of the wagons full of clothes baskets. Why! if the kids there, hes buried!
Oh, dont! cried Agnes. Dont say such a thing, Joe!
The boy had slowed down while speaking, and instantly Agnes was out of the car and had run ahead.
Mr. Quirk! Oh, Mr. Quirk! Billy! she shouted. Youve got a baby there!
Heh? gasped the laundryman, who had been about to clamber into his seat again. Got a baby! he repeated, in a dazed sort of way, and actually turning pale. Not another?
In your wagon, I mean. Its Mrs. Creamers Bubby. Oh, dear, Mr. Quirk! do look quick and see if youve smothered him.
What do you mean, girl? That Ive smothered a baby! groaned Mr. Quirk, who was a little, nervous man who could not stand much excitement.
I dont know. Do look, begged Agnes. Bubby was in the basket not the soiled clothes
Which basket? cried the laundryman.
The one you took away from the Creamers porch, Billy, put in Joe Eldred, who had left the car, too. Come on and look. Maybe the kids all right.
Oh, dear me! I hope so! groaned Agnes. What would Mrs. Creamer do
Joe helped the shaking laundryman to lift down the baskets of wash that were already stacked three tiers deep in the wagon.
Thats it! Thats the one! cried Agnes eagerly, recognizing Mrs. Creamers basket.
And there was the baby, under a veil, sleeping as peacefully as could be. Fortunately the basket placed on top of the babys temporary cradle had been the larger of the two, and had completely and safely covered the lower basket.
They got the baby, basket and all, into the back of the Eldred car without awakening Bubby, and Agnes sat beside him.
Ill drive back as if I had a load of eggs, Joe declared, grinning. If that kid wakes up and bawls, Aggie, whatll you do?
Humph! said Agnes, with scorn, isnt that just like a boy? Dont you suppose I know how to take care of a baby?
Bubby did not awake, however, and their return to the Creamer cottage was like a triumphal entry. The neighborhood had turned out in a body. Mrs. Creamer ran a block up the street to meet the automobile, and she could not thank the Corner House girl and Joe Eldred enough.
But it was told of Mabel Creamer that she stood on the porch and scowled when they brought Bubby back in the basket. She actually did say to Tess and Dot, over the side fence:
An they blame me for it. Said I ought to have been there to watch what Billy Quirk was goin to do. If it had been a really, truly Gypsy that had kidnapped Bubby, I spose theyd shut me up in jail!
In a few days the little girls were back in school again, and Mabel was not obliged to stay in to mind the baby hated task! for she was in Dots grade.
Tess class gathered, too, to welcome Miss Pepperills return to her wonted place all but Sammy Pinkney. Sammy was a very sick boy and they brought straw and put it knee deep in Willow Street, in front of the Pinkney house, so as to deaden the sound of wagon wheels. Tess actually went on tiptoe when she passed the house where her schoolmate lay so ill.
Billy Bumps,
Miss Pepperills mind was, for the time, quite out of her control. The next day she had to be removed to the state hospital for the insane because she disturbed the other patients under her sisters care.
That ended, of course, Miss Pepperills career as a public school teacher. With a record of having been at the insane hospital, she could hope never again to preside over a class of children in the public school. Her occupation and manner of livelihood were taken from her.
It is a terrible, terrible thing, Ruth said at dinner, the day Miss Pepperill was taken to the state hospital.
Ruth had been with Tess to call on Mrs. Eland, and the little gray lady had told them all about it.
I am awfully sorry for my Mrs. Eland, too, Tess said. I am sure she could have cared for Miss Pepperill if theyd let her stay.
Dont worry, honey, Agnes said quickly. Theyll soon let Miss Pepperill come back.
But the harm is done, Ruth rejoined gravely. Just as Dr. Forsyth said, she ought to take a long, long rest.
If they were only rich, sighed Agnes.
If we were only rich! Ruth rejoined.
My goodness! and wouldnt we be rich just! if all that stage money I found was only real, Ruthie? Agnes whispered to her elder sister.
Ruth grew very red and said, quite tartly for her: I dont see that it would do us any good if it were so. You let it go out of your hands very easily.
Oh, pshaw! Neale will bring it back, said Agnes, half laughing, yet wondering that Ruth should be so earnest. You speak just as though you believed it was good money.
You dont know, one way or another, whether it is so or not.
Why, Ruth!
Well, you dont, do you? demanded the elder sister.
How silly you talk. Youre as bad as Neale about those old bonds. I believe he lugged that book off with him just to show somebody the bonds to see if they were any good.