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Dot thought over that answer a good while. Of course, she could not be expected to understand the professional talk of burglars never having associated with that gentry. What wiping a joint meant she could not imagine; and what burglars did with hot lead was quite as puzzling.
I I suppose your boss is a journeyman burglar? queried the little girl, at last.
Wha-at! gasped the young man. Then he grinned hugely. Thats what some of his customers calls him, miss, he agreed.
Dont dont you think there is some danger in your staying here alone? asked Dot. Suppose Uncle Rufus should come down stairs and catch you?
Hullo! whos Uncle Rufus? asked the young man.
Why why, hes Uncle Rufus. He works for us
Oh! hes the colored man?
Yes, sir.
Why, he is down, said the young man, coolly. He let us in. We had to come early, cause weve got so much work to do, and we didnt get through at Pinkneys till nine oclock last night.
At Pinkneys? cried Dot, as the young man yawned. Did did you burgle Sammys house, too?
What dye mean burgle? asked the young man, biting off the yawn and staring again at Dot.
I beg your pardon, said Dot, gently. But but what do you call it?
Just then the door of the butlers pantry opened and Uncle Rufus looked in.
Dat oddah plumber done come, young man, he said. Dis aint no time in de mawnin fo six oclock t come t folkss houses nohow t mend a busted watah-pipe nossir! Yuh got all ob dem silber pieces out ob de safe?
Theyre all out, Uncle, said the young man.
Whuffo dey run dat pipe trough de silber closet, I dunno, complained the old darkey. I use t
tell Mistah Peter Stowah dat it was one piece of plain foolishness. What if de batroom is ober dis closet
He disappeared, his voice trailing off into silence, and the young man followed him. Dot was left breathless and rather abashed. Then the young man was not a burglar after all; he was only a plumber!
She crept back to bed, and said nothing to anybody about her early morning visit to the lower floor. But the young man told Uncle Rufus, and Uncle Rufus, chuckling hugely, told Mrs. MacCall.
Id like to know, for goodness sake, what you would have done if it had been a really truly burglar, Dot Kenway? Agnes demanded, when the story was repeated at the breakfast table.
Id have given him my silver knife and fork and mug, and asked him to go away without waking up Ruthie, declared the smallest Corner House girl, having thought it all out by that time.
I believe you would you blessed child! cried Ruth, jumping up to kiss her.
But suppose it had been Santa Claus? Tess murmured, and you had disturbed him filling our stockings?
Pooh! said Dot. If hed felled down the chimbley like that brick, he wouldnt have been filling stockings.
CHAPTER IV THE FAMILY ALBUM AND OTHER THINGS
Ruth and Agnes would not hear to his helping trim the tree; but it was Neales agility that made it possible for the rope of green to be festooned from the heavy ceiling cornices. Uncle Rufus was much too stiff with rheumatism for such work.
Well! boys are some good, you must admit, Agnes said to Ruth, for the oldest Corner House girl was inclined to be a carping critic of the mere male.
All right. If hes so awfully useful, just let him clear up all this mess on the carpet, and then dust the rugs. Mercy, Agnes! exclaimed Ruth, what a lot of this green stuff there is all over the floor.
Yes, I know, admitted Agnes.
And there is other rubbish, too. Look at this old book you brought down from the attic and flung in the corner.
Ruth picked it up. It was heavy, and she carried it over to the broad window-seat on which she sat to open the family album, as Agnes had called it.
The latter and Neale, having brought in basket and broom, began to gather up the litter. Ruth became very still at the window with the old volume in her lap. The smaller girls were out of the room.
Whats in the old thing pictures? asked Agnes of her elder sister.
Ye yes, pictures, Ruth said hesitatingly.
Must be funny ones, chuckled Neale, by the look of her face.
Ruth did look serious as she sat there, turning the pages of the big, old volume. Had the others noticed particularly they would have seen that the countenance of the oldest Corner House girl had become very pale.
It was so when Mrs. MacCall looked in and said to her: Oh, Ruth! I do wish youd come out here and see what that Sammy Pinkneys brought. I dunno whether to laugh, to scream, or to spank him!
Ill be there in a moment, Mrs. Mac, Ruth said nervously, jumping up and closing the book.
Then she glanced at Agnes and Neale, seized the volume in her arms, and instead of going out through the butlers pantry after Mrs. MacCall, she crossed the front hall to the sitting room at the rear of the house.
I like that ! cried Agnes. Why! I found that old album myself; and I havent had a chance to look into it yet.
Ruth was only a moment in the sitting room. Then she ran to the kitchen and out upon the cold porch, where Sammy Pinkney, done up in the folds of a huge red comforter like a boa-constrictor suffering from scarlet fever, stood, holding a cage-trap in one mittened hand.