CHAPTER XVIII
RUTH DOES WHAT SHE THINKS IS RIGHT
Mrs. Treble, as the tall, dark lady called herself, had such an air ofassurance and command, that Ruth was at a loss what course to takewith her. Finally the oldest Kenway girl found voice to say:
"Won't you take one of these comfortable rockers, Mrs. Treble? Perhapswe had better first talk the matter over a little."
"Well, I'm glad to sit down," admitted Mrs. Treble. "Don't muss yourdress, Lillie. We've been traveling some ways, as I tell you. Cleanfrom Ypsilanti. We came on from Cleveland Junction this morning, andit's a hot day. _Don't_ rub your shoes together, Lillie."
"It _is_ very warm," said Ruth, handing their visitor a fan andsending Agnes for a glass of cold water from the icebox.
"Then we've been to that lawyer's office," pursued Mrs. Treble. "Whatdo you call him--Howbridge? Don't rub your hands on your skirt,Lillie."
"Yes; Mr. Howbridge," replied Ruth.
"_Don't_ take off that hat, Lillie. So we've been walking in the sunsome. That's nice, cool water. Have some, Lillie? Don't drip it onyour dress."
"Wouldn't your little girl like to go with Tess and Dot to theplayhouse in the garden?" Ruth suggested. "Then we can talk."
"Why--yes," said Mrs. Treble. "Go with the little girls, Lillie. Don'tyou get a speck of dirt on you, Lillie."
Ruth did not see the awful face the much admonished Lillie made, asshe left her mother's side. It amazed Tess and Dot so that they couldnot speak. Her tongue went into her cheek, and she drew down thecorners of her mouth and rolled her eyes, leering so terribly, thatfor an instant she looked like nothing human. Then she resumed theplacidity of her angelic expression, and minced along after theyounger Kenway girls, and out of sight around a corner of the house.
Meanwhile, Agnes had drawn Ruth aside, and whispered: "What are yougoing to do? She's raving crazy, isn't she? Had I better run for adoctor--or the police?"
"Sh!" admonished Ruth. "She is by no means crazy. I don't know _what_to do!"
"But she says she has a right to live here, too," gasped Agnes.
"Perhaps she has."
"Mr. Howbridge said we were Uncle Peter's only heirs," said Agnes,doggedly.
"May--maybe he didn't know about this John Augustus Treble. We mustfind out about it," said Ruth, much worried. "Of course, we wouldn'twant to keep anybody out of the property, if they had a better rightto it."
"_What?_" shrilled Agnes. "Give it up? Not--on--your--life!"
In the meantime, Tess and Dot scarcely knew how to talk to LillieTreble. She was such a strange girl! They had never seen anybody atall like her before.
Lillie walked around the house, out of her mother's sight, just asmincingly as a peacock struts. Her look of angelic sweetness wouldhave misled anybody. She just looked as though she had never done asingle wrong thing in all her sweet young life!
But Tess and Dot quickly found that Lillie Treble was not at all theperfect creature she appeared to the casual observer. Her angelicsweetness was all a sham. Away from her mother's sharp eye, Lilliedisplayed very quickly her true colors.
"Those all your dolls?" she demanded, when she was shown thecollection of Tess and Dot in the garden house.
"Yes," said Tess.
"Well, my mother says we're going to stay here, and if you want me toplay with you," said this infantile socialist, "we might as welldivide them up right now."
"Oh!" gasped Tess.
"I'll take a third of them. They can be easily divided. I choose_this_ one to begin with," said Lillie, diving for the Alice-doll.
With a shriek of alarm, Dot rescued this--her choicest possession--andstood on the defensive, the Alice-doll clasped close to her breast.
"No! you can't have that," said Tess, decidedly.
"Why not?" demanded Lillie.
"Why--it's the doll Dot loves the best."
"Well," said Lillie, calmly, "I suppose if I chose one of _yours_,you'd holler, too. I never did see such selfish girls. Huh! if I can'thave the dolls I want, I won't choose any. I don't want to play withthe old things, anyway!" and she made a most dreadful face at theKenway sisters.
"Oh-oh!" whispered Dot. "I don't like her at all."
"Well, I suppose we must amuse her," said Tess, strong for duty.
"But she says she is going to stay here all the time," pursued thetroubled Dot, as Lillie wandered off toward the foot of the garden.
"I don't believe that can be so," said Tess, faintly. "But it's ourduty to entertain her, while she _is_ here."
"I don't see why we should. She's not a nice girl at all," Dotobjected.
"Dot! you know very well Ruth wants us to look out for her," Tesssaid, with emphasis. "We can't get out of it."
So the younger girl, over-ruled by Tess, followed on. At the foot ofthe garden, Lillie caught sight of Ruth's flock of hens. Uncle Rufushad repaired the henhouse and run, and Ruth had bought in the market adozen hens and a rooster of the white Plymouth Rock breed. Mr. Roosterstrutted around the enclosure very proudly with his family. They wereall very tame, for the children made pets of them.
"Don't you ever let them out?" asked Lillie, peering through thewire-screen.
"No. Not now, Ruth says. They would get into the garden," Tessreplied.
"Huh! you could shoo them out again. I had a pet hen at Ypsilanti. I'drather have hens than dolls, anyway. The hens are alive," and shetried the gate entering upon the hen-run.
"Oh!" exclaimed Tess. "You mustn't let them out."
"Who's letting them out?" demanded Lillie.
"Well, then, you mustn't go into the yard."
"Why not?" repeated the visitor.
"Ruth won't like it."
"Well, I guess my mother's got more to say about this place than yoursister has. She says she's going to show a parcel of girls how to runthis house, and run it right. That's what she told Aunt Adeline andUncle Noah, when we went to live with them in Ypsilanti."
Thus speaking, Lillie opened the gate and walked into the poultryyard. At once there was great excitement in the flock. Lillie plungedat the nearest hen and missed her. The rooster uttered a startled andadmonitory "Cut! cut! ca-dar-cut!" and led the procession offrightened hens about the yard.
"Aren't hens foolish?" demanded Lillie, calmly. "I am not going tohurt her."
She made another dive for the hen. The rooster uttered another shriekof warning and went through the watering-pan, flapping his wings likemad. The water was spilled, and the next attempt Lillie made to seizea hen, she was precipitated into the puddle!
Both hands, one knee, and the front of her frock were immediatelystreaked with mud. Lillie shrieked her anger, and plunged after thefrightened hens again. She was a determined girl. Tess and Dot addedtheir screams to the general hullabaloo.
Round and round went the hens, led by the gallant rooster. Finally theinevitable happened. Lillie got both hands upon one of the white hens.
"Now I got you--silly!" shrieked Lillie.
But she spoke too quickly and too confidently. It was only thetail-feathers Lillie grabbed. With a wild squawk, the hen flewstraight away, leaving the bulk of her plumage in the naughty girl'shands!
The girls outside the fence continued to scream, and so did the flockof hens. The rooster, who was a heavy bird, came around the yardagain, on another lap, and wildly leaped upon Lillie's back.
He scrambled over her, his great spurs and claws tearing her frock,and his wings beating her breathlessly to the ground. Just then UncleRufus came hobbling along.
"Glo-ree! who dat chile in dat hen-cage?" he demanded. "Dat ol'rooster'll put her eyes out for her--dat he will!"
He opened the gate, went in, and grabbed up Lillie Treble from theground. When he set her on her feet outside the fence, she was a sightto behold!
"Glo-ree!" gasped Uncle Rufus. "What you doin' in dar, chile?"
"Mind your own business!" exclaimed Lillie. "You're only a black man.I don't have to mind _you_, I hope."
She was cove
red with mud and dust, and her frock was in greatdisarray, but she was self-contained--and as saucy as ever. Tess andDot were horrified by her language.
"I dunno who yo' is, gal!" exclaimed Uncle Rufus. "But yo' let MissieRuth's chickens erlone, or I'll see ter yuh, lak' yer was one o' myown gran'chillen."
Lillie was sullen--and just a little frightened of Uncle Rufus. Thedisaster made but slight impression upon her mind.
"What--what will your mother say?" gasped Tess, when the three girlswere alone again.
"She won't say anything--till she sees me," sniffed Lillie. And to putthat evil hour off, she began to inquire as to further possibilitiesfor action about the old Corner House.
"What do you girls do?" she asked.
"Why," said Tess, "we play house; and play go visiting; and--and rollhoop; and sometimes skip rope----"
"Huh! that's dreadful tame. Don't you ever _do_ anything----Oh!there's my mother!" A window had opened in one of the wings of the bighouse, on the second floor. It was a window of a room that the Kenwayfamily had not before used. Tess and Dot saw Ruth as well as Mrs.Treble at the window.
Ruth was doing what she thought was right. Mrs. Treble had confessedto the oldest of the Corner House girls that she had arrived at Miltonwith scarcely any money. She could not pay her board even at the verycheapest hotel. Mr. Howbridge was away, Ruth knew, and nothing couldbe done to straighten out this tangle in affairs until the lawyer cameback.
So she had offered Mrs. Treble shelter for the present. Moreover, thelady, with a confidence equaled only by Aunt Sarah's, demanded inquite a high and mighty way to be housed and fed. Yet she had calmeddown, and actually thanked Ruth for her hospitality, when she foundthat the girl was not to be intimidated, but was acting the part of aGood Samaritan from a sense of duty.
Agnes was too angry for words. She could not understand why Ruthshould cater to this "Mrs. Trouble," as she insisted, in secret, uponcalling the woman from Ypsilanti.
Ruth was showing the visitor a nice room on the same floor with thosechambers occupied by the girls themselves, and Mrs. Treble wasapproving, when she chanced to look out of the window and behold herangelic Lillie in the condition related above.