CHAPTER XII
MISSING
Agnes and Cecile had gone down town on a brief shopping trip, and Ruth,with Luke Shepard, was on the wide veranda of the old Corner House.
The great front yard that had been weed grown and neglected when theKenway sisters and Aunt Sarah had come here to live, was now a well keptlawn, the grass and paths the joint care of Uncle Rufus and NealeO'Neil. For nowadays Neale had time to do little other work than that ofrunning the Kenways' car and working about the old Corner House when hewas not at school.
Ruth was busy, of course, with some sewing, for she, like Aunt Sarah,did not believe in being entirely idle while one gossiped. Whenever Ruthlooked up from her work there was somebody passing along Main Street orWillow Street whom she knew, and who bowed or spoke to the Corner Housegirl.
"You have such hosts of friends, Miss Ruth," Luke Shepard said. "Ibelieve you Corner House girls must be of that strange breed of folk whoare 'universally popular.' I have rather doubted their existence untilnow."
"You are a flatterer," Ruth accused him, smiling. "I am sure you andCecile make friends quite as easily as we do."
"But Grantham is not Milton. There are only a handful of people there."
Ruth bit off a thread thoughtfully.
"Cecile was telling us about 'Neighbor' last evening," she said.
Luke flushed quickly and he looked away from the girl for a moment.
"Oh!" he said. "The poor old gentleman is a character."
"But a very good friend of yours?"
"I am not so sure about that," and Luke tried to laugh naturally. "Totell the truth I'm afraid he's a bit cracked, don't you know."
"Oh, you do not mean that he is really--er--crazy!"
"No. Though they say--somebody has--that we are most of us a littlecrazy. Neighbor Northrup is more than a little peculiar. Cecile told youhe is a woman-hater?"
"Yes. And that he carries his hatred to extremes."
"I should say he does!" exclaimed Luke with vast disgust. "He wants meto promise never to marry."
"Well?"
"My goodness, Miss Ruth! You say that calmly enough. How would you liketo be nagged in such a way continually? It's no fun I can assure you."
Ruth laughed one of her hearty, delightful laughs that made even thevexed Luke join in.
"It's like Aunt Sarah," confessed Ruth. "She thinks very poorly of men,and is always advising Agnes and me to 'escape the wrath to come' byjoining the spinster sisterhood."
"But you haven't--you _won't_?" gasped Luke in horror.
At that the oldest Corner House girl laughed again, and Luke foundhimself flushing and feeling rather shamefaced.
"Oh, well," he said, "you know what I mean. You girls wouldn't really beinfluenced by such foolishness?"
"Doesn't Neighbor influence you?" Ruth asked him quickly.
"No, indeed. Not even when he tries to bribe me. He can keep his oldmoney."
"But he has been your good friend," the girl said slowly andthoughtfully. "And Cecile says he has promised to do much for you."
"And if he got tiffed he would refuse to do a thing. Oh, I knowNeighbor!" growled Luke. "Yet you must not think, Miss Ruth," he addedafter a moment, "that I do not appreciate what he has already done forme. He is the kindest old fellow alive, get him off the subject ofwomen. But he must have been hurt very much by a woman when he wasyoung--he never speaks about it, but so I surmise--and he cannot forgethis hatred of the sex.
"Why," continued the young man, "if it would do him a bit of good--mypromising never to marry--any good in the world, there'd be some sensein thinking of it. But it's downright foolishness--and I'll neveragree," and the young fellow shook his head angrily.
"If it would cure him of any disease, or the like, I might be coaxed towear blinders so as not to see the pretty girls at all," and Luke triedto laugh it off again. "But he's wrong--utterly wrong. And old folksshould not be encouraged in wrong doing."
"You feel yourself susceptible to the charms of pretty girls, then,"suggested Ruth, smiling down at her sewing.
He tried to see her full expression, but could see only the smilewreathing her lips.
"Well, now, Miss Ruth," he said, in defense, "who isn't made happier byseeing a pretty and cheerful face?"
"Some of them say they are made miserable for life by such a sight,"Ruth declared demurely. "Or, is it only a manner of speaking?"
"'I shall begin to believe you are a man-hater,' laughedLuke"]
"I shall begin to believe you are a man-hater, just as Neighbor is awoman-hater," laughed Luke.
"I have my doubts," confessed Ruth. "But you, Luke, have your own way towin in life, and if this man can and will help you, shouldn't you bewilling to give up a little thing like that for policy's sake?"
"A little thing like _what_?" exclaimed Luke Shepard, rather warmly.
"Why--er--getting married," and Ruth Kenway's eyes danced as she lookedat him again for an instant.
"The greatest thing in the world!" he almost shouted.
"You mean love is the greatest thing in the world," said Ruth stilldemurely smiling. "They say marriage hasn't much to do withthat--sometimes."
"I believe you are pessimistic regarding the marriage state."
"I don't know anything about it. Never thought of it, really."
Tess just then came singing through the house, having been to see MissAnn Titus, the dressmaker, regarding certain dresses that were to be gotready for the little girls to wear to school. She had refused to tellDot where she was going because one of the dresses was to be a surpriseto the smallest Corner House girl.
It needed no seer to discover that Tess had been to see the seamstress.She was a polite little girl and she did not like to break in upon otherpeople's conversation; but she was so chock full of news that some of ithad to spill over.
"D'juno, Ruthie, that Mr. Sauer, the milkman got 'rested because hedidn't have enough milk in his wagon to serve his customers? Theinspector said he didn't have a license to peddle water, and he tookhim down to the City Hall."
"I had not heard of it, Tess, no," replied her older sister.
"You know that awfully big man, Mr. Atkins--the awfully fat man, youknow, who is a lawyer, or something, and always walks down town forexercise, and I s'pose he needs it? He stepped on a banana peel onPurchase Street the other day and almost fell. And if he had fallen onthat hard walk I 'most guess he'd've exploded."
"Oh, Tessie!" exclaimed Ruth, while Luke laughed openly.
"And d'juno, Ruthie, that they are going to stop people from keepingpigs inside the city limits? Mr. Con Murphy can't have his any more,either. For the other day a pig that belonged to Hemstret, the butcher,got away and scared folks awful on Deering Street, 'cause he looked asthough he had the yaller janders--"
"The _what_?" gasped her sister, while Luke actually roared.
"The yaller janders," repeated Tessie.
"Do you mean the yellow jaundice? Though how a pig could get such adisease--"
"Maybe. Anyway he was all yellow," Tess went on excitedly. "'Cause someboys took some ock-er-ra paint out of Mr. Timmins' shop--Timmins, thelame man, you know--and painted him and then let him out."
"Painted Mr. Timmins--the lame man?" gasped Luke, in the midst of hislaughter.
"No. The pig that I was telling you about," said the small girl. "AndMrs. Bogert says that the next time Bogert goes to the lodge and staystill two o'clock in the morning, she's going home to her mother and takethe children with her," and Tess ended this budget of news almostbreathless.
Ruth had to laugh, too, although she did not approve of the childrencarrying such gossip. "I should know you had called upon Miss AnnTitus," she observed. "I hope you didn't hear anything worse than this."
"I heard her canary sing," confessed Tess; "and her little dog, Wopsy,was snoring dreadfully on the sofa. But I guess I didn't hear anythingelse. Where's Dot?"
"I'm sure I do not know," Ruth said placidly, while Luke wiped his eyes,sti
ll chuckling in a subdued way. He saw that he was beginning to hurtTess' feelings and he was too kind-hearted to wish to do that. "Dot mustbe somewhere about the house."
Tess went to look for her. Her tender conscience punished her for havingspoken to her little sister so shortly when she was starting on hererrand to Miss Ann Titus. But how else could she have gotten rid of the"tagging" Dorothy!
Just now, however, Dot seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. Nobodyhad seen her for more than an hour. Tess went to the fence between theirown and the Creamers' yard and "hoo-hooed" until Mabel appeared.
"Ain't seen her," declared that young person, shaking her head. "I triedto get you and her over here a long time ago. My mother let me make some'lasses taffy, and I wanted you and Dot to come and help. But I had todo it all alone."
"Was it good?" asked Tess, longingly.
"It _looked_ luscious," admitted Mabel scowling. "But that young 'un gotat it when it was cooling on the porch and filled it full of gravel. Ibroke a tooth trying to eat a piece. Want some, Tess?"
"No-o," Tess said. "I guess not. I must find Dot."
But she did not find Dot. She wandered back to the front of the CornerHouse just as Mrs. Pinkney, rather wild-eyed and disheveled, appeared atthe side fence on Willow Street and called to Ruth:
"Have you seen Sammy?"
"Have you seen Dot?" repeated Tess, quite as earnestly.
Ruth was finally shaken out of her composure. She rose from her seat,folding the work in her lap, and demanded:
"What do you suppose has become of them? For of course, if neither Sammynor Dot can be found, they have gone off somewhere together."