CHAPTER XIV
AN IMPORTANT ARRIVAL
Agnes _did_ fall asleep; but Ruth only dozed, if she closed her eyesat all. The rumble of the storm shook the nerves of the oldest CornerHouse girl--and no wonder!
Ruth felt the weight of responsibility for her sisters' safety. Ifanything happened while they were under canvas she knew that she wouldbe blamed.
Sometimes the spray swept in from the river and spattered on thecanvas like a drenching shower. The walls of the tent shook. She heardmany sounds without that she could not explain--and some of thesesounds frightened her.
Suppose the tent should blow down? The way the wind sometimes shook itreminded Ruth of a dog shaking a bit of rag.
Then, when the wind held its breath for a moment, the roaring of thesea in the distance was a savage sound to which the girl's ears werenot attuned.
She had left the lantern lit and it swung from a rope tied to theridgepole of the tent, and beyond the half partition of canvas. Itsflickering light cast weird shadows upon the canvas roof.
Now and then the spray beat against the front of the tent, while theroof shook and shivered as though determined to tear away from thewalls. Ruth wished she had gone all around the tent before dark tomake sure the pegs were driven well into the sand.
Occasionally children cried shrilly, for the noise of the elementsfrightened them; Ruth was thankful that Tess and Dot slept on.
She slept herself at last; how long she did not know, for when sheawoke she was too greatly frightened to look at her watch. The windseemed suddenly to have increased. It seemed struggling to tear thetent up by the roots!
And as the canvas shook, and swelled, and strove to burst itsfastenings, there came a sudden snap on one side and one of the pegsflew high in the air at the end of its rope, coming down slap on theroof of the tent!
"The peg has pulled out!" gasped Ruth, sitting up in her cot andthrowing off the blanket.
The canvas was straining and bellying fearfully at the point where thepeg had drawn. It was likely to draw the pegs on either side. Ruthvery well knew that if a broad enough opening was made for the wind toget under, the tent would be torn from its fastenings.
She hopped out upon the matting and shook Agnes by the shoulder.
"Get up! Get up, Ag!" she called, breathlessly. "Help me."
She ran to the front of the tent for the maul--a long-handled,heavy-headed croquet-mallet. When she returned with it, Agnes wastrying to rub her eyes open.
"Come quick, Ag! We'll be blown away," declared Ruth.
"I--I----What'll we do?" whimpered Agnes.
"We must hold the tent down. Come on! Get into your mackintosh. I'llget the lantern."
Around the upright pole in the sleeping part of the tent were hung thegirls' outer garments. Ruth got into her own raincoat and buttoned itto her ankles. She left Agnes struggling with hers while she ran tounhang the lantern. She knew the night must be as black as a pocketoutside.
"Wha--what you going to do?" stuttered Agnes.
"Drive the pegs in deeper. One of them pulled out."
"Oh, dear! _Can_ we?"
"I guess we'll have to, if we don't want to lose our tent. Hear thatwind?"
"It--it sounds like cannon roaring."
"Come on!"
"But that isn't the front flap----"
"Think I'm going to unlace that front flap when the wind's blowingright into it?"
"Can't we get out yonder, where the peg has been pulled?"
"But how'll we get in again when all the stakes are driven down hard?"snapped Ruth, beginning to unlace the flaps of the rear wall of thetent.
"Oh! oh!" moaned Agnes. "Hear that wind?"
"I wouldn't care if it only _hollered_," gasped Ruth. "It's what itwill do if it ever gets under this tent, that troubles me!"
She unlaced the flaps only a little way. "Come along with thatlantern, Ag. We've got to crawl under."
"'Get down and get under,'" giggled Agnes, hysterically.
But she brought the lantern and followed Ruth out of the tent, onhands and knees. When they stood up and tried to go around to thatside of the tent where the peg had pulled out, the wind almost knockedthem down.
"And how the sleet cuts!" gasped Agnes, her arm across her eyes forprotection.
"It's sand," explained Ruth. "I thought it was spray from the river.But a good deal of it is sand--just like a sand-storm in the desert."
"Well!" grumbled Agnes, "I hope it's killing a lot of those sandfleasthat bother us so. I don't see how they can live and be blown aboutthis way."
Ruth tackled the first post at the corner and beat it down as hard asshe could, Agnes holding the lantern so that the older girl could seewhere to strike.
They went from one peg to the next, taking each in rotation. And whenthey reached the one that had pulled out entirely, Ruth drove thatinto the ground just as far as it would go.
Strangely enough, throughout all this business, Tess and Dot did notawake. Ruth went clear around the tent, driving the stakes. The windhowled; the sand and spray blew; and the voices of the Night and ofthe Storm seemed fairly to yell at them. Still the smaller CornerHouse girls slept through it all. Ruth and Agnes crept back into thetent and laced the flaps down in safety.
A little later, before either of them fell asleep again, they heardshouting and confusion at a distance. In the morning they learned thattwo of the tents in the Enterprise Camp had blown down.
The shore was strewn with wreckage, too, when daybreak came; but thewind seemed to have blown itself out. Many small craft had comeashore, and some were damaged. It was not often that the summervisitors at Pleasant Cove saw any such gale as this had been.
Everything was all right with the Corner House girls, and Ruth decidedthey would stick to the tent, in spite of the fact that some of thecamping families were frightened away from the tent colonies by thisdisgraceful exhibition of Mr. Wind!
The smaller Kenways, as well as the bigger girls, were enjoying theout-of-door life immensely. They were already as brown as berries.They ran all day, bare-headed and bare-legged, on the sands. It wasplain to be seen that the change from Milton to Pleasant Cove wasdoing all the Corner House girls a world of good.
And during the extremely pleasant days that immediately followed thenight of the big wind, many new colonists came to the tents. Two bigtents were erected in the Willowbend Camp, for Joe Eldred and _his_friends--and that included, of course, Neale O'Neil. But the Miltonboys would not arrive until the next week.
On Monday afternoon the Corner House girls walked down to the railroadstation to greet Rosa Wildwood. It had been a very hot day in town andit was really hot at Pleasant Cove, as well.
"Oh! you poor thing!" gasped Ruth, receiving Rosa in her strong armsas she stumbled off the car steps with her bag.
"I'm as thin as the last run of shad, am I not?" asked Rosa, laughing."That train was _awful_! I am baked. It's never like this down South.The air is so much dryer there; there isn't this humidity. Oh!"
"Well, you're here all right now, Rosa," cried Ruth. "We have a nice,easy carriage for you to ride in. And the _dearest_ place for you tolive!"
"And scrumptious eating, Rose," added Agnes.
"With the little old woman who lives in a shoe," declared Tess, eagerto add her bit of information.
Dot's finger had strayed to the corner of her mouth, as she stared.For she had never met Rosa before, and she was naturally rather abashful child.
"Now!" cried Ruth, again. "Where is he?"
"Who?" demanded Agnes, staring all about. "Neale didn't come, did he?"
"Oh, he's up in the baggage-car ahead," said Rosa, laughing.
"You sit right down here till I get him," Ruth commanded.
"Here's the check," Rosa said, and to the amazement of the otherCorner House girls Ruth ran right away toward the head of the trainwith the baggage check, and without saying another word.
There were two baggage cars on the long train and from the open doorof th
e first one the man was throwing trunks and bags onto the bigwheel-truck.
So Ruth ran on to the other car. The side-door was wheeled back justas she arrived, and a glad bark welcomed her appearance.
Tom Jonah stood in the doorway, straining at his leash held in thehands of the baggageman. His tongue lolled out on his chest like a rednecktie, and he was laughing just as plainly as ever a dog _did_laugh.
"I see he knows you, Miss," said the man. "You don't have to proveproperty. He sure is glad to see you," and he accepted the check.
"No gladder than I am to see him," said Ruth. "Let him jump down,please."
She caught the leather strap as the baggageman tossed it toward her,and Tom Jonah bounded about her in an ecstasy of delight.
"Down, sir!" she commanded. "Now, Tom Jonah, come and see the girls.But behave."
He barked loudly, but trotted along beside her most sedately. Tess andDot had heard him, and deserting Rosa and Agnes, they came flying upthe platform to meet Ruth and the big dog.
The two younger Corner House girls hugged Tom Jonah, and he lickedtheir hands in greeting. Agnes was as extravagantly glad to see him aswere the others.
"How did you come to send for him, Ruthie?" Agnes cried.
"I thought we might need a chaperon at the tent," laughed Ruth.
"The Gyps!" exclaimed Agnes, under her breath. "Let them come now, ifthey want to. You're a smart girl, Ruthie."
"Sh!" commanded the older sister. "Don't let the children hear."
They helped Rosa into the wagonette and then climbed in after her.Ruth had taken off Tom Jonah's leash and the good old dog trottedafter the carriage as it rolled through Main Street and out upon theShore Road toward the tent colonies.
Rosa brought all the news of home to the Corner House girls and manymessages from Mrs. MacCall and Uncle Rufus. Of course, they couldexpect no word from Aunt Sarah, for it was not her way to besympathetic or show any deep interest in what her adopted nieces weredoing.
The girls from the old Corner House might have been a little homesickhad there not been so much to take up their attention each hour atPleasant Cove.
They brought Rosa to the little old woman who lived in a shoe, and themoment Mrs. Bobster saw how weak and white she was her sympathy wentout to her.
"Tut, tut, tut!" she said, clucking almost as loudly as Agamemnonhimself. "We'll soon fix you up, my dear. If you stay long enough hereat the beach, you'll be as brown and strong as these other gals."
Rosa put her arm about Ruth's neck when the Corner House girls wereabout to leave.
"This is a heavenly place, Ruth Kenway, and you are an angel forbringing me down heah. I don't know what greater thing anybody coulddo fo' me--and you aren't even kin!"
"Don't bother, Rosa. I haven't done much----"
"There's nothing in the world--but one thing--that could make mehappier."
Ruth looked at her curiously, and Rosa added:
"To find June. I hope to find her some day--yes, I do."
"And suppose I should help you do _that_?" laughed the oldest CornerHouse girl.