CHAPTER IV
THE MYSTERY OF JUNE WILDWOOD
Now, Trix Severn had maneuvered so as to get the very first dance withNeale O'Neil. Among all the boys who attended the upper grammargrades, and the High, of Milton, the boy who had been brought up in acircus was the best dancer. The older girls all were glad to get himfor a partner.
Time had been when Trix sneered at "that circus boy," but that wasbefore he and the two older Corner House girls had saved Trix from acollapsing snow palace back in mid-winter.
Since that time she had taken up with Agnes Kenway as her very closestchum, and she had visited the old Corner House a good deal. When Agnesand her sister arrived at the party on this evening, with Neale asescort, Trix determined to have at least _one_ dance with the popularboy.
"Oh, Neale!" she whispered, fluttering up to him in her very nicestway, "Ruth and Agnes will be half an hour primping, upstairs. Themusic is going to strike up. Do let _us_ have the first dance."
"All right," said Neale, good-naturedly.
It was the moment later that the discovery was made of the masons'shoes in the bundle he carried under his arm.
"Now we can't dance," repeated Agnes, when the laughter had somewhatsubsided.
"Oh, Neale can dance just as well," Trix said, carelessly. "Come on,Neale! You know this is _our_ dance."
Of course Neale could dance in his walking shoes. But he saw Agnes'woebegone face and he hesitated.
"It's too bad, Aggie," he said. "If it wasn't so far-----"
"Why, Neale O'Neill" snapped Trix, unwisely. "You don't mean to sayyou'd be foolish enough to go clear back to the Corner House for thosegirls' slippers?"
Perhaps it was just this opposition that was needed to start Nealeoff. He pulled his cap from his pocket and turned toward the door,with a shrug. "I guess I can get back in an hour, Ag. Don't you andRuth dance much in your heavy shoes until then. You'll tire yourselvesall out."
"Why, Neale O'Neill" cried Trix. "You won't do it?"
Even Ruth murmured against the boy's making the trip for the slippers."We can get along, Neale," she said, in her quiet way.
"And you promised to dance with me this first dance," declared Trix,angrily, as the music began.
Neale did not pay much attention to her--at the moment. "It's myfault, I guess," he said, laughing. "I'll go back for them, Ag."
But Trix got right between him and the door. "Now! you sha'n't go offand leave me in the lurch that way, Neale O'Neill" she cried, shrilly.
"Aw----There are other dances. Wait till I come back," he said.
"You can dance in the shoes you have on," Trix said, sharply.
"What if?"
"But _we_ can't, Trix," interposed Agnes, much distressed. "Ruth andI, you know----"
"I don't care!" interrupted Trix, boiling over at last. "You CornerHouse girls are the most selfish things! You'd spoil his fun for halfthe party----"
"Aw, don't bother!" growled Neale, in much disgust.
"I will bother! You----"
"Guess she thinks she owns you, Neale," chuckled one of the boys,adding fuel to the flames. Neale did not feel any too pleasant afterthat. He flung away from Trix Severn's detaining grasp.
"I'm going--it isn't any of _your_ concern," he muttered, to the angrygirl.
Ruth bore Agnes away. She was half crying. The rift in the intimacybetween her soulmate and herself was apparent to all.
To make the matter worse--according to Trix's version--when Nealefinally returned, almost breathless, with the mislaid slippers, heinsisted, first of all, upon dancing with Ruth and Agnes. Then hewould have favored Trix (Ruth had advised it), but the angry girlwould not speak to him.
"He's nothing but a low circus boy, anyway!" she told Lucy Poole. "AndI don't think really well-bred girls would care to have anything to dowith him."
Those who heard her laughed. They had known Trix Severn's ways for along time. She had been upon her good behavior; but it did notsurprise her old acquaintances that she should act like this.
It made a difference to the Corner House girls, however, for it madetheir plans about going to Pleasant Cove uncertain.
The other girls knew that Trix had invited the Corner House girls forthe first two weeks after graduation, and that Ruth had tentativelyaccepted. Therefore even Pearl Harrod--who wanted Ruth and hersisters, herself--scarcely knew whether to put in a claim for them ornot.
Graduation Day was very near at hand; the very day following theclosing of the Milton High, several family parties were to leave forthe seaside resort which was so popular in this part of New England.
They had to pass through Bloomingsburg to get to it, but when theKenways had lived in that city, they had never expected to spend anypart of the summer season at such a beautiful summer resort asPleasant Cove.
It was a bungalow colony, with several fine hotels, built around atiny, old-fashioned fishing port. There was a still cove, a beautifulriver emptying into it, and outside, a stretch of rocky Atlantic coaston which the ocean played grim tunes during stormy weather.
This was as much as the Corner House girls knew about it as yet. Butthey all looked forward to their first visit to the place with keendelight. Tess and Dot were talking about the expected trip a good dealof the time they were awake. Most of their doll-play was colored nowby thoughts of Pleasant Cove.
They were not too busy to help Mrs. MacCall take the last of thewinter clothing to the garret, however, and see her pack it away inthe chests there. As she did this the housekeeper sprinkled, withlavish hand, the camphor balls among the layers of clothing.
Dot had tentatively tasted one of the hard, white balls, andshuddered. "But they _do_ look so much like candy, Tess," she said.Then she suddenly had another thought:
"Oh, Mrs. MacCall! what do you suppose the poor moths had to live on'way back in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve wore any clothes?"
"Now, can you beat _that_?" demanded the housekeeper, of nobody inparticular. "What won't that young one get in her head!"
Meanwhile Ruth was helping Rosa Wildwood all she could, so that thegirl from the South would be able to pass in the necessaryexaminations and stand high enough in the class to be promoted.
Housework certainly "told on" Rosa. Bob said "it jest seems t' taketh' puckerin' string all out'n her--an' she jest draps down like aflower."
"We'll help her, Mr. Wildwood," Ruth said. "But she really ought tohave a rest."
"Hi Godfrey!" ejaculated the coal heaver. "I tell her she kin let thehousework go. We don't have no visitors--savin' an' exceptin' _you_,ma'am."
"But she wants to keep the place decent, you see," Ruth told him. "Andshe can scarcely do that and keep up with her studies--now. You see,she's so weak."
"Hi Godfrey!" exclaimed the man again. "Ain't thar sech a thing asbein' a mite _too_ clean?"
But Bob Wildwood had an immense respect for Ruth; likewise he wasgrateful because she showed an interest in his last remainingdaughter.
"I tell you, sir," the oldest Corner House girl said, gravely. "Rosaneeds a change and a rest. And all us girls are going to Pleasant Covethis summer. Will you let Rosa come down, too, for a while, if I payher way and look out for her?"
The man was somewhat disturbed by the question. "Yuh see, Miss," heobserved, scratching his head thoughtfully, "she's all I got. I'dplumb be lost 'ithout Rosa."
"But only for a week or two."
"I know. And I wouldn't want tuh stand in her way. I crossed hersister too much--that's what _I_ did. Juniper was a sight more uppitythan Rosa--otherwise she wouldn't have flew the coop," said BobWildwood, shaking his head.
Ruth, all tenderness for his bereavement, hastened to say: "Oh, you'llfind her again, sir. Surely you don't believe she's dead?"
"No. If she ain't come to a _bad_ end, she's all right somewhar. Butshe'd oughter be home with her sister--and with me. Ye see, she waspretty--an' smart. No end smart! She went off in bad comp'ny."
"How do you mean, Mr. Wildwood?" asked Ruth,
deeply interested.
"Travelin' folks. They had a van an' a couple team o' mules, an' theman sold bitters an' corn-salve. The woman dressed mighty fine, an'she took June's eye.
"We follered 'em a long spell, me an' Rosa. But we didn't never ketchup to 'em. If we had, I'd sure tuck a hand-holt of that medicine man.He an' his woman put all the foolishness inter Juniper's haid.
"An' Rosa misses her sister like poison, too," finished Bob Wildwood,slowly shaking his head.
There seemed to be a mystery connected with the disappearance ofRosa's sister, and Ruth Kenway was just as curious as she could beabout it; but she stuck to her subject until Bob Wildwood agreed tospare his remaining daughter for at least a week's visit to PleasantCove, while the Corner House girls would be there.