CHAPTER VI
AGNES LOSES HER TEMPER AND DOT HER TOOTH
It was on this morning--Friday, ever a fateful day according to thesuperstitiously inclined--that the incident of the newspaperadvertisement arose.
The paper boy had very early thrown the Kenways' copy of the Milton_Morning Post_ upon the front veranda. Aunt Sarah spent part of eachforenoon reading that gossipy sheet. She insisted upon seeing the paperjust as regularly as she insisted upon having her five cents' worth ofpeppermint-drops to take to church in her pocket on Sunday morning.
But on this particular morning she did not take the paper in beforegoing to her room after breakfast, and Neale strolled out and picked upthe sheet.
Ruth was behind him, but he did not know of her presence. She had beenabout to secure the morning paper and run upstairs with it, to save AuntSarah the bother of coming down again. As she was about to ask the boyfor it, Ruth noticed that he was staring rigidly at the still foldedpaper. His eyes were fixed upon something that appeared in the veryfirst column of the _Post_.
Now, the _Morning Post_ devoted the first column of its front page toimportant announcements and small advertisements--like "Lost and Found,"the death and marriage notices, and "personals." Agnes called it the"Agony Column," for the "personals" always headed it.
Ruth was sure Neale was staring at something printed very near the topof the column. He stood there, motionless, long enough to have read anyordinary advertisement half a dozen times.
Then he laid the paper quietly on one of the porch chairs and tiptoedoff the veranda, disappearing around the corner of the house withoutlooking back once; so Ruth did not see his face.
"What can be the matter with him?" murmured Ruth, and seized the paperherself.
She swiftly scrutinized the upper division of the first column of type.There were the usual requests for the return of absent friends, andseveral cryptic messages understood only by the advertiser and theperson to whom the message was addressed.
The second "Personal" was different. It read as follows:
STRAYED,OR RUNAWAY FROM HIS GUARDIAN:--Boy, 15, slight figure, very light hair, may call himself Sorber, or Jakeway. His Guardian will pay FIFTY DOLLARS for information of his safety, or for his recovery. Address Twomley & Sorber's Herculean Circus and Menagerie, _en-route_.
Ruth read this through; but she read it idly. It made no moreappeal to her just then than did half a dozen of the otheradvertisements--"personal," or otherwise.
So she carried the paper slowly upstairs, wondering all the time whatNeale O'Neil could have seen in the column of advertising to so affecthim. Perhaps had Agnes been at hand to discuss the matter, together thegirls might have connected the advertisement of the tow-headed boy withNeale O'Neil.
But Agnes was out on an errand, and when she did return she was so fullherself of something which she wished to tell Ruth that she quite drovethought of the white-haired boy, for the time being, out of the oldergirl's mind. As soon as she saw Ruth she began her tale.
"What do you think, Ruthie Kenway? I just met Eva Larry on the Parade,and that Trix Severn was with her. You know that Trix Severn?"
"Beatrice Severn? Yes," said Ruth, placidly. "A very well-dressed girl.Her parents must be well off."
"Her father is Terrence Severn, and he keeps a summer hotel at PleasantCove. But I don't like her. And I'm not going to like Eva if she makes afriend of that Trix," cried Agnes, stormily.
"Now, Agnes! don't be foolish," admonished Ruth.
"You wait till you hear what that nasty Trix said to me--about us all!"
"Why, she can't hurt us--much--no matter what she says," Ruth declared,still calmly.
"You can talk! I'm just going to tell Eva she needn't ask me to walkwith her again when Trix is with her. I came along behind them acrossthe Parade Ground and Eva called me. I didn't like Trix before, and Itried to get away.
"'I've got to hurry, Eva,' I said. 'Mrs. MacCall is waiting for thissoap-powder.'
"'I should think you Corner House girls could afford to hire somebody torun your errands, if you've got all the money they say you have,' saysTrix Severn--just like that!"
"What did you reply, Aggie!" asked the older Kenway girl.
"'It doesn't matter how much, or how little, money we have,' I toldher," said Agnes, "'there's no lazy-bones in our family, thankgoodness!' For Eva told me that Trix's mother doesn't get up till noonand that their house is all at sixes and sevens."
"Oh! that sharp tongue of yours," said Ruth, admonishingly.
"I hope she took it," declared Agnes, savagely. "She said to me: 'Oh!people who haven't been used to leisure don't really know how to enjoymoney, I suppose, when they _do_ get it.'
"'You needn't worry, Miss,' I said. 'We get all the fun there is going,and don't have to be idle, either. And whoever told _you_ we weren'tused to money before we came to Milton?'"
"Fie! Fie, Aggie! That was in the worst possible taste," cried Ruth.
"I don't care," exclaimed Agnes, stormily. "She's a nasty thing! Andwhen I hurried on, I heard her laugh and say to Eva:
"'"Put a beggar on horseback," you know. Miss Titus, the dressmaker,says those Kenways never had two cents to bless themselves with beforeold crazy Peter Stower died and left them all that money.'"
"Well, dear, I wouldn't make a mountain out of a molehill," said Ruth,quietly. "If you don't like Beatrice Severn, you need not associate withher--not even if she is going to be in your grade at school. But I wouldnot quarrel with my best friend about her. That's hardly worth while, isit?"
"I don't know whether I consider Eva Larry my best friend, or not," saidAgnes, reflectively. "Myra Stetson is lots nicer in some ways."
That was Agnes' way. She was forever having a "crush" on some girl orother, getting suddenly over it, and seeking another affinity withbewildering fickleness. Eva Larry had been proclaimed her dearest friendfor a longer term than most who had preceded her.
There was too much to do in completing the housecleaning task to spendeither breath, or time, in discussing Beatrice Severn and her impudenttongue. A steady "rap, rap, rapping" from the back lawn told the storyof Neale and the parlor rugs.
"There!" cried Ruth, suddenly, from the top of the stepladder, where shewas wiping the upper shelves in the dining-room china closet. "There'sone rug in the sitting room I didn't take out last evening. Will you getit, Aggie, and give it to Neale?"
Willing Agnes started at once. She literally ran to the sitting-room andbanged open the door.
All this time we have left Dot--and her sore tooth--behind this verydoor! She had selected the wrong side of the door upon which to crouch,waiting for Fate--in the person of an unknowing sister--to pull thetooth.
The door opened inward, and against the slumbering little girl on thehassock. Instead of jerking the tooth out by pulling open the door,Agnes banged the door right against the unconscious Dot--and so hardthat Dot and her hassock were flung some yards out upon the floor. Herforehead was bumped and a great welt raised upon it.
The smallest Kenway voiced her surprise and anguish in no uncertainterms. Everybody in the house came running to the rescue. Even AuntSarah came to the top of the stairs and wanted to know "if that youngone was killed?"
"No-o-o!" sobbed Dot, answering for herself. "No--no-o-o, Aunt Sarah._Not yet._"
But Mrs. MacCall had brought the arnica bottle and the bruise was soontreated. While they were all comforting her, in staggered Neale with anumber of rugs on his shoulder.
"Hello!" he demanded. "Who's murdered this time?"
"Me," proclaimed Dot, with confidence.
"Oh-ho! Are you making all that noise about losing a little old tooth?But you got it pulled, didn't you?"
Dot clapped a tentative finger into her mouth. When she drew it forth,it was with a pained and surprised expression. The place where the toothshould have been was empty.
"There it is," chuckled Neale, "hanging on the doorknob. Didn't I tellyou that was the way to g
et your tooth pulled?"
"My!" gasped Dot. "It wasn't pulled out of me, you see. When Aggie ranin and knocked me over, _I was just putted away from the tooth_!"
They all burst out laughing at that, and Dot laughed with them. Sherecovered more quickly from the loss of her tooth than Agnes did fromthe loss of her temper!