CHAPTER IV
ARBITRATION
Like a heroine in a drama Nellie stood there, one sunburned handthrust through the collar of each panting dog.
The boys saw their advantage and ran like Indians through the patch ofberries, tramping the ripe fruit under foot in their unreasoninganger.
"Hey! Stop that!" shouted Nellie, "or I'll let them go!"
Instantly every boy stood still.
"Come on," called Cora to the other two girls, "we must help Nellie."
As quickly as they could trudge along the rough pathway, Cora, Bessand Belle hurried to where Nellie stood with the dogs.
"Call the boys back to the shed," shouted the girl, "then I can takethe dogs to their kennels."
"Come here, boys!" called Cora. "Come back to the shed, and we willsee fair play!"
The words "fair play" had a magical effect on the strikers. They nowjumped between the rows, and it would be safe to say that not one ofthem, in the return, stepped on a single berry.
"All right, miss," answered the lad called Narrow. "We goes back tothe field, if Andy gets his tally-sticks."
"Does this woman own the patch?" asked Cora.
"Never!" replied one of the boys. "She's only the manager. The bosscomes up every night to pay us our coin."
"Then we should see him, I suppose," said Cora, as Nellie walked pastwith the dogs close beside her, each animal wagging his appreciationfor the girl that led them on.
"Aunt Delia scares easy," whispered Nellie, almost in Cora's ear."Just chuck a big bluff and she wilts."
Cora smiled. She was happily versed in the ways and manners of thosewho "had not had a chance."
"I am so afraid she will--hurt Rose," sighed Belle. "Oh dear me! What aplace!"
"But I think it rather fortunate we were here," replied Cora. "Theseyoungsters can scarcely take their own part--prudently."
Andy hung back near the shed. He was still trying to choke down thetears. How could he ever pay three dollars and seventy-five cents forthat crate of crushed berries? And it had not been his fault.
The strikers stood around Cora, each little fellow displaying hispreference for "a good honest strike" to that of hard work, in thesun, on a berry patch.
"Narrow speaks fer us," announced a sturdy little German lad. "Eh,Narrow?"
"We all goes back, if Andy gets his sticks," spoke Narrow, who wasevidently the strike leader.
"Well, come along," ordered Cora, feeling very much like a strikebreaker, "and we will see what Mrs. Ramsy says."
Led by the motor girls the procession wended its way back to the shed.
"Never mind, Andy," said a boy called Skip, who really did seem toskip rather than walk, "we will see you 'faired.'"
Andy rubbed his eyes more vigorously than before. Cora was in theshed, and Nellie hurried away with the dogs, promising to send Mrs.Ramsy down from the house. Meanwhile Cora had ample opportunity to getacquainted with her little band of strikers. They were very eager totalk, in fact all seemed anxious to talk at once. And their grievanceagainst the woman "who ran the patch" seemed to have begun long beforeher present difficulty with Andy.
"She's as mean as dirt to them two girls," said one urchin, "andanybody kin see that them girls is all right."
"They pick out here from the break of day until the moon is lit," saidanother, "and after that they has to work in the house. There's acouple of boarders there and the girls keeps the rooms slick."
"Boarders?" asked Bess.
"Yep, and one old dame is a peach," continued the boy, not coarselybut with eager enthusiasm.
"The one with the sparklers," added another. "Hasn't she got 'emthough?" and he smacked his lips as if to relish the fact.
"There comes Ramsy," whispered a third. "Whew! But she looks all hetup!"
The woman did look that way. Her face was as red as the berries in thetrays and her eyes were almost dancing out of their sockets.
Cora spoke before anyone else had a chance to do so.
"The boys are willing to arbitrate," she said. Then she felt foolishfor using that word. "They have come for terms," she said, moreplainly.
"Terms!" repeated the woman scornfully. "My terms is the same now asthey was first. Andy Murry pays for that crate!"
"If the crate is paid for will it belong to him?" asked Cora.
The woman stopped, as if afraid of falling into some trap. "I don'tcare who owns 'em, when he pays for 'em. But he sneaked out one bunchof tallies----"
"He did not!" shouted a chorus. "He earned every one he's got and theten that you've got!"
"And it was you who spoiled the berries by pushing him into them,"shouted some others, "and we are here to see him faired."
Cora was perplexed. She wanted to save more trouble, yet she did notfeel it "fair" to give in to the woman.
"Your berries are spoiling in the fields now," she suggested. "Whydon't you give in, and let the boys go back to work?"
"Me give in to a pack of kids!" shouted the enraged woman.
"She is always sour on Andy because his mother won't do her dirtywashing," explained the German boy.
"My mother is sick--and she can't wash," sobbed the unfortunate Andy.
"Yep, and that money of his'n was for her, too," put in Skip.
At this point another figure sauntered down from the house.
"There comes Mrs. Blazes!" put in Narrow. "She couldn't miss theshow."
The woman who came down the path sent on before her the ratheroverpowering odor of badly mixed perfumes.
"Look at her sparklers," whispered a boy to Cora, "that's why we callher 'Blazes.'"
A black lace scarf was over the woman's head and now the "sparklers,"or diamonds that she wore, in evident flashy taste, could be seen ather throat, and on her fingers. Bess smiled to Belle, and Cora turnedto the boys.
"We must finish up this business," she said. "It is getting late, andwe have to go to Chelton."
"Go ahead!" called the urchins.
"Fork out Andy's sticks," shouted some others.
"What is the crate worth?" asked Cora.
"It was worth three dollars and seventy-five cents," said the woman,"before that scamp deliberately set in it."
Cora did not intend to argue. "Then if the berries are bought you willgive the boy his tallies?" she pressed.
"Of course," drawled the woman, beginning to see Cora's intentions.
"He's not goin' to pay fer them!" interrupted Narrow. "What does shetake us for?"
"Hush!" commanded Cora. "Just give the boy his sticks, Mrs. Ramsy, andI'll attend to the rest."
"What'll I give him the tallies for when he owes me more than they'reworth?"
"To satisfy the boys," demanded Cora. "I will take that crate ofberries. They will suit me as well as any others."
Seeing herself beaten, the farm woman handed the tally-sticks to Cora,who put out her hand to take them.
"Now, you boys carry that crate down to the big machine in theroadway," she said, "and I will pay Mrs. Ramsy!"
A wild shout went up from the boys! The woman had been beaten! She hadnot sold but the one crate of berries! And that was the one shedemanded Andy should pay for!
Cora winked at Bess and Belle and the girls understood perfectly whatshe meant.
"Don't the other young ladies want any?" asked the woman. "You saidtwo crates!"
"But we haven't time now to stop longer," said Cora. "We can comeagain, when the sun will not be so hot. Then we may have a betterchoice."
It was Andy who helped Narrow carry the crate to the _Whirlwind_."Thank you, miss," he said, "I was almost sick. And mother expectedthe money to-night."
"Yes and she gets it," declared his companion, handing up the crate toCora, who stood in the car. "Whew! Ain't this a good one though!" andhe looked at the splendid maroon auto. "Must have cost a lot."
"Quite a good deal," said Cora. "Some day, when I come again, perhapsI will give you a nice ride in it!"
"There's Nellie," called
Bess. "She wants to speak with us, I guess."
The girl, who had put the dogs back on their chains, was hurrying downthe path.
"Good-bye," she said, "I don't think we will be here when you cometo-morrow."
"Where are you going?" asked Cora.
"Don't speak so loud," cautioned Nellie. "That old Lady Blazes is justas bad on us as Aunt Delia. And worse, for she puts her up toeverything."
"Nellie! Nellie!" shrieked the one termed "Blazes." "Your aunt wantsyou right away up at the house!"
Nellie turned with a nod to Bess and Belle.
"Ain't that a shame!" said Skip. "We will strike fer them girls next."