The Corner House Girls Part 3

"Yes, sir?" queried Ruth, breathlessly, as the lawyer stopped.

"Mr. Stower has been dead a fortnight," explained the lawyer, quietly.

"n.o.body knew as much about his affairs as myself. I have presented the notes of his last will and testament-made quite a year ago-to the Probate Court, and although they have no legal significance, the Court agrees with me that the natural heirs of the deceased should enter upon possession of the property and hold it until the complications arising from the circ.u.mstances can be made straight."

"Oh, Aunt Sarah! I am so glad for you!" cried Ruth, clasping her hands and smiling one of her wonderful smiles at the little old lady.

Aunt Sarah tossed her head and pursed her lips, just as though she said, "I have always told you so."

Mr. Howbridge cleared his throat again and spoke hastily: "You do not understand, Miss Kenway. You and your sisters are the heirs at law. At the best, Miss Maltby would receive only a small legacy under Mr.

Stower's will. The residue of the estate reverts to you through your mother, and I am nominally your guardian and the executor."

Ruth stared at him, open mouthed. The two little girls had listened without clearly understanding all the particulars. Aggie had crept to the doorway (the cake now being on the table and off her mind), and she was the only one who uttered a sound. She said "Oh!"

"You children-you four girls-are the heirs in question. I want you to get ready to go to Milton as soon as possible. You will live in the old Corner House and I shall see, with the Probate Court, that all your rights are guarded," Mr. Howbridge said.

It was Dorothy, the youngest, who seemed first to appreciate the significance of this great piece of news. She said, quite composedly:

"Then we _can_ buy some candy 'sides those pep'mint drops for Aunt Sarah, on Sat.u.r.days."

CHAPTER III

THE OLD CORNER HOUSE

"Now," said Tess, with her most serious air, "shall we take everything in our playhouse, Dot, or shall we take only the best things?"

"Oh-oo-ee!" sighed Dot. "It's so hard to 'cide, Tess, just what _is_ the best. 'Course, I'm going to take my Alice-doll and all her things."

Tess pursed her lips. "That old cradle she used to sleep in when she was little, is dreadfully shabby. And one of the rockers is loose."

"Oh, but Tess!" cried the younger girl. "It was _hers_. You know, when she gets really growed up, she'll maybe want it for a keepsake. Maybe she'll want dollies of her own to rock in it."

Dot did not lack imagination. The Alice-doll was a very real personality to the smallest Kenway girl.

Dot lived in two worlds-the regular, work-a-day world in which she went to school and did her small tasks about the flat; and a much larger, more beautiful world, in which the Alice-doll and kindred toys had an actual existence.

"And all the clothes she's outgrown-and shoes-and everything?"

demanded Tess. Then, with a sigh: "Well, it will be an awful litter, and Ruth says the trunks are just squeezed full right now!"

The Kenways were packing up for removal to Milton. Mr. Howbridge had arranged everything with Ruth, as soon as he had explained the change of fortune that had come to the four sisters.

None of them really understood what the change meant-not even Ruth.

They had always been used-ever since they could remember-to what Aggie called "tight squeezing." Mr. Howbridge had placed fifty dollars in Ruth's hand before he went away, and had taken a receipt for it.

None of the Kenways had ever before even _seen_ so much money at one time.

They were to abandon most of their poor possessions right here in the flat, for their great uncle's old house was crowded with furniture which, although not modern, was much better than any of theirs. Aunt Sarah was going to take her special rocker. She insisted upon that.

"I won't be beholden to Peter for even a chair to sit in!" she had said, grimly, and that was all the further comment she made upon the astounding statement of the lawyer, that the eccentric old bachelor had not seen fit to will all his property to her!

There was a bit of uncertainty and mystery about the will of Uncle Peter, and about their right to take over his possessions. Mr.

Howbridge had explained that fully to Ruth.

There was no doubt in his mind but that the will he had drawn for Uncle Peter was still in existence, and that the old gentleman had made no subsequent disposal of his property to contradict the terms of the will the lawyer remembered.

There were no other known heirs but the four Kenway sisters. Therefore the Probate Court had agreed that the lawyer should enter into possession of the property on behalf of Ruth and her sisters.

As long as the will was not found, and admitted to probate, and its terms clearly established in law, there was doubt and uncertainty connected with the girls' wonderful fortune. Some unexpected claimant might appear to demand a share of the property. It was, in fact, now allowed by the Court, that Mr. Howbridge and the heirs-at-law should occupy the deceased's home and administer the estate, being answerable to the probate judge for all that was done.

To the minds of Tess and Dot, all this meant little. Indeed, even the two older girls did not much understand the complications. What Aunt Sarah understood she managed, as usual, to successfully hide within herself.

There was to be a wonderful change in their affairs-that was the main thing that impressed the minds of the four sisters. Dot had been the first to express it concretely, when she suggested they might treat themselves on Sat.u.r.days to something beside the usual five cents'

worth of peppermint drops.

"I expect," said Tess, "that we won't really know how to live, Dot, in so big a house. Just think! there's three stories and an attic!"

"Just as if we were living in this very tenement all, all alone!"

breathed Dot, with awe.

"Only much better-and bigger-and nicer," said Tess, eagerly. "Ruth remembers going there once with mother. Uncle Peter was sick. She didn't go up stairs, but stayed down with a big colored man-Uncle Rufus. She 'members all about it. The room she stayed in was as big as all these in our flat, put together."

This was too wonderful for Dot to really understand. But if Ruth said it, it must be so. She finally sighed again, and said:

"I-I guess I'll be 'fraid in such rooms. And we'll get lost in the house, if it's so big."

"No. Of course, we won't live all over the house. Maybe we'll live days on the first floor, and sleep in bedrooms on the second floor, and never go up stairs on the other floors at all."

"Oh, well!" said Dot, gaining sudden courage-and curiosity. "I guess I'd want to see what's on them, just the same."

There were people in the big tenement house quite as poor as the Kenways themselves. Among these poor families Ruth distributed the girls' possessions that they did not wish to take to Milton. Tommy Rooney's mother was thankful for a bed and some dishes, and the kitchen table. She gave Tommy a decisive thras.h.i.+ng, when she caught him jumping out of the dark at Dot on the very last day but one, before the Kenways left Ess.e.x Street for their new home.

Master Tommy was sore in spirit and in body when he met Tess and Dot on the sidewalk, later. There were tear-smears on his cheeks, but his eyes began to snap as usual, when he saw the girls.

"I don't care," he said. "I'm goin' to run away from here, anyway, before long. Just as soon as I get enough food saved up, and can swap my alleys and chaneys with Billy Drake for his air-rifle."

"Why, Tommy Rooney!" exclaimed Tess. "Where are you going to run to?"

"I-I--Well, that don't matter! I'll find some place. What sort of a place is this you girls are going to? Is it 'way out west? If it is, and there's plenty of Injuns to fight with, and scalp, mebbe I'll come there with you."

Tess was against this instantly. "I don't know about the Indians," she said; "but I thought you wanted to be an Indian yourself? You have an Indian suit."

"Aw, I know," said Master Tommy. "That's Mom's fault. I told her I wanted to be a cowboy, but she saw them Injun outfits at a bargain and she got one instead. I never did want to be an Injun, for when you play with the other fellers, the cowboys always have to win the battles. Best we Injuns can do is to burn a cowboy at the stake, once in a while-like they do in the movin' pitchers."

"Well, I'm sure there are not any Indians at Milton," said Tess. "You can't come there, Tommy. And, anyway, your mother would only bring you back and whip you again."

"She'd have to catch me first!" crowed the imp of mischief, who forgot very quickly the smarts of punishment. "Once I get armed and provisioned (I got more'n a loaf of bread and a whole tin of sardines hid away in a place I won't tell you where!), I'll start off and Mom won't never find me-no, sir-ree, sir!"