The Corner House Girls

by Grace Brooks Hill

  CHAPTER XXV

  LAYING THE GHOST

  Mr. Howbridge came by request to the Corner House the next morning.Ruth had slept all night with the papers found in the old secretaryunder her pillow.

  Mr. Howbridge came into the dining-room where the four Corner Housegirls were assembled, smiling and evidently in right good humor. "Iunderstand you have made a wonderful discovery, Miss Kenway?" he said.

  "It was Aunt Sarah," said Agnes, excitedly. "_She_ knew where thepapers were."

  "Indeed?" said the lawyer, interested.

  "We have found some of Uncle Peter's papers, that is sure," said Ruth."And among them is one that I think must be the will you spoke of."

  "Good! we shall hope it is the paper we have been looking for," saidMr. Howbridge, accepting the packet Ruth handed him. "And _I_ havemade a discovery, too."

  "What is that, sir?" asked Ruth, politely.

  "It refers to Mrs. Treble's claim to the estate of Mr. Peter Stower."

  "If little Lillie bears any relationship to Uncle Peter, she must haveher just share of the estate. We could agree to nothing else," Ruthhastened to say.

  "Oh, Ruth!" exclaimed Agnes.

  Mr. Howbridge adjusted his glasses and looked at Ruth quizzically."Miss Kenway," he said, "you are a remarkable girl. Lillie Treble isthe daughter of John Augustus Treble, without a doubt. _His_ motherwent west from Milton, years ago, as is claimed. But she was _not_Peter Stower's sister."

  "Oh, goody!" ejaculated Agnes, clapping her hands.

  "Who was she?" asked Ruth.

  Mr. Howbridge laughed softly. "She was the sister of a man named Peter_Stover_. The names are similar, but there is a difference of oneletter--and many other differences, it seems. Peter Stover was a poorman all his days. He was an 'odd job' man most of his life, workingabout the farms on the outskirts of Milton, until he grew infirm. Hedied last winter at the poorfarm.

  "Mrs. Bean, even, remembers the name right now. These Treblesevidently heard of the wealth of your Uncle Peter, and thought he was_their_ Uncle Peter. The names were so much alike, you see."

  "Then--then Mrs. Treble and Lillie have no claim upon Uncle Peter'sestate at all?" asked Ruth.

  "No more than the Man in the Moon," said Mr. Howbridge, still smiling.

  "And you know _he_ isn't any relation," whispered Tess, to Dot, withgreat importance.

  "The poor things!" Ruth sighed. "Whatever will they do?"

  "Why, Ruth Kenway!" exclaimed Agnes, in great excitement. "What areyou thinking of? I should think you had done enough for them."

  Ruth only looked at her, and went on talking to the lawyer. "You see,sir," she said, "they are quite penniless. I know, for Mrs. Treblebroke down and cried about it last night, when I read to her theprovisions of what I supposed to be Uncle Peter's will.

  "She spent the last money she had in getting here from Ypsilanti. Shehas thoroughly believed that Lillie was to come into the money. Now,what _can_ she do?"

  "Go back to Ypsilanti," put in Agnes, sharply.

  "I wonder if her relatives will take her in again if she goes back?"said Ruth slowly.

  "Ahem!" said Mr. Howbridge, clearing his throat. "I have been incorrespondence with a Mr. Noah Presley, her brother-in-law. He says hewas opposed to her coming east without knowing more of the situationhere and her own rights. Now he says she and Lillie may come back,if----wait! I will read you exactly what he says," and Mr. Howbridgedrew forth the letter in question. He cleared his throat again andread:

  "'Tell Emily she can come back here if she wants, providing she'llmind her own business and keep that dratted young one of hers fromturning the house upside down. I can't pay her fare to Ypsilanti, butI won't refuse her a home.'"

  "You can easily see what _he_ thinks of them," declared Agnes, grimly.

  "Do hush, dear," begged Ruth. "Then you will pay their fare back forthem, will you not, Mr. Howbridge?" pursued Ruth. "And we shall seethat they are comfortably clothed. I do not think they have _many_frocks."

  "You are really a very remarkable girl, Miss Kenway," said Mr.Howbridge again. That was the settlement of the Trebles' affairs. Twoweeks later the Corner House girls saw the Ypsilanti lady and hertroublesome little girl off on the train for the west.

  At this particular Monday morning conference, the lawyer made it clearto the Kenway girls that, now the will had been found, the matters ofthe estate would all be straightened out. Unless they objected, hewould be appointed guardian as well as administrator of the estate.There was plenty of cash in the bank, and they were warranted inliving upon a somewhat better scale than they had been living sincecoming to the old Corner House.

  Besides, Ruth, as well as the other girls, was to go to school in theautumn, and she looked forward to this change with delight. What sheand her sisters did at school, the new friends they made, and how theybound old friends to them with closer ties, will be set forth inanother volume, to be called "The Corner House Girls at School."

  A great many things happened to them before schooldays came around. AsTess declared:

  "I never did see such a busy time in this family--did you, Dot? Seemsto me we don't have time to turn around, before something newhappens!"

  "Well, I'm glad things happen," quoth Dot, gravely. "Suppose nothingever _did_ happen to us? We just might as well be asleep all thetime."

  First of all, with the mystery of Uncle Peter's will cleared away, andthe status of Mrs. Treble and Lillie decided, Ruth went at the mysterywhich had frightened them so in the garret. Even Agnes became braveenough on that particular Monday to go "ghost hunting."

  They clambered to the garret and examined the window at which theythought they had seen the flapping, jumping figure in the storm. Therewas positively nothing hanging near the window to suggest such aspectral form as the girls had seen from the parade ground.

  "And this is the window," said Ruth, thoughtfully. "To the right ofthe chimney----Oh! goodness me, what a foolish mistake!"

  "What's the matter now?" asked the nervous Agnes, who did not dareapproach very near the window.

  "Why, it wasn't this window at all," Ruth said. "Don't you see? It wasto the right of the chimney _from the outside_! So it is on the leftof the chimney up here. It is the other window."

  She marched around the big bulge of the chimney. Agnes held to hersleeve.

  "I don't care," she said, faintly. "It was a ghost just the same----"

  There was another window just like the one they had formerly lookedat. Only, above the window frame was a narrow shelf on which lay abig, torn, home-made kite--the cloth it was covered with yellowed withage, and the string still fastened to it. In cleaning the garret, thiskite had been so high up that none of them had lifted it down. Indeed,the string was fastened to a nail driven into a rafter, above.

  Even now there was a draught of air sucking in around the loose windowframe, and the kite rustled and wabbled on its perch. Ruth ran forwardand knocked it off the shelf.

  "Oh, oh!" shrieked Agnes.

  The kite dangled and jumped right before the window in such a mannerthat it must have looked positively weird from the outside. It wasmore than half as tall as a man and its crazy motions might well betaken for a human figure, from a distance.

  Suddenly the boisterous wind seized it again and jerked it back to itsperch on the shelf. There it lay quivering, until the next gust ofwind should make it perform its ghostly dance before the garretcasement.

  "Oh, isn't that great!" gasped Agnes. "And it must have been there foryears and years--ever since Uncle Peter was a boy, perhaps. Now! whatdo you suppose Eva Larry will say?"

  "And other people who have been afraid to come to the old CornerHouse?" laughed Ruth. "Oh, I know! we'll give a ghost party up here inthe garret."

  "Ruth!" screamed Agnes in delight. "That will be just scrumptious!"

  "We shall celebrate the laying of the ghost. No! don't touch it,Agnes. We'll show the girls when they come just what made all thetrouble."

  This the Corner
House girls did. They invited every girl they hadbecome acquainted with in Milton--little and big. Even AlfrediaBlossom came and helped Uncle Rufus and Petunia Blossom wait upon thetable.

  For the first time in years, the old Corner House resounded to thelaughter and conversation of a great company. There was music, too,and Ruth opened the parlors for the first time. They all danced inthose big rooms.

  Mr. Howbridge proved to be a very nice guardian indeed. He allowedRuth to do pretty much everything she wanted. But, then, Ruth Kenwaywas not a girl to desire anything that was not good and sensible.

  "It's dreadfully nice to feel _settled_," said Tess to Dot and MariaMaroni, and Margaret and Holly Pease, and the three Creamer girls, asthey all crowded into the summer house the afternoon of the ghostlaying party.

  "Now we _know_ we're going to stay here, so we can make plans for thefuture," pursued Tess.

  "Yes," observed Dot. "I'm going right to work to make my Alice-doll anew dress. She hasn't had anything fit to wear since that awful timeshe was buried alive."

  "Buried alive!" shrieked Mabel Creamer. "How was _that_?"

  "Yes. And they buried her with some dried apples," sighed Dot. "She'snever been the same since. You see, her eyes are bad. I ought to takeher to an eye and ear infernery, I s'pose; but maybe even the doctorsthere couldn't help her."

  "I don't think it's _infernery_, Dot," said Tess, slowly. "Thatdoesn't sound just right. It sounds more like a conservatory than ahospital."

  "Well, _hospital_, then!" exclaimed Dot. "And poor Alice! I don'tsuppose she ever _will_ get the color back into her cheeks."

  "Shouldn't think she would, if she's been buried alive," said Mabel,blankly.

  The two youngest Kenways had been very glad to see Lillie Treble goaway, but this was almost the only comment they ever made upon thatangel-faced child, before company. Tess and Dot _were_ polite!

  That was a lovely day, and the Corner House girls all enjoyed theparty immensely. Good Mrs. McCall was delighted, too. She had come tolove Ruth and Agnes and Tess and Dot, almost as though they were herown. Ruth had already engaged a strong girl to help about the kitchenwork, and the widow had a much easier time at the old Corner Housethan she had at first had.

  Aunt Sarah appeared at the party, when the dancing began, in a new capand with her knitting. She had subsided into her old self again,immediately after her discovery of Uncle Peter's secret panel in theold secretary in the garret. She talked no more than had been herwont, and her knitting needles clicked quite as sharply. Perhaps,however, she took a more kindly interest in the affairs of the CornerHouse girls.

  She was not alone in that. All the neighbors, and the churchpeople--indeed everybody in Milton who knew Ruth Kenway and hersisters at all--had a deep interest in the fortunes of the CornerHouse girls.

  "They are a town institution," said Mr. Howbridge. "There is nocharacter sweeter and finer than that of Ruth Kenway. Her sisters,too, in their several ways, are equally charming.

  "Ruth--Agnes--Tess--Dot! For an old bachelor like me, who has known nofamily--to secure the confidence and liking of such a quartette ofyoung folk, is a privilege I fully appreciate. I am proud of them!"

  THE END