CHAPTER IV
AN AUTO RIDE
Mr. Howbridge had been making an address to Ruth's assembled girl chumswhen the interruption came. He had been telling them just how to goabout it to organize the kind of society Ruth had in mind. In spite ofher half refusal to attend the session, Agnes had decided to be present,and she was sitting near the door when Uncle Rufus made his statementabout the two smallest Kenways being "cotched."
"But how can they be in an elevator?" demanded Agnes. "We haven't anelevator on the place--there hardly is one in Milton."
"I don't know no mo' 'bout it dan jest dat!" declared the old coloredman. "Sammy he done say dey is cotched in de elevator an'--"
"Oh, Sammy!" cried Agnes. "If Sammy has anything to do with it you mightknow--"
She was interrupted by a further series of cries, unmistakably comingfrom Tess and Dot, and, mingled with their shouts of alarm, was thevoice of Mrs. MacCall saying:
"Come along, Ruth! Oh, Agnes! Oh, the poor bairns! Oh, the wee ones!"and then she lapsed into her broadest Scotch so that none who heardunderstood.
"Something must have happened!" declared Ruth.
"It is very evident," added Agnes, and the two sisters hurried out,brushing past Uncle Rufus in the hall.
"Can't we do something?" asked Lucy Poole, one of the guests.
"Yes, we must help," added Grace Watson.
"I think perhaps it will be best if you remain here," said Mr.Howbridge. "I don't imagine anything very much out of the ordinary hashappened, from what I know of the family," he said with a smile. "I'llgo and see, and if any more help is needed I shall let you young ladiesknow. Unless it is, the fewer on the scene the better, perhaps."
"Especially if any one is hurt," murmured Clo Baker. "I never couldstand the sight of a child hurt."
"They don't seem to have lost their voices, at any rate," remarked Lucy."Listen:"
As Mr. Howbridge followed Agnes and Ruth from the room, there was borneto the ears of the assembled guests a cry of:
"Let me down! Do you hear, Sammy Pinkney! Let me down!"
And a voice, undoubtedly that of the Sammy in question, answered:
"I'm not doing anything! I can't get you down! It's Billy Bumps. He didit!"
"Two boys in mischief," murmured Lucy.
"No, Billy is a goat, so I understand," said Clo. "I hope he hasn'tbutted one of the children down the cistern."
And while the guests were vainly wondering what had happened, Ruth,Agnes and Mr. Howbridge saw suspended in a large clothes basket, whichwas attached to a rope that ran over the high limb of a great oak treein the back yard, Tess and Dot. They were in the clothes basket, Dotwith her Alice-doll clasped in her hands; and both girls were lookingover the side of the hamper.
Attached to the ground end of the rope, where it was run through apulley block, was a large goat, now contentedly chewing grass, and nearthe animal, with a startled look on his face, was a small boy, who, whenhe felt like it, answered to the name Sammy Pinkney.
"Get us down! Get us down!" cried Dot and Tess in a chorus, while Mrs.MacCall stood beneath them holding out her apron as if the two littlegirls were ripe apples ready to fall.
"How did you get up there?" demanded Ruth, her face paling as she sawthe danger of her little sisters, for Tess and Dot were too high up forsafety.
"Get us down!" cried Dot and Tess in a chorus, whileMrs. MacCall stood beneath them holding out her apron.]
"Sammy elevatored us up," explained Dot.
"Well, you wanted to go!" replied the small boy in self justification.
The goat kept on eating grass, of which there was an ample supply in theyard of the Corner House.
"What shall we do?" cried Agnes.
"Run into the house and get a strong blanket or quilt," advised Mr.Howbridge quickly, but in a quiet, insistent voice which seemed to calmthe excitement of every one. "Bring the blanket here. We will hold itbeneath the basket like a fire net, though I do not believe there is anyimmediate danger of the children falling. The rope seems to be firmlycaught in the pulley block."
His quick eye had taken in this detail of the "elevator." The ropereally had jammed in the block, and, as long as it held, the basketcould not descend suddenly. Even if the rope should be unexpectedlyloosened, there would still be the weight of the attached goat to act asa drag on the end of the cable, thus counterbalancing, in a measure, theweight of the girls in the clothes basket.
"But I don't want to take any chances," explained the lawyer. "We'lltake hold and extend the blanket under them, in case they should fall."
"I have my apron ready now!" cried Mrs. MacCall. "Oh, the puir bairns!What ever possit it ye twa gang an' reesk their lives this way, yetapetless one?" she cried to Sammy angrily, suddenly, in her excitement,using the broadest of Scotch.
"Well, they wanted to ride in an elevator, an' I--I made one," hedeclared.
And that is just what he had done. Whether it was his idea or that ofTess and Dot did not then develop. What Sammy had done was to take thelargest clothes basket, getting it unobserved when Mrs. MacCall andLinda were busy over Ruth's party. He had fastened the basket to a longrope, which had been thrown over the high limb of the oak tree. ThenSammy had passed the rope through a pulley block, obtained no one knewwhere, and had hitched to the cable the goat, Billy Bumps.
By walking away from the tree Billy had pulled on the rope. Thestraightaway pull was transformed, by virtue of the pulley, into anupward motion, and the basket ascended. It had formed the "elevator" towhich Uncle Rufus alluded.
And, really, it did elevate Dot and Tess. They had been pulled up andhad descended as Sammy made the goat back, thus releasing the pull onthe rope. All had gone well for several trips until the rope jammed inthe pulley, thus leaving the two girls suspended in the basket at thehighest point. Their screams, the fright of Sammy, the alarms of UncleRufus and Mrs. MacCall had followed in quick succession.
"Here's the blanket!" cried Agnes speeding to the scene with a largewoolen square under her arm. "Have they fallen yet?"
Behind her came stringing the guests. It had been impossible for them toremain in the library with their minds on civic betterment ideas whenthey heard what had happened.
"Well, did you ever!" cried one of the number in astonishment.
"What can it mean?" burst out a second.
"Looks to me like an amateur circus," giggled a third. She was alighthearted girl and had not taken much of an interest in the ratherdry meeting.
"Those children will be hurt," cried a nervous lady. "Oh, dear, why didthey let them do such an awful thing as that?"
"I think they did it on their own account," said another lady. "OurTommy is just like that--into mischief the minute your back is turned."
"I'm glad they came!" said Mr. Howbridge. "They may all take hold of theedges of the blanket and extend it as firemen do the life net. You maystand aside now, Mrs. MacCall, if you will," he told the Scotchhousekeeper, and not until then did she lower her apron and move outfrom under the swaying basket, murmuring as she did so something aboutSammy being a "tapetless gowk" who needed a "crummock" or a good"flyte," by which the girls understood that the boy in question was asenseless dolt who needed a severe whipping or a good scolding.
Ruth, Agnes and the guests took hold of the heavy blanket and held itunder the basket as directed by Mr. Howbridge. Then, seeing there wouldbe little danger to the children in case the basket should suddenlyfall, the lawyer directed Sammy to loosen the goat from the rope.
"He'll run if I do," objected Sammy.
"Let him run, you ninnie!" cried Mrs. MacCall. "An' if ever ye fetchethim yon again I'll--I'll--"
But she could not call up a sufficiently severe punishment, and had tosubside.
Meanwhile the mischievous boy had led Billy Bumps off to one side, bythe simple process of loosening the rope from the wagon harness to whichit was fastened. Mr. Howbridge then took a firm hold of the cable and,after loosening it from where it had jammed in
the pulley block, hebraced his feet in the earth, against the downward pull of the basket,and so gently lowered Tess and Dot to the ground.
"I'm never going to play with you again, Sammy Pinkney!" cried Tess,climbing out of the basket and shaking her finger at the boy.
"Nor me, either!" added Dot, smoothing out the rumpled dress of herAlice-doll.
"Well, you asked me to make some fun and I did," Sammy defended himself.
"Yes, and you made a lot of excitement, too," added Ruth. "You hadbetter come into the house now, children," she went on. "And, Sammy,please take Billy away."
"Yes'm," he murmured. "But they asked me to elevator 'em up, an' I did!"
"To which I shall bear witness," said Mr. Howbridge, laughing.
Mrs. MacCall "shooed" Tess and Dot into the house, murmuring her thanksto providence over the escape, and, after a while, the excitement diedaway and Ruth went on with her meeting.
The Civic Betterment League was formed that afternoon and eventually,perhaps, did some good. But what this story is to concern itself with isthe adventure on a houseboat of the Corner House girls. Meanwhile abouta week went by. There had been no more elevator episodes, though thisdoes not mean that Sammy did not make mischief, nor that Tess and Dotkept out of it. Far from that.
One bright afternoon, when school was out and the pre-supper appetitesof Dot and Tess had been appeased, the two came running into the roomwhere Ruth and Agnes sat.
"He's here! He's come!" gasped Tess.
"And he's got, oh, such a dandy!" echoed Dot.
"Who's here, and what has he?" asked Agnes, flying out of her chair.
"You shouldn't say anything is a 'dandy,'" corrected Ruth to heryoungest sister.
"Well it is, and you told me always to tell the truth," was the retort.
"It's Mr. Howbridge and he's out in front with a--the--er thebeautifulest automobile!" cried Tess. "It's all shiny an' it's gotwheels, an'--an' everything! It's newer than our car."
Ruth was sufficiently interested in this news to look from the window.
"It _is_ Mr. Howbridge," she murmured, as though there had been doubtson that point.
"And he must have a new auto," added Agnes. "Oh, he has!" she cried.
A moment later they were welcoming their guardian at the door, while thesmaller children formed an eager and anxious background.
"What has happened?" asked Agnes, while Ruth, remembering her positionas head of the family, asked:
"Won't you come in?"
"I'd much rather you would come out, Miss Ruth," the man responded. "Itis just the sort of day to be out--not in."
"Especially in such a car as that!" exclaimed Agnes. "It's a--"
"Be careful," murmured Ruth, with an admonishing glance from Agnes tothe smaller girls. "Little pitchers, you know--"
"It's a wonderful car!" went on Agnes. "Is it yours?"
"Well, I sometimes doubt a little, when I recall what it cost me," herguardian answered with a laugh. "But I am supposed to be the owner, andI have come to take you for a ride."
"Oh, can't we go?" came in a chorus from Tess and Dot.
"Yes, all of you!" laughed Mr. Howbridge. "That's why I waited untilschool was out. They may come, may they not, Miss Ruth?" he asked.Always he was thus deferential to her when a question of family policycame up.
"Yes, I think so," was the low-voiced answer. "But we planned to have anearly tea and--"
"Oh, I promise to get you back home in plenty of time," the lawyer said,with a laugh. "And after that, if you like, we might take another ride."
"How wonderful!" murmured Agnes.
"Won't you stay to tea?" asked Ruth.
"I was waiting for that!" exclaimed Mr. Howbridge. "I shall bedelighted. Now then, youngsters, run out and hop in, but don't touchanything, or you may be in a worse predicament than when you were in theclothes basket elevator."
"We won't!" cried Tess and Dot, running down the walk.
"You must come back and be washed!" cried Ruth. It was a standingorder--that, and the two little girls knew better than to disobey.
But first they inspected the new car, walking all around it, andbreathing in, with the odor of gasoline, the awed remarks of someneighboring children.
"That's part our car," Dot told these envious ones, as she and Tessstarted back toward the house. "We're going for a ride in it, and don'tyou dare touch anything on it or Mr. Howbridge'll be awful mad!"
"Um, oh, whut a lubly auto," murmured Alfredia Blossom, who had come onan errand to her grandfather, Uncle Rufus. "Dat's jest de beatenistestone I eber see!"
"Yes, it is nice," conceded Tess, proudly, airily and condescendingly.
A little later the two younger children and Agnes sat in the rear seat,while Ruth was beside Mr. Howbridge at the steering wheel. Then the bigcar purred off down the street, like a contented cat after a saucer ofwarm milk.
"It was very good of you to come and get us," said Ruth, when they werebowling along. "Almost the christening trip of the car, too, isn't it?"she asked.
"The very first trip I have made in it," was the answer. "I wanted itproperly christened, you see. There is a method in my madness, too. Ihave an object in view, Martha."
Sometimes he called Ruth this, fancifully, with the thought in mind thatshe was "cumbered with many cares."
Again he would apply to her the nickname of "Minerva," with itssuggestion of wisdom. And Ruth rather liked these fanciful appellations.
"You have an object?" she repeated.
"Yes," he answered. "As usual, I want your advice."
"As if it was really worth anything to you!" she countered.
"It will be in this case, I fancy," he went on with a smile. "I wantyour opinion about a canal boat."
The Corner House Girls on a Houseboat Page 4