Part 23 (2/2)
”So will I,” chimed in Beth.
”I'll be a big brother,” offered Rob.
”I'll be next friend, Ptolemy,” I contributed.
Strange to say, my offer seemed to make the most impression on him. He came to me and gazed into my eyes earnestly.
”I'll do just as you say,” he promised.
”Where do we'uns come in?” asked Pythagoras, with one of his satanic grins.
Miss Frayne saved the day.
”You all come in with me,” she said, ”and have lunch. I haven't eaten since breakfast, and I understand there is warm ginger cake and huckleberry pie. Aren't you hungry?”
”You bet,” spoke up Pythagoras. ”We only had coffee, peanuts, and beans down in the woods, and father ate the beans and drank all the coffee.”
”We're out of the frying pan into the fire,” said Silvia woefully, when we were alone.
”I wish the Polydore parents had gone up in smoke,” I declared.
”Then your last hope of getting rid of the children would have gone up in smoke, too,” argued Beth.
”No; in case of the demise of their parents, we could have turned them over body and soul to the probate court,” I informed her.
”We will fill out this blank check for any amount, Lucien,” declared Silvia, ”that will induce a housekeeper to take charge of their house.
I shall keep Diogenes, though, until he is older.”
”I wouldn't mind Ptolemy, either,” I admitted. ”I shall be interested in seeing what I can make of him, and he hasn't a bad influence over Diogenes, but I'll be hanged if anything would induce me to have 'Them Three' Chessy cats running wild over us. They can live in their house alone, or be put in a reformatory. We won't have them. We're under no obligations, pecuniary or moral, to look after them.”
”I think, Lucien, we might as well go home now. We've had a good rest and a good time, and I am anxious to be back and see how Huldah is getting on.”
As Huldah had never mastered two of the three R's, we had not been able to receive any reports from her.
”I'll tell you what we'll do,” proposed Beth. ”Rob and I will take all the Polydores save Diogenes, and go home tomorrow and prepare the house and Huldah for the overflow. Then you two can come on with Diogenes the next day.”
”Good idea, Beth!” I approved. ”I'd hate to face Huldah, unprepared, with the return of the Polydores _en ma.s.se_.”
”I am glad,” said Silvia, ”that Huldah has been having a rest from them for a few days.”
CHAPTER XVII
_All About Uncle Issachar's Visit_
The next morning's stage carried seven pa.s.sengers to Windy Creek, as Miss Frayne with a big roll of ”copy” also took her departure.
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