Part 7 (1/2)
”Maybe we'll run across Sammy,” suggested Dot, sitting sedately with her ever-present Alice-doll. ”Then we can tell his mother where he is being a pirate. She won't be so extracted then.”
Tess overlooked this misp.r.o.nunciation, knowing it was useless to object, and turned the subject by saying:
”Or maybe we'll see those Gypsies.”
”Oh, I hope not!” cried the smaller girl. ”I hope we'll never see those Gypsy women again.”
For just at this time the Alice-doll was wearing the fretted silver bracelet for a girdle.
CHAPTER VI--THE GYPSY'S WORDS
That very forenoon after the two smallest girls had set out on their drive with Scalawag a telegram came to the old Corner House for Ruth.
As Agnes said, a telegram was ”an event in their young sweet lives.” And this one did seem of great importance to Ruth. It was from Cecile Shepard and read:
”Arrived Oakhurst. They will not let me see Luke.”
Aside from the natural shock that the telegram itself furnished, Cecile's declaration that she was not allowed to see her brother was bound to make Ruth Kenway fear the worst.
”Oh!” she cried, ”he must be very badly hurt indeed. It is much worse than Cecile thought when she wrote. Oh, Agnes! what shall I do?”
”Telegraph her for particulars,” suggested Agnes, quite practically. ”A broken wrist can't be such an awful thing, Ruthie.”
”But his back! Suppose he has seriously hurt his back?”
”Goodness me! That would be awful, of course. He might grow a hump like poor Fred Littleburg. But I don't believe that anything like that has happened to Luke, Ruthie.”
Her sister was not to be easily comforted. ”Think! There must be something very serious the matter or they would not keep his own sister from seeing him.” Ruth herself had had no word from Luke since the accident.
Neither of the sisters knew that Cecile Shepard had never had occasion to send a telegram before and had never received one in all her life.
But she learned that a message of ten words could be sent for thirty-two cents to Milton, so she had divided what she wished to say in two equal parts! The second half of her message, however, because of the mistake of the filing clerk at the telegraph office in Oakhurst, did not arrive at the Corner House for several hours after the first half of the message.
Ruth Kenway meanwhile grew almost frantic as she considered the possible misfortune that might have overtaken Luke Shepard. She grew quite as ”extracted”--to quote Dot--as Mrs. Pinkney was about the absence of Sammy.
”Well,” Agnes finally declared, ”if I felt as you do about it I would not wait to hear from Mr. Howbridge. I'd start right now. Here's the time table. I've looked up the trains. There is one at ten minutes to one--twelve-fifty. I'll call Neale and he'll drive you down to the station. You might have gone with the children if that telegram had come earlier.”
Agnes was not only practical, she was helpful on this occasion. She packed Ruth's bag--and managed to get into it a more sensible variety of articles than Sammy Pinkey had carried in his!
”Now, don't be worried about _us_,” said Agnes, when Ruth, dressed for departure, began to speak with anxiety about domestic affairs, including the continued absence of the little girls. ”Haven't we got Mrs.
McCall--and Linda? You _do_ take your duties so seriously, Ruth Kenway.”
”Do you think so?” rejoined Ruth, smiling rather wanly at the flyaway sister. ”If anything should happen while I am gone--”
”Nothing will happen that wouldn't happen anyway, whether you are at home or not,” declared the positive Agnes.
Ruth made ready to go in such a hurry that n.o.body else in the Corner House save Agnes herself realized that the older sister was going until the moment that Neale O'Neil drove around to the front gate with the car. Then Ruth ran into Aunt Sarah's room to kiss her good-bye. But Aunt Sarah had always lived a life apart from the general existence of the Corner House family and paid little attention to what her nieces did save to criticise. Mrs. McCall was busy this day preserving--”up tae ma eyen in wark, ma la.s.sie”--and Ruth kissed her, called good-bye to Linda, and ran to the front door before any of the three actually realized what was afoot.