Part 29 (2/2)
”They was in the yard, mum, the last I see of them.”
”That girl!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the housekeeper angrily. ”She neglects everything. If there's harm happened to those bairns--”
She rushed to the porch. Uncle Rufus was coming slowly up from the garden, hoe and rake over his shoulder. It was evident that the old colored man had been working steadily, and for some time, among the vegetables.
”Oh, Uncle Rufus!” cried the excited woman.
”Ya-as'm! Ya-as'm! I's a-comin',” said the old man rather querulously.
”Step here a minute,” said Mrs. McCall.
”I's a-steppin', Ma'am,” grumbled the other. ”Does seem as though dey wants me for fust one t'ing an' den anudder. I don't no more'n git t'roo one ch.o.r.e den sumpin' else hops right out at me. Lawsy me!” and he mopped his bald brown brow with a big bandanna.
”I only want to ask you something,” said the housekeeper, less raspingly. ”Are the little ones down there? Have you seen them?”
”Them chillun? No'm. I ain't seen 'em fo' some time. They was playin'
up this-a-way den.”
”How long ago?”
”I done reckon it was nigh two hours ago.”
”Hunt for them, Agnes!” gasped the housekeeper. ”I fear me something bad has happened. You, Linda,” for the Finnish girl now appeared, ”run to the neighbors--all of them! See if you can find those bairns.”
”Tess and Dottie, mum?” cried the Finnish girl, already in tears. ”Oh!
they ain't losted are they?”
”For all _you_ know they are!” declared Mrs. McCall. ”Look around the house for them, Uncle Rufus. I will look inside--”
”They may be upstairs with Aunt Sarah,” cried Agnes, getting her breath at last.
”I'll know that in a moment!” declared Mrs. McCall, and darted within.
Agnes ran in the other direction. She felt such a lump in her throat that she could scarcely speak or breathe. The possibility of something having happened to the little girls--and with Ruth away!--cost the second Corner House girl every last bit of her self-control.
”Oh, Neale! Neale!” she murmured over and over again, as she ran to the lower end of the premises.
She fairly threw herself at the fence and scrambled to her usual perch. There he was cleaning Mr. Con Murphy's yard.
”Neale!” she gasped. At first he did not hear her, but she drubbed upon the fence with the toes of her shoes. ”Neale!”
”Why, hullo, Aggie!” exclaimed the boy, turning around and seeing her.
”Oh, Neale! Come here!”
He was already coming closer. He saw that again she was much overwrought.
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