“Why! that’s so,” agreed Tess.
For once she was over-urged by Dot. Both girls pulled great sheafs of grass. They held it before them in the skirts of their pinafores, and started up the back stairs.
Mrs. McCall chanced to be in the pantry and did not see them. They would have reached the garret without Ruth or Agnes being the wiser had not Dot, laboring upward, dropped a wisp of grass in the second hall.
“What’s all this?” demanded Agnes, coming upon the scattered grass.
“What’s what?” asked Ruth, behind her.
“And on the stairs!” exclaimed Agnes again. “Why, it’s grass, Ruth.”
“Grass growing on the stairs?” demanded her older sister, wonderingly, and running to see.
“Of course not growing,” declared Agnes. “But who dropped it? Somebody has gone up——”
She started up the second flight, and Ruth after her. The trespassers were already on the garret flight. There was a tight door at the top of those stairs so no view could be obtained of the garret.
“Well, I declare!” exclaimed Agnes. “What are you doing up here?”