“No. If I do he’ll want it. See! he’s trying to grab your Alice-doll right now, Dot Kenway.”
“Oh! he can’t have her,” Dot gasped, in alarm. “Haven’t you an old dolly you can let him play with, Mabel?”
“He’s got one of his own—a black boy. As black as your Uncle Rufus. I’ll hunt around for it,” said the ungracious Mabel.
Afterward, when the little Kenways were on their way home, after bidding Mabel and Bubby good-bye, Dot confessed to her sister:
“I don’t so much like to go to see Mabel Creamer, after all. She’s always so scoldy.”
“I know,” agreed Tess. “And she’s real inquisitive, too. Did you hear her asking ’bout Neale?”
“I didn’t notice,” Dot said.
“Why, she says they saw Neale O’Neil going through our yard with a heavy traveling bag yesterday morning, and he went out our front gate. She asked where he was going.”
“But you don’t know where Neale has gone,” said Dot, complacently, “so she didn’t find out anything. And I’d like to know where he’s gone, too. There’s all his presents off the Christmas tree; and we can’t see them till he comes back, Ruthie says.”
More than Dot expressed a desire to see Neale at the old Corner House. Agnes had gone about all the morning openly wondering where Neale could have gone, and what he had gone for.