“Well, crackers, then. You should always offer any person whom you are with, a share of your goodies.”
“Why, Ruthie!” exclaimed Dot. “You know very well Seneca Sprague wouldn’t have eaten any of those crackers.”
“Why not?” asked Ruth, still serious.
“Isn’t he a—a vegetablearian?” propounded Dot, quite warmly.
“A vegetarian—yes,” admitted the older sister.
“Well!” exclaimed Dot, in triumph, “he wouldn’t have eaten ’em then. They were animal crackers.”
Agnes made her preparations that evening for a visit she proposed to make the next day. After their work was done on Saturday the Corner House girls sometimes separated to follow different paths for the remainder of the holiday. This week Agnes was going to visit Mr. Bob Buckham and his invalid wife, who lived some distance from Milton, but not far off the interurban car line.
When she started about ten o’clock to go to the car, not only Tess and Dot, but Tom Jonah was ready to accompany her. The old dog was always glad to be in any expedition; but Agnes did not want him to follow the car and she told him to go back.
“Oh, don’t do that, sister,” begged Tess. “We’ll look out for Tom Jonah. You know he’ll mind us—Dot and me. We’ll bring him home from the corner.”
So he was allowed to pace sedately behind the trio to the corner of Ralph Avenue where Agnes purposed to take the car. This was not far down Main Street from the Parade Ground, and the children could easily find their way home again.