“You shall go sliding tomorrow if the snow holds off,” Ruth promised.
“Why not this afternoon, Ruthie?” begged Tess.
“Sister’s got something else to do this afternoon. Wait until tomorrow,” the oldest Kenway replied.
“It’s snowing already,” muttered Sammy disconsolately.
There were a few flakes in the air. But it did not look as though any heavy fall had begun.
“I don’t see why we need to have you go with us to slide,” Tess said, pouting. “We go sliding without you in Milton.”
“This is different, Tess,” Ruth said firmly. “Now, let us hear no more about it! You will annoy Mr. Howbridge.”
Sammy winked slyly at the two little girls. “Just you wait!” he mouthed so that only Tess and Dot heard him.
“Oh, Sammy!” murmured Dot. “What’ll you do?”
“Just you wait!” repeated the boy, and that mysterious statement comforted Dot a good deal, if it did not Tess Kenway. Dot believed that Sammy was fertile in expedient. She had run away with him once “to be pirates.”