“Yes’m.”
“Who is it, and where is he—or she?”
“It’s a he.”
“Well, Sammy, why all this mysteriousness?” asked Luke, with a laugh, for there was a queer air not only about Sammy, but about the two little girls who stood just behind him.
“Who wants to see me, Sammy?” asked Ruth, encouragingly.
“It’s Hop Wong, the Chinaman!” blurted out the boy. “And he wants you to come down to the end of the garden!”
CHAPTER XII
A QUEER NOTE
Ruth started up from the porch where she had been sitting in some seclusion with Luke. In other secluded places Agnes and Neale were talking over matters that concerned them, and Hal and Nalbro were similarly engaged.
“Hold on! Where are you going?” asked Luke, as he put a detaining hand on Ruth’s arm.
“I’m going to see Hop Wong. Poor man, probably he’s in trouble. He does work for us sometimes, and at Christmas he brought me the loveliest, cutest little chest of tea—the best I ever drank. He has a quaint little laundry at the end of our street, and——”