“Tom Jonah.”
“Thet’s enough to sink him,” said the man with a grin. “How’d ye come ter call him that?”
“It’s his name,” said Ruth. “It was engraved on his collar when he came to our house in Milton.”
“Oh! then he ain’t allus been your dawg, shipmet?” demanded the man.
“No. He came to us. We don’t know where from. But he is a gentleman, and he is going to stay with us as long as he will.”
The clam man blinked, and said nothing more. But he cast more than one glance at Tom Jonah before he went away.
The preparations made for the birthday party included the purchase of a good many pounds of first quality frankfurters. And when they were delivered to the Corner House girls’ tent, the fun began.
Tess and Dot were sent away for the morning to play with some of the children at Enterprise Camp. Then Ruth and Agnes and Rosa and Neale set to work to make frankfurters into the very funniest looking things that you could imagine!
With bits of tinsel and colored paper and pins and other small wares, the young folks set to work. They made frankfurters look like caricatures of all kinds of beasts and birds, and insects as well. One was the body of a huge, gaily-winged butterfly. Another was striped and horned like a worm of ferocious aspect.
They were made into fishes, with tails and fins. Neale made a nest with several “young” frankfurters poking their heads out for food, while the mother frankfurter was just poised upon the edge of the nest, her wings spread to balance her.