“My Lawd!” groaned Bob. “What won’t yo’ Northerners do nex’? Wash out er teapot!” and he grumblingly went forth to his team and drove away.
Ruth felt that her good intentions were misunderstood—to a degree. But Rosa thanked her very prettily for what she had done, and the next day she was able to come to school again.
It was only a few days later that Carrie Poole invited a number of the high school girls and boys—and some of the younger set—to the last dance of the season at her home. She lived in a huge old farmhouse, some distance out of town on the Buckshot road, and the Corner House girls and Neale O’Neil had spent several pleasant evenings there during the winter and spring.
The night before this party there was a big wind, and a part of one of the chimneys came down into the side yard during the night with a noise like thunder; so Ruth had to telephone for a mason before breakfast.
Had it not been for this happening, the Corner House girls—at least, Ruth and Agnes—and Neale O’Neil, would have escaped rather an embarrassing incident at the party.
Neale came over to supper the evening of the party, and he brought his pumps in a newspaper under his arm.
“Come on, girls, let’s have your dancing slippers,” he said to the two older Corner House girls, who were going to the dance. “I’ll put them with mine.”
And he did so—rolling the girls’ pretty slippers up in the same parcel with his own. He left the parcel in the kitchen. Later it was discovered that the mason’s helper had left a similarly wrapped parcel there, too.
When the three young folk started off, it was Agnes who ran back after the bundle of dancing slippers. Neale carried it under his arm, and they walked briskly out through the suburbs of Milton and on along the Buckshot road.
“Are you really going to Pleasant Cove this summer, Neale?” demanded Agnes, as they went on together.