“Ted, you’ll have to go!” exclaimed Janet.
“Me go? Look at me! All milk!” gasped Ted. “You go and see who it is!”
Once more the bell rang, this time longer than before.
“Ted, you’ve got to go!” exclaimed his sister.
“Aw, well, I’ll go,” replied Ted, not very eager. He took out his handkerchief and wiped off some of the milk that had splashed on him. Slowly he shuffled to the front door. As he opened it he started back in surprise.
Ted expected to see, perhaps, a peddler or an agent. He knew it could not be his mother, for she would either have let herself in with a key or have come to the back door. Any neighbor would also have come to the back entrance for an informal call. But this was a different visitor.
It was Mrs. Keller, the white-haired wife of Mr. Keller, the gentleman who had pulled Trouble from beneath the feet of the elephant.
“Oh!” gasped Ted, in surprise. Then again he said: “Oh!”
“How do you do, my dear?” asked Mrs. Keller, in her gentle voice. “I have come to pay a little visit to your mother. My husband and I are going to Sunset Beach rather sooner than we expected, and I wanted to see your mother again before we left. I want to give her my address at the seashore.”
By this time Teddy had begun to remember some of his manners, and he opened the door wider and murmured: