The Corner House Girls on a Houseboat

Delicious and appetizing odors filled the kitchen of the old Corner House. They were wafted even to the attic, were those whiffs and fragrant zephyrs. Some of them even escaped through the open windows, causing Uncle Rufus to cease his slow and laborious task of picking up some papers from the newly cut lawn.

"Dat suah smells mighty good-mighty good!" murmured the old darkey to himself, as he straightened up by the process of putting one hand to the small of his back and pressing there, as though a spring needed adjusting. "Dat suah smells mighty good! Mrs. Mac mus' suah be out-doin' of herse'f dish yeah mawnin'!"

He turned his wrinkled face toward the Corner House, again sniffing deeply.

A pleased and satisfied look came over his countenance as the cooking odors emanating from the kitchen became more pronounced.

"Dey's suah to be some left-dey suah is, 'cause hit's Miss Ruth's party, an' she's always gen'rus wif de eatin's. She suah is. Dey's suah to be some left."

He removed his hand from the small of his back, thereby allowing himself to fall forward again in the proper position for picking up papers, and went on with his work.

Inside the kitchen, where the odors were even more pronounced, as one might naturally expect to find them, two girls and a pleasant-faced woman were busy; though not more so than a fresh-appearing Finnish maid, who hummed an air full of minor strains as she opened the oven door now and then, thereby letting out more odors which were piled upon, mingled with, and otherwise added to those already bringing such a delicious sensation to Uncle Rufus.

"Aren't you planning too much, Ruth?" asked her sister Agnes, as the girl addressed carefully placed a wondrously white napkin over a plate of freshly baked macaroons. "I mean the girls will never eat all this," and she waved her hand to include a side table on which were many more plates, some empty, awaiting their burden from the oven, while others were covered with white linen like some mysterious receptacles under a stage magician's serviette.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" laughed Ruth. "My only worry is that I shall not have enough."

"Well, for the land's sake! how many do you expect?" demanded Agnes Kenway.

"Six. But there will be you and me and-"

"Then Mr. Howbridge is coming!" cried Agnes, as if there had been some question about it, though this was the first time his name had been mentioned that morning.

"He may come," answered Ruth quietly.

"He may! Oh my stars! As if you didn't know he was coming!" retorted Agnes. "Is it in-er-his official capacity?"

"I asked Mr. Howbridge to come to advise us about forming the society," Ruth said. "I thought it best to start right. If we are going to be of any use as a Civic Betterment Club in Milton we must be on a firm foundation, and-"

"Hear! Hear!" interrupted Agnes, banging on the table with an agate mixing spoon, and thereby bringing from a deep pantry the form and face of Mrs. MacCall, the sturdy Scotch housekeeper.

"Please don't do that!" begged Ruth.

"Hoots! Whut's meanin' wi' the rattlin' an' thumpin'?" demanded Mrs. MacCall.

"Oh, some nonsense of Agnes'," answered Ruth. "I was just telling her that I had asked the girls to luncheon, to talk over the new Civic Betterment Club, and that Mr. Howbridge is coming to advise us how to get a charter, or incorporate, or whatever is proper and-"

"I was only applauding after the fashion in the English Parliament," interrupted Agnes. "They always say 'Hear! Hear!' away down in their throats."

"Well, they don't bang on tables with granite spoons," retorted Ruth, as she handed a pie to Linda, the humming Finnish maid, who popped it into the oven, quickly shutting the door, to allow none of the heat to escape.

"Hoot! I would not put it past 'em, I would not!" murmured Mrs. MacCall. "What those English law makers do-I wouldna' put it past them!" and, shaking her head, she retired into the deep pantry again.

"Well, you're going to have enough of sweets, I should say;" observed Agnes, "even as fond as Mr. Howbridge is of them. For the land's sake, aren't you going to stop?" she demanded, as Ruth poured into a dish the cake batter she had begun to stir as soon as the pie was completed.

"This is the last. You don't need to stay and help me any longer if you don't want to, dear. Run out and play," urged Ruth sweetly.

"Run out and play! As if I were Dot or Tess! I like that! Why, I was thinking of asking you to let me join the society!"

"Oh, of course you may, Agnes! I didn't think you'd care for it. Why, certainly you may join! We want to get as many into it as we can. Do come to the meeting this afternoon. Mr. Howbridge is going to explain everything, and I thought we might as well make it a little social affair. It was very good of you to help me with the baking."

"Oh, I like that. And I believe I will come to the meeting. Now shall we clean up?"

"I do him," interposed Linda. "I wash him all up," and a sweep of her muscular arm indicated the pots, pans, dishes and all the odds and ends left from the rather wholesale baking.

"Oh, I shall be so glad if you will!" exclaimed Ruth. "I want to go over the parlor and library again. And I wonder what has become of Dot and Tess. I asked them to get me some wild flowers, but they have been gone over an hour and-"

The voice of Mrs. MacCall from the deep pantry interrupted.

"Hi, Tess! Hi, Dot!" she called. "Where ha' ye been? Come ye here the noo, and be for me waukrife minnie."

"What in the world does she mean?" asked Agnes, for sometimes, well versed as she was in the Scotch of the housekeeper, there were new words and phrases that needed translating. Especially as it seemed to the girls that more and more Mrs. MacCall was falling back into her childhood speech as she grew older-a speech she had dropped during her younger life except in moments of excitement.

This time, however, it was beyond even the "ken" of Ruth, who rather prided herself on her Highland knowledge. But Mrs. MacCall herself had heard the question. Out she came from the pantry, smiling broadly.

"Ye no ken 'waukrife minnie'?" she asked. "Ah, 'tis a pretty little verse o' Rabbie Burns. I'll call it o'er the noo."

Then she gave them, with all the burring of which her tongue was capable:

"Whare are you gaun, my bonnie lass,

Whare are you gaun, my hinnie?

She answered me right saucilie,

An errand for my minnie."

Coming down to earth again, Mrs. MacCall shot back into the pantry and from an open window in the rear that looked out in the orchard she called:

"Hi, Tess! Hi, Dot! Come ye here, and be for me the lassies that'll gang to the store."

"Are Tess and Dot there?" asked Ruth. "I've been wondering where they had disappeared to."

"They be coming the noo," answered Mrs. MacCall. "Laden in their arms wi' all sorts of the trash." And then she sang again:

"O fare thee well, my bonnie lass,

O fare thee well, my hinnie!

Thou art a gay an' a bonnie lass,

But thou has a waukrife minnie."

"What in the world is a 'waukrife minnie'?" asked Agnes, but there was no chance to answer, for in the kitchen, making it more busy than ever, trooped the two younger members of the Corner House girls quartette-Tess and Dot.

Their arms were filled with blossoms of the woods and fields, and without more ado they tossed them to a cleared place on the table, whence Linda had removed some of the pans and dishes.

"Oh, what a lovely lot of flowers!" cried Ruth. "It's just darling of you to get them for me. Now do you want to help me put them into vases in the library?"

Dot shook her head.

"Why not?" asked Ruth gently.

"I promised my Alice-doll to take her down by the brook, and I just have to do it," answered Dot. "And Tess is going to help me; aren't you, Tess?" she added.

"Yes," was the answer. "I'm going to take Almira."

"Then you must take her kittens, too!" insisted Dot. "She'll feel bad if you don't."

"I won't take 'em all-I'll take one kitten," compromised Tess. "There she is, now!" And Tess darted from the room to pounce on the cat, which did not seem to mind very much being mauled by the children.

"Will ye gang a'wa' to the store the noo?" asked Mrs. MacCall, with a warm smile as she came from the pantry. "There's muckle we need an'-"

"I'll go if you give me a cookie," promised Dot.

"So'll I," chimed in Tess, coming in on the tribute. "We can take Almira and your Alice-doll when we come back," she confided to her sister.

"Yes, I think they'll wait. I know Alice-doll will, but I'm not so sure about Almira," and Dot seemed rather in doubt. "She may take a notion to carry her kittens up in the bedroom-"

"Don't dare suggest such a thing!" cried Ruth.

"I'm to have company this afternoon, and if that cat and her kittens appear on the scene-"

"Oh, I wasn't going to carry them in!" interrupted Dot, with an air of injured innocence. "They're Almira's kittens, and she can do what she likes with them, I suppose," she added as an afterthought. "Only I know that every once in a while she takes a notion to plant them in a new place. Once Uncle Rufus found them in his rubber boots, and they scratched him like anything when he put his foot inside."

"Well, if you have to go to the store for Mrs. MacCall you won't have any time to help me arrange the flowers," observed Ruth, anxious to put an end to the discussion about the family cat and kittens, for she knew Dot had a fund of stories concerning them.

"Yes, traipse along now, my bonnie bairns," advised the Scotch housekeeper, and, bribed by two cookies each, a special good measure on Saturday, Dot and Tess were soon on their way, or at least it was so supposed.

Linda was helping Mrs. MacCall clear away the baking utensils, and Ruth and Agnes were in the parlor and library, tastefully arranging the wild flowers that Dot and Tess had gathered.

"Isn't Dot queer to cling still to her dolls?" remarked Agnes, as she stepped back to get the effect of a bunch of red flowers against a dark brown background in one corner of the room.

"Yes, she is a strange child. And poor Almira! Really I don't see how that cat stands it here, the way Tess and Dot maul her."

"They aren't as bad as Sammy Pinkney. Actually I caught him yesterday tying the poor creature to the back of Billy Bumps!"

"Not on the goat's back!" cried Ruth.

"Really, he was. I sent him flying, though!"

"What was his idea?"

"Oh, he said he'd heard Neale tell how, in a circus, a little dog rode on a pony's back and Sammy didn't see why a cat couldn't ride on a goat."

"Well, if he put it that way I suppose she could," assented Ruth. "But Almira seems to take herself very seriously with all those kittens. We really must get rid of them. Vacation will soon be here, and with Tess and Dot around the house all day, instead of just Saturdays, I don't know what we shall do."

"Have you made any vacation plans at all?"

"Not yet, Agnes. I thought I'd wait until I saw Mr. Howbridge at the club meeting this afternoon."

"What has he to do with our vacation-unless he's going along?"

"Oh, no, I didn't mean that, at all! But the financial question does enter into it; and as he is our guardian and has charge of our money, I want to know just how much we can count on spending."

"Why, have we lost any money?"

"Not that I know of. I hope not! But I always have consulted him before we made any summer plans, and I don't see why we should not now."

"Well, I suppose it's all right," assented Agnes, as she took up another bunch of flowers. "But I wonder-"

She never finished that sentence. From somewhere, inside or outside the house, a resounding crash sounded. It shook the walls and floors.

"Oh, my! what's that?" cried Ruth, dropping the blossoms from her hands and hastening to the hall.