The Corner House Girls at School | Page 2

out of the house
again until Sam came home after school and shut Billy up. Holly says
Billy Bumps camped right outside the front door and kept the minister

a prisoner."
The older girls were convulsed with laughter at this tale, but Ruth
repeated: "We might as well go and see him. If he is very savage----"
"Oh, he isn't!" cried Tess and Dot together. "He's just as tame!"
The four sisters started for the yard, but in the big kitchen Mrs.
MacCall stopped them. Mrs. MacCall was housekeeper and she
mothered the orphaned Kenway girls and seemed much nearer to them
than Aunt Sarah Maltby, who sat most of her time in the big front room
upstairs, seldom speaking to her nieces.
Mrs. MacCall was buxom, gray-haired--and every hair was martialed
just so, and all imprisoned in a cap when the good lady was cooking.
She was looking out of one of the rear windows when the girls trooped
through.
"For the land sakes!" ejaculated Mrs. MacCall. "What's that goat doing
in our yard?"
"It's our goat," explained Tess.
"What?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Dot, seriously. "He's a very nice goat. He has a real
noble beard--don't you think?"
"A goat!" repeated Mrs. MacCall. "What next? A goat is the very last
thing I could ever find a use for in this world. But I s'pose the Creator
knew what He was about when He made them."
"I think they're lots of fun," said roly-poly Agnes, giggling again.
"Fun! Ah! what's that he's eatin' this very minute?" screamed Mrs.
MacCall, and she started for the door.
She led the way to the porch, and immediately plunged down the steps
into the yard. "My stocking!" she shrieked. "The very best pair I own.

Oh, dear! Didn't I say a goat was a perfectly useless thing?"
It was a fact that a limp bit of black rag hung out of the side of Billy
Bumps' mouth. A row of stockings hung on a line stretched from the
corner of the woodshed and the goat had managed to reach the first in
the row.
"Give it up, you beast!" exclaimed Mrs. MacCall, and grabbed the toe
of the stocking just as it was about to disappear.
She yanked and Billy disgorged the hose. He had chewed it to pulp,
evidently liking the taste of the dye. Mrs. MacCall threw the thing from
her savagely and Billy lowered his head, stamped his feet, and
threatened her with his horns.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mrs. MacCall!" cried Ruth, soothingly.
"That won't bring back my stocking," declared the housekeeper. "Half a
pair of stockings--humph! that's no good to anybody, unless it's a
person with a wooden leg."
"I'll get you a new pair, Mrs. MacCall," said Tess. "Of course, I'm sort
of responsible for Billy, for he was given to me."
"You'll be bankrupt, I'm afraid, Tess," chuckled Agnes, "if you try to
make good for all the damage a goat can do."
"But it won't cost much to keep him," said Tess, eagerly. "You know,
they live on tin cans, and scraps, and thistles, and all sorts of cheap
things."
"Those stockings weren't cheap," declared the housekeeper as she took
her departure. "They cost seventy-five cents."
"Half your month's allowance, Tess," Dot reminded her, with awe. "Oh,
dear, me! Maybe Billy Bumps will be expensive, after all."
"Say! Ruth hasn't said you can keep him yet," said Agnes. "He looks
dangerous to me. He has a bad eye."

"Why! he's just as kind!" cried Tess, and immediately walked up to the
old goat. At once Billy stopped shaking his head, looked up, and
bleated softly. He was evidently assured of the quality of Tess
Kenway's kindness.
"He likes me," declared Tess, with conviction.
"Glo-ree!" ejaculated a deep and unctuous voice, on the heels of Tess'
declaration. "Wha's all dis erbout--heh! Glo-ree! Who done let dat goat
intuh disher yard? Ain' dat Sam Pinkney's ol' Billy?"
A white-haired, broadly smiling old negro, stooped and a bit lame with
rheumatism, but otherwise spry, came from the rear premises of the old
Corner House, and stopped to roll his eyes, first glancing at the children
and then at the goat.
"Whuffor all disher combobberation? Missee Ruth! Sho' ain' gwine tuh
take dat ole goat tuh boa'd, is yo'?"
"I don't know what to do, Uncle Rufus," declared Ruth Kenway,
laughing, yet somewhat disturbed in her mind. She was a dark,
straight-haired girl, with fine eyes and a very intelligent face. She was
not pretty like Agnes; yet she was a very attractive girl.
"Oh! we want to keep him!" wailed Dot. She, too, boldly approached
Billy Bumps. It seemed as though the goat knew both the smaller
Kenway girls, for he did not offer to draw away from them.
"I 'spect