The Corner House Girls at School | Page 5

window in her bathrobe and
slippers just at dawn, with the birds chirping their first chorus, and not
a soul about (so she supposed) to either see or help her in her sudden
predicament.
She really was in danger; there was no doubt of it. A scream for help
would not bring Ruth in time; and it was doubtful if her older sister
could do anything to help her.
"Oh--oh--OH!" gasped Agnes, in crescendo. "I--am--go--ing--to--fall!"
And on the instant--the very sweetest sound Agnes Kenway had ever
heard (she admitted this fact afterward)--a boy's voice ejaculated:
"No you're not! Hang on for one minute!"
The side gate clicked. Feet scurried across the lawn, and under her as
she glanced downward, Agnes saw a slim, white-faced youth appear.
He had white hair, too; he was a regular tow-head. He was dressed in a
shiny black suit that was at least two full sizes too small for him. The
trousers hitched above his shoe-tops and the sleeves of his jacket were
so short that they displayed at least four inches of wrist.
Agnes took in these points on the instant--before she could say another
word. The boy was a stranger to her; she had never seen him before.
But he went to work just as though he had been introduced! He flung
off his cap and stripped off the jacket, too, in a twinkling. It seemed to
Agnes as though he climbed up the tree and reached the limb she clung
to as quickly as any cat.
He flung up his legs, wound them about the butt of the limb like two
black snakes, and seized Agnes' wrists. "Swing free--I've got you!" he
commanded.

Agnes actually obeyed. There was something impelling in his voice;
but likewise she felt that there was sufficient strength in those hands
that grasped her wrists, to hold her.
Her feet slipped from the ledge and she shot down. The white-haired
boy swung out, too, but they did not fall as Agnes agonizingly expected,
after she had trusted herself to the unknown.
There was some little shock, but not much; their bodies swung clear of
the tree--he with his head down, and she with her slippered feet almost
touching the wet grass.
"All right?" demanded the white-head. "Let go!"
He dropped her. She stood upright, and unhurt, but swayed a little,
weakly. The next instant he was down and stood, breathing quickly,
before her.
"Why--why--why!" gasped Agnes. Just like that! "Why, you did that
just like a circus."
Oddly enough the white-haired boy scowled and a dusky color came
slowly into his naturally pale cheek.
"What do you say that for?" he asked, dropping his gaze, and picking
up his cap and jacket. "What do you mean--circus?"
"Why," said Agnes, breathlessly, "just like one of those acrobats that
fly over the heads of the people, and do all those curious things in the
air----Why! you know."
"How do I know?" demanded the boy, quite fiercely.
It became impressed upon Agnes' mind that the stranger was angry. She
did not know why, and she only felt gratitude--and curiosity--toward
him.
"Didn't you ever go to a circus?" she asked, slowly.

The boy hesitated. Then he said, bluntly: "No!" and Agnes knew it was
the truth, for he looked now unwaveringly into her eyes.
"My! you've missed a lot," she breathed. "So did we till this summer.
Then Mr. Howbridge took us to one of those that came to Milton."
"What circus was it you went to?" the boy asked, quickly.
"Aaron Wall's Magnificent Double Show," repeated Agnes, carefully.
"There was another came--Twomley & Sorter's Herculean Circus and
Menagerie; but we didn't see that one."
The boy listened as though he considered the answer of some
importance. At the end he sighed. "No; I never went to a circus," he
repeated.
"But you're just wonderful," Agnes declared. "I never saw a boy like
you."
"And I never saw a girl like you," returned the white-haired boy, and
his quick grin made him look suddenly friendly. "What did you crawl
out of that window for?"
"To get a peach."
"Did you get it?"
"No. It was just out of reach, after all. And then I leaned too far."
The boy was looking up quizzically at the high-hung fruit. "If you want
it awfully bad?" he suggested.
"There's more than one," said Agnes, giggling. "And you're welcome to
all you can pick."
"Do you mean it?" he shot in, at once casting cap and jacket on the
ground again.
"Yes. Help yourself. Only toss me down one."

"This isn't a joke, now?" the boy asked. "You've got a right to tell me to
take 'em?"
"Oh, mercy! Yes!" ejaculated Agnes. "Do you think I'd tell a story?"
"I don't know," he said, bluntly.
"Well! I like that!"