"I feel sometimes as though I would like to beat him," answered Ruth.

"See if you can get Billy b.u.mps out to his proper quarters, Neale."

But that was not easy, and it took an hour's work and finally the tying of Billy b.u.mps "hand and foot" before the st.u.r.dy goat was overcome and returned to his pen.

By this time, however, the snow had stopped. Lunch was served in the big Corner House dining-room, Neale and Sammy being guests.

It was an hilarious meal, of course. With such a crowd of young folks about the table--and on Sat.u.r.day, too!--a sedate time was not possible. But Ruth tried to keep the younger ones from talking too loud or being too careless in their table manners.

Aunt Sarah Maltby, sitting at one end of the table, shook her head solemnly about midway of the meal at Sammy Pinkney.

"Young man," she said in her severest way, "what do you suppose will become of you? You are the most mischievous boy I have ever seen--and I have seen a good many in my time."

"Yes'm," said Sammy, hanging his head, for he was afraid of Aunt Sarah.

"You should think of the future," admonished the old lady. "There is something besides fun in this world."

"Yes'm," again came from the abashed, if not repentant, Sammy.

"Think what you might make of yourself, young man, if you desired. Do you realize that every boy born in this country has a chance to be president?"

"Huh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Sammy, suddenly looking up. "Be president, Miss Maltby? Huh! I tell you what: I'll sell you my chance for a quarter."

The irrepressible laugh from the other young folks that followed might have offended Aunt Sarah had not the front door bell rung at that very moment. Agnes, who was nearest, and much quicker than rheumatic Uncle Rufus, ran to answer the summons.

"Oh, Ruthie!" her clear voice instantly sounded as far as the dining-room, "here's Mr. Howbridge's man, and he's got a great big sleigh at the gate, and--Why, there's Mr. Howbridge himself!"

Not only the oldest Kenway ran to join her sister at the door, but all the other young folks trooped out. They forgot their plates at the announcement of the appearance of the girls' guardian.

"Did you e'er see such bairns before?" demanded the housekeeper of Aunt Sarah. "They have neither appet.i.te nor manners on a Sat.u.r.day!"

In the big front hall the girls and boys were delightedly greeting Mr.

Howbridge, while the coach-man plowed back to the gate through the snow to hold the frisky pair of bay horses harnessed to the big pung.

Bits of straw clung to the lawyer's clothing, and he was rosy and smiling.

"I did not know but what you would already be out, young folks," Mr.

Howbridge announced. "Although I had John harness up just as soon as the weather broke."

"Oh, Mr. Howbridge," Ruth said, remembering her "manners" after all, "won't you come in?"

"Won't you come out, Miss Ruth?" responded the man, laughing.

"Oh! _Oh!_ OH!" cried Tess, in crescendo, peering out of the open door. "That sleigh of Mr. Howbridge's is full of straw."

"A straw-ride!" gasped Agnes, clasping her hands. "Oh, Mr. Howbridge!

have you come to take us out?"

"Of course. All of you. The more the merrier," said their guardian, who was very fond indeed of his wards and their young friends, and missed no chance to give them pleasure.

At that statement there was a perfect rout while the young people ran for their wraps and overshoes. The dessert was forgotten, although it was Mrs. MacCall's famous "whangdoodle pudding and lallygag sauce."

"Never mind the eats now, Mrs. Mac!" cried Agnes, struggling into her warm coat. "Have an extra big dinner. We'll come home tonight as hungry as crows--see if we don't!"

In ten minutes the whole party, the four Kenway sisters, Neale, and Sammy, and Tom Jonah, had tumbled into the body of the big sleigh which was so heaped with clean straw that they burrowed right into it just like mice! The big bay horses were eager to start, and tossed their heads and made the little silver bells on the harness jingle to a merry tune indeed.

Mr. Howbridge and Ruth sat up on the wide front seat--the only seat--with the driver, John. The guardian wished to talk in private with the oldest Kenway girl. He considered her a very bright girl, with a very well-balanced mind.

While the younger folks shouted and joked and s...o...b..lled each other as the horses sped along the almost unbroken track, Ruth and her guardian were quite seriously engaged in conversation.

"I want to get some good advice from you, Miss Ruth Kenway," said the lawyer, smiling sideways at her. "I know that you have an abundant supply."

"You are a flatterer," declared the girl, her eyes sparkling nevertheless. She was always proud to be taken into his confidence.

"Is it something about the estate?"

"No, my dear. Nothing about the Stower estate."

"I was afraid we might be spending too much money," said the girl, laughing. "You know, I do think we are extravagant."

"Not in your personal expenditures," answered their guardian. "Only in the Kenways' charities do I sometimes feel like putting on the brake.

But this," he added, "is something different."

"What is it, Mr. Howbridge? I am sure I shall be glad to help you if I can," Ruth said earnestly.

"Well, now, Miss Ruth," said the lawyer, a quizzical smile wreathing his lips. "What would you do, for instance, if a pair of twins had been left to you?"

CHAPTER III

TWINS--AND TROUBLE

Sometimes Mr. Howbridge called her "Martha," because she was so c.u.mbered with family cares. Sometimes he called her "Minerva," and acclaimed her to be wise. He so frequently joked with her in this way that Ruth Kenway was not at all sure the lawyer was in earnest on this occasion.

"Twins?" she repeated, smiling up at him over the top of her m.u.f.f.

"Twin _what_? Twin puppies, or kittens, or even fish? I suppose there are twin fish?"

"You joke me, and I am serious," he said, while the younger ones shouted and sang amid the straw behind. "I really have had a pair of twins given to me. I am their guardian, the administrator of their estate, just as I was made administrator of the Stower estate and guardian of you girls. It is no joke, I a.s.sure you," and he finished rather ruefully.

"Goodness me! you don't mean it?" cried Ruth.

"Yes, I do. I mean it very much. I do, indeed, think it rather mean.

If all my friends who die and go to a better world leave me their children to take care of, I shall be in a worse pickle than the Little Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe."

"Like old Mrs. Bobster at Pleasant Cove," laughed Ruth. "But even she did not have twins. And if your new family is as troublesome as the Corner House crowd, what will you ever do?"

"That is what I am asking you, Minerva," he said seriously. "What would you do if you had had twins left to you?"