"I'll give you fifteen hundred for the house and grounds."

"Fifteen hundred!" the old lady exclaimed shrilly. "For a house which cost at least forty thousand to build! Aren't you being outrageously reckless?"

"Old houses are a drug on the market these days, Madam. You'll find no other buyer in Riverview, I am quite sure. In fact; I wouldn't make you such a generous offer except that I think this place might be fixed up as a tourist home."

"A tourist home!" Mrs. Marborough cried furiously. "You would make this beautiful, colonial mansion into a cheap hotel! Oh, go away, and never, never show your face here again!"

"Very well, Madam," Mr. Franklin responded, still smiling. "However, I warn you that my next offer for the property will not be as generous a one."

"Generous!" Mrs. Marborough fairly screamed for she was determined to have the final word. "Your price would be robbery! You're just like your father, who was one of the worst skinflints I ever knew!"

Mr. Franklin had nothing more to say. With a shrug, he turned and strode from the yard. Mrs. Marborough gazed after him for a moment, and then sinking down on the stone bench, began to cry. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned her head and saw the three girls. Hastily, she dabbed at her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

"Oh, Mrs. Marborough, don't feel badly," Penny said quickly. "We heard what he said to you. Mr. Franklin should be ashamed of himself."

"That man doesn't affect me one way or the other," the old lady announced with a toss of the head. The girls accepted the explanation with tranquil faces although they knew very well why Mrs. Marborough had wept. Rhoda wandered to the wishing well, peering down into the crystal-clear water.

"Do you know, I'm tempted to make another wish," she remarked. "Would it be very selfish of me?"

"Selfish?" Louise inquired, puzzled.

"The last one came true. I shouldn't expect too much."

"Do make your wish, Rhoda," urged Penny, "but don't antic.i.p.ate quick action. I'm still waiting for mine to come true."

Rhoda drew a bucket of water from the well, and filling the dipper which always hung on a nail of the wooden roof, drank deeply.

"I wish," she said soberly, "I wish that Ted might find a job. If he could get work, maybe it wouldn't be necessary to accept charity from Mr.

Coaten or anyone!"

Rhoda's wish, so earnestly spoken, slightly embarra.s.sed the others, for it served to remind them of the girl's poverty.

"Now you make one, Penny," Louise urged to cover an awkward silence.

"I can't think of anything I want," Penny answered.

"Well, I can!" Mrs. Marborough announced unexpectedly. "In all the years of my life I've never made a wish at this well, but now I shall!"

To the delight of the girls, she reached for the bucket of water. With a grim face she slammed the entire contents back into the well.

"Just a little token, O wishing well," she muttered. "My desire is a most worthy one. All I ask is that Jay Franklin be given his come-uppance!"

"We'll all second that wish!" Penny added gaily.

"There!" Mrs. Marborough declared, rather pleased with herself. "That makes me feel better. Now I'll forget that man and go about my business."

"I think it was selfish of him to take the att.i.tude he did about the stone," Penny said, wishing to keep an entertaining topic alive.

Mrs. Marborough seemed to have lost all interest in the subject.

Gathering her long skirts about her, she started for the house. Midway up the flagstone path she paused to say:

"There's a tree of nice summer apples out yonder by the back fence. Pick all you like and take some home if you care for them."

"Thank you, Mrs. Marborough," Louise responded politely.

After the door had closed behind the old lady, the girls did not immediately leave the vicinity of the wishing well.

"She means to be kind," Louise commented, drawing figures in the dirt with her shoe. "But isn't it funny she never invites us into the house?"

"It's downright mysterious," Penny added. "You notice Jay Franklin didn't get in there either!"

"Why does she act that way?" Rhoda asked in perplexity.

"Penny thinks she's trying to keep folks from discovering something,"

explained Louise. "The old lady is queer in other ways, too."

Thoroughly enjoying the tale, the girls told Rhoda how they had observed Mrs. Marborough removing the flagstones surrounding the base of the wishing well.

"There's been more digging!" Penny suddenly cried, springing up from the bench. "See!"

Excitedly she pointed to a place where additional flagstones had been lifted and carelessly replaced.

"Mrs. Marborough must have been at work again!" Louise agreed. "What does she expect to find?"

"Fishing worms, perhaps," Rhoda suggested with a smile. "Under the flagstones would be a good place."

"Mrs. Marborough never would go fishing," Louise answered. "Sometimes I wonder if she's entirely right in her mind. It just isn't normal to go around digging on your own property after night."

"Don't you worry, Mrs. Marborough knows what she is about," Penny declared. "She's looking for something which is hidden!"

"But what can it be?" Louise speculated. "Nothing she does seems to make sense."

"She's one of the most interesting characters I've met in many a day,"

Penny said warmly. "I like her better all the time."

"How about those apples?" Rhoda suggested, changing the subject. "I'm sure Mrs. Breen could use some of them."

As the girls started toward the gnarled old tree, a battered automobile drew up in front of the house. A man who was dressed in coat and trousers taken from two separate suits alighted and came briskly up the walk.

"Who is he?" Louise whispered curiously.

"Never saw him before," Penny admitted. "He looks almost like a tramp."

"Or an old clothes man," Rhoda added with a laugh.

Observing the girls, the man doffed his battered derby.

"Is this where Mrs. Marborough lives?" he asked.