"I don't know anything about it. Never thought of it, really."

Tess just then came singing through the house, having been to see Miss
Ann Titus, the dressmaker, regarding certain dresses that were to be got
ready for the little girls to wear to school. She had refused to tell
Dot where she was going because one of the dresses was to be a surprise
to the smallest Corner House girl.

It needed no seer to discover that Tess had been to see the seamstress.
She was a polite little girl and she did not like to break in upon other
people's conversation; but she was so chock full of news that some of it
had to spill over.

"D'juno, Ruthie, that Mr. Sauer, the milkman got 'rested because he
didn't have enough milk in his wagon to serve his customers? The
inspector said he didn't have a license to peddle water, and he took
him down to the City Hall."

"I had not heard of it, Tess, no," replied her older sister.

"You know that awfully big man, Mr. Atkins--the awfully fat man, you
know, who is a lawyer, or something, and always walks down town for
exercise, and I s'pose he needs it? He stepped on a banana peel on
Purchase Street the other day and almost fell. And if he had fallen on
that hard walk I 'most guess he'd've exploded."

"Oh, Tessie!" exclaimed Ruth, while Luke laughed openly.

"And d'juno, Ruthie, that they are going to stop people from keeping
pigs inside the city limits? Mr. Con Murphy can't have his any more,
either. For the other day a pig that belonged to Hemstret, the butcher,
got away and scared folks awful on Deering Street, 'cause he looked as
though he had the yaller janders--"

"The _what_?" gasped her sister, while Luke actually roared.

"The yaller janders," repeated Tessie.

"Do you mean the yellow jaundice? Though how a pig could get such a
disease--"

"Maybe. Anyway he was all yellow," Tess went on excitedly. "'Cause some
boys took some ock-er-ra paint out of Mr. Timmins' shop--Timmins, the
lame man, you know--and painted him and then let him out."

"Painted Mr. Timmins--the lame man?" gasped Luke, in the midst of his
laughter.

"No. The pig that I was telling you about," said the small girl. "And
Mrs. Bogert says that the next time Bogert goes to the lodge and stays
till two o'clock in the morning, she's going home to her mother and take
the children with her," and Tess ended this budget of news almost
breathless.

Ruth had to laugh, too, although she did not approve of the children