d "The Corner House Girls Under
Canvas."

As has been already mentioned, the sisters had parts in the school play
_The Carnation Countess_, the following winter. Tess was Swiftwing, the
Hummingbird, and Dot, a busy, busy bee, a part that the smallest Corner
House girl acted to perfection. Agnes, who had a bent for theatricals,
was immensely successful as Innocent Delight, and Ruth, of course, did
her part well. In "The Corner House Girls in a Play," the fourth volume,
these adventures and incidents are detailed.

"The Corner House Girls' Odd Find" made two of their very dearest
friends wealthy, and incidentally brought to the sister what Agnes had
longed for more than "anything else in the whole world"--a touring car.
In that they took a long trip, as related in "The Corner House Girls on
a Tour." On that journey, but recently completed, Neale O'Neil had
accompanied the sisters to drive the car. Mrs. Heard, a good friend, had
been their chaperon, and Sammy Pinkney, the boy who was determined to be
a pirate, was what Neale termed "an excrescence on the touring party"
during the exciting trip.

Ruth Kenway had been thinking of something that had occurred during
their automobile trip just before spying the old gentleman with the
green umbrella. She had that very day received a letter from Cecile
Shepard, whom, with her brother Luke, the Corner House girls had met
during their tour. And Ruth hoped that Cecile would spend a week at the
old Corner House before going back in September to the preparatory
school which she attended.

But now the old man's peril, her own alarm and her desire to save the
stranger's life, drove all other thoughts out of the girl's mind.

CHAPTER III

THE AERIAL TRAMWAY

He might have gone right under the wheels of the backing freight
train--that queer looking old gentleman--umbrella and all! Ruth Kenway
dragged him back, and the train rumbled past them so near that the
umbrella scraped along the sides of the box-cars.

"What under the sun's the matter with you, girl?" snapped the old man.

He turned on her so angrily, and furled the huge umbrella with such
emphasis, that Ruth was quite startled, although she had thought that
this time she would be prepared for any outbreak of irritation or
displeasure on his part. She backed away from him, and as other people
who had seen the incident came crowding about, the girl slipped away and
crossed the tracks hurriedly when the freight trai