y scrap book the name of
that special cheese which is made by the Swiss for use in Passion Play
week. It's got all the letters of the alphabet in it _twice_."

"Never mind looking it up," advised Ruth, quickly.

"No," said Neale. "We'll take your word for there being something in it.
An odoriferous odor, I bet, if it's like most of those fancy cheeses."

"Why," said Tess, reprovingly, "I thought we were talking about my
airship line."

"'Back to the mines, men! there'll be no strike to-day!'" quoted Agnes.
"It's up to you, Neale. Sammy and Tess have originated the idea. All you
have to do is to find the materials and do the work."

"If Ruth says we may," added Tess, without at all appreciating her
sister's sarcasm.

"Why, there's no harm, I suppose. A basket to pull across the street?
Does your mother say you may, Sammy?"

"Oh, yes, Ruth," declared the boy. "I just ran and asked her."

"What did she say?"

"We-ell," Sammy admitted slowly, "she was busy cutting out something on
the dining-room table and her mouth was full of pins. I had to ask her
two or three times before she seemed to hear me."

"And then what did she say?" insisted Ruth, with suspicion, knowing both
Sammy and his mother pretty well.

"Why, she said: 'If you will only go out and stop bothering me for an
hour I don't care _what_ you do.' So, ain't that saying I can?" demanded
Sammy.

"I should say she had given you _carte blanche_," chuckled Neale, while
the older Corner House girls laughed.

"I think you may go as far as to get the wire, pulleys, and other things
needed," Ruth said. "I will ask Sammy's mother myself when she is not
so strenuously engaged."

Dot listened to this and gazed after the departing older sister in
something like awe.

"What is it, Dottums?" asked Agnes, chucking the little fairy-like child
under her soft chin.

"Oh, our Ruth does talk so beautifully," sighed the smallest Corner
House girl. "What does 'strain--strain-u-ous-ly' mean, Aggie?"

"Exactly that," laughed her sister. "Mrs. Pinkney certainly was working
under a 'strain.' You have hit the meaning of 'strenuously' better even
than Mr. Dick."

"Who is Mr. Dick?" demanded Dot, the unappeasable.

"The man who knows everything," said Neale, throwing away the core of
his apple and strolling to the gate on his way to the hardware store to
purchase the materials for the Aeriel tramway.

"The dictionary, goosey," said Tess in explanation to Dot. "Don't