next door
neighbor, only he lived "scatecornered" across Willow Street, that she
wished she had an airship.

And there! "Scatecornered" must be explained too; it was an expression
of Uncle Rufus' who was the Corner House girls' chief factotum and
almost an heirloom in the family, for he had long served Uncle Peter
Stower, who in dying had willed the beautiful old homestead in Milton
to his four grand-nieces.

"Just what does 'scatecornered' mean, Uncle Rufus?" asked Dot, who
delighted in polysyllables.

"Why, chile, 'scatecornered' am a pufficly good word, fo' I has used it
all ma life. It's--er--well, it's sort of a short-cut for de meanin' of
slantindicular an crisscrosswise; w'ich means dat it ain't straight an'
ain't crooked, but sort o'--er--scatecornered. Dere, chile, now you
knows."

"Yes, Uncle Rufus; thank you," said Dot, polite if she did feel rather
dizzy after his explanation.

But it was with Tess, who was nearly two years older than Dot and
thought herself vastly more grown up, and with Sammy Pinkney this story
was begun, and one should stick to one's text.

"Yes," murmured Tess, "I wish I had an airship."

Sammy looked at her, rather awed. Lately he was beginning to feel a mite
awed in Tess Kenway's company, anyway. She had always been a thoughtful
child. Aunt Sarah Maltby declared she was uncanny and gave her the
fidgets. Of late even the boy who desired to be a pirate found Tess
puzzling.

"Huh! An airship? What would you do with it? Where would you keep it?"
he finally demanded, his queries being nothing if not practical.

Really Tess had not addressed him directly. She had just audibly
expressed a thought, and one that had long been in her mind in embryo.
So she did not answer the neighbor boy, who was sitting beside her on
the side stoop of the Corner House, rigging a self-whittled ship to sail
in the horse-trough.

"You know very well it wouldn't go in the garage; and the toolshed and
the henhouse--even Tom Jonah's house--are all too small. Huh! that's
like a girl! Never look ahead to see what they'd do with an airship if
somebody gave 'em one."

"Well, I don't s'pose anybody will," admitted Tess, with a sigh, having
heard at least the last part of Sammy's speech.

"Anybody will _what_?" demanded Sammy, beginning to be somewhat
confused, partly from not knowing what he himself had been saying.

"Give us an airship."

"I should say not!" ejaculated Sammy. "Why, Tess Kenway, an air