's challenge. "Neale is not a circus boy."

"Oh! he isn't?"

"No. He's never even _seen_ a circus," the positive Agnes declared.

"He told you that, did he?" laughed Trix, airily.

"He said he had never been to see a circus in his life," Agnes repeated.
"And Neale wouldn't lie."

"That's all you know about him, then," said Trix. "And I thought you
Corner House girls were such friends with Neale O'Neil," and she walked
off laughing again, refusing to explain her insinuations.

But the nickname of "circus boy" stuck to Neale O'Neil after that and he
earnestly wished he had not volunteered to fix the flag rigging. _Why_
it troubled him so, however, he did not explain to the Corner House
girls.

CHAPTER XVIII

SNOWBOUND

Tess said, gloomily, as they gathered about the study table one evening
not long after New Year's:

"I have to write a composition about George Washington. When was he
born, Ruthie?" Ruth was busy and did not appear to hear. "Say! when
_was_ he born?" repeated the ten-year-old.

"Eighteen seventy-eight, I think, dear," said Agnes, with more kindness
than confidence.

"Oh-o-o!" gasped Dot, who knew something about the "Father of His
Country." "He was dead-ed long before _that_."

"Before when?" demanded Ruth, partly waking up to the situation.

"Eighteen seventy-eight," repeated Tess, wearily.

"Of course I meant seventeen seventy-eight," interposed Agnes.

"And at that you're a long way off," observed Neale, who chanced to be
at the Corner House that evening.

"Well! you know so much, Mr. Smartie!" cried Agnes. "Tell her yourself."

"I wouldn't have given her the date of George's birth, as being right in
the middle of the Revolutionary War," exclaimed Neale, stalling for time
to figure out the right date.

"No; and you are not telling her _any_ year," said the wise Agnes.

"Children! don't scrap," murmured peace-loving Ruth, sinking into the
background--and her own algebra--again.

"Well!" complained Tess. "I haven't found out when he was born _yet_."

"Never mind, honey," said Agnes. "Tell what he _did_. That's more
important. Look up the date later."

"I know," said Dot, breaking in with more primary information. "He
planted a cherry tree."

"Chopped it down, you mean," said Agnes.

"And he never told a lie," insisted Dot.

"I believe that is an exploded doctrine," chuckled Neale O'Neil.

"Well, how did they _know_ he didn't tell a lie?" demanded Tess, the
practi