The walls of the castle were toppling, and falling, and the lights had
gone out. But there was a moon and the boy could see what he was about.

The spectators at a distance were helpless during the few minutes which
had elapsed since the first alarm. Nobody came to the assistance of the
Corner House girls and the two boys.

But Trix was able to help herself. Neale saw her hands extended, and he
leaned over and seized her wrists, while Joe held him by the feet.

Then with a heave, and wriggle, "that circus boy," as Trix had nicknamed
him, performed the feat of getting her out of the falling castle, and
the Corner House girls received her with open arms.

The peril was over, but rumor fed the excitement for an hour and brought
out as big a crowd as though there had been a fire in the business
section of the town.

Trix clung to Ruth and Agnes Kenway in an abandonment of terror and
thanksgiving, at first. The peril she had suffered quite broke down her
haughtiness, and the rancor she had felt toward the Corner House girls
was dissipated.

"There, there! Don't you cry any more, Trix," urged good-natured Agnes.
"I'm _so_ glad you got out of that horrid place safely. And we didn't
help you, you know. It was Neale O'Neil."

"That circus boy" had slunk away as though he had done something
criminal; but Joe was blowing a horn of praise for Neale in the crowd,
as the Corner House girls led Trix away.

Ruth and Agnes went home with Trix Severn, but they would not go into
the house that evening as Trix desired. The very next morning Trix was
around before schooltime, to walk to school with Agnes. And within a
week (as Neale laughingly declared to Ruth) Agnes and Trix were "as
thick as thieves!"

"Can you beat Aggie?" scoffed Neale. "That Trix girl has been treating
her as mean as she knows how for months, and now you couldn't pry Aggie
away from her with a crowbar."

"I am glad," said Ruth, "that Agnes so soon gets over being mad."

"Huh! Trix is soft just now. But wait till she gets mad again," he
prophesied.

However, this intimacy of Agnes with her former enemy continued so long
that winter passed, and spring tiptoed through the woods and fields,
flinging her bounties with lavish hand, while still Agnes and Trix
remained the best of friends.

As spring advanced, the usual restless spirit of the season pervaded the
old Corner House. Especially did the little girls find it infectious.
Tess and Dot neglected the nur