"

"Never mind. We will win his confidence in time," Ruth said, in her
old-fashioned way.

"Even if he had done something----"

"Hush!" commanded Ruth. "Suppose somebody should hear? The children for
instance."

"Well! of course we don't really know anything about him."

"And I am sure he has not done anything very bad. He may be ashamed of
his former life, but I am sure it is not because of his own fault. He is
just very proud and, I think, very ambitious."

Of the last there could be no doubt. Neale O'Neil was not content to
remain idle at all. As soon as he had finished at Mr. Murphy's, he
returned to the old Corner House and beat rugs until it was time for
supper.

There was little wonder that his appetite seemed to increase rather than
diminish--he worked so hard!

"I don't believe you ever _did_ have enough to eat," giggled Agnes.

"I don't know that I ever did," admitted Neale.

"Suppose you should wake up in the night?" she suggested. "If you were
real hungry it would be dreadful. I think you'd better take some
crackers and cheese upstairs with, you when you go to bed."

Neale took this all in good temper, but Mrs. MacCall exclaimed,
suddenly:

"There! I knew there was something I forgot from the store to-day. Tess,
do you and Dot want to run over to Mr. Stetson's after supper and bring
me some crackers?"

"Of course we will, Mrs. MacCall," replied Tess.

"And I'll take my Alice-doll. She needs an airing," declared Dot. "Her
health isn't all that we might wish since that Lillie Treble buried her
alive."

"Buried her alive?" cried Neale. "Playing savages?"

"No," said Tess, gravely. "And she buried dried apples with her, too. It
was an awful thing, and we don't talk about it--much," she added, in a
whisper, with a nod toward Dot's serious face.

Out of this trip to the grocery arose a misunderstanding that was very
funny in the end. Ruth had chosen the very room, at the back of the
house, in which the lady from Ipsilanti and her little daughter had
slept, for the use of Neale O'Neil. After supper she had gone up there
to make the bed afresh, and she was there when Tess and Dorothy returned
home from the store, filled to the lips, and bursting, with a wonderful
piece of news.

"Oh, dear me, Ruthie!" cried Dot, being the leader, although her legs
were not the longest. "Did you know we all have to be _'scalloped_
before we can go to school here in Milton?"

"Be _what_?" gasped the oldest Ke