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[Illustration: One young woman brought a great pan of stew and bread
and three spoons to the van. _Frontispiece._]
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES
How They Met
What Happened
And How It Ended
by
GRACE BROOKS HILL
Author of "The Corner House Girls," "The Corner House
Girls on a Houseboat," etc.
Illustrated by Thelma Gooch
Barse & Hopkins
Publishers
Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y.
* * * * *
BOOKS FOR GIRLS
The Corner House Girls Series
By Grace Brooks Hill
_12mo. Cloth. Illustrated._
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS' ODD FIND
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES
Publishers
BARSE & HOPKINS
Newark, N. J. New York, N. Y.
* * * * *
Copyright, 1921,
by
Barse & Hopkins
_The Corner House Girls Among the Gypsies_
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Fretted Silver Bracelet 9
II A Profound Mystery 20
III Sammy Pinkney in Trouble 31
IV The Gypsy Trail 40
V Sammy Occasions Much Excitement 50
VI The Gypsy's Words 60
VII The Bracelet Again To the Fore 70
VIII The Misfortunes of a Runaway 81
IX Things Go Wrong 90
X All Is Not Gold That Glitters 100
XI Mysteries Accumulate 108
XII Getting in Deeper 114
XIII Over the Hills and Far Away 122
XIV Almost Had Him 134
XV Uncertainties 143
XVI The Dead End of Nowhere 149
XVII Ruth Begins To Worry 157
XVIII The Junkman Again 165
XIX The House Is Haunted 175
XX Plotters at Work 184
XXI Tess and Dot Take a Hand 195
XXII Excitement Galore 206
XXIII A Surprising Meeting 217
XXIV The Captives 234
XXV It Must Be All Right 244
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
One young woman brought a great pan of stew and bread and three
spoons to the van Title
"You have found it!" he chattered with great excitement 112
The girls could sit under the trees while Luke reclined on a
swinging cot 158
"They want that silver thing back. It wasn't meant for you" 203
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES
CHAPTER I--THE FRETTED SILVER BRACELET
If Sammy Pinkney had not been determined to play a "joey" and hooked
back one of the garage doors so as to enter astride a broomstick with a
dash and the usual clown announcement, "Here we are again!" all would
not have happened that did happen to the Corner House girls--at least,
not in just the way the events really occurred.
Even Dot, who was inclined to be forgiving of most of Sammy's sins both
of omission and commission, admitted that to be true. Tess, the next
oldest Corner House girl (nobody ever dignified her with the name of
"Theresa," unless it were Aunt Sarah Maltby) was inclined to reflect the
opinion regarding most boys held by their oldest sister, Ruth. Tess's
frank statement to this day is that it was entirely Sammy's fault that
they were mixed up with the Gypsies at all.
But--
"Well, if I'm going to be in your old circus," Sammy announced doggedly,
"I'm going to be a joey--or _nothin'_."
"You know very well, Sammy, that you can't be that," said Tess
reprovingly.
"Huh? Why can't I? I bet I'd make just as good a clown as Mr. Sully
Sorber, who is Neale's half-uncle, or Mr. Asa Scruggs, who is
Barnabetta's father."
"I don't mean you can't be a clown," interrupted Tess. "I mean you can't
be just _nothing_. You occupy space, so you must be something. Our
teacher says so."
"Shucks!" ejaculated Sammy Pinkney. "Don't I know that? And I wish you
wouldn't talk about school. Why! we're only in the middle of our
vacation, I should hope."
"It seems such a long time since we went to school," murmured Dot, who
was sitting by, nursing the Alice-doll in her arms and waiting her turn
to be called into the circus ring, which was the cleared space in the
middle of the cement floor.
"That's because all you folks went off cruising on that houseboat and
never took me with you," grumbled Sammy, who still held a deep-seated
grouch because of the matter mentioned. "But 'tain't been long since
school closed--and it isn't going to be long before the old thing opens
again."
"Why, Sammy!" admonished Tess.
"I just _hate_ school, so I do!" vigorously announced the boy. "I'd
rather be a tramp--or a Gypsy. Yes, I would."
"Or a pirate, Sammy?" suggested Dot reflectively. "You know, me and you
didn't have a very nice time when we went off to be pirates. 'Member?"
"Huh!" grumbled Sammy, "that was because you was along. Girls can't be
pirates worth shucks. And anyway," he concluded, "I'm going to be the
joey in this show, or I won't play."
"It will be supper time and the others will be back with the car, so
none of us can play if we don't start in pretty soon," Tess observed.
"Dot and I want to practice our gym work that Neale O'Neil has been
teaching us. But you can clown it all you want to, Sammy."
"Well, that lets me begin the show anyway," Sammy stated with
satisfaction.
He always did want to lead. And now he immediately ran to hook back the
door and prepared to make his entrance into the ring in true clowning
style, as he had seen Sully Sorber do in Twomley & Sorber's Herculean
Circus and Menagerie.
The Kenway garage opened upon Willow Street and along that pleasantly
shaded and quiet thoroughfare just at this time came three rather odd
looking people. Two were women carrying brightly stained baskets of
divers shapes, and one of these women--usually the younger one--went into
the yard of each house and knocked at the side or back door, offering
the baskets for sale.
The younger one was black-eyed and rather pretty. She was neatly dressed
in very bright colors and wore a deal of gaudy jewelry. The older woman
was not so attractive--or so clean.
Loitering on the other side of the street, and keeping some distance
behind the Gypsy women, slouched a tall, roughly clad fellow who was
evidently their escort. The women came to the Kenway garage some time
after Sammy Pinkney had made his famous "entrance" and Dot had abandoned
the Alice-doll while she did several handsprings on the mattress that
Tess had laid down. Dot did these very well indeed. Neale O'Neil, who
had been trained in the circus, had given both the smaller Corner House
girls the benefit of his advice and training. They loved athletic
exercises. Mrs. McCall, the Corner House housekeeper, declared Tess and
Dot were as active as grasshoppers.
The two dark-faced women, as they peered in at the open doorway of the
garage, seemed to think Dot's handsprings were marvelously well done,
too; they whispered together excitedly and then the older one slyly
beckoned the big Gypsy man across the street to approach.
When he arrived to look over the women's heads it was Tess who was
actively engaged on the garage floor. She was as supple as an eel. Of
course, Tess Kenway would not like to be compared to an eel; but she was
proud of her ability to "wriggle into a bow knot and out again"--as Sammy
vociferously announced.
"Say, Tess! that's a peach of a trick," declared the boy with
enthusiasm. "Say! Lemme--Huh! What do _you_ want?" For suddenly he saw
the two Gypsy women at the door of the garage. The man was now out of
sight.
"Ah-h!" whined the old woman cunningly, "will not the young master and
the pretty little ladies buy a nice basket of the poor Gypsy? Good
fortune goes with it."
"Gee! who wants to buy a basket?" scoffed Sammy. "You only have to carry
things in it." The bane of Sammy Pinkney's existence was the running of
errands.
"But they _are_ pretty," murmured Tess.
"Oh--oo! See that nice green and yellow one with the cover," gasped Dot.
"Do you suppose we've got money enough to buy that one, Tess? How nice
it would be to carry the children's clothes in when we go on picnics."
By "children" Dot meant their dolls, of which, the two smaller Corner
House girls possessed a very large number. Several of these children,
besides the Alice-doll, were grouped upon a bench in the corner of the
garage as a part of the circus audience. The remainder of the spectators
were Sandyface and her family. Sandyface was now a great, _great_
grandmother cat, and more of her progeny than one would care to catalog
tranquilly viewed the little girls' circus or rolled in kittenish frolic
on the floor.
It sometimes did seem as though the old Corner House demesne was quite
given up to feline inhabitants. And the recurrent appearance of new
litters of kittens belonging to Sandyface herself, her daughters and
granddaughters, had ceased to make even a ripple in the pool of Corner
House existence.
This explanation regarding the dolls and cats is really aside from our
narrative. Tess and Dot both viewed with eager eyes the particular
covered basket held out enticingly by the old Gypsy woman.
Of course the little girls had no pockets in their gymnasium suits. But
in a pocket of her raincoat which Tess had worn down to the garage over
her blouse and bloomers, she found a dime and two pennies--"just enough
for two ice-cream cones," Sammy Pinkey observed.
"Oh! And my Alice-doll has eight cents in her cunning little beaded
bag," cried Dot, with sudden animation.
She produced the coins. But there was only twenty cents in all!
"I--I--What do you ask for that basket, please?" Tess questioned
cautiously.
"Won't the pretty little ladies give the poor old Gypsy woman half a
dollar for the basket?"
The little girls lost hope. They were not allowed to break into their
banks for any purpose without asking Ruth's permission, and their
monthly stipend of pocket money was very low.
"It is a very nice basket, little ladies," said the younger Gypsy
woman--she who was so gayly dressed and gaudily bejeweled.
"I know," Tess admitted wistfully. "But if we haven't so much money, how
can we buy it?"
"Say!" interrupted the amateur joey, hands in pockets and viewing the
controversy quite as an outsider. "Say, Tess! if you and Dot really want
that old basket, I've got two-bits I'll lend you."
"Oh, Sammy!" gasped Dot. "A whole quarter?"
"Have you got it here with you?" Tess asked.
"Yep," announced the boy.
"I don't think Ruth would mind our borrowing twenty-five cents of you,
Sammy," said Tess, slowly.
"Of course not," urged Dot. "Why, Sammy is just like one of the family."
"Only when you girls go off cruising, I ain't," observed Sammy, his face
clouding with remembrance. "_Then_ I ain't even a step-child."
But he produced the quarter and offered it to Tess. She counted it with
the money already in her hand.
"But--but that makes only forty-five cents," she said.
The two Gypsy women spoke hissingly to each other in a tongue that the
children did not, of course, understand. Then the older woman thrust the
basket out again.
"Take!" she said. "Take for forty-fi' cents, eh? The little ladies can
have."
"Go ahead," Sammy said as Tess hesitated. "That's all the old basket is
worth. I can get one bigger than that at the chain store for seven
cents."
"Oh, Sammy, it isn't as bee-_you_-tiful as this!" gasped Dot.
"Well, it's a basket just the same."
Tess put the silver and pennies in the old woman's clawlike hand and the
longed-for basket came into her possession.
"It is a good-fortune basket, pretty little ladies," repeated the old
Gypsy, grinning at them toothlessly. "You are honest little ladies, I
can see. You would never cheat the old Gypsy, would you? This is all the
money you have to pay for the beautiful basket? Forty-fi' cents?"
"Aw, say!" grumbled Sammy, "a bargain is a bargain, ain't it? And
forty-five cents is a good deal of money."
"If--if you think we ought to pay more--"
Tess held the basket out hesitatingly. Dot fairly squealed:
"Don't be a ninny, Tessie Kenway! It's ours now."
"The basket is yours, little ladies," croaked the crone as the younger
woman pulled sharply at her shawl. "But good fortune goes with it only
if you are honest with the poor old Gypsy. Good-bye."
The two strange women hurried away. Sammy lounged to the door, hands in
pockets, to look after them. He caught a momentary glimpse of the tall
Gypsy man disappearing around a corner. The two women quickly followed
him.
"Oh, what a lovely basket!" Dot was saying.
"I--I hope Ruth won't scold because we borrowed that quarter of Sammy,"
murmured Tess.
"Shucks!" exclaimed their boy friend. "Don't tell her. You can pay me
when you get some more money."
"Oh, no!" Tess said. "I would not hide anything from Ruth."
"You couldn't, anyway," said the practical Dot. "She will want to know
where we got the money to pay for the basket. Oh, _do_ open it, Tess.
Isn't it lovely?"
The cover worked on a very ingeniously contrived hinge. Had the children
known much about such things they must have seen that the basket was
worth much more than the price they had paid for it--much more indeed
than the price the Gypsies had first asked.
Tess lifted the cover. Dot crowded nearer to look in. The shadows of the
little girls' heads at first hid the bottom of the basket. Then both saw
something gleaming dully there. Tess and Dot cried out in unison; but it
was the latter's brown hand that darted into the basket and brought
forth the bracelet.
"A silver bracelet!" Tess gasped.
"Oh, look at it!" cried Dot. "Did you _ever_? Do you s'pose it's real
silver, Tess?"
"Of course it is," replied her sister, taking the circlet in her own
hand. "How pretty! It's all engraved with fret-work--"
"Hey!" ejaculated Sammy coming closer. "What's that?"
"Oh, Sammy! A silver bracelet--all fretted, too," exclaimed the highly
excited Dot.
"Huh! What's that? 'Fretted'? When my mother's fretted she's--Say! how
can a silver bracelet be cross, I want to know?"
"Oh, Sammy," Tess suddenly ejaculated, "these Gypsy women will be cross
enough when they miss this bracelet!"
"Oh! Oh!" wailed Dot. "Maybe they'll come back and want to take it and
the pretty basket, Tess. Let's run and hide 'em!"