Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/158

 136  tea-caddy contained nothing but glass beads. When Mrs. Milligan returned to her own house, she told her own family about it.

"You might as well run over and play with them, Laura," she said. "Take the baby with you, too. He's a dreadful nuisance under my feet. That'll be a real nice place for you both to play all summer."

The girls received their visitors pleasantly; almost, indeed, with enthusiasm; but after a very few moments, they began to eye the baby with apprehension. He refused to make friends with them but wandered about rather lawlessly and handled their treasures roughly. Laura paid no attention to him but talked to the girls. She seemed a bright girl and not at all bashful, and she used a great many slang phrases that sounded new, and it must be confessed, rather attractive to the girls.

"Oh land, yes," she said, "we came here from Chicago where we had all kinds of