Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/233

 Rh  a word. Jean had laid the open letter on the table. Marjory and Bettie with their arms tightly locked, as if both felt the need of support, re-read the closely written page in silence When they reached the end, they pushed it toward Mabel.

"What does it mean in plain English?" asked Mabel, hoping that both her eyes and her ears had deceived her.

"That somebody else is to have the cottage," said Jean, "and that in the meantime we're to move."

"In the meantime!" blurted Mabel, with swift wrath. "I should say it was the meantime—the very meanest time anybody ever heard of. I'd just like to know what right 'Yours-Respectably-John-W.-Downing' has to turn us out of our own house. I guess we paid our rent—I guess there's blisters on me yet—I guess I dug dandelions—I guess I"

But here Mabel's indignation turned to grief, and with one of her very best howls