Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/241

 Rh , "but she's right for once. Mr. Black did say we could stay there all summer—it isn't quite August yet, you know."

"Hum," said Mr. Downing, "nobody said anything to me about any such arrangement and I'm keeping the books. I don't know what Mr. Black could have been thinking of if he made any such foolish promise as that. Of course it's not binding. Why! that cottage ought to be renting for ten or twelve dollars a month."

"But the plaster's very bad," pleaded Bettie, eagerly, "and the roof leaks in every room in the house but one, and something's the matter underneath so it's too cold for folks to live in during the winter. It was vacant for a long time before we had it."

"It looked very comfortable to me," said Mr. Downing, who had lived in the town for only a few months and neither knew nor suspected the real condition of the house. "I'm afraid your arrangement with Mr. Black doesn't hold good. Mr. Morgan and