US BILLET'S EAGLE BAIT 84

IX BOB BUCKHAM TAKES A HAND 101

X SOMETHING ABOUT OLD TIMES 112

XI THE STRAWBERRY MARK 122

XII TEA WITH MRS. ELAND 134

XIII NEALE SUFFERS A SHORTENING PROCESS 145

XIV THE FIRST REHEARSAL 156

XV THE HALLOWE'EN PARTY 167

XVI THE FIVE-DOLLAR GOLD PIECE 175

XVII THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER 184

XVIII MISS PEPPERILL AND THE GRAY LADY 193

XIX A THANKSGIVING SKATING PARTY 198

XX NEALE'S ENDLESS CHAIN 206

XXI THE CORNER HOUSE THANKSGIVING 212

XXII CLOUDS AND SUNSHINE 217

XXIII SWIFTWING, THE HUMMINGBIRD 228

XXIV THE FINAL REHEARSAL 240

XXV A GREAT SUCCESS 247

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

She truly did well in this performance _Frontispiece_

At the moment the eagle dropped with spread talons,
the big dog leaped 103

They saw two huge pumpkin lanterns grinning a
welcome from the gateposts 173

The scaffolding pulled apart slowly, falling forward
through the drop 238

THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY

CHAPTER I

THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND

"I never can learn them in the wide, wide world! I just know I never
can, Dot!"

"Dear me! I'm dreadfully sorry for you, Tess," responded Dorothy
Kenway--only nobody ever called her by her full name, for she really was
too small to achieve the dignity of anything longer than "Dot."

"I'm dreadfully sorry for you, Tess," she repeated, hugging the
Alice-doll a little closer and wrapping the lace "throw" carefully about
the shoulders of her favorite child. The Alice-doll had never enjoyed
robust health since her awful experience of more than a year before,
when she had been buried alive.

Of course, Dot had not got as far in school as the sovereigns of
Eng