as a narrow ledge which ran around the house under the
second story windows. It took the reckless girl but a moment to get out
upon this ledge. To tell the truth she had tried this caper before--but
never at such an early hour.

Clinging to the window frame, she leaned outward, and grasped with her
other hand a laden, limb. The peaches were right before her; but she
could not pluck them.

"Oh! if I only had a third hand," cried Agnes, aloud.

Then, recklessly determined to reach the fruit, she let go of the window
frame and stretched her hand for the nearest blushing peach. To her
horror she found her body swinging out from the side of the house!

Her weight bore against the limb, and pushed it farther and farther away
from the house-wall; Agnes' peril was plain and imminent. Unable to
seize the window frame again and draw herself back, she was about to
fall between the peach tree and the side of the house!

CHAPTER II

THE WHITE-HEADED BOY

"The Corner House Girls," as they had come to be known to Milton folk,
and as they are known to the readers of the first volume of this series,
had occupied the great mansion opposite the lower end of the Parade
Ground, since the spring before.

They had come from Bloomingsburg, where their father and mother had
died, leaving them without guardianship. But when Uncle Peter Stower
died and left most of his property to his four nieces, Mr. Howbridge,
the lawyer, had come for the Kenway sisters and established them in the
old Corner House.

Here they had spent the summer getting acquainted with Milton folk
(making themselves liked by most of the neighbors), and gradually
getting used to their changed circumstances.

For in Bloomingsburg the Kenways had lived among very poor people, and
were very poor themselves. Now they were very fortunately conditioned,
having a beautiful home, plenty of money to spend (under the direction
of Mr. Howbridge) and the opportunity of making many friends.

With them, to the old mansion, had come Aunt Sarah Maltby. Really, she
was no relation at all to the Kenway girls, but she had lived with them
ever since they could remember.

In her youth Aunt Sarah had lived in the old Corner House, so this
seemed like home to her. Uncle Rufus had served the aforetime owner of
the place for many years, too; so _he_ was at home here. And as for Mrs.
MacCall, she had come to help Ruth and her sisters soon after their
establishment in the old Corne