Tess was quite flushed. "Sammy gave us Billy Bumps," she said sternly, "and Billy is a very good goat."
"Except when he eats up poor Seneca Sprague's hair," chuckled Agnes.
"He is a very good goat," repeated Tess. "But if Sammy says my Mrs. Eland isn't the very nicest lady there is – well – he can take his old goat back – so now!"
"What did he say, Ruthie?" asked Agnes.
"I heard him say that if Mrs. Eland nursed Miss Pepperill so well that she could come back to teach school, when he got to be a pirate he would sail 'way off with Mrs. Eland somewhere and make her walk the plank!"
"If he does such a thing," cried Dot, excitedly, "he can take back his old goat! You know, I don't believe Mrs. Eland could walk a plank, anyway. She isn't an acrobat, like Neale."
"If Sammy Pinkney tries to be a pirate, and carries my Mrs. Eland off in any such horrid way," declared Tess with much energy for her, "I hope his mother spanks him good!"
And with the hilarious laughter that welcomed this speech from Swiftwing, the hummingbird, let us bid farewell to our four Corner House girls.
THE END