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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm
+       What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36397]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: “WHY, SADIE RABY! WHO’D EVER EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE?”]
+
+
+
+
+                             Ruth Fielding
+                            At Sunrise Farm
+
+                                   OR
+
+                    WHAT BECAME OF THE RABY ORPHANS
+
+                                   BY
+
+                            ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+            Author of “Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,” “Ruth
+                      Fielding at Snow Camp,” Etc.
+
+                             _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+                               PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+                            Books for Girls
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+                          RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+                       12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+                  Or, Jasper Parloe’s Secret.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+                  Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+                  Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+                  Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+                  Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+                  Or, The Old Hunter’s Treasure Box.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+                  Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+                  Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+               Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+                          Copyright, 1915, by
+                         Cupples & Leon Company
+
+                      Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound
+
+                          Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+           CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+                I. Sweet Briars and Sour Pickles               1
+               II. The Wild Girl                              12
+              III. Sadie Raby’s Story                         23
+               IV. “Them Perkinses”                           34
+                V. “The Tramping Girl”                        45
+               VI. Seeking the Trail                          53
+              VII. What Tom Cameron Saw                       61
+             VIII. Traveling Toward Sunrise Farm              68
+               IX. The Sunrise Coach                          77
+                X. “Touch and Go”                             85
+               XI. Tobogganing in June                        91
+              XII. A Number of Introductions                 100
+             XIII. The Terrible Twins                        108
+              XIV. “Why! Of Course!”                         114
+               XV. The Tempest                               120
+              XVI. The Runaway                               128
+             XVII. The Black Douglass                        135
+            XVIII. Sundry Plans                              143
+              XIX. A Safe and Sane Fourth?                   151
+               XX. The Raby Romance                          158
+              XXI. A Very Busy Time                          166
+             XXII. The Terrible Twins on the Rampage         173
+            XXIII. Lost                                      180
+             XXIV. “So That’s All Right”                     189
+              XXV. The Orphans’ Fortune                      198
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I—SWEET BRIARS AND SOUR PICKLES
+
+
+The single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and
+made so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the
+passage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which
+were realities and which shadows in the long gallery.
+
+Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory
+doors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within
+the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall.
+There were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and—without doubt—the
+members of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of
+the trade of being a schoolgirl.
+
+At one door—and it was the portal of the largest “quartette” room on the
+floor—a tall figure kept guard. At first this figure was so silent and
+motionless that it seemed like a shadow only. But when another shadow
+crept toward it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard demanded,
+hissingly:
+
+“S-s-stop! who goes there?”
+
+“Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge Steele!”
+
+“Sh!” commanded the guard. “Who goes there?”
+
+“Why—why—— It’s _I_.”
+
+“Give the password instantly. Answer!” commanded the guard again, and
+with some vexation. “‘I’ isn’t anybody.”
+
+“Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that _this_ ‘I’ is somebody—according to
+the gym. scales. I gained three pounds over the Easter holidays,” said
+“Heavy” Jennie Stone, who had begun her reply with a giggle, but ended
+it with a sigh.
+
+“Password, Miss!” snapped the guard, grimly.
+
+“Oh! of course!” Then the fat girl whispered shrilly:
+“‘Sincerity—befriend.’ That is what ‘S. B.’ stands for, I s’pose.
+Sweetbriars! and I have a big bag of sour pickles to offset the cloying
+sweetness of the Sweetbriars,” chuckled Heavy. “Besides, they say that
+vinegar pickles will make you thin——”
+
+“I don’t need them for that purpose,” admitted the guard at the door,
+still in a whisper, but accepting the large, “warty” pickle Heavy thrust
+into her hand.
+
+“Will make _me_ thin, then,” agreed the other. “Let me in, Madge.”
+
+The guard, sucking the pickle convulsively the while, opened the door
+just a little way. A blanket had been hung on a frame inside in such a
+manner that scarcely a gleam of lamplight reached the corridor when the
+door was open.
+
+“Pass the Sweetbriar!” choked Madge, with her mouth full and the tears
+running down her cheeks. “My goodness, Jennie Stone! these pickles are
+right out of vitriol!”
+
+“Sour, aren’t they?” chuckled Heavy. “I handed you a real one for fair,
+that time, didn’t I, Madge?”
+
+Then she tried to sidle through the narrow opening, got stuck, and was
+urged on by Madge pushing her. With a bang—punctuated by a chorus of
+muffled exclamations from the girls already assembled—she tore away the
+frame and the blanket and got through.
+
+“Shut the door, quick, guard!” exclaimed Helen Cameron.
+
+“Of course, that would be Heavy—entering like a female Samson and
+tearing down the pillars of the temple,” snapped Mercy Curtis, the lame
+girl, in her sharp way.
+
+“Please repair the damage, Helen,” said Ruth Fielding, who presided at
+the far end of the room, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.
+
+The other girls were arranged on the chairs, or upon the floor before
+her. There was a goodly number of them, and they now included most of
+the members of the secret society known at Briarwood Hall as the
+“S. B.’s.”
+
+Ruth herself was a bright, brown-haired girl who, without possessing
+many pretensions to real beauty of feature, still was quite good to look
+at and proved particularly charming when one grew to know her well.
+
+She was rather plump, happy of disposition, and with the kindest heart
+in the world. She made both friends and enemies. No person of real
+character can escape being disliked, now and then, by those of envious
+disposition.
+
+Ruth Fielding succeeded, usually, in winning to her those who at first
+disliked her. And this, I claim, is a better gift than that of being
+universally popular from the start.
+
+Ruth had come from her old home in Darrowtown, where her parents died,
+two years before, to the Red Mill on the Lumano River, where her
+great-uncle, Jabez Potter, the miller, was inclined at first to shelter
+her only as an object of his grudging charity. In the first volume of
+this series, however, entitled “Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or,
+Jasper Parloe’s Secret,” the girl found her way—in a measure, at
+least—to the uncle’s crabbed heart.
+
+Uncle Jabez was a just man, and he considered it his duty, when Helen
+Cameron, Ruth’s dearest friend, was sent to Briarwood Hall to school, to
+send Ruth to the same institution. In the second volume, “Ruth Fielding
+at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the Campus Mystery,” was related the
+adventures, friendships, rivalries, and fun of Ruth’s and Helen’s first
+term at the old school.
+
+In “Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods,” was told the
+adventures of Ruth and her friends at the Camerons’ winter camp during
+the Christmas holidays. At the end of the first year of school, they all
+went to the seaside, to experience many adventures in “Ruth Fielding at
+Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway,” the fourth volume of the
+series.
+
+A part of that eventful summer was spent by Ruth and her chums in
+Montana, and the girl of the Red Mill was enabled to do old Uncle Jabez
+such a favor that he willingly agreed to pay her expenses at Briarwood
+Hall for another year. This is all told in “Ruth Fielding at Silver
+Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.”
+
+The girls returned to Briarwood Hall and in the sixth volume of the
+series, entitled “Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter’s
+Treasure Box,” Ruth was privileged to help Jerry Sheming and his
+unfortunate old uncle in the recovery of their title to Cliff Island in
+Lake Tallahaska, while she and her friends had some thrilling and many
+funny adventures during the mid-winter vacation.
+
+The second half of this school year was now old. The Easter recess was
+past and the girls were looking forward to the usual break-up in the
+middle of June. The hardest of the work for the year was over. Those
+girls who had been faithful in their studies prior to Easter could now
+take something of a breathing spell, and the S. B.’s were determined to
+initiate such candidates as had been on the waiting list for reception
+into the secrets of the most popular society in the school.
+
+The shrouded door of the quartette room occupied by Ruth, Helen, Mercy,
+and Jane Ann Hicks, from Montana, was opened carefully again and again
+until the outer guard, Madge Steele, had admitted all the candidates and
+most of the members of the S. B. order who were expected.
+
+Each girl was presented with at least half a big sour pickle from
+Heavy’s store; but really, the pickles had nothing to do with the
+initiation of the neophytes.
+
+There was a serious and helpful side to the society of the S. B.’s—as
+witness the password. Ruth, who was the most active member of the
+institution, realized, however, that the girls were so full of fun that
+they must have some way of expressing themselves out of the ordinary.
+Perhaps she had asked Mademoiselle Picolet, the French teacher, whose
+room was in this dormitory, and Miss Scrimp, the matron, to overlook
+this present infraction of the rules, for it must be admitted that the
+retiring bell had rung half an hour before the gathering in this
+particular room.
+
+“All here!” breathed Ruth, at last, and Madge was called in. The
+candidates were placed in the middle of the floor. Ann Hicks, the girl
+from Silver Ranch, was one of these. Ann had proved her character and
+made herself popular in the school against considerable odds, as related
+in the preceding volume. Now, the honor of being admitted into the
+secret society was added to the other marks of the school’s approval.
+
+“Candidates,” said Ruth, addressing in most solemn tones the group of
+girls before her, “you are about to be initiated into the degree of the
+Marble Harp. As Infants, when you first entered the school, you were all
+made acquainted with the legend of the Marble Harp.
+
+“The figure of _Harmony_, presiding over the fountain in the middle of
+the campus, was modeled by the sculptor from the only daughter of the
+man who originally owned Briarwood Park before it became a school. Said
+sculptor and daughter—in the most approved fashion of the present day
+school of romanticist authors—ran away with each other, were married
+without the father’s approval, and both are supposed to have died
+miserably in a studio-garret.
+
+“The heart-broken father naturally left his cur-r-r-se upon the
+fountain, and it is said—mind you, this is hearsay,” added Ruth,
+solemnly, “that whenever anything of moment is about to transpire at
+Briarwood Hall, or any calamity befall, the strings of the marble harp
+held in the hands of _Harmony_, are heard to twang.
+
+“Of course, as has been pointed out before, the fact that the harp is in
+the shape of a _lyre_, must be considered, too, if one is to accept this
+legend. But, however, and nevertheless,” pursued Ruth, “it has been
+decided that the candidates here assembled must join in the Mackintosh
+March, and, in procession, led by our Outer Guard and followed—not to
+say _herded_—by our Rear Guard, must proceed once around the campus,
+down into the garden, and circle the fountain, chanting, as you have
+been instructed, the marching song.
+
+“All ready! You all have your mackintoshes, as instructed? Into them at
+once,” commanded Ruth. “Into line—one after the other. Now, Outer
+Guard!”
+
+The lights were extinguished; the blanket at the door was removed; Madge
+Steele led the way and Heavy, as the Rear Guard, was last in the line.
+Shrouded in the hoods of the mackintoshes, scarcely one of the girls
+would have been recognized by any curious teacher or matron.
+
+Ruth hopped down from the bed, and the remaining Sweetbriars ran
+giggling to the windows. It was a drizzly, dark night. The paths about
+the campus glistened, and the lamps upon the posts flickered dimly.
+
+Out of the front door filed the procession; when they were far enough
+away from the buildings which surrounded the campus, they began the
+chant, based upon Tom Moore’s famous old song:
+
+  “The harp that once through Briarwood Hall
+    The soul of music shed,
+  Now hangs as mute o’er the campus fount
+    As though that soul were dead.”
+
+Madge Steele, with her strong voice, led the chant. The girls, crowded
+at the open windows, began to giggle, for they could hear Heavy, at the
+end of the procession, sing out a very different verse.
+
+“That rascal ought to be fined for that,” murmured The Fox, the
+sandy-haired girl next to Ruth.
+
+“But, isn’t she funny?” gasped Helen, on the other side of the Chief of
+the S. B.’s.
+
+“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Belle Tingley. “I hope Sarah Fish got there ahead
+of them. _Won’t_ they be surprised when they get a baptism of a glass of
+water each from the fountain, as they go by?”
+
+“They’ll think the statue has come to life, sure enough, if it doesn’t
+twang the lyre,” quoth Helen.
+
+“They’ll get an unexpected ducking,” giggled Lluella Fairfax.
+
+“It won’t hurt them,” Ruth said, placidly. “That’s why I insisted upon
+the mackintoshes.”
+
+“It’s just as dark down there by the fountain as it can be,” spoke
+Helen, with a little shiver. “D’you remember, Ruthie, how they hazed us
+there when we were Infants?”
+
+“Don’t I!” agreed her chum.
+
+“If Sarah is careful, she can stand right up there against the statue
+and never be seen, while she can reach the water to throw it at the
+girls easily. There!” cried Belle. “They’re turning down the walk to the
+steps. I can see them.”
+
+They all could see them—dimly. Like shadows the procession descended to
+the marble fountain, still chanting softly the refrain of the marching
+song. Suddenly a shriek—a very vigorous and startling sound—rang out
+across the campus.
+
+“It’s begun!” giggled Belle.
+
+But the sound was repeated—then in a thrilling chorus. Ruth was
+startled. She exclaimed:
+
+“That wasn’t either of the candidates. It was Sarah who screamed. There!
+It is Sarah again. Something has happened!”
+
+Something certainly had happened. There had been an unexpected fault
+somewhere in the initiation. The procession burst like a bombshell, and
+the girls scattered through the wet campus, utterly terrified, and
+screaming as they ran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II—THE WILD GIRL
+
+
+“Something awful must have occurred!” cried Helen Cameron.
+
+Ruth did not remain at the window for more than a moment after seeing
+the girls engaged in the initiation disperse, and hearing their screams.
+She drew back from the crowding group and darted out of the room.
+Fortunately neither the French teacher, nor the matron, had yet been
+aroused. If the girls came noisily into the dormitory building, Ruth
+knew very well that “the powers that be” must of necessity take
+cognizance of the infraction of the rules.
+
+The girl from the Red Mill sped down the broad stairway and out of the
+house. Some of the fastest runners among the frightened girls were
+already panting at the steps.
+
+“Hush! hush!” commanded Ruth. “What is the matter? What has happened?”
+
+“Oh! it’s the ghost!” declared one girl.
+
+“So’s your grandmother’s aunt!” snapped another. “Somebody shoved Sarah
+into the water. It was no ghost.”
+
+It was Madge Steele who last spoke, and Ruth seized upon the senior,
+believing she might get something like a sensible explanation from her.
+
+“You girls go into the house quietly,” warned Ruth, as they scrambled up
+the stone steps. “Don’t you _dare_ make a noise and get us all into
+trouble.”
+
+Then she turned upon Madge, begging: “Do, _do_ tell me what you mean,
+Madge Steele. _Who_ pushed Sarah?”
+
+“That’s what I can’t tell you. But I heard Sarah yelling that she was
+pushed, and she did most certainly fall right into the fountain when she
+climbed up there beside the statue.”
+
+“What a ridiculous thing!” giggled Ruth. “Somebody played a trick on
+her. I guess she was fooled instead of the candidates being startled,
+eh?”
+
+“I saw somebody—or something—drop off the other side of the fountain and
+run—I saw it myself,” declared Madge.
+
+“Here comes Sarah,” cried Ruth, under her breath. “And I declare she
+_is_ all wet!”
+
+Sarah Fish was actually laughing, but in a hysterical way.
+
+“Oh, dear me! was ever anything so ridiculous before?” she gasped.
+
+“Hush! Don’t get Miss Picolet after us,” begged Madge.
+
+“What really happened?” demanded Ruth, eagerly.
+
+“Why—I’ll tell you,” replied Sarah, whose gown clung to her as though it
+had been pasted upon her figure. “See? I’m just _soaked_. Talk about
+sprinkling those silly lambs of candidates! Why, _I_ was immersed—you
+see.”
+
+“But how?”
+
+“I slipped over there before the procession started from these steps. I
+was watching the girls, and listening to them sing, and didn’t pay much
+attention to anything else.
+
+“But when I dodged down into the little garden, I thought I heard a
+footstep on the flags. I looked all around, and saw nothing. Now I know
+the person must have already climbed up on the fountain and gotten into
+the shadow of the statue—just as I wanted to do.”
+
+“Was there really somebody there?” demanded Madge.
+
+“How do you think I got into the fountain, if not?” snapped Sarah Fish.
+
+“Fell in.”
+
+“I did not!” cried Sarah. “I was pushed.”
+
+“‘Did She Fall, or Was She Pushed?’” giggled Madge. “Sounds like a
+moving picture title.”
+
+“You can laugh,” scoffed Sarah. “I wonder what you’d have done?”
+
+“Got just as wet as you did, most likely,” said Ruth, calming the
+troubled waters. “Do go on, Sarah. So you really _saw_ somebody?”
+
+“And felt somebody. When I climbed up to get a footing beside the
+sitting figure, so that the girls would not see me, somebody shoved
+me—with both hands—right into the fountain.”
+
+“That’s when you squalled?” asked Madge.
+
+“Yes, indeed! And I rolled out of the fountain just as the—the person
+who pushed me, tumbled down off the pedestal and ran.”
+
+“For pity’s sake!” ejaculated Ruth. “Do tell us who it was, Sarah.”
+
+“Don’t you think I would if I could?” responded Sarah, trying to wring
+the water out of her narrow skirt.
+
+Through the gloom appeared another figure—the too, too solid figure of
+Jennie Stone.
+
+“Oh—dear—me! Oh—dear—me!” she panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish
+dripping there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and giggled. “Oh,
+Sarah!” she gasped. “For once, your appearance fits your name, all
+right. You look like a fish out of its element.”
+
+“Laugh——”
+
+“I have to,” responded Heavy.
+
+“Well, if it were you——”
+
+“I know. I’d be floundering there in the water yet.”
+
+“But tell me!” cried Ruth, under her breath. “Was it a girl who pushed
+you into the fountain, Sarah?”
+
+“It wore skirts—I’m sure of that, at least,” grumbled Sarah.
+
+“But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw run,” vouchsafed Heavy.
+“_Did_ you see her just skimming across the campus toward the main
+building? Like the wind!”
+
+“It must be one of our girls,” declared Madge.
+
+“All right,” said Heavy. “But if so, it’s a girl I never saw run before.
+You can’t tell me.”
+
+“You had better go in and get off your clothes, Sarah,” advised Ruth.
+Then she looked at Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at
+Briarwood. “Let’s go and see if we can find the girl,” Ruth suggested.
+
+“I’m game,” cried Madge, as the other stragglers mounted the steps and
+disappeared behind the dormitory building door.
+
+Both girls hurried down the walk under the trees to the main building.
+In one end of this Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode. In
+the other end was the dining-room, with the kitchens and other offices
+in the basement. Besides, Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work
+about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook, had their living rooms in
+the basement of this building.
+
+Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter of the mysterious
+marauder without arousing the little old Irishman, but already they saw
+his lantern behind the grated window in the front basement, and, as the
+two girls came nearer, they heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
+
+“Bad ‘cess to ’em! I seen ’em cavortin’ across the campus, I tell ye,
+Mary Ann! There’s wan of thim down here in the airy——”
+
+It was evident that the old couple had been aroused, and that Tony was
+talking to his wife, who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized Madge’s
+wrist and whispered in her ear:
+
+“You run around one way, and I’ll go the other. There must be _somebody_
+about, for Tony saw her——”
+
+“If it _is_ a girl.”
+
+“Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I’m not afraid,” declared Ruth, and she
+started off alone at once.
+
+Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth had darted into the heavily
+shaded space between the end of the main building and the next brick
+structure. There were no lights here, but there was a gas lamp on a post
+beyond the far corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw a
+shadow flit across the illuminated space about this post, and disappear
+behind a clump of snowball bushes.
+
+Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the other end of the clump of
+thick bushes, and suddenly collided with somebody who uttered a muffled
+scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both shoulders and held on.
+
+It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl, who was considerably
+smaller, and far slighter than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did
+not say a word at first, only straining to get away from Ruth’s strong
+grip.
+
+“Now stop! now wait!” panted Ruth. “I want to know who you are——”
+
+The other tugged her best, but the girl of the Red Mill was very strong
+for her age, and she held on.
+
+“Stop!” panted Ruth again. “If you make a noise, you’ll bring old Tony
+here—and then you _will_ be in trouble. I want to know who you are and
+what you were doing down there at the fountain—and why you pushed Sarah
+into the water?”
+
+“And I’d like to push _you_ in!” ejaculated the other girl, suddenly.
+“You let go of me, or I’ll scratch you!”
+
+“You can’t,” replied Ruth, firmly. “I’m holding you too tight.”
+
+“Then I’ll bite you!” vowed the other.
+
+“Why—you’re a regular wild girl,” exclaimed Ruth. “You stop struggling,
+or I’ll shout for help, and then Tony will come running.”
+
+“D—don’t give me away,” gasped the strange girl, suddenly ceasing her
+struggles.
+
+“Do you belong here?” demanded Ruth.
+
+“Belong here? Naw! I don’t belong nowheres. An’ you better lemme go,
+Miss.”
+
+“Why—you _are_ a strange girl,” said Ruth, greatly amazed. “You can’t be
+one of us Briarwoods.”
+
+“That ain’t my name a-tall,” whispered the frightened girl. “My name’s
+Raby.”
+
+“But what were you doing over there at the fountain?”
+
+“Gettin’ a drink. Was _that_ any harm?” demanded the girl, sharply. “I’d
+found some dry pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a box there by
+the back door. I reckoned she didn’t want the bread, and _I_ did.”
+
+“Oh, dear me!” whispered Ruth.
+
+“And dry bread’s dry eatin’,” said the strange girl. “I had ter have a
+drink o’ water to wash it down. And jest as I got down into that little
+place where I seed the fountain this afternoon——”
+
+“Oh, my, dear!” gasped Ruth. “Have you been lurking about the school all
+that time and never came and asked good old Mary Ann for something
+decent to eat?”
+
+“Huh! mebbe she’d a drove me off. Or mebbe she’d done worse to me,” said
+the other, quickly. “They beat me again day ’fore yesterday——”
+
+“Who beat you?” demanded Ruth.
+
+“Them Perkinses. Now! don’t you go for to tell I said that. I don’t want
+to go back to ’em—and their house ain’t such a fur ways from here. If
+that cook—or any other grown folk—seen me, they’d want to send me back.
+I know ’em!” exclaimed the girl, bitterly. “But mebbe you’ll be decent
+about it, and keep your mouth shut.”
+
+“Oh! I won’t tell a soul,” murmured Ruth. “But I’m so sorry. Only dry
+bread and water—”
+
+“Huh! it’ll keep a feller alive,” said this strangely spoken girl. “I
+ain’t no softie. Now, you lemme go, will yer? My! but you _are_ strong.”
+
+“I’ll let you go. But I do want to help you. I want to know more about
+you—_all_ about you. But if Tony comes——”
+
+“That’s his lantern. I see it. He’s a-comin’,” gasped the other, trying
+to wriggle free.
+
+“Where will you stay to-night?” asked Ruth, anxiously.
+
+“I gotter place. It’s warm and dry. I stayed there las’ night. Come! you
+lemme go.”
+
+“But I want to help you——”
+
+“‘Twon’t help me none to git me cotched.”
+
+“Oh, I know it! Wait! Meet me somewhere near here to-morrow morning—will
+you? I’ll bring some money with me. I’ll help you.”
+
+“Say! ain’t you foolin’?” demanded the other, seemingly startled by the
+fact that Ruth wished to help her.
+
+“No. I speak the truth. I will help you.”
+
+“Then I’ll meet you—but you won’t tell nobody?”
+
+“Not a soul?”
+
+“Cross yer heart?”
+
+“I don’t do such foolish things,” said Ruth. “If I say I’ll do a thing,
+I will do it.”
+
+“All right. What time’ll I see you?”
+
+“Ten o’clock.”
+
+“Aw-right,” agreed the strange girl. “I’ll be across the road from that
+path that’s bordered by them cedar trees——”
+
+“The Cedar Walk?”
+
+“Guess so.”
+
+“I shall be there. And will you?”
+
+“Huh! I kin keep my word as well as you kin,” said the girl, sharply.
+Then she suddenly broke away from Ruth and ran. Tony Foyle came
+blundering around the corner of the house and Ruth, much excited,
+slipped away from the brush clump and ran as fast as she could to meet
+Madge Steele.
+
+“Oh! is that you, Ruth?” exclaimed the senior, when Ruth ran into her
+arms. “Tony’s out. We had better go back to bed, or he’ll report us to
+Mrs. Tellingham in the morning. I don’t know where the strange girl
+could have gone.”
+
+Ruth did not say a word. Madge did not ask her, and the girl of the Red
+Mill allowed her friend to think that her own search had been quite as
+unsuccessful. But, as Ruth looked at it, it was not _her_ secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III—SADIE RABY’S STORY
+
+
+Ruth did not sleep at all well that night. Luckily, Helen had nothing on
+_her_ mind or conscience, or she must have been disturbed by Ruth’s
+tossing and wakefulness. The other two girls in the big quartette
+room—Mercy Curtis and Ann Hicks—were likewise unaware of Ruth’s
+restlessness.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill felt that she could take nobody into her
+confidence regarding the strange girl who said her name was Raby.
+Perhaps Ruth had no right to aid the girl if she was a runaway; yet
+there must be some very strong reason for making a girl prefer practical
+starvation to the shelter of “them Perkinses.”
+
+Bread and water! The thought of the child being so hungry that she had
+eaten discarded, dry bread, washed down with water from the fountain in
+the campus, brought tears to Ruth’s eyes.
+
+“Oh! I wish I knew what was best to do for her,” thought Ruth. “Should I
+tell Mrs. Tellingham? Or, mightn’t I get some of the girls interested in
+her? Dear Helen has plenty of money, and she is just as tender-hearted
+as she can be.”
+
+Yet Ruth had given her promise to take nobody into her confidence about
+the half-wild girl; and, with Ruth Fielding, “a promise was a promise!”
+
+In the morning, there was soon a buzz of excitement all over the school
+regarding the strange happening at the fountain on the campus. One girl
+whispered it to another, and the tale spread like wildfire. However, the
+teachers and the principal did not hear of the affair.
+
+Ruth’s lips, she decided, were sealed for the present regarding the
+mysterious girl who had pushed Sarah Fish into what Heavy declared was
+“her proper element.” The wildest and most improbable stories and
+suspicions were circulated before assembly hour, regarding the Unknown.
+
+There was so much said, and so many questions asked, in the quartette
+room where Ruth was located, that she felt like running away herself.
+But at mail time Madge Steele burst into the dormitory “charged to the
+muzzle,” as The Fox expressed it, with a new topic of conversation.
+
+“What do you think, girls? Oh! what do you think?” she cried. “We’re
+going to live at Sunrise Farm.”
+
+“Ha! you ask us a question and answer it in the same breath,” said
+Mercy, with a snap. “Now you’ve spilled the beans and we don’t care
+anything about it at all.”
+
+“You _do_ care,” declared Madge. “I ask _you_ first of all, Mercy. I
+invite every one of you for the last week in June and the first two
+weeks of July at Sunrise Farm——”
+
+“Oh, wait!” exclaimed Mary Cox, otherwise “The Fox.” “Do begin at the
+beginning. I, for one, never heard of Sunrise Farm before.”
+
+“I—I believe _I_ have,” said Ruth slowly. “But I don’t suppose it can be
+the same farm Madge means. It is a big stock farm and it’s not many
+miles from Darrowtown where I—I used to live once. _That_ farm belonged
+to a family named Benson——”
+
+“And a family named Steele owns it now,” put in Madge, promptly. “It’s
+the very same farm. It’s a big place—five hundred acres. It’s on a big,
+flat-topped hill. Father has been negotiating for the other farms around
+about, and has gotten options on most of them, too. He’s been doing it
+very quietly.
+
+“Now he says that the old house on the main farm is in good enough shape
+for us to live there this summer, while he builds a bigger house. And
+you shall all come with us—all you eight girls—the Brilliant Octette of
+Briarwood Hall.
+
+“And Bob will get Helen’s brother, and Busy Izzy; and Belle shall invite
+her brothers if she likes, and——”
+
+“Say! are you figuring on having a standing army there?” demanded Mercy.
+
+“That’s all right. There is room. The old garret has been made over into
+two great dormitories——”
+
+“And you’ve been keeping all this to yourself, Madge Steele?” cried
+Helen. “What a nice girl you are. It sounds lovely.”
+
+“And your mother and father will wish we had never arrived, after we’ve
+been there two days,” declared Heavy. “By the way, do they know I eat
+three square meals each day?”
+
+“Yes. And that if you are hungry, you get up in your sleep and find the
+pantry,” giggled The Fox.
+
+“Might as well have all the important details understood right at the
+start,” said Heavy, firmly.
+
+“If you’ll all say you’ll come,” said Madge, smiling broadly, “we’ll
+just have the lov-li-est time!”
+
+“But we’ll have to write home for permission,” Lluella Fairfax ventured.
+
+“Of course we shall,” chimed in Helen.
+
+“Then do so at once,” commanded the senior. “You see, this will be my
+graduation party. No more Briarwood for me after this June, and I don’t
+know what I shall do when I go to Poughkeepsie next fall and leave all
+you ‘Infants’ behind here——”
+
+“_Infants!_ Listen to her!” shouted Belle Tingley. “Get out of here!”
+and under a shower of sofa pillows Madge Steele had to retire from the
+room.
+
+Ruth slipped away easily after that, for the other girls were gabbling
+so fast over the invitation for the early summer vacation, that they did
+not notice her departure.
+
+This was the hour she had promised to meet the strange girl in whom she
+had taken such a great interest the night before—it was between the two
+morning recitation hours.
+
+She ran down past the end of the dormitory building into the head of the
+long serpentine path, known as the Cedar Walk. The lines of closely
+growing cedars sheltered her from observation from any of the girls’
+windows.
+
+The great bell in the clock tower boomed out ten strokes as Ruth reached
+the muddy road at the end of the walk. Nobody was in sight. Ruth looked
+up and down. Then she walked a little way in both directions to see if
+the girl she had come to meet was approaching.
+
+“I—I am afraid she isn’t going to keep her word,” thought Ruth. “And
+yet—somehow—she seemed so frank and honest——”
+
+She heard a shrill, but low whistle, and the sound made her start and
+turn. She faced a thicket of scrubby bushes across the road. Suddenly
+she saw a face appear from behind this screen—a girl’s face.
+
+“Oh! Is it you?” cried Ruth, starting in that direction.
+
+“Cheese it! don’t yell it out. Somebody’ll hear you,” said the girl,
+hoarsely.
+
+“Oh, dear me! you have a dreadful cold,” urged Ruth, darting around the
+clump of brush and coming face to face with the strange girl.
+
+“Oh, _that_ don’t give me so much worry,” said the Raby girl. “Aw—My
+goodness! Is that for _me_?”
+
+Ruth had unfolded a paper covered parcel she carried. There were
+sandwiches, two apples, a piece of cake, and half a box of chocolate
+candies. Ruth had obtained these supplies with some difficulty.
+
+“I didn’t suppose you would have any breakfast,” said Ruth, softly. “You
+sit right down on that dry log and eat. Don’t mind me. I—I was awake
+most all night worrying about you being out here, hungry and alone.”
+
+The girl had begun to eat ravenously, and now, with her mouth full, she
+gazed up at her new friend’s face with a suddenness that made Ruth
+pause.
+
+“Say!” said the girl, with difficulty. “You’re all right. I seen you
+come down the path alone, but reckoned I’d better wait and see if you
+didn’t have somebody follerin’ on behind. Ye might have give me away.”
+
+“Why! I told you I would tell nobody.”
+
+“Aw, yes—I know. Mebbe I’d oughter have believed ye; but I dunno. Lots
+of folks has fooled me. Them Perkinses was as soft as butter when they
+came to take me away from the orphanage. But now they treat me as mean
+as dirt—yes, they do!”
+
+“Oh, dear me! So you haven’t any mother or father?”
+
+“Not a one,” confessed the other. “Didn’t I tell you I was took from an
+orphanage? Willie and Dickie was taken away by other folks. I wisht
+somebody would ha’ taken us all three together; but I’m mighty glad them
+Perkinses didn’t git the kids.”
+
+She sighed with present contentment, and wiped her fingers on her skirt.
+For some moments Ruth had remained silent, listening to her. Now she had
+for the first time the opportunity of examining the strange girl.
+
+It had been too dark for her to see much of her the night before. Now
+the light of day revealed a very unkempt and not at all attractive
+figure. She might have been twelve—possibly fourteen. She was slight for
+her age, but she might be stronger than she appeared to Ruth. Certainly
+she was vigorous enough.
+
+She had black hair which was in a dreadful tangle. Her complexion was
+naturally dark, and she had a deep layer of tan, and over that quite a
+thick layer of dirt. Her hands and wrists were stained and dirty, too.
+
+She wore no hat, raw as the weather was. Her ragged dress was an old
+faded gingham; over it she wore a three-quarter length coat of some
+indeterminate, shoddy material, much soiled, and shapeless as a
+mealsack. Her shoes and stockings were in keeping with the rest of her
+outfit.
+
+Altogether her appearance touched Ruth Fielding deeply. This Raby girl
+was an orphan. Ruth remembered keenly the time when the loss of her own
+parents was still a fresh wound. Supposing no kind friends had been
+raised up for her? Suppose there had been no Red Mill for her to go to?
+She might have been much the same sort of castaway as this.
+
+“Tell me who you are—tell me all about yourself—do!” begged the girl of
+the Red Mill, sitting down beside the other on the log. “I am an orphan
+as well as you, my dear. Really, I am.”
+
+“Was you in the orphanage?” demanded the Raby girl, quickly.
+
+“Oh, no. I had friends——”
+
+“You warn’t never a reg’lar orphan, then,” was the sharp response.
+
+“Tell me about it,” urged Ruth.
+
+“Me an’ the kids was taken to the orphanage just as soon as Mom died,”
+said the girl, in quite a matter-of-fact manner. “Pa died two months
+before. It was sudden. But Mom had been sickly for a long time—I can
+remember. I was six.”
+
+“And how old are you now?” asked Ruth.
+
+“Twelve and a half. They puts us out to work at twelve anyhow, so them
+Perkinses got me,” explained the child. “I was pretty sharp and foxy
+when we went to the orphanage. The kids was only two and a half——”
+
+“Both of them?” cried Ruth.
+
+“Yep. They’re twins, Willie and Dickie is. An’ awful smart—an’ pretty
+before they lopped off their curls at the orphanage. I was glad Mom was
+dead then,” said the girl, nodding. “She’d been heart-broke to see ’em
+at first without their long curls.
+
+“I dunno now—not rightly—just what’s become of ’em,” went on the girl.
+“Mebbe they come back to the orphanage. The folks that took ’em was nice
+enough, I guess, but the man thought two boys would be too much for his
+wife to take care of. She was a weakly lookin’ critter.
+
+“But the matron always said they shouldn’t go away for keeps, unless
+they went together. My goodness me! they’d never be happy apart,” said
+the strange girl, wagging her head confidentially. “And they’re only
+nine now. There’s three years yet for the matron to find them a good
+home. Ye see, folks take young orphans on trial. I wisht them Perkinses
+had taken _me_ on trial and then had sent me back. Or, I wisht they’d
+let the orphans take folks on trial instead of the other way ’round.”
+
+“Oh, it must be very hard!” murmured Ruth. “And you and your little
+brothers had to be separated?’
+
+“Yep. And Willie and Dickie liked their sister Sade a heap,” and the
+girl suddenly “knuckled” her eyes with her dirty hand to wipe away the
+tears. “Huh! I’m a big baby, ain’t I? Well! that’s how it is.”
+
+“And you really have run away from the people that took you from the
+orphanage, Sadie?”
+
+“Betcher! So would you. Mis’ Perkins is awful cross, an’ he’s crosser! I
+got enough——”
+
+“Wouldn’t they take you back at the orphanage?”
+
+“Nope. No runaways there. I’ve seen other girls come back and they made
+’em go right away again with the same folks. You see, there’s a Board,
+or sumpin’; an’ the Board finds out all about the folks that take away
+the orphans in the first place. Then they won’t never own up that they
+was fooled, that Board won’t. They allus say it’s the kids’ fault if
+they ain’t suited.”
+
+Suddenly the girl jumped up and peered through the bushes. Ruth had
+heard the thumping of horses’ hoofs on the wet road.
+
+“My goodness!” gasped Sadie Raby. “Here’s ol’ Perkins hisself. He’s come
+clean over this road to look for me. Don’t you tell him——”
+
+She seized Ruth’s wrist with her claw-like little hand.
+
+“Don’t you be afraid,” said Ruth. “And take this.” She thrust a
+closely-folded dollar bill into the girl’s grimy fingers. “I wish it was
+more. I’ll come here again to-morrow——”
+
+The other had darted into the woods ere she had ceased speaking.
+Somebody shouted “Whoa!” in a very harsh voice, and then a heavy pair of
+cowhide boots landed solidly in the road.
+
+“I see ye, ye little witch!” exclaimed the harsh voice. “Come out o’
+there before I tan ye with this whip!” and the whip in question snapped
+viciously as the speaker pounded violently through the clump of bushes,
+right upon the startled Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV—“THEM PERKINSES”
+
+
+It was a fact that Ruth crouched back behind the log, fearful of the
+wrathful farmer. He was a big, coarse, high-booted, red-faced man, and
+he swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he carried as though he really
+intended using the cruel instrument upon the tender body of the girl,
+whose figure he had evidently seen dimly through the bushes.
+
+“Come out ’o that!” he bawled, striding toward the log, and making the
+whiplash whistle once more in the air.
+
+Ruth leaped up, screaming with fear. “Don’t you touch me, sir! Don’t you
+dare!” she cried, and ran around the bushes out in to the road.
+
+The blundering farmer followed her, still snapping the whip. Perhaps he
+had been drinking; at least, it was certain he was too angry to see the
+girl very well until they were both in the road.
+
+Then he halted, and added:
+
+“I’ll be whipsawed if that’s the gal!”
+
+“I am _not_ the girl—not the girl you want—poor thing!” gasped Ruth.
+“Oh! you are horrid—terrible——”
+
+“Shut up, ye little fool!” exclaimed the man, harshly. “You know where
+Sade is, then, I’ll be bound.”
+
+“How do you know——?”
+
+“Ha! ye jest the same as told me,” he returned, grinning suddenly and
+again snapping the whip. “You can tell me where that runaway’s gone.”
+
+“I don’t know. Even if I did, I would not tell you, sir,” declared Ruth,
+recovering some of her natural courage now.
+
+“Don’t ye sass me—nor don’t ye lie to me,” and this time he swung the
+cruel whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at a
+level with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth cringed and shrieked
+aloud again.
+
+“Stop yer howling!” commanded Perkins. “Tell me about Sade Raby. Where’s
+she gone?”
+
+“I don’t know.”
+
+“Warn’t she right there in them bushes with you?”
+
+“I shan’t tell you anything more,” declared Ruth.
+
+“Ye won’t?”
+
+The brute swung the blacksnake—this time in earnest. It cracked, and
+then the snapper laid along the girl’s forearm as though it were seared
+with a hot iron.
+
+Ruth shrieked again. The pain was more than she could bear in silence.
+She turned to flee up the Cedar Walk, but Perkins shouted at her to
+stand.
+
+“You try ter run, my beauty, and I’ll cut ye worse than that,” he
+promised. “You tell me about Sade Raby.”
+
+Suddenly there came a hail, and Ruth turned in hope of assistance. Old
+Dolliver’s stage came tearing along the road, his bony horses at a
+hand-gallop. The old man, whom the girls of Briarwood Hall called “Uncle
+Noah,” brought his horses—and the Ark—to a sudden halt.
+
+“What yer doin’ to that gal, Sim Perkins?” the old man demanded.
+
+“What’s that to you, Dolliver?”
+
+“You’ll find out mighty quick. Git out o’ here or you’ll git into
+trouble. Did he hurt you, Miss Ruth?”
+
+“No-o—not much,” stammered Ruth, who desired nothing so much as to get
+way from the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No wonder she had been
+forced to run away from “them Perkinses.”
+
+“I’ll see you jailed yet, Sim, for some of your meanness,” said the old
+stage driver. “And you’ll git there quick if you bother Mis’
+Tellingham’s gals——”
+
+“I didn’t know she was one ‘o them tony school gals,” growled Perkins,
+getting aboard his wagon again.
+
+“Well, she is—an’ one ‘o the best of the lot,” said Dolliver, and he
+smiled comfortably at Ruth.
+
+“Huh! whad-she wanter be in comp’ny of that brat ’o mine, then?”
+demanded Perkins, gathering up his reins.
+
+“Oh! are you hunting that orphanage gal ye took to raise? I heard she
+couldn’t stand you and Ma Perkins no longer,” Dolliver said, with
+sarcasm.
+
+“Never you mind. I’ll git her,” said Perkins, and whipped up his horses.
+
+“Oh, dear, me!” cried Ruth, when he had gone. “What a terrible man, Mr.
+Dolliver.”
+
+“Yah!” scoffed the old driver. “Jest a bag of wind. Mean as can be, but
+a big coward. Meanes’ folks around here, them Perkinses air.”
+
+“But why were they allowed to have that poor girl, then?” demanded Ruth.
+
+“They went a-fur off to git her. Clean to Harburg. Nobody knowed ’em
+there, I s’pose. Why, Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn’t melt in
+her mouth, if she wants to. But I sartainly am sorry for that poor
+little Sade Raby, as they call her.”
+
+“Oh! I do pity her so,” said Ruth, sadly.
+
+The old man’s eyes twinkled. Old Dolliver was sly! “Then ye _do_ know
+suthin’ about Sade—jes’ as Perkins said?”
+
+“She was here just now. I gave her something to eat—and a little money.
+You won’t tell, Mr. Dolliver?”
+
+“Huh! No. But dunno’s ye’d oughter helped a runaway. That’s agin’ the
+law, ye see.”
+
+“Would the law give that poor girl back to those ugly people?”
+
+“I s’pect so,” said Dolliver, scratching his head. “Ye see, Sim Perkins
+an’ his wife air folks ye can’t really go agin’—not _much_. Sim owns a
+good farm, an’ pays his taxes, an’ ain’t a bad neighbor. But they’ve had
+trouble before naow with orphans. But before, ’twas boys.”
+
+“I just hope they all ran away!” cried Ruth, with emphasis.
+
+“Wal—they did, by golly!” ejaculated the stage driver, preparing to
+drive on.
+
+“And if you see this poor girl, you won’t tell anybody, will you, Mr.
+Dolliver?” pleaded Ruth.
+
+“I jes’ sha’n’t see her,” said the man, his little eyes twinkling. “But
+you take my advice, Miss Fielding—don’t _you_ see her, nuther!”
+
+Ruth ran back to the school then—it was time. She could not think of her
+lessons properly because of her pity for Sadie Raby. Suppose that horrid
+man should find the poor girl!
+
+Every time Ruth saw the red welt on her arm, where the whiplash had
+touched her, she wondered how many times Perkins had lashed Sadie when
+he was angry. It was a dreadful thought.
+
+Although she had promised Sadie to keep her secret, Ruth wondered if she
+might not do the girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about her.
+Ruth was not afraid of the dignified principal of Briarwood Hall—she
+knew too well Mrs. Grace Tellingham’s good heart.
+
+She determined at least that if Sadie appeared at the end of the Cedar
+Walk the next day she would try to get the runaway girl to go with her
+to the principal’s office. Surely the girl should not run wild in the
+woods and live any way and how she could—especially so early in the
+season, for there was still frost at night.
+
+When Ruth ran down the long walk between the cedar trees the next
+forenoon at ten, there was nobody peering through the bushes where Sadie
+Raby had watched the day before. Ruth went up and down the road, into
+the woods a little way, too—and called, and called. No reply. Nothing
+answered but a chattering squirrel and a jay who seemed to object to any
+human being disturbing the usual tenor of the woods’ life thereabout.
+
+“Perhaps she’ll come this afternoon,” thought Ruth, and she hid the
+package of food she had brought, and went back to her classes.
+
+In the afternoon she had no better luck. The runaway did not appear. The
+food had not been touched. Ruth left the packet, hoping sadly that the
+girl might find it.
+
+The next morning she went again. She even got up an hour earlier than
+usual and slipped out ahead of the other girls. The food had been
+disturbed—oh, yes! But by a dog or some “varmint.” Sadie had not been to
+the rendezvous.
+
+Hoping against hope, Ruth Fielding tacked a note in an envelope to the
+log on which she and Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she could
+do, save to go each day for a time to see if the strange girl had found
+the note.
+
+There came a rain and the letter was turned to pulp. Then Ruth Fielding
+gave up hope of ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told her that
+the orphan had never returned to “them Perkinses.” For this Ruth might
+be thankful, if for nothing more.
+
+The busy days and weeks passed. All the girls of Ruth’s clique were
+writing back and forth to their homes to arrange for the visit they
+expected to make to Madge Steele’s summer home—Sunrise Farm. The senior
+was forever singing the praises of her father’s new acquisition. Mr.
+Steele had closed contracts to buy several of the neighboring farms, so
+that, altogether, he hoped to have more than a thousand acres in his
+estate.
+
+“And, don’t you _dare_ disappoint me, Ruthie Fielding,” cried Madge,
+shaking her playfully. “We won’t have any good time without you, and you
+haven’t said you’d go yet!”
+
+“But I can’t say so until I know myself,” Ruth told her. “Uncle Jabez——”
+
+“That uncle of yours must be a regular ogre, just as Helen says.”
+
+“What does Mercy say about him?” asked Ruth, with a quiet smile. “Mercy
+knows him fully as well, and she has a sharp tongue.”
+
+“Humph! that’s odd, too. She doesn’t seem to think your Uncle Jabez is a
+very harsh man. She calls him ‘Dusty Miller,’ I know.”
+
+“Uncle Jabez has a prickly rind, I guess,” said Ruth. “But the meat
+inside is sweet. Only he’s old-fashioned and he can’t get used to
+new-fashioned ways. He doesn’t see any reason for my ‘traipsing around’
+so much. I ought to be at the mill between schooltimes, helping Aunt
+Alvirah—so he says. And I am afraid he is right. I feel condemned——”
+
+“You’re too tender-hearted. Helen says he’s as rich as can be and might
+hire a dozen girls to help ‘Aunt Alviry’.”
+
+“He might, but he wouldn’t,” returned Ruth, smiling. “I can’t tell you
+yet for sure that I can go to Sunrise Farm. I’d love to. I’ve always
+heard ’twas a beautiful place.”
+
+“And it is, indeed! It’s going to be the finest gentleman’s estate in
+that section, when father gets through with it. He’s going to make it a
+great, big, paying farm—so he says. If it wasn’t for that man Caslon,
+we’d own the whole hill all the way around, as well as the top of it.”
+
+“Who’s that?” asked Ruth, surprised that Madge should speak so sharply
+about the unknown Caslon.
+
+“Why, he owns one of the farms adjoining. Father’s bought all the
+neighbors up but Caslon. _He_ won’t sell. But I reckon father will find
+a way to make him, before he gets through. Father usually carries his
+point,” added Madge, with much pride in Mr. Steele’s business acumen.
+
+Uncle Jabez had not yet said Ruth could go with the crowd to the
+Steeles’ summer home; Aunt Alvirah wrote that he was “studyin’ about
+it.” But there was so much to do at Briarwood as the end of the school
+year approached, that the girl of the Red Mill had little time to worry
+about the subject.
+
+Although Ruth and Helen Cameron were far from graduation themselves,
+they both had parts of some prominence in the exercises which were to
+close the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was in a quartette selected from
+the Glee Club for some special music, and Helen had a small violin solo
+part in one of the orchestral numbers.
+
+Not many of the juniors, unless they belonged to either the school
+orchestra or the Glee Club, would appear to much advantage at
+graduation. The upper senior class was in the limelight—and Madge Steele
+was the only one of Ruth’s close friends who was to receive her diploma.
+
+“We who aren’t seniors have to sit around like bumps on a log,” growled
+Heavy. “Might as well go home for good the day before.”
+
+“You should have learned to play, or sing, or something,” advised one of
+the other girls, laughing at Heavy’s apparently woebegone face.
+
+“Did you ever hear me try to sing, Lluella?” demanded the plump young
+lady. “I like music myself—I’m very fond of it, no matter how it sounds!
+But I can’t even stand my own chest-tones.”
+
+Preparations for the great day went on apace. There was to be a
+professional director for the augmented orchestra and he insisted,
+because of the acoustics of the hall, upon building an elevated
+extension to the stage, upon which to stand to conduct the music.
+
+“Gee!” gasped Heavy, when she saw it the first time. “What’s the
+diving-board for?”
+
+“That’s not a diving-board,” snapped Mercy Curtis. “It’s the lookout
+station for the captain to watch the high C’s.”
+
+The bustle and confusion of departure punctuated the final day of the
+term, too. There were so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer;
+and some, of course, would never come back to Briarwood Hall again—as
+scholars, at least.
+
+In the midst of the excitement Ruth received a letter in the crabbed
+hand of dear old Aunt Alvirah. The old lady enclosed a small money
+order, fearing that Ruth might not have all the money she needed for her
+home-coming. But the best item in the letter beside the expression of
+Aunt Alvirah’s love, was the statement that “Your Uncle Jabe, he’s come
+round to agreeing you should go to that Sunrise Farm place with your
+young friends. I made him let me hire a tramping girl that came by, and
+we got the house all rid up, so when you come home, my pretty, all you
+got to do is to visit.”
+
+“And I _will_ visit with her—the unselfish old dear!” Ruth told herself.
+“Dear me! how very, very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid poor
+Uncle Jabez wouldn’t be so kind if he wasn’t influenced by Aunt
+Alvirah.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V—“THE TRAMPING GAL”
+
+
+The old clock that had hung in the Red Mill kitchen from the time of
+Uncle Jabez Potter’s grandfather—and that was early time on the Lumano,
+indeed!—hesitatingly tolled the hour of four.
+
+Daybreak was just behind the eastern hills. A light mist swathed the
+silent current of the river. Here and there, along the water’s edge, a
+tall tree seemed floating in the air, its bole and roots cut off by the
+drifting mist.
+
+“Oh, it is very, very beautiful here!” sighed Ruth Fielding, kneeling at
+the open window and looking out upon the awakening world—as she had done
+many and many another early morning since first she was given this
+little gable-windowed room for her very own.
+
+The sweet, clean, cool air breathed in upon her bare throat and
+shoulders, revealed through the lace trimming of her night robe. Ruth
+loved linen like other girls, and although Uncle Jabez gave her spending
+money with a rather niggardly hand, she and Aunt Alvirah knew how to
+make the pennies “go a long way” in purchasing and making her gowns and
+undergarments.
+
+There lay over a chair, too, a pretty, light blue, silk trimmed
+crepe-cloth kimona, with warm, fur-edged slippers to match, on the
+floor. The moment she heard Uncle Jabez rattle the stove-shaker in the
+kitchen, Ruth slipped into this robe, and thrust her bare feet into the
+slippers. Her braids she drew over her shoulders—one on either side—as
+she hurried out of the little chamber and down the back stairs.
+
+She had arrived home from Briarwood the night before. For more than
+eight months she had seen neither Uncle Jabez nor Aunt Alvirah; and she
+had been so tired and sleepy on her arrival that she had quickly gone to
+bed. She felt as though she had scarcely greeted the two old people.
+
+Uncle Jabez was bending over the kitchen stove. He always looked gray of
+face, and dusty. The mill-dust seemed ground into both his clothes and
+his complexion.
+
+The first the old man knew of her presence, the arms of Ruth were around
+his neck.
+
+“Ugh-huh?” questioned the old man, raising up stiffly as the fire began
+to chatter, the flames flashing under the lids, and turned to face the
+girl who held him so lovingly. “What’s wanted, Niece Ruth?” he added,
+looking at her grimly under his bristling brows.
+
+Ruth was not afraid of his grimness. She had learned long since that
+Uncle Jabez was much softer under the surface than he appeared. He
+claimed to be only just to her; but Ruth knew that his “justice” often
+leaned toward the side of mercy.
+
+Her mother, Mary Potter, had been the miller’s favorite niece; when she
+had married Ruth’s father, Uncle Jabez had been angry, and for years the
+family had been separated. But when Uncle Jabez had taken Ruth in “just
+out of charity,” old Aunt Alvirah had assured the heartsick girl that
+the miller was kinder at heart than he wished people to suppose.
+
+“He don’t never let his right hand know what his left hand doeth,”
+declared the loyal little old woman who had been so long housekeeper for
+the miller. “He saved me from the poorhouse—yes, he did!—jest to git all
+the work out o’ me he could—to hear him tell it!
+
+“But it ain’t so,” quoth Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head. “He saw a lone
+ol’ woman turned out o’ what she’d thought would be her home till she
+come to death’s door. An’ so he opened his house and his hand to her.
+An’ he’s opened his house and hand to _you_, my pretty; and who knows?
+mebbe ’twill open wide his heart, too.”
+
+Ruth had been hoping the old man’s heart _was_ open, not only to her,
+but to the whole world. She knew that, in secret, Uncle Jabez was
+helping to pay Mercy Curtis’s tuition at Briarwood. He still loved
+money; he always would love it, in all probability. But he had learned
+to “loosen up,” as Tom Cameron expressed it, in a most astonishing way.
+One could not honestly call Uncle Jabez a miser nowadays.
+
+He was miserly in the outward expression of any affection, however. And
+that apparent coldness Ruth Fielding longed to break down.
+
+Now the girl, all flushed from her deep sleep, and smiling, lifted her
+rosy lips to be kissed. “I didn’t scarcely say ‘how-do’ to you last
+night, Uncle,” she said. “Do tell me you’re glad to see me back.”
+
+“Ha! Ye ain’t minded to stay long, it seems.”
+
+“I won’t go to Sunrise Farm if you want me here, Uncle Jabez,” declared
+Ruth, still clinging to him, and with the same smiling light in her
+eyes.
+
+“Ha! ye don’t mean that,” he grunted.
+
+He knew she did. His wrinkled, hard old face finally began to change.
+His eyes tried to escape her gaze.
+
+“I just _love_ you, Uncle,” she breathed, softly. “Won’t—won’t you let
+me?”
+
+“There, there, child!” He tried for a moment to break her firm hold;
+then he stooped shamefacedly and touched her fresh lips with his own.
+
+Ruth nestled against his big, strong body, and clung a moment longer.
+His rough hand smoothed her sleek head almost timidly.
+
+“There, there!” he grumbled. “You’re gittin’ to be a big gal, I swow!
+And what good’s so much schoolin’ goin’ ter do ye? Other gals like you
+air helpin’ in their mothers’ kitchens—or goin’ to work in the mills at
+Cheslow. Seems like a wicked waste of time and money.”
+
+But he did not say it so harshly as had been his wont in the old times.
+Ruth smiled up at him again.
+
+“Trust me, Uncle,” she said. “The time’ll come when I’ll prove to you
+the worth of it. Give me the education I crave, and I’ll support myself
+and pay you all back—with interest! You see if I don’t.”
+
+“Well, well! It’s new-fashioned, I s’pose,” growled the old man,
+starting for the mill. “Gals, as well as boys, is lots more expense now
+than they used ter be to raise. The ‘three R’s’ was enough for us when I
+was young.
+
+“But I won’t stop yer fun. I promised yer Aunt Alviry I wouldn’t,” he
+added, with his hand upon the door-latch. “You kin go to that Sunrise
+place for a while, if ye want. Yer Aunt Alviry got a trampin’ gal that
+came along, ter help her clean house.”
+
+“Oh! and isn’t the girl here now?” asked Ruth, preparing to run back to
+dress.
+
+“Nope. She’s gone on. Couldn’t keep her no longer. And my! how that
+young ’un could eat! Never saw the beat of her,” added Uncle Jabez as he
+clumped out in his heavy boots.
+
+Ruth heard more about “that trampin’ girl” when Aunt Alvirah appeared.
+Before that happened, however, the newly returned schoolgirl proved she
+had not forgotten how to make a country breakfast.
+
+The sliced corned ham was frying nicely; the potatoes were browning
+delightfully in another pan. Fluffy biscuits were ready to take out of
+the oven, and the cream was already whipped for the berries and the
+coffee.
+
+“Gracious me! child alive!” exclaimed the little old woman, coming
+haltingly into the room. “You an’ Jabez air in a conspiracy to spile
+me—right from the start. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!” and she lowered
+herself carefully into a chair.
+
+“I did sartain sure oversleep this day. Ben done the chores? An’ ye air
+all ready, my pretty? Jest blow the horn, then, and yer uncle will come
+in. My! what a smart leetle housekeeper you be, Ruth. School ain’t
+spiled ye a mite.”
+
+“Uncle is still afraid it will,” laughed Ruth, kissing the old woman
+fondly.
+
+“He only _says_ that,” whispered Aunt Alvirah, with twinkling eyes.
+“He’s as proud of ye as he can stick—I know!”
+
+“It—it would be nice, if he said so once in a while,” admitted the girl.
+
+After the hearty breakfast was disposed of and the miller and his hired
+man had tramped out again, the old housekeeper and Ruth became more
+confidential.
+
+“It sartain sure did please me,” said Aunt Alvirah, “when Jabez let me
+take in that trampin’ gal for a week an’ more. He paid her without a
+whimper, too. But, she _did_ eat!”
+
+“So he said,” chuckled Ruth.
+
+“Yes. More’n a hired hand in thrashin’ time. I never seen her beat. But
+I reckon the poor little thing was plumb starved. They never feed ’em
+ha’f enough in them orphan ‘sylums, I don’t s’pect.”
+
+“From an orphanage?” cried Ruth, with sudden interest born of her
+remembrance of the mysterious Sadie Raby.
+
+“So I believe. She’d run away, I s’pect. I hadn’t the heart to blame
+her. An’ she was close-mouthed as a clam,” declared Aunt Alvirah.
+
+“How did you come to get her?” queried the interested Ruth.
+
+“She walked right up to the door. She’d been travelin’ far—ye could see
+that by her shoes, if ye could call ’em shoes. I made her take ’em off
+by the fire, an’ then I picked ’em up with the tongs—they was just
+pulp—and I pitched ’em onto the ash-heap.
+
+“Well, she stayed that night, o’ course. It was rainin’. Your Uncle
+Jabez wouldn’t ha’ turned a dog out in sech weather. But he made me put
+her to bed on chairs here.
+
+“It was plain she was delighted to have somebody to talk to—and as that
+somebody was ‘her pretty,’ the dear old soul was all the more joyful.
+
+“So, one thing led to another,” pursued Aunt Alvirah, “and I got him to
+let me keep her to help rid the house up. You know, you wrote me to wait
+till you come home for house-cleanin’. But I worked Jabez Potter
+_right_; I know how to manage him,” said she, nodding and smiling.
+
+“And you didn’t know who the girl was?” asked Ruth, still curious.
+“Nothing about her at all?”
+
+“Not much. She was short-tongued, I tell ye. But I gathered she had been
+an orphan a long time and had lived at an institution.”
+
+“Not even her name?” asked Ruth, at last.
+
+“Oh, yes. She told her name—and it was her true one, I reckon,” Aunt
+Alviry said. “It was Sadie Raby.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI—SEEKING THE TRAIL
+
+
+“I might have known that! I might have known it!” Ruth exclaimed when
+she heard this. “And if I’d only written you or Uncle Jabez about her,
+maybe you would have kept her till I came. I wanted to help that girl,”
+and Ruth all but shed tears.
+
+“Deary, deary me!” cried Aunt Alvirah. “Tell me all about it, my
+pretty.”
+
+So Ruth related all she knew about the half-wild girl whose acquaintance
+she had made at Briarwood Hall under such peculiar circumstances. And
+she told just how Sadie looked and all about her.
+
+“Yes,” agreed Aunt Alvirah. “That was the trampin’ gal sure enough. She
+was honest, jest as you say. But your uncle had his doubts. However, she
+looked better when she went away from here.”
+
+“I’m glad of that,” Ruth said, heartily.
+
+“You know one o’ them old dresses of yours you wore to Miss Cramp’s
+school—the one Helen give you?” said old Aunt Alvirah, hesitatingly.
+
+“Yes, indeed!” said Ruth. “And how badly I felt when the girls found out
+they were ‘hand-me-downs.’ I’ll never forget them.”
+
+“One of them I fitted to that poor child,” said Aunt Alvirah. “The poor,
+skinny little thing. I wisht I could ha’ kep’ her long enough to put
+some flesh on her bones.”
+
+Ruth hugged the little old woman. “You’re a dear, Aunty! I bet you fixed
+her up nice before she went away.”
+
+“Wal, she didn’t look quite sech a tatterdemalion,” granted Aunt
+Alvirah. “But I was sorry for her. I am allus sorry for any young thing
+that’s strayin’ about without a home or a mother. But natcherly Jabez
+wouldn’t hear to keepin’ her after the cleanin’ was done. It’s his
+_nearness_, Ruthie; he can’t help it. Some men chew tobacco, and your
+Uncle Jabez is _close_. It’s their nater. I’d ruther have a stingy man
+about, than a tobacco chewin’ man—yes, indeed I had!”
+
+Ruth laughed and agreed with her. Yet she was very sorry that Sadie
+Raby, “the tramping girl,” had been allowed to move on without those at
+the Red Mill, who had sheltered her, discovering her destination.
+
+She learned that Sadie had gone to Cheslow—at least, in that
+direction—and when Helen came spinning along in one of her father’s cars
+from Outlook that afternoon, and wanted to take Ruth for a drive, the
+latter begged to ride “Cheslowward.”
+
+“Besides, we both want to see Dr. Davison—and there’s Mercy’s mother.
+And Miss Cramp will be glad to see me, I know; we’ll wait till her
+school is out,” Ruth suggested.
+
+“You’re boss,” declared her chum. “And paying calls ‘all by our
+lonesomes’ will be fun enough. Tom’s deserted me. He’s gone tramping
+with Reno over toward the Wilkins Corner road—you know, that place where
+he was hurt that time, and you and Reno found him,” Helen concluded.
+
+This was “harking back” to the very first night Ruth had arrived at
+Cheslow from her old home at Darrowtown. But she was not likely to
+forget it, for through that accident of Master Tom Cameron’s, she had
+met this very dear friend beside her now in the automobile.
+
+“Oh, dear me! and the fun we used to have when we were little
+girls—‘member, Ruthie?” demanded Helen, laughing. “My! isn’t it warm? Is
+my face shiny?”
+
+“Just a little,” admitted Ruth.
+
+“Never can keep the shine off,” said Helen, bitterly. “Here! you take
+the wheel and let me find my powder-paper. Tom says he believes I smoke
+cigarettes and roll them myself,” and Helen giggled.
+
+Ruth carefully changed seats with her chum, who immediately produced the
+booklet of slips from her vanity case and rubbed the offending nose
+vigorously.
+
+“Have a care, Helen! you’ll make it all red,” urged Ruth, laughing. “You
+_do_ go at everything so excitedly. Anybody would think you were grating
+a nutmeg.”
+
+“Horrid thing! My nose doesn’t look at all like a nutmeg.”
+
+“But it will—if you don’t look out,” laughed Ruth. “Oh, dear, me! here
+comes a big wagon. Do you suppose I can get by it safely?”
+
+“If he gives you any room. There! he has begun to turn out. Now, just
+skim around him.”
+
+Ruth was careful and slowed down. This did not suit the fly-away Helen.
+“Come on!” she urged. “We’ll never even get to the old doctor’s house if
+you don’t hurry.”
+
+She began to manipulate the levers herself and soon they were shooting
+along the Cheslow road at a speed that made Ruth’s eyes water.
+
+They came safely to the house with the green lamps before it, and ran in
+gaily to see their friend, Dr. Davison. For the moment the good old
+gentleman chanced to be busy and waved them into the back office to wait
+until he was free.
+
+Old Mammy, who presided over the doctor’s old-fashioned establishment,
+had spied the girls and almost immediately the tinkling of ice in a
+pitcher announced the approach of one of Mammy’s pickaninny
+grandchildren with a supply of her famous lemonade and a plate of cakes.
+
+“Mammy said you done git hungery waitin’,” declared the grinning,
+kinky-haired child who presented herself with the refreshments. “An’ a
+drink on one o’ dese yere dusty days is allus welcome, misses.”
+
+Then she giggled, and darted away to the lower regions of the house,
+leaving the two chums to enjoy the goodies. Helen was cheerfully
+curious, and had to go looking about the big office, peeking into the
+bookcases, looking at the “specimens” in bottles along the shelf, trying
+to spell out and understand the Latin labels on the jars of drugs.
+
+“Miss Nosey!” whispered Ruth, admonishingly.
+
+“There you go! hitting my nose again,” sighed Helen. And then she jumped
+back and almost screamed. For in fooling with the knob of a narrow
+closet door, it had snapped open, the door swung outward, and Helen
+found herself facing an articulated skeleton!
+
+“Goodness gracious me!” exclaimed Helen.
+
+“Oh, no,” giggled Ruth. “It’s not you at all. It’s somebody else.”
+
+“Funny!” scoffed Helen. Then she laughed, too. “It’s somebody the
+doctor’s awfully choice of. Do you suppose it was his first patient?”
+
+“Hush! Suppose he heard you?”
+
+“He’d laugh,” returned Helen, knowing the kindly old physician too well
+to be afraid of him in any case. “Now, behave! Don’t say a word. I’m
+going to dress him up.”
+
+“What?” gasped Ruth.
+
+“You’ll see,” said the daring Helen, and she seized an old hat of the
+doctor’s from the top of the bookcase and set it jauntily upon the
+grinning skull.
+
+“My goodness! doesn’t he look terrible that way? Oh! I’ll shut the door.
+He wiggles all over—_just as though he were alive_!”
+
+Just then they heard the doctor bidding his caller good-bye, or Helen
+might have done some other ridiculous thing. The old gentleman came in,
+rubbing his hands, and with his eyes twinkling. He was a man who had
+never really grown old, and he liked to hear the girls tell of their
+school experiences, chuckling over their scrapes and antics with much
+delight.
+
+“And how has my Goody Two-sticks gotten along this year?” he asked, for
+he was much interested in Mercy Curtis and her improvement, both
+physically and mentally. Had it not been for the doctor, Mercy might
+never have gotten out of her wheelchair, or gone to Briarwood Hall.
+
+“She’s going to beat us all,” Helen declared, with enthusiasm. “Isn’t
+she, Ruth?”
+
+“She will if we don’t work pretty hard,” admitted the girl of the Red
+Mill, who was hoping herself to be finally among the first few members
+of her class at the Hall. “But I would rather see Mercy win first place,
+I believe, than anybody else—unless it is you, Helen.”
+
+“Don’t you fret,” laughed Helen. “You’ll never see little me at the head
+of the class—and you know it.”
+
+The two friends did not bore the physician by staying too long, but
+after he bade them good-bye at the door, Helen ran down the path
+giggling.
+
+“What do you suppose he’ll say when he finds that hat on the skeleton?”
+she demanded, her eyes dancing.
+
+“He’ll say, ‘That Helen Cameron was in here—that explains it!’ You can’t
+fool Dr. Davison,” laughed Ruth.
+
+Ruth had taken Helen into her confidence ere this about the strange
+runaway, Sadie Raby, and during their call at the doctor’s, she had
+asked that gentleman if he had seen the tramping girl, after the latter
+had left the Red Mill. But he had not. Oddly enough, however, Ruth found
+some trace of Sadie at Mercy’s house, where the girls in the automobile
+next went to call.
+
+Mercy’s mother had taken the girl in for a night, and fed her. The
+latter had asked Mr. Curtis about the trains going west, but he had sold
+Sadie no ticket.
+
+“She was very reticent,” Mrs. Curtis told Ruth. “She was so independent
+and capable-acting, in spite of her tender years, that I did not feel as
+though it was my place to try to stop her. She seemed to have some
+destination in view, but she would not tell me what it was.”
+
+“I wonder if that wasn’t what Aunt Alvirah meant?” queried Ruth,
+thoughtfully, as she and Helen drove away. “That Sadie is awfully
+independent. I wish you had seen her.”
+
+“Maybe she’s going to find her twin brothers that she told you about,”
+suggested Helen. “I wish I _had_ seen her.”
+
+“And maybe you’ve guessed it!” cried Ruth. “But that doesn’t help us
+find _her_, for she didn’t say where Willie and Dickie had been taken
+when they were removed from the orphanage.”
+
+“Gracious, Ruthie!” exclaimed her chum, laughing. “You’re always
+worrying over somebody else’s troubles.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII—WHAT TOM CAMERON SAW
+
+
+Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she could do anything for Sadie
+Raby if she found her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond of
+shouldering other people’s burdens.
+
+It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as though it were a very
+dreadful thing for Sadie to be wandering about the country all alone,
+and without means to feed herself, or get anything like proper shelter.
+
+In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that _she_ might have been as wild
+and neglected if Uncle Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken her
+in and given her a home at the Red Mill.
+
+They stopped and saw Ruth’s old school teacher and then, it being past
+mid-afternoon, Helen turned the headlights of the car toward home again.
+As the machine slid so smoothly along the road toward the Lumano and the
+Red Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed ahead. A huge dog had
+leaped out of a side road and stood, barring their way and barking.
+
+“Reno! dear old fellow!” Ruth said, as Helen shut off the power. “He
+knows us.”
+
+“Tom must be near, then. That’s the Wilkins Corner road,” Helen
+observed.
+
+As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff tried to jump in and
+caress the girls with his tongue—poor fellow! he knew no better, though
+Helen scolded him—Ruth stood up and shouted for her friend’s twin
+brother.
+
+“Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We’re being eaten up by a great
+four-legged beast—get down, Reno! Oh, don’t!”
+
+She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and keeping the big dog off
+with both hands. A cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno started and
+turned to look. He had had his master back for only a day, but Tom’s
+word was always law to the big mastiff.
+
+“Down, sir!” sang out Tom Cameron, and then he burst into view.
+
+“Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!” gasped Ruth.
+
+“My goodness me!” exclaimed his sister. “Have you been in a fight?”
+
+“Down, Reno!” commanded her brother again. He came striding toward them.
+If he had not been so disheveled, anybody could have seen that, dressed
+in his sister’s clothes, and she in his, one could scarcely have told
+them apart. A boy and a girl never could look more alike than Tom and
+Helen Cameron.
+
+“What has happened to you?” demanded Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom’s own
+sister.
+
+“Look like I’d been monkeying with the buzz-saw—eh?” he demanded, but a
+little ruefully. “Say! I’ve had a time. If it hadn’t been for Reno——”
+
+“Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!” exclaimed Ruth, hopping out of the
+car and for the first time noticing that there was a cake of partially
+dried blood on the dog’s shoulder.
+
+“He isn’t hurt much. And neither am I. Only my clothes torn——”
+
+“And your face scratched!” ejaculated Helen.
+
+“Oh—well—_that’s_ nothing. That was an accident. She didn’t mean to do
+it.”
+
+“_Who_ didn’t mean to do it? What _are_ you talking about?” screamed his
+sister, at last fully aroused. “You’ve been in some terrible danger, Tom
+Cameron.”
+
+“No, I haven’t,” returned Tom, beginning to grin again. “Just been
+playing the chivalrous knight.”
+
+“And got his face scratched!” tittered Ruth.
+
+“Aw—well—— Now wait! let me tell you,” he began.
+
+“Now he’s going to make excuses,” cried Helen. “You have gotten into
+trouble, you reckless boy, and want to make light of it.”
+
+“Gee! I’d like to see _you_ make light of it,” exclaimed Tom, with some
+vexation. “If you can make head or tail of it—— And that girl!”
+
+“There he goes again,” said Ruth. “He has got to tell us. It is about a
+girl,” and she laughed, teasingly.
+
+“Say! I don’t know which one of you is the worse,” said Tom, ruefully.
+“Listen, will you?”
+
+“Go ahead,” said Helen, solemnly.
+
+“Well, Reno and I were hiking along the Wilkins Corner road yonder. It
+was just about where your Uncle Jabe’s wagon, Ruth, knocked me down into
+the gully that time—remember?”
+
+Ruth nodded.
+
+“Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a girl. Reno began to growl and I
+held him back till I located the trouble. There was a campfire down
+under that bank and the scream came from that direction.
+
+“‘Go to it, old boy!’ I says, and let Reno go. I had no reason to
+believe there was real trouble,” Tom said, wagging his head. “But I
+followed him down the bank just the same, for although Reno wouldn’t
+bite anybody unless he had to, he does look ugly—to strangers.
+
+“Well, what do you think? There were a couple of tramps at the fire, and
+Reno was holding them off from a girl. He showed his teeth all right,
+and one of them had his knife out. _He_ was an ugly looking customer.”
+
+“My goodness! a girl?” gasped his sister. “What sort of a looking girl?”
+
+“She wasn’t bad looking,” Tom said. “Younger than us—mebbe twelve, or
+so. But she’d been sleeping out in her clothes—you could see she had.
+And her face and hands were dirty.
+
+“‘What were they trying to do to you?’ I asked her.
+
+“‘Trying to get my money,’ says she. ‘I ain’t got much, but you bet I
+want that little.’
+
+“‘I guess you can keep it,’ I said. ‘But if I were you, I’d hike out of
+this.’
+
+“‘I’m going to,’ says she. ‘I’m going just as fast as I can to the
+railroad and jump a train. These fellers have been bothering me all day.
+I’m glad you came along. Thanks.’
+
+“And with that she started to move off. But the tramps were real ugly,
+and one of them jumped for her. I tripped him up,” said Tom, grinning
+again now in remembrance of the row, “and then there certainly _was_ a
+fuss.”
+
+“Oh, Tom!” murmured Helen.
+
+“Well, I had Reno, didn’t I? The man I tripped fell into the fire, but
+was more scared than hurt. But the other fellow—the one with the
+knife—slashed at Reno, and cut him.
+
+“Well! you never saw such a girl as that tramping girl was——”
+
+“What’s _that_?” gasped Ruth. “Oh, Helen!”
+
+“It might be Sadie Raby—eh?” queried her chum.
+
+“Hel-lo!” exclaimed Master Tom, turning curious. “What do you girls know
+about her? Sadie Raby—that’s what she said her name was.”
+
+“My goodness me! What do you think of that?” cried his sister.
+
+“And where is she now?” demanded Ruth.
+
+“Aw, wait till I tell you all about it,” complained Tom. “You girls take
+the wind all out of my sails.”
+
+“All right. Go ahead,” begged his sister.
+
+“So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help, and when one of the
+fellows had me down, and Reno was holding the other by the wrist, she
+started to dig into the face of the rascal who held me. And once she
+scratched me by mistake,” added Tom, laughing.
+
+“But between us—mostly through Reno’s help—we frightened them off. They
+hobbled away through the bushes. Then I took her to the railroad, and
+waited at the tank till a train came along and stopped.”
+
+“And put her aboard, Tom!” cried Ruth.
+
+“Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor with two dollars to let
+her ride as far as Campton. I knew those two tramps would never catch
+her there. Why! what’s the matter?”
+
+“Goodness me!” exclaimed Helen, with disgust. “Doesn’t it take a boy to
+spoil everything?”
+
+“Why—what?” began Tom.
+
+“And her name was Sadie Raby?” demanded Ruth.
+
+“That’s what she said.”
+
+“We just wanted to see her, that’s all,” said his sister. “Ruth did,
+anyway. And I’d have been glad to help her.”
+
+“Well, I helped her, didn’t I?” demanded Tom, rather doggedly.
+
+“Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose is to become of a girl like
+her traveling around the country?”
+
+“She seemed to want to get to Campton real bad. I reckon she has folks
+there,” said Tom, slowly.
+
+“She’s got no folks—if her story is true,” said Ruth, quietly, “save two
+little brothers.”
+
+“And they’re twins, like us, Tom,” said Helen, eagerly. “Oh, dear! it’s
+too bad Ruth and I didn’t come across Sadie, instead of you.”
+
+Tom began to laugh at that. “You’d have had a fine time getting her away
+from those tramps,” he scoffed. “She didn’t have but a little money, and
+they would have stolen that from her if it hadn’t been for Reno and me.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII—TRAVELING TOWARD SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+Tom Cameron thought a great deal of Ruth, and for that reason alone was
+sorry he had not stayed the departure of the runaway girl, Sadie Raby,
+from the vicinity of Cheslow. Then, as he thought of it more, and heard
+the girls talk about the tramping girl’s circumstances as _they_ knew
+them, Tom was even more disturbed.
+
+He and Reno had gotten into the tonneau of the car, which rolled away
+toward the Red Mill at a slower pace. He leaned his arms on the back of
+the front seat and listened to Ruth’s story of her meeting with Sadie
+Raby, and her experience with Sim Perkins, and of her surprise at
+finding that Sadie had worked for a while at the Red Mill.
+
+“If we had only been a few days earlier in getting home from school,
+there she would have been,” finished Ruth, with a sigh.
+
+“That’s so,” agreed her chum. “And she even stayed night before last
+with Mercy’s mother. My! but she’s as elusive as a will-o’-the-wisp.”
+
+“We could telegraph to Campton and have her stopped,” suggested Tom.
+
+“By the police?” demanded his sister.
+
+“Oh! what for?” asked Ruth.
+
+“There! nothing _I_ suggest is any good,” said the boy.
+
+“Not unless you suggest something better than that,” laughed Ruth. “The
+poor thing doesn’t need to be arrested. And she might refuse any help we
+could give her. She’s very independent.”
+
+“She sure is,” admitted Tom, ruefully.
+
+“And we don’t know _why_ she wanted to go to Campton,” his sister
+remarked.
+
+“Nor if she got there safely,” added Ruth.
+
+“Pshaw! if that’s worrying you two, I’ll find out for sure to-morrow,”
+quoth Master Tom.
+
+He knew the conductor of the freight train with whom he had entrusted
+the strange girl. The next day he went over to the tank at the right
+hour and met the conductor again.
+
+“Sure, I got her on to Campton—poor kid,” said the man. “She’s a smart
+one, too. When the boys wanted to know who she was, I said she was my
+niece, and she nodded and agreed to it. We had a big feed back here in
+the hack while she was aboard, and she had her share.”
+
+“But where was she going?” asked Tom.
+
+“Didn’t get much out of her,” admitted the conductor. “But she’d lived
+in Harburg, and I reckon she had folks in or near Campton. But I’m not
+sure at all.”
+
+This was rather unsatisfactory; but whatever point the strange girl was
+journeying to, she had arrived safely at Campton. This Tom told Ruth and
+the latter had to be content with this information.
+
+The incident of the runaway girl was two or three days old when Ruth
+received a letter from Madge Steele urging them all to come on soon—that
+Sunrise Farm was ready for them, and that she was writing all the girls
+to start on Monday.
+
+The train would take them to Darrowtown. There a conveyance would meet
+and transport the visitors fifteen miles through the country to Mr.
+Steele’s big estate.
+
+Mercy Curtis joined the Camerons and Ruth at the Cheslow Station, and on
+the train they boarded were Heavy Stone and The Fox. The girls greeted
+each other as though they had been separated for a year.
+
+“Never was such a clatter of tongues,” declared the plump girl, “since
+the workmen struck on the tower of Babel. Here we are—off for the
+sunrise—and traveling due west. How do you make that out?”
+
+“That’s easy—anybody could see it with half an eye,” said The Fox.
+
+“Half an eye, eh?” demanded Heavy. “And Cyclops had a whole one. Say!
+did you hear about the boy in school who was asked by his teacher (he
+must have been in Tommy’s class) ‘Who was Cyclops?’ He was a bright boy.
+He answered: ‘The man who wrote the encyclopædia.’ The association of
+ideas was something fierce—eh?”
+
+“Dear me, Jennie,” admonished The Fox, “you are getting slangier every
+day.”
+
+“Never mind; I’m not losing flesh over it. Don’t you,” returned the
+careless “heavyweight.”
+
+It was a long, but not a tedious, ride to Darrowtown. The young folk had
+left Cheslow just before dark, and their sleeper was sidetracked at the
+end of the journey, some time in the very early morning. When Ruth first
+opened her eyes she could scarcely—for the moment—think where she was.
+
+Then she peered out of the narrow window above her berth and saw a
+section of the railroad yard and one side of Railroad Avenue beyond. The
+right of way split Darrowtown in two halves and there were grade
+crossings at the intersections of the principal cross streets.
+
+Long as she had been away from the place, the girl recognized the houses
+and the stores, and every other landmark she could see. No further sleep
+for her, although it was scarcely dawn.
+
+She hopped softly out of the berth, disturbed none of her companions or
+even the porter nodding in his corner, and dressed hurriedly. She made
+her toilette and then went into the vestibule and from thence climbed
+down to the cinder path.
+
+There was an opening in the picket fence, and she slipped through in a
+moment. Dear old Darrowtown! Ruth’s heart throbbed exultantly and she
+smiled, although there were tears in her eyes.
+
+There was the Brick Church on the corner. The pastor and his wife had
+been so kind to her! And up this next street was the way to the quiet
+cemetery where her father and mother were buried. Ruth turned her steps
+in that direction first of all.
+
+The sun came up, red and jovial; the birds twittered and sang in the
+great maples along the way; even in the graveyard a great flock of
+blackbirds “pumped” and squeaked in noisy, joyous chorus.
+
+The dew sparkled on leaf and bush, the flowers were fragrant, the cool
+breeze fanned her cheek, and the bird chorus rose higher and higher. How
+could one be sad long on such a beautiful, God-made morning?
+
+Impossible! Ruth plucked a spray of a flowering shrub for both graves,
+and laid them on the mounds tenderly, with a little prayer. Here slept
+the dead peacefully, and God had raised her up many, many friends!
+
+The early chimneys were smoking in the suburbs of the town. A
+screen-door slammed now and then. One man whom she knew slightly, but
+who did not remember her, was currying his horse in an alley by his
+stable. Mrs. Barnsworth, notably the smartest housewife in Darrowtown,
+was starting already with her basket for market—and woe be to the grocer
+or marketman if the shops were not open when she arrived!
+
+Stray cats ran along the back fences. A dog ran out of a yard to bark at
+Ruth, but then thought better of it and came to be patted instead.
+
+And then, suddenly, she came in sight of the back garden of Miss True
+Pettis!
+
+It was with that kind-hearted but peculiar spinster lady that Ruth had
+lived previous to being sent to the Red Mill. Miss Pettis was the
+neighborhood seamstress and, as she often had told Ruth, she worked hard
+“with both tongue and needle” for every dollar she earned.
+
+For Miss True Pettis had something more than dressmaking to do when she
+went out “by the day” to cut and fit and run the sewing machine.
+Darrowtown folk expected that the seamstress should have all the latest
+gossip at her tongue’s end when she came to sew!
+
+Now, Miss True Pettis often laid down the law. “There’s two kinds of
+gossip. One the Bible calls the seventh abomination, an’ I guess that’s
+right. But for shut-in folks like most housekeepers in Darrowtown, a
+dish of harmless gossip is more inspiritin’ than a bowl of boneset tea!
+
+“Lemme have somethin’ new to tell folks about folks—that’s all. But it
+must be somethin’ kind,” Miss Pettis declared. “No backbitin’, or church
+scandal, or neighborhood rows. If Si Lumpkin’s cat has scratched
+Amoskeag Lanfell’s dog, let the cat and the dog fight it out, I say; no
+need for Si and Amoskeag, who have been friends and neighbors for years
+an’ years, gettin’ into a ruction over it.
+
+“I never take sides in any controversy—no, ma’am! If ye can’t say a good
+word for a neighbor, don’t say nothin’ to _me_. That’s what I tell ’em.
+But if ye know anythin’ good about ’em, or they’ve had any streak o’
+good luck, or the like, tell me. For the folks in this town—‘specially
+the wimmen folks that don’t git out much—is just a-honin’ for news, and
+True Pettis, when she goes out by the day, has gotter have a full and
+plenty supply of it.”
+
+Ruth, smiling quietly to herself, remembered how the thin, sallow, quick
+spoken lady looked when she said all this. Miss Pettis’s eyes were black
+and snapping; her nose was a beak; she bit off threads as though her
+temper was biting, too. But Ruth knew better. A kinder-hearted mortal
+never lived than the little old seamstress.
+
+Now the visitor ran across the garden—neatly bedded and with graveled
+paths in which the tiniest weed dared not show its head—and reached the
+kitchen porch. Miss Pettis was always an early riser, and the smoke of
+her chimney was now only a faint blue column rising into the clear air.
+
+Yes! there was a rattle of dishes in the kitchen. Ruth tiptoed up the
+steps. Then she—to her amazement—heard somebody groan. The sound was
+repeated, and then the seamstress’s voice murmured:
+
+“Oh, dear, oh, dear! Oh, dear, oh, dear! whatever shall I do——”
+
+Ruth, who had intended opening the door softly and announcing that she
+had come to breakfast, forgot all about the little surprise she was bent
+on giving Miss Pettis. Now she peered fearfully in at the nearest
+window.
+
+Miss Pettis was just sitting down in her rocker, and she rocked to and
+fro, holding one hand with the other, continuing to groan.
+
+“Oh, dear, me!” cried Ruth, bursting in at the door. “What in the world
+is the matter, my dear?”
+
+“It’s that dratted felon—— Why, Ruthie Fielding! Did you drop from the
+sky, or pop up out o’ the ground? I never!”
+
+The dressmaker got up quickly, but struck her hand against the
+chair-arm. Instantly she fell back with a scream, and Ruth feared she
+had fainted. A felon is a terribly painful thing!
+
+Ruth ran for a glass of water, but before she could sprinkle any of it
+on Miss Pettis’ pale face the lady’s eyes opened and she exclaimed:
+
+“Don’t drop any of that on my dress, child—it’ll spot. I’m all right
+now. My mercy! how that hurt.”
+
+“A felon, Miss Pettis? How very dreadful,” cried Ruth, setting down the
+glass of water.
+
+“And I ain’t been able to use my needle for a week, and the
+dishwashin’—well, it jest about kills me to put my hands in water. You
+can see—the sight this kitchen is.”
+
+“Now, isn’t it lucky that I came this morning—and came so early, too?”
+cried Ruth. “I was going to take breakfast with you. Now I’ll get the
+breakfast myself and fix up the house—— Oh, yes, I shall! I’ll send word
+down to the hotel to my friends—they’ll take breakfast there—and we can
+have a nice visit, Miss True,” and Ruth very carefully hugged the thin
+shoulders of the seamstress, so as not to even jar the felon on her
+right fore-finger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX—THE SUNRISE COACH
+
+
+Ruth was determined to have her way, and really, after one has suffered
+with a felon for a week, one is in no shape to combat the determination
+of as strong a character as that of the girl of the Red Mill!
+
+At least, so Miss True Pettis found. She bowed to Ruth’s mandate, and
+sat meekly in the rocking chair while that young lady bustled about,
+made the toast, poached eggs, made a pot of the kind of tea the spinster
+liked, and just as she liked it—— Oh, Ruth had not forgotten all her
+little ways, although she had been gone so long from the seamstress’s
+tiny cottage here in Darrowtown.
+
+All the time, she was as cheerful as a bluebird—and just as chatty as
+one, too! She ran out and caught a neighbor’s boy, and sent him
+scurrying down to the sidetracked sleeping car with a note to Helen. The
+rest of the crowd expected at Sunrise Farm would arrive on an early
+morning train on the other road, and both parties were to meet for
+breakfast at the Darrowtown Inn.
+
+The vehicle to transport them to the farm, however, was not expected
+until ten o’clock.
+
+Therefore, Ruth insisted, she had plenty of time to fix up the house for
+Miss Pettis. This she proceeded to do.
+
+“I allus _did_ say you was the handiest youngun that ever was born in
+Darrowtown,” said the seamstress, with a sigh of relief, as Ruth,
+enveloped in a big apron, set to work.
+
+Ruth did more than wash dishes, and sweep, and clean, and scrub. All the
+time she told Miss Pettis about her life at the Red Mill, and her life
+at the boarding school, and of many and various things that had happened
+to her since, two years before, she had gone away from Darrowtown to
+take up her new life with Uncle Jabez.
+
+Not that she had not frequently written to Miss Pettis; but one cannot
+write the particulars that can be told when two folks are “gossiping.”
+Miss True Pettis had not enjoyed herself—felon and all!—so much for ages
+as she did that forenoon.
+
+And she would have a long and interesting story to tell regarding “Mary
+Fielding’s little girl” when again she took up her work of going out by
+the day and bringing both her nimble needle and her nimble tongue into
+the homes of the busy Darrowtown housewives.
+
+On the other hand, Miss Pettis told Ruth all the news of her old home;
+and although the girl from the Red Mill had no time then to call upon
+any other of her one-time friends—not even Patsy Hope—she finally went
+away feeling just as though she had met them all again. For little of
+value escaped Miss Pettis, and she had told it all.
+
+The Brick Church clock was striking ten when Ruth ran around the corner
+and came in sight of the Darrowtown Inn. There was a crowd of girls and
+boys on the porch, and before it stood a great, shiny yellow coach,
+drawn by four sleek horses.
+
+“Bobbins” himself—Madge Steele’s big, white-haired brother, who attended
+the military academy with Tom Cameron, was already on the coachman’s
+seat, holding the reins in most approved style. Beside him sat a man in
+livery, it was true; but Bob himself was going to drive the
+four-in-hand.
+
+“Isn’t that scrumptious, Ruth?” demanded Belle Tingley, one of those who
+had arrived on the other railroad. “Where have you been all the time?
+Helen was worried for fear you wouldn’t get here.”
+
+“And here’s Ralph!” exclaimed Ruth, heartily shaking hands with one of
+Belle’s brothers. “I’m all right. I used to live here in Darrowtown, you
+know, and I was making calls. And here is Isadore!”
+
+“Oh, I say, Ruth!” exclaimed the chap in knickerbockers, who was so
+sharp and curious that he was always called “Busy Izzy” Phelps. “Where
+have you been all the time? We were going to send a searching party
+after you.”
+
+“You needn’t mind, sir. I can find my way around a bit yet,” laughed
+Ruth.
+
+“All ready, now!” exclaimed Bob, importantly, from the high seat. “Can’t
+keep these horses standing much longer.”
+
+“All right, little boy,” said his sister, marshaling the girls down the
+steps of the hotel. “Don’t you be impatient.”
+
+“It’s the horses,” he complained. “See that nigh leader beginning to
+dance?”
+
+“Tangoing, I suppose?—or is it the hesitation?” laughed Lluella Fairfax.
+“May anybody sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?”
+
+“I’m afraid not. But there’s room on top of the coach for all of you, if
+you’ll crowd a bit.”
+
+“Me behind with the horn!” cried Tom, swinging himself up into the
+little seat over the luggage rack.
+
+“Now, girls, there are some steep places on the road,” said Madge. “If
+any of you feel nervous, I advise you to come inside with me.”
+
+“Ha!” ejaculated Heavy. “It’s not my nerves that keep me from climbing
+up on that thing—don’t think it. But I’ll willingly join you, Madge,”
+and the springs creaked, while the girls laughed, as Heavy entered the
+coach.
+
+They were all quickly seated—the boys of course riding on the roof.
+Ruth, Helen, Lluella and Belle occupied the seat directly behind the
+driver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending the intervening week since
+school closed with Heavy, and would return to Montana after their
+sojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl who ventured to ride
+a-top the coach.
+
+“All ready?” sang out Bobbins, with a backward glance.
+
+Tom put the long silver horn to his lips and blew a blast that startled
+the Darrowtown echoes, and made the frisky nigh leader prance again. Bob
+curled the long lash of the yellow whip over the horses’ ears, and at
+the crack of it all four plunged forward.
+
+There was a crowd to see the party off. Darrowtown had not become
+familiar with the Steeles’ yellow coach. In fact, there were not many
+wealthy men’s estates around the town as yet, and such “goings-on” as
+this coaching party of girls and boys was rather startling to the staid
+inhabitants of Darrowtown.
+
+The road through the town proper was very good, and the heavy coach
+wheels rolled over it smoothly. As soon as they reached the suburbs,
+however, the way was rough, and the horses began to climb, for
+Darrowtown was right at the foot of the hills, on the very highest of
+which Sunrise Farm lay.
+
+There were farms here and there along the way, but there was a great
+deal of rough country, too. Although it was a warm day, those on top of
+the coach were soon well shaded by the trees. The road wound through a
+thick piece of wood, where the broad-branched trees overhung the way
+and—sometimes—almost brushed the girls from their seats.
+
+“Low bridge!” called Bobbins, now and again, and they would all squeal
+and stoop while the leafy branches brushed above them.
+
+Bobbins had been practicing a good deal, so as to have the honor of
+driving his friends home from Darrowtown, and they all praised him for
+being so capable.
+
+As for Tom, he grew red in the face blowing that horn to warn the foxes
+in the hills and the rabbits in the bushes that they were coming.
+
+“You look out, Tommy!” advised Madge from below. “You’ll blow yourself
+all away tooting so much, and goodness knows, we don’t want any accident
+before luncheon. Mother is expecting all manner of things to happen to
+us after we get to the farm; but I promised faithfully I’d bring you all
+home to one o’clock luncheon in perfect order.”
+
+“A whole lot you’ve got to do with it,” grunted Busy Izzy, ungallantly.
+“It’s Bobbins that’s doing the chief work.”
+
+Three hours to Sunrise Farm, yet it was only fifteen miles. The way was
+not always uphill, but the descents were as hard to get over as the
+rising ground, and the coach rolled and shook a good deal over the
+rougher places.
+
+Bye and bye they began to look down into the valleys from the steeps the
+horses climbed. At one place was a great horseshoe curve, around which
+the four steeds rattled at a smart pace, skirting a precipice, the depth
+of which made the girls shriek again.
+
+“I never did see such a road,” complained Lluella.
+
+“We saw worse at Silver Ranch—didn’t we, Ann?” demanded Ruth of the
+Montana girl.
+
+“Well, this is bad enough, I should hope,” said Belle Tingley. “Lucky
+there is a good brake on this coach. Where’d we be——?”
+
+As it chanced, the coach had just pitched over the brow of another
+ridge. Bob had been about to point out proudly the white walls of the
+house at Sunrise Farm which surmounted the next hill.
+
+But there had been a rain within a week, and a hard one. Right here
+there was a small washout in the road, and Bob overlooked it. He did not
+swerve the trotting horses quickly enough, and the nigh fore-wheel
+dropping into this deep, deep rut.
+
+It is true Bob became a little excited. He yelled “Whoa!” and yanked
+back on the lines, for the nigh leader had jumped. The girls screamed as
+the coach came to an abrupt stop.
+
+The four horses were jerked back by the sudden stoppage; then,
+frightened, they all leaped forward together.
+
+“Whoa, there!” yelled Bob again, trying to hold them in. Something broke
+and the nigh leader swung around until he was at right angles with his
+team-mate.
+
+The leader had snapped a tug; he forced his mate over toward the far
+side of the road; and there the ground broke away, abruptly and steeply,
+for many, many yards to the bottom of the hill.
+
+There was neither fence, nor ditch, to guard passengers on the road from
+catastrophe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X—“TOUCH AND GO”
+
+
+As it chanced, Mr. Steele’s groom, who had been sent with the coach and
+who sat beside Bob, was on the wrong side to give any assistance at this
+crucial moment. To have jumped from the seat threatened to send him
+plunging down the undefended hillside—perhaps with the coach rolling
+after him!
+
+For some seconds it did seem as though the horses would go down in a
+tangle and drag the coach and its occupants after them.
+
+Bob was doing his best with the reins, but the frisky nigh leader was
+dancing and plunging, and forcing his mate off the firm footing of the
+road. Indeed, the latter animal was already slipping over the brink.
+
+“Get him!” yelled Bob, meaning the horse that had broken the trace and
+had stirred up all the trouble.
+
+But who was to “get him”? That was the difficulty. The groom could not
+climb over the young driver to reach the ground.
+
+There was at least one quick-witted person aboard the Sunrise coach in
+this “touch and go” emergency. Ruth was not afraid of horses. She had
+not been used to them, like Ann Hicks, all her life, but she was the
+person now in the best position to help Bob.
+
+To reach the ground on the nigh side of the coach Ann Hicks would have
+to climb over a couple of boys. Ruth was on that end of the seat and she
+swung herself off smartly, and landed firmly on the road.
+
+“Look out, Ruth!” shrieked her chum, “you’ll be killed!”
+
+Ruth had no intention of getting near the heels of the horse that had
+broken its harness. She darted around to his head and seized his bridle.
+His mate was already scattering gravel down the hillside as he plunged.
+
+Ruth, paying no attention to the shrieks of the girls or the commands of
+the groom and the boys, jerked the nigh horse’s head around, and so gave
+his mate a chance to obtain firm footing again. She instantly led both
+horses toward the inside of the road.
+
+Tom was off his perch by now and had dashed forward to her aid. Amid the
+gabble of the others, they seemed the only two cool persons in the
+party.
+
+“Oh! hold them tight, Tom!” cried his sister. “Don’t let them run.”
+
+“Pshaw! they don’t want to run,” growled Bobbins.
+
+The groom climbed carefully over him and leaped down into the road. Tom
+was looking at Ruth with shining eyes.
+
+“You’re the girl for me, Ruthie,” he whispered in a sudden burst of
+enthusiasm. “I never saw one like you. You always have your wits about
+you.”
+
+Ruth smiled and blushed. A word of approbation from Tom Cameron was
+sweeter to her than the praise of any other of her young friends. She
+gave him a grateful look, and then turned back to the coach, where the
+girls were still as excited as a swarm of bees.
+
+They all wanted to get down into the road, until Madge positively
+forbade it, and Ruth swung herself up to her seat again.
+
+“You can’t do any good down there, and you’d only be in the way,” Madge
+said. “And the danger’s over now.”
+
+“Thanks to Ruthie!” added Helen, squeezing her chum.
+
+“Oh, you make too much fuss about it,” said Ruth. “I just grabbed the
+bridle.”
+
+“Yes,” said Mercy, from inside. “I thought I’d need my aeroplanes to fly
+with, when that horse began to back over the edge of the hill. You’re a
+good child, Ruthie. I always said so.”
+
+The others had more or less to say about Ruth’s action and she was glad
+to turn the conversation to some other subject.
+
+Meanwhile the groom had mended the harness, and now he and Tom led the
+leaders to straighten out the team, and the four horses threw themselves
+into their collars and jerked the coach-wheel out of the gutter.
+
+The trouble had delayed them but slightly, and soon Tom was cheerfully
+winding the horn, and the horses were rattling down a more gentle
+descent into the last valley.
+
+From this to the top of the hill on which the Steele home stood was a
+steady ascent and the horses could not go rapidly. Bob and Madge pointed
+out the objects of interest as they rolled along—the farmhouses that
+were to be torn down, the fences already straightened, and the dykes and
+walls on which Mr. Steele’s men were at work.
+
+“When this whole hill is father’s, you’ll see some farm,” crowed
+Bobbins.
+
+“But whose place is _that?_” demanded one of the girls, behind him,
+suddenly.
+
+The coach had swung around a turn in the road where a great, bald rock
+and a border of trees on the right hand, hid all that lay beyond on this
+gentle slope. The other girls cried out at the beauty of the scene.
+
+A gable-roofed farmhouse, dazzlingly white, with green blinds, stood end
+to the road. There were great, wide-branched oaks all about it. The sod
+was clipped close and looked like velvet. Yet the surroundings of the
+homestead were rather wild, as though Nature had scarcely been disturbed
+by the hand of man since the original clearing was made here in the
+hillside forest.
+
+There were porches, and modern buildings and “ells” added to the great
+old house, but the two huge chimneys, one at either end, pronounced the
+building to be of the architecture of the earliest settlers in this
+section of the State.
+
+There were beds of old-fashioned flowers; there was a summerhouse on the
+lawn, covered with vines; altogether it was a most beautiful and “homey”
+looking place.
+
+“Whose place is it?” repeated the questioner.
+
+“Oh, that? Caslon’s,” grunted Bob. “He’s the chap who won’t sell out to
+father. Mean old thing.”
+
+“Why, it’s a love of an old place!” exclaimed Helen.
+
+“Yes. It is the one house father was going to let stand on the hill
+beside our own. You see, we wanted to put our superintendent in it.”
+
+Just then an old gentleman came out of the summer house. He was a
+portly, gray mustached, bald-headed man, in clean linen trousers and a
+white shirt with a short, starched bosom. He wore no collar or necktie,
+but looked clean and comfortable. He smiled at the young people on the
+coach jovially.
+
+Behind him stood a motherly lady some years his junior. She was buxom
+and smiling, too.
+
+Bobbins jerked his head around and snapped his whip over the leaders’
+ears. “These are the people,” he said.
+
+“Who?” asked Belle Tingley.
+
+“The Caslons.”
+
+“But they’re real nice looking people,” Helen exclaimed, in wonder.
+
+“Well, they’re a thorn—or a pair of thorns—in my father’s flesh. You’d
+better not boost them before him.”
+
+“And they don’t want to sell their old home?” queried Ruth, softly. Then
+to herself, she whispered: “And who could blame them? I wouldn’t sell
+it, either, if it were mine.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI—TOBOGGANING IN JUNE
+
+
+The four horses climbed briskly after that and brought the yellow coach
+to an old stone gateway. At the end of the Caslon farm the stone wall
+had begun, and now it stretched ahead, up over the rise, as far as
+anything was to be seen. Indeed, it seemed to melt right into the sky.
+
+Bobbins turned the leaders’ noses in at the gateway. Already it was
+shown that the new owner had begun to improve the estate. The driveway
+was an example of what road-making should be—entirely different from the
+hap-hazard work done on the country roads.
+
+There were beautiful pastures on either hand, all fenced in with
+wire—“horse high, bull strong, and pig tight,” as Bobbins explained,
+proudly. There were horses in one pasture and a herd of cows in another.
+Beyond, sheep dotted a rocky bit of the hillside, and the thin, sweet
+“baa-as” of the lambs came to their ears as the coach rolled on.
+
+The visitors were delighted. Every minute they saw something to exclaim
+over. A pair of beautifully spotted coach dogs raced down the drive, and
+cavorted about the coach, eagerly welcoming them.
+
+When they finally topped the hill and came out upon the tableland on
+which the house and the main buildings of Sunrise Farm stood, they
+received a welcome indeed.
+
+There was a big farm bell hung to a creaking arm in the water-tower
+beside the old colonial dwelling. The instant the leaders’ ears topped
+the rise, and while yet the coach was a long way off, several youngsters
+swung themselves on the bell-rope, and the alarm reverberated across the
+hills and valleys in no uncertain tone.
+
+Beside this, a cannon that was something bigger than a toy, “spoke”
+loudly on the front lawn, and a flag was run up the pole set here in a
+prominent place before the house. Mr. and Mrs. Steele stood on the broad
+veranda, between the main pillars, to receive them, and when the coach
+drew up with a flourish, the horde of younger Steeles—Madge’s and Bob’s
+brothers and sisters, whom the big sister called “steel filings”—charged
+around from the bell-tower. There were four or five of the younger
+children, all seemingly about of an age, and they made as much confusion
+as an army.
+
+“Welcome to Sunrise, girls and boys,” said Mr. Steele, who was a short,
+brisk, chubby man, with an abrupt manner, but with an unmistakably kind
+heart, or he would not have sanctioned the descent of this horde of
+young folk upon the place. “Welcome to Sunrise! We want you all to have
+a good time here. The place is open to you, and all Mother Steele begs
+is that you will not break your necks or get into any other serious
+trouble.”
+
+Mrs. Steele was much taller than her husband; it was positive that Madge
+and Bobbins got their height from her side of the family. All the
+younger Steele seemed chubby and round like their father.
+
+Everybody seemed so jolly and kind that it was quite surprising to see
+how the faces of both Mother and Father Steele, as well as their
+children, changed at the long lunch table, half an hour later, when the
+name of Caslon, the neighboring farmer, was mentioned.
+
+“What d’ye think they have been telling me at the stables, Pa?” cried
+Bobbins, when there was a lull in the conversation so that he could be
+heard from his end of the table to his father’s seat.
+
+“I can’t say. What?” responded Mr. Steele.
+
+“About those Caslons. What do you suppose they’re going to do now?”
+
+“Ha!” exclaimed the gentleman, his face darkening. “Nothing you have
+heard could surprise me.”
+
+“I bet this does,” chuckled Bob. “They are going to take a whole raft of
+fresh air kids to board. What do you know about that? Little ragamuffins
+from some school, or asylum, or hospital, or something. Won’t they make
+a mess all over this hill?”
+
+“Ha! he’s done that to spite me,” exclaimed Mr. Steele. “But I’ll post
+my line next to his, and if those young ones trespass, I’ll see what my
+lawyer in Darrowtown can do about it.”
+
+“It shows what kind of people those Caslons are,” said Mrs. Steele, with
+a sigh. “Of course, they know such a crowd of children will be very
+annoying to the neighbors.”
+
+“And we’re the only neighbors,” added Bob.
+
+“Seems to me,” said Madge, slowly, “that I have heard the Caslons always
+_do_ take a bunch of fresh air children in the summer.”
+
+“Oh, I fancy he is doing it this year just to spite us,” said her
+father, shortly. “But I’ll show him——”
+
+He became gloomy, and a cloud seemed to fall upon the whole table for
+the remainder of the meal. It was evident that nothing the neighboring
+farmer could do would be looked upon with favorable eyes by the Steeles.
+
+Ruth did not comment upon the situation, as some of the other girls did
+out of hearing of their hosts. It _did_ seem too bad that the Steeles
+should drag this trouble with a neighbor into the public eye so much.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill could not help but remember the jovial looking
+old farmer and his placid wife, and she felt sure they were not people
+who would deliberately annoy their neighbors. Yet, the Steeles had taken
+such a dislike to the Caslons it was evident they could see no good in
+the old farmer and his wife.
+
+The Steeles had come directly from the city and had brought most of
+their servants with them from their city home. They had hired very few
+local men, even on the farm. Therefore they were not at all in touch
+with their neighbors, or with any of the “natives.”
+
+Mr. Steele was a city man, through and through. He had not even lived in
+the country when he was a boy. His own children knew much more about
+out-of-doors than he, or his wife.
+
+The host was a very successful business man, had made money of late
+years, and wished to spend some of his gains now in laying out the
+finest “gentleman’s farm” in that quarter of the State. To be balked
+right at the start by what he called “a cowhide-booted old Rube” was a
+cross that Mr. Steele could not bear with composure.
+
+The young folks, naturally (save Ruth), were not much interested in the
+controversy between their hosts and the neighboring farmer. There was
+too much fun going on for both girls and boys to think of much beside.
+
+That afternoon they overran the house and stables, numbered the sheep,
+watched the tiny pigs and their mothers in the clover-lot, were
+delighted with the colts that ran with their mothers in the paddock,
+played with the calves, and got acquainted in general with the livestock
+of Sunrise Farm.
+
+“Only we haven’t goats,” said Bobbins. “I’ve been trying to get father
+to buy some Angoras. Old Caslon has the best stock anywhere around, and
+father says he won’t try to buy of _him_. I’d like to send off for a
+good big billy-goat and turn him into Caslon’s back pasture. I bet
+there’d be a fight, for Caslon’s got a billy that’ll chase you just as
+soon as he’d wink.”
+
+“We’d better keep out of _that_ pasture, then,” laughed one of the
+girls.
+
+“Oh, father’s forbidden us trespassing on Caslon’s land. We’d like to
+catch him on _our_ side of the line, that’s all!”
+
+“Who—Mr. Caslon, or the billy?” asked Tom, chuckling.
+
+“Either one,” said Bob, shaking his head threateningly.
+
+Everyone was in bed early that night, for all were tired; but the boys
+had a whispered colloquy before they went to sleep in their own big room
+at the top of the house, and Bob tied a cord to his big toe and weighted
+the other end so that it would drop out of the window and hang just
+about head-high above the grass.
+
+The first stableman up about the place ran over from the barns and gave
+Master Bob’s cord a yank, according to instructions, and pretty nearly
+hauled that ingenious chap out of bed before the eastern sky was even
+streaked with light.
+
+“Gee! have we got to get up now?” demanded Busy Izzy, aroused, as were
+the other boys, by Bobbins dancing about the floor and rubbing his toe.
+“Somebody has been foolin’ you—it’s nowheres near morning.”
+
+“Bet a dog jumped up and bit that string you hung out of the window,”
+chuckled Tom Cameron.
+
+He looked at his watch and saw that it really was after four o’clock.
+
+“Come on, then!” Tom added, rolling Ralph Tingley out of bed. “We must
+do as we said, and surprise the girls.”
+
+“Sh!” commanded Bobbins. “No noise. We want to slide out easy.”
+
+With much muffled giggling and wrestling, they dressed and made their
+way downstairs. The maids were just astir.
+
+The boys had something particular to do, and they went to work at it
+very promptly, under Tom Cameron’s leadership. Behind one of the farther
+barns was a sharp, but smooth slope, well sodded, which descended to the
+line of the farm that adjoined Mr. Caslon’s. There, at the bottom, the
+land sloped up again to the stone wall that divided the two estates.
+
+It was a fine place for a slide in winter, somebody had said; but Tom’s
+quick wit suggested that it would be a good place for a slide in summer,
+too! And the boys had laid their plans for this early morning job
+accordingly.
+
+Before breakfast they had built a dozen barrel-stave toboggans—each long
+enough to hold two persons, if it was so desired.
+
+Tom and Bobbins tried them first and showed the crowd how fine a slide
+it really was down the long, grassy bank. The most timid girl in the
+crowd finally was convinced that it was safe, and for several hours, the
+shrieks of delight and laughter from that hillside proved that a sport
+out of season was all the better appreciated because it was novel.
+
+Over the broad stone wall was the pasture in which Caslon kept his flock
+of goats. Beautiful, long-haired creatures they were, but the solemn old
+leader of the flock stamped his feet at the curious girls and boys who
+looked over the wall, and shook his horns.
+
+Somewhere, along by the boundary of the two estates, Bob said there was
+a spring, and Ruth and Helen slipped off by themselves to find it. A
+wild bit of brush pasture soon hid them from the view of their friends,
+and as they went over a small ridge and down into the deeper valley, the
+laughter and shouting of those at the slide gradually died away behind
+them.
+
+The girls had to cross the stone wall to get at the spring, and they did
+not remember that in doing so they were “out of bounds.” Bob had said
+nothing about the spring being on the Caslon side of the boundary.
+
+Once beside the brook, Helen must needs explore farther. There were
+lovely trees and flowering bushes, and wild strawberries in a small
+meadow that lured the two girls on. They were a long way from the stone
+fence when, of a sudden, a crashing in the bushes behind them brought
+both Ruth and Helen to their feet.
+
+“My! what’s that?” demanded Helen.
+
+“Sounds like some animal.”
+
+Ruth’s remark was not finished.
+
+“The goat! it’s the old billy!” sang out Helen, and turned to run as the
+horned head of the bewhiskered leader of the Angora herd came suddenly
+into view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII—A NUMBER OF INTRODUCTIONS
+
+
+“We must run, Ruthie!” Helen declared, instantly. “Now, there’s no use
+in our trying to face down that goat. Discretion is the better part of
+valor—— Oh!”
+
+The goat just then shook his horns and charged. Ruth was not much behind
+her chum. She saw before Helen, however, that they were running right
+away from the Steele premises.
+
+“We’re getting deeper and deeper into trouble, Helen,” she panted.
+“Don’t you _see?_”
+
+“I can’t see much. Oh! there’s a tree we can both climb, I am sure.”
+
+“But I don’t want to climb a tree,” objected Ruth.
+
+“All right. You stay down and play tag with Mr. Billy Goat. Me for the
+high and lofty!” and she sprang up as she spoke and clutched the low
+limb of a widely branching cedar.
+
+“I’ll never leave my pal!” Ruth declared, giggling, and jumping for
+another limb.
+
+Both girls had practiced on the ladders in the school gymnasium and they
+quickly swung themselves up into the tree. The goat arrived almost on
+the instant, too. At once he leaped up with his fore-feet against the
+bole of the tree.
+
+“My goodness me!” gasped Helen. “He’s going to climb it, too.”
+
+“You know goats _can_ climb. They’re very sure-footed,” said her chum.
+
+“I know all that,” admitted Helen. “But I didn’t suppose they could
+climb trees.”
+
+The goat gave up _that_ attempt, however, very soon. He had no idea, it
+seemed, of going away and leaving his treed victims in peace.
+
+He paced around and around the cedar, casting wicked glances at the
+girls’ dangling feet, and shaking his horns in a most threatening way.
+What he would do to them if he got a chance would “be a-plenty,” Helen
+declared.
+
+“Don’t you suppose he’ll get tired, bye and bye?” queried her chum,
+despondently.
+
+“He doesn’t look as though he ever got wearied,” returned Helen. “What a
+savage looking beast he is! And such whiskers!”
+
+“I wouldn’t make fun of him,” advised Ruth, timidly. “I believe he
+understands—and it makes him madder! Oh! see him!”
+
+Mr. Goat, impatient of the delay, suddenly charged the tree and banged
+against it with his horns in a desperate attempt to jar down the girls
+perched above.
+
+“Oh, the foolish billy!” cooed Helen. “We’re not ripe enough to drop off
+so easily. But he thinks we are.”
+
+“You can laugh,” complained Ruth. “But I don’t think this is much fun.”
+
+“Not for the goat, anyway. He is getting so angry that he may have
+apoplexy. Let’s shout. Maybe the boys will hear us.”
+
+“Not ‘way down here, I fear,” returned Ruth. “We can’t hear a sound from
+_them_. But let’s try.”
+
+They raised their voices in unison, again and again. But there came no
+reply, save that a number of Mr. Billy Goat’s lady friends came trooping
+through the brush and looked up at the girls perched so high above them.
+
+“Bla-a-a-t! bla-a-a-at!” quoth the chorus of nannies.
+
+“The same to you, and many of them!” replied Helen, bowing politely.
+
+“Look out! you’ll fall from the limb,” advised Ruth, much worried.
+
+“And what a fall would then be there, my countrymen!” sighed Helen.
+“Say, Ruth! did you ever notice before what an expressive countenance a
+goat has? Now, Mr. Billy, here, looks just like a selectman of a country
+school board—long whiskers and all.”
+
+“You stop making fun of him,” declared Ruth, shaking her head. “I tell
+you it makes him mad.”
+
+  “Goaty, goaty, go away,
+  Come again some other day,
+  Ruthie and Helen want to get down and play!”
+
+sang Helen Cameron, with a most ridiculous expression.
+
+“We’ll never get down unless somebody comes to drive that beast away,”
+cried Ruth, in disgust.
+
+“And I bet nobody comes over to this end of the farm for days at a
+time.”
+
+“That’s it! keep on! make it just as bad as you can,” groaned Ruth. “Do
+you know it will soon be luncheon time, Helen?”
+
+“But that won’t bother Mr. Goat. He hopes to lunch off us, I guess.”
+
+“But we can’t stay here, Helen!” cried Ruth, in despair.
+
+“You have my permission to hop right down, my dear, and make the closer
+acquaintance of Sir Capricornus, and all the harem. Ex-cuse me! I think
+after due consideration I will retain my lofty perch—— Ugh!”
+
+“You came pretty near slipping off that time!” exclaimed Ruth. “I
+wouldn’t be too funny, if I were you.”
+
+“Maybe you are right,” agreed her friend, in a more subdued tone. “Dear
+me! let us call again, Ruth!”
+
+So both girls again raised their voices. This time there was a response,
+but not from the direction of the stone wall they had crossed to reach
+the spring.
+
+“Hello!” called a jovial sounding voice. “Hello up there!”
+
+“Hello yourself!” shouted Helen. “Oh, do, _do_ come and drive away these
+awful goats.”
+
+There was a hearty laugh at this reply, and then a man appeared. Ruth
+had guessed his identity before ever he came in view. It was the portly
+Mr. Caslon.
+
+“Well, well, my dears! how long have you been roosting up there?” he
+demanded, laughing frankly at them. “Get out, you rascal!”
+
+This he said to the big goat, who started for him with head lowered. Mr.
+Caslon leaped nimbly to one side and whacked the goat savagely across
+the back with his knobby stick. The goat kept right on down the
+hillside, evidently having had enough of _that_ play, and the nannies
+followed, bleating.
+
+“You can come down now, young ladies,” said the farmer. “But I wouldn’t
+come over into this pasture to play much. The goats don’t like
+strangers.”
+
+“We had no business to come here at all, but we forgot,” explained Ruth,
+when both she and her chum had descended from the tree. “We were warned
+not to come over on this side of the line.”
+
+“Oh, indeed? you’re from up on the hill-top?” he asked.
+
+“We are visiting Madge Steele—yes,” said Helen, looking at him
+curiously.
+
+“Ah! I saw all you young folk going by yesterday. You should have a fine
+time about here,” said the farmer, smiling broadly. “And, aside from the
+temper of the goats, I don’t mind you all coming over here on my land if
+you like.”
+
+The girls thanked him warmly for rescuing them from their predicament,
+and then ran up the hill to put the stone wall between them and the
+goats before there was more trouble.
+
+“I like him,” said Helen, referring to Mr. Caslon.
+
+“So do I,” agreed Ruth. “And it’s too bad that Mr. Steele and he do not
+understand each other.”
+
+Although their escapade with the goats was a good joke—and a joke worth
+telling to the crowd—Ruth decided that it would be just as well to say
+nothing about it, and she told Helen so.
+
+“I expect you are right,” admitted her chum. “It will only cause comment
+because we went out of bounds, and became acquainted with Mr. Caslon.
+But I’m glad the old goat introduced us,” and she laughed and tossed her
+head.
+
+So they joined their friends, who had gotten tired by this time of
+tobogganing in June, and they all trooped up the hill again to the
+house. It was growing warm, and the hammocks and lounging chairs in the
+shade of the verandas attracted them until noon.
+
+After luncheon there was tennis and croquet on the lawns, and toward
+evening everybody went driving, although not in the yellow coach this
+time.
+
+The plans for the following day included a long drive by coach to a lake
+beyond Darrowtown, where they had a picnic lunch, and boated and fished
+and had a glorious time in general.
+
+Bobbins drove as before, but there were two men with the party to do the
+work and look after the horses, and Mrs. Steele herself was present to
+have an oversight of the young folk.
+
+Bob Steele was very proud of his ability to drive the four-in-hand, and
+when they swung through Darrowtown on the return trip, with the whip
+cracking and Tom tooting the horn, many people stopped to observe the
+passing of the turnout.
+
+Every other team got out of their way—even the few automobiles they
+passed. But when they got over the first ridge beyond the town and the
+four horses broke into a canter, Mrs. Steele, who sat up behind her son
+on this journey, suddenly put a hand upon his shoulder and called his
+attention to something ahead in the road.
+
+“Do have a care, my son,” she said. “There has been an accident
+there—yes? Don’t drive too fast——”
+
+“By jiminy!” ejaculated Ralph Tingley. “That’s a breakdown, sure
+enough.”
+
+“A farm wagon. There’s a wheel off,” cried Ann Hicks, leaning out from
+the other end of the seat the better to see.
+
+“And who are all those children in blue?” demanded Mercy Curtis, looking
+out from below. “There’s such a lot of them! One, two, three, four,
+five—— Goodness me! they jump about so like fleas that I can’t count
+them!”
+
+“Why, I bet I know what it is,” drawled Bobbins, at last. “It’s old
+Caslon and his load of fresh airs. He was going to town to meet them
+to-day, I believe. And he’s broken down before he’s half way home with
+them—and serves him good and right!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII—“THE TERRIBLE TWINS”
+
+
+Ruth heard Bob’s last expression, despite the rattling of the harness
+and the chattering of the girls on, and in, the coach, and she was
+sorry. Yet, could he be blamed so much, when similar feelings were
+expressed daily by his own father regarding the Caslons?
+
+Mrs. Steele was shocked as well. “My dear son!” she exclaimed, in a low
+voice, leaning over his shoulder. “Be careful of your tongue. Don’t say
+things for which you might be sorry—indeed, for which I am sure you
+_are_ sorry when you stop to think.”
+
+“Huh! Isn’t that old Caslon as mean as he can be?” demanded Bobbins.
+
+“I am sure,” the good lady sighed, “that I wish he would agree to sell
+his place to your father, and so have an end of all this talk and
+worriment. But I am not at all sure that he hasn’t a right to do as he
+pleases with his own property.”
+
+“Well—now—Mother——”
+
+But she stopped him with: “At any rate, you must halt and offer him
+help. And those children—I hope none of them has been hurt.”
+
+“Pooh! you couldn’t hurt kids like those,” declared Bob.
+
+But he brought the horses down to a walk and the yellow coach approached
+the scene of the accident at a temperate pace.
+
+The big farm-wagon, the body of which had been filled with straw for the
+youngsters to ride in, had been pulled to the side of the road out of
+the way of passing vehicles. It was clear that the smashed wheel was
+past repair by any amateur means, for several spokes were broken, and
+the hub was split.
+
+The youngsters whom Mr. Caslon had taken aboard at the railway station
+in Darrowtown were dancing about and yelling like wild Indians. As the
+coach came nearer, the excited party upon it could more carefully count
+the blue-clad figures, and it was proved that there were twelve.
+
+Six girls were in blue gingham frocks, all alike, and all made “skimpy”
+and awkward looking. The six boys were in new blue overalls and cotton
+shirts. The overalls seemed all of one size, although the boys were not.
+They must have been purchased at the store of one size, and whether a
+boy was six, or twelve, he wore the same number.
+
+Each of the children, too, carried a more or less neatly made up parcel,
+the outer covering of which was a blue and white bandanna, and the
+contents of which was the change of clothing the institution allowed
+them.
+
+“What a terrible noise they make!” sighed Mrs. Steele. “And they are
+perfect little terrors, I suppose. But they _are_ clean.”
+
+They had not been out of the sight of the institution nurse long enough
+to be otherwise, for she had come as far as Darrowtown with them. But
+they _were_ noisy, sure enough, for each one was trying to tell his or
+her mates how he or she felt when the wheel crashed and the wagon went
+over.
+
+“I reckon I oughtn’t to have risked that wheel, after all,” said Mr.
+Caslon, doffing his hat to Mrs. Steele, but smiling broadly as he looked
+up from his examination of the wheel.
+
+“Whoa, Charlie! Don’t get too near them heels, youngsters. Charlie an’
+Ned are both old duffers like me; but you can’t fool around a horse’s
+legs without making him nervous.
+
+“And don’t pull them reins. I don’t want ’em to start right now.... Yes,
+ma’am. I’ll haf ter lead the horses home, and that I don’t mind. But
+these young ones—— Now, let that whip lay right where it is, young man!
+That’s right.
+
+“You see, ma’am,” he proceeded, quite calmly despite all that was going
+on about him, and addressing himself to Mrs. Steele, “it’s too long a
+walk for the little ones, and I couldn’t tote ’em all on the backs of
+the horses——
+
+“Now, you two curly heads there—what do you call ’em?”
+
+“The Terrible Twins!” quoth two or three of the other orphans, in
+chorus.
+
+“I believe ye! I believe ye! They jest bile over, _they_ do. Now, you
+two boys,” he added, addressing two youngsters, very much alike, about
+of a height, and both with short, light curly hair, “never mind tryin’
+to unharness Charlie and Ned. _I’ll_ do that.
+
+“Ye see, ma’am, if you could take some of the little ones aboard——” he
+suggested to Mrs. Steele.
+
+The coach was well filled, yet it was not crowded. The girls began to
+call to the little folks to get aboard even before Mrs. Steele could
+speak.
+
+“There’s lots of room up here,” cried Ruth, leaning from her end of the
+seat and offering her hand. The twins ran at once to climb up and fought
+for “first lift” by Ruth.
+
+“Oh, yes! they can get aboard,” said Mrs. Steele. “All there is room
+for.”
+
+And the twelve “fresh airs” proved very quickly that there was room for
+them all. Ruth had the “terrible twins” on the seat with her in half a
+minute, and the others swarmed into, or on top of, the coach almost as
+quickly.
+
+“There now! that’s a big lift, I do declare,” said the farmer, hanging
+the chains of the horses’ traces upon the hames, and preparing to lead
+the pair along the road.
+
+“My wife will be some surprised, I bet,” and he laughed jovially. “I’m
+certain sure obleeged to ye, Mis’ Steele. Neighbors ought to be
+neighborly, an’ you air doin’ me a good turn this time—yes, ma’am!”
+
+“Now, you see,” growled Bob, as the four coach horses trotted on, “he’ll
+take advantage of this. We’ve noticed him once, and he’ll always be
+fresh.”
+
+“Hush, my son!” whispered Mrs. Steele. “Little pitchers have big ears.”
+
+“Huh!” exclaimed one of the wriggling twins, looking up at the lady
+sideways like a bird. “I know what _that_ means. _We’re_ little
+pitchers—Dickie an’ me. We’ve heard that before—ain’t we, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” announced his brother, nodding wisely.
+
+These two were certainly wise little scamps! Willie did most of the
+talking, but whatever he said his brother agreed to. Dickie being so
+chary with speech, possibly his brother felt that he must exercise his
+own tongue the more, for he chattered away like a veritable magpie,
+turning now and then to demand:
+
+“Ain’t that so, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” vouchsafed the echo, and, thus championed, Willie would rattle on
+again.
+
+Yes. They was all from the same asylum. There were lots more of boys and
+girls in that same place. But only twelve could get to go to this place
+where they were going. They knew boys that went to Mr. Caslon’s last
+year.
+
+“Don’t we, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep.”
+
+No. They didn’t have a mama or papa. Never had had any. But they had a
+sister. She was a big girl and had gone away from the asylum. Some time,
+when they were big enough, they were going to run away from the asylum
+and find her.
+
+“Ain’t we, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep.”
+
+Whether the other ten “fresh airs” were as funny and cute as the
+“terrible twins,” or not, Ruth Fielding did not know, but both she and
+Mrs. Steele were vastly amused by them, and continued to be so all the
+way to the old homestead under the hill where the children had come to
+spend a part of the summer with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV—“WHY! OF COURSE!”
+
+
+“I hope you told that Caslon woman, Mother, to keep those brats from
+boiling over upon our premises,” said Mr. Steele, cheerfully, at dinner
+that evening, when the story of the day’s adventures was pretty well
+told.
+
+“Really, John, I had no time. _Such_ a crowd of eels—— Well! whatever
+she may deserve,” said Mrs. Steele, shaking her head, “I am sure she
+does not deserve the trouble those fresh air children will bring her.
+And she—she seems like such a nice old lady.”
+
+“Who’s a nice old lady?” demanded her husband, from the other end of the
+long table, rather sharply.
+
+“Farmer Caslon’s wife.”
+
+“Humph! I don’t know what she is; I know what _he_ is, however. No doubt
+of that. He’s the most unreasonable——”
+
+“Well, they’ll have their hands full with all those young ones,” laughed
+Madge Steele, breaking in upon her father, perhaps because she did not
+wish him to reveal any further to her guests his ideas upon this topic.
+
+“What under the sun can they do it for?” demanded Lluella Fairfax.
+
+“Just think of troubling one’s self with a parcel of ill-bred children
+like those orphanage kids,” added Belle Tingley.
+
+“Oh, they do it just to bother the neighbors, of course,” growled
+Bobbins, who naturally believed all his father said, or thought, to be
+just right.
+
+“They take a world of trouble on themselves, then, to spite their
+neighbors,” laughed Mercy Curtis, in her sharp way. “That’s cutting
+one’s nose off to spite one’s face, sure enough!”
+
+“Goodness only knows _why_ they do it,” began Madge, when Ruth, who
+could keep in no longer, now the topic had become generally discussed
+among the young people, exclaimed:
+
+“Both the farmer and his wife look to be very kindly and jolly sort of
+people. I am sure they have no idea of troubling other folk with the
+children they take to board. They must be, I think, very charitable, as
+well as very fond of children.”
+
+“Trust Ruth for seeing the best side of it,” laughed Heavy.
+
+“And the right side, too, I bet,” murmured Tom Cameron.
+
+“We’ll hope so,” said Mr. Steele, rather grimly. “But if Caslon lets
+them trespass on my land, he’ll hear about it, sharp and plenty!”
+
+Now, it so happened, that not twenty-four hours had passed before the
+presence of the “fresh air kids” was felt upon the sacred premises of
+Sunrise Farm. It was very hot that next day, and the girls remained in
+the shade, or played a desultory game of tennis, or two, or knocked the
+croquet balls around a bit, refusing to go tramping through the woods
+with the boys to a pond where it was said the fish would bite.
+
+“So do the mosquitoes—I know them,” said Mercy Curtis, when the boys
+started. “Be honest about it, now; I bet you get ten mosquito bites to
+every fish-bite. Tell us when you get back.”
+
+Late in the afternoon the rural mail carrier was due and Ruth, Helen,
+Madge and Heavy started for the gate on the main road where the Steeles
+had their letter box.
+
+A little woolly dog ran after Madge—her mother’s pet. “Come on,
+Toodles!” she said, and then all four girls started to race with Toodles
+down to the gate.
+
+Suddenly Toodles spied something more entertaining to bark at and caper
+about than the girls’ skirts. A cat was slipping through the bushes
+beside the wall, evidently on the trail of some unconscious bird.
+Toodles, uttering a glad “yap, yap, yap!” started for the cat.
+
+Two tousled, curly heads appeared at the gateway. Below the uncapped
+heads were two thin bodies just of a size, clothed in shirts and
+overalls of blue.
+
+“Hello, kiddies!” said Heavy. “How did you get here?”
+
+“On our feet—didn’t we, Dickie?” responded Master Willie.
+
+“Yep,” said Dickie.
+
+“Oh, dear me! Toodles will hurt that cat!” cried Madge. “One of you boys
+run and save her—save kitty!” she begged.
+
+But as the youngsters started off as per direction, the cat turned
+savagely upon Toodles. She snarled like a wildcat, leaped for his
+fur-covered back, and laid in with her claws in a way that made the pup
+yell with fright and pain.
+
+“Oh, never mind the cat! Help Toodles! Help Toodles!” wailed Madge,
+seeing her pet in such dire trouble.
+
+The youngsters stopped with disgust, as Toodles went kiting up the hill,
+yelping.
+
+“Pshaw!” exclaimed Willie. “Toodles don’t need helpin’. Did’ye ever see
+such a dog? What he needs is a nurse—don’t he, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” declared the oracular Dickie, with emphasis.
+
+Heavy dropped down on the grass and rolled. As the cat had quickly
+returned from the chase, Madge and Helen joined her. It was too funny.
+The “terrible twins” were just slipping out of the gate, when Ruth
+called to them.
+
+“Don’t go yet, boys. Are you having a good time?”
+
+“We ain’t allowed in here,” said Willie.
+
+“Who told you so?”
+
+“The short, fat man with the squinty eyes and the cane,” declared
+Willie, in a matter of fact way.
+
+“Short—fat—squinty—— My goodness! I wonder if he can mean my father?”
+exclaimed Madge, inclined to be offended.
+
+“But you can stand there and talk with us,” said Ruth, strolling toward
+the boys. “So you are having a nice time at Mr. Caslon’s?”
+
+“Bully—ain’t we, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” agreed the echo.
+
+“And you won’t be glad to go back to the orphanage when you have to
+leave here?”
+
+“Say, who ever was glad to go to a ’sylum?” demanded Willie, with scorn.
+
+“And you can’t remember any other home, either of you?” asked Ruth, with
+pity.
+
+“Huh! we ’member just the same things. Our ages is just alike, they be,”
+said Willie, with scorn.
+
+“They have you there, Ruth,” chuckled Heavy.
+
+Ruth Fielding was really interested in the two youngsters. “And you are
+all alone in the world?” she pursued.
+
+“Nope. We gotter sister.”
+
+“Oh! so you said.”
+
+“And it’s so, too. She used ter be at the ’sylum,” explained Willie.
+“But they sent her off to live with somebody. And we was tried out by a
+lady and a gentleman, too; but we was too much work for the lady. We
+made too much extry washin’,” said Willie, solemnly.
+
+“My goodness me!” exclaimed Ruth, suddenly. “What are your names?”
+
+“I’m Willie; he’s Dickie.”
+
+“But Willie and Dickie _what_?” demanded the startled Ruth.
+
+“No, ma’am. It ain’t that. It’s Raby,” declared the youngster, coolly.
+“And our sister, _she’s_ Sadie Raby. She’s awful smart and some day, she
+told us, she’s goin’ to come an’ steal us from the ‘sylum, and then
+we’ll all live together and keep house.”
+
+“Will you hear this, Helen?” demanded Ruth, eagerly, to her chum who had
+run to her.
+
+“Why, of course! we might have known as much, if we had been smart.
+These are the twins Sadie told you about. And we never guessed!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV—THE TEMPEST
+
+
+Ruth was much interested in the fresh air children, and so was Helen.
+They found time to walk down to the Caslon farm and become acquainted
+with the entire twelve. Naturally, the “terrible twins” held their
+attention more than the others, for it _did_ seem so strange that the
+little brothers of Sadie Raby should come across Ruth’s path in just
+this way.
+
+Of course, in getting so well acquainted with the children, Ruth and her
+chum were bound to know the farmer and his wife better. They were very
+plain, “homey” sort of people, just as Ruth had guessed, and it appeared
+that they were not blessed with an over-abundance of ready money. Few
+farmers in Mr. Caslon’s circumstances are.
+
+What means they had, they joyfully divided with the youngsters they had
+taken to board. The Caslons had no living children; indeed, the two they
+had had, years ago, died while they were yet babies. This Mrs. Caslon
+confided to Ruth.
+
+“It left an empty place in our hearts,” she said, softly, “that nothing
+but other little children can fill. John has missed them fully as much
+as I have. Yes; he lets these little harum-scarums pull him around, and
+climb all over him, and interfere with his work, and take up his time a
+good deal. Yes, I know the place looks a sight, inside the house and
+out, when they go away.
+
+“But for a few weeks every year we have a host of young things about us,
+and it keeps our hearts young. The bother of ’em, and the trouble of
+’em, is nothing to the good they do us both. Ah, yes!
+
+“Yes, I’ve often thought of keeping one or two of them for good. There’s
+a-many pretty ones, or cunning ones, we’d like to have had. But
+then—think of the disappointment of the rest of the darlings!
+
+“And it would have narrowed down our sympathy—mine and John’s,”
+proceeded Mrs. Caslon, shaking her head gently. “We’d have centered all
+our love and longin’ into them we took for keeps, just as we centered
+all our interest in the two little ones God lent us for a little while,
+long ago.
+
+“Havin’ a number of ’em each year, and almost always different ones, has
+been better, I guess—better for all hands. It keeps John and me
+interested more, and we try to make them so happy here that each poor,
+unfortunate orphan will go away and remember his or her summer here for
+the rest of their lives.
+
+“And they _do_ have so little to be happy over, these orphans—and it
+takes so very little to make them happy.
+
+“If I had money—much money,” continued the farmer’s wife, clasping her
+hands, fervently, “I’d move many orphan asylums, and such like, out of
+the close, hot cities, where the little ones are cramped for room and
+air, and put each of them on a farm—a great, big farm. City’s no place
+for children to grow up—’specially those that have no fathers and
+mothers.
+
+“You can’t tell me but that these young ones miss their parents less
+here on this farm than they do back in the brick building they live in
+most of the year,” concluded the good woman, earnestly.
+
+Ruth quite fell in love with the old lady—who did not appear so very
+old, after all. Perhaps she had kept her heart young in serving these
+“fresh air” orphans, year after year. And Mr. Caslon seemed a very
+happy, jolly sort of man, too.
+
+The two girls stole away quite frequently to watch the youngsters play,
+or to teach them new means of entertaining themselves, or to talk with
+the farmer’s wife. But they did not wish the other girls, and the
+Steeles, to know where they went on these occasions.
+
+Their host, who was the nicest kind of a man in every other way, seemed
+determined to look upon Caslon as his enemy; and Mr. Steele was ready to
+do anything he could to oust the old couple from their home.
+
+“Pshaw! a man like Caslon can make a good living anywhere,” Mr. Steele
+declared. “His crops just _grow_ for him. He’s an A-1 farmer—I’d like to
+find as good a one before next year, to superintend my whole place. He’s
+just holding out for a big price for his farm, that’s all he’s doing.
+These hayseeds are money-mad, anyway. I haven’t offered him enough for
+his old farm, that’s all.”
+
+Ruth doubted if this were true. The Caslon place was one of the oldest
+homesteads in that part of the State, and the house had been built by a
+Caslon. Mr. Steele could not appreciate the fact that there was a
+sentiment attached to the farmer’s occupancy of his old home.
+
+The Caslons had taken root here on this side-hill. The farmer and his
+wife were the last of the name; they had nobody to will it to. But they
+loved every acre of the farm, and the city man’s money did not look good
+enough to them.
+
+Ruth Fielding hungered to straighten out the tangle. She wished she
+might make Mr. Steele understand the old farmer’s attitude. Was there
+not, too, some way of settling the controversy in a way satisfactory to
+both parties?
+
+Meanwhile the merry party of young folk at Sunrise Farm was busy every
+waking hour. There were picnics, and fishing parties, and games, and
+walks, and of course riding galore, for Mr. Steele had plenty of horses.
+
+Ruth and Helen privately worked up some interest among the girls and
+boys visiting the farm, in a celebration on the Fourth for the fresh air
+children. Ruth had learned that the farmer had purchased some cheap
+fireworks and the like for the entertainment of the orphans; but Ruth
+and her chum wanted to add to his modest preparations.
+
+Ten dollars was raised, and Tom Cameron took charge of the fund. He was
+to ride into town the afternoon before the Fourth to make the purchases,
+but just about as he was to start, a thunderstorm came up.
+
+Mr. Steele, who was a nervous man, forbade any riding or driving with
+that threatening cloud advancing over the hills. The lightning played
+sharply along the edges of the cloud and the thunder rolled ominously.
+
+“You youngsters don’t know what a tempest is like here in the hills,”
+said Mr. Steele. “Into the house—all of you. Take that horse and cart
+back to the stables, Jackson. If Tom wants to go to town, he’ll have to
+wait until the shower is over—or go to-morrow.”
+
+“All right, sir,” agreed young Cameron, cheerfully. “Just as you say.”
+
+“Are all those girls inside?” sharply demanded Mr. Steele. “I thought I
+saw the flutter of a petticoat in the shrubbery yonder.”
+
+“I’ll see,” said Tom, running indoors.
+
+Nervous Mr. Steele thought he saw somebody there behind the bushes,
+before he heard from Tom. It had already begun to rain in big drops, and
+suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a report seemingly right
+overhead.
+
+The host turned up his coat collar, thrust his cap over his ears, and
+ran out across the lawn toward the path behind the shrubbery. It led to
+a summer house on the side lawn, but this was a frail shelter from such
+a tempest as this that was breaking over the hill.
+
+Mr. Steele saw the flutter of a skirt ahead, and dashed along the path,
+the rain pelting him as he ran.
+
+“Come back here! Come to the house, you foolish girl!” he cried, and
+popped into the summer house just as the clouds seemed to open above and
+the rain descend in a flood.
+
+It was so dark, and Mr. Steele was so blinded for a moment, that he
+could scarcely see the figure of whom he was in search. Then he beheld a
+girl crouching in a corner, with her hands over her ears to shut out the
+roar of the thunder and her eyes tightly closed to shut out the
+lightning.
+
+“For mercy’s sake! get up and come into the house. This place will be
+all a-flood in a minute,” he gasped.
+
+Suddenly, as he dragged the girl to her feet by one shoulder, he saw
+that she was not one of the house party at all. She was a frail,
+shrinking girl, in very dirty clothing, and her face and hands were
+scratched and dirty, too. A regular ragamuffin she appeared.
+
+“Why—why, where did _you_ come from?” demanded Mr. Steele.
+
+The girl only stuttered and stammered, looking at him fearfully.
+
+“Come on! never mind who you are,” he sputtered. “This is no place for
+you in this tempest. Come into the house!”
+
+He set out on a run again for the front veranda, dragging her after him.
+The girl did not cry, although she was certainly badly frightened by the
+storm.
+
+They reached the door of the big house, saturated. Here Mr. Steele
+turned to her again.
+
+“Who are you? What are you doing around here, anyway?” he demanded.
+
+“Ain’t—ain’t this the place where they got a bunch of fresh air kids?”
+asked the girl.
+
+“What?” gasped Mr. Steele. “I should say not! Are you one of those young
+ones Caslon has taken to board to the annoyance of the whole
+neighborhood? Ha! what were you doing trespassing on my land?”
+
+“I ain’t neither!” returned the girl, pulling away her hand. “You lemme
+be.”
+
+“I forbade any of you to come up here——”
+
+“I ain’t neither,” reiterated the girl. “An’ I don’t know what you mean.
+I jest got there. And I’m lookin’ for the place where the fresh air kids
+stay.”
+
+In the midst of this the door was drawn open and Mrs. Steele and some of
+the girls appeared.
+
+“Do come in, Father,” she cried. “Why! you’re soaking wet. And that
+child! bring her in, whoever she is. Oh!”
+
+Another flash of lightning made them all cower—all but Ruth Fielding,
+who had crept forward to look over Mrs. Steele’s shoulder. Now she
+dashed out and seized the bedrabbled looking stranger by the hand.
+
+“Why, Sadie Raby! who’d ever expect to see you here? Come in! do let her
+come in out of the storm, Mrs. Steele. I know who she is,” begged Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI—THE RUNAWAY
+
+
+Madge said, in something like perplexity: “You _do_ pick up the
+strangest acquaintances, Ruth Fielding. She really does, Ma. But that
+has always been Ruth’s way.”
+
+Mrs. Steele was first disturbed over her husband’s condition. “Go right
+away and change into dry garments—do, Father,” she urged. “You will get
+your death of cold standing there. And shut the door. Oh! that
+lightning!”
+
+They had to wait for the thunder to roll away before they could hear her
+again, although Mr. Steele hurried upstairs without another glance at
+the bedrabbled child he had brought in out of the storm.
+
+“This—this girl must go somewhere and dry herself,” hesitated Mrs.
+Steele, when next she spoke. “My! isn’t she a sight? Call one of the
+maids, someone——”
+
+“Oh, dear Mrs. Steele!” exclaimed Ruth, eagerly, “let me take Sadie
+upstairs and look after her. I am sure I have something she can put on.”
+
+“So have I, if you haven’t,” interposed Helen. “And my clothes will come
+nearer fitting her than Ruth’s. Ruth is getting almost as fat as Heavy!”
+
+“There is no need of either of you sacrificing your clothes,” said Mrs.
+Steele, slowly. “Of course, I have plenty of outgrown garments of my own
+daughters’ put away. Yes. You take care of her if you wish, Ruth, and I
+will hunt out the things.”
+
+Here the strange girl interposed. She had been darting quick, shrewd
+glances about the hall at the girls and boys there gathered, and now she
+said:
+
+“Ye don’t hafter do nothing for me. A little rainwater won’t hurt me—I
+ain’t neither sugar nor salt. All I wants to know is where them fresh
+air kids is stayin’. I ain’t afraid of the rain—it’s the thunder and
+lightning that scares me.”
+
+“Goodness knows,” laughed Madge, “I guess the water wouldn’t hurt you.
+But we’ll fix you up a little better, I guess.”
+
+“Let Ruth do it,” said Mrs. Steele, sharply. “She says she knows the
+girl.”
+
+“She’s a friend of mine,” said the girl of the Red Mill, frankly. “You
+surely remember me, Sadie Raby?”
+
+“Oh, I remember ye, Miss,” returned the runaway. “You was kind to me,
+too.”
+
+“Come on, then,” said Ruth, briskly. “I’m only going to be kind to you
+again—and so is Mrs. Steele going to be kind. Come on!”
+
+An hour later an entirely different looking girl appeared with Ruth in
+the big room at the top of the house which the visiting girls occupied.
+Some of them had come upstairs, for the tempest was over now, and were
+making ready for dinner by slow stages, it still being some time off,
+and there was nothing else to do.
+
+“This is Sadie Raby, girls,” explained Ruth, quietly. “She is the sister
+of those cute little twins that are staying at the Caslons’ place. She
+has had a hard time getting here, and because she hasn’t seen Willie and
+Dickie for eight months, or more, she is very anxious to see them. They
+are all she has in the world.”
+
+“And I reckon they’re a handful,” laughed Heavy. “Come on! tell us all
+about it, Sadie.”
+
+It was because of the “terrible twins” that Ruth had gotten Sadie to
+talk at all. The girl, since leaving “them Perkinses,” near Briarwood,
+had had a most distressful time in many ways, and she was reticent about
+her adventures.
+
+But she warmed toward Ruth and the others when she found that they
+really were sincerely interested in her trials, and were, likewise,
+interested in the twins.
+
+“Them kids must ha’ growed lots since I seen ’em,” she said, wistfully.
+“I wrote a letter to a girl that works right near the orphanage. She
+wrote back that the twins was coming out here for a while. So I throwed
+up my job at Campton and hiked over here.”
+
+“Dear me! all that way?” cried Helen, pityingly.
+
+“I walked farther than that after I left them Perkinses,” declared
+Sadie, promptly. “I walked clean from Lumberton to Cheslow—followed the
+railroad most of the way. Then I struck off through the fields and went
+to a mill on the river, and worked there for a week, for an old lady.
+She was nice——”
+
+“I guess she is!” cried Ruth, quickly. “Didn’t you know that was _my_
+home you went to? And you worked for Aunt Alvirah and Uncle Jabez.”
+
+No, Sadie had not known that. The little old woman had spoken of there
+being a girl at the Red Mill sometimes, but Sadie had not suspected the
+identity of that girl.
+
+“And then, when you were still near Cheslow, my brother Tom, and his
+dog, rescued you from the tramps,” cried Helen.
+
+“Was that your brother, Miss?” responded Sadie. “Well! he’s a nice
+feller. He got me a ride clear to Campton. I’ve been workin’ there and
+earnin’ my board and keep. But I couldn’t save much, and it’s all gone
+now.”
+
+“But what do you really expect to do here?” asked Madge Steele,
+curiously.
+
+“I gotter see them kids,” declared Sadie, doggedly. “Seems to me,
+sometimes, as though something would bust right inside of me here,” and
+she clutched her dress at its bosom, “if I don’t see Willie and Dickie.
+I thought this big house was likely where the fresh airs was.”
+
+“I should say not!” murmured Madge.
+
+“They’re all right—don’t you be afraid,” said Ruth, softly.
+
+“I thought mebbe the folks that was keepin’ the kids would let me work
+for them,” said Sadie, presently. “For kids is a lot of trouble, and I’m
+used to ’em. The matron at the home said I had a way with young’uns.”
+
+She told them a good deal more about her adventures within the next half
+hour, but Madge had left the room just after making her last speech.
+While the girls were still listening to the runaway, a maid rapped at
+the door.
+
+“Mr. Steele will see this—this strange girl in the library,” announced
+the servant.
+
+Sadie looked a little scared for a moment, and glanced wildly around the
+big room for some way of escape.
+
+“Gee! I ain’t got to talk with that man, have I?” she whispered.
+
+“He won’t bite you,” laughed Heavy.
+
+“He’s just as kind as kind can be,” declared Helen.
+
+“I’ll go down with you,” said Ruth, decisively. “You have plenty of
+friends now, Sadie. You mustn’t be expecting to run away all the time.”
+
+Sadie Raby went with Ruth doubtfully. The latter was somewhat disturbed
+herself when she saw Mr. Steele’s serious visage.
+
+“You’ll excuse me, Mr. Steele?” suggested Ruth, timidly. “But she is all
+alone—and I thought it would encourage her to have me here——”
+
+“That is like your kind heart, Ruth,” said the gentleman, nodding. “I
+don’t mind. Madge has told me her story. It seems that the child is
+rather wild—er—flighty, as it were. I suppose she wants to run away from
+us, too?”
+
+“I ain’t figurin’ to stay here,” said Sadie, doggedly. “I’m obleeged to
+you, but this ain’t the house I was aimin’ for.”
+
+“Humph! no. But I am not sure at all that you would be in good hands
+down there at Caslon’s.”
+
+Ruth was sorry to hear him say this. But Sadie broke in with: “I don’t
+keer how they treat me as long as I’m with my brothers. And _they_ are
+down there, this Ruth girl says.”
+
+“Yes. I quite understand that. But we all have our duty to perform in
+this world,” said Mr. Steele, gravely. “I wonder that you have fallen in
+with nobody before who has seen the enormity of letting you run wild
+throughout the country. It is preposterous—wrong—impossible! I never
+heard of the like before—a child of your age tramping in the open.”
+
+“I didn’t do no harm,” began Sadie, half fearful of him again.
+
+“Of course it is not your fault,” said Mr. Steele, quickly. “But you
+were put in the hands of people who are responsible to the institution
+you came from for their treatment of you——”
+
+“Them Perkinses?” exclaimed Sadie, fearfully. “I won’t never go back to
+them—not while I’m alive I won’t! I don’t care! I jest won’t!”
+
+She spoke wildly. She turned to run from the room and would have done
+so, had not Ruth been there to stop her and hold her in her arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII—THE BLACK DOUGLASS
+
+
+“Oh, don’t frighten her, Mr. Steele!” begged Ruth, still holding the
+half wild girl. “You would not send her back to those awful people?”
+
+“Tut, tut! I am no ogre, I hope,” exclaimed the gentleman, rather put
+out of countenance at this outburst. “I only mean the child well.
+Doesn’t she understand?”
+
+“I won’t go back to them Perkinses, I tell you!” cried Sadie, with a
+stamp of her foot.
+
+“It is not my intention to send you back. I mean to look up your record
+and the record of the people you were placed with—Perkins, is it? The
+authorities of the institution that had the care of you, should be made
+to be more careful in their selection of homes for their charges.
+
+“No. I will keep you here till I have had the matter sifted. If
+those—those Perkinses, as you call them, are unfit to care for you, you
+shall certainly not go back to them, my girl.”
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. “But I don’t want to stay here, Mister,”
+she blurted out.
+
+“My girl, you are not of an age when you should be allowed to choose for
+yourself. Others, older and wiser, must choose for you. I would not feel
+that I was doing right in allowing you to run wild again——”
+
+“I gotter see the twins—I jest _gotter_ see ’em,” said Sadie, faintly.
+
+“And whether that Caslon is fit to have charge of you,” bitterly added
+Mr. Steele, “I have my doubts.”
+
+“Oh, surely, you will let her see her little brothers?” cried Ruth,
+pleadingly.
+
+“We will arrange about that—ahem!” said Mr. Steele. “But I will
+communicate at once—by long distance telephone—with the matron of the
+institution from which she came, and they can send a representative here
+to talk with me——”
+
+“And take me back there?” exclaimed Sadie. “No, I sha’n’t! I sha’n’t go!
+So there!”
+
+“Hoity-toity, Miss! Let’s have no more of it, if you please,” said the
+gentleman, sternly. “You will stay here for the present. Don’t you try
+to run away from me, for if you do, I’ll soon have you brought back. We
+intend to treat you kindly here, but you must not abuse our kindness.”
+
+It was perhaps somewhat puzzling to Sadie Raby—this attitude of the very
+severe gentleman. She had not been used to much kindness in her life,
+and the sort that is forced on one is not generally appreciated by the
+wisest of us. Therefore it is not strange if Sadie failed to understand
+that Mr. Steele really meant to be her friend.
+
+“Come away, Sadie,” whispered Ruth, quite troubled herself by the turn
+affairs had taken. “I am so sorry—but it will all come right in the
+end——”
+
+“If by comin’ right, Miss, you means that I am goin’ to see them twins,
+you can jest _bet_ it will all come right,” returned Sadie, gruffly,
+when they were out in the hall. “For see ’em I will, an’ _him_, nor
+nobody else, won’t stop me. As for goin’ back to them Perkinses, or to
+the orphanage, we’ll see ‘bout that,” added Sadie, to herself, and
+grimly.
+
+Ruth feared very much that Mr. Steele would not have been quite so stern
+and positive with the runaway, had it not been for his dislike for the
+Caslons. Had Sadie’s brothers been stopping with some other neighbor,
+would Mr. Steele have delayed letting the runaway girl go to see them?
+
+“Oh, dear, me! If folks would only be good-natured and stop being so
+hateful to each other,” thought the girl of the Red Mill. “I just _know_
+that Mr. Steele would like Mr. Caslon a whole lot, if they really once
+got acquainted!”
+
+The rain had ceased falling by this time. The tempest had rolled away
+into the east. A great rainbow had appeared and many of the household
+were on the verandas to watch the bow of promise.
+
+It was too wet, however, to venture upon the grass. The paths and
+driveway glistened with pools of water. And under a big tree not far
+from the front of the house, it was discovered that a multitude of
+little toads had appeared—tiny little fellows no larger than one’s
+thumbnail.
+
+“It’s just been rainin’ toads!” cried one of the younger Steele
+children—Bennie by name. “Come on out, Ruthie, and see the toads that
+comed down with the rainstorm.”
+
+Tom Cameron had already come up to speak with Sadie. He shook hands with
+the runaway girl and spoke to her as politely as he would have to any of
+his sister’s friends. And Sadie, remembering how kind he had been to her
+on the occasion when the tramps attacked her near Cheslow, responded to
+his advances with less reluctance than she had to those of some of the
+girls.
+
+For it must be confessed that many of the young people looked upon the
+runaway askance. She was so different from themselves!
+
+Now that she was clean, and her hair brushed and tied with one of Ruth’s
+own ribbons, and she was dressed neatly, Sadie Raby did not _look_ much
+different from the girls about her on the wide porch; but when she
+spoke, her voice was hoarse, and her language uncouth.
+
+Had she been plumper, she would have been a pretty girl. She was tanned
+very darkly, and her skin was coarse. Nevertheless, given half the care
+these other girls had been used to most of their lives, and Sadie Raby
+would have been the equal of any.
+
+Ruth came strolling back to the veranda, leaving Bennie watching the
+toads—which remained a mystery to him. He was a lively little fellow of
+six and the pet of the whole family.
+
+As it chanced, he was alone out there on the drive, and the others were
+now strolling farther and farther away from him along the veranda. The
+boy ran out farther from the house, and danced up and down, looking at
+the rainbow overhead.
+
+Thus he was—a pretty sight in the glow of the setting sun—when a sudden
+chorus of shouts and frightened cries arose from the rear of the house.
+
+Men and maids were screaming. Then came the pounding of heavy hoofs.
+
+Around the curve of the drive charged a great black horse, a frayed and
+broken lead-rope hanging from his arching neck, his eyes red and
+glowing, and his sleek black body all a-quiver with the joy of his
+escape.
+
+“The Black Douglass!” ejaculated Tom Cameron, in horror, for the great
+horse was charging straight for the dancing child in the driveway.
+
+It was the most dangerous beast upon Sunrise Farm—indeed, almost the
+only savage creature Mr. Steele had retained when he bought out the
+former owner of the stock farm and his stud of horses.
+
+The Black Douglass was a big creature, with an uncertain temper, and was
+handled only by the most careful men in Mr. Steele’s employ. Somehow, on
+this occasion, the brute had been allowed to escape.
+
+Spurring the gravel with his iron shod hoofs, the horse galloped
+straight at little Bennie. The child, suddenly made aware of his peril
+by the screams of his brothers and sisters, turned blindly, staggered a
+few steps, and fell upon his hands and knees.
+
+Mr. Steele rushed from the house, but he was too far away. The men
+chasing the released animal were at a distance, too. Tom Cameron started
+down the steps, but Helen shrieked for him to return. Who was there to
+face the snorting, prancing beast?
+
+There was a flash of a slight figure down the steps and across the sod.
+Like an arrow from a strong bow, Sadie Raby darted before the fallen
+child. Nor was she helpless. The runaway knew what she was about.
+
+As she ran from the veranda, she had seized a parasol that was leaning
+against one of the pillars. Holding this in both hands, she presented it
+to the charging horse, opening and shutting it rapidly as she advanced.
+
+She leaped across Bennie and confronted the Black Douglass. The flighty
+animal, seeing something before him that he did not at all understand,
+changed his course with a frightened snort, and dashed off across the
+lawn, cutting out great clods as he ran, and so around the house again
+and out of sight.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Steele were both running to the spot. The gentleman picked
+up the frightened Bennie, but handed him at once to his mother. Then he
+turned and seized the girl by her thin shoulders.
+
+“My dear girl! My dear girl!” he said, rather brokenly, turning her so
+as to face him. “That was a brave thing to do. We can’t thank you
+enough. You can’t understand——”
+
+“Aw, it warn’t anything. I knowed that horse wouldn’t jump at us when he
+seen the umbrel’. Horses is fools that way,” said Sadie Raby, rather
+shamefacedly.
+
+But when Mrs. Steele knelt right down in the damp gravel beside her, and
+with one arm around Bennie, put the other around the runaway and hugged
+her—hugged her _tight_—Sadie was quite overcome, herself.
+
+Madge Steele was crying frankly. Bobbins came rushing upon the scene,
+and there was a general riot of exclamation and explanation.
+
+“Say! you goin’ to let me see my brothers now?” demanded the runaway,
+who had a practical mind, if nothing more.
+
+“Bob,” said his father, quickly, “you have the pony put in the cart and
+drive down there to Caslon’s and bring those babies up here.”
+
+“Aw, Father! what’ll I tell Caslon?” demanded the big fellow,
+hesitatingly.
+
+“Tell him—tell him——” For a moment, it was true, that Mr. Steele was
+rather put to it for a reply. He found Ruth beside him, plucking his
+sleeve.
+
+“Let me go with Bobbins, sir,” whispered the girl of the Red Mill. “I’ll
+know what to say to Mr. and Mrs. Caslon.”
+
+“I guess you will, Ruth. That’s right. You bring the twins up here to
+see their sister.” Then he turned and smiled down at Sadie, and there
+were tears behind his eyeglasses. “If I have my way, young lady, your
+coming here to Sunrise Farm will be the best thing—for you and the
+twins—that ever happened in your young lives!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII—SUNDRY PLANS
+
+
+Perhaps Sadie Raby would have been just as well pleased had Mr. Steele
+allowed her to go to the Caslons’ to see her brothers, instead of having
+them brought up the hill to Sunrise Farm. The gentleman, however, did
+not do this because he disliked Caslon; Sadie had saved Bennie from what
+might have been certain death, and the wealthy Mr. Steele was quite as
+grateful as he was obstinate.
+
+He was determined to show his gratitude to the friendless girl in a
+practical manner. And the object of his gratitude would include her two
+little brothers, as well. Oh, yes! Mr. Steele proposed to make Sadie
+Raby glad that she had saved Bennie from the runaway horse.
+
+The other girls and boys, beside the members of the Steele family, were
+anxious now to show their approval of Sadie’s brave deed. The wanderer
+was quite bewildered at first by all the attention she received.
+
+She was such a different looking girl, too, as has been already pointed
+out, from the miserable little creature who had been found by Mr. Steele
+in the shrubbery, that it was not hard to develop an interest in Sadie
+Raby.
+
+Encircled by the family and their young visitors on the veranda, Sadie
+again related the particulars of her life and experience—and it was a
+particularly sympathetic audience that listened to her. Mr. Steele drew
+out a new detail that had escaped Ruth, even, in her confidences with
+the strange child.
+
+Although the “terrible twins” were unable to remember either father or
+mother—orphan asylums are not calculated to encourage such remembrances
+in infant minds—Sadie, as she had once said to Ruth, could clearly
+remember both her parents.
+
+And although they had died in distant Harburg, where the children had
+been put into the orphanage, Sadie remembered that the family had
+removed to that city, soon after the twins were born, from no less a
+place than Darrowtown!
+
+“Me, I got it in my head that mebbe somebody would remember pa and mom
+in Darrowtown, and would give me a chance. That’s another reason I come
+hiking clear over here,” said Sadie.
+
+“We’ll hunt your friends up—if there are any,” Mr. Steele assured her.
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. “Say!” said she, “you treat me a whole lot
+nicer than you did a while ago. Do folks have to do somethin’ for your
+family before you forget to be cross with them?”
+
+It certainly was a facer! Mr. Steele flushed a little and scarcely knew
+what to say in reply to this frank criticism. But at that moment the
+two-wheel cart came into sight with the pony on the trot, and Ruth and
+the twins waving their hands and shouting.
+
+The meeting of the little chaps with their runaway sister was touching.
+The three Raby orphans were very popular indeed at Sunrise Farm just
+then.
+
+Mr. Steele frankly admitted that this might be a case where custom could
+be over-ridden, and the orphanage authorities ignored.
+
+“Whether those Perkins people she was farmed out to, were as harsh as
+she says——” he began, when Ruth interrupted eagerly:
+
+“Oh, sir! I can vouch for _that_. The man was an awful brute. He struck
+_me_ with his whip, and I don’t believe Sadie told a story when she says
+he beat her.”
+
+“I wish I’d been there,” ejaculated Tom Cameron, in a low voice, “when
+the scoundrel struck you, Ruth. I would have done something to him!”
+
+“However,” pursued Mr. Steele, “the girl is here now and near to
+Darrowtown, which she says is her old home. We may find somebody there
+who knew the Rabys. At any rate, they shall be cared for—I promise you.”
+
+“I know!” cried Ruth, suddenly. “If anybody will remember them, it’s
+Miss Pettis.”
+
+“Another of your queer friends, Ruth?” asked Madge, laughing.
+
+“Why—Miss True Pettis isn’t queer. But she knows about everybody who
+lives in Darrowtown, or who ever did live there—and their histories from
+away back!”
+
+“A human encyclopedia,” exclaimed Heavy.
+
+“She’s a lovely lady,” said Ruth, quietly, “and she’ll do anything to
+help these unfortunate Rabys—be sure of that.”
+
+The late dinner was announced, and by that time the twins, as well as
+Sadie, had become a little more used to their surroundings. Willie and
+Dickie had been put into “spandy clean” overalls and shirts before Mrs.
+Caslon would let them out of her hands. They were really pretty
+children, in a delicate way, like their sister.
+
+With so many about the long dining table, the meals at the Steele home
+at this time were like a continuous picnic. There was so much talking
+and laughter that Mr. and Mrs. Steele had to communicate with signs, for
+the most part, from their stations at either end of the table, or else
+they must send messages back and forth by one of the waitresses.
+
+The twins and Sadie were down at Mrs. Steele’s end of the table on this
+occasion, with the girls all about them. Ruth and the others took a lot
+more interest in keeping the orphans supplied with good things than they
+did in their own plates.
+
+That is, all but Heavy; of course _she_ wasted no time in heaping her
+own plate. The twins were a little bashful at first; but it was plain
+that Willie and Dickie had been taught some of the refinements of life
+at the orphanage, as both had very good table manners.
+
+They had to be tempted to eat, however, and finally Heavy offered to run
+a race with them, declaring that she could eat as much as both of the
+boys put together.
+
+Dickie was just as silent in his sister’s presence as usual, his
+communications being generally in the form of monosyllables. But he was
+faithful in echoing Willie’s sentiments on any and every
+occasion—noticeably at chicken time. The little fellows ate the
+fricassee with appetite, but they refused the nice, rich gravy, in which
+the cook had put macaroni. Mrs. Steele urged them to take gravy once or
+twice, and finally Sadie considered that she should come to the rescue.
+
+“What’s the matter with you kids?” she demanded, hoarsely, in an attempt
+to communicate with them aside. “Ye was glad ’nough to git chicken gravy
+on Thanksgivin’ at the orphanage—warn’t ye?”
+
+“Yes, I know, Sadie,” returned Willie, wistfully. “But they never left
+the windpipes in it—did they, Dickie?”
+
+“Nope,” responded Dickie, feelingly, likewise gazing at the macaroni
+askance.
+
+It set the table in a roar and finally Willie and Dickie were encouraged
+to try some of the gravy, “windpipes” and all!
+
+“They’re all right,” laughed Busy Izzy, greatly delighted. “They’re
+one—or two—of the seven wonders of the world——”
+
+“Pooh!” interrupted Heavy, witheringly, “You don’t even know what the
+seven wonders of the world are.”
+
+“I can tell you one thing they’re _not_,” grinned Busy Izzy. “They’re
+not a baseball team, for there’s not enough of them. Now will you be
+good?”
+
+Madge turned her head suddenly and ran right into Belle Tingley’s elbow,
+as Belle was reaching up to settle her hair-ribbon.
+
+“Oh, oh! My eye! I believe you poked it out, Belle. You have _such_
+sharp elbows,” wailed Madge.
+
+“You’ll have to see Doc. Blodgett at Lumberton,” advised Heavy, “and get
+your eye tended to. He’s a great old doctor——”
+
+“Why, I didn’t know he was an eye doctor,” exclaimed Madge. “I thought
+he was a chiropodist.”
+
+“He used to be,” Heavy returned, with perfect seriousness. “He began at
+the foot and worked up, you see.”
+
+Amid all the fun and hilarity, Mr. Steele called them to order. This was
+at the dessert stage, and there were tall cones of parti-colored ice
+cream before them, with great, heaping plates of cake.
+
+“Can you give me a moment’s attention, girls and boys?” asked their
+host. “I want to speak about to-morrow.”
+
+“The ‘great and glorious,’” murmured Heavy.
+
+“We’ve all promised to be good, sir,” said Tom. “No pistols, or
+explosives, on the place.”
+
+“Only the cannon,” interposed Bobbins. “You’re going to let us salute
+with _that_; eh, Pa?”
+
+“I’m not sure that I shall,” returned his father, “if you do not give me
+your attention, and keep silent. We are determined to have a safe and
+sane Fourth on Sunrise Farm. But at night we will set off a splendid lot
+of fireworks that I bought last week——”
+
+“Oh, fine, Pa! I do love fireworks,” cried Madge.
+
+“The girls are as bad as the boys, Mother,” said Mr. Steele, shaking his
+head. “What I wanted to say,” he added, raising his voice, “was that we
+ought to invite these little chaps—these brothers of Sadie Raby—to come
+up at night to see our show.”
+
+“Oh, let’s have all the fresh airs, Pa!” cried Madge, eagerly. “_What_ a
+good time they’d have.”
+
+“I—don’t—know,” said her father, soberly, looking at his wife. “I am
+afraid that will be too much for your mother.”
+
+“Mr. Caslon has some fireworks for the children,” broke in Ruth,
+timidly. “I happen to know that. And Tom was going down to buy ten
+dollar’s worth more to put with what Mr. Caslon has.”
+
+“Humph!” said Mr. Steele.
+
+“You see, some of us thought we’d give the little folk a good time down
+there, and it wouldn’t bother you and Mrs. Steele, sir,” Ruth hastened
+to explain.
+
+“Well, well!” exclaimed the gentleman, not very sharply after all, “if
+those Caslons can stand the racket, I guess mother and I can—eh,
+mother?”
+
+“We need not have them in the house,” said Mrs. Steele. “We can put
+tables on the veranda, and give them ice cream and cake after the
+fireworks. Get the men to hang Chinese lanterns, and so forth.”
+
+“Bully!” cried the younger Steeles, in chorus, and the visitors to
+Sunrise Farm were quite delighted, too, with this suggestion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX—A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH?
+
+
+Of course, somebody had to go to the Caslons and explain all this, and
+that duty devolved upon Ruth. Naturally, permission had to be sought of
+the farmer and his wife before the “fresh air kids” could be carried off
+bodily to Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was decided that the ten dollars, of which Tom had taken charge,
+should be spent for extra bunting and lanterns to decorate with, and to
+buy little gifts for each of the fresh airs to find next his or her
+plate on the evening of the Fourth.
+
+Therefore, Tom started again for Darrowtown right after breakfast, and
+Ruth rode with him in the high, two-wheeled cart.
+
+Ruth had two important errands. One was in Darrowtown. But the first
+stop, at Mr. Caslon’s, troubled her a little.
+
+How would the farmer and his wife take the idea of the Steeles suddenly
+patronizing the fresh air children? Were the Caslons anything like Mr.
+Steele himself, in temperament, Ruth’s errand would not be a pleasant
+one, she knew.
+
+The orphans ran out shrieking a welcome when Tom drove into the yard of
+the house under the hill. Where were the “terrible twins”? Had their
+sister really come to see them? Were Willie and Dickie coming back to
+the orphanage at all?
+
+These and a dozen other questions were hurled at Ruth. Some of the
+bigger girls remembered Sadie Raby and asked a multitude of questions
+about her. So the girl of the Red Mill contented herself at first with
+trying to reply to all these queries.
+
+Then Mrs. Caslon appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands of
+dish-water, and the old farmer himself came from the stables. Their
+friendly greeting and smiling faces opened the way for Ruth’s task. She
+threw herself, figuratively speaking, into their arms.
+
+“I know you are both just as kind as you can be,” said Ruth, eagerly,
+“and you won’t mind if I ask you to change your program a little to-day
+for the youngsters? They want to give them all a good time up at Sunrise
+Farm.”
+
+“Good land!” exclaimed Mrs. Caslon. “Not _all_ of them?”
+
+“Yes, ma’am,” said Ruth, and she sketched briefly the idea of the
+celebration on the hill-top, including the presents she and Tom were to
+buy in Darrowtown for the kiddies.
+
+“My soul and body!” exclaimed the farmer’s wife. “That lady, Mis’
+Steele, don’t know what she’s runnin’ into, does she, Father?”
+
+“I reckon not,” chuckled Mr. Caslon, wagging his head.
+
+“But you won’t mind? You’ll let us have the children?” asked Ruth,
+anxiously.
+
+“Why——” Mrs. Caslon looked at the old gentleman. But he was shaking all
+over with inward mirth.
+
+“Do ’em good, Mother—do ’em good,” he chuckled—and he did not mean the
+fresh air children, either. Ruth could see that.
+
+“It’ll be a mortal shame,” began Mrs. Caslon, again, but once more her
+husband interrupted:
+
+“Don’t you fuss about other folks, Mother,” he said, gravely. “It’ll do
+’em good—mebbe—as I say. Nothin’ like tryin’ a game once by the way. And
+I bet twelve little tykes like these ’uns will keep that Steele man
+hoppin’ for a while.”
+
+“But his poor wife——”
+
+“Don’t you worry, Mrs. Caslon,” Ruth urged, but wishing to laugh, too.
+“We girls will take care of the kiddies, and Mrs. Steele sha’n’t be
+bothered too much.”
+
+“Besides,” drawled Mr. Caslon, “the woman’s got a good sized family of
+her own—there’s six or seven of ’em, ain’t there?” he demanded of Ruth.
+
+“Eight, sir.”
+
+“But that don’t make a speck of difference,” the farmer’s wife
+interposed. “She’s always had plenty of maids and the like to look out
+for them. She don’t know——”
+
+“Let her learn a little, then,” said Mr. Caslon, good naturedly enough.
+“It’ll do both him and her good. And it’ll give you a rest for a few
+hours, Mother.
+
+“Besides,” added Mr. Caslon, with another deep chuckle, “I hear Steele
+has been rantin’ around about takin’ the kids to board just for the sake
+of spitin’ the neighbors. Now, if he thinks boardin’ a dozen young’uns
+like these is all fun——”
+
+“Don’t be harsh, John,” urged Mrs. Caslon.
+
+“I ain’t! I ain’t!” cried the farmer, laughing again. “But they’re
+bitin’ off a big chaw, and it tickles me to see ’em do it.”
+
+It was arranged, therefore, that the orphans should be ready to go up to
+Sunrise Farm that afternoon. Then Ruth and Tom drove to Darrowtown. They
+had a fast horse, and got over the rough road at a very good pace.
+
+Tom drove first around into the side street where Miss True Pettis’s
+little cottage was situated.
+
+“You dear child!” was the little spinster’s greeting. “Are you having a
+nice time with your rich friends at Sunrise Farm? Tell me all about
+them—and the farm. Everybody in Darrowtown is that curious!”
+
+Tom had driven away to attend to the errands he could do alone, so Ruth
+could afford the time to visit a bit with her old friend. The felon was
+better, and that fact being assured, Ruth considered it better to
+satisfy Miss Pettis regarding the Sunrise Farm folk before getting to
+the Raby orphans.
+
+And that was the way to get to them, too. For the story of the tempest
+the day before, and the appearance of Sadie Raby, the runaway, and her
+reunion with the twins, naturally came into the tale Ruth had to tell—a
+tale that was eagerly listened to and as greatly enjoyed by the
+Darrowtown seamstress, as one can well imagine.
+
+“Just like a book—or a movie,” sighed Miss Pettis, shaking her head.
+“It’s really wonderful, Ruthie Fielding, what’s happened to you since
+you left us here in Darrowtown. But, I always said, this town is dead
+and nothing really happens _here_!”
+
+“But it’s lovely in Darrowtown,” declared Ruth. “And just to think!
+Those Raby children lived here once.”
+
+“No?”
+
+“Yes they did. Sadie was six or seven years old, I guess, when they left
+here. Tom Raby was her father. He was a mason’s helper——”
+
+“Don’t you tell me another thing about ’em!” cried Miss Pettis, starting
+up suddenly. “Now you remind me. I remember them well. Mis’ Raby was as
+nice a woman as ever stepped—but weakly. And Tom Raby——
+
+“Why, how could I forget it? And after that man from Canady came to
+trace ’em, too, only three years ago. Didn’t you ever hear of it, Ruth?”
+
+“What man?” asked Ruth, quite bewildered now. “Are—are you sure it was
+the same family? And _who_ would want to trace them?”
+
+“Lemme see. Listen!” commanded Miss Pettis. “You answer me about these
+poor children.”
+
+And under the seamstress’s skillful questioning Ruth related every
+detail she knew about the Raby orphans—and Mr. Steele, in her presence,
+had cross-questioned Sadie exhaustively the evening before. The story
+lost nothing in Ruth’s telling, for she had a retentive memory.
+
+“My goodness me, Ruthie!” ejaculated the spinster, excitedly. “It’s the
+same folks—sure. Why, do you know, they came from Quebec, and there’s
+some property they’ve fell heir to—property from their mother’s side—Oh,
+let me tell you! Funny you never heard us talkin’ about that Canady
+lawyer while you was livin’ here with me. My!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX—THE RABY ROMANCE
+
+
+Miss True Pettis thrilled with the joy of telling the romance. The
+little seamstress had been all her life entertaining people with the dry
+details of unimportant neighborhood happenings. It was only once in a
+long while that a story like that of the Rabys’ came within her ken.
+
+“Why, do you believe me!” she said to Ruth, “that Mis’ Raby came of
+quite a nice family in Quebec. Not to say Tom Raby wasn’t a fine man,
+for he was, but he warn’t educated much and his trade didn’t bring ’em
+more’n a livin’. But her folks had school teachers, and doctors, and
+even ministers in their family—yes, indeed!
+
+“And it seems like, so the Canady lawyer said, that a minister in the
+family what was an uncle of Mis’ Raby’s, left her and her children some
+property. It was in what he called ‘the fun’s’—that’s like stocks an’
+bonds, I reckon. But them Canadians talk different from us.
+
+“Well, I can remember that man—tall, lean man he was, with a yaller
+mustache. He had traced the Rabys to Darrowtown, and he saw the
+minister, and Deacon Giles, and Amoskeag Lanfell, askin’ did they know
+where the Rabys went when they moved away from here.
+
+“I was workin’ for Amoskeag’s wife that day, so I heard all the talk,”
+pursued Miss Pettis. “He said—this Canady lawyer did—that the property
+amounted to several thousand dollars. It was left by the minister (who
+had no family of his own) to his niece, Mis’ Raby, or to her children if
+she was dead.
+
+“Course they asked me if _I_ knowed what became of the family,” said the
+spinster, with some pride. “It bein’ well known here in Darrowtown that
+I’m most as good as a parish register—and why wouldn’t I be? Everybody
+expects me to know all the news. But if I ever _did_ know where them
+Rabys went, I’d forgot, and I told the lawyer man so.
+
+“But he give me his card and axed me to write to him if I ever heard
+anything further from ’em, or about ’em. And I certain sure would have
+done so,” declared Miss Pettis, “if it had ever come to my mind.”
+
+“Have you the gentleman’s card now, Miss True?” asked Ruth, eagerly.
+
+“I s’pect so.”
+
+“Will you find it? I know Mr. Steele is interested in the Rabys, and he
+can communicate with this Canadian lawyer——”
+
+“Now! ain’t you a bright girl?” cried the spinster. “Of course!”
+
+She at once began to hustle about, turning things out of her bureau
+drawers, searching the cubby holes of an old maple “secretary” that had
+set in the corner of the kitchen since her father’s time, discovering
+things which she had mislaid for years—and forgotten—but not coming upon
+the card in question right away.
+
+“Of course I’ve got it,” she declared. “I never lose anything—I never
+throw a scrap of anything away that might come of use——”
+
+And still she rummaged. Tom came back with the cart and Ruth had to go
+shopping. “But do look, Miss Pettis,” she begged, “and we’ll stop again
+before we go back to the farm.”
+
+Tom and she were some time selecting a dozen timely, funny, and
+attractive nicknacks for the fresh airs. But they succeeded at last, and
+Ruth was sure the girls would be pleased with their selections.
+
+“So much better than spending the money for noise and a powder smell,”
+added Ruth.
+
+“Humph! the kids would like the noise all right,” sniffed Tom. “I heard
+those little chaps begging Mr. Caslon for punk and firecrackers. That
+old farmer was a boy himself once, and I bet he got something for them
+that will smell of powder, beside the little tad of fireworks he showed
+me.”
+
+“Oh! I hope they won’t any of them get burned.”
+
+“Kind of put a damper on the ‘safe and sane Fourth’ Mr. Steele spoke
+about, eh?” chuckled Tom.
+
+Miss Pettis was looking out of the window and smiling at them when they
+arrived back at the cottage. She held in her hand a yellowed bit of
+pasteboard, which she passed to the eager Ruth.
+
+“Where do you suppose I found it, Ruthie?” she demanded.
+
+“I couldn’t guess.”
+
+“Why, stuck right into the corner of my lookin’-glass in my bedroom. I
+s’pose I have handled it every day I’ve dusted that glass for three
+year, an’ then couldn’t remember where it was. Ain’t that the
+beatenes’?”
+
+Ruth and Tom drove off in high excitement. She had already told Master
+Tom all about the Raby romance—such details as he did not already
+know—and now they both looked at the yellowed business card before Ruth
+put it safely away in her pocket:
+
+                           Mr. Angus MacDorough
+                               _Solicitor_
+                        13, King Crescent, Quebec
+
+“Mr. Steele will go right ahead with this, I know,” said Tom, nodding.
+“He’s taken a fancy to those kids——”
+
+“Well! he ought to, to Sadie!” cried Ruth.
+
+“Sure. And he’s a generous man, after all. Too bad he’s taken such a
+dislike to old Caslon.”
+
+“Oh, dear, Tom! we ought to fix that,” sighed Ruth.
+
+“Crickey! you’d tackle any job in the world, I believe, Ruthie, if you
+thought you could help folks.”
+
+“Nonsense! But both of them—both Mr. Steele and Mr. Caslon—are such
+awfully nice people——”
+
+“Well! there’s not much hope, I guess. Mr. Steele’s lawyer is trying to
+find a flaw in Caslon’s title. It seems that, way back, a long time ago,
+some of the Caslons got poor, or careless, and the farm was sold for
+taxes. It was never properly straightened out—on the county records,
+anyway—and the lawyer is trying to see if he can’t buy up the interest
+of whoever bought the farm in at that time—or their heirs—and so have
+some kind of a basis for a suit against old Caslon.”
+
+“Goodness! that’s not very clear,” said Ruth, staring.
+
+“No. It’s pretty muddy. But you know how some lawyers are. And Mr.
+Steele is willing to hire the shyster to do it. He thinks it’s all
+right. It’s business.”
+
+“_Your_ father wouldn’t do such a thing, Tom!” cried Ruth.
+
+“No. I hope he wouldn’t, anyway,” said Master Tom, wagging his head.
+“But I couldn’t say that to Bobbins when he told me about it, could I?”
+
+“No call to. But, oh, dear! I hope Mr. Steele won’t be successful. I do
+hope he won’t be.”
+
+“Same here,” grunted Tom. “Just the same, he’s a nice man, and I like
+him.”
+
+“Yes—so do I,” admitted Ruth. “But I’d like him so much more, if he
+wouldn’t try to get the best of an old man like Mr. Caslon.”
+
+The Raby matter, however, was a more pleasant topic of conversation for
+the two friends. The big bay horse got over the ground rapidly—Tom said
+the creature did not know a hill when he saw one!—and it still lacked
+half an hour of noon when they came in sight of Caslon’s house.
+
+The orphans were all in force in the front yard. Mr. Caslon appeared,
+too.
+
+That yard was untidy for the first time since Ruth had seen it. And most
+of the untidiness was caused by telltale bits of red, yellow, and green
+paper. Even before the cart came to the gate, Ruth smelled the tang of
+powder smoke.
+
+“Oh, Tom! they _have_ got firecrackers,” she exclaimed.
+
+“So have I—a whole box full—under the front seat,” chuckled Tom. “What’s
+the Fourth without a weeny bit of noise? Bobbins and I are going to let
+them off in a big hogshead he’s found behind the stable.”
+
+“You boys are rascals!” breathed Ruth. “Why! there are the twins!”
+
+Sadie’s young brothers ran out to the cart. Mr. Caslon appeared with a
+good-sized box in his arms, too.
+
+“Just take this—and the youngsters—aboard, will you, young fellow?” said
+the farmer. “Might as well have all the rockets and such up there on the
+hill. They’ll show off better. And the twins was down for the clean
+clo’es mother promised them.”
+
+It was a two-seated cart and there was plenty of room for the two boys
+on the back seat. Mr. Caslon carefully placed the open box in the bottom
+of the cart, between the seats. The fireworks he had purchased had been
+taken out of their wrappings and were placed loosely in the box.
+
+“There ye are,” said the farmer, jovially. “Hop up here, youngsters!”
+
+He seized Willie and hoisted him into the seat. But Dickie had run
+around to the other side of the cart and clambered up like a monkey, to
+join his brother.
+
+“All right, sir,” said Tom, wheeling the eager bay horse. It was nearing
+time for the latter’s oats, and he smelled them! “Out of the way, kids.
+They’ll send a wagon down for you, all right, after luncheon, I reckon.”
+
+Just then Ruth happened to notice something smoking in Dickie’s hand.
+
+“What have you there, child?” she demanded. “Not a nasty cigarette?”
+
+He held out, solemnly, and as usual wordlessly, a smoking bit of punk.
+
+“Where did you get that? Oh! drop it!” cried Ruth, fearing for the
+fireworks and the explosives under the front seat. She meant for Dickie
+to throw it out of the wagon, but the youngster took the command
+literally.
+
+He dropped it. He dropped it right into the box of fireworks. Then
+things began to happen!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI—A VERY BUSY TIME
+
+
+“Oh, Tom!” shrieked Ruth, and seized the boy’s arm. The bay horse was
+just plunging ahead, eager to be off for the stable and his manger. The
+high cart was whirled through the gateway as the first explosion came!
+
+Pop,pop,pop! sputter—BANG!
+
+It seemed as though the horse leaped more than his own length, and
+yanked all four wheels of the cart off the ground. There was a chorus of
+screams in the Caslons’ dooryard, but after that first cry, Ruth kept
+silent.
+
+The rockets shot out of the box amidships with a shower of sparks. The
+Roman candles sprayed their varied colored balls—dimmed now by
+daylight—all about the cart.
+
+Tom hung to the lines desperately, but the scared horse had taken the
+bit in his teeth and was galloping up the road toward Sunrise Farm,
+quite out of hand.
+
+After that first grab at Tom’s arm, Ruth did not interfere with him. She
+turned about, knelt on the seat-cushion, and, one after the other, swept
+the twins across the sputtering, shooting bunch of fireworks, and into
+the space between her and Tom and the dashboard.
+
+Providentially the shooting rockets headed into the air, and to the
+rear. As the big horse dashed up the hill, swinging the light vehicle
+from side to side behind him, there was left behind a trail of smoke and
+fire that (had it been night-time) would have been a brilliant
+spectacle.
+
+Mr. Caslon and the orphans started after the amazing thing tearing up
+the road—but to no purpose. Nothing could be done to stop the explosion
+now. The sparks flew all about. Although Mr. Caslon had bought a wealth
+of small rockets, candles, mines, flower-pots, and the like, never had
+so many pieces been discharged in so short a time!
+
+It was sputter, sputter, bang, bang, the cart vomiting flame and smoke,
+while the horse became a perfectly frenzied creature, urged on by the
+noise behind him. Tom could only cling to the reins, Ruth clung to the
+twins, and all by good providence were saved from an overturn.
+
+All the time—and, of course, the half-mile or more from Caslons’ to the
+entrance to the Steele estate, was covered in a very few moments—all the
+time Ruth was praying that the fire-crackers Tom had bought and hidden
+under the front seat would not be ignited.
+
+The reports of the rockets, and the like, became desultory. Some set
+pieces and triangles went off with the hissing of snakes. Was the
+explosion over?
+
+So it seemed, and the maddened horse turned in at the gateway. The cart
+went in on two wheels, but it did not overturn.
+
+The race had begun to tell on the bay. He was covered with foam and his
+pace was slackening. Perhaps the peril was over—Ruth drew a long breath
+for the first time since the horse had made its initial jump.
+
+And then—with startling suddenness—there was a sputter and bang! Off
+went the firecrackers, package after package. A spark had burned through
+the paper wrapper and soon there was such a popping under that front
+seat as shamed the former explosions!
+
+Had the horse been able to run any faster, undoubtedly he would have
+done so; but as the cart went tearing up the drive toward the front of
+the big house, the display of fireworks, etc., behind the front seat,
+and the display of alarm on the part of the four on the seat, advertised
+to all beholders that the occasion was not, to say the least, a common
+one.
+
+The cart itself was scorched and was afire in places, the sputtering of
+the fire-crackers continued while the horse tore up the hill. Tom had
+bought a generous supply and it took some time for them all to explode.
+
+Fortunately the front drop of the seat was a solid panel of deal, or
+Ruth’s skirt might have caught on fire—or perhaps the legs of the twins
+would have been burned.
+
+As for the two little fellows, they never even squealed! Their eyes
+shone, they had lost their caps in the back of the cart, their short
+curls blew out straight in the wind, and their cheeks glowed. When the
+runaway appeared over the crest of the hill and the crowd at Sunrise
+Farm beheld them, it was evident that Willie and Dickie were enjoying
+themselves to the full!
+
+Poor Tom, on whose young shoulders the responsibility of the whole
+affair rested, was braced back, with his feet against the footboard, the
+lines wrapped around his wrists, and holding the maddened horse in to
+the best of his ability.
+
+Bobbins on one side, and Ralph Tingley on the other, ran into the
+roadway and caught the runaway by the bridle. The bay was, perhaps,
+quite willing to halt by this time. Mr. Steele ran out, and his first
+exclamation was:
+
+“My goodness, Tom Cameron! you’ve finished that horse!”
+
+“I hope not, sir,” panted Tom, rather pale. “But I thought he’d finish
+us before he got through.”
+
+By this time the explosions had ceased. Everything of an explosive
+nature—saving the twins themselves—in the cart seemed to have gone off.
+And now Willie ejaculated:
+
+“Gee! I never rode so fast before. Wasn’t it great, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” agreed Master Dickie, with rather more emphasis than usual.
+
+Sister Sadie appeared from the rear premises, vastly excited, too, but
+when she lifted the twins down and found not a scratch upon them, she
+turned to Ruth with a delighted face.
+
+“You took care of them just like you loved ’em, Miss,” she whispered, as
+Ruth tumbled out of the cart, too, into her arms. “Oh, dear! don’t you
+dare get sick—you ain’t hurt, are you?”
+
+“No, no!” exclaimed Ruth, having hard work to crowd back the tears. “But
+I’m almost scared to death. That—that young one!” and she grabbed at
+Dickie. “What did you drop that punk into the fireworks for?”
+
+“Huh?” questioned the imperturbable Dickie.
+
+“Why didn’t you throw that lighted punk away?” and Ruth was tempted to
+shake the little rascal.
+
+But instantly the voluble Willie shouldered his way to the front. “Gee,
+Miss! he thought you wanted him to drop it right there. You said so.
+An’—an’—— Well, he didn’t know the things in the box would go off of
+themselves. Did you Dickie?”
+
+“Nope,” responded his twin.
+
+“Do forgive ’em, Miss Ruth,” whispered Sadie Raby. “I wouldn’t want Mr.
+Steele to get after ’em. You know—he can be sumpin’ fierce!”
+
+“Well,” sighed Ruth Fielding, “they’re the ‘terrible twins’ right
+enough. Oh, Tom!” she added, as young Cameron came to her to shake
+hands.
+
+“You’re getting better and better,” said Tom, grinning. “I’d rather be
+in a wreck with you, Ruthie—of almost any kind—than with anybody else I
+know. Those kids don’t even know what you saved them from, when you
+dragged ’em over the back of that seat.”
+
+“Sh!” she begged, softly.
+
+“And it’s a wonder we weren’t all blown to glory!”
+
+“It was a mercy we were not seriously hurt,” agreed Ruth.
+
+But then there was too much bustle and general talk for them to discuss
+the incident quietly. The horse was led away to the stable and there
+attended to. Fortunately he was not really injured, but the cart would
+have to go to the painter’s.
+
+“A fine beginning for this celebration we have on hand,” declared Mr.
+Steele, looking ruefully at his wife. “If all that can happen with only
+two of those fresh air kids, as Bob calls them, on hand, what do you
+suppose will happen to-night when we have a dozen at Sunrise Farm?”
+
+“Mercy!” gasped the lady. “I am trembling in my shoes—I am, indeed. But
+we have agreed to do it, Father, and we must carry it through.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII—THE TERRIBLE TWINS ON THE RAMPAGE
+
+
+The girls who had come to Sunrise Farm to visit at Madge Steele’s
+invitation, felt no little responsibility when it came to the
+entertainment for the fresh air orphans. As The Fox said, with her usual
+decision:
+
+“Now that we’ve put Madge and her folks into this business, we’ll just
+have to back up their play, and make sure that the fresh airs don’t tear
+the place down. And that Sadie will have to keep an eye on the ‘terrible
+twins.’ Is that right?”
+
+“I’ve spoken to poor Sadie,” said Ruth, with a sigh. “I am afraid that
+Mrs. Steele is very much worried over what may occur to-night, while the
+children are here. We’ll have to be on the watch all the time.”
+
+“I should say!” exclaimed Heavy Stone. “Let’s suggest to Mr. Steele that
+he rope off a place out front where he is going to have the fireworks.
+Some of those little rascals will want to help celebrate, the way Willie
+and Dickie did,” and the plump girl giggled ecstatically.
+
+“’Twas no laughing matter, Jennie,” complained Ruth, shaking her head.
+
+“Well, that’s all right,” Lluella broke in. “If Tom hadn’t bought the
+fire-crackers—and that was right against Mr. Steele’s advice——”
+
+“Oh, here now!” interrupted Helen, loyal to her twin. “Tom wasn’t any
+more to blame than Bobbins. They were just bought for a joke.”
+
+“It was a joke all right,” Belle said, laughing. “Who’s going to pay for
+the damage to the cart?”
+
+“Now, let’s not get to bickering,” urged Ruth. “What’s done, is done. We
+must plan now to make the celebration this afternoon and evening as easy
+for Mrs. Steele as possible.”
+
+This conversation went on after luncheon, while Bob and Tom had driven
+down the hill with a big wagon to bring up the ten remaining orphans
+from Mr. Caslon’s place.
+
+The gaily decorated wagon came in sight just about this time.
+Fortunately the decorations Tom and Ruth had purchased that forenoon in
+Darrowtown had not been destroyed when the fireworks went off in the
+cart.
+
+The girls from Briarwood Hall welcomed the fresh airs cheerfully and
+took entire charge of the six little girls. The little boys did not wish
+to play “girls’ games” on the lawn, and therefore Bob and his chums
+agreed to keep an eye on the youngsters, including the “terrible twins.”
+
+Sadie had been drafted to assist Madge and her mother, and some of the
+maids, in preparing for the evening collation. Therefore the visitors
+were divided for the time into two bands.
+
+The girls from the orphanage were quiet enough and well behaved when
+separated from their boy friends. Indeed, on the lawn and under the big
+tent Mr. Steele had had erected, the celebration of a “safe and sane”
+Fourth went on in a most commendable way.
+
+It was a very hot afternoon, and after indulging in a ball game in the
+field behind the stables, Bobbins, in a thoughtless moment, suggested a
+swim. Half a mile away there was a pond in a hollow. The boys had been
+there almost every day for a dip, and Bob’s suggestion was hailed—even
+by the usually thoughtful Tom Cameron—with satisfaction.
+
+“What about the kids?” demanded Ralph Tingley.
+
+“Let them come along,” said Bobbins.
+
+“Sure,” urged Busy Izzy. “What harm can come to them? We’ll keep our
+eyes on them.”
+
+The twins and their small chums from the orphanage were eager to go to
+the pond, too, and so expressed themselves. The half-mile walk through
+the hot sun did not make them quail. They were proud to be allowed to
+accompany the bigger boys to the swimming hole.
+
+The little fellows raced along in their bare feet behind the bigger boys
+and were pleased enough, until they reached the pond and learned that
+they would only be allowed to go in wading, while the others slipped
+into their bathing trunks and “went in all over.”
+
+“No! you can’t go in,” declared Bobbins, who put his foot down with
+decision, having his own small brothers in mind. (They had been left
+behind, by the way, to be dressed for the evening.)
+
+“Say! the water won’t wet us no more’n it does you—will it, Dickie?”
+demanded the talkative twin.
+
+“Nope,” agreed his brother.
+
+“Now, you kids keep your clothes on,” said Bob, threateningly. “And
+don’t wade more than to your knees. If you get your overalls wet, you’ll
+hear about it. You know Mrs. Caslon fixed you all up for the afternoon
+and told you to keep clean.”
+
+The smaller chaps were unhappy. That was plain. They paddled their dusty
+feet in the water for a while, but the sight of the older lads diving
+and swimming and having such a good time in the pond was a continual
+temptation. The active minds of the terrible twins were soon at work.
+Willie began to whisper to Dickie, and the latter nodded his head
+solemnly.
+
+“Say!” blurted out Willie, finally, as Bob and Tom were racing past them
+in a boisterous game of “tag.” “We wanter go back. This ain’t no fun—is
+it, Dickie?”
+
+“Nope,” said his twin.
+
+“Go on back, if you want to. You know the path,” said Bobbins,
+breathlessly.
+
+“We’re goin’, too,” said one of the other fresh airs.
+
+“We’d rather play with the girls than stay here. Hadn’t we, Dickie?”
+proposed Willie Raby.
+
+“Yep,” agreed Master Dickie, with due solemnity.
+
+“Go on!” cried Bob. “And see you go straight back to the house. My!” he
+added to Tom, “but those kids are a nuisance.”
+
+“Think we ought to let them go alone?” queried Tom, with some faint
+doubt on the subject. “You reckon they’ll be all right, Bobbins?”
+
+“Great Scott! they sure know the way to the house,” said Bob. “It’s a
+straight path.”
+
+But, as it happened, the twins had no idea of going straight to the
+house. The pond was fed by a stream that ran in from the east. The
+little fellows had seen this, and Willie’s idea was to circle around
+through the woods and find that stream. There they could go in bathing
+like the bigger boys, “and nobody would ever know.”
+
+“Our heads will be wet,” objected one of the orphans.
+
+“Gee!” said Willie Raby, “don’t let’s wet our heads. We ain’t got
+to—have we?”
+
+“Nope,” said his brother, promptly.
+
+There was some doubt, still, in the minds of the other boys.
+
+“What you goin’ to say to those folks up to the big house?” demanded one
+of the fresh airs.
+
+“Ain’t goin’ to say nothin’,” declared the bold Willie. “Cause why? they
+ain’t goin’ to know—‘nless you fellers snitch.”
+
+“Aw, who’s goin’ to snitch?” cried the objector, angered at once by the
+accusation of the worst crime in all the category of boyhood. “We ain’t
+no tattle-tales—are we, Jim?”
+
+“Naw. We’re as safe to hold our tongues as you an’ yer brother are,
+Willie Raby—so now!”
+
+“Sure we are!” agreed the other orphans.
+
+“Then come along,” urged the talkative twin. “Nobody’s got to know.”
+
+“Suppose yer sister finds it out?” sneered one.
+
+“Aw—well—she jes’ ain’t go’n’ ter,” cried Willie, exasperated. “An’ what
+if she does? She runned away herself—didn’t she?”
+
+The spirit of restlessness was strong in the Raby nature, it was
+evident. Willie was a born leader. The others trailed after him when he
+left the pathway that led directly back to Sunrise Farm, and pushed into
+the thicker wood in the direction he believed the stream lay.
+
+The juvenile leader of the party did not know (how should he?) that just
+above the pond the stream which fed it made a sharp turn. Its waters
+came out of a deep gorge, lying in an entirely different direction from
+that toward which the “terrible twins” and their chums were aiming.
+
+The little fellows plodded on for a long time, and the sun dropped
+suddenly behind the hills to the westward, and there they were—quite
+surprisingly to themselves—in a strange and fast-darkening forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII—LOST
+
+
+The girl visitors from Briarwood Hall did all they could to help the
+mistress of Sunrise Farm and Madge prepare for the evening festivities,
+and not alone in employing the attention of the six little girls from
+the orphanage.
+
+There were the decorations to arrange, and the paper lanterns to hang,
+and the long tables on the porch to prepare for the supper. Twelve
+extra, hungry little mouths to feed was, of itself, a fact of no small
+importance.
+
+When the wagon had come up from Caslon’s with the orphans, Mrs. Steele
+had thought it rather a liberty on the part of the farmer’s wife because
+she had, with the children, sent a great hamper of cakes, which she
+(Mrs. Caslon) herself had baked the day before.
+
+But the cakes were so good, and already the children were so hungry,
+that the worried mistress of the big farm was thankful that these
+supplies were in her pantry.
+
+“When the boys come back from the pond, I expect they will be ravenous,
+too,” sighed the good lady. “_Do_ you think, Madge, that there will be
+enough ham and tongue sandwiches for supper? I am sure of the cream and
+cake—thanks to that good old woman (though I hope your father won’t hear
+me say it). But that is to be served after the fireworks. They will want
+something hearty at suppertime—and goodness me, Madge! It is five
+o’clock now. Those boys should be back from their swim.”
+
+As for Mr. Steele, he was immensely satisfied with the celebration of
+the day so far. To tell the truth, he had very little to do with the
+work of getting ready for the orphans’ entertainment. Aside from the
+explosion of the fireworks in the cart, the occasion had been a
+perfectly “safe and sane” celebration of a holiday that he usually
+looked forward to with no little dread.
+
+Before anybody really began to worry over their delay, the boys came
+into view. They had had a refreshing swim and announced the state of
+their appetites the moment they joined the girls at the big tent.
+
+“Yes, yes,” said Madge, “we know all about that, Bobbie dear. But his
+little tootie-wootsums must wait till hims gets his bib put on, an’ let
+sister see if his hannies is nice and clean. Can’t sit down to eat if
+hims a dirty boy,” and she rumpled her big brother’s hair, while he
+looked foolish enough over her “baby talk.”
+
+“Don’t be ridiculous, Madge,” said Helen, briskly. “Of course they are
+hungry—— But where’s the rest of them?”
+
+“The rest of what?” demanded Busy Izzy. “I guess we’re all here.”
+
+“Say! you _must_ be hungry,” chuckled Heavy. “Did you eat the kids?”
+
+“What kids?” snapped Tom, in sudden alarm.
+
+“The fresh airs, of course. The ‘terrible twins’ and their mates. My
+goodness!” cried Ann Hicks, “you didn’t forget and leave them down there
+at the pond, did you?”
+
+The boys looked at each other for a moment. “What’s the joke?” Bobbins
+finally drawled.
+
+“It’s no joke,” Ruth said, quickly. “You don’t mean to say that you
+forgot those little boys?”
+
+“Now, stop that, Ruth Fielding!” cried Isadore Phelps, very red in the
+face. “A joke’s a joke; but don’t push it too far. You know very well
+those kids came back up here more’n an hour ago.”
+
+“They didn’t do any such thing,” cried Sadie, having heard the
+discussion, and now running out to the tent. “They haven’t been near the
+house since you big boys took them to the pond. Now, say! what d’ye know
+about it?”
+
+“They’re playing a trick on us,” declared Tom, gloomily.
+
+“Let’s hunt out in the stables, and around,” suggested Ralph Tingley,
+feebly.
+
+“Maybe they went back to Caslon’s,” Isadore said, hopefully.
+
+“We’ll find out about that pretty quick,” said Madge. “I’ll tell father
+and he’ll send somebody down to see if they went there.”
+
+“Come on, boys!” exclaimed Tom, starting for the rear of the house.
+“Those little scamps are fooling us.”
+
+“Suppose they _have_ wandered away into the woods?” breathed Ruth to
+Helen. “Whatever shall we do?”
+
+Sadie could not wait. She was unable to remain idle, when it was
+possible that the twin brothers she had so lately rejoined, were in
+danger. She flashed after the boys and hunted the stables, too.
+
+Nobody there had seen the “fresh airs” since they had followed the
+bigger boys to the pond.
+
+“And ye sure didn’t leave ’em down there?” demanded Sadie Raby of Tom.
+
+“Goodness me! No!” exclaimed Tom. “They couldn’t go in swimming as we
+did, and so they got mad and wouldn’t stay. But they started right up
+this way, and we thought they were all right.”
+
+“They might have slanted off and gone across the fields to Caslon’s,”
+said Bobbins, doubtfully.
+
+“That would have taken them into the back pasture where Caslon keeps his
+Angoras—wouldn’t it?” demanded the much-worried young man.
+
+“Well, you can go look for ’em with the goats,” snapped Sadie, starting
+off. “But me for that Caslon place. If they didn’t go there, then they
+are in the woods somewhere.”
+
+She started down the hill, fleet-footed as a dog. Before Mr. Steele had
+stopped sputtering over the catastrophe, and bethought him to start
+somebody for the Caslon premises to make inquiries, Sadie came in view
+again, with the old, gray-mustached farmer in tow.
+
+The serious look on Mr. Caslon’s face was enough for all those waiting
+at Sunrise Farm to realize that the absent children were actually lost.
+Tom and Bobbins had come up from the goat pasture without having seen,
+or heard, the six little fellows.
+
+“I forgot to tell ye,” said Caslon, seriously, “that ye had to keep one
+eye at least on them ‘terrible twins’ all the time. We locked ’em into
+their bedroom at night. No knowin’ when or where they’re likely to break
+out. But I reckoned this here sister of theirs would keep ’em close to
+her——”
+
+“Well!” snapped Sadie Raby, eyeing Tom and Bobbins with much disfavor,
+“I thought that a bunch of big fellers like them could look after half a
+dozen little mites.”
+
+Mr. Steele had come forward slowly; the fact that the six orphan boys
+really seemed to be lost, was an occasion to break down even _his_
+barrier of dislike for the neighbor. Besides, Mr. Caslon ignored any
+difference there might be between them in a most generous manner.
+
+“I blame myself, Neighbor Steele—I sure do,” Mr. Caslon said, before the
+owner of Sunrise Farm could speak. “I’d ought to warned you about them
+twins. They got bit by the runaway bug bad—that’s right.”
+
+“Humph! a family trait—is it?” demanded Mr. Steele, rather grimly eyeing
+the sister of the runaways.
+
+“I couldn’t say about that,” chuckled the farmer. “But Willie and Dickie
+started off twice from our place, trailin’ most of the other kids with
+’em. But I caught ’em in time. Now, their sister tells me, they’ve got
+at least an hour and a half’s start.”
+
+“It is getting dark—or it will soon be,” said Mr. Steele, nervously. “If
+they are not found before night, I shall be greatly disturbed. I feel as
+though I were responsible. My oldest boy, here——”
+
+“Now, it ain’t nobody’s fault, like enough,” interrupted Mr. Caslon,
+cheerfully, and seeing Bobbins’s woebegone face. “We’ll start right out
+and hunt for them.”
+
+“But if it grows dark——”
+
+“Let me have what men you can spare, and all the lanterns around the
+place,” said Caslon, briskly, taking charge of the matter on the
+instant. “These bigger boys can help.”
+
+“I—I can go with you, sir,” began Mr. Steele, but the farmer waved him
+back.
+
+“No. You ain’t used to the woods—nor to trampin’—like I be. And it won’t
+hurt your boys. You leave it to us—we’ll find ’em.”
+
+Mrs. Steele had retired to the tent on the lawn in tears, and most of
+the girls were gathered about her. Sadie Raby clung to Farmer Caslon’s
+side, and nobody tried to call her back.
+
+Since returning from Darrowtown that morning, Ruth Fielding had divulged
+to Mr. Steele all she had discovered through Miss True Pettis regarding
+the Raby family, and about the Canadian lawyer who had once searched for
+Mrs. Raby and her children.
+
+The gentleman had expressed deep interest in the matter, and while the
+fresh air children were being entertained during the afternoon, Mr.
+Steele had already set in motion an effort to learn the whereabouts of
+Mr. Angus MacDorough and to discover just what the property was that had
+been willed to the mother of the Raby orphans.
+
+Sadie had been told nothing about this wonderful discovery as yet.
+Indeed, there had been no time. Sadie had been busy, with Mrs. Steele
+and the others, in preparing for that “safe and sane” celebration with
+which Mr. Steele had desired to entertain the “terrible twins” and their
+little companions at Sunrise Farm.
+
+Now this sudden catastrophe had occurred. The loss of the six little
+boys was no small trouble. It threatened to be a tragedy.
+
+Down there beyond the pond the mountainside was heavily timbered, and
+there were many dangerous ravines and sudden precipices over which a
+careless foot might stray.
+
+Dusk was coming on. In the wood it would already be dark. And if the
+frightened children went plunging about, seeking, in terror, to escape,
+they might at any moment be cast into some pit where the searchers would
+possibly never find them.
+
+Mr. Steele felt his responsibility gravely. He was, at best, a nervous
+man, and this happening assumed the very gravest outlines in his anxious
+mind.
+
+“Never ought to have let them out of my own sight,” he sputtered, having
+Ruth for a confidant. “I might have known something extraordinary would
+happen. It was a crazy thing to have all those children up here,
+anyway.”
+
+“Oh, dear, Mr. Steele!” cried Ruth, much worried, “_that_ is partly my
+fault. I was one of those who suggested it.”
+
+“Nonsense! nonsense, child! Nobody blames you,” returned the gentleman.
+“I should have put my foot down and said ‘No.’ Nobody influenced me at
+all. Why—why, I _wanted_ to give the poor little kiddies a nice time.
+And now—see what has come of it?”
+
+“Oh, it may be that they will be found almost at once,” cried Ruth,
+hopefully. “I am sure Mr. Caslon will do what he can——”
+
+“Caslon’s an eminently practical man—yes, indeed,” admitted Mr. Steele,
+and not grudgingly. “If anybody can find them, he will, I have no
+doubt.”
+
+And this commendation of the neighbor whom he so disliked struck Ruth
+completely silent for the time being.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV—“SO THAT’S ALL RIGHT”
+
+
+“And here it is ‘ong past suppertime,” groaned Heavy; “it’s getting
+darker every minute, and the fireworks ought to be set off, and we can’t
+do a thing!”
+
+“Who’d have the heart to eat, with those children wandering out there in
+the woods?” snapped Mercy Curtis.
+
+“What’s _heart_ got to do with eating?” grumbled the plump girl. “And I
+was thinking quite as much of the little girls here as I was of myself.
+Why! here is one of the poor kiddies asleep, I do declare.”
+
+The party in the big tent was pretty solemn. Even the six little girls
+from the orphanage could not play, or laugh, under the present
+circumstances. And, in addition, it looked as though all the fun for the
+evening would be spoiled.
+
+The searching party had been gone an hour. Those remaining behind had
+seen the twinkling lanterns trail away over the edge of the hill and
+disappear. Now all they could see from the tent were the stars, and the
+fireflies, with now and then a rocket soaring heavenward from some
+distant farm, or hamlet, where the Glorious Fourth was being fittingly
+celebrated.
+
+Madge and Helen came out with a hamper of sandwiches and there was
+lemonade, but not even the little folk ate with an appetite. The day
+which, at Sunrise Farm, was planned to be so memorable, threatened now
+to be remembered for a very unhappy cause.
+
+Down in the wood lot that extended from below some of Mr. Steele’s
+hayfields clear into the next township, the little party of searchers,
+led by old Mr. Caslon, had separated into parties of two each, to comb
+the wilderness.
+
+None of the men knew the wood as did Mr. Caslon, and of course the boys
+and Sadie (who had refused to go back) were quite unfamiliar with it.
+
+“Don’t go out of sight of the flash of each other’s lanterns,” advised
+the farmer.
+
+And by sticking to this rule it was not likely that any of the sorely
+troubled searchers would, themselves, be lost. As they floundered
+through the thick undergrowth, they shouted, now and then, as loudly as
+they could. But nothing but the echoes, and the startled nightbirds,
+replied.
+
+Again and again they called for the lost boys by name. Sadie’s shrill
+voice carried as far as anybody’s, without doubt, and her crying for
+“Willie” and “Dickie” should have brought those delinquents to light,
+had they heard her.
+
+Sadie stuck close to Mr. Caslon, as he told her to. But the way through
+the brush was harder for the girl than for the rest of them. Thick mats
+of greenbriars halted them. They were torn, and scratched, and stung by
+the vegetable pests; yet Sadie made no complaint.
+
+As for the mosquitoes and other stinging insects—well, they were out on
+this night, it seemed, in full force. They buzzed around the heads of
+the searchers in clouds, attracted by the lanterns. Above, in the trees,
+complaining owls hooted their objections to the searchers’ presence in
+the forest. The whip-poor-wills reiterated their determination from dead
+limbs or rotting fence posts. And in the wet places the deep-voiced
+frogs gave tongue in many minor keys.
+
+“Oh, dear!” sighed Sadie to the farmer, “the little fellers will be
+scared half to death when they hear all these critters.”
+
+“And how about you?” he asked.
+
+“Oh, I’m used to ’em. Why, I’ve slept out in places as bad as this
+more’n one night. But Willie and Dickie ain’t used to it.”
+
+One end of the line of searchers touched the pond. They shouted that
+information to the others, and then they all pushed on. It was in the
+mind of all that, perhaps, the children had circled back to the pond.
+
+But their shouts brought no hoped-for reply, although they echoed across
+the open water, and were answered eerily from the farther shore.
+
+There were six couples; therefore the line extended for a long way into
+the wood, and swept a wide area. They marched on, bursting through the
+vines and climbers, searching thick patches of jungle, and often
+shouting in chorus till the wood rang again.
+
+Tom and one of the stablemen, who were at the lower end of the line,
+finally came to the mouth of that gorge out of which the brook sprang.
+To the east of this opening lay a considerable valley and it was decided
+to search this vale thoroughly before following the stream higher.
+
+It was well they did so, for half a mile farther on, Tom and his
+companion made a discovery. They came upon the tall, blasted trunk of a
+huge old tree that had a great hollow at its foot. This hollow was
+blinded by a growth of vines and brush, yet as Tom flashed his lantern
+upon it, it seemed to him as though the vines had been disturbed.
+
+“It may be the lair of some animal, sir,” suggested the stableman, as
+Tom attempted to peer in.
+
+“Nothing much more dangerous than foxes in these woods now, I am told,”
+returned the boy. “And this is not a fox’s burrow—hello!”
+
+His sudden, delighted shriek rang through the wood and up the hillside.
+
+“I’ve found them! I’ve found them!” the boy repeated, and dived into the
+hollow tree.
+
+His lantern showed him and the stableman the six wanderers rolled up
+like kittens in a nest. They opened their eyes sleepily, yawning and
+blinking. One began to snivel, but Willie Raby at once delivered a sharp
+punch to that one, saying, in grand disgust:
+
+“Baby! Didn’t I tell you they’d come for us? They was sure to—wasn’t
+they, Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” responded that youngster, quite as cool about it as his brother.
+
+Tom’s shouts brought the rest of the party in a hurry. Mr. Caslon hauled
+each “fresh air” out by the collar and stood him on his feet. When he
+had counted them twice over to make sure, he said:
+
+“Well, sir! of all the young scamps that ever were born—Willie Raby!
+weren’t you scared?”
+
+“Nope,” declared Willie. “Some of these other kids begun ter snivel when
+it got dark; but Dickie an’ me would ha’ licked ’em if they’d kep’ that
+up. Then we found that good place to sleep——”
+
+“But suppose it had been the bed of some animal?” asked Bobbins,
+chuckling.
+
+“Nope,” said Willie, shaking his head. “There was spider webs all over
+the hole we went in at, so we knowed nobody had been there much lately.
+And it was a pretty good place to sleep. Only it was too warm in there
+at first. I couldn’t get to sleep right away.”
+
+“But you didn’t hear us shouting for you?” queried one of the other
+searchers.
+
+“Nope. I got to sleep. You see, I thought about bears an’ burglars an’
+goblins, an’ all those sort o’ things, an’ that made me shiver, so I
+went to sleep,” declared the earnest twin.
+
+A shout of laughter greeted this statement. The searchers picked up the
+little fellows and carried them down to the edge of the pond, where the
+way was much clearer, and so on to the plain path to Sunrise Farm.
+
+So delighted were they to have found the six youngsters without a
+scratch upon them, that nobody—not even Mr. Caslon—thought to ask the
+runaways how they had come to wander so far from Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was ten o’clock when the party arrived at the big house on the hill.
+Isadore had run ahead to tell the good news and everybody was
+aroused—even to the six fellow-orphans of the runaways—to welcome the
+wanderers.
+
+“My goodness! let’s have the fireworks and celebrate their return,”
+exclaimed Madge.
+
+But Mr. Steele quickly put his foot down on that.
+
+“I am afraid that Willie and Dickie, and Jim and the rest of them, ought
+really to be punished for their escapade, and the trouble and fright
+they have given us,” declared the proprietor of Sunrise Farm.
+
+“However, perhaps going without their supper and postponing the rest of
+the celebration until to-morrow night, will be punishment enough. But
+don’t you let me hear of you six boys trying to run away again, while
+you remain with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon,” and he shook a threatening finger
+at the wanderers.
+
+“Now Mr. and Mrs. Caslon will take you home,” for the big wagon had been
+driven around from the stables while he was speaking. Mrs. Caslon, too
+worried to remain in doubt about the fresh airs, had trudged away up the
+hill to Sunrise Farm, while the party was out in search of the lost
+ones.
+
+Mrs. Steele and the girls bade a cordial good-night to the farmer’s
+wife, as she climbed up to the front seat of the vehicle on one side. On
+the other, Mr. Steele stopped Mr. Caslon before he could climb up.
+
+“The women folks have arranged for you and your wife to come to-morrow
+evening and help take care of these little mischiefs, while we finish
+the celebration,” said the rich man, with a detaining hand upon Mr.
+Caslon’s shoulder. “We need you.”
+
+“I reckon so, neighbor,” said the farmer, chuckling. “We’re a little
+more used to them lively young eels than you be.”
+
+“And—and we want you and your wife to come for your own sakes,” added
+Mr. Steele, in some confusion. “We haven’t even been acquainted before,
+sir. I consider that I am at fault, Caslon. I hope you’ll overlook it
+and—and—as you say yourself—_be neighborly_.”
+
+“Sure! Of course!” exclaimed the old man, heartily. “Ain’t no need of
+two neighbors bein’ at outs, Mr. Steele. You’ll find that soft words
+butter more parsnips than any other kind. If you an’ I ain’t jest agreed
+on ev’ry p’int, let’s get together an’ settle it ourselves. No need of
+lawyers’ work in it,” and the old farmer climbed nimbly to the high
+seat, and the wagon load of cheering, laughing youngsters started down
+the hill.
+
+“And so _that’s_ all right,” exclaimed the delighted Ruth, who had heard
+the conversation between the two men, and could scarcely hide her
+delight in it.
+
+“I feel like dancing,” she said to Helen. “I just _know_ Mr. Steele and
+Mr. Caslon will understand each other after this, and that there will be
+no quarrel between them over the farms.”
+
+Which later results proved to be true. Not many months afterward, Madge
+wrote to Ruth that her father and the old farmer had come to a very
+satisfactory agreement. Mr. Caslon had agreed to sell the old homestead
+to Mr. Steele for a certain price, retaining a life occupancy of it for
+himself and wife, and, in addition, the farmer was to take over the
+general superintendency of Sunrise Farm for Mr. Steele, on a yearly
+salary.
+
+“So much for the work of the ‘terrible twins’!” Ruth declared when she
+heard this, for the girl of the Red Mill did not realize how much she,
+herself, had to do with bringing about Mr. Steele’s change of attitude
+toward his neighbor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV—THE ORPHANS’ FORTUNE
+
+
+A great deal happened at Sunrise Farm before these later occurrences
+which so delighted Ruth Fielding. The excitement of the loss of the six
+“fresh airs” was not easily forgotten. Whenever any of the orphans was
+on the Sunrise premises again, they had a bodyguard of older girls or
+boys who kept a bright lookout that nothing unusual happened to them.
+
+As for the twins, Sadie took them in hand with a reformatory spirit that
+amazed Willie and Dickie. Those two youngsters were kept at Sunrise Farm
+and put in special charge of Sadie. Thus Mr. Steele had the three Raby
+orphans under his own eye until he could hear from Canada, and from the
+orphanage, and learn all the particulars of the fortune that might be in
+store for them.
+
+After a bit Willie and Dickie found the watchfulness of their sister
+somewhat irksome.
+
+“Say!” the talkative twin observed, “you ain’t got no reason to be so
+sharp on us, Sadie Raby. _You_ run away your ownself—didn’t she,
+Dickie?”
+
+“Yep,” agreed the oracular one.
+
+“An’ we don’t want no gal follerin’ us around and tellin’ us to ‘stop’
+all the time—do we, Dickie?”
+
+“Nope.”
+
+“We’re big boys now,” declared Willie, strutting like the young bantam
+he was. “There ain’t nothin’ goin’ to hurt us. We’re too big——”
+
+“What’s that on your finger—— No! the other one?” snapped Sadie, eyeing
+Willie sharply.
+
+“Scratch,” announced the boy.
+
+“Where’d you get it?”
+
+“I—I cut it on the cat,” admitted Willie, with less bombast.
+
+“Humph! you’re a big boy—ain’t you? Don’t even know enough to let the
+cat alone—and I hope her claw done you some good. Come here an’ let me
+borrer Miss Ruth’s peroxide bottle and put some on it. Cat’s claws is
+poison,” said Sadie. “You ain’t so fit to get along without somebody
+watchin’ you as ye think, kid. Remember that, now.”
+
+“We don’t want no gal trailin’ after us all the time!” cried Willie,
+angrily. “An’ we ain’t goin’ to stand it,” and he kicked his bare toe
+into the sand to express the emphasis that his voice would not vent.
+
+“Humph!” said Sadie, eyeing him sideways, meanwhile trimming carefully a
+stout branch she had broken from the lilac bush. “So you want to be your
+own boss, do you, Willie Raby?”
+
+“We _be_ our own boss—ain’t we, Dickie?”
+
+For the first time, the echo of Dickie’s agreement failed to
+materialize. Dickie was eyeing that lilac sprout—and looked from that to
+his sister’s determined face. He backed away several feet and put his
+hands behind him.
+
+“And so you ain’t goin’ to mind me—nor Miss Ruth—nor Mr. Steele—nor Mr.
+Caslon—nor nobody?” proceeded Sadie, more earnestness apparent in each
+section of her query.
+
+Her hand reached out suddenly and gripped Willie by the shoulder of his
+shirt. He tried to writhe out of her grasp, but his sister’s muscles
+were hardened, and she was twice as strong as Willie had believed. The
+lilac sprout was raised.
+
+“So you’re too big to mind anybody, heh?” she queried.
+
+“Yes, we be!” snarled the writhing Willie. “Ain’t we, Dickie?”
+
+“No, we’re not!” screamed his twin, suddenly, refusing to echo Willie’s
+declaration. “Don’t hit him, Sade! Oh, don’t!” and he cast himself upon
+his sister and held her tight about the waist. “We—we’ll be good,” he
+sobbed.
+
+“How about it, Willie Raby?” demanded the stern sister, without lowering
+the stick. “Are you goin’ to mind and be good?”
+
+Willie stared, tried to writhe away, saw it was no use, and capitulated.
+“Aw—yes—if _he’s_ goin’ to cry about it,” he grumbled. He said it with
+an air intimating that Dickie was, after all, quite a millstone about
+his neck and would always be holding him back from deeds of valor which
+Willie, himself, knew he could perform.
+
+However, the twins behaved pretty well after that. They remained with
+Sadie at Sunrise Farm, for the whole Steele family had become interested
+in them.
+
+The inquiries Mr. Steele set afoot resulted, in a short time, in
+information of surprising moment to the three Raby orphans. The old
+inquiry which had brought the lawyer, Mr. Angus MacDorough, to
+Darrowtown three years before, was ferreted out by another lawyer
+engaged by Mr. Steele.
+
+It was found that Mr. MacDorough had, soon after his visit to the States
+in the matter of the Raby fortune, been stricken ill and, after a long
+sickness, had died. His affairs had never been straightened out, and his
+business was still in a chaotic state.
+
+However, it was found beyond a doubt that Mr. MacDorough had been
+engaged to search out the whereabouts of Mrs. Tom Raby and her children
+by the administrators of the estate of Mrs. Raby’s elderly relative, now
+some time deceased.
+
+Nearly two thousand dollars in American money had been left as a legacy
+to the Rabys. In time this property was put into Mr. Steele’s care to
+hold in trust for the three orphans—and it was enough to promise them
+all an education and a start in life.
+
+Had it not been so, Mr. and Mrs. Steele would have felt sufficiently in
+Sadie’s debt, because of her having saved little Bennie Steele from the
+hoofs of the Black Douglass, to have made the girl’s way—and that of the
+twins—plain before them, until they were grown.
+
+How much Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen, were delighted by all this
+can be imagined. Sadie held an almost worshipful attitude toward Ruth;
+Ruth had been her first real friend when she ran away from “them
+Perkinses.”
+
+That Ruth and her chum bore the affairs of the Raby orphans in mind, and
+continued to have many other and varied interests, as well as a
+multitude of adventures during the summer, will be explained in the next
+volume of our series, to be entitled: “Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies;
+Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.”
+
+Meanwhile, the visit to Sunrise Farm came to a glorious close. The
+belated Fourth of July was celebrated on the evening of the fifth, in a
+perfectly “safe and sane” manner by the burning of the wealth of
+fireworks that Mr. Steele had supplied.
+
+The days that followed to the end of the stay of the girls of Briarwood
+Hall and their brothers, were filled with delightful incidents. Picnics,
+fishing parties, tramps over the hills, rides, games on the lawn, and
+many other activities occupied the delightful hours at Sunrise Farm.
+
+“This surely is the nicest place I ever was at,” Busy Izzy admitted, on
+the closing day of the party. “If I have as good a time the rest of the
+summer, I won’t mind going back to school and suffering for eight months
+in the year.”
+
+“Hear! hear!” cried Heavy Jennie Stone. “And the eats!”
+
+“And the rides,” said Mercy Curtis, the lame girl. “Such beautiful rides
+through the hills!”
+
+“And such a fine time watching those fresh airs to see that they didn’t
+kill themselves,” added Tom Cameron, with a grimace.
+
+“Don’t say a word against the poor little dears, Tommy,” urged his
+sister. “Suppose _you_ had to live in an for orphanage all but four
+weeks in the year?”
+
+“Tom is only fooling,” Ruth said, quietly. “I know him. He enjoyed
+seeing the children have a good time, too.”
+
+“Oh! if you say so, Miss Fielding,” said Tom, laughing and bowing to
+her, “it must be so.”
+
+The big yellow coach, with the four prancing horses, came around to the
+door. Bobbins mounted to the driver’s seat and gathered up the ribbons.
+The visitors climbed aboard.
+
+Ruth stood up and waved her hand to the rest of the Steele family, and
+Sadie and the twins gathered on the porch.
+
+“We’ve had the finest time ever!” she cried. “We love you all for giving
+us such a nice vacation. And we’re going to cheer you——”
+
+And cheer they did. At the noise, the leaders sprang forward and the
+yellow coach rolled away. Ruth, laughing, sat down suddenly beside her
+chum, and Helen hugged her tight.
+
+“We always have a dandy time when we go anywhere with _you_, Ruth,” she
+declared. “For you always take your ‘good times’ with you.”
+
+And perhaps Helen Cameron had made a very important discovery.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her
+adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every
+reader.
+
+Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.
+
+  1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+  2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+  3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+  4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+  5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+  6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+  7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+  8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+  9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+  10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+  11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+  12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+  13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+  14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+  15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+  16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+  17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+  18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+  19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+  20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+  21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+  22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA
+  23. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO
+  24. RUTH FIELDING AT CAMERON HALL
+  25. RUTH FIELDING CLEARING HER NAME
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume.
+
+Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win instant
+popularity. Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that of Louisa M.
+Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action. Clean tales that
+all the girls will enjoy reading.
+
+1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences
+
+2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL or The Mystery of the School by the
+Lake
+
+3. NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS or A City Girl in the Great West
+
+4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way
+
+5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY or The Girl Who Won Out
+
+6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE or The Old Bachelor’s Ward
+
+7. HAZEL HOOD’S STRANGE DISCOVERY or The Old Scientist’s Treasure Box
+
+8. TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY or The Old House in the Glen
+
+9. THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Strange Sea Chest
+
+10. KATE MARTIN’S PROBLEM or Facing the Wide World
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM or The Mystery of a Nobody
+
+  At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON or Strange Adventures in a Great City
+
+  Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and has several
+  unusual adventures.
+
+3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune
+
+  From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our
+  country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+  Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
+
+  At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery.
+
+6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK or School Chums on the Boardwalk
+
+  A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+
+7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS or Bringing the Rebels to Terms
+
+  Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH or Cowboy Joe’s Secret
+
+  Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS or The Secret of the Mountains
+
+  Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held for
+  ransom in a mountain cave.
+
+10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS or A Mystery of The Seaside
+
+  Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and Betty
+  becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls.
+
+11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS or The Secret of the Trunk Room
+
+  An up-to-date college story with a strange mystery that is bound to
+  fascinate any girl reader.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES
+
+By JANET D. WHEELER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE or The Queer Homestead at Cherry
+Corners
+
+Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and
+located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went
+there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened,
+go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL or Leading a Needed Rebellion
+
+Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time
+after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the
+school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of
+two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
+very plain food and little of it—and then there was a row!
+
+3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Mystery of the Wreck
+
+One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island,
+near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island.
+There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed
+ashore.
+
+4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES or The Secret of the Locked Tower
+
+Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who
+had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention,
+and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+
+5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore
+
+A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great
+variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there fall in
+with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly.
+
+6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE or The Old Sailor’s Secret
+
+A lively story of school girl doings. How Billie heard of the treasure
+and how she and her chums went in quest of the same is told in a
+peculiarly absorbing manner.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
+
+By AGNES MILLER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+This new series of girls’ books is in a new style of story writing. The
+interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve the problems that
+develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal of historical
+information is imparted.
+
+1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE or The Story of Nine
+Adventurous Girls
+
+How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,
+but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club serve
+a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces a new
+type of girlhood.
+
+2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD or the Great West Point Chain
+
+The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or
+mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some
+surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the
+valley better because of their visit.
+
+3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST or The Log of the Ocean
+Monarch
+
+For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into
+the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader
+sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to
+come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
+
+4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARM or The Secret from Old
+Alaska
+
+Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied
+with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to
+solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to a
+sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES
+
+By LILIAN GARIS
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated by the foremost
+organizations of America form the background for these stories and while
+unobtrusive there is a message in every volume.
+
+1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS or Winning the First B. C.
+
+A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
+girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
+The story is correct in scout detail.
+
+2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE or Maid Mary’s Awakening
+
+The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
+girls’ activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
+was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as “Maid
+Mary” makes a fascinating story.
+
+3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST or the Wig Wag Rescue
+
+Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
+seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
+all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
+
+4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG or Peg of Tamarack Hills
+
+The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
+Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
+up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
+
+5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE or Nora’s Real Vacation
+
+Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
+for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed to
+appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif, becomes
+a problem for the girls to solve.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.
+
+A new and up-to-date series, taking in the activities of several bright
+girls who become interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling
+exploits, outdoor life and the great part the Radio plays in the
+adventures of the girls and in solving their mysteries. Fascinating
+books that girls of all ages will want to read.
+
+1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN or A Strange Message from the Air
+
+Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in
+radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and
+how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air.
+A girl wanted as witness in a celebrated law case disappears, and the
+radio girls go to the rescue.
+
+2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM or Singing and Reciting at the Sending
+Station
+
+When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number
+who of us has not longed to “look behind the scenes” to see how it was
+done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending station manager
+and in this volume are permitted to get on the program, much to their
+delight. A tale full of action and fun.
+
+3. The RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND or The Wireless from the Steam
+Yacht
+
+In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation on
+an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big brother
+of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a pleasure
+party those on the island receive word by radio that the yacht is on
+fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
+
+4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE or The Strange Hut in the Swamp
+
+The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful lake
+and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids them
+in rounding up some undesirable folks who occupy the strange hut in the
+swamp.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE RUBY AND RUTHY SERIES
+
+By MINNIE E. PAULL
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.
+
+Four bright and entertaining stories told in Mrs. Paull’s happiest
+manner are among the best stories ever written for young girls, and
+cannot fail to interest any between the ages of eight and fifteen years.
+
+RUBY AND RUTHY
+
+Ruby and Ruthie were not old enough to go to school, but they certainly
+were lively enough to have many exciting adventures, that taught many
+useful lessons needed to be learned by little girls.
+
+RUBY’S UPS AND DOWNS
+
+There were troubles enough for a dozen grown-ups, but Ruby got ahead of
+them all, and, in spite of them, became a favorite in the lively times
+at school.
+
+RUBY AT SCHOOL
+
+Ruby had many surprises when she went to the impossible place she heard
+called a boarding school, but every experience helped to make her a
+stronger-minded girl.
+
+RUBY’S VACATION
+
+This volume shows how a little girl improves by having varieties of
+experience both happy and unhappy, provided she thinks, and is able to
+use her good sense. Ruby lives and learns.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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diff --git a/36397-0.zip b/36397-0.zip
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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm
+       What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36397]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "WHY, SADIE RABY! WHO'D EVER EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE?"]
+
+
+
+
+                             Ruth Fielding
+                            At Sunrise Farm
+
+                                   OR
+
+                    WHAT BECAME OF THE RABY ORPHANS
+
+                                   BY
+
+                            ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+            Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth
+                      Fielding at Snow Camp," Etc.
+
+                             _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+                               PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+                            Books for Girls
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+                          RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+                       12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+                  Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+                  Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+                  Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+                  Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+                  Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+                  Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+                  Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+                  Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+               Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+                          Copyright, 1915, by
+                         Cupples & Leon Company
+
+                      Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound
+
+                          Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+           CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+                I. Sweet Briars and Sour Pickles               1
+               II. The Wild Girl                              12
+              III. Sadie Raby's Story                         23
+               IV. "Them Perkinses"                           34
+                V. "The Tramping Girl"                        45
+               VI. Seeking the Trail                          53
+              VII. What Tom Cameron Saw                       61
+             VIII. Traveling Toward Sunrise Farm              68
+               IX. The Sunrise Coach                          77
+                X. "Touch and Go"                             85
+               XI. Tobogganing in June                        91
+              XII. A Number of Introductions                 100
+             XIII. The Terrible Twins                        108
+              XIV. "Why! Of Course!"                         114
+               XV. The Tempest                               120
+              XVI. The Runaway                               128
+             XVII. The Black Douglass                        135
+            XVIII. Sundry Plans                              143
+              XIX. A Safe and Sane Fourth?                   151
+               XX. The Raby Romance                          158
+              XXI. A Very Busy Time                          166
+             XXII. The Terrible Twins on the Rampage         173
+            XXIII. Lost                                      180
+             XXIV. "So That's All Right"                     189
+              XXV. The Orphans' Fortune                      198
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--SWEET BRIARS AND SOUR PICKLES
+
+
+The single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and
+made so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the
+passage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which
+were realities and which shadows in the long gallery.
+
+Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory
+doors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within
+the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall.
+There were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and--without doubt--the
+members of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of
+the trade of being a schoolgirl.
+
+At one door--and it was the portal of the largest "quartette" room on the
+floor--a tall figure kept guard. At first this figure was so silent and
+motionless that it seemed like a shadow only. But when another shadow
+crept toward it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard demanded,
+hissingly:
+
+"S-s-stop! who goes there?"
+
+"Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge Steele!"
+
+"Sh!" commanded the guard. "Who goes there?"
+
+"Why--why---- It's _I_."
+
+"Give the password instantly. Answer!" commanded the guard again, and
+with some vexation. "'I' isn't anybody."
+
+"Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that _this_ 'I' is somebody--according to
+the gym. scales. I gained three pounds over the Easter holidays," said
+"Heavy" Jennie Stone, who had begun her reply with a giggle, but ended
+it with a sigh.
+
+"Password, Miss!" snapped the guard, grimly.
+
+"Oh! of course!" Then the fat girl whispered shrilly:
+"'Sincerity--befriend.' That is what 'S. B.' stands for, I s'pose.
+Sweetbriars! and I have a big bag of sour pickles to offset the cloying
+sweetness of the Sweetbriars," chuckled Heavy. "Besides, they say that
+vinegar pickles will make you thin----"
+
+"I don't need them for that purpose," admitted the guard at the door,
+still in a whisper, but accepting the large, "warty" pickle Heavy thrust
+into her hand.
+
+"Will make _me_ thin, then," agreed the other. "Let me in, Madge."
+
+The guard, sucking the pickle convulsively the while, opened the door
+just a little way. A blanket had been hung on a frame inside in such a
+manner that scarcely a gleam of lamplight reached the corridor when the
+door was open.
+
+"Pass the Sweetbriar!" choked Madge, with her mouth full and the tears
+running down her cheeks. "My goodness, Jennie Stone! these pickles are
+right out of vitriol!"
+
+"Sour, aren't they?" chuckled Heavy. "I handed you a real one for fair,
+that time, didn't I, Madge?"
+
+Then she tried to sidle through the narrow opening, got stuck, and was
+urged on by Madge pushing her. With a bang--punctuated by a chorus of
+muffled exclamations from the girls already assembled--she tore away the
+frame and the blanket and got through.
+
+"Shut the door, quick, guard!" exclaimed Helen Cameron.
+
+"Of course, that would be Heavy--entering like a female Samson and
+tearing down the pillars of the temple," snapped Mercy Curtis, the lame
+girl, in her sharp way.
+
+"Please repair the damage, Helen," said Ruth Fielding, who presided at
+the far end of the room, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.
+
+The other girls were arranged on the chairs, or upon the floor before
+her. There was a goodly number of them, and they now included most of
+the members of the secret society known at Briarwood Hall as the
+"S. B.'s."
+
+Ruth herself was a bright, brown-haired girl who, without possessing
+many pretensions to real beauty of feature, still was quite good to look
+at and proved particularly charming when one grew to know her well.
+
+She was rather plump, happy of disposition, and with the kindest heart
+in the world. She made both friends and enemies. No person of real
+character can escape being disliked, now and then, by those of envious
+disposition.
+
+Ruth Fielding succeeded, usually, in winning to her those who at first
+disliked her. And this, I claim, is a better gift than that of being
+universally popular from the start.
+
+Ruth had come from her old home in Darrowtown, where her parents died,
+two years before, to the Red Mill on the Lumano River, where her
+great-uncle, Jabez Potter, the miller, was inclined at first to shelter
+her only as an object of his grudging charity. In the first volume of
+this series, however, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or,
+Jasper Parloe's Secret," the girl found her way--in a measure, at
+least--to the uncle's crabbed heart.
+
+Uncle Jabez was a just man, and he considered it his duty, when Helen
+Cameron, Ruth's dearest friend, was sent to Briarwood Hall to school, to
+send Ruth to the same institution. In the second volume, "Ruth Fielding
+at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the Campus Mystery," was related the
+adventures, friendships, rivalries, and fun of Ruth's and Helen's first
+term at the old school.
+
+In "Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods," was told the
+adventures of Ruth and her friends at the Camerons' winter camp during
+the Christmas holidays. At the end of the first year of school, they all
+went to the seaside, to experience many adventures in "Ruth Fielding at
+Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway," the fourth volume of the
+series.
+
+A part of that eventful summer was spent by Ruth and her chums in
+Montana, and the girl of the Red Mill was enabled to do old Uncle Jabez
+such a favor that he willingly agreed to pay her expenses at Briarwood
+Hall for another year. This is all told in "Ruth Fielding at Silver
+Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys."
+
+The girls returned to Briarwood Hall and in the sixth volume of the
+series, entitled "Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter's
+Treasure Box," Ruth was privileged to help Jerry Sheming and his
+unfortunate old uncle in the recovery of their title to Cliff Island in
+Lake Tallahaska, while she and her friends had some thrilling and many
+funny adventures during the mid-winter vacation.
+
+The second half of this school year was now old. The Easter recess was
+past and the girls were looking forward to the usual break-up in the
+middle of June. The hardest of the work for the year was over. Those
+girls who had been faithful in their studies prior to Easter could now
+take something of a breathing spell, and the S. B.'s were determined to
+initiate such candidates as had been on the waiting list for reception
+into the secrets of the most popular society in the school.
+
+The shrouded door of the quartette room occupied by Ruth, Helen, Mercy,
+and Jane Ann Hicks, from Montana, was opened carefully again and again
+until the outer guard, Madge Steele, had admitted all the candidates and
+most of the members of the S. B. order who were expected.
+
+Each girl was presented with at least half a big sour pickle from
+Heavy's store; but really, the pickles had nothing to do with the
+initiation of the neophytes.
+
+There was a serious and helpful side to the society of the S. B.'s--as
+witness the password. Ruth, who was the most active member of the
+institution, realized, however, that the girls were so full of fun that
+they must have some way of expressing themselves out of the ordinary.
+Perhaps she had asked Mademoiselle Picolet, the French teacher, whose
+room was in this dormitory, and Miss Scrimp, the matron, to overlook
+this present infraction of the rules, for it must be admitted that the
+retiring bell had rung half an hour before the gathering in this
+particular room.
+
+"All here!" breathed Ruth, at last, and Madge was called in. The
+candidates were placed in the middle of the floor. Ann Hicks, the girl
+from Silver Ranch, was one of these. Ann had proved her character and
+made herself popular in the school against considerable odds, as related
+in the preceding volume. Now, the honor of being admitted into the
+secret society was added to the other marks of the school's approval.
+
+"Candidates," said Ruth, addressing in most solemn tones the group of
+girls before her, "you are about to be initiated into the degree of the
+Marble Harp. As Infants, when you first entered the school, you were all
+made acquainted with the legend of the Marble Harp.
+
+"The figure of _Harmony_, presiding over the fountain in the middle of
+the campus, was modeled by the sculptor from the only daughter of the
+man who originally owned Briarwood Park before it became a school. Said
+sculptor and daughter--in the most approved fashion of the present day
+school of romanticist authors--ran away with each other, were married
+without the father's approval, and both are supposed to have died
+miserably in a studio-garret.
+
+"The heart-broken father naturally left his cur-r-r-se upon the
+fountain, and it is said--mind you, this is hearsay," added Ruth,
+solemnly, "that whenever anything of moment is about to transpire at
+Briarwood Hall, or any calamity befall, the strings of the marble harp
+held in the hands of _Harmony_, are heard to twang.
+
+"Of course, as has been pointed out before, the fact that the harp is in
+the shape of a _lyre_, must be considered, too, if one is to accept this
+legend. But, however, and nevertheless," pursued Ruth, "it has been
+decided that the candidates here assembled must join in the Mackintosh
+March, and, in procession, led by our Outer Guard and followed--not to
+say _herded_--by our Rear Guard, must proceed once around the campus,
+down into the garden, and circle the fountain, chanting, as you have
+been instructed, the marching song.
+
+"All ready! You all have your mackintoshes, as instructed? Into them at
+once," commanded Ruth. "Into line--one after the other. Now, Outer
+Guard!"
+
+The lights were extinguished; the blanket at the door was removed; Madge
+Steele led the way and Heavy, as the Rear Guard, was last in the line.
+Shrouded in the hoods of the mackintoshes, scarcely one of the girls
+would have been recognized by any curious teacher or matron.
+
+Ruth hopped down from the bed, and the remaining Sweetbriars ran
+giggling to the windows. It was a drizzly, dark night. The paths about
+the campus glistened, and the lamps upon the posts flickered dimly.
+
+Out of the front door filed the procession; when they were far enough
+away from the buildings which surrounded the campus, they began the
+chant, based upon Tom Moore's famous old song:
+
+  "The harp that once through Briarwood Hall
+    The soul of music shed,
+  Now hangs as mute o'er the campus fount
+    As though that soul were dead."
+
+Madge Steele, with her strong voice, led the chant. The girls, crowded
+at the open windows, began to giggle, for they could hear Heavy, at the
+end of the procession, sing out a very different verse.
+
+"That rascal ought to be fined for that," murmured The Fox, the
+sandy-haired girl next to Ruth.
+
+"But, isn't she funny?" gasped Helen, on the other side of the Chief of
+the S. B.'s.
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Belle Tingley. "I hope Sarah Fish got there ahead
+of them. _Won't_ they be surprised when they get a baptism of a glass of
+water each from the fountain, as they go by?"
+
+"They'll think the statue has come to life, sure enough, if it doesn't
+twang the lyre," quoth Helen.
+
+"They'll get an unexpected ducking," giggled Lluella Fairfax.
+
+"It won't hurt them," Ruth said, placidly. "That's why I insisted upon
+the mackintoshes."
+
+"It's just as dark down there by the fountain as it can be," spoke
+Helen, with a little shiver. "D'you remember, Ruthie, how they hazed us
+there when we were Infants?"
+
+"Don't I!" agreed her chum.
+
+"If Sarah is careful, she can stand right up there against the statue
+and never be seen, while she can reach the water to throw it at the
+girls easily. There!" cried Belle. "They're turning down the walk to the
+steps. I can see them."
+
+They all could see them--dimly. Like shadows the procession descended to
+the marble fountain, still chanting softly the refrain of the marching
+song. Suddenly a shriek--a very vigorous and startling sound--rang out
+across the campus.
+
+"It's begun!" giggled Belle.
+
+But the sound was repeated--then in a thrilling chorus. Ruth was
+startled. She exclaimed:
+
+"That wasn't either of the candidates. It was Sarah who screamed. There!
+It is Sarah again. Something has happened!"
+
+Something certainly had happened. There had been an unexpected fault
+somewhere in the initiation. The procession burst like a bombshell, and
+the girls scattered through the wet campus, utterly terrified, and
+screaming as they ran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE WILD GIRL
+
+
+"Something awful must have occurred!" cried Helen Cameron.
+
+Ruth did not remain at the window for more than a moment after seeing
+the girls engaged in the initiation disperse, and hearing their screams.
+She drew back from the crowding group and darted out of the room.
+Fortunately neither the French teacher, nor the matron, had yet been
+aroused. If the girls came noisily into the dormitory building, Ruth
+knew very well that "the powers that be" must of necessity take
+cognizance of the infraction of the rules.
+
+The girl from the Red Mill sped down the broad stairway and out of the
+house. Some of the fastest runners among the frightened girls were
+already panting at the steps.
+
+"Hush! hush!" commanded Ruth. "What is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"Oh! it's the ghost!" declared one girl.
+
+"So's your grandmother's aunt!" snapped another. "Somebody shoved Sarah
+into the water. It was no ghost."
+
+It was Madge Steele who last spoke, and Ruth seized upon the senior,
+believing she might get something like a sensible explanation from her.
+
+"You girls go into the house quietly," warned Ruth, as they scrambled up
+the stone steps. "Don't you _dare_ make a noise and get us all into
+trouble."
+
+Then she turned upon Madge, begging: "Do, _do_ tell me what you mean,
+Madge Steele. _Who_ pushed Sarah?"
+
+"That's what I can't tell you. But I heard Sarah yelling that she was
+pushed, and she did most certainly fall right into the fountain when she
+climbed up there beside the statue."
+
+"What a ridiculous thing!" giggled Ruth. "Somebody played a trick on
+her. I guess she was fooled instead of the candidates being startled,
+eh?"
+
+"I saw somebody--or something--drop off the other side of the fountain and
+run--I saw it myself," declared Madge.
+
+"Here comes Sarah," cried Ruth, under her breath. "And I declare she
+_is_ all wet!"
+
+Sarah Fish was actually laughing, but in a hysterical way.
+
+"Oh, dear me! was ever anything so ridiculous before?" she gasped.
+
+"Hush! Don't get Miss Picolet after us," begged Madge.
+
+"What really happened?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"Why--I'll tell you," replied Sarah, whose gown clung to her as though it
+had been pasted upon her figure. "See? I'm just _soaked_. Talk about
+sprinkling those silly lambs of candidates! Why, _I_ was immersed--you
+see."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"I slipped over there before the procession started from these steps. I
+was watching the girls, and listening to them sing, and didn't pay much
+attention to anything else.
+
+"But when I dodged down into the little garden, I thought I heard a
+footstep on the flags. I looked all around, and saw nothing. Now I know
+the person must have already climbed up on the fountain and gotten into
+the shadow of the statue--just as I wanted to do."
+
+"Was there really somebody there?" demanded Madge.
+
+"How do you think I got into the fountain, if not?" snapped Sarah Fish.
+
+"Fell in."
+
+"I did not!" cried Sarah. "I was pushed."
+
+"'Did She Fall, or Was She Pushed?'" giggled Madge. "Sounds like a
+moving picture title."
+
+"You can laugh," scoffed Sarah. "I wonder what you'd have done?"
+
+"Got just as wet as you did, most likely," said Ruth, calming the
+troubled waters. "Do go on, Sarah. So you really _saw_ somebody?"
+
+"And felt somebody. When I climbed up to get a footing beside the
+sitting figure, so that the girls would not see me, somebody shoved
+me--with both hands--right into the fountain."
+
+"That's when you squalled?" asked Madge.
+
+"Yes, indeed! And I rolled out of the fountain just as the--the person
+who pushed me, tumbled down off the pedestal and ran."
+
+"For pity's sake!" ejaculated Ruth. "Do tell us who it was, Sarah."
+
+"Don't you think I would if I could?" responded Sarah, trying to wring
+the water out of her narrow skirt.
+
+Through the gloom appeared another figure--the too, too solid figure of
+Jennie Stone.
+
+"Oh--dear--me! Oh--dear--me!" she panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish
+dripping there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and giggled. "Oh,
+Sarah!" she gasped. "For once, your appearance fits your name, all
+right. You look like a fish out of its element."
+
+"Laugh----"
+
+"I have to," responded Heavy.
+
+"Well, if it were you----"
+
+"I know. I'd be floundering there in the water yet."
+
+"But tell me!" cried Ruth, under her breath. "Was it a girl who pushed
+you into the fountain, Sarah?"
+
+"It wore skirts--I'm sure of that, at least," grumbled Sarah.
+
+"But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw run," vouchsafed Heavy.
+"_Did_ you see her just skimming across the campus toward the main
+building? Like the wind!"
+
+"It must be one of our girls," declared Madge.
+
+"All right," said Heavy. "But if so, it's a girl I never saw run before.
+You can't tell me."
+
+"You had better go in and get off your clothes, Sarah," advised Ruth.
+Then she looked at Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at
+Briarwood. "Let's go and see if we can find the girl," Ruth suggested.
+
+"I'm game," cried Madge, as the other stragglers mounted the steps and
+disappeared behind the dormitory building door.
+
+Both girls hurried down the walk under the trees to the main building.
+In one end of this Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode. In
+the other end was the dining-room, with the kitchens and other offices
+in the basement. Besides, Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work
+about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook, had their living rooms in
+the basement of this building.
+
+Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter of the mysterious
+marauder without arousing the little old Irishman, but already they saw
+his lantern behind the grated window in the front basement, and, as the
+two girls came nearer, they heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
+
+"Bad 'cess to 'em! I seen 'em cavortin' across the campus, I tell ye,
+Mary Ann! There's wan of thim down here in the airy----"
+
+It was evident that the old couple had been aroused, and that Tony was
+talking to his wife, who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized Madge's
+wrist and whispered in her ear:
+
+"You run around one way, and I'll go the other. There must be _somebody_
+about, for Tony saw her----"
+
+"If it _is_ a girl."
+
+"Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I'm not afraid," declared Ruth, and she
+started off alone at once.
+
+Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth had darted into the heavily
+shaded space between the end of the main building and the next brick
+structure. There were no lights here, but there was a gas lamp on a post
+beyond the far corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw a
+shadow flit across the illuminated space about this post, and disappear
+behind a clump of snowball bushes.
+
+Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the other end of the clump of
+thick bushes, and suddenly collided with somebody who uttered a muffled
+scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both shoulders and held on.
+
+It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl, who was considerably
+smaller, and far slighter than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did
+not say a word at first, only straining to get away from Ruth's strong
+grip.
+
+"Now stop! now wait!" panted Ruth. "I want to know who you are----"
+
+The other tugged her best, but the girl of the Red Mill was very strong
+for her age, and she held on.
+
+"Stop!" panted Ruth again. "If you make a noise, you'll bring old Tony
+here--and then you _will_ be in trouble. I want to know who you are and
+what you were doing down there at the fountain--and why you pushed Sarah
+into the water?"
+
+"And I'd like to push _you_ in!" ejaculated the other girl, suddenly.
+"You let go of me, or I'll scratch you!"
+
+"You can't," replied Ruth, firmly. "I'm holding you too tight."
+
+"Then I'll bite you!" vowed the other.
+
+"Why--you're a regular wild girl," exclaimed Ruth. "You stop struggling,
+or I'll shout for help, and then Tony will come running."
+
+"D--don't give me away," gasped the strange girl, suddenly ceasing her
+struggles.
+
+"Do you belong here?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Belong here? Naw! I don't belong nowheres. An' you better lemme go,
+Miss."
+
+"Why--you _are_ a strange girl," said Ruth, greatly amazed. "You can't be
+one of us Briarwoods."
+
+"That ain't my name a-tall," whispered the frightened girl. "My name's
+Raby."
+
+"But what were you doing over there at the fountain?"
+
+"Gettin' a drink. Was _that_ any harm?" demanded the girl, sharply. "I'd
+found some dry pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a box there by
+the back door. I reckoned she didn't want the bread, and _I_ did."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" whispered Ruth.
+
+"And dry bread's dry eatin'," said the strange girl. "I had ter have a
+drink o' water to wash it down. And jest as I got down into that little
+place where I seed the fountain this afternoon----"
+
+"Oh, my, dear!" gasped Ruth. "Have you been lurking about the school all
+that time and never came and asked good old Mary Ann for something
+decent to eat?"
+
+"Huh! mebbe she'd a drove me off. Or mebbe she'd done worse to me," said
+the other, quickly. "They beat me again day 'fore yesterday----"
+
+"Who beat you?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Them Perkinses. Now! don't you go for to tell I said that. I don't want
+to go back to 'em--and their house ain't such a fur ways from here. If
+that cook--or any other grown folk--seen me, they'd want to send me back.
+I know 'em!" exclaimed the girl, bitterly. "But mebbe you'll be decent
+about it, and keep your mouth shut."
+
+"Oh! I won't tell a soul," murmured Ruth. "But I'm so sorry. Only dry
+bread and water--"
+
+"Huh! it'll keep a feller alive," said this strangely spoken girl. "I
+ain't no softie. Now, you lemme go, will yer? My! but you _are_ strong."
+
+"I'll let you go. But I do want to help you. I want to know more about
+you--_all_ about you. But if Tony comes----"
+
+"That's his lantern. I see it. He's a-comin'," gasped the other, trying
+to wriggle free.
+
+"Where will you stay to-night?" asked Ruth, anxiously.
+
+"I gotter place. It's warm and dry. I stayed there las' night. Come! you
+lemme go."
+
+"But I want to help you----"
+
+"'Twon't help me none to git me cotched."
+
+"Oh, I know it! Wait! Meet me somewhere near here to-morrow morning--will
+you? I'll bring some money with me. I'll help you."
+
+"Say! ain't you foolin'?" demanded the other, seemingly startled by the
+fact that Ruth wished to help her.
+
+"No. I speak the truth. I will help you."
+
+"Then I'll meet you--but you won't tell nobody?"
+
+"Not a soul?"
+
+"Cross yer heart?"
+
+"I don't do such foolish things," said Ruth. "If I say I'll do a thing,
+I will do it."
+
+"All right. What time'll I see you?"
+
+"Ten o'clock."
+
+"Aw-right," agreed the strange girl. "I'll be across the road from that
+path that's bordered by them cedar trees----"
+
+"The Cedar Walk?"
+
+"Guess so."
+
+"I shall be there. And will you?"
+
+"Huh! I kin keep my word as well as you kin," said the girl, sharply.
+Then she suddenly broke away from Ruth and ran. Tony Foyle came
+blundering around the corner of the house and Ruth, much excited,
+slipped away from the brush clump and ran as fast as she could to meet
+Madge Steele.
+
+"Oh! is that you, Ruth?" exclaimed the senior, when Ruth ran into her
+arms. "Tony's out. We had better go back to bed, or he'll report us to
+Mrs. Tellingham in the morning. I don't know where the strange girl
+could have gone."
+
+Ruth did not say a word. Madge did not ask her, and the girl of the Red
+Mill allowed her friend to think that her own search had been quite as
+unsuccessful. But, as Ruth looked at it, it was not _her_ secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--SADIE RABY'S STORY
+
+
+Ruth did not sleep at all well that night. Luckily, Helen had nothing on
+_her_ mind or conscience, or she must have been disturbed by Ruth's
+tossing and wakefulness. The other two girls in the big quartette
+room--Mercy Curtis and Ann Hicks--were likewise unaware of Ruth's
+restlessness.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill felt that she could take nobody into her
+confidence regarding the strange girl who said her name was Raby.
+Perhaps Ruth had no right to aid the girl if she was a runaway; yet
+there must be some very strong reason for making a girl prefer practical
+starvation to the shelter of "them Perkinses."
+
+Bread and water! The thought of the child being so hungry that she had
+eaten discarded, dry bread, washed down with water from the fountain in
+the campus, brought tears to Ruth's eyes.
+
+"Oh! I wish I knew what was best to do for her," thought Ruth. "Should I
+tell Mrs. Tellingham? Or, mightn't I get some of the girls interested in
+her? Dear Helen has plenty of money, and she is just as tender-hearted
+as she can be."
+
+Yet Ruth had given her promise to take nobody into her confidence about
+the half-wild girl; and, with Ruth Fielding, "a promise was a promise!"
+
+In the morning, there was soon a buzz of excitement all over the school
+regarding the strange happening at the fountain on the campus. One girl
+whispered it to another, and the tale spread like wildfire. However, the
+teachers and the principal did not hear of the affair.
+
+Ruth's lips, she decided, were sealed for the present regarding the
+mysterious girl who had pushed Sarah Fish into what Heavy declared was
+"her proper element." The wildest and most improbable stories and
+suspicions were circulated before assembly hour, regarding the Unknown.
+
+There was so much said, and so many questions asked, in the quartette
+room where Ruth was located, that she felt like running away herself.
+But at mail time Madge Steele burst into the dormitory "charged to the
+muzzle," as The Fox expressed it, with a new topic of conversation.
+
+"What do you think, girls? Oh! what do you think?" she cried. "We're
+going to live at Sunrise Farm."
+
+"Ha! you ask us a question and answer it in the same breath," said
+Mercy, with a snap. "Now you've spilled the beans and we don't care
+anything about it at all."
+
+"You _do_ care," declared Madge. "I ask _you_ first of all, Mercy. I
+invite every one of you for the last week in June and the first two
+weeks of July at Sunrise Farm----"
+
+"Oh, wait!" exclaimed Mary Cox, otherwise "The Fox." "Do begin at the
+beginning. I, for one, never heard of Sunrise Farm before."
+
+"I--I believe _I_ have," said Ruth slowly. "But I don't suppose it can be
+the same farm Madge means. It is a big stock farm and it's not many
+miles from Darrowtown where I--I used to live once. _That_ farm belonged
+to a family named Benson----"
+
+"And a family named Steele owns it now," put in Madge, promptly. "It's
+the very same farm. It's a big place--five hundred acres. It's on a big,
+flat-topped hill. Father has been negotiating for the other farms around
+about, and has gotten options on most of them, too. He's been doing it
+very quietly.
+
+"Now he says that the old house on the main farm is in good enough shape
+for us to live there this summer, while he builds a bigger house. And
+you shall all come with us--all you eight girls--the Brilliant Octette of
+Briarwood Hall.
+
+"And Bob will get Helen's brother, and Busy Izzy; and Belle shall invite
+her brothers if she likes, and----"
+
+"Say! are you figuring on having a standing army there?" demanded Mercy.
+
+"That's all right. There is room. The old garret has been made over into
+two great dormitories----"
+
+"And you've been keeping all this to yourself, Madge Steele?" cried
+Helen. "What a nice girl you are. It sounds lovely."
+
+"And your mother and father will wish we had never arrived, after we've
+been there two days," declared Heavy. "By the way, do they know I eat
+three square meals each day?"
+
+"Yes. And that if you are hungry, you get up in your sleep and find the
+pantry," giggled The Fox.
+
+"Might as well have all the important details understood right at the
+start," said Heavy, firmly.
+
+"If you'll all say you'll come," said Madge, smiling broadly, "we'll
+just have the lov-li-est time!"
+
+"But we'll have to write home for permission," Lluella Fairfax ventured.
+
+"Of course we shall," chimed in Helen.
+
+"Then do so at once," commanded the senior. "You see, this will be my
+graduation party. No more Briarwood for me after this June, and I don't
+know what I shall do when I go to Poughkeepsie next fall and leave all
+you 'Infants' behind here----"
+
+"_Infants!_ Listen to her!" shouted Belle Tingley. "Get out of here!"
+and under a shower of sofa pillows Madge Steele had to retire from the
+room.
+
+Ruth slipped away easily after that, for the other girls were gabbling
+so fast over the invitation for the early summer vacation, that they did
+not notice her departure.
+
+This was the hour she had promised to meet the strange girl in whom she
+had taken such a great interest the night before--it was between the two
+morning recitation hours.
+
+She ran down past the end of the dormitory building into the head of the
+long serpentine path, known as the Cedar Walk. The lines of closely
+growing cedars sheltered her from observation from any of the girls'
+windows.
+
+The great bell in the clock tower boomed out ten strokes as Ruth reached
+the muddy road at the end of the walk. Nobody was in sight. Ruth looked
+up and down. Then she walked a little way in both directions to see if
+the girl she had come to meet was approaching.
+
+"I--I am afraid she isn't going to keep her word," thought Ruth. "And
+yet--somehow--she seemed so frank and honest----"
+
+She heard a shrill, but low whistle, and the sound made her start and
+turn. She faced a thicket of scrubby bushes across the road. Suddenly
+she saw a face appear from behind this screen--a girl's face.
+
+"Oh! Is it you?" cried Ruth, starting in that direction.
+
+"Cheese it! don't yell it out. Somebody'll hear you," said the girl,
+hoarsely.
+
+"Oh, dear me! you have a dreadful cold," urged Ruth, darting around the
+clump of brush and coming face to face with the strange girl.
+
+"Oh, _that_ don't give me so much worry," said the Raby girl. "Aw--My
+goodness! Is that for _me_?"
+
+Ruth had unfolded a paper covered parcel she carried. There were
+sandwiches, two apples, a piece of cake, and half a box of chocolate
+candies. Ruth had obtained these supplies with some difficulty.
+
+"I didn't suppose you would have any breakfast," said Ruth, softly. "You
+sit right down on that dry log and eat. Don't mind me. I--I was awake
+most all night worrying about you being out here, hungry and alone."
+
+The girl had begun to eat ravenously, and now, with her mouth full, she
+gazed up at her new friend's face with a suddenness that made Ruth
+pause.
+
+"Say!" said the girl, with difficulty. "You're all right. I seen you
+come down the path alone, but reckoned I'd better wait and see if you
+didn't have somebody follerin' on behind. Ye might have give me away."
+
+"Why! I told you I would tell nobody."
+
+"Aw, yes--I know. Mebbe I'd oughter have believed ye; but I dunno. Lots
+of folks has fooled me. Them Perkinses was as soft as butter when they
+came to take me away from the orphanage. But now they treat me as mean
+as dirt--yes, they do!"
+
+"Oh, dear me! So you haven't any mother or father?"
+
+"Not a one," confessed the other. "Didn't I tell you I was took from an
+orphanage? Willie and Dickie was taken away by other folks. I wisht
+somebody would ha' taken us all three together; but I'm mighty glad them
+Perkinses didn't git the kids."
+
+She sighed with present contentment, and wiped her fingers on her skirt.
+For some moments Ruth had remained silent, listening to her. Now she had
+for the first time the opportunity of examining the strange girl.
+
+It had been too dark for her to see much of her the night before. Now
+the light of day revealed a very unkempt and not at all attractive
+figure. She might have been twelve--possibly fourteen. She was slight for
+her age, but she might be stronger than she appeared to Ruth. Certainly
+she was vigorous enough.
+
+She had black hair which was in a dreadful tangle. Her complexion was
+naturally dark, and she had a deep layer of tan, and over that quite a
+thick layer of dirt. Her hands and wrists were stained and dirty, too.
+
+She wore no hat, raw as the weather was. Her ragged dress was an old
+faded gingham; over it she wore a three-quarter length coat of some
+indeterminate, shoddy material, much soiled, and shapeless as a
+mealsack. Her shoes and stockings were in keeping with the rest of her
+outfit.
+
+Altogether her appearance touched Ruth Fielding deeply. This Raby girl
+was an orphan. Ruth remembered keenly the time when the loss of her own
+parents was still a fresh wound. Supposing no kind friends had been
+raised up for her? Suppose there had been no Red Mill for her to go to?
+She might have been much the same sort of castaway as this.
+
+"Tell me who you are--tell me all about yourself--do!" begged the girl of
+the Red Mill, sitting down beside the other on the log. "I am an orphan
+as well as you, my dear. Really, I am."
+
+"Was you in the orphanage?" demanded the Raby girl, quickly.
+
+"Oh, no. I had friends----"
+
+"You warn't never a reg'lar orphan, then," was the sharp response.
+
+"Tell me about it," urged Ruth.
+
+"Me an' the kids was taken to the orphanage just as soon as Mom died,"
+said the girl, in quite a matter-of-fact manner. "Pa died two months
+before. It was sudden. But Mom had been sickly for a long time--I can
+remember. I was six."
+
+"And how old are you now?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Twelve and a half. They puts us out to work at twelve anyhow, so them
+Perkinses got me," explained the child. "I was pretty sharp and foxy
+when we went to the orphanage. The kids was only two and a half----"
+
+"Both of them?" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yep. They're twins, Willie and Dickie is. An' awful smart--an' pretty
+before they lopped off their curls at the orphanage. I was glad Mom was
+dead then," said the girl, nodding. "She'd been heart-broke to see 'em
+at first without their long curls.
+
+"I dunno now--not rightly--just what's become of 'em," went on the girl.
+"Mebbe they come back to the orphanage. The folks that took 'em was nice
+enough, I guess, but the man thought two boys would be too much for his
+wife to take care of. She was a weakly lookin' critter.
+
+"But the matron always said they shouldn't go away for keeps, unless
+they went together. My goodness me! they'd never be happy apart," said
+the strange girl, wagging her head confidentially. "And they're only
+nine now. There's three years yet for the matron to find them a good
+home. Ye see, folks take young orphans on trial. I wisht them Perkinses
+had taken _me_ on trial and then had sent me back. Or, I wisht they'd
+let the orphans take folks on trial instead of the other way 'round."
+
+"Oh, it must be very hard!" murmured Ruth. "And you and your little
+brothers had to be separated?'
+
+"Yep. And Willie and Dickie liked their sister Sade a heap," and the
+girl suddenly "knuckled" her eyes with her dirty hand to wipe away the
+tears. "Huh! I'm a big baby, ain't I? Well! that's how it is."
+
+"And you really have run away from the people that took you from the
+orphanage, Sadie?"
+
+"Betcher! So would you. Mis' Perkins is awful cross, an' he's crosser! I
+got enough----"
+
+"Wouldn't they take you back at the orphanage?"
+
+"Nope. No runaways there. I've seen other girls come back and they made
+'em go right away again with the same folks. You see, there's a Board,
+or sumpin'; an' the Board finds out all about the folks that take away
+the orphans in the first place. Then they won't never own up that they
+was fooled, that Board won't. They allus say it's the kids' fault if
+they ain't suited."
+
+Suddenly the girl jumped up and peered through the bushes. Ruth had
+heard the thumping of horses' hoofs on the wet road.
+
+"My goodness!" gasped Sadie Raby. "Here's ol' Perkins hisself. He's come
+clean over this road to look for me. Don't you tell him----"
+
+She seized Ruth's wrist with her claw-like little hand.
+
+"Don't you be afraid," said Ruth. "And take this." She thrust a
+closely-folded dollar bill into the girl's grimy fingers. "I wish it was
+more. I'll come here again to-morrow----"
+
+The other had darted into the woods ere she had ceased speaking.
+Somebody shouted "Whoa!" in a very harsh voice, and then a heavy pair of
+cowhide boots landed solidly in the road.
+
+"I see ye, ye little witch!" exclaimed the harsh voice. "Come out o'
+there before I tan ye with this whip!" and the whip in question snapped
+viciously as the speaker pounded violently through the clump of bushes,
+right upon the startled Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--"THEM PERKINSES"
+
+
+It was a fact that Ruth crouched back behind the log, fearful of the
+wrathful farmer. He was a big, coarse, high-booted, red-faced man, and
+he swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he carried as though he really
+intended using the cruel instrument upon the tender body of the girl,
+whose figure he had evidently seen dimly through the bushes.
+
+"Come out 'o that!" he bawled, striding toward the log, and making the
+whiplash whistle once more in the air.
+
+Ruth leaped up, screaming with fear. "Don't you touch me, sir! Don't you
+dare!" she cried, and ran around the bushes out in to the road.
+
+The blundering farmer followed her, still snapping the whip. Perhaps he
+had been drinking; at least, it was certain he was too angry to see the
+girl very well until they were both in the road.
+
+Then he halted, and added:
+
+"I'll be whipsawed if that's the gal!"
+
+"I am _not_ the girl--not the girl you want--poor thing!" gasped Ruth.
+"Oh! you are horrid--terrible----"
+
+"Shut up, ye little fool!" exclaimed the man, harshly. "You know where
+Sade is, then, I'll be bound."
+
+"How do you know----?"
+
+"Ha! ye jest the same as told me," he returned, grinning suddenly and
+again snapping the whip. "You can tell me where that runaway's gone."
+
+"I don't know. Even if I did, I would not tell you, sir," declared Ruth,
+recovering some of her natural courage now.
+
+"Don't ye sass me--nor don't ye lie to me," and this time he swung the
+cruel whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at a
+level with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth cringed and shrieked
+aloud again.
+
+"Stop yer howling!" commanded Perkins. "Tell me about Sade Raby. Where's
+she gone?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Warn't she right there in them bushes with you?"
+
+"I shan't tell you anything more," declared Ruth.
+
+"Ye won't?"
+
+The brute swung the blacksnake--this time in earnest. It cracked, and
+then the snapper laid along the girl's forearm as though it were seared
+with a hot iron.
+
+Ruth shrieked again. The pain was more than she could bear in silence.
+She turned to flee up the Cedar Walk, but Perkins shouted at her to
+stand.
+
+"You try ter run, my beauty, and I'll cut ye worse than that," he
+promised. "You tell me about Sade Raby."
+
+Suddenly there came a hail, and Ruth turned in hope of assistance. Old
+Dolliver's stage came tearing along the road, his bony horses at a
+hand-gallop. The old man, whom the girls of Briarwood Hall called "Uncle
+Noah," brought his horses--and the Ark--to a sudden halt.
+
+"What yer doin' to that gal, Sim Perkins?" the old man demanded.
+
+"What's that to you, Dolliver?"
+
+"You'll find out mighty quick. Git out o' here or you'll git into
+trouble. Did he hurt you, Miss Ruth?"
+
+"No-o--not much," stammered Ruth, who desired nothing so much as to get
+way from the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No wonder she had been
+forced to run away from "them Perkinses."
+
+"I'll see you jailed yet, Sim, for some of your meanness," said the old
+stage driver. "And you'll git there quick if you bother Mis'
+Tellingham's gals----"
+
+"I didn't know she was one 'o them tony school gals," growled Perkins,
+getting aboard his wagon again.
+
+"Well, she is--an' one 'o the best of the lot," said Dolliver, and he
+smiled comfortably at Ruth.
+
+"Huh! whad-she wanter be in comp'ny of that brat 'o mine, then?"
+demanded Perkins, gathering up his reins.
+
+"Oh! are you hunting that orphanage gal ye took to raise? I heard she
+couldn't stand you and Ma Perkins no longer," Dolliver said, with
+sarcasm.
+
+"Never you mind. I'll git her," said Perkins, and whipped up his horses.
+
+"Oh, dear, me!" cried Ruth, when he had gone. "What a terrible man, Mr.
+Dolliver."
+
+"Yah!" scoffed the old driver. "Jest a bag of wind. Mean as can be, but
+a big coward. Meanes' folks around here, them Perkinses air."
+
+"But why were they allowed to have that poor girl, then?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"They went a-fur off to git her. Clean to Harburg. Nobody knowed 'em
+there, I s'pose. Why, Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn't melt in
+her mouth, if she wants to. But I sartainly am sorry for that poor
+little Sade Raby, as they call her."
+
+"Oh! I do pity her so," said Ruth, sadly.
+
+The old man's eyes twinkled. Old Dolliver was sly! "Then ye _do_ know
+suthin' about Sade--jes' as Perkins said?"
+
+"She was here just now. I gave her something to eat--and a little money.
+You won't tell, Mr. Dolliver?"
+
+"Huh! No. But dunno's ye'd oughter helped a runaway. That's agin' the
+law, ye see."
+
+"Would the law give that poor girl back to those ugly people?"
+
+"I s'pect so," said Dolliver, scratching his head. "Ye see, Sim Perkins
+an' his wife air folks ye can't really go agin'--not _much_. Sim owns a
+good farm, an' pays his taxes, an' ain't a bad neighbor. But they've had
+trouble before naow with orphans. But before, 'twas boys."
+
+"I just hope they all ran away!" cried Ruth, with emphasis.
+
+"Wal--they did, by golly!" ejaculated the stage driver, preparing to
+drive on.
+
+"And if you see this poor girl, you won't tell anybody, will you, Mr.
+Dolliver?" pleaded Ruth.
+
+"I jes' sha'n't see her," said the man, his little eyes twinkling. "But
+you take my advice, Miss Fielding--don't _you_ see her, nuther!"
+
+Ruth ran back to the school then--it was time. She could not think of her
+lessons properly because of her pity for Sadie Raby. Suppose that horrid
+man should find the poor girl!
+
+Every time Ruth saw the red welt on her arm, where the whiplash had
+touched her, she wondered how many times Perkins had lashed Sadie when
+he was angry. It was a dreadful thought.
+
+Although she had promised Sadie to keep her secret, Ruth wondered if she
+might not do the girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about her.
+Ruth was not afraid of the dignified principal of Briarwood Hall--she
+knew too well Mrs. Grace Tellingham's good heart.
+
+She determined at least that if Sadie appeared at the end of the Cedar
+Walk the next day she would try to get the runaway girl to go with her
+to the principal's office. Surely the girl should not run wild in the
+woods and live any way and how she could--especially so early in the
+season, for there was still frost at night.
+
+When Ruth ran down the long walk between the cedar trees the next
+forenoon at ten, there was nobody peering through the bushes where Sadie
+Raby had watched the day before. Ruth went up and down the road, into
+the woods a little way, too--and called, and called. No reply. Nothing
+answered but a chattering squirrel and a jay who seemed to object to any
+human being disturbing the usual tenor of the woods' life thereabout.
+
+"Perhaps she'll come this afternoon," thought Ruth, and she hid the
+package of food she had brought, and went back to her classes.
+
+In the afternoon she had no better luck. The runaway did not appear. The
+food had not been touched. Ruth left the packet, hoping sadly that the
+girl might find it.
+
+The next morning she went again. She even got up an hour earlier than
+usual and slipped out ahead of the other girls. The food had been
+disturbed--oh, yes! But by a dog or some "varmint." Sadie had not been to
+the rendezvous.
+
+Hoping against hope, Ruth Fielding tacked a note in an envelope to the
+log on which she and Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she could
+do, save to go each day for a time to see if the strange girl had found
+the note.
+
+There came a rain and the letter was turned to pulp. Then Ruth Fielding
+gave up hope of ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told her that
+the orphan had never returned to "them Perkinses." For this Ruth might
+be thankful, if for nothing more.
+
+The busy days and weeks passed. All the girls of Ruth's clique were
+writing back and forth to their homes to arrange for the visit they
+expected to make to Madge Steele's summer home--Sunrise Farm. The senior
+was forever singing the praises of her father's new acquisition. Mr.
+Steele had closed contracts to buy several of the neighboring farms, so
+that, altogether, he hoped to have more than a thousand acres in his
+estate.
+
+"And, don't you _dare_ disappoint me, Ruthie Fielding," cried Madge,
+shaking her playfully. "We won't have any good time without you, and you
+haven't said you'd go yet!"
+
+"But I can't say so until I know myself," Ruth told her. "Uncle Jabez----"
+
+"That uncle of yours must be a regular ogre, just as Helen says."
+
+"What does Mercy say about him?" asked Ruth, with a quiet smile. "Mercy
+knows him fully as well, and she has a sharp tongue."
+
+"Humph! that's odd, too. She doesn't seem to think your Uncle Jabez is a
+very harsh man. She calls him 'Dusty Miller,' I know."
+
+"Uncle Jabez has a prickly rind, I guess," said Ruth. "But the meat
+inside is sweet. Only he's old-fashioned and he can't get used to
+new-fashioned ways. He doesn't see any reason for my 'traipsing around'
+so much. I ought to be at the mill between schooltimes, helping Aunt
+Alvirah--so he says. And I am afraid he is right. I feel condemned----"
+
+"You're too tender-hearted. Helen says he's as rich as can be and might
+hire a dozen girls to help 'Aunt Alviry'."
+
+"He might, but he wouldn't," returned Ruth, smiling. "I can't tell you
+yet for sure that I can go to Sunrise Farm. I'd love to. I've always
+heard 'twas a beautiful place."
+
+"And it is, indeed! It's going to be the finest gentleman's estate in
+that section, when father gets through with it. He's going to make it a
+great, big, paying farm--so he says. If it wasn't for that man Caslon,
+we'd own the whole hill all the way around, as well as the top of it."
+
+"Who's that?" asked Ruth, surprised that Madge should speak so sharply
+about the unknown Caslon.
+
+"Why, he owns one of the farms adjoining. Father's bought all the
+neighbors up but Caslon. _He_ won't sell. But I reckon father will find
+a way to make him, before he gets through. Father usually carries his
+point," added Madge, with much pride in Mr. Steele's business acumen.
+
+Uncle Jabez had not yet said Ruth could go with the crowd to the
+Steeles' summer home; Aunt Alvirah wrote that he was "studyin' about
+it." But there was so much to do at Briarwood as the end of the school
+year approached, that the girl of the Red Mill had little time to worry
+about the subject.
+
+Although Ruth and Helen Cameron were far from graduation themselves,
+they both had parts of some prominence in the exercises which were to
+close the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was in a quartette selected from
+the Glee Club for some special music, and Helen had a small violin solo
+part in one of the orchestral numbers.
+
+Not many of the juniors, unless they belonged to either the school
+orchestra or the Glee Club, would appear to much advantage at
+graduation. The upper senior class was in the limelight--and Madge Steele
+was the only one of Ruth's close friends who was to receive her diploma.
+
+"We who aren't seniors have to sit around like bumps on a log," growled
+Heavy. "Might as well go home for good the day before."
+
+"You should have learned to play, or sing, or something," advised one of
+the other girls, laughing at Heavy's apparently woebegone face.
+
+"Did you ever hear me try to sing, Lluella?" demanded the plump young
+lady. "I like music myself--I'm very fond of it, no matter how it sounds!
+But I can't even stand my own chest-tones."
+
+Preparations for the great day went on apace. There was to be a
+professional director for the augmented orchestra and he insisted,
+because of the acoustics of the hall, upon building an elevated
+extension to the stage, upon which to stand to conduct the music.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Heavy, when she saw it the first time. "What's the
+diving-board for?"
+
+"That's not a diving-board," snapped Mercy Curtis. "It's the lookout
+station for the captain to watch the high C's."
+
+The bustle and confusion of departure punctuated the final day of the
+term, too. There were so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer;
+and some, of course, would never come back to Briarwood Hall again--as
+scholars, at least.
+
+In the midst of the excitement Ruth received a letter in the crabbed
+hand of dear old Aunt Alvirah. The old lady enclosed a small money
+order, fearing that Ruth might not have all the money she needed for her
+home-coming. But the best item in the letter beside the expression of
+Aunt Alvirah's love, was the statement that "Your Uncle Jabe, he's come
+round to agreeing you should go to that Sunrise Farm place with your
+young friends. I made him let me hire a tramping girl that came by, and
+we got the house all rid up, so when you come home, my pretty, all you
+got to do is to visit."
+
+"And I _will_ visit with her--the unselfish old dear!" Ruth told herself.
+"Dear me! how very, very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid poor
+Uncle Jabez wouldn't be so kind if he wasn't influenced by Aunt
+Alvirah."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--"THE TRAMPING GAL"
+
+
+The old clock that had hung in the Red Mill kitchen from the time of
+Uncle Jabez Potter's grandfather--and that was early time on the Lumano,
+indeed!--hesitatingly tolled the hour of four.
+
+Daybreak was just behind the eastern hills. A light mist swathed the
+silent current of the river. Here and there, along the water's edge, a
+tall tree seemed floating in the air, its bole and roots cut off by the
+drifting mist.
+
+"Oh, it is very, very beautiful here!" sighed Ruth Fielding, kneeling at
+the open window and looking out upon the awakening world--as she had done
+many and many another early morning since first she was given this
+little gable-windowed room for her very own.
+
+The sweet, clean, cool air breathed in upon her bare throat and
+shoulders, revealed through the lace trimming of her night robe. Ruth
+loved linen like other girls, and although Uncle Jabez gave her spending
+money with a rather niggardly hand, she and Aunt Alvirah knew how to
+make the pennies "go a long way" in purchasing and making her gowns and
+undergarments.
+
+There lay over a chair, too, a pretty, light blue, silk trimmed
+crepe-cloth kimona, with warm, fur-edged slippers to match, on the
+floor. The moment she heard Uncle Jabez rattle the stove-shaker in the
+kitchen, Ruth slipped into this robe, and thrust her bare feet into the
+slippers. Her braids she drew over her shoulders--one on either side--as
+she hurried out of the little chamber and down the back stairs.
+
+She had arrived home from Briarwood the night before. For more than
+eight months she had seen neither Uncle Jabez nor Aunt Alvirah; and she
+had been so tired and sleepy on her arrival that she had quickly gone to
+bed. She felt as though she had scarcely greeted the two old people.
+
+Uncle Jabez was bending over the kitchen stove. He always looked gray of
+face, and dusty. The mill-dust seemed ground into both his clothes and
+his complexion.
+
+The first the old man knew of her presence, the arms of Ruth were around
+his neck.
+
+"Ugh-huh?" questioned the old man, raising up stiffly as the fire began
+to chatter, the flames flashing under the lids, and turned to face the
+girl who held him so lovingly. "What's wanted, Niece Ruth?" he added,
+looking at her grimly under his bristling brows.
+
+Ruth was not afraid of his grimness. She had learned long since that
+Uncle Jabez was much softer under the surface than he appeared. He
+claimed to be only just to her; but Ruth knew that his "justice" often
+leaned toward the side of mercy.
+
+Her mother, Mary Potter, had been the miller's favorite niece; when she
+had married Ruth's father, Uncle Jabez had been angry, and for years the
+family had been separated. But when Uncle Jabez had taken Ruth in "just
+out of charity," old Aunt Alvirah had assured the heartsick girl that
+the miller was kinder at heart than he wished people to suppose.
+
+"He don't never let his right hand know what his left hand doeth,"
+declared the loyal little old woman who had been so long housekeeper for
+the miller. "He saved me from the poorhouse--yes, he did!--jest to git all
+the work out o' me he could--to hear him tell it!
+
+"But it ain't so," quoth Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head. "He saw a lone
+ol' woman turned out o' what she'd thought would be her home till she
+come to death's door. An' so he opened his house and his hand to her.
+An' he's opened his house and hand to _you_, my pretty; and who knows?
+mebbe 'twill open wide his heart, too."
+
+Ruth had been hoping the old man's heart _was_ open, not only to her,
+but to the whole world. She knew that, in secret, Uncle Jabez was
+helping to pay Mercy Curtis's tuition at Briarwood. He still loved
+money; he always would love it, in all probability. But he had learned
+to "loosen up," as Tom Cameron expressed it, in a most astonishing way.
+One could not honestly call Uncle Jabez a miser nowadays.
+
+He was miserly in the outward expression of any affection, however. And
+that apparent coldness Ruth Fielding longed to break down.
+
+Now the girl, all flushed from her deep sleep, and smiling, lifted her
+rosy lips to be kissed. "I didn't scarcely say 'how-do' to you last
+night, Uncle," she said. "Do tell me you're glad to see me back."
+
+"Ha! Ye ain't minded to stay long, it seems."
+
+"I won't go to Sunrise Farm if you want me here, Uncle Jabez," declared
+Ruth, still clinging to him, and with the same smiling light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Ha! ye don't mean that," he grunted.
+
+He knew she did. His wrinkled, hard old face finally began to change.
+His eyes tried to escape her gaze.
+
+"I just _love_ you, Uncle," she breathed, softly. "Won't--won't you let
+me?"
+
+"There, there, child!" He tried for a moment to break her firm hold;
+then he stooped shamefacedly and touched her fresh lips with his own.
+
+Ruth nestled against his big, strong body, and clung a moment longer.
+His rough hand smoothed her sleek head almost timidly.
+
+"There, there!" he grumbled. "You're gittin' to be a big gal, I swow!
+And what good's so much schoolin' goin' ter do ye? Other gals like you
+air helpin' in their mothers' kitchens--or goin' to work in the mills at
+Cheslow. Seems like a wicked waste of time and money."
+
+But he did not say it so harshly as had been his wont in the old times.
+Ruth smiled up at him again.
+
+"Trust me, Uncle," she said. "The time'll come when I'll prove to you
+the worth of it. Give me the education I crave, and I'll support myself
+and pay you all back--with interest! You see if I don't."
+
+"Well, well! It's new-fashioned, I s'pose," growled the old man,
+starting for the mill. "Gals, as well as boys, is lots more expense now
+than they used ter be to raise. The 'three R's' was enough for us when I
+was young.
+
+"But I won't stop yer fun. I promised yer Aunt Alviry I wouldn't," he
+added, with his hand upon the door-latch. "You kin go to that Sunrise
+place for a while, if ye want. Yer Aunt Alviry got a trampin' gal that
+came along, ter help her clean house."
+
+"Oh! and isn't the girl here now?" asked Ruth, preparing to run back to
+dress.
+
+"Nope. She's gone on. Couldn't keep her no longer. And my! how that
+young 'un could eat! Never saw the beat of her," added Uncle Jabez as he
+clumped out in his heavy boots.
+
+Ruth heard more about "that trampin' girl" when Aunt Alvirah appeared.
+Before that happened, however, the newly returned schoolgirl proved she
+had not forgotten how to make a country breakfast.
+
+The sliced corned ham was frying nicely; the potatoes were browning
+delightfully in another pan. Fluffy biscuits were ready to take out of
+the oven, and the cream was already whipped for the berries and the
+coffee.
+
+"Gracious me! child alive!" exclaimed the little old woman, coming
+haltingly into the room. "You an' Jabez air in a conspiracy to spile
+me--right from the start. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" and she lowered
+herself carefully into a chair.
+
+"I did sartain sure oversleep this day. Ben done the chores? An' ye air
+all ready, my pretty? Jest blow the horn, then, and yer uncle will come
+in. My! what a smart leetle housekeeper you be, Ruth. School ain't
+spiled ye a mite."
+
+"Uncle is still afraid it will," laughed Ruth, kissing the old woman
+fondly.
+
+"He only _says_ that," whispered Aunt Alvirah, with twinkling eyes.
+"He's as proud of ye as he can stick--I know!"
+
+"It--it would be nice, if he said so once in a while," admitted the girl.
+
+After the hearty breakfast was disposed of and the miller and his hired
+man had tramped out again, the old housekeeper and Ruth became more
+confidential.
+
+"It sartain sure did please me," said Aunt Alvirah, "when Jabez let me
+take in that trampin' gal for a week an' more. He paid her without a
+whimper, too. But, she _did_ eat!"
+
+"So he said," chuckled Ruth.
+
+"Yes. More'n a hired hand in thrashin' time. I never seen her beat. But
+I reckon the poor little thing was plumb starved. They never feed 'em
+ha'f enough in them orphan 'sylums, I don't s'pect."
+
+"From an orphanage?" cried Ruth, with sudden interest born of her
+remembrance of the mysterious Sadie Raby.
+
+"So I believe. She'd run away, I s'pect. I hadn't the heart to blame
+her. An' she was close-mouthed as a clam," declared Aunt Alvirah.
+
+"How did you come to get her?" queried the interested Ruth.
+
+"She walked right up to the door. She'd been travelin' far--ye could see
+that by her shoes, if ye could call 'em shoes. I made her take 'em off
+by the fire, an' then I picked 'em up with the tongs--they was just
+pulp--and I pitched 'em onto the ash-heap.
+
+"Well, she stayed that night, o' course. It was rainin'. Your Uncle
+Jabez wouldn't ha' turned a dog out in sech weather. But he made me put
+her to bed on chairs here.
+
+"It was plain she was delighted to have somebody to talk to--and as that
+somebody was 'her pretty,' the dear old soul was all the more joyful.
+
+"So, one thing led to another," pursued Aunt Alvirah, "and I got him to
+let me keep her to help rid the house up. You know, you wrote me to wait
+till you come home for house-cleanin'. But I worked Jabez Potter
+_right_; I know how to manage him," said she, nodding and smiling.
+
+"And you didn't know who the girl was?" asked Ruth, still curious.
+"Nothing about her at all?"
+
+"Not much. She was short-tongued, I tell ye. But I gathered she had been
+an orphan a long time and had lived at an institution."
+
+"Not even her name?" asked Ruth, at last.
+
+"Oh, yes. She told her name--and it was her true one, I reckon," Aunt
+Alviry said. "It was Sadie Raby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--SEEKING THE TRAIL
+
+
+"I might have known that! I might have known it!" Ruth exclaimed when
+she heard this. "And if I'd only written you or Uncle Jabez about her,
+maybe you would have kept her till I came. I wanted to help that girl,"
+and Ruth all but shed tears.
+
+"Deary, deary me!" cried Aunt Alvirah. "Tell me all about it, my
+pretty."
+
+So Ruth related all she knew about the half-wild girl whose acquaintance
+she had made at Briarwood Hall under such peculiar circumstances. And
+she told just how Sadie looked and all about her.
+
+"Yes," agreed Aunt Alvirah. "That was the trampin' gal sure enough. She
+was honest, jest as you say. But your uncle had his doubts. However, she
+looked better when she went away from here."
+
+"I'm glad of that," Ruth said, heartily.
+
+"You know one o' them old dresses of yours you wore to Miss Cramp's
+school--the one Helen give you?" said old Aunt Alvirah, hesitatingly.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said Ruth. "And how badly I felt when the girls found out
+they were 'hand-me-downs.' I'll never forget them."
+
+"One of them I fitted to that poor child," said Aunt Alvirah. "The poor,
+skinny little thing. I wisht I could ha' kep' her long enough to put
+some flesh on her bones."
+
+Ruth hugged the little old woman. "You're a dear, Aunty! I bet you fixed
+her up nice before she went away."
+
+"Wal, she didn't look quite sech a tatterdemalion," granted Aunt
+Alvirah. "But I was sorry for her. I am allus sorry for any young thing
+that's strayin' about without a home or a mother. But natcherly Jabez
+wouldn't hear to keepin' her after the cleanin' was done. It's his
+_nearness_, Ruthie; he can't help it. Some men chew tobacco, and your
+Uncle Jabez is _close_. It's their nater. I'd ruther have a stingy man
+about, than a tobacco chewin' man--yes, indeed I had!"
+
+Ruth laughed and agreed with her. Yet she was very sorry that Sadie
+Raby, "the tramping girl," had been allowed to move on without those at
+the Red Mill, who had sheltered her, discovering her destination.
+
+She learned that Sadie had gone to Cheslow--at least, in that
+direction--and when Helen came spinning along in one of her father's cars
+from Outlook that afternoon, and wanted to take Ruth for a drive, the
+latter begged to ride "Cheslowward."
+
+"Besides, we both want to see Dr. Davison--and there's Mercy's mother.
+And Miss Cramp will be glad to see me, I know; we'll wait till her
+school is out," Ruth suggested.
+
+"You're boss," declared her chum. "And paying calls 'all by our
+lonesomes' will be fun enough. Tom's deserted me. He's gone tramping
+with Reno over toward the Wilkins Corner road--you know, that place where
+he was hurt that time, and you and Reno found him," Helen concluded.
+
+This was "harking back" to the very first night Ruth had arrived at
+Cheslow from her old home at Darrowtown. But she was not likely to
+forget it, for through that accident of Master Tom Cameron's, she had
+met this very dear friend beside her now in the automobile.
+
+"Oh, dear me! and the fun we used to have when we were little
+girls--'member, Ruthie?" demanded Helen, laughing. "My! isn't it warm? Is
+my face shiny?"
+
+"Just a little," admitted Ruth.
+
+"Never can keep the shine off," said Helen, bitterly. "Here! you take
+the wheel and let me find my powder-paper. Tom says he believes I smoke
+cigarettes and roll them myself," and Helen giggled.
+
+Ruth carefully changed seats with her chum, who immediately produced the
+booklet of slips from her vanity case and rubbed the offending nose
+vigorously.
+
+"Have a care, Helen! you'll make it all red," urged Ruth, laughing. "You
+_do_ go at everything so excitedly. Anybody would think you were grating
+a nutmeg."
+
+"Horrid thing! My nose doesn't look at all like a nutmeg."
+
+"But it will--if you don't look out," laughed Ruth. "Oh, dear, me! here
+comes a big wagon. Do you suppose I can get by it safely?"
+
+"If he gives you any room. There! he has begun to turn out. Now, just
+skim around him."
+
+Ruth was careful and slowed down. This did not suit the fly-away Helen.
+"Come on!" she urged. "We'll never even get to the old doctor's house if
+you don't hurry."
+
+She began to manipulate the levers herself and soon they were shooting
+along the Cheslow road at a speed that made Ruth's eyes water.
+
+They came safely to the house with the green lamps before it, and ran in
+gaily to see their friend, Dr. Davison. For the moment the good old
+gentleman chanced to be busy and waved them into the back office to wait
+until he was free.
+
+Old Mammy, who presided over the doctor's old-fashioned establishment,
+had spied the girls and almost immediately the tinkling of ice in a
+pitcher announced the approach of one of Mammy's pickaninny
+grandchildren with a supply of her famous lemonade and a plate of cakes.
+
+"Mammy said you done git hungery waitin'," declared the grinning,
+kinky-haired child who presented herself with the refreshments. "An' a
+drink on one o' dese yere dusty days is allus welcome, misses."
+
+Then she giggled, and darted away to the lower regions of the house,
+leaving the two chums to enjoy the goodies. Helen was cheerfully
+curious, and had to go looking about the big office, peeking into the
+bookcases, looking at the "specimens" in bottles along the shelf, trying
+to spell out and understand the Latin labels on the jars of drugs.
+
+"Miss Nosey!" whispered Ruth, admonishingly.
+
+"There you go! hitting my nose again," sighed Helen. And then she jumped
+back and almost screamed. For in fooling with the knob of a narrow
+closet door, it had snapped open, the door swung outward, and Helen
+found herself facing an articulated skeleton!
+
+"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Oh, no," giggled Ruth. "It's not you at all. It's somebody else."
+
+"Funny!" scoffed Helen. Then she laughed, too. "It's somebody the
+doctor's awfully choice of. Do you suppose it was his first patient?"
+
+"Hush! Suppose he heard you?"
+
+"He'd laugh," returned Helen, knowing the kindly old physician too well
+to be afraid of him in any case. "Now, behave! Don't say a word. I'm
+going to dress him up."
+
+"What?" gasped Ruth.
+
+"You'll see," said the daring Helen, and she seized an old hat of the
+doctor's from the top of the bookcase and set it jauntily upon the
+grinning skull.
+
+"My goodness! doesn't he look terrible that way? Oh! I'll shut the door.
+He wiggles all over--_just as though he were alive_!"
+
+Just then they heard the doctor bidding his caller good-bye, or Helen
+might have done some other ridiculous thing. The old gentleman came in,
+rubbing his hands, and with his eyes twinkling. He was a man who had
+never really grown old, and he liked to hear the girls tell of their
+school experiences, chuckling over their scrapes and antics with much
+delight.
+
+"And how has my Goody Two-sticks gotten along this year?" he asked, for
+he was much interested in Mercy Curtis and her improvement, both
+physically and mentally. Had it not been for the doctor, Mercy might
+never have gotten out of her wheelchair, or gone to Briarwood Hall.
+
+"She's going to beat us all," Helen declared, with enthusiasm. "Isn't
+she, Ruth?"
+
+"She will if we don't work pretty hard," admitted the girl of the Red
+Mill, who was hoping herself to be finally among the first few members
+of her class at the Hall. "But I would rather see Mercy win first place,
+I believe, than anybody else--unless it is you, Helen."
+
+"Don't you fret," laughed Helen. "You'll never see little me at the head
+of the class--and you know it."
+
+The two friends did not bore the physician by staying too long, but
+after he bade them good-bye at the door, Helen ran down the path
+giggling.
+
+"What do you suppose he'll say when he finds that hat on the skeleton?"
+she demanded, her eyes dancing.
+
+"He'll say, 'That Helen Cameron was in here--that explains it!' You can't
+fool Dr. Davison," laughed Ruth.
+
+Ruth had taken Helen into her confidence ere this about the strange
+runaway, Sadie Raby, and during their call at the doctor's, she had
+asked that gentleman if he had seen the tramping girl, after the latter
+had left the Red Mill. But he had not. Oddly enough, however, Ruth found
+some trace of Sadie at Mercy's house, where the girls in the automobile
+next went to call.
+
+Mercy's mother had taken the girl in for a night, and fed her. The
+latter had asked Mr. Curtis about the trains going west, but he had sold
+Sadie no ticket.
+
+"She was very reticent," Mrs. Curtis told Ruth. "She was so independent
+and capable-acting, in spite of her tender years, that I did not feel as
+though it was my place to try to stop her. She seemed to have some
+destination in view, but she would not tell me what it was."
+
+"I wonder if that wasn't what Aunt Alvirah meant?" queried Ruth,
+thoughtfully, as she and Helen drove away. "That Sadie is awfully
+independent. I wish you had seen her."
+
+"Maybe she's going to find her twin brothers that she told you about,"
+suggested Helen. "I wish I _had_ seen her."
+
+"And maybe you've guessed it!" cried Ruth. "But that doesn't help us
+find _her_, for she didn't say where Willie and Dickie had been taken
+when they were removed from the orphanage."
+
+"Gracious, Ruthie!" exclaimed her chum, laughing. "You're always
+worrying over somebody else's troubles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--WHAT TOM CAMERON SAW
+
+
+Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she could do anything for Sadie
+Raby if she found her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond of
+shouldering other people's burdens.
+
+It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as though it were a very
+dreadful thing for Sadie to be wandering about the country all alone,
+and without means to feed herself, or get anything like proper shelter.
+
+In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that _she_ might have been as wild
+and neglected if Uncle Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken her
+in and given her a home at the Red Mill.
+
+They stopped and saw Ruth's old school teacher and then, it being past
+mid-afternoon, Helen turned the headlights of the car toward home again.
+As the machine slid so smoothly along the road toward the Lumano and the
+Red Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed ahead. A huge dog had
+leaped out of a side road and stood, barring their way and barking.
+
+"Reno! dear old fellow!" Ruth said, as Helen shut off the power. "He
+knows us."
+
+"Tom must be near, then. That's the Wilkins Corner road," Helen
+observed.
+
+As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff tried to jump in and
+caress the girls with his tongue--poor fellow! he knew no better, though
+Helen scolded him--Ruth stood up and shouted for her friend's twin
+brother.
+
+"Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We're being eaten up by a great
+four-legged beast--get down, Reno! Oh, don't!"
+
+She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and keeping the big dog off
+with both hands. A cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno started and
+turned to look. He had had his master back for only a day, but Tom's
+word was always law to the big mastiff.
+
+"Down, sir!" sang out Tom Cameron, and then he burst into view.
+
+"Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"My goodness me!" exclaimed his sister. "Have you been in a fight?"
+
+"Down, Reno!" commanded her brother again. He came striding toward them.
+If he had not been so disheveled, anybody could have seen that, dressed
+in his sister's clothes, and she in his, one could scarcely have told
+them apart. A boy and a girl never could look more alike than Tom and
+Helen Cameron.
+
+"What has happened to you?" demanded Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom's own
+sister.
+
+"Look like I'd been monkeying with the buzz-saw--eh?" he demanded, but a
+little ruefully. "Say! I've had a time. If it hadn't been for Reno----"
+
+"Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!" exclaimed Ruth, hopping out of the
+car and for the first time noticing that there was a cake of partially
+dried blood on the dog's shoulder.
+
+"He isn't hurt much. And neither am I. Only my clothes torn----"
+
+"And your face scratched!" ejaculated Helen.
+
+"Oh--well--_that's_ nothing. That was an accident. She didn't mean to do
+it."
+
+"_Who_ didn't mean to do it? What _are_ you talking about?" screamed his
+sister, at last fully aroused. "You've been in some terrible danger, Tom
+Cameron."
+
+"No, I haven't," returned Tom, beginning to grin again. "Just been
+playing the chivalrous knight."
+
+"And got his face scratched!" tittered Ruth.
+
+"Aw--well---- Now wait! let me tell you," he began.
+
+"Now he's going to make excuses," cried Helen. "You have gotten into
+trouble, you reckless boy, and want to make light of it."
+
+"Gee! I'd like to see _you_ make light of it," exclaimed Tom, with some
+vexation. "If you can make head or tail of it---- And that girl!"
+
+"There he goes again," said Ruth. "He has got to tell us. It is about a
+girl," and she laughed, teasingly.
+
+"Say! I don't know which one of you is the worse," said Tom, ruefully.
+"Listen, will you?"
+
+"Go ahead," said Helen, solemnly.
+
+"Well, Reno and I were hiking along the Wilkins Corner road yonder. It
+was just about where your Uncle Jabe's wagon, Ruth, knocked me down into
+the gully that time--remember?"
+
+Ruth nodded.
+
+"Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a girl. Reno began to growl and I
+held him back till I located the trouble. There was a campfire down
+under that bank and the scream came from that direction.
+
+"'Go to it, old boy!' I says, and let Reno go. I had no reason to
+believe there was real trouble," Tom said, wagging his head. "But I
+followed him down the bank just the same, for although Reno wouldn't
+bite anybody unless he had to, he does look ugly--to strangers.
+
+"Well, what do you think? There were a couple of tramps at the fire, and
+Reno was holding them off from a girl. He showed his teeth all right,
+and one of them had his knife out. _He_ was an ugly looking customer."
+
+"My goodness! a girl?" gasped his sister. "What sort of a looking girl?"
+
+"She wasn't bad looking," Tom said. "Younger than us--mebbe twelve, or
+so. But she'd been sleeping out in her clothes--you could see she had.
+And her face and hands were dirty.
+
+"'What were they trying to do to you?' I asked her.
+
+"'Trying to get my money,' says she. 'I ain't got much, but you bet I
+want that little.'
+
+"'I guess you can keep it,' I said. 'But if I were you, I'd hike out of
+this.'
+
+"'I'm going to,' says she. 'I'm going just as fast as I can to the
+railroad and jump a train. These fellers have been bothering me all day.
+I'm glad you came along. Thanks.'
+
+"And with that she started to move off. But the tramps were real ugly,
+and one of them jumped for her. I tripped him up," said Tom, grinning
+again now in remembrance of the row, "and then there certainly _was_ a
+fuss."
+
+"Oh, Tom!" murmured Helen.
+
+"Well, I had Reno, didn't I? The man I tripped fell into the fire, but
+was more scared than hurt. But the other fellow--the one with the
+knife--slashed at Reno, and cut him.
+
+"Well! you never saw such a girl as that tramping girl was----"
+
+"What's _that_?" gasped Ruth. "Oh, Helen!"
+
+"It might be Sadie Raby--eh?" queried her chum.
+
+"Hel-lo!" exclaimed Master Tom, turning curious. "What do you girls know
+about her? Sadie Raby--that's what she said her name was."
+
+"My goodness me! What do you think of that?" cried his sister.
+
+"And where is she now?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Aw, wait till I tell you all about it," complained Tom. "You girls take
+the wind all out of my sails."
+
+"All right. Go ahead," begged his sister.
+
+"So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help, and when one of the
+fellows had me down, and Reno was holding the other by the wrist, she
+started to dig into the face of the rascal who held me. And once she
+scratched me by mistake," added Tom, laughing.
+
+"But between us--mostly through Reno's help--we frightened them off. They
+hobbled away through the bushes. Then I took her to the railroad, and
+waited at the tank till a train came along and stopped."
+
+"And put her aboard, Tom!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor with two dollars to let
+her ride as far as Campton. I knew those two tramps would never catch
+her there. Why! what's the matter?"
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with disgust. "Doesn't it take a boy to
+spoil everything?"
+
+"Why--what?" began Tom.
+
+"And her name was Sadie Raby?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"That's what she said."
+
+"We just wanted to see her, that's all," said his sister. "Ruth did,
+anyway. And I'd have been glad to help her."
+
+"Well, I helped her, didn't I?" demanded Tom, rather doggedly.
+
+"Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose is to become of a girl like
+her traveling around the country?"
+
+"She seemed to want to get to Campton real bad. I reckon she has folks
+there," said Tom, slowly.
+
+"She's got no folks--if her story is true," said Ruth, quietly, "save two
+little brothers."
+
+"And they're twins, like us, Tom," said Helen, eagerly. "Oh, dear! it's
+too bad Ruth and I didn't come across Sadie, instead of you."
+
+Tom began to laugh at that. "You'd have had a fine time getting her away
+from those tramps," he scoffed. "She didn't have but a little money, and
+they would have stolen that from her if it hadn't been for Reno and me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--TRAVELING TOWARD SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+Tom Cameron thought a great deal of Ruth, and for that reason alone was
+sorry he had not stayed the departure of the runaway girl, Sadie Raby,
+from the vicinity of Cheslow. Then, as he thought of it more, and heard
+the girls talk about the tramping girl's circumstances as _they_ knew
+them, Tom was even more disturbed.
+
+He and Reno had gotten into the tonneau of the car, which rolled away
+toward the Red Mill at a slower pace. He leaned his arms on the back of
+the front seat and listened to Ruth's story of her meeting with Sadie
+Raby, and her experience with Sim Perkins, and of her surprise at
+finding that Sadie had worked for a while at the Red Mill.
+
+"If we had only been a few days earlier in getting home from school,
+there she would have been," finished Ruth, with a sigh.
+
+"That's so," agreed her chum. "And she even stayed night before last
+with Mercy's mother. My! but she's as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"We could telegraph to Campton and have her stopped," suggested Tom.
+
+"By the police?" demanded his sister.
+
+"Oh! what for?" asked Ruth.
+
+"There! nothing _I_ suggest is any good," said the boy.
+
+"Not unless you suggest something better than that," laughed Ruth. "The
+poor thing doesn't need to be arrested. And she might refuse any help we
+could give her. She's very independent."
+
+"She sure is," admitted Tom, ruefully.
+
+"And we don't know _why_ she wanted to go to Campton," his sister
+remarked.
+
+"Nor if she got there safely," added Ruth.
+
+"Pshaw! if that's worrying you two, I'll find out for sure to-morrow,"
+quoth Master Tom.
+
+He knew the conductor of the freight train with whom he had entrusted
+the strange girl. The next day he went over to the tank at the right
+hour and met the conductor again.
+
+"Sure, I got her on to Campton--poor kid," said the man. "She's a smart
+one, too. When the boys wanted to know who she was, I said she was my
+niece, and she nodded and agreed to it. We had a big feed back here in
+the hack while she was aboard, and she had her share."
+
+"But where was she going?" asked Tom.
+
+"Didn't get much out of her," admitted the conductor. "But she'd lived
+in Harburg, and I reckon she had folks in or near Campton. But I'm not
+sure at all."
+
+This was rather unsatisfactory; but whatever point the strange girl was
+journeying to, she had arrived safely at Campton. This Tom told Ruth and
+the latter had to be content with this information.
+
+The incident of the runaway girl was two or three days old when Ruth
+received a letter from Madge Steele urging them all to come on soon--that
+Sunrise Farm was ready for them, and that she was writing all the girls
+to start on Monday.
+
+The train would take them to Darrowtown. There a conveyance would meet
+and transport the visitors fifteen miles through the country to Mr.
+Steele's big estate.
+
+Mercy Curtis joined the Camerons and Ruth at the Cheslow Station, and on
+the train they boarded were Heavy Stone and The Fox. The girls greeted
+each other as though they had been separated for a year.
+
+"Never was such a clatter of tongues," declared the plump girl, "since
+the workmen struck on the tower of Babel. Here we are--off for the
+sunrise--and traveling due west. How do you make that out?"
+
+"That's easy--anybody could see it with half an eye," said The Fox.
+
+"Half an eye, eh?" demanded Heavy. "And Cyclops had a whole one. Say!
+did you hear about the boy in school who was asked by his teacher (he
+must have been in Tommy's class) 'Who was Cyclops?' He was a bright boy.
+He answered: 'The man who wrote the encyclop�dia.' The association of
+ideas was something fierce--eh?"
+
+"Dear me, Jennie," admonished The Fox, "you are getting slangier every
+day."
+
+"Never mind; I'm not losing flesh over it. Don't you," returned the
+careless "heavyweight."
+
+It was a long, but not a tedious, ride to Darrowtown. The young folk had
+left Cheslow just before dark, and their sleeper was sidetracked at the
+end of the journey, some time in the very early morning. When Ruth first
+opened her eyes she could scarcely--for the moment--think where she was.
+
+Then she peered out of the narrow window above her berth and saw a
+section of the railroad yard and one side of Railroad Avenue beyond. The
+right of way split Darrowtown in two halves and there were grade
+crossings at the intersections of the principal cross streets.
+
+Long as she had been away from the place, the girl recognized the houses
+and the stores, and every other landmark she could see. No further sleep
+for her, although it was scarcely dawn.
+
+She hopped softly out of the berth, disturbed none of her companions or
+even the porter nodding in his corner, and dressed hurriedly. She made
+her toilette and then went into the vestibule and from thence climbed
+down to the cinder path.
+
+There was an opening in the picket fence, and she slipped through in a
+moment. Dear old Darrowtown! Ruth's heart throbbed exultantly and she
+smiled, although there were tears in her eyes.
+
+There was the Brick Church on the corner. The pastor and his wife had
+been so kind to her! And up this next street was the way to the quiet
+cemetery where her father and mother were buried. Ruth turned her steps
+in that direction first of all.
+
+The sun came up, red and jovial; the birds twittered and sang in the
+great maples along the way; even in the graveyard a great flock of
+blackbirds "pumped" and squeaked in noisy, joyous chorus.
+
+The dew sparkled on leaf and bush, the flowers were fragrant, the cool
+breeze fanned her cheek, and the bird chorus rose higher and higher. How
+could one be sad long on such a beautiful, God-made morning?
+
+Impossible! Ruth plucked a spray of a flowering shrub for both graves,
+and laid them on the mounds tenderly, with a little prayer. Here slept
+the dead peacefully, and God had raised her up many, many friends!
+
+The early chimneys were smoking in the suburbs of the town. A
+screen-door slammed now and then. One man whom she knew slightly, but
+who did not remember her, was currying his horse in an alley by his
+stable. Mrs. Barnsworth, notably the smartest housewife in Darrowtown,
+was starting already with her basket for market--and woe be to the grocer
+or marketman if the shops were not open when she arrived!
+
+Stray cats ran along the back fences. A dog ran out of a yard to bark at
+Ruth, but then thought better of it and came to be patted instead.
+
+And then, suddenly, she came in sight of the back garden of Miss True
+Pettis!
+
+It was with that kind-hearted but peculiar spinster lady that Ruth had
+lived previous to being sent to the Red Mill. Miss Pettis was the
+neighborhood seamstress and, as she often had told Ruth, she worked hard
+"with both tongue and needle" for every dollar she earned.
+
+For Miss True Pettis had something more than dressmaking to do when she
+went out "by the day" to cut and fit and run the sewing machine.
+Darrowtown folk expected that the seamstress should have all the latest
+gossip at her tongue's end when she came to sew!
+
+Now, Miss True Pettis often laid down the law. "There's two kinds of
+gossip. One the Bible calls the seventh abomination, an' I guess that's
+right. But for shut-in folks like most housekeepers in Darrowtown, a
+dish of harmless gossip is more inspiritin' than a bowl of boneset tea!
+
+"Lemme have somethin' new to tell folks about folks--that's all. But it
+must be somethin' kind," Miss Pettis declared. "No backbitin', or church
+scandal, or neighborhood rows. If Si Lumpkin's cat has scratched
+Amoskeag Lanfell's dog, let the cat and the dog fight it out, I say; no
+need for Si and Amoskeag, who have been friends and neighbors for years
+an' years, gettin' into a ruction over it.
+
+"I never take sides in any controversy--no, ma'am! If ye can't say a good
+word for a neighbor, don't say nothin' to _me_. That's what I tell 'em.
+But if ye know anythin' good about 'em, or they've had any streak o'
+good luck, or the like, tell me. For the folks in this town--'specially
+the wimmen folks that don't git out much--is just a-honin' for news, and
+True Pettis, when she goes out by the day, has gotter have a full and
+plenty supply of it."
+
+Ruth, smiling quietly to herself, remembered how the thin, sallow, quick
+spoken lady looked when she said all this. Miss Pettis's eyes were black
+and snapping; her nose was a beak; she bit off threads as though her
+temper was biting, too. But Ruth knew better. A kinder-hearted mortal
+never lived than the little old seamstress.
+
+Now the visitor ran across the garden--neatly bedded and with graveled
+paths in which the tiniest weed dared not show its head--and reached the
+kitchen porch. Miss Pettis was always an early riser, and the smoke of
+her chimney was now only a faint blue column rising into the clear air.
+
+Yes! there was a rattle of dishes in the kitchen. Ruth tiptoed up the
+steps. Then she--to her amazement--heard somebody groan. The sound was
+repeated, and then the seamstress's voice murmured:
+
+"Oh, dear, oh, dear! Oh, dear, oh, dear! whatever shall I do----"
+
+Ruth, who had intended opening the door softly and announcing that she
+had come to breakfast, forgot all about the little surprise she was bent
+on giving Miss Pettis. Now she peered fearfully in at the nearest
+window.
+
+Miss Pettis was just sitting down in her rocker, and she rocked to and
+fro, holding one hand with the other, continuing to groan.
+
+"Oh, dear, me!" cried Ruth, bursting in at the door. "What in the world
+is the matter, my dear?"
+
+"It's that dratted felon---- Why, Ruthie Fielding! Did you drop from the
+sky, or pop up out o' the ground? I never!"
+
+The dressmaker got up quickly, but struck her hand against the
+chair-arm. Instantly she fell back with a scream, and Ruth feared she
+had fainted. A felon is a terribly painful thing!
+
+Ruth ran for a glass of water, but before she could sprinkle any of it
+on Miss Pettis' pale face the lady's eyes opened and she exclaimed:
+
+"Don't drop any of that on my dress, child--it'll spot. I'm all right
+now. My mercy! how that hurt."
+
+"A felon, Miss Pettis? How very dreadful," cried Ruth, setting down the
+glass of water.
+
+"And I ain't been able to use my needle for a week, and the
+dishwashin'--well, it jest about kills me to put my hands in water. You
+can see--the sight this kitchen is."
+
+"Now, isn't it lucky that I came this morning--and came so early, too?"
+cried Ruth. "I was going to take breakfast with you. Now I'll get the
+breakfast myself and fix up the house---- Oh, yes, I shall! I'll send word
+down to the hotel to my friends--they'll take breakfast there--and we can
+have a nice visit, Miss True," and Ruth very carefully hugged the thin
+shoulders of the seamstress, so as not to even jar the felon on her
+right fore-finger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE SUNRISE COACH
+
+
+Ruth was determined to have her way, and really, after one has suffered
+with a felon for a week, one is in no shape to combat the determination
+of as strong a character as that of the girl of the Red Mill!
+
+At least, so Miss True Pettis found. She bowed to Ruth's mandate, and
+sat meekly in the rocking chair while that young lady bustled about,
+made the toast, poached eggs, made a pot of the kind of tea the spinster
+liked, and just as she liked it---- Oh, Ruth had not forgotten all her
+little ways, although she had been gone so long from the seamstress's
+tiny cottage here in Darrowtown.
+
+All the time, she was as cheerful as a bluebird--and just as chatty as
+one, too! She ran out and caught a neighbor's boy, and sent him
+scurrying down to the sidetracked sleeping car with a note to Helen. The
+rest of the crowd expected at Sunrise Farm would arrive on an early
+morning train on the other road, and both parties were to meet for
+breakfast at the Darrowtown Inn.
+
+The vehicle to transport them to the farm, however, was not expected
+until ten o'clock.
+
+Therefore, Ruth insisted, she had plenty of time to fix up the house for
+Miss Pettis. This she proceeded to do.
+
+"I allus _did_ say you was the handiest youngun that ever was born in
+Darrowtown," said the seamstress, with a sigh of relief, as Ruth,
+enveloped in a big apron, set to work.
+
+Ruth did more than wash dishes, and sweep, and clean, and scrub. All the
+time she told Miss Pettis about her life at the Red Mill, and her life
+at the boarding school, and of many and various things that had happened
+to her since, two years before, she had gone away from Darrowtown to
+take up her new life with Uncle Jabez.
+
+Not that she had not frequently written to Miss Pettis; but one cannot
+write the particulars that can be told when two folks are "gossiping."
+Miss True Pettis had not enjoyed herself--felon and all!--so much for ages
+as she did that forenoon.
+
+And she would have a long and interesting story to tell regarding "Mary
+Fielding's little girl" when again she took up her work of going out by
+the day and bringing both her nimble needle and her nimble tongue into
+the homes of the busy Darrowtown housewives.
+
+On the other hand, Miss Pettis told Ruth all the news of her old home;
+and although the girl from the Red Mill had no time then to call upon
+any other of her one-time friends--not even Patsy Hope--she finally went
+away feeling just as though she had met them all again. For little of
+value escaped Miss Pettis, and she had told it all.
+
+The Brick Church clock was striking ten when Ruth ran around the corner
+and came in sight of the Darrowtown Inn. There was a crowd of girls and
+boys on the porch, and before it stood a great, shiny yellow coach,
+drawn by four sleek horses.
+
+"Bobbins" himself--Madge Steele's big, white-haired brother, who attended
+the military academy with Tom Cameron, was already on the coachman's
+seat, holding the reins in most approved style. Beside him sat a man in
+livery, it was true; but Bob himself was going to drive the
+four-in-hand.
+
+"Isn't that scrumptious, Ruth?" demanded Belle Tingley, one of those who
+had arrived on the other railroad. "Where have you been all the time?
+Helen was worried for fear you wouldn't get here."
+
+"And here's Ralph!" exclaimed Ruth, heartily shaking hands with one of
+Belle's brothers. "I'm all right. I used to live here in Darrowtown, you
+know, and I was making calls. And here is Isadore!"
+
+"Oh, I say, Ruth!" exclaimed the chap in knickerbockers, who was so
+sharp and curious that he was always called "Busy Izzy" Phelps. "Where
+have you been all the time? We were going to send a searching party
+after you."
+
+"You needn't mind, sir. I can find my way around a bit yet," laughed
+Ruth.
+
+"All ready, now!" exclaimed Bob, importantly, from the high seat. "Can't
+keep these horses standing much longer."
+
+"All right, little boy," said his sister, marshaling the girls down the
+steps of the hotel. "Don't you be impatient."
+
+"It's the horses," he complained. "See that nigh leader beginning to
+dance?"
+
+"Tangoing, I suppose?--or is it the hesitation?" laughed Lluella Fairfax.
+"May anybody sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. But there's room on top of the coach for all of you, if
+you'll crowd a bit."
+
+"Me behind with the horn!" cried Tom, swinging himself up into the
+little seat over the luggage rack.
+
+"Now, girls, there are some steep places on the road," said Madge. "If
+any of you feel nervous, I advise you to come inside with me."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Heavy. "It's not my nerves that keep me from climbing
+up on that thing--don't think it. But I'll willingly join you, Madge,"
+and the springs creaked, while the girls laughed, as Heavy entered the
+coach.
+
+They were all quickly seated--the boys of course riding on the roof.
+Ruth, Helen, Lluella and Belle occupied the seat directly behind the
+driver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending the intervening week since
+school closed with Heavy, and would return to Montana after their
+sojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl who ventured to ride
+a-top the coach.
+
+"All ready?" sang out Bobbins, with a backward glance.
+
+Tom put the long silver horn to his lips and blew a blast that startled
+the Darrowtown echoes, and made the frisky nigh leader prance again. Bob
+curled the long lash of the yellow whip over the horses' ears, and at
+the crack of it all four plunged forward.
+
+There was a crowd to see the party off. Darrowtown had not become
+familiar with the Steeles' yellow coach. In fact, there were not many
+wealthy men's estates around the town as yet, and such "goings-on" as
+this coaching party of girls and boys was rather startling to the staid
+inhabitants of Darrowtown.
+
+The road through the town proper was very good, and the heavy coach
+wheels rolled over it smoothly. As soon as they reached the suburbs,
+however, the way was rough, and the horses began to climb, for
+Darrowtown was right at the foot of the hills, on the very highest of
+which Sunrise Farm lay.
+
+There were farms here and there along the way, but there was a great
+deal of rough country, too. Although it was a warm day, those on top of
+the coach were soon well shaded by the trees. The road wound through a
+thick piece of wood, where the broad-branched trees overhung the way
+and--sometimes--almost brushed the girls from their seats.
+
+"Low bridge!" called Bobbins, now and again, and they would all squeal
+and stoop while the leafy branches brushed above them.
+
+Bobbins had been practicing a good deal, so as to have the honor of
+driving his friends home from Darrowtown, and they all praised him for
+being so capable.
+
+As for Tom, he grew red in the face blowing that horn to warn the foxes
+in the hills and the rabbits in the bushes that they were coming.
+
+"You look out, Tommy!" advised Madge from below. "You'll blow yourself
+all away tooting so much, and goodness knows, we don't want any accident
+before luncheon. Mother is expecting all manner of things to happen to
+us after we get to the farm; but I promised faithfully I'd bring you all
+home to one o'clock luncheon in perfect order."
+
+"A whole lot you've got to do with it," grunted Busy Izzy, ungallantly.
+"It's Bobbins that's doing the chief work."
+
+Three hours to Sunrise Farm, yet it was only fifteen miles. The way was
+not always uphill, but the descents were as hard to get over as the
+rising ground, and the coach rolled and shook a good deal over the
+rougher places.
+
+Bye and bye they began to look down into the valleys from the steeps the
+horses climbed. At one place was a great horseshoe curve, around which
+the four steeds rattled at a smart pace, skirting a precipice, the depth
+of which made the girls shriek again.
+
+"I never did see such a road," complained Lluella.
+
+"We saw worse at Silver Ranch--didn't we, Ann?" demanded Ruth of the
+Montana girl.
+
+"Well, this is bad enough, I should hope," said Belle Tingley. "Lucky
+there is a good brake on this coach. Where'd we be----?"
+
+As it chanced, the coach had just pitched over the brow of another
+ridge. Bob had been about to point out proudly the white walls of the
+house at Sunrise Farm which surmounted the next hill.
+
+But there had been a rain within a week, and a hard one. Right here
+there was a small washout in the road, and Bob overlooked it. He did not
+swerve the trotting horses quickly enough, and the nigh fore-wheel
+dropping into this deep, deep rut.
+
+It is true Bob became a little excited. He yelled "Whoa!" and yanked
+back on the lines, for the nigh leader had jumped. The girls screamed as
+the coach came to an abrupt stop.
+
+The four horses were jerked back by the sudden stoppage; then,
+frightened, they all leaped forward together.
+
+"Whoa, there!" yelled Bob again, trying to hold them in. Something broke
+and the nigh leader swung around until he was at right angles with his
+team-mate.
+
+The leader had snapped a tug; he forced his mate over toward the far
+side of the road; and there the ground broke away, abruptly and steeply,
+for many, many yards to the bottom of the hill.
+
+There was neither fence, nor ditch, to guard passengers on the road from
+catastrophe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--"TOUCH AND GO"
+
+
+As it chanced, Mr. Steele's groom, who had been sent with the coach and
+who sat beside Bob, was on the wrong side to give any assistance at this
+crucial moment. To have jumped from the seat threatened to send him
+plunging down the undefended hillside--perhaps with the coach rolling
+after him!
+
+For some seconds it did seem as though the horses would go down in a
+tangle and drag the coach and its occupants after them.
+
+Bob was doing his best with the reins, but the frisky nigh leader was
+dancing and plunging, and forcing his mate off the firm footing of the
+road. Indeed, the latter animal was already slipping over the brink.
+
+"Get him!" yelled Bob, meaning the horse that had broken the trace and
+had stirred up all the trouble.
+
+But who was to "get him"? That was the difficulty. The groom could not
+climb over the young driver to reach the ground.
+
+There was at least one quick-witted person aboard the Sunrise coach in
+this "touch and go" emergency. Ruth was not afraid of horses. She had
+not been used to them, like Ann Hicks, all her life, but she was the
+person now in the best position to help Bob.
+
+To reach the ground on the nigh side of the coach Ann Hicks would have
+to climb over a couple of boys. Ruth was on that end of the seat and she
+swung herself off smartly, and landed firmly on the road.
+
+"Look out, Ruth!" shrieked her chum, "you'll be killed!"
+
+Ruth had no intention of getting near the heels of the horse that had
+broken its harness. She darted around to his head and seized his bridle.
+His mate was already scattering gravel down the hillside as he plunged.
+
+Ruth, paying no attention to the shrieks of the girls or the commands of
+the groom and the boys, jerked the nigh horse's head around, and so gave
+his mate a chance to obtain firm footing again. She instantly led both
+horses toward the inside of the road.
+
+Tom was off his perch by now and had dashed forward to her aid. Amid the
+gabble of the others, they seemed the only two cool persons in the
+party.
+
+"Oh! hold them tight, Tom!" cried his sister. "Don't let them run."
+
+"Pshaw! they don't want to run," growled Bobbins.
+
+The groom climbed carefully over him and leaped down into the road. Tom
+was looking at Ruth with shining eyes.
+
+"You're the girl for me, Ruthie," he whispered in a sudden burst of
+enthusiasm. "I never saw one like you. You always have your wits about
+you."
+
+Ruth smiled and blushed. A word of approbation from Tom Cameron was
+sweeter to her than the praise of any other of her young friends. She
+gave him a grateful look, and then turned back to the coach, where the
+girls were still as excited as a swarm of bees.
+
+They all wanted to get down into the road, until Madge positively
+forbade it, and Ruth swung herself up to her seat again.
+
+"You can't do any good down there, and you'd only be in the way," Madge
+said. "And the danger's over now."
+
+"Thanks to Ruthie!" added Helen, squeezing her chum.
+
+"Oh, you make too much fuss about it," said Ruth. "I just grabbed the
+bridle."
+
+"Yes," said Mercy, from inside. "I thought I'd need my aeroplanes to fly
+with, when that horse began to back over the edge of the hill. You're a
+good child, Ruthie. I always said so."
+
+The others had more or less to say about Ruth's action and she was glad
+to turn the conversation to some other subject.
+
+Meanwhile the groom had mended the harness, and now he and Tom led the
+leaders to straighten out the team, and the four horses threw themselves
+into their collars and jerked the coach-wheel out of the gutter.
+
+The trouble had delayed them but slightly, and soon Tom was cheerfully
+winding the horn, and the horses were rattling down a more gentle
+descent into the last valley.
+
+From this to the top of the hill on which the Steele home stood was a
+steady ascent and the horses could not go rapidly. Bob and Madge pointed
+out the objects of interest as they rolled along--the farmhouses that
+were to be torn down, the fences already straightened, and the dykes and
+walls on which Mr. Steele's men were at work.
+
+"When this whole hill is father's, you'll see some farm," crowed
+Bobbins.
+
+"But whose place is _that?_" demanded one of the girls, behind him,
+suddenly.
+
+The coach had swung around a turn in the road where a great, bald rock
+and a border of trees on the right hand, hid all that lay beyond on this
+gentle slope. The other girls cried out at the beauty of the scene.
+
+A gable-roofed farmhouse, dazzlingly white, with green blinds, stood end
+to the road. There were great, wide-branched oaks all about it. The sod
+was clipped close and looked like velvet. Yet the surroundings of the
+homestead were rather wild, as though Nature had scarcely been disturbed
+by the hand of man since the original clearing was made here in the
+hillside forest.
+
+There were porches, and modern buildings and "ells" added to the great
+old house, but the two huge chimneys, one at either end, pronounced the
+building to be of the architecture of the earliest settlers in this
+section of the State.
+
+There were beds of old-fashioned flowers; there was a summerhouse on the
+lawn, covered with vines; altogether it was a most beautiful and "homey"
+looking place.
+
+"Whose place is it?" repeated the questioner.
+
+"Oh, that? Caslon's," grunted Bob. "He's the chap who won't sell out to
+father. Mean old thing."
+
+"Why, it's a love of an old place!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Yes. It is the one house father was going to let stand on the hill
+beside our own. You see, we wanted to put our superintendent in it."
+
+Just then an old gentleman came out of the summer house. He was a
+portly, gray mustached, bald-headed man, in clean linen trousers and a
+white shirt with a short, starched bosom. He wore no collar or necktie,
+but looked clean and comfortable. He smiled at the young people on the
+coach jovially.
+
+Behind him stood a motherly lady some years his junior. She was buxom
+and smiling, too.
+
+Bobbins jerked his head around and snapped his whip over the leaders'
+ears. "These are the people," he said.
+
+"Who?" asked Belle Tingley.
+
+"The Caslons."
+
+"But they're real nice looking people," Helen exclaimed, in wonder.
+
+"Well, they're a thorn--or a pair of thorns--in my father's flesh. You'd
+better not boost them before him."
+
+"And they don't want to sell their old home?" queried Ruth, softly. Then
+to herself, she whispered: "And who could blame them? I wouldn't sell
+it, either, if it were mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--TOBOGGANING IN JUNE
+
+
+The four horses climbed briskly after that and brought the yellow coach
+to an old stone gateway. At the end of the Caslon farm the stone wall
+had begun, and now it stretched ahead, up over the rise, as far as
+anything was to be seen. Indeed, it seemed to melt right into the sky.
+
+Bobbins turned the leaders' noses in at the gateway. Already it was
+shown that the new owner had begun to improve the estate. The driveway
+was an example of what road-making should be--entirely different from the
+hap-hazard work done on the country roads.
+
+There were beautiful pastures on either hand, all fenced in with
+wire--"horse high, bull strong, and pig tight," as Bobbins explained,
+proudly. There were horses in one pasture and a herd of cows in another.
+Beyond, sheep dotted a rocky bit of the hillside, and the thin, sweet
+"baa-as" of the lambs came to their ears as the coach rolled on.
+
+The visitors were delighted. Every minute they saw something to exclaim
+over. A pair of beautifully spotted coach dogs raced down the drive, and
+cavorted about the coach, eagerly welcoming them.
+
+When they finally topped the hill and came out upon the tableland on
+which the house and the main buildings of Sunrise Farm stood, they
+received a welcome indeed.
+
+There was a big farm bell hung to a creaking arm in the water-tower
+beside the old colonial dwelling. The instant the leaders' ears topped
+the rise, and while yet the coach was a long way off, several youngsters
+swung themselves on the bell-rope, and the alarm reverberated across the
+hills and valleys in no uncertain tone.
+
+Beside this, a cannon that was something bigger than a toy, "spoke"
+loudly on the front lawn, and a flag was run up the pole set here in a
+prominent place before the house. Mr. and Mrs. Steele stood on the broad
+veranda, between the main pillars, to receive them, and when the coach
+drew up with a flourish, the horde of younger Steeles--Madge's and Bob's
+brothers and sisters, whom the big sister called "steel filings"--charged
+around from the bell-tower. There were four or five of the younger
+children, all seemingly about of an age, and they made as much confusion
+as an army.
+
+"Welcome to Sunrise, girls and boys," said Mr. Steele, who was a short,
+brisk, chubby man, with an abrupt manner, but with an unmistakably kind
+heart, or he would not have sanctioned the descent of this horde of
+young folk upon the place. "Welcome to Sunrise! We want you all to have
+a good time here. The place is open to you, and all Mother Steele begs
+is that you will not break your necks or get into any other serious
+trouble."
+
+Mrs. Steele was much taller than her husband; it was positive that Madge
+and Bobbins got their height from her side of the family. All the
+younger Steele seemed chubby and round like their father.
+
+Everybody seemed so jolly and kind that it was quite surprising to see
+how the faces of both Mother and Father Steele, as well as their
+children, changed at the long lunch table, half an hour later, when the
+name of Caslon, the neighboring farmer, was mentioned.
+
+"What d'ye think they have been telling me at the stables, Pa?" cried
+Bobbins, when there was a lull in the conversation so that he could be
+heard from his end of the table to his father's seat.
+
+"I can't say. What?" responded Mr. Steele.
+
+"About those Caslons. What do you suppose they're going to do now?"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the gentleman, his face darkening. "Nothing you have
+heard could surprise me."
+
+"I bet this does," chuckled Bob. "They are going to take a whole raft of
+fresh air kids to board. What do you know about that? Little ragamuffins
+from some school, or asylum, or hospital, or something. Won't they make
+a mess all over this hill?"
+
+"Ha! he's done that to spite me," exclaimed Mr. Steele. "But I'll post
+my line next to his, and if those young ones trespass, I'll see what my
+lawyer in Darrowtown can do about it."
+
+"It shows what kind of people those Caslons are," said Mrs. Steele, with
+a sigh. "Of course, they know such a crowd of children will be very
+annoying to the neighbors."
+
+"And we're the only neighbors," added Bob.
+
+"Seems to me," said Madge, slowly, "that I have heard the Caslons always
+_do_ take a bunch of fresh air children in the summer."
+
+"Oh, I fancy he is doing it this year just to spite us," said her
+father, shortly. "But I'll show him----"
+
+He became gloomy, and a cloud seemed to fall upon the whole table for
+the remainder of the meal. It was evident that nothing the neighboring
+farmer could do would be looked upon with favorable eyes by the Steeles.
+
+Ruth did not comment upon the situation, as some of the other girls did
+out of hearing of their hosts. It _did_ seem too bad that the Steeles
+should drag this trouble with a neighbor into the public eye so much.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill could not help but remember the jovial looking
+old farmer and his placid wife, and she felt sure they were not people
+who would deliberately annoy their neighbors. Yet, the Steeles had taken
+such a dislike to the Caslons it was evident they could see no good in
+the old farmer and his wife.
+
+The Steeles had come directly from the city and had brought most of
+their servants with them from their city home. They had hired very few
+local men, even on the farm. Therefore they were not at all in touch
+with their neighbors, or with any of the "natives."
+
+Mr. Steele was a city man, through and through. He had not even lived in
+the country when he was a boy. His own children knew much more about
+out-of-doors than he, or his wife.
+
+The host was a very successful business man, had made money of late
+years, and wished to spend some of his gains now in laying out the
+finest "gentleman's farm" in that quarter of the State. To be balked
+right at the start by what he called "a cowhide-booted old Rube" was a
+cross that Mr. Steele could not bear with composure.
+
+The young folks, naturally (save Ruth), were not much interested in the
+controversy between their hosts and the neighboring farmer. There was
+too much fun going on for both girls and boys to think of much beside.
+
+That afternoon they overran the house and stables, numbered the sheep,
+watched the tiny pigs and their mothers in the clover-lot, were
+delighted with the colts that ran with their mothers in the paddock,
+played with the calves, and got acquainted in general with the livestock
+of Sunrise Farm.
+
+"Only we haven't goats," said Bobbins. "I've been trying to get father
+to buy some Angoras. Old Caslon has the best stock anywhere around, and
+father says he won't try to buy of _him_. I'd like to send off for a
+good big billy-goat and turn him into Caslon's back pasture. I bet
+there'd be a fight, for Caslon's got a billy that'll chase you just as
+soon as he'd wink."
+
+"We'd better keep out of _that_ pasture, then," laughed one of the
+girls.
+
+"Oh, father's forbidden us trespassing on Caslon's land. We'd like to
+catch him on _our_ side of the line, that's all!"
+
+"Who--Mr. Caslon, or the billy?" asked Tom, chuckling.
+
+"Either one," said Bob, shaking his head threateningly.
+
+Everyone was in bed early that night, for all were tired; but the boys
+had a whispered colloquy before they went to sleep in their own big room
+at the top of the house, and Bob tied a cord to his big toe and weighted
+the other end so that it would drop out of the window and hang just
+about head-high above the grass.
+
+The first stableman up about the place ran over from the barns and gave
+Master Bob's cord a yank, according to instructions, and pretty nearly
+hauled that ingenious chap out of bed before the eastern sky was even
+streaked with light.
+
+"Gee! have we got to get up now?" demanded Busy Izzy, aroused, as were
+the other boys, by Bobbins dancing about the floor and rubbing his toe.
+"Somebody has been foolin' you--it's nowheres near morning."
+
+"Bet a dog jumped up and bit that string you hung out of the window,"
+chuckled Tom Cameron.
+
+He looked at his watch and saw that it really was after four o'clock.
+
+"Come on, then!" Tom added, rolling Ralph Tingley out of bed. "We must
+do as we said, and surprise the girls."
+
+"Sh!" commanded Bobbins. "No noise. We want to slide out easy."
+
+With much muffled giggling and wrestling, they dressed and made their
+way downstairs. The maids were just astir.
+
+The boys had something particular to do, and they went to work at it
+very promptly, under Tom Cameron's leadership. Behind one of the farther
+barns was a sharp, but smooth slope, well sodded, which descended to the
+line of the farm that adjoined Mr. Caslon's. There, at the bottom, the
+land sloped up again to the stone wall that divided the two estates.
+
+It was a fine place for a slide in winter, somebody had said; but Tom's
+quick wit suggested that it would be a good place for a slide in summer,
+too! And the boys had laid their plans for this early morning job
+accordingly.
+
+Before breakfast they had built a dozen barrel-stave toboggans--each long
+enough to hold two persons, if it was so desired.
+
+Tom and Bobbins tried them first and showed the crowd how fine a slide
+it really was down the long, grassy bank. The most timid girl in the
+crowd finally was convinced that it was safe, and for several hours, the
+shrieks of delight and laughter from that hillside proved that a sport
+out of season was all the better appreciated because it was novel.
+
+Over the broad stone wall was the pasture in which Caslon kept his flock
+of goats. Beautiful, long-haired creatures they were, but the solemn old
+leader of the flock stamped his feet at the curious girls and boys who
+looked over the wall, and shook his horns.
+
+Somewhere, along by the boundary of the two estates, Bob said there was
+a spring, and Ruth and Helen slipped off by themselves to find it. A
+wild bit of brush pasture soon hid them from the view of their friends,
+and as they went over a small ridge and down into the deeper valley, the
+laughter and shouting of those at the slide gradually died away behind
+them.
+
+The girls had to cross the stone wall to get at the spring, and they did
+not remember that in doing so they were "out of bounds." Bob had said
+nothing about the spring being on the Caslon side of the boundary.
+
+Once beside the brook, Helen must needs explore farther. There were
+lovely trees and flowering bushes, and wild strawberries in a small
+meadow that lured the two girls on. They were a long way from the stone
+fence when, of a sudden, a crashing in the bushes behind them brought
+both Ruth and Helen to their feet.
+
+"My! what's that?" demanded Helen.
+
+"Sounds like some animal."
+
+Ruth's remark was not finished.
+
+"The goat! it's the old billy!" sang out Helen, and turned to run as the
+horned head of the bewhiskered leader of the Angora herd came suddenly
+into view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--A NUMBER OF INTRODUCTIONS
+
+
+"We must run, Ruthie!" Helen declared, instantly. "Now, there's no use
+in our trying to face down that goat. Discretion is the better part of
+valor---- Oh!"
+
+The goat just then shook his horns and charged. Ruth was not much behind
+her chum. She saw before Helen, however, that they were running right
+away from the Steele premises.
+
+"We're getting deeper and deeper into trouble, Helen," she panted.
+"Don't you _see?_"
+
+"I can't see much. Oh! there's a tree we can both climb, I am sure."
+
+"But I don't want to climb a tree," objected Ruth.
+
+"All right. You stay down and play tag with Mr. Billy Goat. Me for the
+high and lofty!" and she sprang up as she spoke and clutched the low
+limb of a widely branching cedar.
+
+"I'll never leave my pal!" Ruth declared, giggling, and jumping for
+another limb.
+
+Both girls had practiced on the ladders in the school gymnasium and they
+quickly swung themselves up into the tree. The goat arrived almost on
+the instant, too. At once he leaped up with his fore-feet against the
+bole of the tree.
+
+"My goodness me!" gasped Helen. "He's going to climb it, too."
+
+"You know goats _can_ climb. They're very sure-footed," said her chum.
+
+"I know all that," admitted Helen. "But I didn't suppose they could
+climb trees."
+
+The goat gave up _that_ attempt, however, very soon. He had no idea, it
+seemed, of going away and leaving his treed victims in peace.
+
+He paced around and around the cedar, casting wicked glances at the
+girls' dangling feet, and shaking his horns in a most threatening way.
+What he would do to them if he got a chance would "be a-plenty," Helen
+declared.
+
+"Don't you suppose he'll get tired, bye and bye?" queried her chum,
+despondently.
+
+"He doesn't look as though he ever got wearied," returned Helen. "What a
+savage looking beast he is! And such whiskers!"
+
+"I wouldn't make fun of him," advised Ruth, timidly. "I believe he
+understands--and it makes him madder! Oh! see him!"
+
+Mr. Goat, impatient of the delay, suddenly charged the tree and banged
+against it with his horns in a desperate attempt to jar down the girls
+perched above.
+
+"Oh, the foolish billy!" cooed Helen. "We're not ripe enough to drop off
+so easily. But he thinks we are."
+
+"You can laugh," complained Ruth. "But I don't think this is much fun."
+
+"Not for the goat, anyway. He is getting so angry that he may have
+apoplexy. Let's shout. Maybe the boys will hear us."
+
+"Not 'way down here, I fear," returned Ruth. "We can't hear a sound from
+_them_. But let's try."
+
+They raised their voices in unison, again and again. But there came no
+reply, save that a number of Mr. Billy Goat's lady friends came trooping
+through the brush and looked up at the girls perched so high above them.
+
+"Bla-a-a-t! bla-a-a-at!" quoth the chorus of nannies.
+
+"The same to you, and many of them!" replied Helen, bowing politely.
+
+"Look out! you'll fall from the limb," advised Ruth, much worried.
+
+"And what a fall would then be there, my countrymen!" sighed Helen.
+"Say, Ruth! did you ever notice before what an expressive countenance a
+goat has? Now, Mr. Billy, here, looks just like a selectman of a country
+school board--long whiskers and all."
+
+"You stop making fun of him," declared Ruth, shaking her head. "I tell
+you it makes him mad."
+
+  "Goaty, goaty, go away,
+  Come again some other day,
+  Ruthie and Helen want to get down and play!"
+
+sang Helen Cameron, with a most ridiculous expression.
+
+"We'll never get down unless somebody comes to drive that beast away,"
+cried Ruth, in disgust.
+
+"And I bet nobody comes over to this end of the farm for days at a
+time."
+
+"That's it! keep on! make it just as bad as you can," groaned Ruth. "Do
+you know it will soon be luncheon time, Helen?"
+
+"But that won't bother Mr. Goat. He hopes to lunch off us, I guess."
+
+"But we can't stay here, Helen!" cried Ruth, in despair.
+
+"You have my permission to hop right down, my dear, and make the closer
+acquaintance of Sir Capricornus, and all the harem. Ex-cuse me! I think
+after due consideration I will retain my lofty perch---- Ugh!"
+
+"You came pretty near slipping off that time!" exclaimed Ruth. "I
+wouldn't be too funny, if I were you."
+
+"Maybe you are right," agreed her friend, in a more subdued tone. "Dear
+me! let us call again, Ruth!"
+
+So both girls again raised their voices. This time there was a response,
+but not from the direction of the stone wall they had crossed to reach
+the spring.
+
+"Hello!" called a jovial sounding voice. "Hello up there!"
+
+"Hello yourself!" shouted Helen. "Oh, do, _do_ come and drive away these
+awful goats."
+
+There was a hearty laugh at this reply, and then a man appeared. Ruth
+had guessed his identity before ever he came in view. It was the portly
+Mr. Caslon.
+
+"Well, well, my dears! how long have you been roosting up there?" he
+demanded, laughing frankly at them. "Get out, you rascal!"
+
+This he said to the big goat, who started for him with head lowered. Mr.
+Caslon leaped nimbly to one side and whacked the goat savagely across
+the back with his knobby stick. The goat kept right on down the
+hillside, evidently having had enough of _that_ play, and the nannies
+followed, bleating.
+
+"You can come down now, young ladies," said the farmer. "But I wouldn't
+come over into this pasture to play much. The goats don't like
+strangers."
+
+"We had no business to come here at all, but we forgot," explained Ruth,
+when both she and her chum had descended from the tree. "We were warned
+not to come over on this side of the line."
+
+"Oh, indeed? you're from up on the hill-top?" he asked.
+
+"We are visiting Madge Steele--yes," said Helen, looking at him
+curiously.
+
+"Ah! I saw all you young folk going by yesterday. You should have a fine
+time about here," said the farmer, smiling broadly. "And, aside from the
+temper of the goats, I don't mind you all coming over here on my land if
+you like."
+
+The girls thanked him warmly for rescuing them from their predicament,
+and then ran up the hill to put the stone wall between them and the
+goats before there was more trouble.
+
+"I like him," said Helen, referring to Mr. Caslon.
+
+"So do I," agreed Ruth. "And it's too bad that Mr. Steele and he do not
+understand each other."
+
+Although their escapade with the goats was a good joke--and a joke worth
+telling to the crowd--Ruth decided that it would be just as well to say
+nothing about it, and she told Helen so.
+
+"I expect you are right," admitted her chum. "It will only cause comment
+because we went out of bounds, and became acquainted with Mr. Caslon.
+But I'm glad the old goat introduced us," and she laughed and tossed her
+head.
+
+So they joined their friends, who had gotten tired by this time of
+tobogganing in June, and they all trooped up the hill again to the
+house. It was growing warm, and the hammocks and lounging chairs in the
+shade of the verandas attracted them until noon.
+
+After luncheon there was tennis and croquet on the lawns, and toward
+evening everybody went driving, although not in the yellow coach this
+time.
+
+The plans for the following day included a long drive by coach to a lake
+beyond Darrowtown, where they had a picnic lunch, and boated and fished
+and had a glorious time in general.
+
+Bobbins drove as before, but there were two men with the party to do the
+work and look after the horses, and Mrs. Steele herself was present to
+have an oversight of the young folk.
+
+Bob Steele was very proud of his ability to drive the four-in-hand, and
+when they swung through Darrowtown on the return trip, with the whip
+cracking and Tom tooting the horn, many people stopped to observe the
+passing of the turnout.
+
+Every other team got out of their way--even the few automobiles they
+passed. But when they got over the first ridge beyond the town and the
+four horses broke into a canter, Mrs. Steele, who sat up behind her son
+on this journey, suddenly put a hand upon his shoulder and called his
+attention to something ahead in the road.
+
+"Do have a care, my son," she said. "There has been an accident
+there--yes? Don't drive too fast----"
+
+"By jiminy!" ejaculated Ralph Tingley. "That's a breakdown, sure
+enough."
+
+"A farm wagon. There's a wheel off," cried Ann Hicks, leaning out from
+the other end of the seat the better to see.
+
+"And who are all those children in blue?" demanded Mercy Curtis, looking
+out from below. "There's such a lot of them! One, two, three, four,
+five---- Goodness me! they jump about so like fleas that I can't count
+them!"
+
+"Why, I bet I know what it is," drawled Bobbins, at last. "It's old
+Caslon and his load of fresh airs. He was going to town to meet them
+to-day, I believe. And he's broken down before he's half way home with
+them--and serves him good and right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--"THE TERRIBLE TWINS"
+
+
+Ruth heard Bob's last expression, despite the rattling of the harness
+and the chattering of the girls on, and in, the coach, and she was
+sorry. Yet, could he be blamed so much, when similar feelings were
+expressed daily by his own father regarding the Caslons?
+
+Mrs. Steele was shocked as well. "My dear son!" she exclaimed, in a low
+voice, leaning over his shoulder. "Be careful of your tongue. Don't say
+things for which you might be sorry--indeed, for which I am sure you
+_are_ sorry when you stop to think."
+
+"Huh! Isn't that old Caslon as mean as he can be?" demanded Bobbins.
+
+"I am sure," the good lady sighed, "that I wish he would agree to sell
+his place to your father, and so have an end of all this talk and
+worriment. But I am not at all sure that he hasn't a right to do as he
+pleases with his own property."
+
+"Well--now--Mother----"
+
+But she stopped him with: "At any rate, you must halt and offer him
+help. And those children--I hope none of them has been hurt."
+
+"Pooh! you couldn't hurt kids like those," declared Bob.
+
+But he brought the horses down to a walk and the yellow coach approached
+the scene of the accident at a temperate pace.
+
+The big farm-wagon, the body of which had been filled with straw for the
+youngsters to ride in, had been pulled to the side of the road out of
+the way of passing vehicles. It was clear that the smashed wheel was
+past repair by any amateur means, for several spokes were broken, and
+the hub was split.
+
+The youngsters whom Mr. Caslon had taken aboard at the railway station
+in Darrowtown were dancing about and yelling like wild Indians. As the
+coach came nearer, the excited party upon it could more carefully count
+the blue-clad figures, and it was proved that there were twelve.
+
+Six girls were in blue gingham frocks, all alike, and all made "skimpy"
+and awkward looking. The six boys were in new blue overalls and cotton
+shirts. The overalls seemed all of one size, although the boys were not.
+They must have been purchased at the store of one size, and whether a
+boy was six, or twelve, he wore the same number.
+
+Each of the children, too, carried a more or less neatly made up parcel,
+the outer covering of which was a blue and white bandanna, and the
+contents of which was the change of clothing the institution allowed
+them.
+
+"What a terrible noise they make!" sighed Mrs. Steele. "And they are
+perfect little terrors, I suppose. But they _are_ clean."
+
+They had not been out of the sight of the institution nurse long enough
+to be otherwise, for she had come as far as Darrowtown with them. But
+they _were_ noisy, sure enough, for each one was trying to tell his or
+her mates how he or she felt when the wheel crashed and the wagon went
+over.
+
+"I reckon I oughtn't to have risked that wheel, after all," said Mr.
+Caslon, doffing his hat to Mrs. Steele, but smiling broadly as he looked
+up from his examination of the wheel.
+
+"Whoa, Charlie! Don't get too near them heels, youngsters. Charlie an'
+Ned are both old duffers like me; but you can't fool around a horse's
+legs without making him nervous.
+
+"And don't pull them reins. I don't want 'em to start right now.... Yes,
+ma'am. I'll haf ter lead the horses home, and that I don't mind. But
+these young ones---- Now, let that whip lay right where it is, young man!
+That's right.
+
+"You see, ma'am," he proceeded, quite calmly despite all that was going
+on about him, and addressing himself to Mrs. Steele, "it's too long a
+walk for the little ones, and I couldn't tote 'em all on the backs of
+the horses----
+
+"Now, you two curly heads there--what do you call 'em?"
+
+"The Terrible Twins!" quoth two or three of the other orphans, in
+chorus.
+
+"I believe ye! I believe ye! They jest bile over, _they_ do. Now, you
+two boys," he added, addressing two youngsters, very much alike, about
+of a height, and both with short, light curly hair, "never mind tryin'
+to unharness Charlie and Ned. _I'll_ do that.
+
+"Ye see, ma'am, if you could take some of the little ones aboard----" he
+suggested to Mrs. Steele.
+
+The coach was well filled, yet it was not crowded. The girls began to
+call to the little folks to get aboard even before Mrs. Steele could
+speak.
+
+"There's lots of room up here," cried Ruth, leaning from her end of the
+seat and offering her hand. The twins ran at once to climb up and fought
+for "first lift" by Ruth.
+
+"Oh, yes! they can get aboard," said Mrs. Steele. "All there is room
+for."
+
+And the twelve "fresh airs" proved very quickly that there was room for
+them all. Ruth had the "terrible twins" on the seat with her in half a
+minute, and the others swarmed into, or on top of, the coach almost as
+quickly.
+
+"There now! that's a big lift, I do declare," said the farmer, hanging
+the chains of the horses' traces upon the hames, and preparing to lead
+the pair along the road.
+
+"My wife will be some surprised, I bet," and he laughed jovially. "I'm
+certain sure obleeged to ye, Mis' Steele. Neighbors ought to be
+neighborly, an' you air doin' me a good turn this time--yes, ma'am!"
+
+"Now, you see," growled Bob, as the four coach horses trotted on, "he'll
+take advantage of this. We've noticed him once, and he'll always be
+fresh."
+
+"Hush, my son!" whispered Mrs. Steele. "Little pitchers have big ears."
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed one of the wriggling twins, looking up at the lady
+sideways like a bird. "I know what _that_ means. _We're_ little
+pitchers--Dickie an' me. We've heard that before--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," announced his brother, nodding wisely.
+
+These two were certainly wise little scamps! Willie did most of the
+talking, but whatever he said his brother agreed to. Dickie being so
+chary with speech, possibly his brother felt that he must exercise his
+own tongue the more, for he chattered away like a veritable magpie,
+turning now and then to demand:
+
+"Ain't that so, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," vouchsafed the echo, and, thus championed, Willie would rattle on
+again.
+
+Yes. They was all from the same asylum. There were lots more of boys and
+girls in that same place. But only twelve could get to go to this place
+where they were going. They knew boys that went to Mr. Caslon's last
+year.
+
+"Don't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+No. They didn't have a mama or papa. Never had had any. But they had a
+sister. She was a big girl and had gone away from the asylum. Some time,
+when they were big enough, they were going to run away from the asylum
+and find her.
+
+"Ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+Whether the other ten "fresh airs" were as funny and cute as the
+"terrible twins," or not, Ruth Fielding did not know, but both she and
+Mrs. Steele were vastly amused by them, and continued to be so all the
+way to the old homestead under the hill where the children had come to
+spend a part of the summer with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--"WHY! OF COURSE!"
+
+
+"I hope you told that Caslon woman, Mother, to keep those brats from
+boiling over upon our premises," said Mr. Steele, cheerfully, at dinner
+that evening, when the story of the day's adventures was pretty well
+told.
+
+"Really, John, I had no time. _Such_ a crowd of eels---- Well! whatever
+she may deserve," said Mrs. Steele, shaking her head, "I am sure she
+does not deserve the trouble those fresh air children will bring her.
+And she--she seems like such a nice old lady."
+
+"Who's a nice old lady?" demanded her husband, from the other end of the
+long table, rather sharply.
+
+"Farmer Caslon's wife."
+
+"Humph! I don't know what she is; I know what _he_ is, however. No doubt
+of that. He's the most unreasonable----"
+
+"Well, they'll have their hands full with all those young ones," laughed
+Madge Steele, breaking in upon her father, perhaps because she did not
+wish him to reveal any further to her guests his ideas upon this topic.
+
+"What under the sun can they do it for?" demanded Lluella Fairfax.
+
+"Just think of troubling one's self with a parcel of ill-bred children
+like those orphanage kids," added Belle Tingley.
+
+"Oh, they do it just to bother the neighbors, of course," growled
+Bobbins, who naturally believed all his father said, or thought, to be
+just right.
+
+"They take a world of trouble on themselves, then, to spite their
+neighbors," laughed Mercy Curtis, in her sharp way. "That's cutting
+one's nose off to spite one's face, sure enough!"
+
+"Goodness only knows _why_ they do it," began Madge, when Ruth, who
+could keep in no longer, now the topic had become generally discussed
+among the young people, exclaimed:
+
+"Both the farmer and his wife look to be very kindly and jolly sort of
+people. I am sure they have no idea of troubling other folk with the
+children they take to board. They must be, I think, very charitable, as
+well as very fond of children."
+
+"Trust Ruth for seeing the best side of it," laughed Heavy.
+
+"And the right side, too, I bet," murmured Tom Cameron.
+
+"We'll hope so," said Mr. Steele, rather grimly. "But if Caslon lets
+them trespass on my land, he'll hear about it, sharp and plenty!"
+
+Now, it so happened, that not twenty-four hours had passed before the
+presence of the "fresh air kids" was felt upon the sacred premises of
+Sunrise Farm. It was very hot that next day, and the girls remained in
+the shade, or played a desultory game of tennis, or two, or knocked the
+croquet balls around a bit, refusing to go tramping through the woods
+with the boys to a pond where it was said the fish would bite.
+
+"So do the mosquitoes--I know them," said Mercy Curtis, when the boys
+started. "Be honest about it, now; I bet you get ten mosquito bites to
+every fish-bite. Tell us when you get back."
+
+Late in the afternoon the rural mail carrier was due and Ruth, Helen,
+Madge and Heavy started for the gate on the main road where the Steeles
+had their letter box.
+
+A little woolly dog ran after Madge--her mother's pet. "Come on,
+Toodles!" she said, and then all four girls started to race with Toodles
+down to the gate.
+
+Suddenly Toodles spied something more entertaining to bark at and caper
+about than the girls' skirts. A cat was slipping through the bushes
+beside the wall, evidently on the trail of some unconscious bird.
+Toodles, uttering a glad "yap, yap, yap!" started for the cat.
+
+Two tousled, curly heads appeared at the gateway. Below the uncapped
+heads were two thin bodies just of a size, clothed in shirts and
+overalls of blue.
+
+"Hello, kiddies!" said Heavy. "How did you get here?"
+
+"On our feet--didn't we, Dickie?" responded Master Willie.
+
+"Yep," said Dickie.
+
+"Oh, dear me! Toodles will hurt that cat!" cried Madge. "One of you boys
+run and save her--save kitty!" she begged.
+
+But as the youngsters started off as per direction, the cat turned
+savagely upon Toodles. She snarled like a wildcat, leaped for his
+fur-covered back, and laid in with her claws in a way that made the pup
+yell with fright and pain.
+
+"Oh, never mind the cat! Help Toodles! Help Toodles!" wailed Madge,
+seeing her pet in such dire trouble.
+
+The youngsters stopped with disgust, as Toodles went kiting up the hill,
+yelping.
+
+"Pshaw!" exclaimed Willie. "Toodles don't need helpin'. Did'ye ever see
+such a dog? What he needs is a nurse--don't he, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," declared the oracular Dickie, with emphasis.
+
+Heavy dropped down on the grass and rolled. As the cat had quickly
+returned from the chase, Madge and Helen joined her. It was too funny.
+The "terrible twins" were just slipping out of the gate, when Ruth
+called to them.
+
+"Don't go yet, boys. Are you having a good time?"
+
+"We ain't allowed in here," said Willie.
+
+"Who told you so?"
+
+"The short, fat man with the squinty eyes and the cane," declared
+Willie, in a matter of fact way.
+
+"Short--fat--squinty---- My goodness! I wonder if he can mean my father?"
+exclaimed Madge, inclined to be offended.
+
+"But you can stand there and talk with us," said Ruth, strolling toward
+the boys. "So you are having a nice time at Mr. Caslon's?"
+
+"Bully--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed the echo.
+
+"And you won't be glad to go back to the orphanage when you have to
+leave here?"
+
+"Say, who ever was glad to go to a 'sylum?" demanded Willie, with scorn.
+
+"And you can't remember any other home, either of you?" asked Ruth, with
+pity.
+
+"Huh! we 'member just the same things. Our ages is just alike, they be,"
+said Willie, with scorn.
+
+"They have you there, Ruth," chuckled Heavy.
+
+Ruth Fielding was really interested in the two youngsters. "And you are
+all alone in the world?" she pursued.
+
+"Nope. We gotter sister."
+
+"Oh! so you said."
+
+"And it's so, too. She used ter be at the 'sylum," explained Willie.
+"But they sent her off to live with somebody. And we was tried out by a
+lady and a gentleman, too; but we was too much work for the lady. We
+made too much extry washin'," said Willie, solemnly.
+
+"My goodness me!" exclaimed Ruth, suddenly. "What are your names?"
+
+"I'm Willie; he's Dickie."
+
+"But Willie and Dickie _what_?" demanded the startled Ruth.
+
+"No, ma'am. It ain't that. It's Raby," declared the youngster, coolly.
+"And our sister, _she's_ Sadie Raby. She's awful smart and some day, she
+told us, she's goin' to come an' steal us from the 'sylum, and then
+we'll all live together and keep house."
+
+"Will you hear this, Helen?" demanded Ruth, eagerly, to her chum who had
+run to her.
+
+"Why, of course! we might have known as much, if we had been smart.
+These are the twins Sadie told you about. And we never guessed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--THE TEMPEST
+
+
+Ruth was much interested in the fresh air children, and so was Helen.
+They found time to walk down to the Caslon farm and become acquainted
+with the entire twelve. Naturally, the "terrible twins" held their
+attention more than the others, for it _did_ seem so strange that the
+little brothers of Sadie Raby should come across Ruth's path in just
+this way.
+
+Of course, in getting so well acquainted with the children, Ruth and her
+chum were bound to know the farmer and his wife better. They were very
+plain, "homey" sort of people, just as Ruth had guessed, and it appeared
+that they were not blessed with an over-abundance of ready money. Few
+farmers in Mr. Caslon's circumstances are.
+
+What means they had, they joyfully divided with the youngsters they had
+taken to board. The Caslons had no living children; indeed, the two they
+had had, years ago, died while they were yet babies. This Mrs. Caslon
+confided to Ruth.
+
+"It left an empty place in our hearts," she said, softly, "that nothing
+but other little children can fill. John has missed them fully as much
+as I have. Yes; he lets these little harum-scarums pull him around, and
+climb all over him, and interfere with his work, and take up his time a
+good deal. Yes, I know the place looks a sight, inside the house and
+out, when they go away.
+
+"But for a few weeks every year we have a host of young things about us,
+and it keeps our hearts young. The bother of 'em, and the trouble of
+'em, is nothing to the good they do us both. Ah, yes!
+
+"Yes, I've often thought of keeping one or two of them for good. There's
+a-many pretty ones, or cunning ones, we'd like to have had. But
+then--think of the disappointment of the rest of the darlings!
+
+"And it would have narrowed down our sympathy--mine and John's,"
+proceeded Mrs. Caslon, shaking her head gently. "We'd have centered all
+our love and longin' into them we took for keeps, just as we centered
+all our interest in the two little ones God lent us for a little while,
+long ago.
+
+"Havin' a number of 'em each year, and almost always different ones, has
+been better, I guess--better for all hands. It keeps John and me
+interested more, and we try to make them so happy here that each poor,
+unfortunate orphan will go away and remember his or her summer here for
+the rest of their lives.
+
+"And they _do_ have so little to be happy over, these orphans--and it
+takes so very little to make them happy.
+
+"If I had money--much money," continued the farmer's wife, clasping her
+hands, fervently, "I'd move many orphan asylums, and such like, out of
+the close, hot cities, where the little ones are cramped for room and
+air, and put each of them on a farm--a great, big farm. City's no place
+for children to grow up--'specially those that have no fathers and
+mothers.
+
+"You can't tell me but that these young ones miss their parents less
+here on this farm than they do back in the brick building they live in
+most of the year," concluded the good woman, earnestly.
+
+Ruth quite fell in love with the old lady--who did not appear so very
+old, after all. Perhaps she had kept her heart young in serving these
+"fresh air" orphans, year after year. And Mr. Caslon seemed a very
+happy, jolly sort of man, too.
+
+The two girls stole away quite frequently to watch the youngsters play,
+or to teach them new means of entertaining themselves, or to talk with
+the farmer's wife. But they did not wish the other girls, and the
+Steeles, to know where they went on these occasions.
+
+Their host, who was the nicest kind of a man in every other way, seemed
+determined to look upon Caslon as his enemy; and Mr. Steele was ready to
+do anything he could to oust the old couple from their home.
+
+"Pshaw! a man like Caslon can make a good living anywhere," Mr. Steele
+declared. "His crops just _grow_ for him. He's an A-1 farmer--I'd like to
+find as good a one before next year, to superintend my whole place. He's
+just holding out for a big price for his farm, that's all he's doing.
+These hayseeds are money-mad, anyway. I haven't offered him enough for
+his old farm, that's all."
+
+Ruth doubted if this were true. The Caslon place was one of the oldest
+homesteads in that part of the State, and the house had been built by a
+Caslon. Mr. Steele could not appreciate the fact that there was a
+sentiment attached to the farmer's occupancy of his old home.
+
+The Caslons had taken root here on this side-hill. The farmer and his
+wife were the last of the name; they had nobody to will it to. But they
+loved every acre of the farm, and the city man's money did not look good
+enough to them.
+
+Ruth Fielding hungered to straighten out the tangle. She wished she
+might make Mr. Steele understand the old farmer's attitude. Was there
+not, too, some way of settling the controversy in a way satisfactory to
+both parties?
+
+Meanwhile the merry party of young folk at Sunrise Farm was busy every
+waking hour. There were picnics, and fishing parties, and games, and
+walks, and of course riding galore, for Mr. Steele had plenty of horses.
+
+Ruth and Helen privately worked up some interest among the girls and
+boys visiting the farm, in a celebration on the Fourth for the fresh air
+children. Ruth had learned that the farmer had purchased some cheap
+fireworks and the like for the entertainment of the orphans; but Ruth
+and her chum wanted to add to his modest preparations.
+
+Ten dollars was raised, and Tom Cameron took charge of the fund. He was
+to ride into town the afternoon before the Fourth to make the purchases,
+but just about as he was to start, a thunderstorm came up.
+
+Mr. Steele, who was a nervous man, forbade any riding or driving with
+that threatening cloud advancing over the hills. The lightning played
+sharply along the edges of the cloud and the thunder rolled ominously.
+
+"You youngsters don't know what a tempest is like here in the hills,"
+said Mr. Steele. "Into the house--all of you. Take that horse and cart
+back to the stables, Jackson. If Tom wants to go to town, he'll have to
+wait until the shower is over--or go to-morrow."
+
+"All right, sir," agreed young Cameron, cheerfully. "Just as you say."
+
+"Are all those girls inside?" sharply demanded Mr. Steele. "I thought I
+saw the flutter of a petticoat in the shrubbery yonder."
+
+"I'll see," said Tom, running indoors.
+
+Nervous Mr. Steele thought he saw somebody there behind the bushes,
+before he heard from Tom. It had already begun to rain in big drops, and
+suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a report seemingly right
+overhead.
+
+The host turned up his coat collar, thrust his cap over his ears, and
+ran out across the lawn toward the path behind the shrubbery. It led to
+a summer house on the side lawn, but this was a frail shelter from such
+a tempest as this that was breaking over the hill.
+
+Mr. Steele saw the flutter of a skirt ahead, and dashed along the path,
+the rain pelting him as he ran.
+
+"Come back here! Come to the house, you foolish girl!" he cried, and
+popped into the summer house just as the clouds seemed to open above and
+the rain descend in a flood.
+
+It was so dark, and Mr. Steele was so blinded for a moment, that he
+could scarcely see the figure of whom he was in search. Then he beheld a
+girl crouching in a corner, with her hands over her ears to shut out the
+roar of the thunder and her eyes tightly closed to shut out the
+lightning.
+
+"For mercy's sake! get up and come into the house. This place will be
+all a-flood in a minute," he gasped.
+
+Suddenly, as he dragged the girl to her feet by one shoulder, he saw
+that she was not one of the house party at all. She was a frail,
+shrinking girl, in very dirty clothing, and her face and hands were
+scratched and dirty, too. A regular ragamuffin she appeared.
+
+"Why--why, where did _you_ come from?" demanded Mr. Steele.
+
+The girl only stuttered and stammered, looking at him fearfully.
+
+"Come on! never mind who you are," he sputtered. "This is no place for
+you in this tempest. Come into the house!"
+
+He set out on a run again for the front veranda, dragging her after him.
+The girl did not cry, although she was certainly badly frightened by the
+storm.
+
+They reached the door of the big house, saturated. Here Mr. Steele
+turned to her again.
+
+"Who are you? What are you doing around here, anyway?" he demanded.
+
+"Ain't--ain't this the place where they got a bunch of fresh air kids?"
+asked the girl.
+
+"What?" gasped Mr. Steele. "I should say not! Are you one of those young
+ones Caslon has taken to board to the annoyance of the whole
+neighborhood? Ha! what were you doing trespassing on my land?"
+
+"I ain't neither!" returned the girl, pulling away her hand. "You lemme
+be."
+
+"I forbade any of you to come up here----"
+
+"I ain't neither," reiterated the girl. "An' I don't know what you mean.
+I jest got there. And I'm lookin' for the place where the fresh air kids
+stay."
+
+In the midst of this the door was drawn open and Mrs. Steele and some of
+the girls appeared.
+
+"Do come in, Father," she cried. "Why! you're soaking wet. And that
+child! bring her in, whoever she is. Oh!"
+
+Another flash of lightning made them all cower--all but Ruth Fielding,
+who had crept forward to look over Mrs. Steele's shoulder. Now she
+dashed out and seized the bedrabbled looking stranger by the hand.
+
+"Why, Sadie Raby! who'd ever expect to see you here? Come in! do let her
+come in out of the storm, Mrs. Steele. I know who she is," begged Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--THE RUNAWAY
+
+
+Madge said, in something like perplexity: "You _do_ pick up the
+strangest acquaintances, Ruth Fielding. She really does, Ma. But that
+has always been Ruth's way."
+
+Mrs. Steele was first disturbed over her husband's condition. "Go right
+away and change into dry garments--do, Father," she urged. "You will get
+your death of cold standing there. And shut the door. Oh! that
+lightning!"
+
+They had to wait for the thunder to roll away before they could hear her
+again, although Mr. Steele hurried upstairs without another glance at
+the bedrabbled child he had brought in out of the storm.
+
+"This--this girl must go somewhere and dry herself," hesitated Mrs.
+Steele, when next she spoke. "My! isn't she a sight? Call one of the
+maids, someone----"
+
+"Oh, dear Mrs. Steele!" exclaimed Ruth, eagerly, "let me take Sadie
+upstairs and look after her. I am sure I have something she can put on."
+
+"So have I, if you haven't," interposed Helen. "And my clothes will come
+nearer fitting her than Ruth's. Ruth is getting almost as fat as Heavy!"
+
+"There is no need of either of you sacrificing your clothes," said Mrs.
+Steele, slowly. "Of course, I have plenty of outgrown garments of my own
+daughters' put away. Yes. You take care of her if you wish, Ruth, and I
+will hunt out the things."
+
+Here the strange girl interposed. She had been darting quick, shrewd
+glances about the hall at the girls and boys there gathered, and now she
+said:
+
+"Ye don't hafter do nothing for me. A little rainwater won't hurt me--I
+ain't neither sugar nor salt. All I wants to know is where them fresh
+air kids is stayin'. I ain't afraid of the rain--it's the thunder and
+lightning that scares me."
+
+"Goodness knows," laughed Madge, "I guess the water wouldn't hurt you.
+But we'll fix you up a little better, I guess."
+
+"Let Ruth do it," said Mrs. Steele, sharply. "She says she knows the
+girl."
+
+"She's a friend of mine," said the girl of the Red Mill, frankly. "You
+surely remember me, Sadie Raby?"
+
+"Oh, I remember ye, Miss," returned the runaway. "You was kind to me,
+too."
+
+"Come on, then," said Ruth, briskly. "I'm only going to be kind to you
+again--and so is Mrs. Steele going to be kind. Come on!"
+
+An hour later an entirely different looking girl appeared with Ruth in
+the big room at the top of the house which the visiting girls occupied.
+Some of them had come upstairs, for the tempest was over now, and were
+making ready for dinner by slow stages, it still being some time off,
+and there was nothing else to do.
+
+"This is Sadie Raby, girls," explained Ruth, quietly. "She is the sister
+of those cute little twins that are staying at the Caslons' place. She
+has had a hard time getting here, and because she hasn't seen Willie and
+Dickie for eight months, or more, she is very anxious to see them. They
+are all she has in the world."
+
+"And I reckon they're a handful," laughed Heavy. "Come on! tell us all
+about it, Sadie."
+
+It was because of the "terrible twins" that Ruth had gotten Sadie to
+talk at all. The girl, since leaving "them Perkinses," near Briarwood,
+had had a most distressful time in many ways, and she was reticent about
+her adventures.
+
+But she warmed toward Ruth and the others when she found that they
+really were sincerely interested in her trials, and were, likewise,
+interested in the twins.
+
+"Them kids must ha' growed lots since I seen 'em," she said, wistfully.
+"I wrote a letter to a girl that works right near the orphanage. She
+wrote back that the twins was coming out here for a while. So I throwed
+up my job at Campton and hiked over here."
+
+"Dear me! all that way?" cried Helen, pityingly.
+
+"I walked farther than that after I left them Perkinses," declared
+Sadie, promptly. "I walked clean from Lumberton to Cheslow--followed the
+railroad most of the way. Then I struck off through the fields and went
+to a mill on the river, and worked there for a week, for an old lady.
+She was nice----"
+
+"I guess she is!" cried Ruth, quickly. "Didn't you know that was _my_
+home you went to? And you worked for Aunt Alvirah and Uncle Jabez."
+
+No, Sadie had not known that. The little old woman had spoken of there
+being a girl at the Red Mill sometimes, but Sadie had not suspected the
+identity of that girl.
+
+"And then, when you were still near Cheslow, my brother Tom, and his
+dog, rescued you from the tramps," cried Helen.
+
+"Was that your brother, Miss?" responded Sadie. "Well! he's a nice
+feller. He got me a ride clear to Campton. I've been workin' there and
+earnin' my board and keep. But I couldn't save much, and it's all gone
+now."
+
+"But what do you really expect to do here?" asked Madge Steele,
+curiously.
+
+"I gotter see them kids," declared Sadie, doggedly. "Seems to me,
+sometimes, as though something would bust right inside of me here," and
+she clutched her dress at its bosom, "if I don't see Willie and Dickie.
+I thought this big house was likely where the fresh airs was."
+
+"I should say not!" murmured Madge.
+
+"They're all right--don't you be afraid," said Ruth, softly.
+
+"I thought mebbe the folks that was keepin' the kids would let me work
+for them," said Sadie, presently. "For kids is a lot of trouble, and I'm
+used to 'em. The matron at the home said I had a way with young'uns."
+
+She told them a good deal more about her adventures within the next half
+hour, but Madge had left the room just after making her last speech.
+While the girls were still listening to the runaway, a maid rapped at
+the door.
+
+"Mr. Steele will see this--this strange girl in the library," announced
+the servant.
+
+Sadie looked a little scared for a moment, and glanced wildly around the
+big room for some way of escape.
+
+"Gee! I ain't got to talk with that man, have I?" she whispered.
+
+"He won't bite you," laughed Heavy.
+
+"He's just as kind as kind can be," declared Helen.
+
+"I'll go down with you," said Ruth, decisively. "You have plenty of
+friends now, Sadie. You mustn't be expecting to run away all the time."
+
+Sadie Raby went with Ruth doubtfully. The latter was somewhat disturbed
+herself when she saw Mr. Steele's serious visage.
+
+"You'll excuse me, Mr. Steele?" suggested Ruth, timidly. "But she is all
+alone--and I thought it would encourage her to have me here----"
+
+"That is like your kind heart, Ruth," said the gentleman, nodding. "I
+don't mind. Madge has told me her story. It seems that the child is
+rather wild--er--flighty, as it were. I suppose she wants to run away from
+us, too?"
+
+"I ain't figurin' to stay here," said Sadie, doggedly. "I'm obleeged to
+you, but this ain't the house I was aimin' for."
+
+"Humph! no. But I am not sure at all that you would be in good hands
+down there at Caslon's."
+
+Ruth was sorry to hear him say this. But Sadie broke in with: "I don't
+keer how they treat me as long as I'm with my brothers. And _they_ are
+down there, this Ruth girl says."
+
+"Yes. I quite understand that. But we all have our duty to perform in
+this world," said Mr. Steele, gravely. "I wonder that you have fallen in
+with nobody before who has seen the enormity of letting you run wild
+throughout the country. It is preposterous--wrong--impossible! I never
+heard of the like before--a child of your age tramping in the open."
+
+"I didn't do no harm," began Sadie, half fearful of him again.
+
+"Of course it is not your fault," said Mr. Steele, quickly. "But you
+were put in the hands of people who are responsible to the institution
+you came from for their treatment of you----"
+
+"Them Perkinses?" exclaimed Sadie, fearfully. "I won't never go back to
+them--not while I'm alive I won't! I don't care! I jest won't!"
+
+She spoke wildly. She turned to run from the room and would have done
+so, had not Ruth been there to stop her and hold her in her arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--THE BLACK DOUGLASS
+
+
+"Oh, don't frighten her, Mr. Steele!" begged Ruth, still holding the
+half wild girl. "You would not send her back to those awful people?"
+
+"Tut, tut! I am no ogre, I hope," exclaimed the gentleman, rather put
+out of countenance at this outburst. "I only mean the child well.
+Doesn't she understand?"
+
+"I won't go back to them Perkinses, I tell you!" cried Sadie, with a
+stamp of her foot.
+
+"It is not my intention to send you back. I mean to look up your record
+and the record of the people you were placed with--Perkins, is it? The
+authorities of the institution that had the care of you, should be made
+to be more careful in their selection of homes for their charges.
+
+"No. I will keep you here till I have had the matter sifted. If
+those--those Perkinses, as you call them, are unfit to care for you, you
+shall certainly not go back to them, my girl."
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. "But I don't want to stay here, Mister,"
+she blurted out.
+
+"My girl, you are not of an age when you should be allowed to choose for
+yourself. Others, older and wiser, must choose for you. I would not feel
+that I was doing right in allowing you to run wild again----"
+
+"I gotter see the twins--I jest _gotter_ see 'em," said Sadie, faintly.
+
+"And whether that Caslon is fit to have charge of you," bitterly added
+Mr. Steele, "I have my doubts."
+
+"Oh, surely, you will let her see her little brothers?" cried Ruth,
+pleadingly.
+
+"We will arrange about that--ahem!" said Mr. Steele. "But I will
+communicate at once--by long distance telephone--with the matron of the
+institution from which she came, and they can send a representative here
+to talk with me----"
+
+"And take me back there?" exclaimed Sadie. "No, I sha'n't! I sha'n't go!
+So there!"
+
+"Hoity-toity, Miss! Let's have no more of it, if you please," said the
+gentleman, sternly. "You will stay here for the present. Don't you try
+to run away from me, for if you do, I'll soon have you brought back. We
+intend to treat you kindly here, but you must not abuse our kindness."
+
+It was perhaps somewhat puzzling to Sadie Raby--this attitude of the very
+severe gentleman. She had not been used to much kindness in her life,
+and the sort that is forced on one is not generally appreciated by the
+wisest of us. Therefore it is not strange if Sadie failed to understand
+that Mr. Steele really meant to be her friend.
+
+"Come away, Sadie," whispered Ruth, quite troubled herself by the turn
+affairs had taken. "I am so sorry--but it will all come right in the
+end----"
+
+"If by comin' right, Miss, you means that I am goin' to see them twins,
+you can jest _bet_ it will all come right," returned Sadie, gruffly,
+when they were out in the hall. "For see 'em I will, an' _him_, nor
+nobody else, won't stop me. As for goin' back to them Perkinses, or to
+the orphanage, we'll see 'bout that," added Sadie, to herself, and
+grimly.
+
+Ruth feared very much that Mr. Steele would not have been quite so stern
+and positive with the runaway, had it not been for his dislike for the
+Caslons. Had Sadie's brothers been stopping with some other neighbor,
+would Mr. Steele have delayed letting the runaway girl go to see them?
+
+"Oh, dear, me! If folks would only be good-natured and stop being so
+hateful to each other," thought the girl of the Red Mill. "I just _know_
+that Mr. Steele would like Mr. Caslon a whole lot, if they really once
+got acquainted!"
+
+The rain had ceased falling by this time. The tempest had rolled away
+into the east. A great rainbow had appeared and many of the household
+were on the verandas to watch the bow of promise.
+
+It was too wet, however, to venture upon the grass. The paths and
+driveway glistened with pools of water. And under a big tree not far
+from the front of the house, it was discovered that a multitude of
+little toads had appeared--tiny little fellows no larger than one's
+thumbnail.
+
+"It's just been rainin' toads!" cried one of the younger Steele
+children--Bennie by name. "Come on out, Ruthie, and see the toads that
+comed down with the rainstorm."
+
+Tom Cameron had already come up to speak with Sadie. He shook hands with
+the runaway girl and spoke to her as politely as he would have to any of
+his sister's friends. And Sadie, remembering how kind he had been to her
+on the occasion when the tramps attacked her near Cheslow, responded to
+his advances with less reluctance than she had to those of some of the
+girls.
+
+For it must be confessed that many of the young people looked upon the
+runaway askance. She was so different from themselves!
+
+Now that she was clean, and her hair brushed and tied with one of Ruth's
+own ribbons, and she was dressed neatly, Sadie Raby did not _look_ much
+different from the girls about her on the wide porch; but when she
+spoke, her voice was hoarse, and her language uncouth.
+
+Had she been plumper, she would have been a pretty girl. She was tanned
+very darkly, and her skin was coarse. Nevertheless, given half the care
+these other girls had been used to most of their lives, and Sadie Raby
+would have been the equal of any.
+
+Ruth came strolling back to the veranda, leaving Bennie watching the
+toads--which remained a mystery to him. He was a lively little fellow of
+six and the pet of the whole family.
+
+As it chanced, he was alone out there on the drive, and the others were
+now strolling farther and farther away from him along the veranda. The
+boy ran out farther from the house, and danced up and down, looking at
+the rainbow overhead.
+
+Thus he was--a pretty sight in the glow of the setting sun--when a sudden
+chorus of shouts and frightened cries arose from the rear of the house.
+
+Men and maids were screaming. Then came the pounding of heavy hoofs.
+
+Around the curve of the drive charged a great black horse, a frayed and
+broken lead-rope hanging from his arching neck, his eyes red and
+glowing, and his sleek black body all a-quiver with the joy of his
+escape.
+
+"The Black Douglass!" ejaculated Tom Cameron, in horror, for the great
+horse was charging straight for the dancing child in the driveway.
+
+It was the most dangerous beast upon Sunrise Farm--indeed, almost the
+only savage creature Mr. Steele had retained when he bought out the
+former owner of the stock farm and his stud of horses.
+
+The Black Douglass was a big creature, with an uncertain temper, and was
+handled only by the most careful men in Mr. Steele's employ. Somehow, on
+this occasion, the brute had been allowed to escape.
+
+Spurring the gravel with his iron shod hoofs, the horse galloped
+straight at little Bennie. The child, suddenly made aware of his peril
+by the screams of his brothers and sisters, turned blindly, staggered a
+few steps, and fell upon his hands and knees.
+
+Mr. Steele rushed from the house, but he was too far away. The men
+chasing the released animal were at a distance, too. Tom Cameron started
+down the steps, but Helen shrieked for him to return. Who was there to
+face the snorting, prancing beast?
+
+There was a flash of a slight figure down the steps and across the sod.
+Like an arrow from a strong bow, Sadie Raby darted before the fallen
+child. Nor was she helpless. The runaway knew what she was about.
+
+As she ran from the veranda, she had seized a parasol that was leaning
+against one of the pillars. Holding this in both hands, she presented it
+to the charging horse, opening and shutting it rapidly as she advanced.
+
+She leaped across Bennie and confronted the Black Douglass. The flighty
+animal, seeing something before him that he did not at all understand,
+changed his course with a frightened snort, and dashed off across the
+lawn, cutting out great clods as he ran, and so around the house again
+and out of sight.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Steele were both running to the spot. The gentleman picked
+up the frightened Bennie, but handed him at once to his mother. Then he
+turned and seized the girl by her thin shoulders.
+
+"My dear girl! My dear girl!" he said, rather brokenly, turning her so
+as to face him. "That was a brave thing to do. We can't thank you
+enough. You can't understand----"
+
+"Aw, it warn't anything. I knowed that horse wouldn't jump at us when he
+seen the umbrel'. Horses is fools that way," said Sadie Raby, rather
+shamefacedly.
+
+But when Mrs. Steele knelt right down in the damp gravel beside her, and
+with one arm around Bennie, put the other around the runaway and hugged
+her--hugged her _tight_--Sadie was quite overcome, herself.
+
+Madge Steele was crying frankly. Bobbins came rushing upon the scene,
+and there was a general riot of exclamation and explanation.
+
+"Say! you goin' to let me see my brothers now?" demanded the runaway,
+who had a practical mind, if nothing more.
+
+"Bob," said his father, quickly, "you have the pony put in the cart and
+drive down there to Caslon's and bring those babies up here."
+
+"Aw, Father! what'll I tell Caslon?" demanded the big fellow,
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Tell him--tell him----" For a moment, it was true, that Mr. Steele was
+rather put to it for a reply. He found Ruth beside him, plucking his
+sleeve.
+
+"Let me go with Bobbins, sir," whispered the girl of the Red Mill. "I'll
+know what to say to Mr. and Mrs. Caslon."
+
+"I guess you will, Ruth. That's right. You bring the twins up here to
+see their sister." Then he turned and smiled down at Sadie, and there
+were tears behind his eyeglasses. "If I have my way, young lady, your
+coming here to Sunrise Farm will be the best thing--for you and the
+twins--that ever happened in your young lives!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--SUNDRY PLANS
+
+
+Perhaps Sadie Raby would have been just as well pleased had Mr. Steele
+allowed her to go to the Caslons' to see her brothers, instead of having
+them brought up the hill to Sunrise Farm. The gentleman, however, did
+not do this because he disliked Caslon; Sadie had saved Bennie from what
+might have been certain death, and the wealthy Mr. Steele was quite as
+grateful as he was obstinate.
+
+He was determined to show his gratitude to the friendless girl in a
+practical manner. And the object of his gratitude would include her two
+little brothers, as well. Oh, yes! Mr. Steele proposed to make Sadie
+Raby glad that she had saved Bennie from the runaway horse.
+
+The other girls and boys, beside the members of the Steele family, were
+anxious now to show their approval of Sadie's brave deed. The wanderer
+was quite bewildered at first by all the attention she received.
+
+She was such a different looking girl, too, as has been already pointed
+out, from the miserable little creature who had been found by Mr. Steele
+in the shrubbery, that it was not hard to develop an interest in Sadie
+Raby.
+
+Encircled by the family and their young visitors on the veranda, Sadie
+again related the particulars of her life and experience--and it was a
+particularly sympathetic audience that listened to her. Mr. Steele drew
+out a new detail that had escaped Ruth, even, in her confidences with
+the strange child.
+
+Although the "terrible twins" were unable to remember either father or
+mother--orphan asylums are not calculated to encourage such remembrances
+in infant minds--Sadie, as she had once said to Ruth, could clearly
+remember both her parents.
+
+And although they had died in distant Harburg, where the children had
+been put into the orphanage, Sadie remembered that the family had
+removed to that city, soon after the twins were born, from no less a
+place than Darrowtown!
+
+"Me, I got it in my head that mebbe somebody would remember pa and mom
+in Darrowtown, and would give me a chance. That's another reason I come
+hiking clear over here," said Sadie.
+
+"We'll hunt your friends up--if there are any," Mr. Steele assured her.
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. "Say!" said she, "you treat me a whole lot
+nicer than you did a while ago. Do folks have to do somethin' for your
+family before you forget to be cross with them?"
+
+It certainly was a facer! Mr. Steele flushed a little and scarcely knew
+what to say in reply to this frank criticism. But at that moment the
+two-wheel cart came into sight with the pony on the trot, and Ruth and
+the twins waving their hands and shouting.
+
+The meeting of the little chaps with their runaway sister was touching.
+The three Raby orphans were very popular indeed at Sunrise Farm just
+then.
+
+Mr. Steele frankly admitted that this might be a case where custom could
+be over-ridden, and the orphanage authorities ignored.
+
+"Whether those Perkins people she was farmed out to, were as harsh as
+she says----" he began, when Ruth interrupted eagerly:
+
+"Oh, sir! I can vouch for _that_. The man was an awful brute. He struck
+_me_ with his whip, and I don't believe Sadie told a story when she says
+he beat her."
+
+"I wish I'd been there," ejaculated Tom Cameron, in a low voice, "when
+the scoundrel struck you, Ruth. I would have done something to him!"
+
+"However," pursued Mr. Steele, "the girl is here now and near to
+Darrowtown, which she says is her old home. We may find somebody there
+who knew the Rabys. At any rate, they shall be cared for--I promise you."
+
+"I know!" cried Ruth, suddenly. "If anybody will remember them, it's
+Miss Pettis."
+
+"Another of your queer friends, Ruth?" asked Madge, laughing.
+
+"Why--Miss True Pettis isn't queer. But she knows about everybody who
+lives in Darrowtown, or who ever did live there--and their histories from
+away back!"
+
+"A human encyclopedia," exclaimed Heavy.
+
+"She's a lovely lady," said Ruth, quietly, "and she'll do anything to
+help these unfortunate Rabys--be sure of that."
+
+The late dinner was announced, and by that time the twins, as well as
+Sadie, had become a little more used to their surroundings. Willie and
+Dickie had been put into "spandy clean" overalls and shirts before Mrs.
+Caslon would let them out of her hands. They were really pretty
+children, in a delicate way, like their sister.
+
+With so many about the long dining table, the meals at the Steele home
+at this time were like a continuous picnic. There was so much talking
+and laughter that Mr. and Mrs. Steele had to communicate with signs, for
+the most part, from their stations at either end of the table, or else
+they must send messages back and forth by one of the waitresses.
+
+The twins and Sadie were down at Mrs. Steele's end of the table on this
+occasion, with the girls all about them. Ruth and the others took a lot
+more interest in keeping the orphans supplied with good things than they
+did in their own plates.
+
+That is, all but Heavy; of course _she_ wasted no time in heaping her
+own plate. The twins were a little bashful at first; but it was plain
+that Willie and Dickie had been taught some of the refinements of life
+at the orphanage, as both had very good table manners.
+
+They had to be tempted to eat, however, and finally Heavy offered to run
+a race with them, declaring that she could eat as much as both of the
+boys put together.
+
+Dickie was just as silent in his sister's presence as usual, his
+communications being generally in the form of monosyllables. But he was
+faithful in echoing Willie's sentiments on any and every
+occasion--noticeably at chicken time. The little fellows ate the
+fricassee with appetite, but they refused the nice, rich gravy, in which
+the cook had put macaroni. Mrs. Steele urged them to take gravy once or
+twice, and finally Sadie considered that she should come to the rescue.
+
+"What's the matter with you kids?" she demanded, hoarsely, in an attempt
+to communicate with them aside. "Ye was glad 'nough to git chicken gravy
+on Thanksgivin' at the orphanage--warn't ye?"
+
+"Yes, I know, Sadie," returned Willie, wistfully. "But they never left
+the windpipes in it--did they, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," responded Dickie, feelingly, likewise gazing at the macaroni
+askance.
+
+It set the table in a roar and finally Willie and Dickie were encouraged
+to try some of the gravy, "windpipes" and all!
+
+"They're all right," laughed Busy Izzy, greatly delighted. "They're
+one--or two--of the seven wonders of the world----"
+
+"Pooh!" interrupted Heavy, witheringly, "You don't even know what the
+seven wonders of the world are."
+
+"I can tell you one thing they're _not_," grinned Busy Izzy. "They're
+not a baseball team, for there's not enough of them. Now will you be
+good?"
+
+Madge turned her head suddenly and ran right into Belle Tingley's elbow,
+as Belle was reaching up to settle her hair-ribbon.
+
+"Oh, oh! My eye! I believe you poked it out, Belle. You have _such_
+sharp elbows," wailed Madge.
+
+"You'll have to see Doc. Blodgett at Lumberton," advised Heavy, "and get
+your eye tended to. He's a great old doctor----"
+
+"Why, I didn't know he was an eye doctor," exclaimed Madge. "I thought
+he was a chiropodist."
+
+"He used to be," Heavy returned, with perfect seriousness. "He began at
+the foot and worked up, you see."
+
+Amid all the fun and hilarity, Mr. Steele called them to order. This was
+at the dessert stage, and there were tall cones of parti-colored ice
+cream before them, with great, heaping plates of cake.
+
+"Can you give me a moment's attention, girls and boys?" asked their
+host. "I want to speak about to-morrow."
+
+"The 'great and glorious,'" murmured Heavy.
+
+"We've all promised to be good, sir," said Tom. "No pistols, or
+explosives, on the place."
+
+"Only the cannon," interposed Bobbins. "You're going to let us salute
+with _that_; eh, Pa?"
+
+"I'm not sure that I shall," returned his father, "if you do not give me
+your attention, and keep silent. We are determined to have a safe and
+sane Fourth on Sunrise Farm. But at night we will set off a splendid lot
+of fireworks that I bought last week----"
+
+"Oh, fine, Pa! I do love fireworks," cried Madge.
+
+"The girls are as bad as the boys, Mother," said Mr. Steele, shaking his
+head. "What I wanted to say," he added, raising his voice, "was that we
+ought to invite these little chaps--these brothers of Sadie Raby--to come
+up at night to see our show."
+
+"Oh, let's have all the fresh airs, Pa!" cried Madge, eagerly. "_What_ a
+good time they'd have."
+
+"I--don't--know," said her father, soberly, looking at his wife. "I am
+afraid that will be too much for your mother."
+
+"Mr. Caslon has some fireworks for the children," broke in Ruth,
+timidly. "I happen to know that. And Tom was going down to buy ten
+dollar's worth more to put with what Mr. Caslon has."
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Steele.
+
+"You see, some of us thought we'd give the little folk a good time down
+there, and it wouldn't bother you and Mrs. Steele, sir," Ruth hastened
+to explain.
+
+"Well, well!" exclaimed the gentleman, not very sharply after all, "if
+those Caslons can stand the racket, I guess mother and I can--eh,
+mother?"
+
+"We need not have them in the house," said Mrs. Steele. "We can put
+tables on the veranda, and give them ice cream and cake after the
+fireworks. Get the men to hang Chinese lanterns, and so forth."
+
+"Bully!" cried the younger Steeles, in chorus, and the visitors to
+Sunrise Farm were quite delighted, too, with this suggestion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH?
+
+
+Of course, somebody had to go to the Caslons and explain all this, and
+that duty devolved upon Ruth. Naturally, permission had to be sought of
+the farmer and his wife before the "fresh air kids" could be carried off
+bodily to Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was decided that the ten dollars, of which Tom had taken charge,
+should be spent for extra bunting and lanterns to decorate with, and to
+buy little gifts for each of the fresh airs to find next his or her
+plate on the evening of the Fourth.
+
+Therefore, Tom started again for Darrowtown right after breakfast, and
+Ruth rode with him in the high, two-wheeled cart.
+
+Ruth had two important errands. One was in Darrowtown. But the first
+stop, at Mr. Caslon's, troubled her a little.
+
+How would the farmer and his wife take the idea of the Steeles suddenly
+patronizing the fresh air children? Were the Caslons anything like Mr.
+Steele himself, in temperament, Ruth's errand would not be a pleasant
+one, she knew.
+
+The orphans ran out shrieking a welcome when Tom drove into the yard of
+the house under the hill. Where were the "terrible twins"? Had their
+sister really come to see them? Were Willie and Dickie coming back to
+the orphanage at all?
+
+These and a dozen other questions were hurled at Ruth. Some of the
+bigger girls remembered Sadie Raby and asked a multitude of questions
+about her. So the girl of the Red Mill contented herself at first with
+trying to reply to all these queries.
+
+Then Mrs. Caslon appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands of
+dish-water, and the old farmer himself came from the stables. Their
+friendly greeting and smiling faces opened the way for Ruth's task. She
+threw herself, figuratively speaking, into their arms.
+
+"I know you are both just as kind as you can be," said Ruth, eagerly,
+"and you won't mind if I ask you to change your program a little to-day
+for the youngsters? They want to give them all a good time up at Sunrise
+Farm."
+
+"Good land!" exclaimed Mrs. Caslon. "Not _all_ of them?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth, and she sketched briefly the idea of the
+celebration on the hill-top, including the presents she and Tom were to
+buy in Darrowtown for the kiddies.
+
+"My soul and body!" exclaimed the farmer's wife. "That lady, Mis'
+Steele, don't know what she's runnin' into, does she, Father?"
+
+"I reckon not," chuckled Mr. Caslon, wagging his head.
+
+"But you won't mind? You'll let us have the children?" asked Ruth,
+anxiously.
+
+"Why----" Mrs. Caslon looked at the old gentleman. But he was shaking all
+over with inward mirth.
+
+"Do 'em good, Mother--do 'em good," he chuckled--and he did not mean the
+fresh air children, either. Ruth could see that.
+
+"It'll be a mortal shame," began Mrs. Caslon, again, but once more her
+husband interrupted:
+
+"Don't you fuss about other folks, Mother," he said, gravely. "It'll do
+'em good--mebbe--as I say. Nothin' like tryin' a game once by the way. And
+I bet twelve little tykes like these 'uns will keep that Steele man
+hoppin' for a while."
+
+"But his poor wife----"
+
+"Don't you worry, Mrs. Caslon," Ruth urged, but wishing to laugh, too.
+"We girls will take care of the kiddies, and Mrs. Steele sha'n't be
+bothered too much."
+
+"Besides," drawled Mr. Caslon, "the woman's got a good sized family of
+her own--there's six or seven of 'em, ain't there?" he demanded of Ruth.
+
+"Eight, sir."
+
+"But that don't make a speck of difference," the farmer's wife
+interposed. "She's always had plenty of maids and the like to look out
+for them. She don't know----"
+
+"Let her learn a little, then," said Mr. Caslon, good naturedly enough.
+"It'll do both him and her good. And it'll give you a rest for a few
+hours, Mother.
+
+"Besides," added Mr. Caslon, with another deep chuckle, "I hear Steele
+has been rantin' around about takin' the kids to board just for the sake
+of spitin' the neighbors. Now, if he thinks boardin' a dozen young'uns
+like these is all fun----"
+
+"Don't be harsh, John," urged Mrs. Caslon.
+
+"I ain't! I ain't!" cried the farmer, laughing again. "But they're
+bitin' off a big chaw, and it tickles me to see 'em do it."
+
+It was arranged, therefore, that the orphans should be ready to go up to
+Sunrise Farm that afternoon. Then Ruth and Tom drove to Darrowtown. They
+had a fast horse, and got over the rough road at a very good pace.
+
+Tom drove first around into the side street where Miss True Pettis's
+little cottage was situated.
+
+"You dear child!" was the little spinster's greeting. "Are you having a
+nice time with your rich friends at Sunrise Farm? Tell me all about
+them--and the farm. Everybody in Darrowtown is that curious!"
+
+Tom had driven away to attend to the errands he could do alone, so Ruth
+could afford the time to visit a bit with her old friend. The felon was
+better, and that fact being assured, Ruth considered it better to
+satisfy Miss Pettis regarding the Sunrise Farm folk before getting to
+the Raby orphans.
+
+And that was the way to get to them, too. For the story of the tempest
+the day before, and the appearance of Sadie Raby, the runaway, and her
+reunion with the twins, naturally came into the tale Ruth had to tell--a
+tale that was eagerly listened to and as greatly enjoyed by the
+Darrowtown seamstress, as one can well imagine.
+
+"Just like a book--or a movie," sighed Miss Pettis, shaking her head.
+"It's really wonderful, Ruthie Fielding, what's happened to you since
+you left us here in Darrowtown. But, I always said, this town is dead
+and nothing really happens _here_!"
+
+"But it's lovely in Darrowtown," declared Ruth. "And just to think!
+Those Raby children lived here once."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Yes they did. Sadie was six or seven years old, I guess, when they left
+here. Tom Raby was her father. He was a mason's helper----"
+
+"Don't you tell me another thing about 'em!" cried Miss Pettis, starting
+up suddenly. "Now you remind me. I remember them well. Mis' Raby was as
+nice a woman as ever stepped--but weakly. And Tom Raby----
+
+"Why, how could I forget it? And after that man from Canady came to
+trace 'em, too, only three years ago. Didn't you ever hear of it, Ruth?"
+
+"What man?" asked Ruth, quite bewildered now. "Are--are you sure it was
+the same family? And _who_ would want to trace them?"
+
+"Lemme see. Listen!" commanded Miss Pettis. "You answer me about these
+poor children."
+
+And under the seamstress's skillful questioning Ruth related every
+detail she knew about the Raby orphans--and Mr. Steele, in her presence,
+had cross-questioned Sadie exhaustively the evening before. The story
+lost nothing in Ruth's telling, for she had a retentive memory.
+
+"My goodness me, Ruthie!" ejaculated the spinster, excitedly. "It's the
+same folks--sure. Why, do you know, they came from Quebec, and there's
+some property they've fell heir to--property from their mother's side--Oh,
+let me tell you! Funny you never heard us talkin' about that Canady
+lawyer while you was livin' here with me. My!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--THE RABY ROMANCE
+
+
+Miss True Pettis thrilled with the joy of telling the romance. The
+little seamstress had been all her life entertaining people with the dry
+details of unimportant neighborhood happenings. It was only once in a
+long while that a story like that of the Rabys' came within her ken.
+
+"Why, do you believe me!" she said to Ruth, "that Mis' Raby came of
+quite a nice family in Quebec. Not to say Tom Raby wasn't a fine man,
+for he was, but he warn't educated much and his trade didn't bring 'em
+more'n a livin'. But her folks had school teachers, and doctors, and
+even ministers in their family--yes, indeed!
+
+"And it seems like, so the Canady lawyer said, that a minister in the
+family what was an uncle of Mis' Raby's, left her and her children some
+property. It was in what he called 'the fun's'--that's like stocks an'
+bonds, I reckon. But them Canadians talk different from us.
+
+"Well, I can remember that man--tall, lean man he was, with a yaller
+mustache. He had traced the Rabys to Darrowtown, and he saw the
+minister, and Deacon Giles, and Amoskeag Lanfell, askin' did they know
+where the Rabys went when they moved away from here.
+
+"I was workin' for Amoskeag's wife that day, so I heard all the talk,"
+pursued Miss Pettis. "He said--this Canady lawyer did--that the property
+amounted to several thousand dollars. It was left by the minister (who
+had no family of his own) to his niece, Mis' Raby, or to her children if
+she was dead.
+
+"Course they asked me if _I_ knowed what became of the family," said the
+spinster, with some pride. "It bein' well known here in Darrowtown that
+I'm most as good as a parish register--and why wouldn't I be? Everybody
+expects me to know all the news. But if I ever _did_ know where them
+Rabys went, I'd forgot, and I told the lawyer man so.
+
+"But he give me his card and axed me to write to him if I ever heard
+anything further from 'em, or about 'em. And I certain sure would have
+done so," declared Miss Pettis, "if it had ever come to my mind."
+
+"Have you the gentleman's card now, Miss True?" asked Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"I s'pect so."
+
+"Will you find it? I know Mr. Steele is interested in the Rabys, and he
+can communicate with this Canadian lawyer----"
+
+"Now! ain't you a bright girl?" cried the spinster. "Of course!"
+
+She at once began to hustle about, turning things out of her bureau
+drawers, searching the cubby holes of an old maple "secretary" that had
+set in the corner of the kitchen since her father's time, discovering
+things which she had mislaid for years--and forgotten--but not coming upon
+the card in question right away.
+
+"Of course I've got it," she declared. "I never lose anything--I never
+throw a scrap of anything away that might come of use----"
+
+And still she rummaged. Tom came back with the cart and Ruth had to go
+shopping. "But do look, Miss Pettis," she begged, "and we'll stop again
+before we go back to the farm."
+
+Tom and she were some time selecting a dozen timely, funny, and
+attractive nicknacks for the fresh airs. But they succeeded at last, and
+Ruth was sure the girls would be pleased with their selections.
+
+"So much better than spending the money for noise and a powder smell,"
+added Ruth.
+
+"Humph! the kids would like the noise all right," sniffed Tom. "I heard
+those little chaps begging Mr. Caslon for punk and firecrackers. That
+old farmer was a boy himself once, and I bet he got something for them
+that will smell of powder, beside the little tad of fireworks he showed
+me."
+
+"Oh! I hope they won't any of them get burned."
+
+"Kind of put a damper on the 'safe and sane Fourth' Mr. Steele spoke
+about, eh?" chuckled Tom.
+
+Miss Pettis was looking out of the window and smiling at them when they
+arrived back at the cottage. She held in her hand a yellowed bit of
+pasteboard, which she passed to the eager Ruth.
+
+"Where do you suppose I found it, Ruthie?" she demanded.
+
+"I couldn't guess."
+
+"Why, stuck right into the corner of my lookin'-glass in my bedroom. I
+s'pose I have handled it every day I've dusted that glass for three
+year, an' then couldn't remember where it was. Ain't that the
+beatenes'?"
+
+Ruth and Tom drove off in high excitement. She had already told Master
+Tom all about the Raby romance--such details as he did not already
+know--and now they both looked at the yellowed business card before Ruth
+put it safely away in her pocket:
+
+                           Mr. Angus MacDorough
+                               _Solicitor_
+                        13, King Crescent, Quebec
+
+"Mr. Steele will go right ahead with this, I know," said Tom, nodding.
+"He's taken a fancy to those kids----"
+
+"Well! he ought to, to Sadie!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Sure. And he's a generous man, after all. Too bad he's taken such a
+dislike to old Caslon."
+
+"Oh, dear, Tom! we ought to fix that," sighed Ruth.
+
+"Crickey! you'd tackle any job in the world, I believe, Ruthie, if you
+thought you could help folks."
+
+"Nonsense! But both of them--both Mr. Steele and Mr. Caslon--are such
+awfully nice people----"
+
+"Well! there's not much hope, I guess. Mr. Steele's lawyer is trying to
+find a flaw in Caslon's title. It seems that, way back, a long time ago,
+some of the Caslons got poor, or careless, and the farm was sold for
+taxes. It was never properly straightened out--on the county records,
+anyway--and the lawyer is trying to see if he can't buy up the interest
+of whoever bought the farm in at that time--or their heirs--and so have
+some kind of a basis for a suit against old Caslon."
+
+"Goodness! that's not very clear," said Ruth, staring.
+
+"No. It's pretty muddy. But you know how some lawyers are. And Mr.
+Steele is willing to hire the shyster to do it. He thinks it's all
+right. It's business."
+
+"_Your_ father wouldn't do such a thing, Tom!" cried Ruth.
+
+"No. I hope he wouldn't, anyway," said Master Tom, wagging his head.
+"But I couldn't say that to Bobbins when he told me about it, could I?"
+
+"No call to. But, oh, dear! I hope Mr. Steele won't be successful. I do
+hope he won't be."
+
+"Same here," grunted Tom. "Just the same, he's a nice man, and I like
+him."
+
+"Yes--so do I," admitted Ruth. "But I'd like him so much more, if he
+wouldn't try to get the best of an old man like Mr. Caslon."
+
+The Raby matter, however, was a more pleasant topic of conversation for
+the two friends. The big bay horse got over the ground rapidly--Tom said
+the creature did not know a hill when he saw one!--and it still lacked
+half an hour of noon when they came in sight of Caslon's house.
+
+The orphans were all in force in the front yard. Mr. Caslon appeared,
+too.
+
+That yard was untidy for the first time since Ruth had seen it. And most
+of the untidiness was caused by telltale bits of red, yellow, and green
+paper. Even before the cart came to the gate, Ruth smelled the tang of
+powder smoke.
+
+"Oh, Tom! they _have_ got firecrackers," she exclaimed.
+
+"So have I--a whole box full--under the front seat," chuckled Tom. "What's
+the Fourth without a weeny bit of noise? Bobbins and I are going to let
+them off in a big hogshead he's found behind the stable."
+
+"You boys are rascals!" breathed Ruth. "Why! there are the twins!"
+
+Sadie's young brothers ran out to the cart. Mr. Caslon appeared with a
+good-sized box in his arms, too.
+
+"Just take this--and the youngsters--aboard, will you, young fellow?" said
+the farmer. "Might as well have all the rockets and such up there on the
+hill. They'll show off better. And the twins was down for the clean
+clo'es mother promised them."
+
+It was a two-seated cart and there was plenty of room for the two boys
+on the back seat. Mr. Caslon carefully placed the open box in the bottom
+of the cart, between the seats. The fireworks he had purchased had been
+taken out of their wrappings and were placed loosely in the box.
+
+"There ye are," said the farmer, jovially. "Hop up here, youngsters!"
+
+He seized Willie and hoisted him into the seat. But Dickie had run
+around to the other side of the cart and clambered up like a monkey, to
+join his brother.
+
+"All right, sir," said Tom, wheeling the eager bay horse. It was nearing
+time for the latter's oats, and he smelled them! "Out of the way, kids.
+They'll send a wagon down for you, all right, after luncheon, I reckon."
+
+Just then Ruth happened to notice something smoking in Dickie's hand.
+
+"What have you there, child?" she demanded. "Not a nasty cigarette?"
+
+He held out, solemnly, and as usual wordlessly, a smoking bit of punk.
+
+"Where did you get that? Oh! drop it!" cried Ruth, fearing for the
+fireworks and the explosives under the front seat. She meant for Dickie
+to throw it out of the wagon, but the youngster took the command
+literally.
+
+He dropped it. He dropped it right into the box of fireworks. Then
+things began to happen!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--A VERY BUSY TIME
+
+
+"Oh, Tom!" shrieked Ruth, and seized the boy's arm. The bay horse was
+just plunging ahead, eager to be off for the stable and his manger. The
+high cart was whirled through the gateway as the first explosion came!
+
+Pop,pop,pop! sputter--BANG!
+
+It seemed as though the horse leaped more than his own length, and
+yanked all four wheels of the cart off the ground. There was a chorus of
+screams in the Caslons' dooryard, but after that first cry, Ruth kept
+silent.
+
+The rockets shot out of the box amidships with a shower of sparks. The
+Roman candles sprayed their varied colored balls--dimmed now by
+daylight--all about the cart.
+
+Tom hung to the lines desperately, but the scared horse had taken the
+bit in his teeth and was galloping up the road toward Sunrise Farm,
+quite out of hand.
+
+After that first grab at Tom's arm, Ruth did not interfere with him. She
+turned about, knelt on the seat-cushion, and, one after the other, swept
+the twins across the sputtering, shooting bunch of fireworks, and into
+the space between her and Tom and the dashboard.
+
+Providentially the shooting rockets headed into the air, and to the
+rear. As the big horse dashed up the hill, swinging the light vehicle
+from side to side behind him, there was left behind a trail of smoke and
+fire that (had it been night-time) would have been a brilliant
+spectacle.
+
+Mr. Caslon and the orphans started after the amazing thing tearing up
+the road--but to no purpose. Nothing could be done to stop the explosion
+now. The sparks flew all about. Although Mr. Caslon had bought a wealth
+of small rockets, candles, mines, flower-pots, and the like, never had
+so many pieces been discharged in so short a time!
+
+It was sputter, sputter, bang, bang, the cart vomiting flame and smoke,
+while the horse became a perfectly frenzied creature, urged on by the
+noise behind him. Tom could only cling to the reins, Ruth clung to the
+twins, and all by good providence were saved from an overturn.
+
+All the time--and, of course, the half-mile or more from Caslons' to the
+entrance to the Steele estate, was covered in a very few moments--all the
+time Ruth was praying that the fire-crackers Tom had bought and hidden
+under the front seat would not be ignited.
+
+The reports of the rockets, and the like, became desultory. Some set
+pieces and triangles went off with the hissing of snakes. Was the
+explosion over?
+
+So it seemed, and the maddened horse turned in at the gateway. The cart
+went in on two wheels, but it did not overturn.
+
+The race had begun to tell on the bay. He was covered with foam and his
+pace was slackening. Perhaps the peril was over--Ruth drew a long breath
+for the first time since the horse had made its initial jump.
+
+And then--with startling suddenness--there was a sputter and bang! Off
+went the firecrackers, package after package. A spark had burned through
+the paper wrapper and soon there was such a popping under that front
+seat as shamed the former explosions!
+
+Had the horse been able to run any faster, undoubtedly he would have
+done so; but as the cart went tearing up the drive toward the front of
+the big house, the display of fireworks, etc., behind the front seat,
+and the display of alarm on the part of the four on the seat, advertised
+to all beholders that the occasion was not, to say the least, a common
+one.
+
+The cart itself was scorched and was afire in places, the sputtering of
+the fire-crackers continued while the horse tore up the hill. Tom had
+bought a generous supply and it took some time for them all to explode.
+
+Fortunately the front drop of the seat was a solid panel of deal, or
+Ruth's skirt might have caught on fire--or perhaps the legs of the twins
+would have been burned.
+
+As for the two little fellows, they never even squealed! Their eyes
+shone, they had lost their caps in the back of the cart, their short
+curls blew out straight in the wind, and their cheeks glowed. When the
+runaway appeared over the crest of the hill and the crowd at Sunrise
+Farm beheld them, it was evident that Willie and Dickie were enjoying
+themselves to the full!
+
+Poor Tom, on whose young shoulders the responsibility of the whole
+affair rested, was braced back, with his feet against the footboard, the
+lines wrapped around his wrists, and holding the maddened horse in to
+the best of his ability.
+
+Bobbins on one side, and Ralph Tingley on the other, ran into the
+roadway and caught the runaway by the bridle. The bay was, perhaps,
+quite willing to halt by this time. Mr. Steele ran out, and his first
+exclamation was:
+
+"My goodness, Tom Cameron! you've finished that horse!"
+
+"I hope not, sir," panted Tom, rather pale. "But I thought he'd finish
+us before he got through."
+
+By this time the explosions had ceased. Everything of an explosive
+nature--saving the twins themselves--in the cart seemed to have gone off.
+And now Willie ejaculated:
+
+"Gee! I never rode so fast before. Wasn't it great, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed Master Dickie, with rather more emphasis than usual.
+
+Sister Sadie appeared from the rear premises, vastly excited, too, but
+when she lifted the twins down and found not a scratch upon them, she
+turned to Ruth with a delighted face.
+
+"You took care of them just like you loved 'em, Miss," she whispered, as
+Ruth tumbled out of the cart, too, into her arms. "Oh, dear! don't you
+dare get sick--you ain't hurt, are you?"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Ruth, having hard work to crowd back the tears. "But
+I'm almost scared to death. That--that young one!" and she grabbed at
+Dickie. "What did you drop that punk into the fireworks for?"
+
+"Huh?" questioned the imperturbable Dickie.
+
+"Why didn't you throw that lighted punk away?" and Ruth was tempted to
+shake the little rascal.
+
+But instantly the voluble Willie shouldered his way to the front. "Gee,
+Miss! he thought you wanted him to drop it right there. You said so.
+An'--an'---- Well, he didn't know the things in the box would go off of
+themselves. Did you Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," responded his twin.
+
+"Do forgive 'em, Miss Ruth," whispered Sadie Raby. "I wouldn't want Mr.
+Steele to get after 'em. You know--he can be sumpin' fierce!"
+
+"Well," sighed Ruth Fielding, "they're the 'terrible twins' right
+enough. Oh, Tom!" she added, as young Cameron came to her to shake
+hands.
+
+"You're getting better and better," said Tom, grinning. "I'd rather be
+in a wreck with you, Ruthie--of almost any kind--than with anybody else I
+know. Those kids don't even know what you saved them from, when you
+dragged 'em over the back of that seat."
+
+"Sh!" she begged, softly.
+
+"And it's a wonder we weren't all blown to glory!"
+
+"It was a mercy we were not seriously hurt," agreed Ruth.
+
+But then there was too much bustle and general talk for them to discuss
+the incident quietly. The horse was led away to the stable and there
+attended to. Fortunately he was not really injured, but the cart would
+have to go to the painter's.
+
+"A fine beginning for this celebration we have on hand," declared Mr.
+Steele, looking ruefully at his wife. "If all that can happen with only
+two of those fresh air kids, as Bob calls them, on hand, what do you
+suppose will happen to-night when we have a dozen at Sunrise Farm?"
+
+"Mercy!" gasped the lady. "I am trembling in my shoes--I am, indeed. But
+we have agreed to do it, Father, and we must carry it through."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--THE TERRIBLE TWINS ON THE RAMPAGE
+
+
+The girls who had come to Sunrise Farm to visit at Madge Steele's
+invitation, felt no little responsibility when it came to the
+entertainment for the fresh air orphans. As The Fox said, with her usual
+decision:
+
+"Now that we've put Madge and her folks into this business, we'll just
+have to back up their play, and make sure that the fresh airs don't tear
+the place down. And that Sadie will have to keep an eye on the 'terrible
+twins.' Is that right?"
+
+"I've spoken to poor Sadie," said Ruth, with a sigh. "I am afraid that
+Mrs. Steele is very much worried over what may occur to-night, while the
+children are here. We'll have to be on the watch all the time."
+
+"I should say!" exclaimed Heavy Stone. "Let's suggest to Mr. Steele that
+he rope off a place out front where he is going to have the fireworks.
+Some of those little rascals will want to help celebrate, the way Willie
+and Dickie did," and the plump girl giggled ecstatically.
+
+"'Twas no laughing matter, Jennie," complained Ruth, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, that's all right," Lluella broke in. "If Tom hadn't bought the
+fire-crackers--and that was right against Mr. Steele's advice----"
+
+"Oh, here now!" interrupted Helen, loyal to her twin. "Tom wasn't any
+more to blame than Bobbins. They were just bought for a joke."
+
+"It was a joke all right," Belle said, laughing. "Who's going to pay for
+the damage to the cart?"
+
+"Now, let's not get to bickering," urged Ruth. "What's done, is done. We
+must plan now to make the celebration this afternoon and evening as easy
+for Mrs. Steele as possible."
+
+This conversation went on after luncheon, while Bob and Tom had driven
+down the hill with a big wagon to bring up the ten remaining orphans
+from Mr. Caslon's place.
+
+The gaily decorated wagon came in sight just about this time.
+Fortunately the decorations Tom and Ruth had purchased that forenoon in
+Darrowtown had not been destroyed when the fireworks went off in the
+cart.
+
+The girls from Briarwood Hall welcomed the fresh airs cheerfully and
+took entire charge of the six little girls. The little boys did not wish
+to play "girls' games" on the lawn, and therefore Bob and his chums
+agreed to keep an eye on the youngsters, including the "terrible twins."
+
+Sadie had been drafted to assist Madge and her mother, and some of the
+maids, in preparing for the evening collation. Therefore the visitors
+were divided for the time into two bands.
+
+The girls from the orphanage were quiet enough and well behaved when
+separated from their boy friends. Indeed, on the lawn and under the big
+tent Mr. Steele had had erected, the celebration of a "safe and sane"
+Fourth went on in a most commendable way.
+
+It was a very hot afternoon, and after indulging in a ball game in the
+field behind the stables, Bobbins, in a thoughtless moment, suggested a
+swim. Half a mile away there was a pond in a hollow. The boys had been
+there almost every day for a dip, and Bob's suggestion was hailed--even
+by the usually thoughtful Tom Cameron--with satisfaction.
+
+"What about the kids?" demanded Ralph Tingley.
+
+"Let them come along," said Bobbins.
+
+"Sure," urged Busy Izzy. "What harm can come to them? We'll keep our
+eyes on them."
+
+The twins and their small chums from the orphanage were eager to go to
+the pond, too, and so expressed themselves. The half-mile walk through
+the hot sun did not make them quail. They were proud to be allowed to
+accompany the bigger boys to the swimming hole.
+
+The little fellows raced along in their bare feet behind the bigger boys
+and were pleased enough, until they reached the pond and learned that
+they would only be allowed to go in wading, while the others slipped
+into their bathing trunks and "went in all over."
+
+"No! you can't go in," declared Bobbins, who put his foot down with
+decision, having his own small brothers in mind. (They had been left
+behind, by the way, to be dressed for the evening.)
+
+"Say! the water won't wet us no more'n it does you--will it, Dickie?"
+demanded the talkative twin.
+
+"Nope," agreed his brother.
+
+"Now, you kids keep your clothes on," said Bob, threateningly. "And
+don't wade more than to your knees. If you get your overalls wet, you'll
+hear about it. You know Mrs. Caslon fixed you all up for the afternoon
+and told you to keep clean."
+
+The smaller chaps were unhappy. That was plain. They paddled their dusty
+feet in the water for a while, but the sight of the older lads diving
+and swimming and having such a good time in the pond was a continual
+temptation. The active minds of the terrible twins were soon at work.
+Willie began to whisper to Dickie, and the latter nodded his head
+solemnly.
+
+"Say!" blurted out Willie, finally, as Bob and Tom were racing past them
+in a boisterous game of "tag." "We wanter go back. This ain't no fun--is
+it, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," said his twin.
+
+"Go on back, if you want to. You know the path," said Bobbins,
+breathlessly.
+
+"We're goin', too," said one of the other fresh airs.
+
+"We'd rather play with the girls than stay here. Hadn't we, Dickie?"
+proposed Willie Raby.
+
+"Yep," agreed Master Dickie, with due solemnity.
+
+"Go on!" cried Bob. "And see you go straight back to the house. My!" he
+added to Tom, "but those kids are a nuisance."
+
+"Think we ought to let them go alone?" queried Tom, with some faint
+doubt on the subject. "You reckon they'll be all right, Bobbins?"
+
+"Great Scott! they sure know the way to the house," said Bob. "It's a
+straight path."
+
+But, as it happened, the twins had no idea of going straight to the
+house. The pond was fed by a stream that ran in from the east. The
+little fellows had seen this, and Willie's idea was to circle around
+through the woods and find that stream. There they could go in bathing
+like the bigger boys, "and nobody would ever know."
+
+"Our heads will be wet," objected one of the orphans.
+
+"Gee!" said Willie Raby, "don't let's wet our heads. We ain't got
+to--have we?"
+
+"Nope," said his brother, promptly.
+
+There was some doubt, still, in the minds of the other boys.
+
+"What you goin' to say to those folks up to the big house?" demanded one
+of the fresh airs.
+
+"Ain't goin' to say nothin'," declared the bold Willie. "Cause why? they
+ain't goin' to know--'nless you fellers snitch."
+
+"Aw, who's goin' to snitch?" cried the objector, angered at once by the
+accusation of the worst crime in all the category of boyhood. "We ain't
+no tattle-tales--are we, Jim?"
+
+"Naw. We're as safe to hold our tongues as you an' yer brother are,
+Willie Raby--so now!"
+
+"Sure we are!" agreed the other orphans.
+
+"Then come along," urged the talkative twin. "Nobody's got to know."
+
+"Suppose yer sister finds it out?" sneered one.
+
+"Aw--well--she jes' ain't go'n' ter," cried Willie, exasperated. "An' what
+if she does? She runned away herself--didn't she?"
+
+The spirit of restlessness was strong in the Raby nature, it was
+evident. Willie was a born leader. The others trailed after him when he
+left the pathway that led directly back to Sunrise Farm, and pushed into
+the thicker wood in the direction he believed the stream lay.
+
+The juvenile leader of the party did not know (how should he?) that just
+above the pond the stream which fed it made a sharp turn. Its waters
+came out of a deep gorge, lying in an entirely different direction from
+that toward which the "terrible twins" and their chums were aiming.
+
+The little fellows plodded on for a long time, and the sun dropped
+suddenly behind the hills to the westward, and there they were--quite
+surprisingly to themselves--in a strange and fast-darkening forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--LOST
+
+
+The girl visitors from Briarwood Hall did all they could to help the
+mistress of Sunrise Farm and Madge prepare for the evening festivities,
+and not alone in employing the attention of the six little girls from
+the orphanage.
+
+There were the decorations to arrange, and the paper lanterns to hang,
+and the long tables on the porch to prepare for the supper. Twelve
+extra, hungry little mouths to feed was, of itself, a fact of no small
+importance.
+
+When the wagon had come up from Caslon's with the orphans, Mrs. Steele
+had thought it rather a liberty on the part of the farmer's wife because
+she had, with the children, sent a great hamper of cakes, which she
+(Mrs. Caslon) herself had baked the day before.
+
+But the cakes were so good, and already the children were so hungry,
+that the worried mistress of the big farm was thankful that these
+supplies were in her pantry.
+
+"When the boys come back from the pond, I expect they will be ravenous,
+too," sighed the good lady. "_Do_ you think, Madge, that there will be
+enough ham and tongue sandwiches for supper? I am sure of the cream and
+cake--thanks to that good old woman (though I hope your father won't hear
+me say it). But that is to be served after the fireworks. They will want
+something hearty at suppertime--and goodness me, Madge! It is five
+o'clock now. Those boys should be back from their swim."
+
+As for Mr. Steele, he was immensely satisfied with the celebration of
+the day so far. To tell the truth, he had very little to do with the
+work of getting ready for the orphans' entertainment. Aside from the
+explosion of the fireworks in the cart, the occasion had been a
+perfectly "safe and sane" celebration of a holiday that he usually
+looked forward to with no little dread.
+
+Before anybody really began to worry over their delay, the boys came
+into view. They had had a refreshing swim and announced the state of
+their appetites the moment they joined the girls at the big tent.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Madge, "we know all about that, Bobbie dear. But his
+little tootie-wootsums must wait till hims gets his bib put on, an' let
+sister see if his hannies is nice and clean. Can't sit down to eat if
+hims a dirty boy," and she rumpled her big brother's hair, while he
+looked foolish enough over her "baby talk."
+
+"Don't be ridiculous, Madge," said Helen, briskly. "Of course they are
+hungry---- But where's the rest of them?"
+
+"The rest of what?" demanded Busy Izzy. "I guess we're all here."
+
+"Say! you _must_ be hungry," chuckled Heavy. "Did you eat the kids?"
+
+"What kids?" snapped Tom, in sudden alarm.
+
+"The fresh airs, of course. The 'terrible twins' and their mates. My
+goodness!" cried Ann Hicks, "you didn't forget and leave them down there
+at the pond, did you?"
+
+The boys looked at each other for a moment. "What's the joke?" Bobbins
+finally drawled.
+
+"It's no joke," Ruth said, quickly. "You don't mean to say that you
+forgot those little boys?"
+
+"Now, stop that, Ruth Fielding!" cried Isadore Phelps, very red in the
+face. "A joke's a joke; but don't push it too far. You know very well
+those kids came back up here more'n an hour ago."
+
+"They didn't do any such thing," cried Sadie, having heard the
+discussion, and now running out to the tent. "They haven't been near the
+house since you big boys took them to the pond. Now, say! what d'ye know
+about it?"
+
+"They're playing a trick on us," declared Tom, gloomily.
+
+"Let's hunt out in the stables, and around," suggested Ralph Tingley,
+feebly.
+
+"Maybe they went back to Caslon's," Isadore said, hopefully.
+
+"We'll find out about that pretty quick," said Madge. "I'll tell father
+and he'll send somebody down to see if they went there."
+
+"Come on, boys!" exclaimed Tom, starting for the rear of the house.
+"Those little scamps are fooling us."
+
+"Suppose they _have_ wandered away into the woods?" breathed Ruth to
+Helen. "Whatever shall we do?"
+
+Sadie could not wait. She was unable to remain idle, when it was
+possible that the twin brothers she had so lately rejoined, were in
+danger. She flashed after the boys and hunted the stables, too.
+
+Nobody there had seen the "fresh airs" since they had followed the
+bigger boys to the pond.
+
+"And ye sure didn't leave 'em down there?" demanded Sadie Raby of Tom.
+
+"Goodness me! No!" exclaimed Tom. "They couldn't go in swimming as we
+did, and so they got mad and wouldn't stay. But they started right up
+this way, and we thought they were all right."
+
+"They might have slanted off and gone across the fields to Caslon's,"
+said Bobbins, doubtfully.
+
+"That would have taken them into the back pasture where Caslon keeps his
+Angoras--wouldn't it?" demanded the much-worried young man.
+
+"Well, you can go look for 'em with the goats," snapped Sadie, starting
+off. "But me for that Caslon place. If they didn't go there, then they
+are in the woods somewhere."
+
+She started down the hill, fleet-footed as a dog. Before Mr. Steele had
+stopped sputtering over the catastrophe, and bethought him to start
+somebody for the Caslon premises to make inquiries, Sadie came in view
+again, with the old, gray-mustached farmer in tow.
+
+The serious look on Mr. Caslon's face was enough for all those waiting
+at Sunrise Farm to realize that the absent children were actually lost.
+Tom and Bobbins had come up from the goat pasture without having seen,
+or heard, the six little fellows.
+
+"I forgot to tell ye," said Caslon, seriously, "that ye had to keep one
+eye at least on them 'terrible twins' all the time. We locked 'em into
+their bedroom at night. No knowin' when or where they're likely to break
+out. But I reckoned this here sister of theirs would keep 'em close to
+her----"
+
+"Well!" snapped Sadie Raby, eyeing Tom and Bobbins with much disfavor,
+"I thought that a bunch of big fellers like them could look after half a
+dozen little mites."
+
+Mr. Steele had come forward slowly; the fact that the six orphan boys
+really seemed to be lost, was an occasion to break down even _his_
+barrier of dislike for the neighbor. Besides, Mr. Caslon ignored any
+difference there might be between them in a most generous manner.
+
+"I blame myself, Neighbor Steele--I sure do," Mr. Caslon said, before the
+owner of Sunrise Farm could speak. "I'd ought to warned you about them
+twins. They got bit by the runaway bug bad--that's right."
+
+"Humph! a family trait--is it?" demanded Mr. Steele, rather grimly eyeing
+the sister of the runaways.
+
+"I couldn't say about that," chuckled the farmer. "But Willie and Dickie
+started off twice from our place, trailin' most of the other kids with
+'em. But I caught 'em in time. Now, their sister tells me, they've got
+at least an hour and a half's start."
+
+"It is getting dark--or it will soon be," said Mr. Steele, nervously. "If
+they are not found before night, I shall be greatly disturbed. I feel as
+though I were responsible. My oldest boy, here----"
+
+"Now, it ain't nobody's fault, like enough," interrupted Mr. Caslon,
+cheerfully, and seeing Bobbins's woebegone face. "We'll start right out
+and hunt for them."
+
+"But if it grows dark----"
+
+"Let me have what men you can spare, and all the lanterns around the
+place," said Caslon, briskly, taking charge of the matter on the
+instant. "These bigger boys can help."
+
+"I--I can go with you, sir," began Mr. Steele, but the farmer waved him
+back.
+
+"No. You ain't used to the woods--nor to trampin'--like I be. And it won't
+hurt your boys. You leave it to us--we'll find 'em."
+
+Mrs. Steele had retired to the tent on the lawn in tears, and most of
+the girls were gathered about her. Sadie Raby clung to Farmer Caslon's
+side, and nobody tried to call her back.
+
+Since returning from Darrowtown that morning, Ruth Fielding had divulged
+to Mr. Steele all she had discovered through Miss True Pettis regarding
+the Raby family, and about the Canadian lawyer who had once searched for
+Mrs. Raby and her children.
+
+The gentleman had expressed deep interest in the matter, and while the
+fresh air children were being entertained during the afternoon, Mr.
+Steele had already set in motion an effort to learn the whereabouts of
+Mr. Angus MacDorough and to discover just what the property was that had
+been willed to the mother of the Raby orphans.
+
+Sadie had been told nothing about this wonderful discovery as yet.
+Indeed, there had been no time. Sadie had been busy, with Mrs. Steele
+and the others, in preparing for that "safe and sane" celebration with
+which Mr. Steele had desired to entertain the "terrible twins" and their
+little companions at Sunrise Farm.
+
+Now this sudden catastrophe had occurred. The loss of the six little
+boys was no small trouble. It threatened to be a tragedy.
+
+Down there beyond the pond the mountainside was heavily timbered, and
+there were many dangerous ravines and sudden precipices over which a
+careless foot might stray.
+
+Dusk was coming on. In the wood it would already be dark. And if the
+frightened children went plunging about, seeking, in terror, to escape,
+they might at any moment be cast into some pit where the searchers would
+possibly never find them.
+
+Mr. Steele felt his responsibility gravely. He was, at best, a nervous
+man, and this happening assumed the very gravest outlines in his anxious
+mind.
+
+"Never ought to have let them out of my own sight," he sputtered, having
+Ruth for a confidant. "I might have known something extraordinary would
+happen. It was a crazy thing to have all those children up here,
+anyway."
+
+"Oh, dear, Mr. Steele!" cried Ruth, much worried, "_that_ is partly my
+fault. I was one of those who suggested it."
+
+"Nonsense! nonsense, child! Nobody blames you," returned the gentleman.
+"I should have put my foot down and said 'No.' Nobody influenced me at
+all. Why--why, I _wanted_ to give the poor little kiddies a nice time.
+And now--see what has come of it?"
+
+"Oh, it may be that they will be found almost at once," cried Ruth,
+hopefully. "I am sure Mr. Caslon will do what he can----"
+
+"Caslon's an eminently practical man--yes, indeed," admitted Mr. Steele,
+and not grudgingly. "If anybody can find them, he will, I have no
+doubt."
+
+And this commendation of the neighbor whom he so disliked struck Ruth
+completely silent for the time being.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--"SO THAT'S ALL RIGHT"
+
+
+"And here it is 'ong past suppertime," groaned Heavy; "it's getting
+darker every minute, and the fireworks ought to be set off, and we can't
+do a thing!"
+
+"Who'd have the heart to eat, with those children wandering out there in
+the woods?" snapped Mercy Curtis.
+
+"What's _heart_ got to do with eating?" grumbled the plump girl. "And I
+was thinking quite as much of the little girls here as I was of myself.
+Why! here is one of the poor kiddies asleep, I do declare."
+
+The party in the big tent was pretty solemn. Even the six little girls
+from the orphanage could not play, or laugh, under the present
+circumstances. And, in addition, it looked as though all the fun for the
+evening would be spoiled.
+
+The searching party had been gone an hour. Those remaining behind had
+seen the twinkling lanterns trail away over the edge of the hill and
+disappear. Now all they could see from the tent were the stars, and the
+fireflies, with now and then a rocket soaring heavenward from some
+distant farm, or hamlet, where the Glorious Fourth was being fittingly
+celebrated.
+
+Madge and Helen came out with a hamper of sandwiches and there was
+lemonade, but not even the little folk ate with an appetite. The day
+which, at Sunrise Farm, was planned to be so memorable, threatened now
+to be remembered for a very unhappy cause.
+
+Down in the wood lot that extended from below some of Mr. Steele's
+hayfields clear into the next township, the little party of searchers,
+led by old Mr. Caslon, had separated into parties of two each, to comb
+the wilderness.
+
+None of the men knew the wood as did Mr. Caslon, and of course the boys
+and Sadie (who had refused to go back) were quite unfamiliar with it.
+
+"Don't go out of sight of the flash of each other's lanterns," advised
+the farmer.
+
+And by sticking to this rule it was not likely that any of the sorely
+troubled searchers would, themselves, be lost. As they floundered
+through the thick undergrowth, they shouted, now and then, as loudly as
+they could. But nothing but the echoes, and the startled nightbirds,
+replied.
+
+Again and again they called for the lost boys by name. Sadie's shrill
+voice carried as far as anybody's, without doubt, and her crying for
+"Willie" and "Dickie" should have brought those delinquents to light,
+had they heard her.
+
+Sadie stuck close to Mr. Caslon, as he told her to. But the way through
+the brush was harder for the girl than for the rest of them. Thick mats
+of greenbriars halted them. They were torn, and scratched, and stung by
+the vegetable pests; yet Sadie made no complaint.
+
+As for the mosquitoes and other stinging insects--well, they were out on
+this night, it seemed, in full force. They buzzed around the heads of
+the searchers in clouds, attracted by the lanterns. Above, in the trees,
+complaining owls hooted their objections to the searchers' presence in
+the forest. The whip-poor-wills reiterated their determination from dead
+limbs or rotting fence posts. And in the wet places the deep-voiced
+frogs gave tongue in many minor keys.
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Sadie to the farmer, "the little fellers will be
+scared half to death when they hear all these critters."
+
+"And how about you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I'm used to 'em. Why, I've slept out in places as bad as this
+more'n one night. But Willie and Dickie ain't used to it."
+
+One end of the line of searchers touched the pond. They shouted that
+information to the others, and then they all pushed on. It was in the
+mind of all that, perhaps, the children had circled back to the pond.
+
+But their shouts brought no hoped-for reply, although they echoed across
+the open water, and were answered eerily from the farther shore.
+
+There were six couples; therefore the line extended for a long way into
+the wood, and swept a wide area. They marched on, bursting through the
+vines and climbers, searching thick patches of jungle, and often
+shouting in chorus till the wood rang again.
+
+Tom and one of the stablemen, who were at the lower end of the line,
+finally came to the mouth of that gorge out of which the brook sprang.
+To the east of this opening lay a considerable valley and it was decided
+to search this vale thoroughly before following the stream higher.
+
+It was well they did so, for half a mile farther on, Tom and his
+companion made a discovery. They came upon the tall, blasted trunk of a
+huge old tree that had a great hollow at its foot. This hollow was
+blinded by a growth of vines and brush, yet as Tom flashed his lantern
+upon it, it seemed to him as though the vines had been disturbed.
+
+"It may be the lair of some animal, sir," suggested the stableman, as
+Tom attempted to peer in.
+
+"Nothing much more dangerous than foxes in these woods now, I am told,"
+returned the boy. "And this is not a fox's burrow--hello!"
+
+His sudden, delighted shriek rang through the wood and up the hillside.
+
+"I've found them! I've found them!" the boy repeated, and dived into the
+hollow tree.
+
+His lantern showed him and the stableman the six wanderers rolled up
+like kittens in a nest. They opened their eyes sleepily, yawning and
+blinking. One began to snivel, but Willie Raby at once delivered a sharp
+punch to that one, saying, in grand disgust:
+
+"Baby! Didn't I tell you they'd come for us? They was sure to--wasn't
+they, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," responded that youngster, quite as cool about it as his brother.
+
+Tom's shouts brought the rest of the party in a hurry. Mr. Caslon hauled
+each "fresh air" out by the collar and stood him on his feet. When he
+had counted them twice over to make sure, he said:
+
+"Well, sir! of all the young scamps that ever were born--Willie Raby!
+weren't you scared?"
+
+"Nope," declared Willie. "Some of these other kids begun ter snivel when
+it got dark; but Dickie an' me would ha' licked 'em if they'd kep' that
+up. Then we found that good place to sleep----"
+
+"But suppose it had been the bed of some animal?" asked Bobbins,
+chuckling.
+
+"Nope," said Willie, shaking his head. "There was spider webs all over
+the hole we went in at, so we knowed nobody had been there much lately.
+And it was a pretty good place to sleep. Only it was too warm in there
+at first. I couldn't get to sleep right away."
+
+"But you didn't hear us shouting for you?" queried one of the other
+searchers.
+
+"Nope. I got to sleep. You see, I thought about bears an' burglars an'
+goblins, an' all those sort o' things, an' that made me shiver, so I
+went to sleep," declared the earnest twin.
+
+A shout of laughter greeted this statement. The searchers picked up the
+little fellows and carried them down to the edge of the pond, where the
+way was much clearer, and so on to the plain path to Sunrise Farm.
+
+So delighted were they to have found the six youngsters without a
+scratch upon them, that nobody--not even Mr. Caslon--thought to ask the
+runaways how they had come to wander so far from Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was ten o'clock when the party arrived at the big house on the hill.
+Isadore had run ahead to tell the good news and everybody was
+aroused--even to the six fellow-orphans of the runaways--to welcome the
+wanderers.
+
+"My goodness! let's have the fireworks and celebrate their return,"
+exclaimed Madge.
+
+But Mr. Steele quickly put his foot down on that.
+
+"I am afraid that Willie and Dickie, and Jim and the rest of them, ought
+really to be punished for their escapade, and the trouble and fright
+they have given us," declared the proprietor of Sunrise Farm.
+
+"However, perhaps going without their supper and postponing the rest of
+the celebration until to-morrow night, will be punishment enough. But
+don't you let me hear of you six boys trying to run away again, while
+you remain with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon," and he shook a threatening finger
+at the wanderers.
+
+"Now Mr. and Mrs. Caslon will take you home," for the big wagon had been
+driven around from the stables while he was speaking. Mrs. Caslon, too
+worried to remain in doubt about the fresh airs, had trudged away up the
+hill to Sunrise Farm, while the party was out in search of the lost
+ones.
+
+Mrs. Steele and the girls bade a cordial good-night to the farmer's
+wife, as she climbed up to the front seat of the vehicle on one side. On
+the other, Mr. Steele stopped Mr. Caslon before he could climb up.
+
+"The women folks have arranged for you and your wife to come to-morrow
+evening and help take care of these little mischiefs, while we finish
+the celebration," said the rich man, with a detaining hand upon Mr.
+Caslon's shoulder. "We need you."
+
+"I reckon so, neighbor," said the farmer, chuckling. "We're a little
+more used to them lively young eels than you be."
+
+"And--and we want you and your wife to come for your own sakes," added
+Mr. Steele, in some confusion. "We haven't even been acquainted before,
+sir. I consider that I am at fault, Caslon. I hope you'll overlook it
+and--and--as you say yourself--_be neighborly_."
+
+"Sure! Of course!" exclaimed the old man, heartily. "Ain't no need of
+two neighbors bein' at outs, Mr. Steele. You'll find that soft words
+butter more parsnips than any other kind. If you an' I ain't jest agreed
+on ev'ry p'int, let's get together an' settle it ourselves. No need of
+lawyers' work in it," and the old farmer climbed nimbly to the high
+seat, and the wagon load of cheering, laughing youngsters started down
+the hill.
+
+"And so _that's_ all right," exclaimed the delighted Ruth, who had heard
+the conversation between the two men, and could scarcely hide her
+delight in it.
+
+"I feel like dancing," she said to Helen. "I just _know_ Mr. Steele and
+Mr. Caslon will understand each other after this, and that there will be
+no quarrel between them over the farms."
+
+Which later results proved to be true. Not many months afterward, Madge
+wrote to Ruth that her father and the old farmer had come to a very
+satisfactory agreement. Mr. Caslon had agreed to sell the old homestead
+to Mr. Steele for a certain price, retaining a life occupancy of it for
+himself and wife, and, in addition, the farmer was to take over the
+general superintendency of Sunrise Farm for Mr. Steele, on a yearly
+salary.
+
+"So much for the work of the 'terrible twins'!" Ruth declared when she
+heard this, for the girl of the Red Mill did not realize how much she,
+herself, had to do with bringing about Mr. Steele's change of attitude
+toward his neighbor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--THE ORPHANS' FORTUNE
+
+
+A great deal happened at Sunrise Farm before these later occurrences
+which so delighted Ruth Fielding. The excitement of the loss of the six
+"fresh airs" was not easily forgotten. Whenever any of the orphans was
+on the Sunrise premises again, they had a bodyguard of older girls or
+boys who kept a bright lookout that nothing unusual happened to them.
+
+As for the twins, Sadie took them in hand with a reformatory spirit that
+amazed Willie and Dickie. Those two youngsters were kept at Sunrise Farm
+and put in special charge of Sadie. Thus Mr. Steele had the three Raby
+orphans under his own eye until he could hear from Canada, and from the
+orphanage, and learn all the particulars of the fortune that might be in
+store for them.
+
+After a bit Willie and Dickie found the watchfulness of their sister
+somewhat irksome.
+
+"Say!" the talkative twin observed, "you ain't got no reason to be so
+sharp on us, Sadie Raby. _You_ run away your ownself--didn't she,
+Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed the oracular one.
+
+"An' we don't want no gal follerin' us around and tellin' us to 'stop'
+all the time--do we, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"We're big boys now," declared Willie, strutting like the young bantam
+he was. "There ain't nothin' goin' to hurt us. We're too big----"
+
+"What's that on your finger---- No! the other one?" snapped Sadie, eyeing
+Willie sharply.
+
+"Scratch," announced the boy.
+
+"Where'd you get it?"
+
+"I--I cut it on the cat," admitted Willie, with less bombast.
+
+"Humph! you're a big boy--ain't you? Don't even know enough to let the
+cat alone--and I hope her claw done you some good. Come here an' let me
+borrer Miss Ruth's peroxide bottle and put some on it. Cat's claws is
+poison," said Sadie. "You ain't so fit to get along without somebody
+watchin' you as ye think, kid. Remember that, now."
+
+"We don't want no gal trailin' after us all the time!" cried Willie,
+angrily. "An' we ain't goin' to stand it," and he kicked his bare toe
+into the sand to express the emphasis that his voice would not vent.
+
+"Humph!" said Sadie, eyeing him sideways, meanwhile trimming carefully a
+stout branch she had broken from the lilac bush. "So you want to be your
+own boss, do you, Willie Raby?"
+
+"We _be_ our own boss--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+For the first time, the echo of Dickie's agreement failed to
+materialize. Dickie was eyeing that lilac sprout--and looked from that to
+his sister's determined face. He backed away several feet and put his
+hands behind him.
+
+"And so you ain't goin' to mind me--nor Miss Ruth--nor Mr. Steele--nor Mr.
+Caslon--nor nobody?" proceeded Sadie, more earnestness apparent in each
+section of her query.
+
+Her hand reached out suddenly and gripped Willie by the shoulder of his
+shirt. He tried to writhe out of her grasp, but his sister's muscles
+were hardened, and she was twice as strong as Willie had believed. The
+lilac sprout was raised.
+
+"So you're too big to mind anybody, heh?" she queried.
+
+"Yes, we be!" snarled the writhing Willie. "Ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"No, we're not!" screamed his twin, suddenly, refusing to echo Willie's
+declaration. "Don't hit him, Sade! Oh, don't!" and he cast himself upon
+his sister and held her tight about the waist. "We--we'll be good," he
+sobbed.
+
+"How about it, Willie Raby?" demanded the stern sister, without lowering
+the stick. "Are you goin' to mind and be good?"
+
+Willie stared, tried to writhe away, saw it was no use, and capitulated.
+"Aw--yes--if _he's_ goin' to cry about it," he grumbled. He said it with
+an air intimating that Dickie was, after all, quite a millstone about
+his neck and would always be holding him back from deeds of valor which
+Willie, himself, knew he could perform.
+
+However, the twins behaved pretty well after that. They remained with
+Sadie at Sunrise Farm, for the whole Steele family had become interested
+in them.
+
+The inquiries Mr. Steele set afoot resulted, in a short time, in
+information of surprising moment to the three Raby orphans. The old
+inquiry which had brought the lawyer, Mr. Angus MacDorough, to
+Darrowtown three years before, was ferreted out by another lawyer
+engaged by Mr. Steele.
+
+It was found that Mr. MacDorough had, soon after his visit to the States
+in the matter of the Raby fortune, been stricken ill and, after a long
+sickness, had died. His affairs had never been straightened out, and his
+business was still in a chaotic state.
+
+However, it was found beyond a doubt that Mr. MacDorough had been
+engaged to search out the whereabouts of Mrs. Tom Raby and her children
+by the administrators of the estate of Mrs. Raby's elderly relative, now
+some time deceased.
+
+Nearly two thousand dollars in American money had been left as a legacy
+to the Rabys. In time this property was put into Mr. Steele's care to
+hold in trust for the three orphans--and it was enough to promise them
+all an education and a start in life.
+
+Had it not been so, Mr. and Mrs. Steele would have felt sufficiently in
+Sadie's debt, because of her having saved little Bennie Steele from the
+hoofs of the Black Douglass, to have made the girl's way--and that of the
+twins--plain before them, until they were grown.
+
+How much Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen, were delighted by all this
+can be imagined. Sadie held an almost worshipful attitude toward Ruth;
+Ruth had been her first real friend when she ran away from "them
+Perkinses."
+
+That Ruth and her chum bore the affairs of the Raby orphans in mind, and
+continued to have many other and varied interests, as well as a
+multitude of adventures during the summer, will be explained in the next
+volume of our series, to be entitled: "Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies;
+Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace."
+
+Meanwhile, the visit to Sunrise Farm came to a glorious close. The
+belated Fourth of July was celebrated on the evening of the fifth, in a
+perfectly "safe and sane" manner by the burning of the wealth of
+fireworks that Mr. Steele had supplied.
+
+The days that followed to the end of the stay of the girls of Briarwood
+Hall and their brothers, were filled with delightful incidents. Picnics,
+fishing parties, tramps over the hills, rides, games on the lawn, and
+many other activities occupied the delightful hours at Sunrise Farm.
+
+"This surely is the nicest place I ever was at," Busy Izzy admitted, on
+the closing day of the party. "If I have as good a time the rest of the
+summer, I won't mind going back to school and suffering for eight months
+in the year."
+
+"Hear! hear!" cried Heavy Jennie Stone. "And the eats!"
+
+"And the rides," said Mercy Curtis, the lame girl. "Such beautiful rides
+through the hills!"
+
+"And such a fine time watching those fresh airs to see that they didn't
+kill themselves," added Tom Cameron, with a grimace.
+
+"Don't say a word against the poor little dears, Tommy," urged his
+sister. "Suppose _you_ had to live in an for orphanage all but four
+weeks in the year?"
+
+"Tom is only fooling," Ruth said, quietly. "I know him. He enjoyed
+seeing the children have a good time, too."
+
+"Oh! if you say so, Miss Fielding," said Tom, laughing and bowing to
+her, "it must be so."
+
+The big yellow coach, with the four prancing horses, came around to the
+door. Bobbins mounted to the driver's seat and gathered up the ribbons.
+The visitors climbed aboard.
+
+Ruth stood up and waved her hand to the rest of the Steele family, and
+Sadie and the twins gathered on the porch.
+
+"We've had the finest time ever!" she cried. "We love you all for giving
+us such a nice vacation. And we're going to cheer you----"
+
+And cheer they did. At the noise, the leaders sprang forward and the
+yellow coach rolled away. Ruth, laughing, sat down suddenly beside her
+chum, and Helen hugged her tight.
+
+"We always have a dandy time when we go anywhere with _you_, Ruth," she
+declared. "For you always take your 'good times' with you."
+
+And perhaps Helen Cameron had made a very important discovery.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her
+adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every
+reader.
+
+Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.
+
+  1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+  2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+  3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+  4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+  5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+  6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+  7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+  8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+  9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+  10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+  11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+  12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+  13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+  14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+  15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+  16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+  17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+  18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+  19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+  20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+  21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+  22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA
+  23. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO
+  24. RUTH FIELDING AT CAMERON HALL
+  25. RUTH FIELDING CLEARING HER NAME
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume.
+
+Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win instant
+popularity. Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that of Louisa M.
+Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action. Clean tales that
+all the girls will enjoy reading.
+
+1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY or Laura Mayford's City Experiences
+
+2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL or The Mystery of the School by the
+Lake
+
+3. NELL GRAYSON'S RANCHING DAYS or A City Girl in the Great West
+
+4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way
+
+5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY or The Girl Who Won Out
+
+6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE or The Old Bachelor's Ward
+
+7. HAZEL HOOD'S STRANGE DISCOVERY or The Old Scientist's Treasure Box
+
+8. TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY or The Old House in the Glen
+
+9. THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Strange Sea Chest
+
+10. KATE MARTIN'S PROBLEM or Facing the Wide World
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM or The Mystery of a Nobody
+
+  At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON or Strange Adventures in a Great City
+
+  Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and has several
+  unusual adventures.
+
+3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune
+
+  From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our
+  country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+  Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
+
+  At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery.
+
+6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK or School Chums on the Boardwalk
+
+  A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+
+7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS or Bringing the Rebels to Terms
+
+  Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH or Cowboy Joe's Secret
+
+  Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS or The Secret of the Mountains
+
+  Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held for
+  ransom in a mountain cave.
+
+10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS or A Mystery of The Seaside
+
+  Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and Betty
+  becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls.
+
+11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS or The Secret of the Trunk Room
+
+  An up-to-date college story with a strange mystery that is bound to
+  fascinate any girl reader.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES
+
+By JANET D. WHEELER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE or The Queer Homestead at Cherry
+Corners
+
+Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and
+located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went
+there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened,
+go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL or Leading a Needed Rebellion
+
+Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time
+after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the
+school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of
+two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
+very plain food and little of it--and then there was a row!
+
+3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Mystery of the Wreck
+
+One of Billie's friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island,
+near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island.
+There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed
+ashore.
+
+4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES or The Secret of the Locked Tower
+
+Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who
+had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention,
+and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+
+5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore
+
+A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great
+variety of adventures. They visit an artists' colony and there fall in
+with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly.
+
+6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE or The Old Sailor's Secret
+
+A lively story of school girl doings. How Billie heard of the treasure
+and how she and her chums went in quest of the same is told in a
+peculiarly absorbing manner.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
+
+By AGNES MILLER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+This new series of girls' books is in a new style of story writing. The
+interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve the problems that
+develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal of historical
+information is imparted.
+
+1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE or The Story of Nine
+Adventurous Girls
+
+How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,
+but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club serve
+a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces a new
+type of girlhood.
+
+2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD or the Great West Point Chain
+
+The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or
+mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some
+surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the
+valley better because of their visit.
+
+3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST or The Log of the Ocean
+Monarch
+
+For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into
+the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader
+sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to
+come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
+
+4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARM or The Secret from Old
+Alaska
+
+Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied
+with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to
+solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to a
+sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES
+
+By LILIAN GARIS
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated by the foremost
+organizations of America form the background for these stories and while
+unobtrusive there is a message in every volume.
+
+1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS or Winning the First B. C.
+
+A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
+girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
+The story is correct in scout detail.
+
+2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE or Maid Mary's Awakening
+
+The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
+girls' activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
+was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as "Maid
+Mary" makes a fascinating story.
+
+3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST or the Wig Wag Rescue
+
+Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
+seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
+all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
+
+4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG or Peg of Tamarack Hills
+
+The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
+Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
+up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
+
+5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE or Nora's Real Vacation
+
+Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
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+fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
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+4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE or The Strange Hut in the Swamp
+
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+RUBY'S UPS AND DOWNS
+
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+them all, and, in spite of them, became a favorite in the lively times
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+RUBY AT SCHOOL
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+called a boarding school, but every experience helped to make her a
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+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
+    <meta content="Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm" name="DC.Title"/>
+    <meta content="Alice B. Emerson" name="DC.Creator"/>
+    <meta content="en" name="DC.Language"/>
+    <meta content="1915" name="DC.Created"/>
+    <meta name="generator" content="ppgen (1.13) generated Jun 12, 2011 03:53 AM" />
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+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm
+       What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36397]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i001' id='i001'></a>
+<img src='images/dust.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i002' id='i002'></a>
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="“WHY, SADIE RABY! WHO’D EVER EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE?”" title=""/><br />
+<span class='caption'>“WHY, SADIE RABY! WHO’D EVER EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE?”</span>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em;font-weight:bold;'>Ruth Fielding</span></p>
+<p><span style='font-size:1.4em;font-weight:bold;'>At Sunrise Farm</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>OR</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>WHAT BECAME OF THE RABY ORPHANS</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>BY</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:larger;'>ALICE B. EMERSON</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>Author of “Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,” “Ruth</span></p>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>Fielding at Snow Camp,” Etc.</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><em>ILLUSTRATED</em></p>
+</div>
+<div class='figcenter' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i003' id='i003'></a>
+<img src='images/title.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>NEW YORK</span></p>
+<p>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>PUBLISHERS</span></p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>Books for Girls</p>
+<p>BY ALICE B. EMERSON</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span style='font-size:larger;'>RUTH FIELDING SERIES</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</p>
+</div>
+<table class='c' summary='centered block'><tr><td>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;OF&#160;THE&#160;RED&#160;MILL</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;Jasper&#160;Parloe’s&#160;Secret.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AT&#160;BRIARWOOD&#160;HALL</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;Solving&#160;the&#160;Campus&#160;Mystery.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AT&#160;SNOW&#160;CAMP</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;Lost&#160;in&#160;the&#160;Backwoods.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AT&#160;LIGHTHOUSE&#160;POINT</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;Nita,&#160;the&#160;Girl&#160;Castaway.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AT&#160;SILVER&#160;RANCH</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;Schoolgirls&#160;Among&#160;the&#160;Cowboys.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;ON&#160;CLIFF&#160;ISLAND</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;The&#160;Old&#160;Hunter’s&#160;Treasure&#160;Box.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AT&#160;SUNRISE&#160;FARM</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;What&#160;Became&#160;of&#160;the&#160;Raby&#160;Orphans.</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>&#160;</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>RUTH&#160;FIELDING&#160;AND&#160;THE&#160;GYPSIES</p>
+<p style='margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>Or,&#160;The&#160;Missing&#160;Pearl&#160;Necklace.</p>
+</td></tr></table>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>Cupples &amp; Leon Co., Publishers, New York.</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>Copyright, 1915, by</p>
+<p>Cupples &amp; Leon Company</p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p><span class='sc'>Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound</span></p>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>Printed in U. S. A.</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p><span style='font-size:larger;'>CONTENTS</span></p>
+</div>
+<table class='c' summary='table of contents'>
+<tr><td style='font-size:smaller'>CHAPTER</td><td></td><td style='font-size:smaller'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>I.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sweet Briars and Sour Pickles</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chI'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>II.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Wild Girl</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chII'>12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>III.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sadie Raby’s Story</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIII'>23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“Them Perkinses”</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIV'>34</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>V.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“The Tramping Girl”</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chV'>45</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Seeking the Trail</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVI'>53</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>What Tom Cameron Saw</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVII'>61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Traveling Toward Sunrise Farm</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVIII'>68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IX.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Sunrise Coach</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIX'>77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>X.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“Touch and Go”</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chX'>85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Tobogganing in June</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXI'>91</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Number of Introductions</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXII'>100</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Terrible Twins</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXIII'>108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XIV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“Why! Of Course!”</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXIV'>114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Tempest</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXV'>120</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XVI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Runaway</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXVI'>128</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XVII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Black Douglass</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXVII'>135</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XVIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Sundry Plans</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXVIII'>143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XIX.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Safe and Sane Fourth?</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXIX'>151</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XX.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Raby Romance</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXX'>158</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XXI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>A Very Busy Time</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXXI'>166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XXII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Terrible Twins on the Rampage</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXXII'>173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XXIII.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Lost</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXXIII'>180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XXIV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>“So That’s All Right”</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXXIV'>189</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>XXV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Orphans’ Fortune</span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chXXV'>198</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<h1><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1'></a>1</span>Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm</h1>
+<h2><a name='chI' id='chI'></a>CHAPTER I—SWEET BRIARS AND SOUR PICKLES</h2>
+<p>
+The single gas jet burning at the end of the
+corridor was so dim and made so flickering a light
+that it added more to the shadows of the passage
+than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover
+which were realities and which shadows in
+the long gallery.
+</p>
+<p>
+Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms
+over the dormitory doors; yet that might
+not mean that there were no lights burning within
+the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory
+of Briarwood Hall. There were ways of
+shrouding the telltale transoms and—without
+doubt—the members of the advanced junior
+classes had learned such little tricks of the trade
+of being a schoolgirl.
+</p>
+<p>
+At one door—and it was the portal of the
+largest “quartette” room on the floor—a tall
+figure kept guard. At first this figure was so
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2'></a>2</span>
+silent and motionless that it seemed like a shadow
+only. But when another shadow crept toward
+it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard
+demanded, hissingly:
+</p>
+<p>
+“S-s-stop! who goes there?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge
+Steele!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sh!” commanded the guard. “Who goes
+there?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—why—— It’s <em>I</em>.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Give the password instantly. Answer!”
+commanded the guard again, and with some vexation.
+“‘I’ isn’t anybody.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that <em>this</em> ‘I’
+is somebody—according to the gym. scales. I
+gained three pounds over the Easter holidays,”
+said “Heavy” Jennie Stone, who had begun her
+reply with a giggle, but ended it with a sigh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Password, Miss!” snapped the guard,
+grimly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! of course!” Then the fat girl whispered
+shrilly: “‘Sincerity—befriend.’ That is
+what ‘S.&nbsp;B.’ stands for, I s’pose. Sweetbriars!
+and I have a big bag of sour pickles to offset the
+cloying sweetness of the Sweetbriars,” chuckled
+Heavy. “Besides, they say that vinegar pickles
+will make you thin——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t need them for that purpose,” admitted
+the guard at the door, still in a whisper,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span>
+but accepting the large, “warty” pickle Heavy
+thrust into her hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will make <em>me</em> thin, then,” agreed the other.
+“Let me in, Madge.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The guard, sucking the pickle convulsively the
+while, opened the door just a little way. A blanket
+had been hung on a frame inside in such a
+manner that scarcely a gleam of lamplight
+reached the corridor when the door was open.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pass the Sweetbriar!” choked Madge, with
+her mouth full and the tears running down her
+cheeks. “My goodness, Jennie Stone! these
+pickles are right out of vitriol!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sour, aren’t they?” chuckled Heavy. “I
+handed you a real one for fair, that time, didn’t
+I, Madge?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she tried to sidle through the narrow
+opening, got stuck, and was urged on by Madge
+pushing her. With a bang—punctuated by a
+chorus of muffled exclamations from the girls
+already assembled—she tore away the frame and
+the blanket and got through.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shut the door, quick, guard!” exclaimed
+Helen Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, that would be Heavy—entering
+like a female Samson and tearing down the pillars
+of the temple,” snapped Mercy Curtis, the
+lame girl, in her sharp way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Please repair the damage, Helen,” said Ruth
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4'></a>4</span>
+Fielding, who presided at the far end of the
+room, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.
+</p>
+<p>
+The other girls were arranged on the chairs,
+or upon the floor before her. There was a goodly
+number of them, and they now included most of
+the members of the secret society known at Briarwood
+Hall as the “S.&nbsp;B.’s.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth herself was a bright, brown-haired girl
+who, without possessing many pretensions to real
+beauty of feature, still was quite good to
+look at and proved particularly charming when
+one grew to know her well.
+</p>
+<p>
+She was rather plump, happy of disposition,
+and with the kindest heart in the world. She
+made both friends and enemies. No person of
+real character can escape being disliked, now and
+then, by those of envious disposition.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth Fielding succeeded, usually, in winning to
+her those who at first disliked her. And this, I
+claim, is a better gift than that of being universally
+popular from the start.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had come from her old home in Darrowtown,
+where her parents died, two years before,
+to the Red Mill on the Lumano River, where her
+great-uncle, Jabez Potter, the miller, was inclined
+at first to shelter her only as an object of his
+grudging charity. In the first volume of this
+series, however, entitled “Ruth Fielding of the
+Red Mill; Or, Jasper Parloe’s Secret,” the girl
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span>
+found her way—in a measure, at least—to the
+uncle’s crabbed heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+Uncle Jabez was a just man, and he considered
+it his duty, when Helen Cameron, Ruth’s
+dearest friend, was sent to Briarwood Hall to
+school, to send Ruth to the same institution. In
+the second volume, “Ruth Fielding at Briarwood
+Hall; Or, Solving the Campus Mystery,” was
+related the adventures, friendships, rivalries, and
+fun of Ruth’s and Helen’s first term at the old
+school.
+</p>
+<p>
+In “Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost
+in the Backwoods,” was told the adventures of
+Ruth and her friends at the Camerons’ winter
+camp during the Christmas holidays. At the end
+of the first year of school, they all went to the
+seaside, to experience many adventures in “Ruth
+Fielding at Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl
+Castaway,” the fourth volume of the series.
+</p>
+<p>
+A part of that eventful summer was spent by
+Ruth and her chums in Montana, and the girl of
+the Red Mill was enabled to do old Uncle Jabez
+such a favor that he willingly agreed to pay her
+expenses at Briarwood Hall for another year.
+This is all told in “Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch;
+Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls returned to Briarwood Hall and in
+the sixth volume of the series, entitled “Ruth
+Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span>
+Treasure Box,” Ruth was privileged to help Jerry
+Sheming and his unfortunate old uncle in the
+recovery of their title to Cliff Island in Lake
+Tallahaska, while she and her friends had some
+thrilling and many funny adventures during the
+mid-winter vacation.
+</p>
+<p>
+The second half of this school year was now
+old. The Easter recess was past and the girls
+were looking forward to the usual break-up in
+the middle of June. The hardest of the work
+for the year was over. Those girls who had been
+faithful in their studies prior to Easter could
+now take something of a breathing spell, and the
+S.&nbsp;B.’s were determined to initiate such candidates
+as had been on the waiting list for reception into
+the secrets of the most popular society in the
+school.
+</p>
+<p>
+The shrouded door of the quartette room occupied
+by Ruth, Helen, Mercy, and Jane Ann Hicks,
+from Montana, was opened carefully again and
+again until the outer guard, Madge Steele, had
+admitted all the candidates and most of the members
+of the S.&nbsp;B. order who were expected.
+</p>
+<p>
+Each girl was presented with at least half a
+big sour pickle from Heavy’s store; but really,
+the pickles had nothing to do with the initiation
+of the neophytes.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a serious and helpful side to the society
+of the S.&nbsp;B.’s—as witness the password.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span>
+Ruth, who was the most active member of the
+institution, realized, however, that the girls were
+so full of fun that they must have some way of
+expressing themselves out of the ordinary. Perhaps
+she had asked Mademoiselle Picolet, the
+French teacher, whose room was in this dormitory,
+and Miss Scrimp, the matron, to overlook
+this present infraction of the rules, for it must
+be admitted that the retiring bell had rung half
+an hour before the gathering in this particular
+room.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All here!” breathed Ruth, at last, and
+Madge was called in. The candidates were
+placed in the middle of the floor. Ann Hicks,
+the girl from Silver Ranch, was one of these.
+Ann had proved her character and made herself
+popular in the school against considerable odds,
+as related in the preceding volume. Now, the
+honor of being admitted into the secret society
+was added to the other marks of the school’s
+approval.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Candidates,” said Ruth, addressing in most
+solemn tones the group of girls before her, “you
+are about to be initiated into the degree of the
+Marble Harp. As Infants, when you first entered
+the school, you were all made acquainted
+with the legend of the Marble Harp.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The figure of <em>Harmony</em>, presiding over the
+fountain in the middle of the campus, was modeled by
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>
+the sculptor from the only daughter of
+the man who originally owned Briarwood Park
+before it became a school. Said sculptor and
+daughter—in the most approved fashion of the
+present day school of romanticist authors—ran
+away with each other, were married without the
+father’s approval, and both are supposed to have
+died miserably in a studio-garret.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The heart-broken father naturally left his
+cur-r-r-se upon the fountain, and it is said—mind
+you, this is hearsay,” added Ruth, solemnly,
+“that whenever anything of moment is about to
+transpire at Briarwood Hall, or any calamity befall,
+the strings of the marble harp held in the
+hands of <em>Harmony</em>, are heard to twang.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course, as has been pointed out before,
+the fact that the harp is in the shape of a <em>lyre</em>,
+must be considered, too, if one is to accept this
+legend. But, however, and nevertheless,” pursued
+Ruth, “it has been decided that the candidates
+here assembled must join in the Mackintosh
+March, and, in procession, led by our Outer
+Guard and followed—not to say <em>herded</em>—by our
+Rear Guard, must proceed once around the campus,
+down into the garden, and circle the fountain,
+chanting, as you have been instructed, the
+marching song.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All ready! You all have your mackintoshes,
+as instructed? Into them at once,” commanded
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>
+Ruth. “Into line—one after the other. Now,
+Outer Guard!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The lights were extinguished; the blanket
+at the door was removed; Madge Steele led
+the way and Heavy, as the Rear Guard, was
+last in the line. Shrouded in the hoods of the
+mackintoshes, scarcely one of the girls would have
+been recognized by any curious teacher or matron.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth hopped down from the bed, and the remaining
+Sweetbriars ran giggling to the windows.
+It was a drizzly, dark night. The paths about
+the campus glistened, and the lamps upon the
+posts flickered dimly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Out of the front door filed the procession;
+when they were far enough away from the buildings
+which surrounded the campus, they began
+the chant, based upon Tom Moore’s famous old
+song:
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“The&nbsp;&nbsp;harp&nbsp;&nbsp;that&nbsp;&nbsp;once&nbsp;&nbsp;through&nbsp;&nbsp;Briarwood&nbsp;&nbsp;Hall<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The&nbsp;&nbsp;soul&nbsp;&nbsp;of&nbsp;&nbsp;music&nbsp;&nbsp;shed,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Now&nbsp;&nbsp;hangs&nbsp;&nbsp;as&nbsp;&nbsp;mute&nbsp;&nbsp;o’er&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;&nbsp;campus&nbsp;&nbsp;fount<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As&nbsp;&nbsp;though&nbsp;&nbsp;that&nbsp;&nbsp;soul&nbsp;&nbsp;were&nbsp;&nbsp;dead.”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+Madge Steele, with her strong voice, led the
+chant. The girls, crowded at the open windows,
+began to giggle, for they could hear Heavy, at
+the end of the procession, sing out a very different
+verse.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That rascal ought to be fined for that,” murmured
+The Fox, the sandy-haired girl next to
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But, isn’t she funny?” gasped Helen, on the
+other side of the Chief of the S.&nbsp;B.’s.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear!” exclaimed Belle Tingley. “I
+hope Sarah Fish got there ahead of them. <em>Won’t</em>
+they be surprised when they get a baptism of a
+glass of water each from the fountain, as they
+go by?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’ll think the statue has come to life, sure
+enough, if it doesn’t twang the lyre,” quoth Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’ll get an unexpected ducking,” giggled
+Lluella Fairfax.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It won’t hurt them,” Ruth said, placidly.
+“That’s why I insisted upon the mackintoshes.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s just as dark down there by the fountain
+as it can be,” spoke Helen, with a little shiver.
+“D’you remember, Ruthie, how they hazed us
+there when we were Infants?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t I!” agreed her chum.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If Sarah is careful, she can stand right up
+there against the statue and never be seen, while
+she can reach the water to throw it at the girls
+easily. There!” cried Belle. “They’re turning
+down the walk to the steps. I can see them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They all could see them—dimly. Like shadows
+the procession descended to the marble fountain,
+still chanting softly the refrain of the marching song.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span>
+Suddenly a shriek—a very vigorous
+and startling sound—rang out across the campus.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s begun!” giggled Belle.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the sound was repeated—then in a thrilling
+chorus. Ruth was startled. She exclaimed:
+</p>
+<p>
+“That wasn’t either of the candidates. It was
+Sarah who screamed. There! It is Sarah again.
+Something has happened!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Something certainly had happened. There had
+been an unexpected fault somewhere in the initiation.
+The procession burst like a bombshell, and
+the girls scattered through the wet campus, utterly
+terrified, and screaming as they ran.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span><a name='chII' id='chII'></a>CHAPTER II—THE WILD GIRL</h2>
+<p>
+“Something awful must have occurred!”
+cried Helen Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth did not remain at the window for more
+than a moment after seeing the girls engaged in
+the initiation disperse, and hearing their screams.
+She drew back from the crowding group and
+darted out of the room. Fortunately neither the
+French teacher, nor the matron, had yet been
+aroused. If the girls came noisily into the dormitory
+building, Ruth knew very well that “the
+powers that be” must of necessity take cognizance
+of the infraction of the rules.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl from the Red Mill sped down the
+broad stairway and out of the house. Some of
+the fastest runners among the frightened girls
+were already panting at the steps.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hush! hush!” commanded Ruth. “What
+is the matter? What has happened?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! it’s the ghost!” declared one girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So’s your grandmother’s aunt!” snapped another.
+“Somebody shoved Sarah into the water.
+It was no ghost.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+It was Madge Steele who last spoke, and
+Ruth seized upon the senior, believing she might
+get something like a sensible explanation from
+her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You girls go into the house quietly,” warned
+Ruth, as they scrambled up the stone steps.
+“Don’t you <em>dare</em> make a noise and get us all into
+trouble.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she turned upon Madge, begging: “Do,
+<em>do</em> tell me what you mean, Madge Steele. <em>Who</em>
+pushed Sarah?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s what I can’t tell you. But I heard
+Sarah yelling that she was pushed, and she did
+most certainly fall right into the fountain when
+she climbed up there beside the statue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a ridiculous thing!” giggled Ruth.
+“Somebody played a trick on her. I guess she
+was fooled instead of the candidates being startled,
+eh?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I saw somebody—or something—drop off
+the other side of the fountain and run—I saw it
+myself,” declared Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Here comes Sarah,” cried Ruth, under her
+breath. “And I declare she <em>is</em> all wet!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sarah Fish was actually laughing, but in a
+hysterical way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me! was ever anything so ridiculous
+before?” she gasped.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hush! Don’t get Miss Picolet after us,”
+begged Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What really happened?” demanded Ruth,
+eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—I’ll tell you,” replied Sarah, whose
+gown clung to her as though it had been pasted
+upon her figure. “See? I’m just <em>soaked</em>. Talk
+about sprinkling those silly lambs of candidates!
+Why, <em>I</em> was immersed—you see.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But how?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I slipped over there before the procession
+started from these steps. I was watching the
+girls, and listening to them sing, and didn’t pay
+much attention to anything else.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But when I dodged down into the little garden,
+I thought I heard a footstep on the flags. I
+looked all around, and saw nothing. Now I
+know the person must have already climbed up
+on the fountain and gotten into the shadow of
+the statue—just as I wanted to do.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was there really somebody there?” demanded
+Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you think I got into the fountain, if
+not?” snapped Sarah Fish.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Fell in.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did not!” cried Sarah. “I was pushed.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Did She Fall, or Was She Pushed?’” giggled
+Madge. “Sounds like a moving picture
+title.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can laugh,” scoffed Sarah. “I wonder
+what you’d have done?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Got just as wet as you did, most likely,” said
+Ruth, calming the troubled waters. “Do go on,
+Sarah. So you really <em>saw</em> somebody?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And felt somebody. When I climbed up to
+get a footing beside the sitting figure, so that the
+girls would not see me, somebody shoved me—with
+both hands—right into the fountain.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s when you squalled?” asked Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, indeed! And I rolled out of the fountain
+just as the—the person who pushed me,
+tumbled down off the pedestal and ran.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“For pity’s sake!” ejaculated Ruth. “Do tell
+us who it was, Sarah.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you think I would if I could?” responded
+Sarah, trying to wring the water out of
+her narrow skirt.
+</p>
+<p>
+Through the gloom appeared another figure—the
+too, too solid figure of Jennie Stone.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh—dear—me! Oh—dear—me!” she
+panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish dripping
+there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and
+giggled. “Oh, Sarah!” she gasped. “For once,
+your appearance fits your name, all right. You
+look like a fish out of its element.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Laugh——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I have to,” responded Heavy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, if it were you——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know. I’d be floundering there in the water
+yet.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But tell me!” cried Ruth, under her breath.
+“Was it a girl who pushed you into the fountain,
+Sarah?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It wore skirts—I’m sure of that, at least,”
+grumbled Sarah.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw
+run,” vouchsafed Heavy. “<em>Did</em> you see her just
+skimming across the campus toward the main
+building? Like the wind!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It must be one of our girls,” declared Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right,” said Heavy. “But if so, it’s a
+girl I never saw run before. You can’t tell me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You had better go in and get off your clothes,
+Sarah,” advised Ruth. Then she looked at
+Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at
+Briarwood. “Let’s go and see if we can find
+the girl,” Ruth suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m game,” cried Madge, as the other stragglers
+mounted the steps and disappeared behind
+the dormitory building door.
+</p>
+<p>
+Both girls hurried down the walk under the
+trees to the main building. In one end of this
+Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode.
+In the other end was the dining-room, with the
+kitchens and other offices in the basement. Besides,
+Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work
+about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span>
+had their living rooms in the basement of this
+building.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter
+of the mysterious marauder without arousing
+the little old Irishman, but already they saw his
+lantern behind the grated window in the front
+basement, and, as the two girls came nearer, they
+heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bad ‘cess to ’em! I seen ’em cavortin’ across
+the campus, I tell ye, Mary Ann! There’s wan
+of thim down here in the airy——”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was evident that the old couple had been
+aroused, and that Tony was talking to his wife,
+who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized
+Madge’s wrist and whispered in her ear:
+</p>
+<p>
+“You run around one way, and I’ll go the
+other. There must be <em>somebody</em> about, for Tony
+saw her——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If it <em>is</em> a girl.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I’m not
+afraid,” declared Ruth, and she started off alone
+at once.
+</p>
+<p>
+Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth
+had darted into the heavily shaded space between
+the end of the main building and the next
+brick structure. There were no lights here, but
+there was a gas lamp on a post beyond the far
+corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw
+a shadow flit across the illuminated space about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>
+this post, and disappear behind a clump of snowball
+bushes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the
+other end of the clump of thick bushes, and suddenly
+collided with somebody who uttered a muffled
+scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both
+shoulders and held on.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl,
+who was considerably smaller, and far slighter
+than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did
+not say a word at first, only straining to get away
+from Ruth’s strong grip.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now stop! now wait!” panted Ruth. “I
+want to know who you are——”
+</p>
+<p>
+The other tugged her best, but the girl of the
+Red Mill was very strong for her age, and she
+held on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Stop!” panted Ruth again. “If you make
+a noise, you’ll bring old Tony here—and then you
+<em>will</em> be in trouble. I want to know who you are
+and what you were doing down there at the fountain—and
+why you pushed Sarah into the water?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I’d like to push <em>you</em> in!” ejaculated the
+other girl, suddenly. “You let go of me, or I’ll
+scratch you!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can’t,” replied Ruth, firmly. “I’m holding
+you too tight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then I’ll bite you!” vowed the other.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—you’re a regular wild girl,” exclaimed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span>
+Ruth. “You stop struggling, or I’ll shout for
+help, and then Tony will come running.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“D—don’t give me away,” gasped the
+strange girl, suddenly ceasing her struggles.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do you belong here?” demanded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Belong here? Naw! I don’t belong nowheres.
+An’ you better lemme go, Miss.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—you <em>are</em> a strange girl,” said Ruth,
+greatly amazed. “You can’t be one of us Briarwoods.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That ain’t my name a-tall,” whispered the
+frightened girl. “My name’s Raby.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But what were you doing over there at the
+fountain?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gettin’ a drink. Was <em>that</em> any harm?” demanded
+the girl, sharply. “I’d found some dry
+pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a
+box there by the back door. I reckoned she
+didn’t want the bread, and <em>I</em> did.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me!” whispered Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And dry bread’s dry eatin’,” said the strange
+girl. “I had ter have a drink o’ water to wash
+it down. And jest as I got down into that little
+place where I seed the fountain this afternoon——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, my, dear!” gasped Ruth. “Have you
+been lurking about the school all that time and
+never came and asked good old Mary Ann for
+something decent to eat?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! mebbe she’d a drove me off. Or mebbe
+she’d done worse to me,” said the other, quickly.
+“They beat me again day ’fore yesterday——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who beat you?” demanded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Them Perkinses. Now! don’t you go for to
+tell I said that. I don’t want to go back to ’em—and
+their house ain’t such a fur ways from here.
+If that cook—or any other grown folk—seen
+me, they’d want to send me back. I know ’em!”
+exclaimed the girl, bitterly. “But mebbe you’ll
+be decent about it, and keep your mouth shut.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I won’t tell a soul,” murmured Ruth.
+“But I’m so sorry. Only dry bread and
+water—”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! it’ll keep a feller alive,” said this
+strangely spoken girl. “I ain’t no softie. Now,
+you lemme go, will yer? My! but you <em>are</em>
+strong.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll let you go. But I do want to help you.
+I want to know more about you—<em>all</em> about you.
+But if Tony comes——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s his lantern. I see it. He’s a-comin’,”
+gasped the other, trying to wriggle free.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where will you stay to-night?” asked Ruth,
+anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I gotter place. It’s warm and dry. I stayed
+there las’ night. Come! you lemme go.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I want to help you——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Twon’t help me none to git me cotched.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I know it! Wait! Meet me somewhere
+near here to-morrow morning—will you? I’ll
+bring some money with me. I’ll help you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! ain’t you foolin’?” demanded the other,
+seemingly startled by the fact that Ruth wished
+to help her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. I speak the truth. I will help you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then I’ll meet you—but you won’t tell nobody?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a soul?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Cross yer heart?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t do such foolish things,” said Ruth.
+“If I say I’ll do a thing, I will do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right. What time’ll I see you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ten o’clock.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw-right,” agreed the strange girl. “I’ll be
+across the road from that path that’s bordered
+by them cedar trees——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Cedar Walk?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Guess so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shall be there. And will you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! I kin keep my word as well as you
+kin,” said the girl, sharply. Then she suddenly
+broke away from Ruth and ran. Tony Foyle
+came blundering around the corner of the house
+and Ruth, much excited, slipped away from the
+brush clump and ran as fast as she could to meet
+Madge Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! is that you, Ruth?” exclaimed the senior,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>
+when Ruth ran into her arms. “Tony’s out.
+We had better go back to bed, or he’ll report us
+to Mrs. Tellingham in the morning. I don’t
+know where the strange girl could have gone.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth did not say a word. Madge did not ask
+her, and the girl of the Red Mill allowed her
+friend to think that her own search had been
+quite as unsuccessful. But, as Ruth looked at it,
+it was not <em>her</em> secret.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span><a name='chIII' id='chIII'></a>CHAPTER III—SADIE RABY’S STORY</h2>
+<p>
+Ruth did not sleep at all well that night.
+Luckily, Helen had nothing on <em>her</em> mind or conscience,
+or she must have been disturbed by Ruth’s
+tossing and wakefulness. The other two girls
+in the big quartette room—Mercy Curtis and
+Ann Hicks—were likewise unaware of Ruth’s
+restlessness.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl of the Red Mill felt that she could
+take nobody into her confidence regarding the
+strange girl who said her name was Raby. Perhaps
+Ruth had no right to aid the girl if she was
+a runaway; yet there must be some very strong
+reason for making a girl prefer practical starvation
+to the shelter of “them Perkinses.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Bread and water! The thought of the child
+being so hungry that she had eaten discarded,
+dry bread, washed down with water from the
+fountain in the campus, brought tears to Ruth’s
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I wish I knew what was best to do
+for her,” thought Ruth. “Should I tell Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>
+Tellingham? Or, mightn’t I get some of the
+girls interested in her? Dear Helen has plenty
+of money, and she is just as tender-hearted as
+she can be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Yet Ruth had given her promise to take nobody
+into her confidence about the half-wild girl;
+and, with Ruth Fielding, “a promise was a
+promise!”
+</p>
+<p>
+In the morning, there was soon a buzz of excitement
+all over the school regarding the strange
+happening at the fountain on the campus. One
+girl whispered it to another, and the tale spread
+like wildfire. However, the teachers and the
+principal did not hear of the affair.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth’s lips, she decided, were sealed for the
+present regarding the mysterious girl who had
+pushed Sarah Fish into what Heavy declared
+was “her proper element.” The wildest and most
+improbable stories and suspicions were circulated
+before assembly hour, regarding the Unknown.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was so much said, and so many questions
+asked, in the quartette room where Ruth was located,
+that she felt like running away herself.
+But at mail time Madge Steele burst into the
+dormitory “charged to the muzzle,” as The Fox
+expressed it, with a new topic of conversation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What do you think, girls? Oh! what do
+you think?” she cried. “We’re going to live
+at Sunrise Farm.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha! you ask us a question and answer it in
+the same breath,” said Mercy, with a snap. “Now
+you’ve spilled the beans and we don’t care anything
+about it at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You <em>do</em> care,” declared Madge. “I ask <em>you</em>
+first of all, Mercy. I invite every one of you for
+the last week in June and the first two weeks of
+July at Sunrise Farm——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, wait!” exclaimed Mary Cox, otherwise
+“The Fox.” “Do begin at the beginning. I,
+for one, never heard of Sunrise Farm before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I believe <em>I</em> have,” said Ruth slowly. “But
+I don’t suppose it can be the same farm Madge
+means. It is a big stock farm and it’s not many
+miles from Darrowtown where I—I used to live
+once. <em>That</em> farm belonged to a family named
+Benson——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And a family named Steele owns it now,”
+put in Madge, promptly. “It’s the very same
+farm. It’s a big place—five hundred acres. It’s
+on a big, flat-topped hill. Father has been negotiating
+for the other farms around about, and
+has gotten options on most of them, too. He’s
+been doing it very quietly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now he says that the old house on the main
+farm is in good enough shape for us to live there
+this summer, while he builds a bigger house.
+And you shall all come with us—all you eight
+girls—the Brilliant Octette of Briarwood Hall.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“And Bob will get Helen’s brother, and Busy
+Izzy; and Belle shall invite her brothers if she
+likes, and——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! are you figuring on having a standing
+army there?” demanded Mercy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s all right. There is room. The old
+garret has been made over into two great dormitories——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you’ve been keeping all this to yourself,
+Madge Steele?” cried Helen. “What a nice
+girl you are. It sounds lovely.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And your mother and father will wish we
+had never arrived, after we’ve been there two
+days,” declared Heavy. “By the way, do they
+know I eat three square meals each day?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. And that if you are hungry, you get up
+in your sleep and find the pantry,” giggled The
+Fox.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Might as well have all the important details
+understood right at the start,” said Heavy, firmly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If you’ll all say you’ll come,” said Madge,
+smiling broadly, “we’ll just have the lov-li-est
+time!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But we’ll have to write home for permission,”
+Lluella Fairfax ventured.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course we shall,” chimed in Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then do so at once,” commanded the senior.
+“You see, this will be my graduation party. No
+more Briarwood for me after this June, and I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>
+don’t know what I shall do when I go to Poughkeepsie
+next fall and leave all you ‘Infants’ behind
+here——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Infants!</em> Listen to her!” shouted Belle
+Tingley. “Get out of here!” and under a shower
+of sofa pillows Madge Steele had to retire from
+the room.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth slipped away easily after that, for the
+other girls were gabbling so fast over the invitation
+for the early summer vacation, that they
+did not notice her departure.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was the hour she had promised to meet
+the strange girl in whom she had taken such a
+great interest the night before—it was between
+the two morning recitation hours.
+</p>
+<p>
+She ran down past the end of the dormitory
+building into the head of the long serpentine path,
+known as the Cedar Walk. The lines of closely
+growing cedars sheltered her from observation
+from any of the girls’ windows.
+</p>
+<p>
+The great bell in the clock tower boomed out
+ten strokes as Ruth reached the muddy road at
+the end of the walk. Nobody was in sight. Ruth
+looked up and down. Then she walked a little
+way in both directions to see if the girl she had
+come to meet was approaching.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I am afraid she isn’t going to keep her
+word,” thought Ruth. “And yet—somehow—she
+seemed so frank and honest——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+She heard a shrill, but low whistle, and the
+sound made her start and turn. She faced a
+thicket of scrubby bushes across the road. Suddenly
+she saw a face appear from behind this
+screen—a girl’s face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! Is it you?” cried Ruth, starting in
+that direction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Cheese it! don’t yell it out. Somebody’ll hear
+you,” said the girl, hoarsely.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me! you have a dreadful cold,”
+urged Ruth, darting around the clump of brush
+and coming face to face with the strange girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, <em>that</em> don’t give me so much worry,” said
+the Raby girl. “Aw—My goodness! Is that for
+<em>me</em>?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had unfolded a paper covered parcel she
+carried. There were sandwiches, two apples, a
+piece of cake, and half a box of chocolate candies.
+Ruth had obtained these supplies with some difficulty.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t suppose you would have any breakfast,”
+said Ruth, softly. “You sit right down on
+that dry log and eat. Don’t mind me. I—I was
+awake most all night worrying about you being
+out here, hungry and alone.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl had begun to eat ravenously, and now,
+with her mouth full, she gazed up at her new
+friend’s face with a suddenness that made Ruth
+pause.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say!” said the girl, with difficulty. “You’re
+all right. I seen you come down the path alone,
+but reckoned I’d better wait and see if you didn’t
+have somebody follerin’ on behind. Ye might
+have give me away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why! I told you I would tell nobody.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw, yes—I know. Mebbe I’d oughter have
+believed ye; but I dunno. Lots of folks has
+fooled me. Them Perkinses was as soft as butter
+when they came to take me away from the orphanage.
+But now they treat me as mean as dirt—yes,
+they do!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me! So you haven’t any mother
+or father?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not a one,” confessed the other. “Didn’t I
+tell you I was took from an orphanage? Willie
+and Dickie was taken away by other folks. I
+wisht somebody would ha’ taken us all three together;
+but I’m mighty glad them Perkinses
+didn’t git the kids.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She sighed with present contentment, and wiped
+her fingers on her skirt. For some moments Ruth
+had remained silent, listening to her. Now she
+had for the first time the opportunity of examining
+the strange girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+It had been too dark for her to see much of
+her the night before. Now the light of day revealed
+a very unkempt and not at all attractive
+figure. She might have been twelve—possibly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>
+fourteen. She was slight for her age, but she
+might be stronger than she appeared to Ruth.
+Certainly she was vigorous enough.
+</p>
+<p>
+She had black hair which was in a dreadful
+tangle. Her complexion was naturally dark, and
+she had a deep layer of tan, and over that quite
+a thick layer of dirt. Her hands and wrists were
+stained and dirty, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+She wore no hat, raw as the weather was. Her
+ragged dress was an old faded gingham; over it
+she wore a three-quarter length coat of some
+indeterminate, shoddy material, much soiled, and
+shapeless as a mealsack. Her shoes and stockings
+were in keeping with the rest of her outfit.
+</p>
+<p>
+Altogether her appearance touched Ruth Fielding
+deeply. This Raby girl was an orphan. Ruth
+remembered keenly the time when the loss of her
+own parents was still a fresh wound. Supposing
+no kind friends had been raised up for her? Suppose
+there had been no Red Mill for her to go
+to? She might have been much the same sort of
+castaway as this.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell me who you are—tell me all about
+yourself—do!” begged the girl of the Red Mill,
+sitting down beside the other on the log. “I
+am an orphan as well as you, my dear. Really,
+I am.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was you in the orphanage?” demanded the
+Raby girl, quickly.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no. I had friends——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You warn’t never a reg’lar orphan, then,”
+was the sharp response.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell me about it,” urged Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Me an’ the kids was taken to the orphanage
+just as soon as Mom died,” said the girl, in quite
+a matter-of-fact manner. “Pa died two months
+before. It was sudden. But Mom had been sickly
+for a long time—I can remember. I was six.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And how old are you now?” asked Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Twelve and a half. They puts us out to work
+at twelve anyhow, so them Perkinses got me,”
+explained the child. “I was pretty sharp and
+foxy when we went to the orphanage. The kids
+was only two and a half——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Both of them?” cried Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep. They’re twins, Willie and Dickie is.
+An’ awful smart—an’ pretty before they lopped
+off their curls at the orphanage. I was glad Mom
+was dead then,” said the girl, nodding. “She’d
+been heart-broke to see ’em at first without their
+long curls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I dunno now—not rightly—just what’s become
+of ’em,” went on the girl. “Mebbe they
+come back to the orphanage. The folks that took
+’em was nice enough, I guess, but the man thought
+two boys would be too much for his wife to take
+care of. She was a weakly lookin’ critter.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But the matron always said they shouldn’t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span>
+go away for keeps, unless they went together.
+My goodness me! they’d never be happy apart,”
+said the strange girl, wagging her head confidentially.
+“And they’re only nine now. There’s
+three years yet for the matron to find them a good
+home. Ye see, folks take young orphans on trial.
+I wisht them Perkinses had taken <em>me</em> on trial and
+then had sent me back. Or, I wisht they’d let the
+orphans take folks on trial instead of the other
+way ’round.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it must be very hard!” murmured Ruth.
+“And you and your little brothers had to be separated?’
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep. And Willie and Dickie liked their sister
+Sade a heap,” and the girl suddenly
+“knuckled” her eyes with her dirty hand to wipe
+away the tears. “Huh! I’m a big baby, ain’t I?
+Well! that’s how it is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you really have run away from the people
+that took you from the orphanage, Sadie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Betcher! So would you. Mis’ Perkins is
+awful cross, an’ he’s crosser! I got enough——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wouldn’t they take you back at the orphanage?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope. No runaways there. I’ve seen other
+girls come back and they made ’em go right away
+again with the same folks. You see, there’s a
+Board, or sumpin’; an’ the Board finds out all
+about the folks that take away the orphans in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>
+first place. Then they won’t never own up that
+they was fooled, that Board won’t. They allus
+say it’s the kids’ fault if they ain’t suited.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly the girl jumped up and peered through
+the bushes. Ruth had heard the thumping of
+horses’ hoofs on the wet road.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness!” gasped Sadie Raby.
+“Here’s ol’ Perkins hisself. He’s come clean
+over this road to look for me. Don’t you tell
+him——”
+</p>
+<p>
+She seized Ruth’s wrist with her claw-like little
+hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you be afraid,” said Ruth. “And take
+this.” She thrust a closely-folded dollar bill into
+the girl’s grimy fingers. “I wish it was more. I’ll
+come here again to-morrow——”
+</p>
+<p>
+The other had darted into the woods ere she
+had ceased speaking. Somebody shouted
+“Whoa!” in a very harsh voice, and then a
+heavy pair of cowhide boots landed solidly in
+the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I see ye, ye little witch!” exclaimed the harsh
+voice. “Come out o’ there before I tan ye with
+this whip!” and the whip in question snapped
+viciously as the speaker pounded violently through
+the clump of bushes, right upon the startled Ruth.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span><a name='chIV' id='chIV'></a>CHAPTER IV—“THEM PERKINSES”</h2>
+<p>
+It was a fact that Ruth crouched back behind
+the log, fearful of the wrathful farmer. He was
+a big, coarse, high-booted, red-faced man, and
+he swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he
+carried as though he really intended using the
+cruel instrument upon the tender body of the girl,
+whose figure he had evidently seen dimly through
+the bushes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come out ’o that!” he bawled, striding toward
+the log, and making the whiplash whistle
+once more in the air.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth leaped up, screaming with fear. “Don’t
+you touch me, sir! Don’t you dare!” she cried,
+and ran around the bushes out in to the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+The blundering farmer followed her, still snapping
+the whip. Perhaps he had been drinking; at
+least, it was certain he was too angry to see the
+girl very well until they were both in the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he halted, and added:
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll be whipsawed if that’s the gal!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am <em>not</em> the girl—not the girl you want—poor
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>
+thing!” gasped Ruth. “Oh! you are horrid—terrible——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Shut up, ye little fool!” exclaimed the man,
+harshly. “You know where Sade is, then, I’ll be
+bound.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“How do you know——?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha! ye jest the same as told me,” he returned,
+grinning suddenly and again snapping the whip.
+“You can tell me where that runaway’s gone.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know. Even if I did, I would not tell
+you, sir,” declared Ruth, recovering some of her
+natural courage now.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t ye sass me—nor don’t ye lie to me,”
+and this time he swung the cruel whip, until the
+long lash whipped around her skirts about at a
+level with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth
+cringed and shrieked aloud again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Stop yer howling!” commanded Perkins.
+“Tell me about Sade Raby. Where’s she gone?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I don’t know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Warn’t she right there in them bushes with
+you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I shan’t tell you anything more,” declared
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ye won’t?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The brute swung the blacksnake—this time in
+earnest. It cracked, and then the snapper laid
+along the girl’s forearm as though it were seared
+with a hot iron.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth shrieked again. The pain was more
+than she could bear in silence. She turned to
+flee up the Cedar Walk, but Perkins shouted at
+her to stand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You try ter run, my beauty, and I’ll cut ye
+worse than that,” he promised. “You tell me
+about Sade Raby.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly there came a hail, and Ruth turned
+in hope of assistance. Old Dolliver’s stage came
+tearing along the road, his bony horses at a hand-gallop.
+The old man, whom the girls of Briarwood
+Hall called “Uncle Noah,” brought his
+horses—and the Ark—to a sudden halt.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What yer doin’ to that gal, Sim Perkins?”
+the old man demanded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that to you, Dolliver?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll find out mighty quick. Git out o’ here
+or you’ll git into trouble. Did he hurt you, Miss
+Ruth?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No-o—not much,” stammered Ruth, who desired
+nothing so much as to get way from
+the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No
+wonder she had been forced to run away from
+“them Perkinses.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll see you jailed yet, Sim, for some of your
+meanness,” said the old stage driver. “And you’ll
+git there quick if you bother Mis’ Tellingham’s
+gals——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t know she was one ‘o them tony school
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>
+gals,” growled Perkins, getting aboard his wagon
+again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, she is—an’ one ‘o the best of the lot,”
+said Dolliver, and he smiled comfortably at
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! whad-she wanter be in comp’ny of that
+brat ’o mine, then?” demanded Perkins, gathering
+up his reins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! are you hunting that orphanage gal ye
+took to raise? I heard she couldn’t stand you
+and Ma Perkins no longer,” Dolliver said, with
+sarcasm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never you mind. I’ll git her,” said Perkins,
+and whipped up his horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, me!” cried Ruth, when he had
+gone. “What a terrible man, Mr. Dolliver.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yah!” scoffed the old driver. “Jest a bag
+of wind. Mean as can be, but a big coward.
+Meanes’ folks around here, them Perkinses air.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But why were they allowed to have that poor
+girl, then?” demanded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They went a-fur off to git her. Clean to Harburg.
+Nobody knowed ’em there, I s’pose. Why,
+Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn’t melt in
+her mouth, if she wants to. But I sartainly am
+sorry for that poor little Sade Raby, as they call
+her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I do pity her so,” said Ruth, sadly.
+</p>
+<p>
+The old man’s eyes twinkled. Old Dolliver
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>
+was sly! “Then ye <em>do</em> know suthin’ about Sade—jes’
+as Perkins said?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She was here just now. I gave her something
+to eat—and a little money. You won’t tell, Mr.
+Dolliver?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! No. But dunno’s ye’d oughter helped
+a runaway. That’s agin’ the law, ye see.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Would the law give that poor girl back to
+those ugly people?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I s’pect so,” said Dolliver, scratching his
+head. “Ye see, Sim Perkins an’ his wife air folks
+ye can’t really go agin’—not <em>much</em>. Sim owns a
+good farm, an’ pays his taxes, an’ ain’t a bad
+neighbor. But they’ve had trouble before naow
+with orphans. But before, ’twas boys.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I just hope they all ran away!” cried Ruth,
+with emphasis.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wal—they did, by golly!” ejaculated the
+stage driver, preparing to drive on.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And if you see this poor girl, you won’t tell
+anybody, will you, Mr. Dolliver?” pleaded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I jes’ sha’n’t see her,” said the man, his little
+eyes twinkling. “But you take my advice, Miss
+Fielding—don’t <em>you</em> see her, nuther!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth ran back to the school then—it was time.
+She could not think of her lessons properly because
+of her pity for Sadie Raby. Suppose that
+horrid man should find the poor girl!
+</p>
+<p>
+Every time Ruth saw the red welt on her arm,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span>
+where the whiplash had touched her, she wondered
+how many times Perkins had lashed Sadie
+when he was angry. It was a dreadful thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+Although she had promised Sadie to keep her
+secret, Ruth wondered if she might not do the
+girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about
+her. Ruth was not afraid of the dignified principal
+of Briarwood Hall—she knew too well Mrs.
+Grace Tellingham’s good heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+She determined at least that if Sadie appeared
+at the end of the Cedar Walk the next day she
+would try to get the runaway girl to go with her
+to the principal’s office. Surely the girl should
+not run wild in the woods and live any way and
+how she could—especially so early in the season,
+for there was still frost at night.
+</p>
+<p>
+When Ruth ran down the long walk between
+the cedar trees the next forenoon at ten, there
+was nobody peering through the bushes where
+Sadie Raby had watched the day before. Ruth
+went up and down the road, into the woods a
+little way, too—and called, and called. No reply.
+Nothing answered but a chattering squirrel and
+a jay who seemed to object to any human being
+disturbing the usual tenor of the woods’ life
+thereabout.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Perhaps she’ll come this afternoon,” thought
+Ruth, and she hid the package of food she had
+brought, and went back to her classes.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+In the afternoon she had no better luck. The
+runaway did not appear. The food had not been
+touched. Ruth left the packet, hoping sadly that
+the girl might find it.
+</p>
+<p>
+The next morning she went again. She even
+got up an hour earlier than usual and slipped out
+ahead of the other girls. The food had been disturbed—oh,
+yes! But by a dog or some “varmint.”
+Sadie had not been to the rendezvous.
+</p>
+<p>
+Hoping against hope, Ruth Fielding tacked a
+note in an envelope to the log on which she and
+Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she
+could do, save to go each day for a time to see
+if the strange girl had found the note.
+</p>
+<p>
+There came a rain and the letter was turned
+to pulp. Then Ruth Fielding gave up hope of
+ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told
+her that the orphan had never returned to “them
+Perkinses.” For this Ruth might be thankful, if
+for nothing more.
+</p>
+<p>
+The busy days and weeks passed. All the girls
+of Ruth’s clique were writing back and forth to
+their homes to arrange for the visit they expected
+to make to Madge Steele’s summer home—Sunrise
+Farm. The senior was forever singing the
+praises of her father’s new acquisition. Mr.
+Steele had closed contracts to buy several of the
+neighboring farms, so that, altogether, he hoped
+to have more than a thousand acres in his estate.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“And, don’t you <em>dare</em> disappoint me, Ruthie
+Fielding,” cried Madge, shaking her playfully.
+“We won’t have any good time without you, and
+you haven’t said you’d go yet!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I can’t say so until I know myself,” Ruth
+told her. “Uncle Jabez——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That uncle of yours must be a regular ogre,
+just as Helen says.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What does Mercy say about him?” asked
+Ruth, with a quiet smile. “Mercy knows him
+fully as well, and she has a sharp tongue.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! that’s odd, too. She doesn’t seem
+to think your Uncle Jabez is a very harsh man.
+She calls him ‘Dusty Miller,’ I know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Uncle Jabez has a prickly rind, I guess,” said
+Ruth. “But the meat inside is sweet. Only he’s
+old-fashioned and he can’t get used to new-fashioned
+ways. He doesn’t see any reason for my
+‘traipsing around’ so much. I ought to be at the
+mill between schooltimes, helping Aunt Alvirah—so
+he says. And I am afraid he is right. I feel
+condemned——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re too tender-hearted. Helen says he’s
+as rich as can be and might hire a dozen girls to
+help ‘Aunt Alviry’.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He might, but he wouldn’t,” returned Ruth,
+smiling. “I can’t tell you yet for sure that I
+can go to Sunrise Farm. I’d love to. I’ve always
+heard ’twas a beautiful place.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“And it is, indeed! It’s going to be the finest
+gentleman’s estate in that section, when father
+gets through with it. He’s going to make it a
+great, big, paying farm—so he says. If it wasn’t
+for that man Caslon, we’d own the whole hill
+all the way around, as well as the top of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who’s that?” asked Ruth, surprised that
+Madge should speak so sharply about the unknown
+Caslon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, he owns one of the farms adjoining.
+Father’s bought all the neighbors up but Caslon.
+<em>He</em> won’t sell. But I reckon father will find a
+way to make him, before he gets through. Father
+usually carries his point,” added Madge, with
+much pride in Mr. Steele’s business acumen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Uncle Jabez had not yet said Ruth could go
+with the crowd to the Steeles’ summer home;
+Aunt Alvirah wrote that he was “studyin’ about
+it.” But there was so much to do at Briarwood
+as the end of the school year approached, that
+the girl of the Red Mill had little time to worry
+about the subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+Although Ruth and Helen Cameron were far
+from graduation themselves, they both had parts
+of some prominence in the exercises which were
+to close the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was
+in a quartette selected from the Glee Club for
+some special music, and Helen had a small violin
+solo part in one of the orchestral numbers.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Not many of the juniors, unless they belonged
+to either the school orchestra or the Glee Club,
+would appear to much advantage at graduation.
+The upper senior class was in the limelight—and
+Madge Steele was the only one of Ruth’s close
+friends who was to receive her diploma.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We who aren’t seniors have to sit around
+like bumps on a log,” growled Heavy. “Might
+as well go home for good the day before.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You should have learned to play, or sing, or
+something,” advised one of the other girls, laughing
+at Heavy’s apparently woebegone face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Did you ever hear me try to sing, Lluella?”
+demanded the plump young lady. “I like music
+myself—I’m very fond of it, no matter how it
+sounds! But I can’t even stand my own chest-tones.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Preparations for the great day went on apace.
+There was to be a professional director for the
+augmented orchestra and he insisted, because of
+the acoustics of the hall, upon building an elevated
+extension to the stage, upon which to stand to
+conduct the music.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee!” gasped Heavy, when she saw it the
+first time. “What’s the diving-board for?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s not a diving-board,” snapped Mercy
+Curtis. “It’s the lookout station for the captain
+to watch the high C’s.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The bustle and confusion of departure punctuated the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span>
+final day of the term, too. There were
+so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer;
+and some, of course, would never come back to
+Briarwood Hall again—as scholars, at least.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the midst of the excitement Ruth received a
+letter in the crabbed hand of dear old Aunt Alvirah.
+The old lady enclosed a small money
+order, fearing that Ruth might not have all the
+money she needed for her home-coming. But the
+best item in the letter beside the expression of
+Aunt Alvirah’s love, was the statement that
+“Your Uncle Jabe, he’s come round to agreeing
+you should go to that Sunrise Farm place with
+your young friends. I made him let me hire a
+tramping girl that came by, and we got the house
+all rid up, so when you come home, my pretty, all
+you got to do is to visit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I <em>will</em> visit with her—the unselfish old
+dear!” Ruth told herself. “Dear me! how very,
+very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid
+poor Uncle Jabez wouldn’t be so kind if he wasn’t
+influenced by Aunt Alvirah.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span><a name='chV' id='chV'></a>CHAPTER V—“THE TRAMPING GAL”</h2>
+<p>
+The old clock that had hung in the Red Mill
+kitchen from the time of Uncle Jabez Potter’s
+grandfather—and that was early time on the Lumano,
+indeed!—hesitatingly tolled the hour of
+four.
+</p>
+<p>
+Daybreak was just behind the eastern hills. A
+light mist swathed the silent current of the river.
+Here and there, along the water’s edge, a tall
+tree seemed floating in the air, its bole and roots
+cut off by the drifting mist.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it is very, very beautiful here!” sighed
+Ruth Fielding, kneeling at the open window and
+looking out upon the awakening world—as she
+had done many and many another early morning
+since first she was given this little gable-windowed
+room for her very own.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sweet, clean, cool air breathed in upon her
+bare throat and shoulders, revealed through the
+lace trimming of her night robe. Ruth loved
+linen like other girls, and although Uncle Jabez
+gave her spending money with a rather niggardly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>
+hand, she and Aunt Alvirah knew how to make
+the pennies “go a long way” in purchasing and
+making her gowns and undergarments.
+</p>
+<p>
+There lay over a chair, too, a pretty, light blue,
+silk trimmed crepe-cloth kimona, with warm, fur-edged
+slippers to match, on the floor. The moment
+she heard Uncle Jabez rattle the stove-shaker
+in the kitchen, Ruth slipped into this robe,
+and thrust her bare feet into the slippers. Her
+braids she drew over her shoulders—one on
+either side—as she hurried out of the little chamber
+and down the back stairs.
+</p>
+<p>
+She had arrived home from Briarwood the
+night before. For more than eight months she
+had seen neither Uncle Jabez nor Aunt Alvirah;
+and she had been so tired and sleepy on her arrival
+that she had quickly gone to bed. She felt
+as though she had scarcely greeted the two old
+people.
+</p>
+<p>
+Uncle Jabez was bending over the kitchen
+stove. He always looked gray of face, and dusty.
+The mill-dust seemed ground into both his clothes
+and his complexion.
+</p>
+<p>
+The first the old man knew of her presence,
+the arms of Ruth were around his neck.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ugh-huh?” questioned the old man, raising
+up stiffly as the fire began to chatter, the flames
+flashing under the lids, and turned to face the girl
+who held him so lovingly. “What’s wanted,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>
+Niece Ruth?” he added, looking at her grimly
+under his bristling brows.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth was not afraid of his grimness. She had
+learned long since that Uncle Jabez was much
+softer under the surface than he appeared. He
+claimed to be only just to her; but Ruth knew
+that his “justice” often leaned toward the side
+of mercy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Her mother, Mary Potter, had been the
+miller’s favorite niece; when she had married
+Ruth’s father, Uncle Jabez had been angry, and
+for years the family had been separated. But
+when Uncle Jabez had taken Ruth in “just out
+of charity,” old Aunt Alvirah had assured the
+heartsick girl that the miller was kinder at heart
+than he wished people to suppose.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He don’t never let his right hand know what
+his left hand doeth,” declared the loyal little old
+woman who had been so long housekeeper for
+the miller. “He saved me from the poorhouse—yes,
+he did!—jest to git all the work out o’ me
+he could—to hear him tell it!
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it ain’t so,” quoth Aunt Alvirah, shaking
+her head. “He saw a lone ol’ woman turned
+out o’ what she’d thought would be her home
+till she come to death’s door. An’ so he opened
+his house and his hand to her. An’ he’s opened
+his house and hand to <em>you</em>, my pretty; and who
+knows? mebbe ’twill open wide his heart, too.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had been hoping the old man’s heart <em>was</em>
+open, not only to her, but to the whole world.
+She knew that, in secret, Uncle Jabez was helping
+to pay Mercy Curtis’s tuition at Briarwood. He
+still loved money; he always would love it, in all
+probability. But he had learned to “loosen up,”
+as Tom Cameron expressed it, in a most astonishing
+way. One could not honestly call Uncle Jabez
+a miser nowadays.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was miserly in the outward expression of
+any affection, however. And that apparent coldness
+Ruth Fielding longed to break down.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now the girl, all flushed from her deep sleep,
+and smiling, lifted her rosy lips to be kissed. “I
+didn’t scarcely say ‘how-do’ to you last night,
+Uncle,” she said. “Do tell me you’re glad to
+see me back.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha! Ye ain’t minded to stay long, it seems.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I won’t go to Sunrise Farm if you want me
+here, Uncle Jabez,” declared Ruth, still clinging
+to him, and with the same smiling light in
+her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha! ye don’t mean that,” he grunted.
+</p>
+<p>
+He knew she did. His wrinkled, hard old face
+finally began to change. His eyes tried to escape
+her gaze.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I just <em>love</em> you, Uncle,” she breathed, softly.
+“Won’t—won’t you let me?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There, there, child!” He tried for a moment to break
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span>
+her firm hold; then he stooped
+shamefacedly and touched her fresh lips with his
+own.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth nestled against his big, strong body, and
+clung a moment longer. His rough hand
+smoothed her sleek head almost timidly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There, there!” he grumbled. “You’re gittin’
+to be a big gal, I swow! And what good’s
+so much schoolin’ goin’ ter do ye? Other gals
+like you air helpin’ in their mothers’ kitchens—or
+goin’ to work in the mills at Cheslow. Seems
+like a wicked waste of time and money.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But he did not say it so harshly as had been his
+wont in the old times. Ruth smiled up at him
+again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Trust me, Uncle,” she said. “The time’ll
+come when I’ll prove to you the worth of it.
+Give me the education I crave, and I’ll support
+myself and pay you all back—with interest! You
+see if I don’t.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, well! It’s new-fashioned, I s’pose,”
+growled the old man, starting for the mill. “Gals,
+as well as boys, is lots more expense now than
+they used ter be to raise. The ‘three R’s’ was
+enough for us when I was young.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I won’t stop yer fun. I promised yer
+Aunt Alviry I wouldn’t,” he added, with his hand
+upon the door-latch. “You kin go to that Sunrise
+place for a while, if ye want. Yer Aunt
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>
+Alviry got a trampin’ gal that came along, ter
+help her clean house.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! and isn’t the girl here now?” asked
+Ruth, preparing to run back to dress.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope. She’s gone on. Couldn’t keep her no
+longer. And my! how that young ’un could eat!
+Never saw the beat of her,” added Uncle Jabez
+as he clumped out in his heavy boots.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth heard more about “that trampin’ girl”
+when Aunt Alvirah appeared. Before that happened,
+however, the newly returned schoolgirl
+proved she had not forgotten how to make a
+country breakfast.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sliced corned ham was frying nicely; the
+potatoes were browning delightfully in another
+pan. Fluffy biscuits were ready to take out of
+the oven, and the cream was already whipped for
+the berries and the coffee.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gracious me! child alive!” exclaimed the
+little old woman, coming haltingly into the room.
+“You an’ Jabez air in a conspiracy to spile me—right
+from the start. Oh, my back! and oh, my
+bones!” and she lowered herself carefully into a
+chair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I did sartain sure oversleep this day. Ben
+done the chores? An’ ye air all ready, my pretty?
+Jest blow the horn, then, and yer uncle will come
+in. My! what a smart leetle housekeeper you be,
+Ruth. School ain’t spiled ye a mite.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Uncle is still afraid it will,” laughed Ruth,
+kissing the old woman fondly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He only <em>says</em> that,” whispered Aunt Alvirah,
+with twinkling eyes. “He’s as proud of ye as he
+can stick—I know!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It—it would be nice, if he said so once in a
+while,” admitted the girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+After the hearty breakfast was disposed of and
+the miller and his hired man had tramped out
+again, the old housekeeper and Ruth became more
+confidential.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It sartain sure did please me,” said Aunt
+Alvirah, “when Jabez let me take in that
+trampin’ gal for a week an’ more. He paid her
+without a whimper, too. But, she <em>did</em> eat!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So he said,” chuckled Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. More’n a hired hand in thrashin’ time.
+I never seen her beat. But I reckon the poor
+little thing was plumb starved. They never feed
+’em ha’f enough in them orphan ‘sylums, I don’t
+s’pect.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“From an orphanage?” cried Ruth, with sudden
+interest born of her remembrance of the
+mysterious Sadie Raby.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So I believe. She’d run away, I s’pect. I
+hadn’t the heart to blame her. An’ she was close-mouthed
+as a clam,” declared Aunt Alvirah.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How did you come to get her?” queried the
+interested Ruth.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“She walked right up to the door. She’d been
+travelin’ far—ye could see that by her shoes, if
+ye could call ’em shoes. I made her take ’em off
+by the fire, an’ then I picked ’em up with the
+tongs—they was just pulp—and I pitched ’em
+onto the ash-heap.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, she stayed that night, o’ course. It
+was rainin’. Your Uncle Jabez wouldn’t ha’
+turned a dog out in sech weather. But he made
+me put her to bed on chairs here.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was plain she was delighted to have somebody
+to talk to—and as that somebody was ‘her
+pretty,’ the dear old soul was all the more joyful.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So, one thing led to another,” pursued Aunt
+Alvirah, “and I got him to let me keep her to
+help rid the house up. You know, you wrote me
+to wait till you come home for house-cleanin’.
+But I worked Jabez Potter <em>right</em>; I know how to
+manage him,” said she, nodding and smiling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you didn’t know who the girl was?”
+asked Ruth, still curious. “Nothing about her
+at all?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not much. She was short-tongued, I tell ye.
+But I gathered she had been an orphan a long
+time and had lived at an institution.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not even her name?” asked Ruth, at last.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, yes. She told her name—and it was
+her true one, I reckon,” Aunt Alviry said. “It
+was Sadie Raby.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span><a name='chVI' id='chVI'></a>CHAPTER VI—SEEKING THE TRAIL</h2>
+<p>
+“I might have known that! I might have
+known it!” Ruth exclaimed when she heard this.
+“And if I’d only written you or Uncle Jabez
+about her, maybe you would have kept her till
+I came. I wanted to help that girl,” and Ruth
+all but shed tears.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Deary, deary me!” cried Aunt Alvirah.
+“Tell me all about it, my pretty.”
+</p>
+<p>
+So Ruth related all she knew about the half-wild
+girl whose acquaintance she had made at
+Briarwood Hall under such peculiar circumstances.
+And she told just how Sadie looked
+and all about her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” agreed Aunt Alvirah. “That was the
+trampin’ gal sure enough. She was honest, jest
+as you say. But your uncle had his doubts.
+However, she looked better when she went away
+from here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m glad of that,” Ruth said, heartily.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You know one o’ them old dresses of yours
+you wore to Miss Cramp’s school—the one Helen
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span>
+give you?” said old Aunt Alvirah, hesitatingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, indeed!” said Ruth. “And how badly
+I felt when the girls found out they were ‘hand-me-downs.’
+I’ll never forget them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“One of them I fitted to that poor child,”
+said Aunt Alvirah. “The poor, skinny little
+thing. I wisht I could ha’ kep’ her long enough
+to put some flesh on her bones.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth hugged the little old woman. “You’re
+a dear, Aunty! I bet you fixed her up nice before
+she went away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Wal, she didn’t look quite sech a tatterdemalion,”
+granted Aunt Alvirah. “But I was
+sorry for her. I am allus sorry for any young
+thing that’s strayin’ about without a home or a
+mother. But natcherly Jabez wouldn’t hear to
+keepin’ her after the cleanin’ was done. It’s his
+<em>nearness</em>, Ruthie; he can’t help it. Some men
+chew tobacco, and your Uncle Jabez is <em>close</em>.
+It’s their nater. I’d ruther have a stingy man
+about, than a tobacco chewin’ man—yes, indeed
+I had!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth laughed and agreed with her. Yet she
+was very sorry that Sadie Raby, “the tramping
+girl,” had been allowed to move on without those
+at the Red Mill, who had sheltered her, discovering
+her destination.
+</p>
+<p>
+She learned that Sadie had gone to Cheslow—at
+least, in that direction—and when Helen came
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span>
+spinning along in one of her father’s cars from
+Outlook that afternoon, and wanted to take
+Ruth for a drive, the latter begged to ride
+“Cheslowward.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Besides, we both want to see Dr. Davison—and
+there’s Mercy’s mother. And Miss Cramp
+will be glad to see me, I know; we’ll wait till
+her school is out,” Ruth suggested.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re boss,” declared her chum. “And
+paying calls ‘all by our lonesomes’ will be fun
+enough. Tom’s deserted me. He’s gone tramping
+with Reno over toward the Wilkins Corner
+road—you know, that place where he was hurt
+that time, and you and Reno found him,” Helen
+concluded.
+</p>
+<p>
+This was “harking back” to the very first
+night Ruth had arrived at Cheslow from her old
+home at Darrowtown. But she was not likely to
+forget it, for through that accident of Master
+Tom Cameron’s, she had met this very dear
+friend beside her now in the automobile.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me! and the fun we used to have
+when we were little girls—‘member, Ruthie?”
+demanded Helen, laughing. “My! isn’t it warm?
+Is my face shiny?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just a little,” admitted Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never can keep the shine off,” said Helen,
+bitterly. “Here! you take the wheel and let me
+find my powder-paper. Tom says he believes I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>
+smoke cigarettes and roll them myself,” and
+Helen giggled.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth carefully changed seats with her chum,
+who immediately produced the booklet of slips
+from her vanity case and rubbed the offending
+nose vigorously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have a care, Helen! you’ll make it all red,”
+urged Ruth, laughing. “You <em>do</em> go at everything
+so excitedly. Anybody would think you
+were grating a nutmeg.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Horrid thing! My nose doesn’t look at all
+like a nutmeg.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it will—if you don’t look out,” laughed
+Ruth. “Oh, dear, me! here comes a big wagon.
+Do you suppose I can get by it safely?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If he gives you any room. There! he has
+begun to turn out. Now, just skim around
+him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth was careful and slowed down. This did
+not suit the fly-away Helen. “Come on!” she
+urged. “We’ll never even get to the old doctor’s
+house if you don’t hurry.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She began to manipulate the levers herself and
+soon they were shooting along the Cheslow road
+at a speed that made Ruth’s eyes water.
+</p>
+<p>
+They came safely to the house with the green
+lamps before it, and ran in gaily to see their
+friend, Dr. Davison. For the moment the good
+old gentleman chanced to be busy and waved
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span>
+them into the back office to wait until he was
+free.
+</p>
+<p>
+Old Mammy, who presided over the doctor’s
+old-fashioned establishment, had spied the girls
+and almost immediately the tinkling of ice in a
+pitcher announced the approach of one of
+Mammy’s pickaninny grandchildren with a supply
+of her famous lemonade and a plate of cakes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mammy said you done git hungery waitin’,”
+declared the grinning, kinky-haired child who presented
+herself with the refreshments. “An’ a
+drink on one o’ dese yere dusty days is allus
+welcome, misses.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she giggled, and darted away to the lower
+regions of the house, leaving the two chums to
+enjoy the goodies. Helen was cheerfully curious,
+and had to go looking about the big office, peeking
+into the bookcases, looking at the “specimens”
+in bottles along the shelf, trying to spell
+out and understand the Latin labels on the jars
+of drugs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Miss Nosey!” whispered Ruth, admonishingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There you go! hitting my nose again,” sighed
+Helen. And then she jumped back and almost
+screamed. For in fooling with the knob of a
+narrow closet door, it had snapped open, the
+door swung outward, and Helen found herself
+facing an articulated skeleton!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness gracious me!” exclaimed Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, no,” giggled Ruth. “It’s not you at
+all. It’s somebody else.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Funny!” scoffed Helen. Then she laughed,
+too. “It’s somebody the doctor’s awfully choice
+of. Do you suppose it was his first patient?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hush! Suppose he heard you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He’d laugh,” returned Helen, knowing the
+kindly old physician too well to be afraid of him
+in any case. “Now, behave! Don’t say a word.
+I’m going to dress him up.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” gasped Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll see,” said the daring Helen, and she
+seized an old hat of the doctor’s from the top
+of the bookcase and set it jauntily upon the grinning
+skull.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness! doesn’t he look terrible that
+way? Oh! I’ll shut the door. He wiggles all
+over—<em>just as though he were alive</em>!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then they heard the doctor bidding his
+caller good-bye, or Helen might have done some
+other ridiculous thing. The old gentleman came
+in, rubbing his hands, and with his eyes twinkling.
+He was a man who had never really grown old,
+and he liked to hear the girls tell of their school
+experiences, chuckling over their scrapes and
+antics with much delight.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And how has my Goody Two-sticks gotten
+along this year?” he asked, for he was much
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span>
+interested in Mercy Curtis and her improvement,
+both physically and mentally. Had it not been
+for the doctor, Mercy might never have gotten
+out of her wheelchair, or gone to Briarwood
+Hall.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’s going to beat us all,” Helen declared,
+with enthusiasm. “Isn’t she, Ruth?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She will if we don’t work pretty hard,” admitted
+the girl of the Red Mill, who was hoping
+herself to be finally among the first few members
+of her class at the Hall. “But I would rather
+see Mercy win first place, I believe, than anybody
+else—unless it is you, Helen.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you fret,” laughed Helen. “You’ll
+never see little me at the head of the class—and
+you know it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The two friends did not bore the physician by
+staying too long, but after he bade them good-bye
+at the door, Helen ran down the path giggling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What do you suppose he’ll say when he finds
+that hat on the skeleton?” she demanded, her
+eyes dancing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He’ll say, ‘That Helen Cameron was in
+here—that explains it!’ You can’t fool Dr.
+Davison,” laughed Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had taken Helen into her confidence ere
+this about the strange runaway, Sadie Raby, and
+during their call at the doctor’s, she had asked
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>
+that gentleman if he had seen the tramping girl,
+after the latter had left the Red Mill. But he had
+not. Oddly enough, however, Ruth found some
+trace of Sadie at Mercy’s house, where the girls
+in the automobile next went to call.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mercy’s mother had taken the girl in for a
+night, and fed her. The latter had asked Mr.
+Curtis about the trains going west, but he had
+sold Sadie no ticket.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She was very reticent,” Mrs. Curtis told
+Ruth. “She was so independent and capable-acting,
+in spite of her tender years, that I did
+not feel as though it was my place to try to stop
+her. She seemed to have some destination in
+view, but she would not tell me what it was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wonder if that wasn’t what Aunt Alvirah
+meant?” queried Ruth, thoughtfully, as she and
+Helen drove away. “That Sadie is awfully independent.
+I wish you had seen her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Maybe she’s going to find her twin brothers
+that she told you about,” suggested Helen. “I
+wish I <em>had</em> seen her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And maybe you’ve guessed it!” cried Ruth.
+“But that doesn’t help us find <em>her</em>, for she didn’t
+say where Willie and Dickie had been taken
+when they were removed from the orphanage.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gracious, Ruthie!” exclaimed her chum,
+laughing. “You’re always worrying over somebody
+else’s troubles.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span><a name='chVII' id='chVII'></a>CHAPTER VII—WHAT TOM CAMERON SAW</h2>
+<p>
+Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she
+could do anything for Sadie Raby if she found
+her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond of
+shouldering other people’s burdens.
+</p>
+<p>
+It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as
+though it were a very dreadful thing for Sadie
+to be wandering about the country all alone, and
+without means to feed herself, or get anything
+like proper shelter.
+</p>
+<p>
+In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that <em>she</em>
+might have been as wild and neglected if Uncle
+Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken her
+in and given her a home at the Red Mill.
+</p>
+<p>
+They stopped and saw Ruth’s old school
+teacher and then, it being past mid-afternoon,
+Helen turned the headlights of the car toward
+home again. As the machine slid so smoothly
+along the road toward the Lumano and the Red
+Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed
+ahead. A huge dog had leaped out of a side
+road and stood, barring their way and barking.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Reno! dear old fellow!” Ruth said, as Helen
+shut off the power. “He knows us.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tom must be near, then. That’s the Wilkins
+Corner road,” Helen observed.
+</p>
+<p>
+As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff
+tried to jump in and caress the girls with his
+tongue—poor fellow! he knew no better, though
+Helen scolded him—Ruth stood up and shouted
+for her friend’s twin brother.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We’re
+being eaten up by a great four-legged beast—get
+down, Reno! Oh, don’t!”
+</p>
+<p>
+She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and
+keeping the big dog off with both hands. A
+cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno
+started and turned to look. He had had his master
+back for only a day, but Tom’s word was
+always law to the big mastiff.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Down, sir!” sang out Tom Cameron, and
+then he burst into view.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!” gasped
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness me!” exclaimed his sister.
+“Have you been in a fight?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Down, Reno!” commanded her brother
+again. He came striding toward them. If he
+had not been so disheveled, anybody could have
+seen that, dressed in his sister’s clothes, and she
+in his, one could scarcely have told them apart.
+A boy and a girl never could look more alike
+than Tom and Helen Cameron.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“What has happened to you?” demanded
+Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom’s own sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look like I’d been monkeying with the buzz-saw—eh?”
+he demanded, but a little ruefully.
+“Say! I’ve had a time. If it hadn’t been for
+Reno——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!” exclaimed
+Ruth, hopping out of the car and for
+the first time noticing that there was a cake of
+partially dried blood on the dog’s shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He isn’t hurt much. And neither am I.
+Only my clothes torn——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And your face scratched!” ejaculated Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh—well—<em>that’s</em> nothing. That was an
+accident. She didn’t mean to do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Who</em> didn’t mean to do it? What <em>are</em> you
+talking about?” screamed his sister, at last fully
+aroused. “You’ve been in some terrible danger,
+Tom Cameron.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, I haven’t,” returned Tom, beginning to
+grin again. “Just been playing the chivalrous
+knight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And got his face scratched!” tittered Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw—well—— Now wait! let me tell you,”
+he began.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now he’s going to make excuses,” cried
+Helen. “You have gotten into trouble, you reckless
+boy, and want to make light of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee! I’d like to see <em>you</em> make light of it,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>
+exclaimed Tom, with some vexation. “If you
+can make head or tail of it—— And that girl!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There he goes again,” said Ruth. “He has
+got to tell us. It is about a girl,” and she laughed,
+teasingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! I don’t know which one of you is the
+worse,” said Tom, ruefully. “Listen, will you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go ahead,” said Helen, solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, Reno and I were hiking along the
+Wilkins Corner road yonder. It was just about
+where your Uncle Jabe’s wagon, Ruth, knocked
+me down into the gully that time—remember?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth nodded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a
+girl. Reno began to growl and I held him back
+till I located the trouble. There was a campfire
+down under that bank and the scream came from
+that direction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Go to it, old boy!’ I says, and let Reno go.
+I had no reason to believe there was real
+trouble,” Tom said, wagging his head. “But I
+followed him down the bank just the same, for
+although Reno wouldn’t bite anybody unless he
+had to, he does look ugly—to strangers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, what do you think? There were a
+couple of tramps at the fire, and Reno was holding
+them off from a girl. He showed his teeth
+all right, and one of them had his knife out. <em>He</em>
+was an ugly looking customer.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness! a girl?” gasped his sister.
+“What sort of a looking girl?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She wasn’t bad looking,” Tom said.
+“Younger than us—mebbe twelve, or so. But
+she’d been sleeping out in her clothes—you could
+see she had. And her face and hands were dirty.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘What were they trying to do to you?’ I
+asked her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘Trying to get my money,’ says she. ‘I ain’t
+got much, but you bet I want that little.’
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘I guess you can keep it,’ I said. ‘But if I
+were you, I’d hike out of this.’
+</p>
+<p>
+“‘I’m going to,’ says she. ‘I’m going just as
+fast as I can to the railroad and jump a train.
+These fellers have been bothering me all day.
+I’m glad you came along. Thanks.’
+</p>
+<p>
+“And with that she started to move off. But
+the tramps were real ugly, and one of them
+jumped for her. I tripped him up,” said Tom,
+grinning again now in remembrance of the row,
+“and then there certainly <em>was</em> a fuss.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Tom!” murmured Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I had Reno, didn’t I? The man I
+tripped fell into the fire, but was more scared
+than hurt. But the other fellow—the one with
+the knife—slashed at Reno, and cut him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well! you never saw such a girl as that
+tramping girl was——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s <em>that</em>?” gasped Ruth. “Oh, Helen!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It might be Sadie Raby—eh?” queried her
+chum.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hel-lo!” exclaimed Master Tom, turning
+curious. “What do you girls know about her?
+Sadie Raby—that’s what she said her name was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness me! What do you think of
+that?” cried his sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And where is she now?” demanded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw, wait till I tell you all about it,” complained
+Tom. “You girls take the wind all out
+of my sails.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right. Go ahead,” begged his sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help,
+and when one of the fellows had me down, and
+Reno was holding the other by the wrist, she
+started to dig into the face of the rascal who
+held me. And once she scratched me by mistake,”
+added Tom, laughing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But between us—mostly through Reno’s
+help—we frightened them off. They hobbled
+away through the bushes. Then I took her to
+the railroad, and waited at the tank till a train
+came along and stopped.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And put her aboard, Tom!” cried Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor
+with two dollars to let her ride as far as
+Campton. I knew those two tramps would never
+catch her there. Why! what’s the matter?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness me!” exclaimed Helen, with disgust. “Doesn’t
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>
+it take a boy to spoil everything?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—what?” began Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And her name was Sadie Raby?” demanded
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s what she said.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We just wanted to see her, that’s all,” said
+his sister. “Ruth did, anyway. And I’d have
+been glad to help her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I helped her, didn’t I?” demanded
+Tom, rather doggedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose
+is to become of a girl like her traveling
+around the country?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She seemed to want to get to Campton real
+bad. I reckon she has folks there,” said Tom,
+slowly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’s got no folks—if her story is true,” said
+Ruth, quietly, “save two little brothers.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And they’re twins, like us, Tom,” said Helen,
+eagerly. “Oh, dear! it’s too bad Ruth and I
+didn’t come across Sadie, instead of you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom began to laugh at that. “You’d have had
+a fine time getting her away from those tramps,”
+he scoffed. “She didn’t have but a little money,
+and they would have stolen that from her if it
+hadn’t been for Reno and me.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span><a name='chVIII' id='chVIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII—TRAVELING TOWARD SUNRISE FARM</h2>
+<p>
+Tom Cameron thought a great deal of Ruth,
+and for that reason alone was sorry he had not
+stayed the departure of the runaway girl, Sadie
+Raby, from the vicinity of Cheslow. Then, as
+he thought of it more, and heard the girls talk
+about the tramping girl’s circumstances as <em>they</em>
+knew them, Tom was even more disturbed.
+</p>
+<p>
+He and Reno had gotten into the tonneau of
+the car, which rolled away toward the Red Mill
+at a slower pace. He leaned his arms on the
+back of the front seat and listened to Ruth’s story
+of her meeting with Sadie Raby, and her experience
+with Sim Perkins, and of her surprise at
+finding that Sadie had worked for a while at the
+Red Mill.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If we had only been a few days earlier in
+getting home from school, there she would have
+been,” finished Ruth, with a sigh.
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s so,” agreed her chum. “And she
+even stayed night before last with Mercy’s
+mother. My! but she’s as elusive as a will-o’-the-wisp.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“We could telegraph to Campton and have
+her stopped,” suggested Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+“By the police?” demanded his sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! what for?” asked Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There! nothing <em>I</em> suggest is any good,” said
+the boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not unless you suggest something better than
+that,” laughed Ruth. “The poor thing doesn’t
+need to be arrested. And she might refuse any
+help we could give her. She’s very independent.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She sure is,” admitted Tom, ruefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And we don’t know <em>why</em> she wanted to go to
+Campton,” his sister remarked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nor if she got there safely,” added Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pshaw! if that’s worrying you two, I’ll find
+out for sure to-morrow,” quoth Master Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+He knew the conductor of the freight train
+with whom he had entrusted the strange girl. The
+next day he went over to the tank at the right
+hour and met the conductor again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure, I got her on to Campton—poor kid,”
+said the man. “She’s a smart one, too. When
+the boys wanted to know who she was, I said she
+was my niece, and she nodded and agreed to it.
+We had a big feed back here in the hack while she
+was aboard, and she had her share.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But where was she going?” asked Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Didn’t get much out of her,” admitted the
+conductor. “But she’d lived in Harburg, and I
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>
+reckon she had folks in or near Campton. But
+I’m not sure at all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This was rather unsatisfactory; but whatever
+point the strange girl was journeying to, she had
+arrived safely at Campton. This Tom told Ruth
+and the latter had to be content with this information.
+</p>
+<p>
+The incident of the runaway girl was two or
+three days old when Ruth received a letter from
+Madge Steele urging them all to come on soon—that
+Sunrise Farm was ready for them, and that
+she was writing all the girls to start on Monday.
+</p>
+<p>
+The train would take them to Darrowtown.
+There a conveyance would meet and transport
+the visitors fifteen miles through the country to
+Mr. Steele’s big estate.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mercy Curtis joined the Camerons and Ruth
+at the Cheslow Station, and on the train they
+boarded were Heavy Stone and The Fox. The
+girls greeted each other as though they had been
+separated for a year.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never was such a clatter of tongues,” declared
+the plump girl, “since the workmen struck
+on the tower of Babel. Here we are—off for
+the sunrise—and traveling due west. How do
+you make that out?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s easy—anybody could see it with half
+an eye,” said The Fox.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Half an eye, eh?” demanded Heavy. “And
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span>
+Cyclops had a whole one. Say! did you hear
+about the boy in school who was asked by his
+teacher (he must have been in Tommy’s class)
+‘Who was Cyclops?’ He was a bright boy. He
+answered: ‘The man who wrote the encyclopædia.’
+The association of ideas was something
+fierce—eh?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dear me, Jennie,” admonished The Fox,
+“you are getting slangier every day.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never mind; I’m not losing flesh over it.
+Don’t you,” returned the careless “heavyweight.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a long, but not a tedious, ride to Darrowtown.
+The young folk had left Cheslow just
+before dark, and their sleeper was sidetracked
+at the end of the journey, some time in the very
+early morning. When Ruth first opened her
+eyes she could scarcely—for the moment—think
+where she was.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then she peered out of the narrow window
+above her berth and saw a section of the railroad
+yard and one side of Railroad Avenue beyond.
+The right of way split Darrowtown in two halves
+and there were grade crossings at the intersections
+of the principal cross streets.
+</p>
+<p>
+Long as she had been away from the place,
+the girl recognized the houses and the stores, and
+every other landmark she could see. No further
+sleep for her, although it was scarcely dawn.
+</p>
+<p>
+She hopped softly out of the berth, disturbed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span>
+none of her companions or even the porter nodding
+in his corner, and dressed hurriedly. She
+made her toilette and then went into the vestibule
+and from thence climbed down to the cinder path.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was an opening in the picket fence, and
+she slipped through in a moment. Dear old Darrowtown!
+Ruth’s heart throbbed exultantly and
+she smiled, although there were tears in her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was the Brick Church on the corner.
+The pastor and his wife had been so kind to her!
+And up this next street was the way to the quiet
+cemetery where her father and mother were
+buried. Ruth turned her steps in that direction
+first of all.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sun came up, red and jovial; the birds
+twittered and sang in the great maples along
+the way; even in the graveyard a great flock of
+blackbirds “pumped” and squeaked in noisy,
+joyous chorus.
+</p>
+<p>
+The dew sparkled on leaf and bush, the flowers
+were fragrant, the cool breeze fanned her
+cheek, and the bird chorus rose higher and higher.
+How could one be sad long on such a beautiful,
+God-made morning?
+</p>
+<p>
+Impossible! Ruth plucked a spray of a flowering
+shrub for both graves, and laid them on
+the mounds tenderly, with a little prayer. Here
+slept the dead peacefully, and God had raised
+her up many, many friends!
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The early chimneys were smoking in the suburbs
+of the town. A screen-door slammed now
+and then. One man whom she knew slightly, but
+who did not remember her, was currying his
+horse in an alley by his stable. Mrs. Barnsworth,
+notably the smartest housewife in Darrowtown,
+was starting already with her basket
+for market—and woe be to the grocer or marketman
+if the shops were not open when she arrived!
+</p>
+<p>
+Stray cats ran along the back fences. A dog
+ran out of a yard to bark at Ruth, but then
+thought better of it and came to be patted instead.
+</p>
+<p>
+And then, suddenly, she came in sight of the
+back garden of Miss True Pettis!
+</p>
+<p>
+It was with that kind-hearted but peculiar
+spinster lady that Ruth had lived previous to
+being sent to the Red Mill. Miss Pettis was
+the neighborhood seamstress and, as she often
+had told Ruth, she worked hard “with both tongue
+and needle” for every dollar she earned.
+</p>
+<p>
+For Miss True Pettis had something more
+than dressmaking to do when she went out “by
+the day” to cut and fit and run the sewing machine.
+Darrowtown folk expected that the seamstress
+should have all the latest gossip at her
+tongue’s end when she came to sew!
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, Miss True Pettis often laid down the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span>
+law. “There’s two kinds of gossip. One the
+Bible calls the seventh abomination, an’ I guess
+that’s right. But for shut-in folks like most
+housekeepers in Darrowtown, a dish of harmless
+gossip is more inspiritin’ than a bowl of boneset
+tea!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Lemme have somethin’ new to tell folks
+about folks—that’s all. But it must be somethin’
+kind,” Miss Pettis declared. “No backbitin’, or
+church scandal, or neighborhood rows. If Si
+Lumpkin’s cat has scratched Amoskeag Lanfell’s
+dog, let the cat and the dog fight it out, I say; no
+need for Si and Amoskeag, who have been friends
+and neighbors for years an’ years, gettin’ into a
+ruction over it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never take sides in any controversy—no,
+ma’am! If ye can’t say a good word for a
+neighbor, don’t say nothin’ to <em>me</em>. That’s what
+I tell ’em. But if ye know anythin’ good about
+’em, or they’ve had any streak o’ good luck, or
+the like, tell me. For the folks in this town—‘specially
+the wimmen folks that don’t git out
+much—is just a-honin’ for news, and True Pettis,
+when she goes out by the day, has gotter have
+a full and plenty supply of it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth, smiling quietly to herself, remembered
+how the thin, sallow, quick spoken lady looked
+when she said all this. Miss Pettis’s eyes were
+black and snapping; her nose was a beak; she bit
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span>
+off threads as though her temper was biting, too.
+But Ruth knew better. A kinder-hearted mortal
+never lived than the little old seamstress.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now the visitor ran across the garden—neatly
+bedded and with graveled paths in which the
+tiniest weed dared not show its head—and reached
+the kitchen porch. Miss Pettis was always an
+early riser, and the smoke of her chimney was
+now only a faint blue column rising into the clear
+air.
+</p>
+<p>
+Yes! there was a rattle of dishes in the kitchen.
+Ruth tiptoed up the steps. Then she—to her
+amazement—heard somebody groan. The sound
+was repeated, and then the seamstress’s voice
+murmured:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, oh, dear! Oh, dear, oh, dear!
+whatever shall I do——”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth, who had intended opening the door
+softly and announcing that she had come to
+breakfast, forgot all about the little surprise she
+was bent on giving Miss Pettis. Now she peered
+fearfully in at the nearest window.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Pettis was just sitting down in her
+rocker, and she rocked to and fro, holding one
+hand with the other, continuing to groan.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, me!” cried Ruth, bursting in at
+the door. “What in the world is the matter,
+my dear?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s that dratted felon—— Why, Ruthie
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>
+Fielding! Did you drop from the sky, or pop
+up out o’ the ground? I never!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The dressmaker got up quickly, but struck her
+hand against the chair-arm. Instantly she fell
+back with a scream, and Ruth feared she had
+fainted. A felon is a terribly painful thing!
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth ran for a glass of water, but before she
+could sprinkle any of it on Miss Pettis’ pale face
+the lady’s eyes opened and she exclaimed:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t drop any of that on my dress, child—it’ll
+spot. I’m all right now. My mercy! how
+that hurt.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A felon, Miss Pettis? How very dreadful,”
+cried Ruth, setting down the glass of water.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I ain’t been able to use my needle for
+a week, and the dishwashin’—well, it jest about
+kills me to put my hands in water. You can see—the
+sight this kitchen is.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, isn’t it lucky that I came this morning—and
+came so early, too?” cried Ruth. “I
+was going to take breakfast with you. Now I’ll
+get the breakfast myself and fix up the house—— Oh,
+yes, I shall! I’ll send word down to the
+hotel to my friends—they’ll take breakfast there—and
+we can have a nice visit, Miss True,” and
+Ruth very carefully hugged the thin shoulders of
+the seamstress, so as not to even jar the felon
+on her right fore-finger.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span><a name='chIX' id='chIX'></a>CHAPTER IX—THE SUNRISE COACH</h2>
+<p>
+Ruth was determined to have her way, and
+really, after one has suffered with a felon for a
+week, one is in no shape to combat the determination
+of as strong a character as that of the girl
+of the Red Mill!
+</p>
+<p>
+At least, so Miss True Pettis found. She
+bowed to Ruth’s mandate, and sat meekly in the
+rocking chair while that young lady bustled
+about, made the toast, poached eggs, made a pot
+of the kind of tea the spinster liked, and just
+as she liked it—— Oh, Ruth had not forgotten
+all her little ways, although she had been gone
+so long from the seamstress’s tiny cottage here in
+Darrowtown.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the time, she was as cheerful as a bluebird—and
+just as chatty as one, too! She ran out
+and caught a neighbor’s boy, and sent him scurrying
+down to the sidetracked sleeping car with a
+note to Helen. The rest of the crowd expected
+at Sunrise Farm would arrive on an early morning
+train on the other road, and both parties were
+to meet for breakfast at the Darrowtown Inn.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The vehicle to transport them to the farm,
+however, was not expected until ten o’clock.
+</p>
+<p>
+Therefore, Ruth insisted, she had plenty of
+time to fix up the house for Miss Pettis. This
+she proceeded to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I allus <em>did</em> say you was the handiest youngun
+that ever was born in Darrowtown,” said the
+seamstress, with a sigh of relief, as Ruth, enveloped
+in a big apron, set to work.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth did more than wash dishes, and sweep,
+and clean, and scrub. All the time she told Miss
+Pettis about her life at the Red Mill, and her
+life at the boarding school, and of many and
+various things that had happened to her since,
+two years before, she had gone away from
+Darrowtown to take up her new life with Uncle
+Jabez.
+</p>
+<p>
+Not that she had not frequently written to
+Miss Pettis; but one cannot write the particulars
+that can be told when two folks are “gossiping.”
+Miss True Pettis had not enjoyed herself—felon
+and all!—so much for ages as she did that forenoon.
+</p>
+<p>
+And she would have a long and interesting
+story to tell regarding “Mary Fielding’s little
+girl” when again she took up her work of going
+out by the day and bringing both her nimble
+needle and her nimble tongue into the homes of
+the busy Darrowtown housewives.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+On the other hand, Miss Pettis told Ruth all
+the news of her old home; and although the girl
+from the Red Mill had no time then to call upon
+any other of her one-time friends—not even
+Patsy Hope—she finally went away feeling just
+as though she had met them all again. For little
+of value escaped Miss Pettis, and she had told
+it all.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Brick Church clock was striking ten when
+Ruth ran around the corner and came in sight of
+the Darrowtown Inn. There was a crowd of girls
+and boys on the porch, and before it stood a
+great, shiny yellow coach, drawn by four sleek
+horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bobbins” himself—Madge Steele’s big,
+white-haired brother, who attended the military
+academy with Tom Cameron, was already on the
+coachman’s seat, holding the reins in most approved
+style. Beside him sat a man in livery, it
+was true; but Bob himself was going to drive
+the four-in-hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Isn’t that scrumptious, Ruth?” demanded
+Belle Tingley, one of those who had arrived on
+the other railroad. “Where have you been all
+the time? Helen was worried for fear you
+wouldn’t get here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And here’s Ralph!” exclaimed Ruth, heartily
+shaking hands with one of Belle’s brothers.
+“I’m all right. I used to live here in Darrowtown,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span>
+you know, and I was making calls. And
+here is Isadore!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I say, Ruth!” exclaimed the chap in
+knickerbockers, who was so sharp and curious
+that he was always called “Busy Izzy” Phelps.
+“Where have you been all the time? We were
+going to send a searching party after you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You needn’t mind, sir. I can find my way
+around a bit yet,” laughed Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All ready, now!” exclaimed Bob, importantly,
+from the high seat. “Can’t keep these
+horses standing much longer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right, little boy,” said his sister, marshaling
+the girls down the steps of the hotel. “Don’t
+you be impatient.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s the horses,” he complained. “See that
+nigh leader beginning to dance?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tangoing, I suppose?—or is it the hesitation?”
+laughed Lluella Fairfax. “May anybody
+sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m afraid not. But there’s room on top of
+the coach for all of you, if you’ll crowd a bit.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Me behind with the horn!” cried Tom,
+swinging himself up into the little seat over the
+luggage rack.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, girls, there are some steep places on
+the road,” said Madge. “If any of you feel
+nervous, I advise you to come inside with me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha!” ejaculated Heavy. “It’s not my
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span>
+nerves that keep me from climbing up on that
+thing—don’t think it. But I’ll willingly join you,
+Madge,” and the springs creaked, while the girls
+laughed, as Heavy entered the coach.
+</p>
+<p>
+They were all quickly seated—the boys of
+course riding on the roof. Ruth, Helen, Lluella
+and Belle occupied the seat directly behind the
+driver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending
+the intervening week since school closed with
+Heavy, and would return to Montana after their
+sojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl
+who ventured to ride a-top the coach.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All ready?” sang out Bobbins, with a backward
+glance.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom put the long silver horn to his lips and
+blew a blast that startled the Darrowtown echoes,
+and made the frisky nigh leader prance again.
+Bob curled the long lash of the yellow whip over
+the horses’ ears, and at the crack of it all four
+plunged forward.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a crowd to see the party off. Darrowtown
+had not become familiar with the
+Steeles’ yellow coach. In fact, there were not
+many wealthy men’s estates around the town as
+yet, and such “goings-on” as this coaching party
+of girls and boys was rather startling to the
+staid inhabitants of Darrowtown.
+</p>
+<p>
+The road through the town proper was very
+good, and the heavy coach wheels rolled over it
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span>
+smoothly. As soon as they reached the suburbs,
+however, the way was rough, and the horses
+began to climb, for Darrowtown was right at the
+foot of the hills, on the very highest of which
+Sunrise Farm lay.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were farms here and there along the
+way, but there was a great deal of rough country,
+too. Although it was a warm day, those on
+top of the coach were soon well shaded by the
+trees. The road wound through a thick piece of
+wood, where the broad-branched trees overhung
+the way and—sometimes—almost brushed the
+girls from their seats.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Low bridge!” called Bobbins, now and
+again, and they would all squeal and stoop while
+the leafy branches brushed above them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bobbins had been practicing a good deal, so
+as to have the honor of driving his friends home
+from Darrowtown, and they all praised him for
+being so capable.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Tom, he grew red in the face blowing
+that horn to warn the foxes in the hills and the
+rabbits in the bushes that they were coming.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You look out, Tommy!” advised Madge
+from below. “You’ll blow yourself all away
+tooting so much, and goodness knows, we don’t
+want any accident before luncheon. Mother is
+expecting all manner of things to happen to us
+after we get to the farm; but I promised faithfully
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span>
+I’d bring you all home to one o’clock luncheon
+in perfect order.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A whole lot you’ve got to do with it,”
+grunted Busy Izzy, ungallantly. “It’s Bobbins
+that’s doing the chief work.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Three hours to Sunrise Farm, yet it was only
+fifteen miles. The way was not always uphill, but
+the descents were as hard to get over as the rising
+ground, and the coach rolled and shook a
+good deal over the rougher places.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bye and bye they began to look down into the
+valleys from the steeps the horses climbed. At
+one place was a great horseshoe curve, around
+which the four steeds rattled at a smart pace,
+skirting a precipice, the depth of which made the
+girls shriek again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I never did see such a road,” complained
+Lluella.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We saw worse at Silver Ranch—didn’t we,
+Ann?” demanded Ruth of the Montana girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, this is bad enough, I should hope,”
+said Belle Tingley. “Lucky there is a good brake
+on this coach. Where’d we be——?”
+</p>
+<p>
+As it chanced, the coach had just pitched over
+the brow of another ridge. Bob had been about
+to point out proudly the white walls of the house
+at Sunrise Farm which surmounted the next hill.
+</p>
+<p>
+But there had been a rain within a week, and
+a hard one. Right here there was a small washout in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>
+the road, and Bob overlooked it. He did
+not swerve the trotting horses quickly enough,
+and the nigh fore-wheel dropping into this deep,
+deep rut.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is true Bob became a little excited. He
+yelled “Whoa!” and yanked back on the lines,
+for the nigh leader had jumped. The girls
+screamed as the coach came to an abrupt stop.
+</p>
+<p>
+The four horses were jerked back by the sudden
+stoppage; then, frightened, they all leaped
+forward together.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whoa, there!” yelled Bob again, trying to
+hold them in. Something broke and the nigh
+leader swung around until he was at right angles
+with his team-mate.
+</p>
+<p>
+The leader had snapped a tug; he forced his
+mate over toward the far side of the road; and
+there the ground broke away, abruptly and steeply,
+for many, many yards to the bottom of the
+hill.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was neither fence, nor ditch, to guard
+passengers on the road from catastrophe.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span><a name='chX' id='chX'></a>CHAPTER X—“TOUCH AND GO”</h2>
+<p>
+As it chanced, Mr. Steele’s groom, who had
+been sent with the coach and who sat beside Bob,
+was on the wrong side to give any assistance at
+this crucial moment. To have jumped from the
+seat threatened to send him plunging down the
+undefended hillside—perhaps with the coach rolling
+after him!
+</p>
+<p>
+For some seconds it did seem as though the
+horses would go down in a tangle and drag the
+coach and its occupants after them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bob was doing his best with the reins, but the
+frisky nigh leader was dancing and plunging, and
+forcing his mate off the firm footing of the road.
+Indeed, the latter animal was already slipping
+over the brink.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Get him!” yelled Bob, meaning the horse
+that had broken the trace and had stirred up
+all the trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+But who was to “get him”? That was the
+difficulty. The groom could not climb over the
+young driver to reach the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was at least one quick-witted person
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>
+aboard the Sunrise coach in this “touch and go”
+emergency. Ruth was not afraid of horses. She
+had not been used to them, like Ann Hicks, all
+her life, but she was the person now in the best
+position to help Bob.
+</p>
+<p>
+To reach the ground on the nigh side of the
+coach Ann Hicks would have to climb over a
+couple of boys. Ruth was on that end of the seat
+and she swung herself off smartly, and landed
+firmly on the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look out, Ruth!” shrieked her chum,
+“you’ll be killed!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had no intention of getting near the heels
+of the horse that had broken its harness. She
+darted around to his head and seized his bridle.
+His mate was already scattering gravel down the
+hillside as he plunged.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth, paying no attention to the shrieks of
+the girls or the commands of the groom and
+the boys, jerked the nigh horse’s head around,
+and so gave his mate a chance to obtain firm footing
+again. She instantly led both horses toward
+the inside of the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom was off his perch by now and had dashed
+forward to her aid. Amid the gabble of the
+others, they seemed the only two cool persons
+in the party.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! hold them tight, Tom!” cried his sister.
+“Don’t let them run.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pshaw! they don’t want to run,” growled
+Bobbins.
+</p>
+<p>
+The groom climbed carefully over him and
+leaped down into the road. Tom was looking at
+Ruth with shining eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re the girl for me, Ruthie,” he whispered
+in a sudden burst of enthusiasm. “I never
+saw one like you. You always have your wits
+about you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth smiled and blushed. A word of approbation
+from Tom Cameron was sweeter to her
+than the praise of any other of her young friends.
+She gave him a grateful look, and then turned
+back to the coach, where the girls were still as
+excited as a swarm of bees.
+</p>
+<p>
+They all wanted to get down into the road,
+until Madge positively forbade it, and Ruth
+swung herself up to her seat again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can’t do any good down there, and you’d
+only be in the way,” Madge said. “And the
+danger’s over now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Thanks to Ruthie!” added Helen, squeezing
+her chum.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, you make too much fuss about it,” said
+Ruth. “I just grabbed the bridle.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes,” said Mercy, from inside. “I thought
+I’d need my aeroplanes to fly with, when that
+horse began to back over the edge of the hill.
+You’re a good child, Ruthie. I always said so.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The others had more or less to say about
+Ruth’s action and she was glad to turn the conversation
+to some other subject.
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile the groom had mended the harness,
+and now he and Tom led the leaders to straighten
+out the team, and the four horses threw themselves
+into their collars and jerked the coach-wheel
+out of the gutter.
+</p>
+<p>
+The trouble had delayed them but slightly, and
+soon Tom was cheerfully winding the horn, and
+the horses were rattling down a more gentle
+descent into the last valley.
+</p>
+<p>
+From this to the top of the hill on which the
+Steele home stood was a steady ascent and the
+horses could not go rapidly. Bob and Madge
+pointed out the objects of interest as they rolled
+along—the farmhouses that were to be torn
+down, the fences already straightened, and the
+dykes and walls on which Mr. Steele’s men were
+at work.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When this whole hill is father’s, you’ll see
+some farm,” crowed Bobbins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But whose place is <em>that?</em>” demanded one of
+the girls, behind him, suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>
+The coach had swung around a turn in the road
+where a great, bald rock and a border of trees
+on the right hand, hid all that lay beyond on
+this gentle slope. The other girls cried out at
+the beauty of the scene.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+A gable-roofed farmhouse, dazzlingly white,
+with green blinds, stood end to the road. There
+were great, wide-branched oaks all about it. The
+sod was clipped close and looked like velvet. Yet
+the surroundings of the homestead were rather
+wild, as though Nature had scarcely been disturbed
+by the hand of man since the original
+clearing was made here in the hillside forest.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were porches, and modern buildings and
+“ells” added to the great old house, but the two
+huge chimneys, one at either end, pronounced the
+building to be of the architecture of the earliest
+settlers in this section of the State.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were beds of old-fashioned flowers;
+there was a summerhouse on the lawn, covered
+with vines; altogether it was a most beautiful
+and “homey” looking place.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whose place is it?” repeated the questioner.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, that? Caslon’s,” grunted Bob. “He’s
+the chap who won’t sell out to father. Mean old
+thing.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, it’s a love of an old place!” exclaimed
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. It is the one house father was going to
+let stand on the hill beside our own. You see,
+we wanted to put our superintendent in it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then an old gentleman came out of the
+summer house. He was a portly, gray mustached,
+bald-headed man, in clean linen trousers and a
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span>
+white shirt with a short, starched bosom. He
+wore no collar or necktie, but looked clean and
+comfortable. He smiled at the young people on
+the coach jovially.
+</p>
+<p>
+Behind him stood a motherly lady some years
+his junior. She was buxom and smiling, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bobbins jerked his head around and snapped
+his whip over the leaders’ ears. “These are the
+people,” he said.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who?” asked Belle Tingley.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Caslons.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But they’re real nice looking people,” Helen
+exclaimed, in wonder.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, they’re a thorn—or a pair of thorns—in
+my father’s flesh. You’d better not boost them
+before him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And they don’t want to sell their old home?”
+queried Ruth, softly. Then to herself, she whispered:
+“And who could blame them? I wouldn’t
+sell it, either, if it were mine.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span><a name='chXI' id='chXI'></a>CHAPTER XI—TOBOGGANING IN JUNE</h2>
+<p>
+The four horses climbed briskly after that
+and brought the yellow coach to an old stone
+gateway. At the end of the Caslon farm the
+stone wall had begun, and now it stretched ahead,
+up over the rise, as far as anything was to be
+seen. Indeed, it seemed to melt right into the sky.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bobbins turned the leaders’ noses in at the
+gateway. Already it was shown that the new
+owner had begun to improve the estate. The
+driveway was an example of what road-making
+should be—entirely different from the hap-hazard
+work done on the country roads.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were beautiful pastures on either hand,
+all fenced in with wire—“horse high, bull strong,
+and pig tight,” as Bobbins explained, proudly.
+There were horses in one pasture and a herd of
+cows in another. Beyond, sheep dotted a rocky
+bit of the hillside, and the thin, sweet “baa-as”
+of the lambs came to their ears as the coach rolled
+on.
+</p>
+<p>
+The visitors were delighted. Every minute
+they saw something to exclaim over. A pair of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>
+beautifully spotted coach dogs raced down the
+drive, and cavorted about the coach, eagerly welcoming
+them.
+</p>
+<p>
+When they finally topped the hill and came out
+upon the tableland on which the house and the
+main buildings of Sunrise Farm stood, they received
+a welcome indeed.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a big farm bell hung to a creaking
+arm in the water-tower beside the old colonial
+dwelling. The instant the leaders’ ears
+topped the rise, and while yet the coach was a
+long way off, several youngsters swung themselves
+on the bell-rope, and the alarm reverberated
+across the hills and valleys in no uncertain tone.
+</p>
+<p>
+Beside this, a cannon that was something
+bigger than a toy, “spoke” loudly on the front
+lawn, and a flag was run up the pole set here in a
+prominent place before the house. Mr. and Mrs.
+Steele stood on the broad veranda, between the
+main pillars, to receive them, and when the coach
+drew up with a flourish, the horde of younger
+Steeles—Madge’s and Bob’s brothers and sisters,
+whom the big sister called “steel filings”—charged
+around from the bell-tower. There were
+four or five of the younger children, all seemingly
+about of an age, and they made as much confusion
+as an army.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Welcome to Sunrise, girls and boys,” said
+Mr. Steele, who was a short, brisk, chubby man,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span>
+with an abrupt manner, but with an unmistakably
+kind heart, or he would not have sanctioned the
+descent of this horde of young folk upon the place.
+“Welcome to Sunrise! We want you all to have
+a good time here. The place is open to you, and
+all Mother Steele begs is that you will not break
+your necks or get into any other serious trouble.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Steele was much taller than her husband;
+it was positive that Madge and Bobbins got their
+height from her side of the family. All the
+younger Steele seemed chubby and round like their
+father.
+</p>
+<p>
+Everybody seemed so jolly and kind that it
+was quite surprising to see how the faces of both
+Mother and Father Steele, as well as their children,
+changed at the long lunch table, half an hour
+later, when the name of Caslon, the neighboring
+farmer, was mentioned.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What d’ye think they have been telling me at
+the stables, Pa?” cried Bobbins, when there was a
+lull in the conversation so that he could be heard
+from his end of the table to his father’s seat.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t say. What?” responded Mr. Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+“About those Caslons. What do you suppose
+they’re going to do now?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha!” exclaimed the gentleman, his face
+darkening. “Nothing you have heard could surprise
+me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I bet this does,” chuckled Bob. “They are
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span>
+going to take a whole raft of fresh air kids to
+board. What do you know about that? Little
+ragamuffins from some school, or asylum, or hospital,
+or something. Won’t they make a mess all
+over this hill?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ha! he’s done that to spite me,” exclaimed
+Mr. Steele. “But I’ll post my line next to his,
+and if those young ones trespass, I’ll see what my
+lawyer in Darrowtown can do about it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It shows what kind of people those Caslons
+are,” said Mrs. Steele, with a sigh. “Of course,
+they know such a crowd of children will be very
+annoying to the neighbors.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And we’re the only neighbors,” added
+Bob.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Seems to me,” said Madge, slowly, “that I
+have heard the Caslons always <em>do</em> take a bunch of
+fresh air children in the summer.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I fancy he is doing it this year just to
+spite us,” said her father, shortly. “But I’ll
+show him——”
+</p>
+<p>
+He became gloomy, and a cloud seemed to fall
+upon the whole table for the remainder of the
+meal. It was evident that nothing the neighboring
+farmer could do would be looked upon with
+favorable eyes by the Steeles.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth did not comment upon the situation, as
+some of the other girls did out of hearing of
+their hosts. It <em>did</em> seem too bad that the Steeles
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>
+should drag this trouble with a neighbor into the
+public eye so much.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl of the Red Mill could not help but
+remember the jovial looking old farmer and
+his placid wife, and she felt sure they were
+not people who would deliberately annoy their
+neighbors. Yet, the Steeles had taken such a dislike
+to the Caslons it was evident they could see
+no good in the old farmer and his wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Steeles had come directly from the city and
+had brought most of their servants with them
+from their city home. They had hired very few
+local men, even on the farm. Therefore they
+were not at all in touch with their neighbors, or
+with any of the “natives.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele was a city man, through and
+through. He had not even lived in the country
+when he was a boy. His own children knew
+much more about out-of-doors than he, or his
+wife.
+</p>
+<p>
+The host was a very successful business
+man, had made money of late years, and wished
+to spend some of his gains now in laying out the
+finest “gentleman’s farm” in that quarter of the
+State. To be balked right at the start by what
+he called “a cowhide-booted old Rube” was a
+cross that Mr. Steele could not bear with composure.
+</p>
+<p>
+The young folks, naturally (save Ruth), were
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>
+not much interested in the controversy between
+their hosts and the neighboring farmer. There
+was too much fun going on for both girls and
+boys to think of much beside.
+</p>
+<p>
+That afternoon they overran the house and
+stables, numbered the sheep, watched the tiny
+pigs and their mothers in the clover-lot, were
+delighted with the colts that ran with their mothers
+in the paddock, played with the calves, and
+got acquainted in general with the livestock of
+Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Only we haven’t goats,” said Bobbins. “I’ve
+been trying to get father to buy some Angoras.
+Old Caslon has the best stock anywhere around,
+and father says he won’t try to buy of <em>him</em>. I’d
+like to send off for a good big billy-goat and turn
+him into Caslon’s back pasture. I bet there’d be
+a fight, for Caslon’s got a billy that’ll chase you
+just as soon as he’d wink.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’d better keep out of <em>that</em> pasture, then,”
+laughed one of the girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, father’s forbidden us trespassing on
+Caslon’s land. We’d like to catch him on <em>our</em>
+side of the line, that’s all!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who—Mr. Caslon, or the billy?” asked
+Tom, chuckling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Either one,” said Bob, shaking his head
+threateningly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Everyone was in bed early that night, for all
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span>
+were tired; but the boys had a whispered colloquy
+before they went to sleep in their own big room
+at the top of the house, and Bob tied a cord to
+his big toe and weighted the other end so that
+it would drop out of the window and hang just
+about head-high above the grass.
+</p>
+<p>
+The first stableman up about the place ran over
+from the barns and gave Master Bob’s cord a
+yank, according to instructions, and pretty nearly
+hauled that ingenious chap out of bed before
+the eastern sky was even streaked with light.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee! have we got to get up now?” demanded
+Busy Izzy, aroused, as were the other boys, by
+Bobbins dancing about the floor and rubbing his
+toe. “Somebody has been foolin’ you—it’s nowheres
+near morning.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bet a dog jumped up and bit that string you
+hung out of the window,” chuckled Tom Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>
+He looked at his watch and saw that it really
+was after four o’clock.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come on, then!” Tom added, rolling Ralph
+Tingley out of bed. “We must do as we said,
+and surprise the girls.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sh!” commanded Bobbins. “No noise. We
+want to slide out easy.”
+</p>
+<p>
+With much muffled giggling and wrestling,
+they dressed and made their way downstairs.
+The maids were just astir.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The boys had something particular to do, and
+they went to work at it very promptly, under
+Tom Cameron’s leadership. Behind one of the
+farther barns was a sharp, but smooth slope, well
+sodded, which descended to the line of the farm
+that adjoined Mr. Caslon’s. There, at the bottom,
+the land sloped up again to the stone wall
+that divided the two estates.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a fine place for a slide in winter,
+somebody had said; but Tom’s quick wit suggested
+that it would be a good place for a slide
+in summer, too! And the boys had laid their
+plans for this early morning job accordingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Before breakfast they had built a dozen barrel-stave
+toboggans—each long enough to hold two
+persons, if it was so desired.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom and Bobbins tried them first and showed
+the crowd how fine a slide it really was down the
+long, grassy bank. The most timid girl in the
+crowd finally was convinced that it was safe, and
+for several hours, the shrieks of delight and
+laughter from that hillside proved that a sport
+out of season was all the better appreciated because
+it was novel.
+</p>
+<p>
+Over the broad stone wall was the pasture in
+which Caslon kept his flock of goats. Beautiful,
+long-haired creatures they were, but the solemn
+old leader of the flock stamped his feet at the
+curious girls and boys who looked over the wall,
+and shook his horns.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Somewhere, along by the boundary of the two
+estates, Bob said there was a spring, and Ruth
+and Helen slipped off by themselves to find it. A
+wild bit of brush pasture soon hid them from the
+view of their friends, and as they went over a
+small ridge and down into the deeper valley, the
+laughter and shouting of those at the slide gradually
+died away behind them.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls had to cross the stone wall to get at
+the spring, and they did not remember that in
+doing so they were “out of bounds.” Bob had
+said nothing about the spring being on the Caslon
+side of the boundary.
+</p>
+<p>
+Once beside the brook, Helen must needs
+explore farther. There were lovely trees and
+flowering bushes, and wild strawberries in a small
+meadow that lured the two girls on. They were
+a long way from the stone fence when, of a sudden,
+a crashing in the bushes behind them brought
+both Ruth and Helen to their feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My! what’s that?” demanded Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sounds like some animal.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth’s remark was not finished.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The goat! it’s the old billy!” sang out
+Helen, and turned to run as the horned head of
+the bewhiskered leader of the Angora herd came
+suddenly into view.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span><a name='chXII' id='chXII'></a>CHAPTER XII—A NUMBER OF INTRODUCTIONS</h2>
+<p>
+“We must run, Ruthie!” Helen declared, instantly.
+“Now, there’s no use in our trying to
+face down that goat. Discretion is the better
+part of valor—— Oh!”
+</p>
+<p>
+The goat just then shook his horns and charged.
+Ruth was not much behind her chum. She saw
+before Helen, however, that they were running
+right away from the Steele premises.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’re getting deeper and deeper into
+trouble, Helen,” she panted. “Don’t you <em>see?</em>”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can’t see much. Oh! there’s a tree we can
+both climb, I am sure.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But I don’t want to climb a tree,” objected
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right. You stay down and play tag with
+Mr. Billy Goat. Me for the high and lofty!”
+and she sprang up as she spoke and clutched the
+low limb of a widely branching cedar.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll never leave my pal!” Ruth declared, giggling,
+and jumping for another limb.
+</p>
+<p>
+Both girls had practiced on the ladders in the
+school gymnasium and they quickly swung themselves
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>
+up into the tree. The goat arrived almost
+on the instant, too. At once he leaped up with
+his fore-feet against the bole of the tree.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness me!” gasped Helen. “He’s
+going to climb it, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You know goats <em>can</em> climb. They’re very
+sure-footed,” said her chum.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know all that,” admitted Helen. “But I
+didn’t suppose they could climb trees.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The goat gave up <em>that</em> attempt, however, very
+soon. He had no idea, it seemed, of going away
+and leaving his treed victims in peace.
+</p>
+<p>
+He paced around and around the cedar, casting
+wicked glances at the girls’ dangling feet, and
+shaking his horns in a most threatening way.
+What he would do to them if he got a chance
+would “be a-plenty,” Helen declared.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you suppose he’ll get tired, bye and
+bye?” queried her chum, despondently.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He doesn’t look as though he ever got
+wearied,” returned Helen. “What a savage
+looking beast he is! And such whiskers!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wouldn’t make fun of him,” advised Ruth,
+timidly. “I believe he understands—and it
+makes him madder! Oh! see him!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Goat, impatient of the delay, suddenly
+charged the tree and banged against it with his
+horns in a desperate attempt to jar down the
+girls perched above.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, the foolish billy!” cooed Helen. “We’re
+not ripe enough to drop off so easily. But he
+thinks we are.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can laugh,” complained Ruth. “But I
+don’t think this is much fun.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not for the goat, anyway. He is getting so
+angry that he may have apoplexy. Let’s shout.
+Maybe the boys will hear us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Not ‘way down here, I fear,” returned Ruth.
+“We can’t hear a sound from <em>them</em>. But let’s
+try.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They raised their voices in unison, again and
+again. But there came no reply, save that a
+number of Mr. Billy Goat’s lady friends came
+trooping through the brush and looked up at the
+girls perched so high above them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bla-a-a-t! bla-a-a-at!” quoth the chorus of
+nannies.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The same to you, and many of them!” replied
+Helen, bowing politely.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Look out! you’ll fall from the limb,” advised
+Ruth, much worried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And what a fall would then be there, my
+countrymen!” sighed Helen. “Say, Ruth! did
+you ever notice before what an expressive countenance
+a goat has? Now, Mr. Billy, here, looks
+just like a selectman of a country school board—long
+whiskers and all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You stop making fun of him,” declared
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span>
+Ruth, shaking her head. “I tell you it makes
+him mad.”
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;“Goaty,&nbsp;&nbsp;goaty,&nbsp;&nbsp;go&nbsp;&nbsp;away,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Come&nbsp;&nbsp;again&nbsp;&nbsp;some&nbsp;&nbsp;other&nbsp;&nbsp;day,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Ruthie&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;Helen&nbsp;&nbsp;want&nbsp;&nbsp;to&nbsp;&nbsp;get&nbsp;&nbsp;down&nbsp;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&nbsp;play!”<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+sang Helen Cameron, with a most ridiculous
+expression.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll never get down unless somebody comes
+to drive that beast away,” cried Ruth, in disgust.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I bet nobody comes over to this end
+of the farm for days at a time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That’s it! keep on! make it just as bad as
+you can,” groaned Ruth. “Do you know it will
+soon be luncheon time, Helen?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that won’t bother Mr. Goat. He hopes
+to lunch off us, I guess.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But we can’t stay here, Helen!” cried Ruth,
+in despair.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You have my permission to hop right down,
+my dear, and make the closer acquaintance of Sir
+Capricornus, and all the harem. Ex-cuse me! I
+think after due consideration I will retain my lofty
+perch—— Ugh!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You came pretty near slipping off that time!”
+exclaimed Ruth. “I wouldn’t be too funny, if I
+were you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Maybe you are right,” agreed her friend, in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>
+a more subdued tone. “Dear me! let us call
+again, Ruth!”
+</p>
+<p>
+So both girls again raised their voices. This
+time there was a response, but not from the direction
+of the stone wall they had crossed to reach
+the spring.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hello!” called a jovial sounding voice.
+“Hello up there!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hello yourself!” shouted Helen. “Oh, do,
+<em>do</em> come and drive away these awful goats.”
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a hearty laugh at this reply, and
+then a man appeared. Ruth had guessed his
+identity before ever he came in view. It was the
+portly Mr. Caslon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, well, my dears! how long have you
+been roosting up there?” he demanded, laughing
+frankly at them. “Get out, you rascal!”
+</p>
+<p>
+This he said to the big goat, who started for
+him with head lowered. Mr. Caslon leaped
+nimbly to one side and whacked the goat savagely
+across the back with his knobby stick. The
+goat kept right on down the hillside, evidently
+having had enough of <em>that</em> play, and the nannies
+followed, bleating.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can come down now, young ladies,” said
+the farmer. “But I wouldn’t come over into this
+pasture to play much. The goats don’t like
+strangers.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We had no business to come here at all, but
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>
+we forgot,” explained Ruth, when both she and
+her chum had descended from the tree. “We
+were warned not to come over on this side of the
+line.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, indeed? you’re from up on the hill-top?”
+he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We are visiting Madge Steele—yes,” said
+Helen, looking at him curiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ah! I saw all you young folk going by
+yesterday. You should have a fine time about
+here,” said the farmer, smiling broadly. “And,
+aside from the temper of the goats, I don’t mind
+you all coming over here on my land if you like.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls thanked him warmly for rescuing
+them from their predicament, and then ran up
+the hill to put the stone wall between them and
+the goats before there was more trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I like him,” said Helen, referring to Mr.
+Caslon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So do I,” agreed Ruth. “And it’s too bad
+that Mr. Steele and he do not understand each
+other.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Although their escapade with the goats was a
+good joke—and a joke worth telling to the
+crowd—Ruth decided that it would be just as
+well to say nothing about it, and she told Helen
+so.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I expect you are right,” admitted her chum.
+“It will only cause comment because we went
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span>
+out of bounds, and became acquainted with Mr.
+Caslon. But I’m glad the old goat introduced
+us,” and she laughed and tossed her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+So they joined their friends, who had gotten
+tired by this time of tobogganing in June, and
+they all trooped up the hill again to the house.
+It was growing warm, and the hammocks and
+lounging chairs in the shade of the verandas attracted
+them until noon.
+</p>
+<p>
+After luncheon there was tennis and croquet
+on the lawns, and toward evening everybody went
+driving, although not in the yellow coach this
+time.
+</p>
+<p>
+The plans for the following day included a
+long drive by coach to a lake beyond Darrowtown,
+where they had a picnic lunch, and boated
+and fished and had a glorious time in general.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bobbins drove as before, but there were two
+men with the party to do the work and look
+after the horses, and Mrs. Steele herself was
+present to have an oversight of the young folk.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bob Steele was very proud of his ability to
+drive the four-in-hand, and when they swung
+through Darrowtown on the return trip, with the
+whip cracking and Tom tooting the horn, many
+people stopped to observe the passing of the
+turnout.
+</p>
+<p>
+Every other team got out of their way—even
+the few automobiles they passed. But when they
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span>
+got over the first ridge beyond the town and the
+four horses broke into a canter, Mrs. Steele, who
+sat up behind her son on this journey, suddenly
+put a hand upon his shoulder and called his
+attention to something ahead in the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do have a care, my son,” she said. “There
+has been an accident there—yes? Don’t drive
+too fast——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“By jiminy!” ejaculated Ralph Tingley.
+“That’s a breakdown, sure enough.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A farm wagon. There’s a wheel off,” cried
+Ann Hicks, leaning out from the other end of
+the seat the better to see.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And who are all those children in blue?”
+demanded Mercy Curtis, looking out from below.
+“There’s such a lot of them! One, two, three,
+four, five—— Goodness me! they jump about
+so like fleas that I can’t count them!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I bet I know what it is,” drawled Bobbins,
+at last. “It’s old Caslon and his load of
+fresh airs. He was going to town to meet them
+to-day, I believe. And he’s broken down before
+he’s half way home with them—and serves him
+good and right!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span><a name='chXIII' id='chXIII'></a>CHAPTER XIII—“THE TERRIBLE TWINS”</h2>
+<p>
+Ruth heard Bob’s last expression, despite the
+rattling of the harness and the chattering of the
+girls on, and in, the coach, and she was sorry.
+Yet, could he be blamed so much, when similar
+feelings were expressed daily by his own father
+regarding the Caslons?
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Steele was shocked as well. “My dear
+son!” she exclaimed, in a low voice, leaning over
+his shoulder. “Be careful of your tongue. Don’t
+say things for which you might be sorry—indeed,
+for which I am sure you <em>are</em> sorry when you stop
+to think.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! Isn’t that old Caslon as mean as he
+can be?” demanded Bobbins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am sure,” the good lady sighed, “that I
+wish he would agree to sell his place to your
+father, and so have an end of all this talk and
+worriment. But I am not at all sure that he
+hasn’t a right to do as he pleases with his own
+property.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well—now—Mother——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+But she stopped him with: “At any rate, you
+must halt and offer him help. And those children—I
+hope none of them has been hurt.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pooh! you couldn’t hurt kids like those,” declared
+Bob.
+</p>
+<p>
+But he brought the horses down to a walk and
+the yellow coach approached the scene of the accident
+at a temperate pace.
+</p>
+<p>
+The big farm-wagon, the body of which had
+been filled with straw for the youngsters to ride
+in, had been pulled to the side of the road out
+of the way of passing vehicles. It was clear that
+the smashed wheel was past repair by any amateur
+means, for several spokes were broken, and
+the hub was split.
+</p>
+<p>
+The youngsters whom Mr. Caslon had taken
+aboard at the railway station in Darrowtown
+were dancing about and yelling like wild Indians.
+As the coach came nearer, the excited party upon
+it could more carefully count the blue-clad figures,
+and it was proved that there were twelve.
+</p>
+<p>
+Six girls were in blue gingham frocks, all alike,
+and all made “skimpy” and awkward looking.
+The six boys were in new blue overalls and cotton
+shirts. The overalls seemed all of one size, although
+the boys were not. They must have been
+purchased at the store of one size, and whether
+a boy was six, or twelve, he wore the same number.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Each of the children, too, carried a more or
+less neatly made up parcel, the outer covering
+of which was a blue and white bandanna, and
+the contents of which was the change of clothing
+the institution allowed them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What a terrible noise they make!” sighed
+Mrs. Steele. “And they are perfect little terrors,
+I suppose. But they <em>are</em> clean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+They had not been out of the sight of the
+institution nurse long enough to be otherwise, for
+she had come as far as Darrowtown with them.
+But they <em>were</em> noisy, sure enough, for each one
+was trying to tell his or her mates how he or she
+felt when the wheel crashed and the wagon went
+over.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I reckon I oughtn’t to have risked that wheel,
+after all,” said Mr. Caslon, doffing his hat to
+Mrs. Steele, but smiling broadly as he looked up
+from his examination of the wheel.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whoa, Charlie! Don’t get too near them
+heels, youngsters. Charlie an’ Ned are both old
+duffers like me; but you can’t fool around a
+horse’s legs without making him nervous.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And don’t pull them reins. I don’t want ’em
+to start right now.... Yes, ma’am. I’ll haf
+ter lead the horses home, and that I don’t mind.
+But these young ones—— Now, let that whip
+lay right where it is, young man! That’s right.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You see, ma’am,” he proceeded, quite calmly
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span>
+despite all that was going on about him, and addressing
+himself to Mrs. Steele, “it’s too long a
+walk for the little ones, and I couldn’t tote ’em
+all on the backs of the horses——
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, you two curly heads there—what do
+you call ’em?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Terrible Twins!” quoth two or three
+of the other orphans, in chorus.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I believe ye! I believe ye! They jest bile
+over, <em>they</em> do. Now, you two boys,” he added,
+addressing two youngsters, very much alike,
+about of a height, and both with short, light curly
+hair, “never mind tryin’ to unharness Charlie and
+Ned. <em>I’ll</em> do that.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ye see, ma’am, if you could take some of
+the little ones aboard——” he suggested to Mrs.
+Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+The coach was well filled, yet it was not crowded.
+The girls began to call to the little folks to
+get aboard even before Mrs. Steele could
+speak.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There’s lots of room up here,” cried Ruth,
+leaning from her end of the seat and offering her
+hand. The twins ran at once to climb up and
+fought for “first lift” by Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, yes! they can get aboard,” said Mrs.
+Steele. “All there is room for.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And the twelve “fresh airs” proved very
+quickly that there was room for them all. Ruth
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span>
+had the “terrible twins” on the seat with her in
+half a minute, and the others swarmed into, or
+on top of, the coach almost as quickly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There now! that’s a big lift, I do declare,”
+said the farmer, hanging the chains of the horses’
+traces upon the hames, and preparing to lead the
+pair along the road.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My wife will be some surprised, I bet,” and
+he laughed jovially. “I’m certain sure obleeged
+to ye, Mis’ Steele. Neighbors ought to be neighborly,
+an’ you air doin’ me a good turn this
+time—yes, ma’am!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, you see,” growled Bob, as the four
+coach horses trotted on, “he’ll take advantage of
+this. We’ve noticed him once, and he’ll always
+be fresh.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hush, my son!” whispered Mrs. Steele.
+“Little pitchers have big ears.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh!” exclaimed one of the wriggling twins,
+looking up at the lady sideways like a bird. “I
+know what <em>that</em> means. <em>We’re</em> little pitchers—Dickie
+an’ me. We’ve heard that before—ain’t
+we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” announced his brother, nodding wisely.
+</p>
+<p>
+These two were certainly wise little scamps!
+Willie did most of the talking, but whatever he
+said his brother agreed to. Dickie being so chary
+with speech, possibly his brother felt that he must
+exercise his own tongue the more, for he chattered
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>
+away like a veritable magpie, turning now and
+then to demand:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ain’t that so, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” vouchsafed the echo, and, thus championed,
+Willie would rattle on again.
+</p>
+<p>
+Yes. They was all from the same asylum.
+There were lots more of boys and girls in that
+same place. But only twelve could get to go
+to this place where they were going. They knew
+boys that went to Mr. Caslon’s last year.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep.”
+</p>
+<p>
+No. They didn’t have a mama or papa. Never
+had had any. But they had a sister. She was a
+big girl and had gone away from the asylum.
+Some time, when they were big enough, they were
+going to run away from the asylum and find her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ain’t we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Whether the other ten “fresh airs” were as
+funny and cute as the “terrible twins,” or not,
+Ruth Fielding did not know, but both she and
+Mrs. Steele were vastly amused by them, and
+continued to be so all the way to the old homestead
+under the hill where the children had come
+to spend a part of the summer with Mr. and
+Mrs. Caslon.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span><a name='chXIV' id='chXIV'></a>CHAPTER XIV—“WHY! OF COURSE!”</h2>
+<p>
+“I hope you told that Caslon woman, Mother,
+to keep those brats from boiling over upon our
+premises,” said Mr. Steele, cheerfully, at dinner
+that evening, when the story of the day’s adventures
+was pretty well told.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Really, John, I had no time. <em>Such</em> a crowd
+of eels—— Well! whatever she may deserve,”
+said Mrs. Steele, shaking her head, “I am sure
+she does not deserve the trouble those fresh air
+children will bring her. And she—she seems like
+such a nice old lady.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who’s a nice old lady?” demanded her husband,
+from the other end of the long table, rather
+sharply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Farmer Caslon’s wife.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! I don’t know what she is; I know
+what <em>he</em> is, however. No doubt of that. He’s
+the most unreasonable——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, they’ll have their hands full with all
+those young ones,” laughed Madge Steele, breaking
+in upon her father, perhaps because she did
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span>
+not wish him to reveal any further to her guests
+his ideas upon this topic.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What under the sun can they do it for?” demanded
+Lluella Fairfax.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just think of troubling one’s self with a
+parcel of ill-bred children like those orphanage
+kids,” added Belle Tingley.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, they do it just to bother the neighbors,
+of course,” growled Bobbins, who naturally believed
+all his father said, or thought, to be just
+right.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They take a world of trouble on themselves,
+then, to spite their neighbors,” laughed Mercy
+Curtis, in her sharp way. “That’s cutting one’s
+nose off to spite one’s face, sure enough!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness only knows <em>why</em> they do it,” began
+Madge, when Ruth, who could keep in no longer,
+now the topic had become generally discussed
+among the young people, exclaimed:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Both the farmer and his wife look to be
+very kindly and jolly sort of people. I am sure
+they have no idea of troubling other folk with
+the children they take to board. They must be,
+I think, very charitable, as well as very fond of
+children.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Trust Ruth for seeing the best side of it,”
+laughed Heavy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And the right side, too, I bet,” murmured
+Tom Cameron.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll hope so,” said Mr. Steele, rather
+grimly. “But if Caslon lets them trespass on
+my land, he’ll hear about it, sharp and plenty!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Now, it so happened, that not twenty-four
+hours had passed before the presence of the
+“fresh air kids” was felt upon the sacred premises
+of Sunrise Farm. It was very hot that next
+day, and the girls remained in the shade, or
+played a desultory game of tennis, or two, or
+knocked the croquet balls around a bit, refusing
+to go tramping through the woods with the boys
+to a pond where it was said the fish would
+bite.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So do the mosquitoes—I know them,” said
+Mercy Curtis, when the boys started. “Be honest
+about it, now; I bet you get ten mosquito bites
+to every fish-bite. Tell us when you get back.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Late in the afternoon the rural mail carrier
+was due and Ruth, Helen, Madge and Heavy
+started for the gate on the main road where the
+Steeles had their letter box.
+</p>
+<p>
+A little woolly dog ran after Madge—her
+mother’s pet. “Come on, Toodles!” she said,
+and then all four girls started to race with Toodles
+down to the gate.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly Toodles spied something more entertaining
+to bark at and caper about than the girls’
+skirts. A cat was slipping through the bushes
+beside the wall, evidently on the trail of some
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span>
+unconscious bird. Toodles, uttering a glad “yap,
+yap, yap!” started for the cat.
+</p>
+<p>
+Two tousled, curly heads appeared at the gateway.
+Below the uncapped heads were two thin
+bodies just of a size, clothed in shirts and overalls
+of blue.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hello, kiddies!” said Heavy. “How did
+you get here?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“On our feet—didn’t we, Dickie?” responded
+Master Willie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” said Dickie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear me! Toodles will hurt that cat!”
+cried Madge. “One of you boys run and save
+her—save kitty!” she begged.
+</p>
+<p>
+But as the youngsters started off as per direction,
+the cat turned savagely upon Toodles. She
+snarled like a wildcat, leaped for his fur-covered
+back, and laid in with her claws in a way that
+made the pup yell with fright and pain.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, never mind the cat! Help Toodles!
+Help Toodles!” wailed Madge, seeing her pet in
+such dire trouble.
+</p>
+<p>
+The youngsters stopped with disgust, as Toodles
+went kiting up the hill, yelping.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pshaw!” exclaimed Willie. “Toodles don’t
+need helpin’. Did’ye ever see such a dog? What
+he needs is a nurse—don’t he, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” declared the oracular Dickie, with emphasis.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Heavy dropped down on the grass and rolled.
+As the cat had quickly returned from the chase,
+Madge and Helen joined her. It was too funny.
+The “terrible twins” were just slipping out of
+the gate, when Ruth called to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t go yet, boys. Are you having a good
+time?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We ain’t allowed in here,” said Willie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who told you so?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The short, fat man with the squinty eyes and
+the cane,” declared Willie, in a matter of fact
+way.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Short—fat—squinty—— My goodness! I
+wonder if he can mean my father?” exclaimed
+Madge, inclined to be offended.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you can stand there and talk with us,”
+said Ruth, strolling toward the boys. “So you
+are having a nice time at Mr. Caslon’s?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bully—ain’t we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” agreed the echo.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you won’t be glad to go back to the orphanage
+when you have to leave here?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say, who ever was glad to go to a ’sylum?”
+demanded Willie, with scorn.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And you can’t remember any other home,
+either of you?” asked Ruth, with pity.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh! we ’member just the same things. Our
+ages is just alike, they be,” said Willie, with
+scorn.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“They have you there, Ruth,” chuckled Heavy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth Fielding was really interested in the two
+youngsters. “And you are all alone in the
+world?” she pursued.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope. We gotter sister.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! so you said.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And it’s so, too. She used ter be at the
+’sylum,” explained Willie. “But they sent her
+off to live with somebody. And we was tried out
+by a lady and a gentleman, too; but we was too
+much work for the lady. We made too much
+extry washin’,” said Willie, solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness me!” exclaimed Ruth, suddenly.
+“What are your names?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m Willie; he’s Dickie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But Willie and Dickie <em>what</em>?” demanded the
+startled Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, ma’am. It ain’t that. It’s Raby,” declared
+the youngster, coolly. “And our sister,
+<em>she’s</em> Sadie Raby. She’s awful smart and some
+day, she told us, she’s goin’ to come an’ steal us
+from the ‘sylum, and then we’ll all live together
+and keep house.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you hear this, Helen?” demanded
+Ruth, eagerly, to her chum who had run to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, of course! we might have known as
+much, if we had been smart. These are the twins
+Sadie told you about. And we never guessed!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span><a name='chXV' id='chXV'></a>CHAPTER XV—THE TEMPEST</h2>
+<p>
+Ruth was much interested in the fresh air children,
+and so was Helen. They found time to
+walk down to the Caslon farm and become acquainted
+with the entire twelve. Naturally, the
+“terrible twins” held their attention more than
+the others, for it <em>did</em> seem so strange that the
+little brothers of Sadie Raby should come across
+Ruth’s path in just this way.
+</p>
+<p>
+Of course, in getting so well acquainted with
+the children, Ruth and her chum were bound to
+know the farmer and his wife better. They were
+very plain, “homey” sort of people, just as
+Ruth had guessed, and it appeared that they were
+not blessed with an over-abundance of ready
+money. Few farmers in Mr. Caslon’s circumstances
+are.
+</p>
+<p>
+What means they had, they joyfully divided
+with the youngsters they had taken to board. The
+Caslons had no living children; indeed, the two
+they had had, years ago, died while they were
+yet babies. This Mrs. Caslon confided to Ruth.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“It left an empty place in our hearts,” she said,
+softly, “that nothing but other little children can
+fill. John has missed them fully as much as I
+have. Yes; he lets these little harum-scarums
+pull him around, and climb all over him, and
+interfere with his work, and take up his time a
+good deal. Yes, I know the place looks a sight,
+inside the house and out, when they go away.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But for a few weeks every year we have a
+host of young things about us, and it keeps our
+hearts young. The bother of ’em, and the trouble
+of ’em, is nothing to the good they do us both.
+Ah, yes!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I’ve often thought of keeping one or
+two of them for good. There’s a-many pretty
+ones, or cunning ones, we’d like to have had. But
+then—think of the disappointment of the rest of
+the darlings!
+</p>
+<p>
+“And it would have narrowed down our sympathy—mine
+and John’s,” proceeded Mrs. Caslon,
+shaking her head gently. “We’d have centered
+all our love and longin’ into them we took
+for keeps, just as we centered all our interest in
+the two little ones God lent us for a little while,
+long ago.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Havin’ a number of ’em each year, and almost
+always different ones, has been better, I
+guess—better for all hands. It keeps John and
+me interested more, and we try to make them so
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span>
+happy here that each poor, unfortunate orphan
+will go away and remember his or her summer
+here for the rest of their lives.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And they <em>do</em> have so little to be happy over,
+these orphans—and it takes so very little to make
+them happy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“If I had money—much money,” continued
+the farmer’s wife, clasping her hands, fervently,
+“I’d move many orphan asylums, and such like,
+out of the close, hot cities, where the little ones
+are cramped for room and air, and put each of
+them on a farm—a great, big farm. City’s no
+place for children to grow up—’specially those
+that have no fathers and mothers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You can’t tell me but that these young ones
+miss their parents less here on this farm than
+they do back in the brick building they live in
+most of the year,” concluded the good woman,
+earnestly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth quite fell in love with the old lady—who
+did not appear so very old, after all. Perhaps
+she had kept her heart young in serving these
+“fresh air” orphans, year after year. And Mr.
+Caslon seemed a very happy, jolly sort of man,
+too.
+</p>
+<p>
+The two girls stole away quite frequently to
+watch the youngsters play, or to teach them new
+means of entertaining themselves, or to talk with
+the farmer’s wife. But they did not wish the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>
+other girls, and the Steeles, to know where they
+went on these occasions.
+</p>
+<p>
+Their host, who was the nicest kind of a man
+in every other way, seemed determined to look
+upon Caslon as his enemy; and Mr. Steele was
+ready to do anything he could to oust the old
+couple from their home.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pshaw! a man like Caslon can make a good
+living anywhere,” Mr. Steele declared. “His
+crops just <em>grow</em> for him. He’s an A-1 farmer—I’d
+like to find as good a one before next year,
+to superintend my whole place. He’s just holding
+out for a big price for his farm, that’s all he’s
+doing. These hayseeds are money-mad, anyway.
+I haven’t offered him enough for his old farm,
+that’s all.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth doubted if this were true. The Caslon
+place was one of the oldest homesteads in that
+part of the State, and the house had been built
+by a Caslon. Mr. Steele could not appreciate
+the fact that there was a sentiment attached to
+the farmer’s occupancy of his old home.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Caslons had taken root here on this side-hill.
+The farmer and his wife were the last of
+the name; they had nobody to will it to. But
+they loved every acre of the farm, and the city
+man’s money did not look good enough to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth Fielding hungered to straighten out the
+tangle. She wished she might make Mr. Steele
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>
+understand the old farmer’s attitude. Was there
+not, too, some way of settling the controversy in
+a way satisfactory to both parties?
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile the merry party of young folk at
+Sunrise Farm was busy every waking hour.
+There were picnics, and fishing parties, and
+games, and walks, and of course riding galore,
+for Mr. Steele had plenty of horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth and Helen privately worked up some
+interest among the girls and boys visiting the
+farm, in a celebration on the Fourth for the
+fresh air children. Ruth had learned that the
+farmer had purchased some cheap fireworks and
+the like for the entertainment of the orphans;
+but Ruth and her chum wanted to add to his
+modest preparations.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ten dollars was raised, and Tom Cameron
+took charge of the fund. He was to ride into
+town the afternoon before the Fourth to make the
+purchases, but just about as he was to start, a
+thunderstorm came up.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele, who was a nervous man, forbade
+any riding or driving with that threatening cloud
+advancing over the hills. The lightning played
+sharply along the edges of the cloud and the
+thunder rolled ominously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You youngsters don’t know what a tempest is
+like here in the hills,” said Mr. Steele. “Into
+the house—all of you. Take that horse and cart
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>
+back to the stables, Jackson. If Tom wants to
+go to town, he’ll have to wait until the shower
+is over—or go to-morrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right, sir,” agreed young Cameron, cheerfully.
+“Just as you say.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Are all those girls inside?” sharply demanded
+Mr. Steele. “I thought I saw the flutter
+of a petticoat in the shrubbery yonder.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll see,” said Tom, running indoors.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nervous Mr. Steele thought he saw somebody
+there behind the bushes, before he heard from
+Tom. It had already begun to rain in big drops,
+and suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a
+report seemingly right overhead.
+</p>
+<p>
+The host turned up his coat collar, thrust
+his cap over his ears, and ran out across the lawn
+toward the path behind the shrubbery. It led to
+a summer house on the side lawn, but this was a
+frail shelter from such a tempest as this that
+was breaking over the hill.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele saw the flutter of a skirt ahead, and
+dashed along the path, the rain pelting him as he
+ran.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come back here! Come to the house, you
+foolish girl!” he cried, and popped into the summer
+house just as the clouds seemed to open above
+and the rain descend in a flood.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was so dark, and Mr. Steele was so
+blinded for a moment, that he could scarcely see
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>
+the figure of whom he was in search. Then he
+beheld a girl crouching in a corner, with her hands
+over her ears to shut out the roar of the thunder
+and her eyes tightly closed to shut out the lightning.
+</p>
+<p>
+“For mercy’s sake! get up and come into the
+house. This place will be all a-flood in a minute,”
+he gasped.
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly, as he dragged the girl to her feet
+by one shoulder, he saw that she was not one of
+the house party at all. She was a frail, shrinking
+girl, in very dirty clothing, and her face and hands
+were scratched and dirty, too. A regular ragamuffin
+she appeared.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—why, where did <em>you</em> come from?”
+demanded Mr. Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girl only stuttered and stammered, looking
+at him fearfully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come on! never mind who you are,” he sputtered.
+“This is no place for you in this tempest.
+Come into the house!”
+</p>
+<p>
+He set out on a run again for the front veranda,
+dragging her after him. The girl did not
+cry, although she was certainly badly frightened
+by the storm.
+</p>
+<p>
+They reached the door of the big house, saturated.
+Here Mr. Steele turned to her again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who are you? What are you doing around
+here, anyway?” he demanded.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ain’t—ain’t this the place where they got a
+bunch of fresh air kids?” asked the girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What?” gasped Mr. Steele. “I should say
+not! Are you one of those young ones Caslon
+has taken to board to the annoyance of the whole
+neighborhood? Ha! what were you doing trespassing
+on my land?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ain’t neither!” returned the girl, pulling
+away her hand. “You lemme be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I forbade any of you to come up here——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ain’t neither,” reiterated the girl. “An’ I
+don’t know what you mean. I jest got there.
+And I’m lookin’ for the place where the fresh
+air kids stay.”
+</p>
+<p>
+In the midst of this the door was drawn open
+and Mrs. Steele and some of the girls appeared.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do come in, Father,” she cried. “Why!
+you’re soaking wet. And that child! bring her
+in, whoever she is. Oh!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Another flash of lightning made them all cower—all
+but Ruth Fielding, who had crept forward
+to look over Mrs. Steele’s shoulder. Now she
+dashed out and seized the bedrabbled looking
+stranger by the hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, Sadie Raby! who’d ever expect to see
+you here? Come in! do let her come in out of
+the storm, Mrs. Steele. I know who she is,”
+begged Ruth.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span><a name='chXVI' id='chXVI'></a>CHAPTER XVI—THE RUNAWAY</h2>
+<p>
+Madge said, in something like perplexity:
+“You <em>do</em> pick up the strangest acquaintances,
+Ruth Fielding. She really does, Ma. But that
+has always been Ruth’s way.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Steele was first disturbed over her husband’s
+condition. “Go right away and change
+into dry garments—do, Father,” she urged.
+“You will get your death of cold standing there.
+And shut the door. Oh! that lightning!”
+</p>
+<p>
+They had to wait for the thunder to roll away
+before they could hear her again, although Mr.
+Steele hurried upstairs without another glance at
+the bedrabbled child he had brought in out of
+the storm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“This—this girl must go somewhere and dry
+herself,” hesitated Mrs. Steele, when next she
+spoke. “My! isn’t she a sight? Call one of the
+maids, someone——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear Mrs. Steele!” exclaimed Ruth,
+eagerly, “let me take Sadie upstairs and look
+after her. I am sure I have something she can
+put on.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“So have I, if you haven’t,” interposed Helen.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span>
+“And my clothes will come nearer fitting her
+than Ruth’s. Ruth is getting almost as fat as
+Heavy!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“There is no need of either of you sacrificing
+your clothes,” said Mrs. Steele, slowly. “Of
+course, I have plenty of outgrown garments of
+my own daughters’ put away. Yes. You take
+care of her if you wish, Ruth, and I will hunt out
+the things.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Here the strange girl interposed. She had
+been darting quick, shrewd glances about the hall
+at the girls and boys there gathered, and now
+she said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ye don’t hafter do nothing for me. A little
+rainwater won’t hurt me—I ain’t neither sugar
+nor salt. All I wants to know is where them
+fresh air kids is stayin’. I ain’t afraid of the
+rain—it’s the thunder and lightning that scares
+me.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness knows,” laughed Madge, “I guess
+the water wouldn’t hurt you. But we’ll fix you
+up a little better, I guess.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let Ruth do it,” said Mrs. Steele, sharply.
+“She says she knows the girl.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’s a friend of mine,” said the girl of the
+Red Mill, frankly. “You surely remember me,
+Sadie Raby?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I remember ye, Miss,” returned the
+runaway. “You was kind to me, too.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come on, then,” said Ruth, briskly. “I’m
+only going to be kind to you again—and so is
+Mrs. Steele going to be kind. Come on!”
+</p>
+<p>
+An hour later an entirely different looking girl
+appeared with Ruth in the big room at the top
+of the house which the visiting girls occupied.
+Some of them had come upstairs, for the tempest
+was over now, and were making ready for dinner
+by slow stages, it still being some time off,
+and there was nothing else to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+“This is Sadie Raby, girls,” explained Ruth,
+quietly. “She is the sister of those cute little
+twins that are staying at the Caslons’ place. She
+has had a hard time getting here, and because
+she hasn’t seen Willie and Dickie for eight
+months, or more, she is very anxious to see them.
+They are all she has in the world.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And I reckon they’re a handful,” laughed
+Heavy. “Come on! tell us all about it, Sadie.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was because of the “terrible twins” that
+Ruth had gotten Sadie to talk at all. The girl,
+since leaving “them Perkinses,” near Briarwood,
+had had a most distressful time in many ways,
+and she was reticent about her adventures.
+</p>
+<p>
+But she warmed toward Ruth and the others
+when she found that they really were sincerely
+interested in her trials, and were, likewise, interested
+in the twins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Them kids must ha’ growed lots since I seen
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>
+’em,” she said, wistfully. “I wrote a letter to a
+girl that works right near the orphanage. She
+wrote back that the twins was coming out here
+for a while. So I throwed up my job at Campton
+and hiked over here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Dear me! all that way?” cried Helen, pityingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I walked farther than that after I left them
+Perkinses,” declared Sadie, promptly. “I walked
+clean from Lumberton to Cheslow—followed the
+railroad most of the way. Then I struck off
+through the fields and went to a mill on the river,
+and worked there for a week, for an old lady.
+She was nice——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I guess she is!” cried Ruth, quickly. “Didn’t
+you know that was <em>my</em> home you went to? And
+you worked for Aunt Alvirah and Uncle Jabez.”
+</p>
+<p>
+No, Sadie had not known that. The little old
+woman had spoken of there being a girl at the
+Red Mill sometimes, but Sadie had not suspected
+the identity of that girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And then, when you were still near Cheslow,
+my brother Tom, and his dog, rescued you from
+the tramps,” cried Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Was that your brother, Miss?” responded
+Sadie. “Well! he’s a nice feller. He got me a
+ride clear to Campton. I’ve been workin’ there
+and earnin’ my board and keep. But I couldn’t
+save much, and it’s all gone now.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But what do you really expect to do here?”
+asked Madge Steele, curiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I gotter see them kids,” declared Sadie, doggedly.
+“Seems to me, sometimes, as though
+something would bust right inside of me here,”
+and she clutched her dress at its bosom, “if I
+don’t see Willie and Dickie. I thought this big
+house was likely where the fresh airs was.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should say not!” murmured Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’re all right—don’t you be afraid,” said
+Ruth, softly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I thought mebbe the folks that was keepin’
+the kids would let me work for them,” said Sadie,
+presently. “For kids is a lot of trouble, and I’m
+used to ’em. The matron at the home said I had
+a way with young’uns.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She told them a good deal more about her
+adventures within the next half hour, but Madge
+had left the room just after making her last
+speech. While the girls were still listening to the
+runaway, a maid rapped at the door.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Steele will see this—this strange girl in
+the library,” announced the servant.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie looked a little scared for a moment, and
+glanced wildly around the big room for some way
+of escape.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee! I ain’t got to talk with that man, have
+I?” she whispered.
+</p>
+<p>
+“He won’t bite you,” laughed Heavy.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“He’s just as kind as kind can be,” declared
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ll go down with you,” said Ruth, decisively.
+“You have plenty of friends now, Sadie. You
+mustn’t be expecting to run away all the time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie Raby went with Ruth doubtfully. The
+latter was somewhat disturbed herself when she
+saw Mr. Steele’s serious visage.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll excuse me, Mr. Steele?” suggested
+Ruth, timidly. “But she is all alone—and I
+thought it would encourage her to have me
+here——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“That is like your kind heart, Ruth,” said the
+gentleman, nodding. “I don’t mind. Madge
+has told me her story. It seems that the child
+is rather wild—er—flighty, as it were. I suppose
+she wants to run away from us, too?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ain’t figurin’ to stay here,” said Sadie, doggedly.
+“I’m obleeged to you, but this ain’t the
+house I was aimin’ for.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! no. But I am not sure at all that
+you would be in good hands down there at Caslon’s.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth was sorry to hear him say this. But
+Sadie broke in with: “I don’t keer how they
+treat me as long as I’m with my brothers. And
+<em>they</em> are down there, this Ruth girl says.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes. I quite understand that. But we all
+have our duty to perform in this world,” said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>
+Mr. Steele, gravely. “I wonder that you have
+fallen in with nobody before who has seen the
+enormity of letting you run wild throughout the
+country. It is preposterous—wrong—impossible!
+I never heard of the like before—a child of your
+age tramping in the open.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I didn’t do no harm,” began Sadie, half fearful
+of him again.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course it is not your fault,” said Mr.
+Steele, quickly. “But you were put in the hands
+of people who are responsible to the institution
+you came from for their treatment of you——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Them Perkinses?” exclaimed Sadie, fearfully.
+“I won’t never go back to them—not
+while I’m alive I won’t! I don’t care! I jest
+won’t!”
+</p>
+<p>
+She spoke wildly. She turned to run from the
+room and would have done so, had not Ruth been
+there to stop her and hold her in her arms.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span><a name='chXVII' id='chXVII'></a>CHAPTER XVII—THE BLACK DOUGLASS</h2>
+<p>
+“Oh, don’t frighten her, Mr. Steele!” begged
+Ruth, still holding the half wild girl. “You
+would not send her back to those awful people?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tut, tut! I am no ogre, I hope,” exclaimed
+the gentleman, rather put out of countenance at
+this outburst. “I only mean the child well.
+Doesn’t she understand?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I won’t go back to them Perkinses, I tell
+you!” cried Sadie, with a stamp of her foot.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is not my intention to send you back. I
+mean to look up your record and the record of
+the people you were placed with—Perkins, is it?
+The authorities of the institution that had the
+care of you, should be made to be more careful
+in their selection of homes for their charges.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. I will keep you here till I have had the
+matter sifted. If those—those Perkinses, as you
+call them, are unfit to care for you, you shall certainly
+not go back to them, my girl.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. “But I don’t
+want to stay here, Mister,” she blurted out.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“My girl, you are not of an age when you
+should be allowed to choose for yourself. Others,
+older and wiser, must choose for you. I would
+not feel that I was doing right in allowing you
+to run wild again——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I gotter see the twins—I jest <em>gotter</em> see ’em,”
+said Sadie, faintly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And whether that Caslon is fit to have charge
+of you,” bitterly added Mr. Steele, “I have my
+doubts.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, surely, you will let her see her little
+brothers?” cried Ruth, pleadingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We will arrange about that—ahem!” said
+Mr. Steele. “But I will communicate at once—by
+long distance telephone—with the matron of
+the institution from which she came, and they
+can send a representative here to talk with
+me——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And take me back there?” exclaimed Sadie.
+“No, I sha’n’t! I sha’n’t go! So there!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hoity-toity, Miss! Let’s have no more of
+it, if you please,” said the gentleman, sternly.
+“You will stay here for the present. Don’t you
+try to run away from me, for if you do, I’ll soon
+have you brought back. We intend to treat you
+kindly here, but you must not abuse our kindness.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was perhaps somewhat puzzling to Sadie
+Raby—this attitude of the very severe gentleman.
+She had not been used to much kindness in her
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>
+life, and the sort that is forced on one is not
+generally appreciated by the wisest of us. Therefore
+it is not strange if Sadie failed to understand
+that Mr. Steele really meant to be her
+friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come away, Sadie,” whispered Ruth, quite
+troubled herself by the turn affairs had taken.
+“I am so sorry—but it will all come right in
+the end——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“If by comin’ right, Miss, you means that I
+am goin’ to see them twins, you can jest <em>bet</em> it
+will all come right,” returned Sadie, gruffly, when
+they were out in the hall. “For see ’em I will,
+an’ <em>him</em>, nor nobody else, won’t stop me. As
+for goin’ back to them Perkinses, or to the orphanage,
+we’ll see ‘bout that,” added Sadie, to
+herself, and grimly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth feared very much that Mr. Steele would
+not have been quite so stern and positive with
+the runaway, had it not been for his dislike for
+the Caslons. Had Sadie’s brothers been stopping
+with some other neighbor, would Mr. Steele
+have delayed letting the runaway girl go to see
+them?
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, me! If folks would only be good-natured
+and stop being so hateful to each other,”
+thought the girl of the Red Mill. “I just <em>know</em>
+that Mr. Steele would like Mr. Caslon a whole
+lot, if they really once got acquainted!”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The rain had ceased falling by this time. The
+tempest had rolled away into the east. A great
+rainbow had appeared and many of the household
+were on the verandas to watch the bow of promise.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was too wet, however, to venture upon the
+grass. The paths and driveway glistened with
+pools of water. And under a big tree not far
+from the front of the house, it was discovered
+that a multitude of little toads had appeared—tiny
+little fellows no larger than one’s thumbnail.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s just been rainin’ toads!” cried one of
+the younger Steele children—Bennie by name.
+“Come on out, Ruthie, and see the toads that
+comed down with the rainstorm.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom Cameron had already come up to speak
+with Sadie. He shook hands with the runaway
+girl and spoke to her as politely as he would
+have to any of his sister’s friends. And Sadie,
+remembering how kind he had been to her on
+the occasion when the tramps attacked her near
+Cheslow, responded to his advances with less reluctance
+than she had to those of some of the
+girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+For it must be confessed that many of the
+young people looked upon the runaway askance.
+She was so different from themselves!
+</p>
+<p>
+Now that she was clean, and her hair brushed
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>
+and tied with one of Ruth’s own ribbons, and
+she was dressed neatly, Sadie Raby did not <em>look</em>
+much different from the girls about her on the
+wide porch; but when she spoke, her voice was
+hoarse, and her language uncouth.
+</p>
+<p>
+Had she been plumper, she would have been a
+pretty girl. She was tanned very darkly, and her
+skin was coarse. Nevertheless, given half the
+care these other girls had been used to most of
+their lives, and Sadie Raby would have been the
+equal of any.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth came strolling back to the veranda, leaving
+Bennie watching the toads—which remained
+a mystery to him. He was a lively little fellow
+of six and the pet of the whole family.
+</p>
+<p>
+As it chanced, he was alone out there on the
+drive, and the others were now strolling farther
+and farther away from him along the veranda.
+The boy ran out farther from the house, and
+danced up and down, looking at the rainbow
+overhead.
+</p>
+<p>
+Thus he was—a pretty sight in the glow of the
+setting sun—when a sudden chorus of shouts and
+frightened cries arose from the rear of the house.
+</p>
+<p>
+Men and maids were screaming. Then came
+the pounding of heavy hoofs.
+</p>
+<p>
+Around the curve of the drive charged a great
+black horse, a frayed and broken lead-rope hanging
+from his arching neck, his eyes red and glowing, and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span>
+his sleek black body all a-quiver with the
+joy of his escape.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The Black Douglass!” ejaculated Tom Cameron,
+in horror, for the great horse was charging
+straight for the dancing child in the driveway.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was the most dangerous beast upon Sunrise
+Farm—indeed, almost the only savage creature
+Mr. Steele had retained when he bought out the
+former owner of the stock farm and his stud of
+horses.
+</p>
+<p>
+The Black Douglass was a big creature, with
+an uncertain temper, and was handled only by
+the most careful men in Mr. Steele’s employ.
+Somehow, on this occasion, the brute had been
+allowed to escape.
+</p>
+<p>
+Spurring the gravel with his iron shod hoofs,
+the horse galloped straight at little Bennie. The
+child, suddenly made aware of his peril by the
+screams of his brothers and sisters, turned blindly,
+staggered a few steps, and fell upon his hands
+and knees.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele rushed from the house, but he was
+too far away. The men chasing the released
+animal were at a distance, too. Tom Cameron
+started down the steps, but Helen shrieked for
+him to return. Who was there to face the snorting,
+prancing beast?
+</p>
+<p>
+There was a flash of a slight figure down the
+steps and across the sod. Like an arrow from
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>
+a strong bow, Sadie Raby darted before the fallen
+child. Nor was she helpless. The runaway knew
+what she was about.
+</p>
+<p>
+As she ran from the veranda, she had seized a
+parasol that was leaning against one of the pillars.
+Holding this in both hands, she presented
+it to the charging horse, opening and shutting it
+rapidly as she advanced.
+</p>
+<p>
+She leaped across Bennie and confronted the
+Black Douglass. The flighty animal, seeing something
+before him that he did not at all understand,
+changed his course with a frightened snort, and
+dashed off across the lawn, cutting out great
+clods as he ran, and so around the house again
+and out of sight.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. and Mrs. Steele were both running to the
+spot. The gentleman picked up the frightened
+Bennie, but handed him at once to his mother.
+Then he turned and seized the girl by her thin
+shoulders.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My dear girl! My dear girl!” he said,
+rather brokenly, turning her so as to face him.
+“That was a brave thing to do. We can’t thank
+you enough. You can’t understand——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw, it warn’t anything. I knowed that horse
+wouldn’t jump at us when he seen the umbrel’.
+Horses is fools that way,” said Sadie Raby, rather
+shamefacedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+But when Mrs. Steele knelt right down in the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span>
+damp gravel beside her, and with one arm around
+Bennie, put the other around the runaway and
+hugged her—hugged her <em>tight</em>—Sadie was quite
+overcome, herself.
+</p>
+<p>
+Madge Steele was crying frankly. Bobbins
+came rushing upon the scene, and there was a
+general riot of exclamation and explanation.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! you goin’ to let me see my brothers
+now?” demanded the runaway, who had a practical
+mind, if nothing more.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bob,” said his father, quickly, “you have the
+pony put in the cart and drive down there to
+Caslon’s and bring those babies up here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw, Father! what’ll I tell Caslon?” demanded
+the big fellow, hesitatingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tell him—tell him——” For a moment, it
+was true, that Mr. Steele was rather put to it
+for a reply. He found Ruth beside him, plucking
+his sleeve.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me go with Bobbins, sir,” whispered the
+girl of the Red Mill. “I’ll know what to say to
+Mr. and Mrs. Caslon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I guess you will, Ruth. That’s right. You
+bring the twins up here to see their sister.” Then
+he turned and smiled down at Sadie, and there
+were tears behind his eyeglasses. “If I have my
+way, young lady, your coming here to Sunrise
+Farm will be the best thing—for you and the
+twins—that ever happened in your young lives!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span><a name='chXVIII' id='chXVIII'></a>CHAPTER XVIII—SUNDRY PLANS</h2>
+<p>
+Perhaps Sadie Raby would have been just as
+well pleased had Mr. Steele allowed her to go to
+the Caslons’ to see her brothers, instead of having
+them brought up the hill to Sunrise Farm.
+The gentleman, however, did not do this because
+he disliked Caslon; Sadie had saved Bennie from
+what might have been certain death, and the
+wealthy Mr. Steele was quite as grateful as he
+was obstinate.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was determined to show his gratitude to
+the friendless girl in a practical manner. And
+the object of his gratitude would include her two
+little brothers, as well. Oh, yes! Mr. Steele proposed
+to make Sadie Raby glad that she had
+saved Bennie from the runaway horse.
+</p>
+<p>
+The other girls and boys, beside the members
+of the Steele family, were anxious now to show
+their approval of Sadie’s brave deed. The wanderer
+was quite bewildered at first by all the attention
+she received.
+</p>
+<p>
+She was such a different looking girl, too, as
+has been already pointed out, from the miserable
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span>
+little creature who had been found by Mr. Steele
+in the shrubbery, that it was not hard to develop
+an interest in Sadie Raby.
+</p>
+<p>
+Encircled by the family and their young visitors
+on the veranda, Sadie again related the particulars
+of her life and experience—and it was
+a particularly sympathetic audience that listened
+to her. Mr. Steele drew out a new detail that
+had escaped Ruth, even, in her confidences with
+the strange child.
+</p>
+<p>
+Although the “terrible twins” were unable to
+remember either father or mother—orphan asylums
+are not calculated to encourage such remembrances
+in infant minds—Sadie, as she had
+once said to Ruth, could clearly remember both
+her parents.
+</p>
+<p>
+And although they had died in distant Harburg,
+where the children had been put into the
+orphanage, Sadie remembered that the family
+had removed to that city, soon after the twins
+were born, from no less a place than Darrowtown!
+</p>
+<p>
+“Me, I got it in my head that mebbe somebody
+would remember pa and mom in Darrowtown,
+and would give me a chance. That’s another
+reason I come hiking clear over here,” said Sadie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll hunt your friends up—if there are
+any,” Mr. Steele assured her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. “Say!” said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>
+she, “you treat me a whole lot nicer than you
+did a while ago. Do folks have to do somethin’
+for your family before you forget to be cross
+with them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+It certainly was a facer! Mr. Steele flushed a
+little and scarcely knew what to say in reply to
+this frank criticism. But at that moment the
+two-wheel cart came into sight with the pony on
+the trot, and Ruth and the twins waving their
+hands and shouting.
+</p>
+<p>
+The meeting of the little chaps with their
+runaway sister was touching. The three Raby
+orphans were very popular indeed at Sunrise
+Farm just then.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele frankly admitted that this might be
+a case where custom could be over-ridden, and the
+orphanage authorities ignored.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Whether those Perkins people she was
+farmed out to, were as harsh as she says——” he
+began, when Ruth interrupted eagerly:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, sir! I can vouch for <em>that</em>. The man
+was an awful brute. He struck <em>me</em> with his whip,
+and I don’t believe Sadie told a story when she
+says he beat her.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I wish I’d been there,” ejaculated Tom Cameron,
+in a low voice, “when the scoundrel struck
+you, Ruth. I would have done something to
+him!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“However,” pursued Mr. Steele, “the girl is
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>
+here now and near to Darrowtown, which she
+says is her old home. We may find somebody
+there who knew the Rabys. At any rate, they
+shall be cared for—I promise you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know!” cried Ruth, suddenly. “If anybody
+will remember them, it’s Miss Pettis.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Another of your queer friends, Ruth?” asked
+Madge, laughing.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why—Miss True Pettis isn’t queer. But she
+knows about everybody who lives in Darrowtown,
+or who ever did live there—and their histories
+from away back!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“A human encyclopedia,” exclaimed Heavy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“She’s a lovely lady,” said Ruth, quietly, “and
+she’ll do anything to help these unfortunate Rabys—be
+sure of that.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The late dinner was announced, and by that
+time the twins, as well as Sadie, had become a little
+more used to their surroundings. Willie and
+Dickie had been put into “spandy clean” overalls
+and shirts before Mrs. Caslon would let them out
+of her hands. They were really pretty children,
+in a delicate way, like their sister.
+</p>
+<p>
+With so many about the long dining table,
+the meals at the Steele home at this time were
+like a continuous picnic. There was so much talking
+and laughter that Mr. and Mrs. Steele had to
+communicate with signs, for the most part, from
+their stations at either end of the table, or else
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span>
+they must send messages back and forth by one
+of the waitresses.
+</p>
+<p>
+The twins and Sadie were down at Mrs. Steele’s
+end of the table on this occasion, with the girls
+all about them. Ruth and the others took a lot
+more interest in keeping the orphans supplied
+with good things than they did in their own
+plates.
+</p>
+<p>
+That is, all but Heavy; of course <em>she</em> wasted
+no time in heaping her own plate. The twins
+were a little bashful at first; but it was plain that
+Willie and Dickie had been taught some of the
+refinements of life at the orphanage, as both had
+very good table manners.
+</p>
+<p>
+They had to be tempted to eat, however, and
+finally Heavy offered to run a race with them, declaring
+that she could eat as much as both of the
+boys put together.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dickie was just as silent in his sister’s presence
+as usual, his communications being generally in
+the form of monosyllables. But he was faithful
+in echoing Willie’s sentiments on any and every
+occasion—noticeably at chicken time. The little
+fellows ate the fricassee with appetite, but they
+refused the nice, rich gravy, in which the cook
+had put macaroni. Mrs. Steele urged them to
+take gravy once or twice, and finally Sadie considered
+that she should come to the rescue.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s the matter with you kids?” she demanded, hoarsely,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>
+in an attempt to communicate
+with them aside. “Ye was glad ’nough to git
+chicken gravy on Thanksgivin’ at the orphanage—warn’t
+ye?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, I know, Sadie,” returned Willie, wistfully.
+“But they never left the windpipes in it—did
+they, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” responded Dickie, feelingly, likewise
+gazing at the macaroni askance.
+</p>
+<p>
+It set the table in a roar and finally Willie and
+Dickie were encouraged to try some of the gravy,
+“windpipes” and all!
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’re all right,” laughed Busy Izzy, greatly
+delighted. “They’re one—or two—of the
+seven wonders of the world——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Pooh!” interrupted Heavy, witheringly,
+“You don’t even know what the seven wonders
+of the world are.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I can tell you one thing they’re <em>not</em>,” grinned
+Busy Izzy. “They’re not a baseball team, for
+there’s not enough of them. Now will you be
+good?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Madge turned her head suddenly and ran
+right into Belle Tingley’s elbow, as Belle was
+reaching up to settle her hair-ribbon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, oh! My eye! I believe you poked it
+out, Belle. You have <em>such</em> sharp elbows,” wailed
+Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’ll have to see Doc. Blodgett at Lumberton,”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span>
+advised Heavy, “and get your eye tended
+to. He’s a great old doctor——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, I didn’t know he was an eye doctor,”
+exclaimed Madge. “I thought he was a chiropodist.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“He used to be,” Heavy returned, with perfect
+seriousness. “He began at the foot and worked
+up, you see.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Amid all the fun and hilarity, Mr. Steele
+called them to order. This was at the dessert
+stage, and there were tall cones of parti-colored
+ice cream before them, with great, heaping plates
+of cake.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Can you give me a moment’s attention, girls
+and boys?” asked their host. “I want to speak
+about to-morrow.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The ‘great and glorious,’” murmured
+Heavy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ve all promised to be good, sir,” said
+Tom. “No pistols, or explosives, on the place.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Only the cannon,” interposed Bobbins.
+“You’re going to let us salute with <em>that</em>; eh,
+Pa?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’m not sure that I shall,” returned his father,
+“if you do not give me your attention, and
+keep silent. We are determined to have a safe
+and sane Fourth on Sunrise Farm. But at night
+we will set off a splendid lot of fireworks that I
+bought last week——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, fine, Pa! I do love fireworks,” cried
+Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The girls are as bad as the boys, Mother,”
+said Mr. Steele, shaking his head. “What I
+wanted to say,” he added, raising his voice, “was
+that we ought to invite these little chaps—these
+brothers of Sadie Raby—to come up at night to
+see our show.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, let’s have all the fresh airs, Pa!” cried
+Madge, eagerly. “<em>What</em> a good time they’d
+have.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—don’t—know,” said her father, soberly,
+looking at his wife. “I am afraid that will be too
+much for your mother.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mr. Caslon has some fireworks for the children,”
+broke in Ruth, timidly. “I happen to know
+that. And Tom was going down to buy ten dollar’s
+worth more to put with what Mr. Caslon
+has.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph!” said Mr. Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You see, some of us thought we’d give the little
+folk a good time down there, and it wouldn’t
+bother you and Mrs. Steele, sir,” Ruth hastened
+to explain.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, well!” exclaimed the gentleman, not
+very sharply after all, “if those Caslons can
+stand the racket, I guess mother and I can—eh,
+mother?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We need not have them in the house,” said
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>
+Mrs. Steele. “We can put tables on the veranda,
+and give them ice cream and cake after the fireworks.
+Get the men to hang Chinese lanterns,
+and so forth.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Bully!” cried the younger Steeles, in chorus,
+and the visitors to Sunrise Farm were quite delighted,
+too, with this suggestion.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span><a name='chXIX' id='chXIX'></a>CHAPTER XIX—A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH?</h2>
+<p>
+Of course, somebody had to go to the Caslons
+and explain all this, and that duty devolved
+upon Ruth. Naturally, permission had to be
+sought of the farmer and his wife before the
+“fresh air kids” could be carried off bodily to
+Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was decided that the ten dollars, of which
+Tom had taken charge, should be spent for extra
+bunting and lanterns to decorate with, and to buy
+little gifts for each of the fresh airs to find next
+his or her plate on the evening of the Fourth.
+</p>
+<p>
+Therefore, Tom started again for Darrowtown
+right after breakfast, and Ruth rode with
+him in the high, two-wheeled cart.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth had two important errands. One was
+in Darrowtown. But the first stop, at Mr. Caslon’s,
+troubled her a little.
+</p>
+<p>
+How would the farmer and his wife take the
+idea of the Steeles suddenly patronizing the
+fresh air children? Were the Caslons anything
+like Mr. Steele himself, in temperament, Ruth’s
+errand would not be a pleasant one, she knew.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The orphans ran out shrieking a welcome when
+Tom drove into the yard of the house under the
+hill. Where were the “terrible twins”? Had
+their sister really come to see them? Were Willie
+and Dickie coming back to the orphanage at all?
+</p>
+<p>
+These and a dozen other questions were hurled
+at Ruth. Some of the bigger girls remembered
+Sadie Raby and asked a multitude of questions
+about her. So the girl of the Red Mill contented
+herself at first with trying to reply to all these
+queries.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then Mrs. Caslon appeared from the kitchen,
+wiping her hands of dish-water, and the old farmer
+himself came from the stables. Their friendly
+greeting and smiling faces opened the way for
+Ruth’s task. She threw herself, figuratively
+speaking, into their arms.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I know you are both just as kind as you can
+be,” said Ruth, eagerly, “and you won’t mind if
+I ask you to change your program a little to-day
+for the youngsters? They want to give them all
+a good time up at Sunrise Farm.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Good land!” exclaimed Mrs. Caslon. “Not
+<em>all</em> of them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, ma’am,” said Ruth, and she sketched
+briefly the idea of the celebration on the hill-top,
+including the presents she and Tom were to buy
+in Darrowtown for the kiddies.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My soul and body!” exclaimed the farmer’s
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>
+wife. “That lady, Mis’ Steele, don’t know what
+she’s runnin’ into, does she, Father?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I reckon not,” chuckled Mr. Caslon, wagging
+his head.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you won’t mind? You’ll let us have the
+children?” asked Ruth, anxiously.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why——” Mrs. Caslon looked at the old
+gentleman. But he was shaking all over with
+inward mirth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do ’em good, Mother—do ’em good,” he
+chuckled—and he did not mean the fresh air
+children, either. Ruth could see that.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’ll be a mortal shame,” began Mrs. Caslon,
+again, but once more her husband interrupted:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you fuss about other folks, Mother,”
+he said, gravely. “It’ll do ’em good—mebbe—as
+I say. Nothin’ like tryin’ a game once by the
+way. And I bet twelve little tykes like these ’uns
+will keep that Steele man hoppin’ for a while.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But his poor wife——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you worry, Mrs. Caslon,” Ruth urged,
+but wishing to laugh, too. “We girls will take
+care of the kiddies, and Mrs. Steele sha’n’t be
+bothered too much.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Besides,” drawled Mr. Caslon, “the woman’s
+got a good sized family of her own—there’s
+six or seven of ’em, ain’t there?” he demanded
+of Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Eight, sir.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But that don’t make a speck of difference,”
+the farmer’s wife interposed. “She’s always had
+plenty of maids and the like to look out for them.
+She don’t know——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let her learn a little, then,” said Mr. Caslon,
+good naturedly enough. “It’ll do both him and
+her good. And it’ll give you a rest for a few
+hours, Mother.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Besides,” added Mr. Caslon, with another
+deep chuckle, “I hear Steele has been rantin’
+around about takin’ the kids to board just for
+the sake of spitin’ the neighbors. Now, if he
+thinks boardin’ a dozen young’uns like these is
+all fun——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t be harsh, John,” urged Mrs. Caslon.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I ain’t! I ain’t!” cried the farmer, laughing
+again. “But they’re bitin’ off a big chaw, and it
+tickles me to see ’em do it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was arranged, therefore, that the orphans
+should be ready to go up to Sunrise Farm that
+afternoon. Then Ruth and Tom drove to Darrowtown.
+They had a fast horse, and got over
+the rough road at a very good pace.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom drove first around into the side street
+where Miss True Pettis’s little cottage was situated.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You dear child!” was the little spinster’s
+greeting. “Are you having a nice time with your
+rich friends at Sunrise Farm? Tell me all about
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>
+them—and the farm. Everybody in Darrowtown
+is that curious!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom had driven away to attend to the errands
+he could do alone, so Ruth could afford the
+time to visit a bit with her old friend. The felon
+was better, and that fact being assured, Ruth considered
+it better to satisfy Miss Pettis regarding
+the Sunrise Farm folk before getting to the Raby
+orphans.
+</p>
+<p>
+And that was the way to get to them, too.
+For the story of the tempest the day before, and
+the appearance of Sadie Raby, the runaway, and
+her reunion with the twins, naturally came into
+the tale Ruth had to tell—a tale that was eagerly
+listened to and as greatly enjoyed by the Darrowtown
+seamstress, as one can well imagine.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just like a book—or a movie,” sighed Miss
+Pettis, shaking her head. “It’s really wonderful,
+Ruthie Fielding, what’s happened to you since
+you left us here in Darrowtown. But, I always
+said, this town is dead and nothing really happens
+<em>here</em>!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But it’s lovely in Darrowtown,” declared
+Ruth. “And just to think! Those Raby children
+lived here once.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes they did. Sadie was six or seven years
+old, I guess, when they left here. Tom Raby was
+her father. He was a mason’s helper——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t you tell me another thing about ’em!”
+cried Miss Pettis, starting up suddenly. “Now
+you remind me. I remember them well. Mis’
+Raby was as nice a woman as ever stepped—but
+weakly. And Tom Raby——
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, how could I forget it? And after that
+man from Canady came to trace ’em, too, only
+three years ago. Didn’t you ever hear of it,
+Ruth?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What man?” asked Ruth, quite bewildered
+now. “Are—are you sure it was the same family?
+And <em>who</em> would want to trace them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Lemme see. Listen!” commanded Miss
+Pettis. “You answer me about these poor children.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And under the seamstress’s skillful questioning
+Ruth related every detail she knew about the Raby
+orphans—and Mr. Steele, in her presence, had
+cross-questioned Sadie exhaustively the evening
+before. The story lost nothing in Ruth’s telling,
+for she had a retentive memory.
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness me, Ruthie!” ejaculated the
+spinster, excitedly. “It’s the same folks—sure.
+Why, do you know, they came from Quebec, and
+there’s some property they’ve fell heir to—property
+from their mother’s side—Oh, let me tell
+you! Funny you never heard us talkin’ about
+that Canady lawyer while you was livin’ here with
+me. My!”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span><a name='chXX' id='chXX'></a>CHAPTER XX—THE RABY ROMANCE</h2>
+<p>
+Miss True Pettis thrilled with the joy of
+telling the romance. The little seamstress had
+been all her life entertaining people with the dry
+details of unimportant neighborhood happenings.
+It was only once in a long while that a story like
+that of the Rabys’ came within her ken.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, do you believe me!” she said to Ruth,
+“that Mis’ Raby came of quite a nice family in
+Quebec. Not to say Tom Raby wasn’t a fine
+man, for he was, but he warn’t educated much
+and his trade didn’t bring ’em more’n a livin’.
+But her folks had school teachers, and doctors,
+and even ministers in their family—yes, indeed!
+</p>
+<p>
+“And it seems like, so the Canady lawyer said,
+that a minister in the family what was an uncle
+of Mis’ Raby’s, left her and her children some
+property. It was in what he called ‘the fun’s’—that’s
+like stocks an’ bonds, I reckon. But them
+Canadians talk different from us.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, I can remember that man—tall, lean
+man he was, with a yaller mustache. He had
+traced the Rabys to Darrowtown, and he saw
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>
+the minister, and Deacon Giles, and Amoskeag
+Lanfell, askin’ did they know where the Rabys
+went when they moved away from here.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I was workin’ for Amoskeag’s wife that day,
+so I heard all the talk,” pursued Miss Pettis. “He
+said—this Canady lawyer did—that the property
+amounted to several thousand dollars. It
+was left by the minister (who had no family of
+his own) to his niece, Mis’ Raby, or to her children
+if she was dead.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Course they asked me if <em>I</em> knowed what became
+of the family,” said the spinster, with some
+pride. “It bein’ well known here in Darrowtown
+that I’m most as good as a parish register—and
+why wouldn’t I be? Everybody expects me
+to know all the news. But if I ever <em>did</em> know
+where them Rabys went, I’d forgot, and I told
+the lawyer man so.
+</p>
+<p>
+“But he give me his card and axed me to write
+to him if I ever heard anything further from ’em,
+or about ’em. And I certain sure would have
+done so,” declared Miss Pettis, “if it had
+ever come to my mind.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Have you the gentleman’s card now, Miss
+True?” asked Ruth, eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I s’pect so.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Will you find it? I know Mr. Steele is interested
+in the Rabys, and he can communicate
+with this Canadian lawyer——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now! ain’t you a bright girl?” cried the
+spinster. “Of course!”
+</p>
+<p>
+She at once began to hustle about, turning things
+out of her bureau drawers, searching the cubby
+holes of an old maple “secretary” that had
+set in the corner of the kitchen since her father’s
+time, discovering things which she had mislaid
+for years—and forgotten—but not coming upon
+the card in question right away.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Of course I’ve got it,” she declared. “I
+never lose anything—I never throw a scrap of
+anything away that might come of use——”
+</p>
+<p>
+And still she rummaged. Tom came back with
+the cart and Ruth had to go shopping. “But do
+look, Miss Pettis,” she begged, “and we’ll stop
+again before we go back to the farm.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom and she were some time selecting a dozen
+timely, funny, and attractive nicknacks for the
+fresh airs. But they succeeded at last, and Ruth
+was sure the girls would be pleased with their
+selections.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So much better than spending the money for
+noise and a powder smell,” added Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! the kids would like the noise all
+right,” sniffed Tom. “I heard those little chaps
+begging Mr. Caslon for punk and firecrackers.
+That old farmer was a boy himself once, and
+I bet he got something for them that will smell
+of powder, beside the little tad of fireworks he
+showed me.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! I hope they won’t any of them get
+burned.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Kind of put a damper on the ‘safe and sane
+Fourth’ Mr. Steele spoke about, eh?” chuckled
+Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+Miss Pettis was looking out of the window and
+smiling at them when they arrived back at the
+cottage. She held in her hand a yellowed bit of
+pasteboard, which she passed to the eager Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where do you suppose I found it, Ruthie?”
+she demanded.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t guess.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why, stuck right into the corner of my lookin’-glass
+in my bedroom. I s’pose I have handled
+it every day I’ve dusted that glass for three year,
+an’ then couldn’t remember where it was. Ain’t
+that the beatenes’?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth and Tom drove off in high excitement.
+She had already told Master Tom all about the
+Raby romance—such details as he did not already
+know—and now they both looked at the yellowed
+business card before Ruth put it safely away in
+her pocket:
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>  <span class='sc'>Mr. Angus MacDorough</span></p>
+<p>  <em>Solicitor</em></p>
+<p>  13, King Crescent, Quebec</p>
+</div>
+<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span></div>
+<p>
+“Mr. Steele will go right ahead with this, I
+know,” said Tom, nodding. “He’s taken a fancy
+to those kids——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well! he ought to, to Sadie!” cried Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure. And he’s a generous man, after all.
+Too bad he’s taken such a dislike to old Caslon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, Tom! we ought to fix that,” sighed
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Crickey! you’d tackle any job in the world, I
+believe, Ruthie, if you thought you could help
+folks.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense! But both of them—both Mr.
+Steele and Mr. Caslon—are such awfully nice
+people——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well! there’s not much hope, I guess. Mr.
+Steele’s lawyer is trying to find a flaw in Caslon’s
+title. It seems that, way back, a long time ago,
+some of the Caslons got poor, or careless, and
+the farm was sold for taxes. It was never properly
+straightened out—on the county records,
+anyway—and the lawyer is trying to see if he
+can’t buy up the interest of whoever bought the
+farm in at that time—or their heirs—and so have
+some kind of a basis for a suit against old Caslon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness! that’s not very clear,” said Ruth,
+staring.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. It’s pretty muddy. But you know how
+some lawyers are. And Mr. Steele is willing to
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>
+hire the shyster to do it. He thinks it’s all
+right. It’s business.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“<em>Your</em> father wouldn’t do such a thing, Tom!”
+cried Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. I hope he wouldn’t, anyway,” said Master
+Tom, wagging his head. “But I couldn’t say
+that to Bobbins when he told me about it, could
+I?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No call to. But, oh, dear! I hope Mr.
+Steele won’t be successful. I do hope he won’t
+be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Same here,” grunted Tom. “Just the same,
+he’s a nice man, and I like him.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes—so do I,” admitted Ruth. “But I’d
+like him so much more, if he wouldn’t try to get
+the best of an old man like Mr. Caslon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The Raby matter, however, was a more pleasant
+topic of conversation for the two friends.
+The big bay horse got over the ground rapidly—Tom
+said the creature did not know a hill when
+he saw one!—and it still lacked half an hour of
+noon when they came in sight of Caslon’s house.
+</p>
+<p>
+The orphans were all in force in the front yard.
+Mr. Caslon appeared, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+That yard was untidy for the first time since
+Ruth had seen it. And most of the untidiness
+was caused by telltale bits of red, yellow, and
+green paper. Even before the cart came to the
+gate, Ruth smelled the tang of powder smoke.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, Tom! they <em>have</em> got firecrackers,” she
+exclaimed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So have I—a whole box full—under the
+front seat,” chuckled Tom. “What’s the Fourth
+without a weeny bit of noise? Bobbins and I
+are going to let them off in a big hogshead he’s
+found behind the stable.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“You boys are rascals!” breathed Ruth.
+“Why! there are the twins!”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie’s young brothers ran out to the cart.
+Mr. Caslon appeared with a good-sized box in
+his arms, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Just take this—and the youngsters—aboard,
+will you, young fellow?” said the farmer.
+“Might as well have all the rockets and such up
+there on the hill. They’ll show off better. And
+the twins was down for the clean clo’es mother
+promised them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a two-seated cart and there was plenty
+of room for the two boys on the back seat. Mr.
+Caslon carefully placed the open box in the bottom
+of the cart, between the seats. The fireworks
+he had purchased had been taken out of their
+wrappings and were placed loosely in the box.
+</p>
+<p>
+“There ye are,” said the farmer, jovially.
+“Hop up here, youngsters!”
+</p>
+<p>
+He seized Willie and hoisted him into the seat.
+But Dickie had run around to the other side of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>
+the cart and clambered up like a monkey, to join
+his brother.
+</p>
+<p>
+“All right, sir,” said Tom, wheeling the eager
+bay horse. It was nearing time for the latter’s
+oats, and he smelled them! “Out of the way,
+kids. They’ll send a wagon down for you, all
+right, after luncheon, I reckon.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Just then Ruth happened to notice something
+smoking in Dickie’s hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What have you there, child?” she demanded.
+“Not a nasty cigarette?”
+</p>
+<p>
+He held out, solemnly, and as usual wordlessly,
+a smoking bit of punk.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where did you get that? Oh! drop it!”
+cried Ruth, fearing for the fireworks and the
+explosives under the front seat. She meant for
+Dickie to throw it out of the wagon, but the
+youngster took the command literally.
+</p>
+<p>
+He dropped it. He dropped it right into the
+box of fireworks. Then things began to happen!
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span><a name='chXXI' id='chXXI'></a>CHAPTER XXI—A VERY BUSY TIME</h2>
+<p>
+“Oh, Tom!” shrieked Ruth, and seized the
+boy’s arm. The bay horse was just plunging
+ahead, eager to be off for the stable and his
+manger. The high cart was whirled through the
+gateway as the first explosion came!
+</p>
+<p>
+Pop,pop,pop! sputter—BANG!
+</p>
+<p>
+It seemed as though the horse leaped more
+than his own length, and yanked all four wheels
+of the cart off the ground. There was a chorus
+of screams in the Caslons’ dooryard, but after
+that first cry, Ruth kept silent.
+</p>
+<p>
+The rockets shot out of the box amidships with
+a shower of sparks. The Roman candles sprayed
+their varied colored balls—dimmed now by daylight—all
+about the cart.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom hung to the lines desperately, but the
+scared horse had taken the bit in his teeth and
+was galloping up the road toward Sunrise Farm,
+quite out of hand.
+</p>
+<p>
+After that first grab at Tom’s arm, Ruth did
+not interfere with him. She turned about, knelt
+on the seat-cushion, and, one after the other,
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span>
+swept the twins across the sputtering, shooting
+bunch of fireworks, and into the space between
+her and Tom and the dashboard.
+</p>
+<p>
+Providentially the shooting rockets headed into
+the air, and to the rear. As the big horse dashed
+up the hill, swinging the light vehicle from side
+to side behind him, there was left behind a trail
+of smoke and fire that (had it been night-time)
+would have been a brilliant spectacle.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Caslon and the orphans started after the
+amazing thing tearing up the road—but to no
+purpose. Nothing could be done to stop the
+explosion now. The sparks flew all about. Although
+Mr. Caslon had bought a wealth of small
+rockets, candles, mines, flower-pots, and the like,
+never had so many pieces been discharged in so
+short a time!
+</p>
+<p>
+It was sputter, sputter, bang, bang, the cart
+vomiting flame and smoke, while the horse became
+a perfectly frenzied creature, urged on by
+the noise behind him. Tom could only cling to
+the reins, Ruth clung to the twins, and all by
+good providence were saved from an overturn.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the time—and, of course, the half-mile or
+more from Caslons’ to the entrance to the Steele
+estate, was covered in a very few moments—all
+the time Ruth was praying that the fire-crackers
+Tom had bought and hidden under the front seat
+would not be ignited.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The reports of the rockets, and the like, became
+desultory. Some set pieces and triangles
+went off with the hissing of snakes. Was the
+explosion over?
+</p>
+<p>
+So it seemed, and the maddened horse turned
+in at the gateway. The cart went in on two
+wheels, but it did not overturn.
+</p>
+<p>
+The race had begun to tell on the bay. He
+was covered with foam and his pace was slackening.
+Perhaps the peril was over—Ruth drew a
+long breath for the first time since the horse had
+made its initial jump.
+</p>
+<p>
+And then—with startling suddenness—there
+was a sputter and bang! Off went the firecrackers,
+package after package. A spark had
+burned through the paper wrapper and soon there
+was such a popping under that front seat as
+shamed the former explosions!
+</p>
+<p>
+Had the horse been able to run any faster, undoubtedly
+he would have done so; but as the cart
+went tearing up the drive toward the front of the
+big house, the display of fireworks, etc., behind
+the front seat, and the display of alarm on the
+part of the four on the seat, advertised to all beholders
+that the occasion was not, to say the least,
+a common one.
+</p>
+<p>
+The cart itself was scorched and was afire in
+places, the sputtering of the fire-crackers continued
+while the horse tore up the hill. Tom had
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>
+bought a generous supply and it took some time
+for them all to explode.
+</p>
+<p>
+Fortunately the front drop of the seat was a
+solid panel of deal, or Ruth’s skirt might have
+caught on fire—or perhaps the legs of the twins
+would have been burned.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for the two little fellows, they never even
+squealed! Their eyes shone, they had lost their
+caps in the back of the cart, their short curls blew
+out straight in the wind, and their cheeks glowed.
+When the runaway appeared over the crest of
+the hill and the crowd at Sunrise Farm beheld
+them, it was evident that Willie and Dickie were
+enjoying themselves to the full!
+</p>
+<p>
+Poor Tom, on whose young shoulders the responsibility
+of the whole affair rested, was braced
+back, with his feet against the footboard, the lines
+wrapped around his wrists, and holding the maddened
+horse in to the best of his ability.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bobbins on one side, and Ralph Tingley on the
+other, ran into the roadway and caught the runaway
+by the bridle. The bay was, perhaps, quite
+willing to halt by this time. Mr. Steele ran out,
+and his first exclamation was:
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness, Tom Cameron! you’ve finished
+that horse!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I hope not, sir,” panted Tom, rather pale.
+“But I thought he’d finish us before he got
+through.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By this time the explosions had ceased. Everything
+of an explosive nature—saving the twins
+themselves—in the cart seemed to have gone off.
+And now Willie ejaculated:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee! I never rode so fast before. Wasn’t
+it great, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” agreed Master Dickie, with rather
+more emphasis than usual.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sister Sadie appeared from the rear premises,
+vastly excited, too, but when she lifted the twins
+down and found not a scratch upon them, she
+turned to Ruth with a delighted face.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You took care of them just like you loved
+’em, Miss,” she whispered, as Ruth tumbled out
+of the cart, too, into her arms. “Oh, dear! don’t
+you dare get sick—you ain’t hurt, are you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, no!” exclaimed Ruth, having hard work
+to crowd back the tears. “But I’m almost scared
+to death. That—that young one!” and she
+grabbed at Dickie. “What did you drop that
+punk into the fireworks for?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Huh?” questioned the imperturbable Dickie.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Why didn’t you throw that lighted punk
+away?” and Ruth was tempted to shake the
+little rascal.
+</p>
+<p>
+But instantly the voluble Willie shouldered his
+way to the front. “Gee, Miss! he thought you
+wanted him to drop it right there. You said so.
+An’—an’—— Well, he didn’t know the things
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>
+in the box would go off of themselves. Did you
+Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” responded his twin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Do forgive ’em, Miss Ruth,” whispered
+Sadie Raby. “I wouldn’t want Mr. Steele to
+get after ’em. You know—he can be sumpin’
+fierce!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well,” sighed Ruth Fielding, “they’re the
+‘terrible twins’ right enough. Oh, Tom!” she
+added, as young Cameron came to her to shake
+hands.
+</p>
+<p>
+“You’re getting better and better,” said Tom,
+grinning. “I’d rather be in a wreck with you,
+Ruthie—of almost any kind—than with anybody
+else I know. Those kids don’t even know what
+you saved them from, when you dragged ’em over
+the back of that seat.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sh!” she begged, softly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And it’s a wonder we weren’t all blown to
+glory!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was a mercy we were not seriously hurt,”
+agreed Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>
+But then there was too much bustle and general
+talk for them to discuss the incident quietly. The
+horse was led away to the stable and there attended
+to. Fortunately he was not really injured,
+but the cart would have to go to the painter’s.
+</p>
+<p>
+“A fine beginning for this celebration we have
+on hand,” declared Mr. Steele, looking ruefully
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span>
+at his wife. “If all that can happen with only
+two of those fresh air kids, as Bob calls them, on
+hand, what do you suppose will happen to-night
+when we have a dozen at Sunrise Farm?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Mercy!” gasped the lady. “I am trembling
+in my shoes—I am, indeed. But we have agreed
+to do it, Father, and we must carry it through.”
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span><a name='chXXII' id='chXXII'></a>CHAPTER XXII—THE TERRIBLE TWINS ON THE RAMPAGE</h2>
+<p>
+The girls who had come to Sunrise Farm to
+visit at Madge Steele’s invitation, felt no little
+responsibility when it came to the entertainment
+for the fresh air orphans. As The Fox said,
+with her usual decision:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now that we’ve put Madge and her folks
+into this business, we’ll just have to back up their
+play, and make sure that the fresh airs don’t tear
+the place down. And that Sadie will have to keep
+an eye on the ‘terrible twins.’ Is that right?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve spoken to poor Sadie,” said Ruth, with
+a sigh. “I am afraid that Mrs. Steele is very
+much worried over what may occur to-night, while
+the children are here. We’ll have to be on the
+watch all the time.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I should say!” exclaimed Heavy Stone.
+“Let’s suggest to Mr. Steele that he rope off a
+place out front where he is going to have the
+fireworks. Some of those little rascals will want
+to help celebrate, the way Willie and Dickie did,”
+and the plump girl giggled ecstatically.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“’Twas no laughing matter, Jennie,” complained
+Ruth, shaking her head.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, that’s all right,” Lluella broke in. “If
+Tom hadn’t bought the fire-crackers—and that
+was right against Mr. Steele’s advice——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, here now!” interrupted Helen, loyal to
+her twin. “Tom wasn’t any more to blame
+than Bobbins. They were just bought for a
+joke.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It was a joke all right,” Belle said, laughing.
+“Who’s going to pay for the damage to the
+cart?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, let’s not get to bickering,” urged Ruth.
+“What’s done, is done. We must plan now to
+make the celebration this afternoon and evening
+as easy for Mrs. Steele as possible.”
+</p>
+<p>
+This conversation went on after luncheon, while
+Bob and Tom had driven down the hill with a
+big wagon to bring up the ten remaining orphans
+from Mr. Caslon’s place.
+</p>
+<p>
+The gaily decorated wagon came in sight just
+about this time. Fortunately the decorations Tom
+and Ruth had purchased that forenoon in Darrowtown
+had not been destroyed when the fireworks
+went off in the cart.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls from Briarwood Hall welcomed the
+fresh airs cheerfully and took entire charge of the
+six little girls. The little boys did not wish to
+play “girls’ games” on the lawn, and therefore
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span>
+Bob and his chums agreed to keep an eye on the
+youngsters, including the “terrible twins.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie had been drafted to assist Madge and
+her mother, and some of the maids, in preparing
+for the evening collation. Therefore the visitors
+were divided for the time into two bands.
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls from the orphanage were quiet
+enough and well behaved when separated from
+their boy friends. Indeed, on the lawn and under
+the big tent Mr. Steele had had erected, the celebration
+of a “safe and sane” Fourth went on in
+a most commendable way.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was a very hot afternoon, and after indulging
+in a ball game in the field behind the stables,
+Bobbins, in a thoughtless moment, suggested a
+swim. Half a mile away there was a pond in a
+hollow. The boys had been there almost every
+day for a dip, and Bob’s suggestion was hailed—even
+by the usually thoughtful Tom Cameron—with
+satisfaction.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What about the kids?” demanded Ralph
+Tingley.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let them come along,” said Bobbins.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure,” urged Busy Izzy. “What harm can
+come to them? We’ll keep our eyes on them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The twins and their small chums from the
+orphanage were eager to go to the pond, too, and
+so expressed themselves. The half-mile walk
+through the hot sun did not make them quail.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span>
+They were proud to be allowed to accompany the
+bigger boys to the swimming hole.
+</p>
+<p>
+The little fellows raced along in their bare
+feet behind the bigger boys and were pleased
+enough, until they reached the pond and learned
+that they would only be allowed to go in wading,
+while the others slipped into their bathing trunks
+and “went in all over.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No! you can’t go in,” declared Bobbins, who
+put his foot down with decision, having his own
+small brothers in mind. (They had been left
+behind, by the way, to be dressed for the evening.)
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! the water won’t wet us no more’n it does
+you—will it, Dickie?” demanded the talkative
+twin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” agreed his brother.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, you kids keep your clothes on,” said
+Bob, threateningly. “And don’t wade more
+than to your knees. If you get your overalls wet,
+you’ll hear about it. You know Mrs. Caslon fixed
+you all up for the afternoon and told you to keep
+clean.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The smaller chaps were unhappy. That was
+plain. They paddled their dusty feet in the water
+for a while, but the sight of the older lads diving
+and swimming and having such a good time in
+the pond was a continual temptation. The active
+minds of the terrible twins were soon at work.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>
+Willie began to whisper to Dickie, and the latter
+nodded his head solemnly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say!” blurted out Willie, finally, as Bob and
+Tom were racing past them in a boisterous game
+of “tag.” “We wanter go back. This ain’t no
+fun—is it, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” said his twin.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go on back, if you want to. You know the
+path,” said Bobbins, breathlessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’re goin’, too,” said one of the other fresh
+airs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’d rather play with the girls than stay
+here. Hadn’t we, Dickie?” proposed Willie
+Raby.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” agreed Master Dickie, with due solemnity.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Go on!” cried Bob. “And see you go
+straight back to the house. My!” he added to
+Tom, “but those kids are a nuisance.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Think we ought to let them go alone?”
+queried Tom, with some faint doubt on the subject.
+“You reckon they’ll be all right, Bobbins?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Great Scott! they sure know the way to the
+house,” said Bob. “It’s a straight path.”
+</p>
+<p>
+But, as it happened, the twins had no idea of
+going straight to the house. The pond was fed
+by a stream that ran in from the east. The little
+fellows had seen this, and Willie’s idea was to
+circle around through the woods and find that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span>
+stream. There they could go in bathing like the
+bigger boys, “and nobody would ever know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Our heads will be wet,” objected one of the
+orphans.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Gee!” said Willie Raby, “don’t let’s wet our
+heads. We ain’t got to—have we?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” said his brother, promptly.
+</p>
+<p>
+There was some doubt, still, in the minds of
+the other boys.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What you goin’ to say to those folks up to
+the big house?” demanded one of the fresh airs.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Ain’t goin’ to say nothin’,” declared the bold
+Willie. “Cause why? they ain’t goin’ to know—‘nless
+you fellers snitch.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw, who’s goin’ to snitch?” cried the objector,
+angered at once by the accusation of the
+worst crime in all the category of boyhood. “We
+ain’t no tattle-tales—are we, Jim?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Naw. We’re as safe to hold our tongues as
+you an’ yer brother are, Willie Raby—so now!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure we are!” agreed the other orphans.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Then come along,” urged the talkative twin.
+“Nobody’s got to know.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Suppose yer sister finds it out?” sneered one.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Aw—well—she jes’ ain’t go’n’ ter,” cried
+Willie, exasperated. “An’ what if she does?
+She runned away herself—didn’t she?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The spirit of restlessness was strong in the
+Raby nature, it was evident. Willie was a born
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span>
+leader. The others trailed after him when he
+left the pathway that led directly back to Sunrise
+Farm, and pushed into the thicker wood in the
+direction he believed the stream lay.
+</p>
+<p>
+The juvenile leader of the party did not know
+(how should he?) that just above the pond the
+stream which fed it made a sharp turn. Its
+waters came out of a deep gorge, lying in an entirely
+different direction from that toward which
+the “terrible twins” and their chums were aiming.
+</p>
+<p>
+The little fellows plodded on for a long time,
+and the sun dropped suddenly behind the hills to
+the westward, and there they were—quite surprisingly
+to themselves—in a strange and fast-darkening
+forest.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span><a name='chXXIII' id='chXXIII'></a>CHAPTER XXIII—LOST</h2>
+<p>
+The girl visitors from Briarwood Hall did all
+they could to help the mistress of Sunrise Farm
+and Madge prepare for the evening festivities,
+and not alone in employing the attention of the
+six little girls from the orphanage.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were the decorations to arrange, and
+the paper lanterns to hang, and the long tables
+on the porch to prepare for the supper. Twelve
+extra, hungry little mouths to feed was, of itself,
+a fact of no small importance.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the wagon had come up from Caslon’s
+with the orphans, Mrs. Steele had thought it
+rather a liberty on the part of the farmer’s wife
+because she had, with the children, sent a great
+hamper of cakes, which she (Mrs. Caslon) herself
+had baked the day before.
+</p>
+<p>
+But the cakes were so good, and already the
+children were so hungry, that the worried mistress
+of the big farm was thankful that these supplies
+were in her pantry.
+</p>
+<p>
+“When the boys come back from the pond, I
+expect they will be ravenous, too,” sighed the
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span>
+good lady. “<em>Do</em> you think, Madge, that there
+will be enough ham and tongue sandwiches for
+supper? I am sure of the cream and cake—thanks
+to that good old woman (though I hope
+your father won’t hear me say it). But that is
+to be served after the fireworks. They will want
+something hearty at suppertime—and goodness
+me, Madge! It is five o’clock now. Those boys
+should be back from their swim.”
+</p>
+<p>
+As for Mr. Steele, he was immensely satisfied
+with the celebration of the day so far. To tell
+the truth, he had very little to do with the work
+of getting ready for the orphans’ entertainment.
+Aside from the explosion of the fireworks in the
+cart, the occasion had been a perfectly “safe and
+sane” celebration of a holiday that he usually
+looked forward to with no little dread.
+</p>
+<p>
+Before anybody really began to worry over
+their delay, the boys came into view. They had
+had a refreshing swim and announced the state
+of their appetites the moment they joined the girls
+at the big tent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, yes,” said Madge, “we know all about
+that, Bobbie dear. But his little tootie-wootsums
+must wait till hims gets his bib put on, an’ let
+sister see if his hannies is nice and clean. Can’t
+sit down to eat if hims a dirty boy,” and she
+rumpled her big brother’s hair, while he looked
+foolish enough over her “baby talk.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t be ridiculous, Madge,” said Helen,
+briskly. “Of course they are hungry—— But
+where’s the rest of them?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“The rest of what?” demanded Busy Izzy.
+“I guess we’re all here.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say! you <em>must</em> be hungry,” chuckled Heavy.
+“Did you eat the kids?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What kids?” snapped Tom, in sudden alarm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The fresh airs, of course. The ‘terrible
+twins’ and their mates. My goodness!” cried
+Ann Hicks, “you didn’t forget and leave them
+down there at the pond, did you?”
+</p>
+<p>
+The boys looked at each other for a moment.
+“What’s the joke?” Bobbins finally drawled.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It’s no joke,” Ruth said, quickly. “You
+don’t mean to say that you forgot those little
+boys?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, stop that, Ruth Fielding!” cried Isadore
+Phelps, very red in the face. “A joke’s a
+joke; but don’t push it too far. You know very
+well those kids came back up here more’n an
+hour ago.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They didn’t do any such thing,” cried Sadie,
+having heard the discussion, and now running out
+to the tent. “They haven’t been near the house
+since you big boys took them to the pond. Now,
+say! what d’ye know about it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They’re playing a trick on us,” declared Tom,
+gloomily.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let’s hunt out in the stables, and around,”
+suggested Ralph Tingley, feebly.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Maybe they went back to Caslon’s,” Isadore
+said, hopefully.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ll find out about that pretty quick,” said
+Madge. “I’ll tell father and he’ll send somebody
+down to see if they went there.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Come on, boys!” exclaimed Tom, starting
+for the rear of the house. “Those little scamps
+are fooling us.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Suppose they <em>have</em> wandered away into the
+woods?” breathed Ruth to Helen. “Whatever
+shall we do?”
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie could not wait. She was unable to remain
+idle, when it was possible that the twin
+brothers she had so lately rejoined, were in danger.
+She flashed after the boys and hunted the
+stables, too.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nobody there had seen the “fresh airs” since
+they had followed the bigger boys to the pond.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And ye sure didn’t leave ’em down there?”
+demanded Sadie Raby of Tom.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Goodness me! No!” exclaimed Tom.
+“They couldn’t go in swimming as we did, and
+so they got mad and wouldn’t stay. But they
+started right up this way, and we thought they
+were all right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“They might have slanted off and gone across
+the fields to Caslon’s,” said Bobbins, doubtfully.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“That would have taken them into the back
+pasture where Caslon keeps his Angoras—wouldn’t
+it?” demanded the much-worried young
+man.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, you can go look for ’em with the
+goats,” snapped Sadie, starting off. “But me for
+that Caslon place. If they didn’t go there, then
+they are in the woods somewhere.”
+</p>
+<p>
+She started down the hill, fleet-footed as a dog.
+Before Mr. Steele had stopped sputtering over the
+catastrophe, and bethought him to start somebody
+for the Caslon premises to make inquiries, Sadie
+came in view again, with the old, gray-mustached
+farmer in tow.
+</p>
+<p>
+The serious look on Mr. Caslon’s face was
+enough for all those waiting at Sunrise Farm to
+realize that the absent children were actually lost.
+Tom and Bobbins had come up from the goat
+pasture without having seen, or heard, the six
+little fellows.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I forgot to tell ye,” said Caslon, seriously,
+“that ye had to keep one eye at least on them
+‘terrible twins’ all the time. We locked ’em
+into their bedroom at night. No knowin’ when
+or where they’re likely to break out. But I reckoned
+this here sister of theirs would keep ’em
+close to her——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well!” snapped Sadie Raby, eyeing Tom
+and Bobbins with much disfavor, “I thought that
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span>
+a bunch of big fellers like them could look after
+half a dozen little mites.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele had come forward slowly; the fact
+that the six orphan boys really seemed to be lost,
+was an occasion to break down even <em>his</em> barrier
+of dislike for the neighbor. Besides, Mr. Caslon
+ignored any difference there might be between
+them in a most generous manner.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I blame myself, Neighbor Steele—I sure do,”
+Mr. Caslon said, before the owner of Sunrise
+Farm could speak. “I’d ought to warned you
+about them twins. They got bit by the runaway
+bug bad—that’s right.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! a family trait—is it?” demanded
+Mr. Steele, rather grimly eyeing the sister of the
+runaways.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I couldn’t say about that,” chuckled the
+farmer. “But Willie and Dickie started off
+twice from our place, trailin’ most of the other
+kids with ’em. But I caught ’em in time. Now,
+their sister tells me, they’ve got at least an hour
+and a half’s start.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“It is getting dark—or it will soon be,” said
+Mr. Steele, nervously. “If they are not found
+before night, I shall be greatly disturbed. I feel
+as though I were responsible. My oldest boy,
+here——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now, it ain’t nobody’s fault, like enough,”
+interrupted Mr. Caslon, cheerfully, and seeing
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span>
+Bobbins’s woebegone face. “We’ll start right
+out and hunt for them.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But if it grows dark——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Let me have what men you can spare, and
+all the lanterns around the place,” said Caslon,
+briskly, taking charge of the matter on the instant.
+“These bigger boys can help.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I can go with you, sir,” began Mr. Steele,
+but the farmer waved him back.
+</p>
+<p>
+“No. You ain’t used to the woods—nor to
+trampin’—like I be. And it won’t hurt your boys.
+You leave it to us—we’ll find ’em.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Steele had retired to the tent on the lawn
+in tears, and most of the girls were gathered
+about her. Sadie Raby clung to Farmer Caslon’s
+side, and nobody tried to call her back.
+</p>
+<p>
+Since returning from Darrowtown that morning,
+Ruth Fielding had divulged to Mr. Steele all
+she had discovered through Miss True Pettis regarding
+the Raby family, and about the Canadian
+lawyer who had once searched for Mrs. Raby
+and her children.
+</p>
+<p>
+The gentleman had expressed deep interest
+in the matter, and while the fresh air children
+were being entertained during the afternoon, Mr.
+Steele had already set in motion an effort to
+learn the whereabouts of Mr. Angus MacDorough
+and to discover just what the property was
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>
+that had been willed to the mother of the Raby
+orphans.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie had been told nothing about this wonderful
+discovery as yet. Indeed, there had been no
+time. Sadie had been busy, with Mrs. Steele and
+the others, in preparing for that “safe and sane”
+celebration with which Mr. Steele had desired to
+entertain the “terrible twins” and their little
+companions at Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now this sudden catastrophe had occurred.
+The loss of the six little boys was no small trouble.
+It threatened to be a tragedy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Down there beyond the pond the mountainside
+was heavily timbered, and there were many dangerous
+ravines and sudden precipices over which a
+careless foot might stray.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dusk was coming on. In the wood it would already
+be dark. And if the frightened children
+went plunging about, seeking, in terror, to escape,
+they might at any moment be cast into some pit
+where the searchers would possibly never find
+them.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mr. Steele felt his responsibility gravely. He
+was, at best, a nervous man, and this happening
+assumed the very gravest outlines in his anxious
+mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Never ought to have let them out of my own
+sight,” he sputtered, having Ruth for a confidant.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>
+“I might have known something extraordinary
+would happen. It was a crazy thing to have all
+those children up here, anyway.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear, Mr. Steele!” cried Ruth, much
+worried, “<em>that</em> is partly my fault. I was one of
+those who suggested it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nonsense! nonsense, child! Nobody blames
+you,” returned the gentleman. “I should have
+put my foot down and said ‘No.’ Nobody influenced
+me at all. Why—why, I <em>wanted</em> to give the
+poor little kiddies a nice time. And now—see
+what has come of it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, it may be that they will be found almost
+at once,” cried Ruth, hopefully. “I am sure Mr.
+Caslon will do what he can——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Caslon’s an eminently practical man—yes, indeed,”
+admitted Mr. Steele, and not grudgingly.
+“If anybody can find them, he will, I have no
+doubt.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And this commendation of the neighbor whom
+he so disliked struck Ruth completely silent for
+the time being.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span><a name='chXXIV' id='chXXIV'></a>CHAPTER XXIV—“SO THAT’S ALL RIGHT”</h2>
+<p>
+“And here it is ‘ong past suppertime,” groaned
+Heavy; “it’s getting darker every minute, and the
+fireworks ought to be set off, and we can’t do a
+thing!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Who’d have the heart to eat, with those children
+wandering out there in the woods?” snapped
+Mercy Curtis.
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s <em>heart</em> got to do with eating?” grumbled
+the plump girl. “And I was thinking quite
+as much of the little girls here as I was of myself.
+Why! here is one of the poor kiddies
+asleep, I do declare.”
+</p>
+<p>
+The party in the big tent was pretty solemn.
+Even the six little girls from the orphanage could
+not play, or laugh, under the present circumstances.
+And, in addition, it looked as though all
+the fun for the evening would be spoiled.
+</p>
+<p>
+The searching party had been gone an hour.
+Those remaining behind had seen the twinkling
+lanterns trail away over the edge of the hill and
+disappear. Now all they could see from the tent
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>
+were the stars, and the fireflies, with now and then
+a rocket soaring heavenward from some distant
+farm, or hamlet, where the Glorious Fourth was
+being fittingly celebrated.
+</p>
+<p>
+Madge and Helen came out with a hamper of
+sandwiches and there was lemonade, but not even
+the little folk ate with an appetite. The day
+which, at Sunrise Farm, was planned to be so
+memorable, threatened now to be remembered
+for a very unhappy cause.
+</p>
+<p>
+Down in the wood lot that extended from below
+some of Mr. Steele’s hayfields clear into the next
+township, the little party of searchers, led by old
+Mr. Caslon, had separated into parties of two
+each, to comb the wilderness.
+</p>
+<p>
+None of the men knew the wood as did Mr.
+Caslon, and of course the boys and Sadie (who
+had refused to go back) were quite unfamiliar
+with it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t go out of sight of the flash of each
+other’s lanterns,” advised the farmer.
+</p>
+<p>
+And by sticking to this rule it was not likely
+that any of the sorely troubled searchers would,
+themselves, be lost. As they floundered through
+the thick undergrowth, they shouted, now and
+then, as loudly as they could. But nothing but
+the echoes, and the startled nightbirds, replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+Again and again they called for the lost boys
+by name. Sadie’s shrill voice carried as far as
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>
+anybody’s, without doubt, and her crying for
+“Willie” and “Dickie” should have brought
+those delinquents to light, had they heard her.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sadie stuck close to Mr. Caslon, as he told her
+to. But the way through the brush was harder
+for the girl than for the rest of them. Thick
+mats of greenbriars halted them. They were
+torn, and scratched, and stung by the vegetable
+pests; yet Sadie made no complaint.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for the mosquitoes and other stinging insects—well,
+they were out on this night, it seemed,
+in full force. They buzzed around the heads of
+the searchers in clouds, attracted by the lanterns.
+Above, in the trees, complaining owls hooted their
+objections to the searchers’ presence in the forest.
+The whip-poor-wills reiterated their determination
+from dead limbs or rotting fence posts. And
+in the wet places the deep-voiced frogs gave tongue
+in many minor keys.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, dear!” sighed Sadie to the farmer, “the
+little fellers will be scared half to death when
+they hear all these critters.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And how about you?” he asked.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh, I’m used to ’em. Why, I’ve slept out
+in places as bad as this more’n one night. But
+Willie and Dickie ain’t used to it.”
+</p>
+<p>
+One end of the line of searchers touched the
+pond. They shouted that information to the
+others, and then they all pushed on. It was in
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>
+the mind of all that, perhaps, the children had
+circled back to the pond.
+</p>
+<p>
+But their shouts brought no hoped-for reply,
+although they echoed across the open water, and
+were answered eerily from the farther shore.
+</p>
+<p>
+There were six couples; therefore the line extended
+for a long way into the wood, and swept a
+wide area. They marched on, bursting through
+the vines and climbers, searching thick patches
+of jungle, and often shouting in chorus till the
+wood rang again.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom and one of the stablemen, who were at
+the lower end of the line, finally came to the
+mouth of that gorge out of which the brook
+sprang. To the east of this opening lay a considerable
+valley and it was decided to search
+this vale thoroughly before following the stream
+higher.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was well they did so, for half a mile farther
+on, Tom and his companion made a discovery.
+They came upon the tall, blasted trunk of a huge
+old tree that had a great hollow at its foot. This
+hollow was blinded by a growth of vines and
+brush, yet as Tom flashed his lantern upon it, it
+seemed to him as though the vines had been disturbed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“It may be the lair of some animal, sir,” suggested
+the stableman, as Tom attempted to peer
+in.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nothing much more dangerous than foxes in
+these woods now, I am told,” returned the boy.
+“And this is not a fox’s burrow—hello!”
+</p>
+<p>
+His sudden, delighted shriek rang through the
+wood and up the hillside.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I’ve found them! I’ve found them!” the
+boy repeated, and dived into the hollow tree.
+</p>
+<p>
+His lantern showed him and the stableman
+the six wanderers rolled up like kittens in a
+nest. They opened their eyes sleepily, yawning
+and blinking. One began to snivel, but Willie
+Raby at once delivered a sharp punch to that one,
+saying, in grand disgust:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Baby! Didn’t I tell you they’d come for us?
+They was sure to—wasn’t they, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” responded that youngster, quite as cool
+about it as his brother.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tom’s shouts brought the rest of the party in
+a hurry. Mr. Caslon hauled each “fresh air” out
+by the collar and stood him on his feet. When
+he had counted them twice over to make sure, he
+said:
+</p>
+<p>
+“Well, sir! of all the young scamps that ever
+were born—Willie Raby! weren’t you scared?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” declared Willie. “Some of these
+other kids begun ter snivel when it got dark; but
+Dickie an’ me would ha’ licked ’em if they’d kep’
+that up. Then we found that good place to
+sleep——”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“But suppose it had been the bed of some
+animal?” asked Bobbins, chuckling.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope,” said Willie, shaking his head. “There
+was spider webs all over the hole we went in at,
+so we knowed nobody had been there much lately.
+And it was a pretty good place to sleep. Only it
+was too warm in there at first. I couldn’t get to
+sleep right away.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“But you didn’t hear us shouting for you?”
+queried one of the other searchers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope. I got to sleep. You see, I thought
+about bears an’ burglars an’ goblins, an’ all those
+sort o’ things, an’ that made me shiver, so I went
+to sleep,” declared the earnest twin.
+</p>
+<p>
+A shout of laughter greeted this statement.
+The searchers picked up the little fellows and
+carried them down to the edge of the pond, where
+the way was much clearer, and so on to the plain
+path to Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+So delighted were they to have found the six
+youngsters without a scratch upon them, that nobody—not
+even Mr. Caslon—thought to ask the
+runaways how they had come to wander so far
+from Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was ten o’clock when the party arrived at
+the big house on the hill. Isadore had run ahead
+to tell the good news and everybody was aroused—even
+to the six fellow-orphans of the runaways—to
+welcome the wanderers.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“My goodness! let’s have the fireworks and
+celebrate their return,” exclaimed Madge.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Mr. Steele quickly put his foot down
+on that.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I am afraid that Willie and Dickie, and Jim
+and the rest of them, ought really to be punished
+for their escapade, and the trouble and fright they
+have given us,” declared the proprietor of Sunrise
+Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“However, perhaps going without their supper
+and postponing the rest of the celebration until
+to-morrow night, will be punishment enough. But
+don’t you let me hear of you six boys trying to run
+away again, while you remain with Mr. and Mrs.
+Caslon,” and he shook a threatening finger at the
+wanderers.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Now Mr. and Mrs. Caslon will take you
+home,” for the big wagon had been driven around
+from the stables while he was speaking. Mrs.
+Caslon, too worried to remain in doubt about the
+fresh airs, had trudged away up the hill to Sunrise
+Farm, while the party was out in search of the
+lost ones.
+</p>
+<p>
+Mrs. Steele and the girls bade a cordial good-night
+to the farmer’s wife, as she climbed up to
+the front seat of the vehicle on one side. On the
+other, Mr. Steele stopped Mr. Caslon before he
+could climb up.
+</p>
+<p>
+“The women folks have arranged for you and
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span>
+your wife to come to-morrow evening and help
+take care of these little mischiefs, while we finish
+the celebration,” said the rich man, with a detaining
+hand upon Mr. Caslon’s shoulder. “We
+need you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I reckon so, neighbor,” said the farmer,
+chuckling. “We’re a little more used to them
+lively young eels than you be.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And—and we want you and your wife to come
+for your own sakes,” added Mr. Steele, in some
+confusion. “We haven’t even been acquainted
+before, sir. I consider that I am at fault, Caslon.
+I hope you’ll overlook it and—and—as you say
+yourself—<em>be neighborly</em>.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Sure! Of course!” exclaimed the old man,
+heartily. “Ain’t no need of two neighbors bein’
+at outs, Mr. Steele. You’ll find that soft words
+butter more parsnips than any other kind. If you
+an’ I ain’t jest agreed on ev’ry p’int, let’s get together
+an’ settle it ourselves. No need of lawyers’
+work in it,” and the old farmer climbed nimbly
+to the high seat, and the wagon load of cheering,
+laughing youngsters started down the hill.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And so <em>that’s</em> all right,” exclaimed the delighted
+Ruth, who had heard the conversation between
+the two men, and could scarcely hide her
+delight in it.
+</p>
+<p>
+“I feel like dancing,” she said to Helen. “I
+just <em>know</em> Mr. Steele and Mr. Caslon will understand
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>
+each other after this, and that there will be
+no quarrel between them over the farms.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Which later results proved to be true. Not
+many months afterward, Madge wrote to Ruth
+that her father and the old farmer had come to
+a very satisfactory agreement. Mr. Caslon had
+agreed to sell the old homestead to Mr. Steele
+for a certain price, retaining a life occupancy of
+it for himself and wife, and, in addition, the
+farmer was to take over the general superintendency
+of Sunrise Farm for Mr. Steele, on a yearly
+salary.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So much for the work of the ‘terrible
+twins’!” Ruth declared when she heard this, for
+the girl of the Red Mill did not realize how
+much she, herself, had to do with bringing about
+Mr. Steele’s change of attitude toward his neighbor.
+</p>
+<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span><a name='chXXV' id='chXXV'></a>CHAPTER XXV—THE ORPHANS’ FORTUNE</h2>
+<p>
+A great deal happened at Sunrise Farm before
+these later occurrences which so delighted Ruth
+Fielding. The excitement of the loss of the six
+“fresh airs” was not easily forgotten. Whenever
+any of the orphans was on the Sunrise premises
+again, they had a bodyguard of older girls
+or boys who kept a bright lookout that nothing
+unusual happened to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+As for the twins, Sadie took them in hand with
+a reformatory spirit that amazed Willie and
+Dickie. Those two youngsters were kept at Sunrise
+Farm and put in special charge of Sadie.
+Thus Mr. Steele had the three Raby orphans
+under his own eye until he could hear from Canada,
+and from the orphanage, and learn all the
+particulars of the fortune that might be in store
+for them.
+</p>
+<p>
+After a bit Willie and Dickie found the watchfulness
+of their sister somewhat irksome.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Say!” the talkative twin observed, “you ain’t
+got no reason to be so sharp on us, Sadie Raby.
+<em>You</em> run away your ownself—didn’t she,
+Dickie?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yep,” agreed the oracular one.
+</p>
+<p>
+“An’ we don’t want no gal follerin’ us around
+and tellin’ us to ‘stop’ all the time—do we,
+Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Nope.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’re big boys now,” declared Willie, strutting
+like the young bantam he was. “There ain’t
+nothin’ goin’ to hurt us. We’re too big——”
+</p>
+<p>
+“What’s that on your finger—— No! the
+other one?” snapped Sadie, eyeing Willie sharply.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Scratch,” announced the boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Where’d you get it?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“I—I cut it on the cat,” admitted Willie, with
+less bombast.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph! you’re a big boy—ain’t you? Don’t
+even know enough to let the cat alone—and I
+hope her claw done you some good. Come here
+an’ let me borrer Miss Ruth’s peroxide bottle and
+put some on it. Cat’s claws is poison,” said Sadie.
+“You ain’t so fit to get along without somebody
+watchin’ you as ye think, kid. Remember that,
+now.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We don’t want no gal trailin’ after us all the
+time!” cried Willie, angrily. “An’ we ain’t
+goin’ to stand it,” and he kicked his bare toe into
+the sand to express the emphasis that his voice
+would not vent.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Humph!” said Sadie, eyeing him sideways,
+meanwhile trimming carefully a stout branch she
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>
+had broken from the lilac bush. “So you want
+to be your own boss, do you, Willie Raby?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“We <em>be</em> our own boss—ain’t we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+For the first time, the echo of Dickie’s agreement
+failed to materialize. Dickie was eyeing
+that lilac sprout—and looked from that to his
+sister’s determined face. He backed away several
+feet and put his hands behind him.
+</p>
+<p>
+“And so you ain’t goin’ to mind me—nor Miss
+Ruth—nor Mr. Steele—nor Mr. Caslon—nor nobody?”
+proceeded Sadie, more earnestness apparent
+in each section of her query.
+</p>
+<p>
+Her hand reached out suddenly and gripped
+Willie by the shoulder of his shirt. He tried to
+writhe out of her grasp, but his sister’s muscles
+were hardened, and she was twice as strong as
+Willie had believed. The lilac sprout was raised.
+</p>
+<p>
+“So you’re too big to mind anybody, heh?”
+she queried.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Yes, we be!” snarled the writhing Willie.
+“Ain’t we, Dickie?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“No, we’re not!” screamed his twin, suddenly,
+refusing to echo Willie’s declaration. “Don’t hit
+him, Sade! Oh, don’t!” and he cast himself upon
+his sister and held her tight about the waist.
+“We—we’ll be good,” he sobbed.
+</p>
+<p>
+“How about it, Willie Raby?” demanded the
+stern sister, without lowering the stick. “Are
+you goin’ to mind and be good?”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+Willie stared, tried to writhe away, saw it was
+no use, and capitulated. “Aw—yes—if <em>he’s</em> goin’
+to cry about it,” he grumbled. He said it with
+an air intimating that Dickie was, after all, quite
+a millstone about his neck and would always
+be holding him back from deeds of valor
+which Willie, himself, knew he could perform.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, the twins behaved pretty well after
+that. They remained with Sadie at Sunrise Farm,
+for the whole Steele family had become interested
+in them.
+</p>
+<p>
+The inquiries Mr. Steele set afoot resulted, in
+a short time, in information of surprising moment
+to the three Raby orphans. The old inquiry
+which had brought the lawyer, Mr. Angus MacDorough,
+to Darrowtown three years before, was
+ferreted out by another lawyer engaged by Mr.
+Steele.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was found that Mr. MacDorough had, soon
+after his visit to the States in the matter of the
+Raby fortune, been stricken ill and, after a long
+sickness, had died. His affairs had never been
+straightened out, and his business was still in a
+chaotic state.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, it was found beyond a doubt that
+Mr. MacDorough had been engaged to search out
+the whereabouts of Mrs. Tom Raby and her children
+by the administrators of the estate of Mrs.
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>
+Raby’s elderly relative, now some time deceased.
+</p>
+<p>
+Nearly two thousand dollars in American
+money had been left as a legacy to the Rabys. In
+time this property was put into Mr. Steele’s care
+to hold in trust for the three orphans—and it was
+enough to promise them all an education and a
+start in life.
+</p>
+<p>
+Had it not been so, Mr. and Mrs. Steele would
+have felt sufficiently in Sadie’s debt, because of
+her having saved little Bennie Steele from the
+hoofs of the Black Douglass, to have made the
+girl’s way—and that of the twins—plain before
+them, until they were grown.
+</p>
+<p>
+How much Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen,
+were delighted by all this can be imagined. Sadie
+held an almost worshipful attitude toward Ruth;
+Ruth had been her first real friend when she ran
+away from “them Perkinses.”
+</p>
+<p>
+That Ruth and her chum bore the affairs of the
+Raby orphans in mind, and continued to have
+many other and varied interests, as well as a multitude
+of adventures during the summer, will be
+explained in the next volume of our series, to be
+entitled: “Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or,
+The Missing Pearl Necklace.”
+</p>
+<p>
+Meanwhile, the visit to Sunrise Farm came to
+a glorious close. The belated Fourth of July
+was celebrated on the evening of the fifth, in a
+perfectly “safe and sane” manner by the burning of
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span>
+the wealth of fireworks that Mr. Steele
+had supplied.
+</p>
+<p>
+The days that followed to the end of the stay
+of the girls of Briarwood Hall and their brothers,
+were filled with delightful incidents. Picnics, fishing
+parties, tramps over the hills, rides, games on
+the lawn, and many other activities occupied the
+delightful hours at Sunrise Farm.
+</p>
+<p>
+“This surely is the nicest place I ever was at,”
+Busy Izzy admitted, on the closing day of the
+party. “If I have as good a time the rest of
+the summer, I won’t mind going back to school
+and suffering for eight months in the year.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Hear! hear!” cried Heavy Jennie Stone.
+“And the eats!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And the rides,” said Mercy Curtis, the lame
+girl. “Such beautiful rides through the hills!”
+</p>
+<p>
+“And such a fine time watching those fresh airs
+to see that they didn’t kill themselves,” added
+Tom Cameron, with a grimace.
+</p>
+<p>
+“Don’t say a word against the poor little dears,
+Tommy,” urged his sister. “Suppose <em>you</em> had to
+live in an for orphanage all but four weeks in the
+year?”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Tom is only fooling,” Ruth said, quietly. “I
+know him. He enjoyed seeing the children have
+a good time, too.”
+</p>
+<p>
+“Oh! if you say so, Miss Fielding,” said Tom,
+laughing and bowing to her, “it must be so.”
+<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+The big yellow coach, with the four prancing
+horses, came around to the door. Bobbins
+mounted to the driver’s seat and gathered up the
+ribbons. The visitors climbed aboard.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth stood up and waved her hand to the rest
+of the Steele family, and Sadie and the twins gathered
+on the porch.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We’ve had the finest time ever!” she cried.
+“We love you all for giving us such a nice vacation.
+And we’re going to cheer you——”
+</p>
+<p>
+And cheer they did. At the noise, the leaders
+sprang forward and the yellow coach rolled away.
+Ruth, laughing, sat down suddenly beside her
+chum, and Helen hugged her tight.
+</p>
+<p>
+“We always have a dandy time when we go
+anywhere with <em>you</em>, Ruth,” she declared. “For
+you always take your ‘good times’ with you.”
+</p>
+<p>
+And perhaps Helen Cameron had made a very
+important discovery.
+</p>
+<div class='center'>
+<p>&#160;</p>
+<p>THE END</p>
+</div>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i004' id='i004'></a>
+<img src='images/ad1.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came
+to live with her miserly uncle. Her adventures
+and travels make stories that will hold
+the interest of every reader.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruth Fielding is a character that will live
+in juvenile fiction.
+</p>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;OF&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;RED&nbsp;&nbsp;MILL<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;BRIARWOOD&nbsp;&nbsp;HALL<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;SNOW&nbsp;&nbsp;CAMP<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;LIGHTHOUSE&nbsp;&nbsp;POINT<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;SILVER&nbsp;&nbsp;RANCH<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;6.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;ON&nbsp;&nbsp;CLIFF&nbsp;&nbsp;ISLAND<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;SUNRISE&nbsp;&nbsp;FARM<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AND&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;GYPSIES<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;MOVING&nbsp;&nbsp;PICTURES<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;DOWN&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;DIXIE<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;11.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;COLLEGE<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;12.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;SADDLE<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;13.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;RED&nbsp;&nbsp;CROSS<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;14.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;WAR&nbsp;&nbsp;FRONT<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;15.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;HOMEWARD&nbsp;&nbsp;BOUND<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;DOWN&nbsp;&nbsp;EAST<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;17.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;GREAT&nbsp;&nbsp;NORTHWEST<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;18.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;ON&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;ST.&nbsp;&nbsp;LAWRENCE<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;19.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;TREASURE&nbsp;&nbsp;HUNTING<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;20.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;THE&nbsp;&nbsp;FAR&nbsp;&nbsp;NORTH<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;21.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;GOLDEN&nbsp;&nbsp;PASS<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;22.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;IN&nbsp;&nbsp;ALASKA<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;23.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AND&nbsp;&nbsp;HER&nbsp;&nbsp;GREAT&nbsp;&nbsp;SCENARIO<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;24.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;AT&nbsp;&nbsp;CAMERON&nbsp;&nbsp;HALL<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;25.&nbsp;&nbsp;RUTH&nbsp;&nbsp;FIELDING&nbsp;&nbsp;CLEARING&nbsp;&nbsp;HER&nbsp;&nbsp;NAME<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price 50 cents per volume.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Postage 10 cents additional.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i005' id='i005'></a>
+<img src='images/ad2.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+<i>May Hollis Barton is a new writer for
+girls who is bound to win instant popularity.
+Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that
+of Louisa M. Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date
+in plot and action. Clean tales that
+all the girls will enjoy reading.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY
+<i>or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL
+<i>or The Mystery of the School by the Lake</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+3. NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS
+<i>or A City Girl in the Great West</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY
+<i>or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY
+<i>or The Girl Who Won Out</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
+<i>or The Old Bachelor’s Ward</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+7. HAZEL HOOD’S STRANGE DISCOVERY
+<i>or The Old Scientist’s Treasure Box</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+8. TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY
+<i>or The Old House in the Glen</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+9. THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
+<i>or The Strange Sea Chest</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+10. KATE MARTIN’S PROBLEM
+<i>or Facing the Wide World</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE BETTY GORDON SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i006' id='i006'></a>
+<img src='images/ad3.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+<i>or The Mystery of a Nobody</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+</p>
+<p>
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+<i>or Strange Adventures in a Great City</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Betty goes to the National Capitol to find
+her uncle and has several unusual adventures.
+</p>
+<p>
+3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL
+<i>or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+From Washington the scene is shifted to the
+great oil fields of our country. A splendid picture
+of the oil field operations of to-day.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+<i>or The Treasure of Indian Chasm</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
+</p>
+<p>
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+<i>or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery.
+</p>
+<p>
+6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK
+<i>or School Chums on the Boardwalk</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+</p>
+<p>
+7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS
+<i>or Bringing the Rebels to Terms</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies.
+</p>
+<p>
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH
+<i>or Cowboy Joe’s Secret</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+</p>
+<p>
+9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS
+<i>or The Secret of the Mountains</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held
+for ransom in a mountain cave.
+</p>
+<p>
+10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS
+<i>or A Mystery of The Seaside</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and
+Betty becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls.
+</p>
+<p>
+11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS
+<i>or The Secret of the Trunk Room</i>
+</p>
+<p style='margin-left: 2em;'>
+An up-to-date college story with a strange mystery that is bound
+to fascinate any girl reader.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By JANET D. WHEELER
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i007' id='i007'></a>
+<img src='images/ad4.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER
+INHERITANCE
+<i>or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead
+that was unoccupied and located far away in
+a lonely section of the country. How Billie
+went there, accompanied by some of her
+chums, and what queer things happened, go
+to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
+</p>
+<p>
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL
+<i>or Leading a Needed Rebellion</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short
+time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of
+the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge
+of two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
+very plain food and little of it—and then there was a row!
+</p>
+<p>
+3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
+<i>or The Mystery of the Wreck</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse
+Island, near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited
+the Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children
+were washed ashore.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES
+<i>or The Secret of the Locked Tower</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children
+who had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost
+invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+</p>
+<p>
+5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES
+<i>or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a
+great variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there
+fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly.
+</p>
+<p>
+6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE
+<i>or The Old Sailor’s Secret</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+A lively story of school girl doings. How Billie heard of the treasure
+and how she and her chums went in quest of the same is told in a
+peculiarly absorbing manner.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE LINGER-NOT SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By AGNES MILLER
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i008' id='i008'></a>
+<img src='images/ad5.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+<i>This new series of girls’ books is in a new
+style of story writing. The interest is in
+knowing the girls and seeing them solve the
+problems that develop their character. Incidentally,
+a great deal of historical information
+is imparted.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE
+<i>or The Story of Nine Adventurous Girls</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+How the Linger-Not girls met and formed
+their club seems commonplace, but this
+writer makes it fascinating, and how they
+made their club serve a great purpose continues the interest to
+the end, and introduces a new type of girlhood.
+</p>
+<p>
+2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD
+<i>or the Great West Point Chain</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with
+feuds or mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled
+them in some surprising adventures that turned out happily for all,
+and made the valley better because of their visit.
+</p>
+<p>
+3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST
+<i>or The Log of the Ocean Monarch</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back
+into the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until
+the reader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of
+their friends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms
+a fine story.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARM
+<i>or The Secret from Old Alaska</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or
+occupied with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work
+unitedly to solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted
+American freedom to a sad young stranger, and brought happiness
+to her and to themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By LILIAN GARIS
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i009' id='i009'></a>
+<img src='images/ad6.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+<i>The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated
+by the foremost organizations of
+America form the background for these
+stories and while unobtrusive there is a message
+in every volume.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS
+<i>or Winning the First B. C.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+A story of the True Tred Troop in a
+Pennsylvania town. Two runaway girls, who
+want to see the city, are reclaimed through
+troop influence. The story is correct in
+scout detail.
+</p>
+<p>
+2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE
+<i>or Maid Mary’s Awakening</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in
+other girls’ activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals.
+How she was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her
+own as “Maid Mary” makes a fascinating story.
+</p>
+<p>
+3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST
+<i>or the Wig Wag Rescue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
+seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
+all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG
+<i>or Peg of Tamarack Hills</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores
+of Lake Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider,
+and the clearing up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous
+plot.
+</p>
+<p>
+5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE
+<i>or Nora’s Real Vacation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother.
+Her dislike for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed
+to appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif,
+becomes a problem for the girls to solve.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE RADIO GIRLS SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i010' id='i010'></a>
+<img src='images/ad7.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+<i>A new and up-to-date series, taking in the
+activities of several bright girls who become
+interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling
+exploits, outdoor life and the great part the
+Radio plays in the adventures of the girls and
+in solving their mysteries. Fascinating books
+that girls of all ages will want to read.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN
+<i>or A Strange Message from the Air</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Showing how Jessie Norwood and her
+chums became interested in radiophoning,
+how they gave a concert for a worthy local
+charity, and how they received a sudden and
+unexpected call for help out of the air. A girl wanted as witness in a
+celebrated law case disappears, and the radio girls go to the rescue.
+</p>
+<p>
+2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM
+<i>or Singing and Reciting at the Sending Station</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert
+number who of us has not longed to “look behind the scenes” to see
+how it was done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending
+station manager and in this volume are permitted to get on the program,
+much to their delight. A tale full of action and fun.
+</p>
+<p>
+3. The RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND
+<i>or The Wireless from the Steam Yacht</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation
+on an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big
+brother of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a
+pleasure party those on the island receive word by radio that the
+yacht is on fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
+</p>
+<p>
+4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE
+<i>or The Strange Hut in the Swamp</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful
+lake and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids
+them in rounding up some undesirable folks who occupy the strange
+hut in the swamp.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+<p>
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+&#160;<br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span style='font-size:larger;font-weight:bold;'>THE RUBY AND RUTHY SERIES</span>
+</p>
+<p>
+By MINNIE E. PAULL
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='figleft' style='padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='i011' id='i011'></a>
+<img src='images/ad8.jpg' alt='' title=''/><br />
+</div>
+<p>
+<i>Four bright and entertaining stories told in Mrs. Paull’s
+happiest manner are among the best stories ever written for young
+girls, and cannot fail to interest any between the ages of eight
+and fifteen years.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+RUBY AND RUTHY
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruby and Ruthie were not old enough to go to school, but they
+certainly were lively enough to have many exciting adventures,
+that taught many useful lessons needed to be learned by little
+girls.
+</p>
+<p>
+RUBY’S UPS AND DOWNS
+</p>
+<p>
+There were troubles enough for a dozen grown-ups, but Ruby
+got ahead of them all, and, in spite of them, became a favorite
+in the lively times at school.
+</p>
+<p>
+RUBY AT SCHOOL
+</p>
+<p>
+Ruby had many surprises when she went to the impossible place
+she heard called a boarding school, but every experience helped
+to make her a stronger-minded girl.
+</p>
+<p>
+RUBY’S VACATION
+</p>
+<p>
+This volume shows how a little girl improves by having varieties
+of experience both happy and unhappy, provided she thinks,
+and is able to use her good sense. Ruby lives and learns.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, <i>Publishers</i> NEW YORK
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm
+       What Became of the Raby Orphans
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36397]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, David Edwards and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "WHY, SADIE RABY! WHO'D EVER EXPECT TO SEE YOU HERE?"]
+
+
+
+
+                             Ruth Fielding
+                            At Sunrise Farm
+
+                                   OR
+
+                    WHAT BECAME OF THE RABY ORPHANS
+
+                                   BY
+
+                            ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+            Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth
+                      Fielding at Snow Camp," Etc.
+
+                             _ILLUSTRATED_
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
+                               PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+                            Books for Girls
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+                          RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+                       12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+                  Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+                  Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+                  Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+                  Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+                  Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+                  Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+                  Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
+
+                  RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+                  Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
+
+               Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
+
+                          Copyright, 1915, by
+                         Cupples & Leon Company
+
+                      Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound
+
+                          Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+           CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+                I. Sweet Briars and Sour Pickles               1
+               II. The Wild Girl                              12
+              III. Sadie Raby's Story                         23
+               IV. "Them Perkinses"                           34
+                V. "The Tramping Girl"                        45
+               VI. Seeking the Trail                          53
+              VII. What Tom Cameron Saw                       61
+             VIII. Traveling Toward Sunrise Farm              68
+               IX. The Sunrise Coach                          77
+                X. "Touch and Go"                             85
+               XI. Tobogganing in June                        91
+              XII. A Number of Introductions                 100
+             XIII. The Terrible Twins                        108
+              XIV. "Why! Of Course!"                         114
+               XV. The Tempest                               120
+              XVI. The Runaway                               128
+             XVII. The Black Douglass                        135
+            XVIII. Sundry Plans                              143
+              XIX. A Safe and Sane Fourth?                   151
+               XX. The Raby Romance                          158
+              XXI. A Very Busy Time                          166
+             XXII. The Terrible Twins on the Rampage         173
+            XXIII. Lost                                      180
+             XXIV. "So That's All Right"                     189
+              XXV. The Orphans' Fortune                      198
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--SWEET BRIARS AND SOUR PICKLES
+
+
+The single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and
+made so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the
+passage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which
+were realities and which shadows in the long gallery.
+
+Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory
+doors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within
+the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall.
+There were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and--without doubt--the
+members of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of
+the trade of being a schoolgirl.
+
+At one door--and it was the portal of the largest "quartette" room on the
+floor--a tall figure kept guard. At first this figure was so silent and
+motionless that it seemed like a shadow only. But when another shadow
+crept toward it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard demanded,
+hissingly:
+
+"S-s-stop! who goes there?"
+
+"Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge Steele!"
+
+"Sh!" commanded the guard. "Who goes there?"
+
+"Why--why---- It's _I_."
+
+"Give the password instantly. Answer!" commanded the guard again, and
+with some vexation. "'I' isn't anybody."
+
+"Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that _this_ 'I' is somebody--according to
+the gym. scales. I gained three pounds over the Easter holidays," said
+"Heavy" Jennie Stone, who had begun her reply with a giggle, but ended
+it with a sigh.
+
+"Password, Miss!" snapped the guard, grimly.
+
+"Oh! of course!" Then the fat girl whispered shrilly:
+"'Sincerity--befriend.' That is what 'S. B.' stands for, I s'pose.
+Sweetbriars! and I have a big bag of sour pickles to offset the cloying
+sweetness of the Sweetbriars," chuckled Heavy. "Besides, they say that
+vinegar pickles will make you thin----"
+
+"I don't need them for that purpose," admitted the guard at the door,
+still in a whisper, but accepting the large, "warty" pickle Heavy thrust
+into her hand.
+
+"Will make _me_ thin, then," agreed the other. "Let me in, Madge."
+
+The guard, sucking the pickle convulsively the while, opened the door
+just a little way. A blanket had been hung on a frame inside in such a
+manner that scarcely a gleam of lamplight reached the corridor when the
+door was open.
+
+"Pass the Sweetbriar!" choked Madge, with her mouth full and the tears
+running down her cheeks. "My goodness, Jennie Stone! these pickles are
+right out of vitriol!"
+
+"Sour, aren't they?" chuckled Heavy. "I handed you a real one for fair,
+that time, didn't I, Madge?"
+
+Then she tried to sidle through the narrow opening, got stuck, and was
+urged on by Madge pushing her. With a bang--punctuated by a chorus of
+muffled exclamations from the girls already assembled--she tore away the
+frame and the blanket and got through.
+
+"Shut the door, quick, guard!" exclaimed Helen Cameron.
+
+"Of course, that would be Heavy--entering like a female Samson and
+tearing down the pillars of the temple," snapped Mercy Curtis, the lame
+girl, in her sharp way.
+
+"Please repair the damage, Helen," said Ruth Fielding, who presided at
+the far end of the room, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.
+
+The other girls were arranged on the chairs, or upon the floor before
+her. There was a goodly number of them, and they now included most of
+the members of the secret society known at Briarwood Hall as the
+"S. B.'s."
+
+Ruth herself was a bright, brown-haired girl who, without possessing
+many pretensions to real beauty of feature, still was quite good to look
+at and proved particularly charming when one grew to know her well.
+
+She was rather plump, happy of disposition, and with the kindest heart
+in the world. She made both friends and enemies. No person of real
+character can escape being disliked, now and then, by those of envious
+disposition.
+
+Ruth Fielding succeeded, usually, in winning to her those who at first
+disliked her. And this, I claim, is a better gift than that of being
+universally popular from the start.
+
+Ruth had come from her old home in Darrowtown, where her parents died,
+two years before, to the Red Mill on the Lumano River, where her
+great-uncle, Jabez Potter, the miller, was inclined at first to shelter
+her only as an object of his grudging charity. In the first volume of
+this series, however, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or,
+Jasper Parloe's Secret," the girl found her way--in a measure, at
+least--to the uncle's crabbed heart.
+
+Uncle Jabez was a just man, and he considered it his duty, when Helen
+Cameron, Ruth's dearest friend, was sent to Briarwood Hall to school, to
+send Ruth to the same institution. In the second volume, "Ruth Fielding
+at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the Campus Mystery," was related the
+adventures, friendships, rivalries, and fun of Ruth's and Helen's first
+term at the old school.
+
+In "Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods," was told the
+adventures of Ruth and her friends at the Camerons' winter camp during
+the Christmas holidays. At the end of the first year of school, they all
+went to the seaside, to experience many adventures in "Ruth Fielding at
+Lighthouse Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway," the fourth volume of the
+series.
+
+A part of that eventful summer was spent by Ruth and her chums in
+Montana, and the girl of the Red Mill was enabled to do old Uncle Jabez
+such a favor that he willingly agreed to pay her expenses at Briarwood
+Hall for another year. This is all told in "Ruth Fielding at Silver
+Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys."
+
+The girls returned to Briarwood Hall and in the sixth volume of the
+series, entitled "Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter's
+Treasure Box," Ruth was privileged to help Jerry Sheming and his
+unfortunate old uncle in the recovery of their title to Cliff Island in
+Lake Tallahaska, while she and her friends had some thrilling and many
+funny adventures during the mid-winter vacation.
+
+The second half of this school year was now old. The Easter recess was
+past and the girls were looking forward to the usual break-up in the
+middle of June. The hardest of the work for the year was over. Those
+girls who had been faithful in their studies prior to Easter could now
+take something of a breathing spell, and the S. B.'s were determined to
+initiate such candidates as had been on the waiting list for reception
+into the secrets of the most popular society in the school.
+
+The shrouded door of the quartette room occupied by Ruth, Helen, Mercy,
+and Jane Ann Hicks, from Montana, was opened carefully again and again
+until the outer guard, Madge Steele, had admitted all the candidates and
+most of the members of the S. B. order who were expected.
+
+Each girl was presented with at least half a big sour pickle from
+Heavy's store; but really, the pickles had nothing to do with the
+initiation of the neophytes.
+
+There was a serious and helpful side to the society of the S. B.'s--as
+witness the password. Ruth, who was the most active member of the
+institution, realized, however, that the girls were so full of fun that
+they must have some way of expressing themselves out of the ordinary.
+Perhaps she had asked Mademoiselle Picolet, the French teacher, whose
+room was in this dormitory, and Miss Scrimp, the matron, to overlook
+this present infraction of the rules, for it must be admitted that the
+retiring bell had rung half an hour before the gathering in this
+particular room.
+
+"All here!" breathed Ruth, at last, and Madge was called in. The
+candidates were placed in the middle of the floor. Ann Hicks, the girl
+from Silver Ranch, was one of these. Ann had proved her character and
+made herself popular in the school against considerable odds, as related
+in the preceding volume. Now, the honor of being admitted into the
+secret society was added to the other marks of the school's approval.
+
+"Candidates," said Ruth, addressing in most solemn tones the group of
+girls before her, "you are about to be initiated into the degree of the
+Marble Harp. As Infants, when you first entered the school, you were all
+made acquainted with the legend of the Marble Harp.
+
+"The figure of _Harmony_, presiding over the fountain in the middle of
+the campus, was modeled by the sculptor from the only daughter of the
+man who originally owned Briarwood Park before it became a school. Said
+sculptor and daughter--in the most approved fashion of the present day
+school of romanticist authors--ran away with each other, were married
+without the father's approval, and both are supposed to have died
+miserably in a studio-garret.
+
+"The heart-broken father naturally left his cur-r-r-se upon the
+fountain, and it is said--mind you, this is hearsay," added Ruth,
+solemnly, "that whenever anything of moment is about to transpire at
+Briarwood Hall, or any calamity befall, the strings of the marble harp
+held in the hands of _Harmony_, are heard to twang.
+
+"Of course, as has been pointed out before, the fact that the harp is in
+the shape of a _lyre_, must be considered, too, if one is to accept this
+legend. But, however, and nevertheless," pursued Ruth, "it has been
+decided that the candidates here assembled must join in the Mackintosh
+March, and, in procession, led by our Outer Guard and followed--not to
+say _herded_--by our Rear Guard, must proceed once around the campus,
+down into the garden, and circle the fountain, chanting, as you have
+been instructed, the marching song.
+
+"All ready! You all have your mackintoshes, as instructed? Into them at
+once," commanded Ruth. "Into line--one after the other. Now, Outer
+Guard!"
+
+The lights were extinguished; the blanket at the door was removed; Madge
+Steele led the way and Heavy, as the Rear Guard, was last in the line.
+Shrouded in the hoods of the mackintoshes, scarcely one of the girls
+would have been recognized by any curious teacher or matron.
+
+Ruth hopped down from the bed, and the remaining Sweetbriars ran
+giggling to the windows. It was a drizzly, dark night. The paths about
+the campus glistened, and the lamps upon the posts flickered dimly.
+
+Out of the front door filed the procession; when they were far enough
+away from the buildings which surrounded the campus, they began the
+chant, based upon Tom Moore's famous old song:
+
+  "The harp that once through Briarwood Hall
+    The soul of music shed,
+  Now hangs as mute o'er the campus fount
+    As though that soul were dead."
+
+Madge Steele, with her strong voice, led the chant. The girls, crowded
+at the open windows, began to giggle, for they could hear Heavy, at the
+end of the procession, sing out a very different verse.
+
+"That rascal ought to be fined for that," murmured The Fox, the
+sandy-haired girl next to Ruth.
+
+"But, isn't she funny?" gasped Helen, on the other side of the Chief of
+the S. B.'s.
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Belle Tingley. "I hope Sarah Fish got there ahead
+of them. _Won't_ they be surprised when they get a baptism of a glass of
+water each from the fountain, as they go by?"
+
+"They'll think the statue has come to life, sure enough, if it doesn't
+twang the lyre," quoth Helen.
+
+"They'll get an unexpected ducking," giggled Lluella Fairfax.
+
+"It won't hurt them," Ruth said, placidly. "That's why I insisted upon
+the mackintoshes."
+
+"It's just as dark down there by the fountain as it can be," spoke
+Helen, with a little shiver. "D'you remember, Ruthie, how they hazed us
+there when we were Infants?"
+
+"Don't I!" agreed her chum.
+
+"If Sarah is careful, she can stand right up there against the statue
+and never be seen, while she can reach the water to throw it at the
+girls easily. There!" cried Belle. "They're turning down the walk to the
+steps. I can see them."
+
+They all could see them--dimly. Like shadows the procession descended to
+the marble fountain, still chanting softly the refrain of the marching
+song. Suddenly a shriek--a very vigorous and startling sound--rang out
+across the campus.
+
+"It's begun!" giggled Belle.
+
+But the sound was repeated--then in a thrilling chorus. Ruth was
+startled. She exclaimed:
+
+"That wasn't either of the candidates. It was Sarah who screamed. There!
+It is Sarah again. Something has happened!"
+
+Something certainly had happened. There had been an unexpected fault
+somewhere in the initiation. The procession burst like a bombshell, and
+the girls scattered through the wet campus, utterly terrified, and
+screaming as they ran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE WILD GIRL
+
+
+"Something awful must have occurred!" cried Helen Cameron.
+
+Ruth did not remain at the window for more than a moment after seeing
+the girls engaged in the initiation disperse, and hearing their screams.
+She drew back from the crowding group and darted out of the room.
+Fortunately neither the French teacher, nor the matron, had yet been
+aroused. If the girls came noisily into the dormitory building, Ruth
+knew very well that "the powers that be" must of necessity take
+cognizance of the infraction of the rules.
+
+The girl from the Red Mill sped down the broad stairway and out of the
+house. Some of the fastest runners among the frightened girls were
+already panting at the steps.
+
+"Hush! hush!" commanded Ruth. "What is the matter? What has happened?"
+
+"Oh! it's the ghost!" declared one girl.
+
+"So's your grandmother's aunt!" snapped another. "Somebody shoved Sarah
+into the water. It was no ghost."
+
+It was Madge Steele who last spoke, and Ruth seized upon the senior,
+believing she might get something like a sensible explanation from her.
+
+"You girls go into the house quietly," warned Ruth, as they scrambled up
+the stone steps. "Don't you _dare_ make a noise and get us all into
+trouble."
+
+Then she turned upon Madge, begging: "Do, _do_ tell me what you mean,
+Madge Steele. _Who_ pushed Sarah?"
+
+"That's what I can't tell you. But I heard Sarah yelling that she was
+pushed, and she did most certainly fall right into the fountain when she
+climbed up there beside the statue."
+
+"What a ridiculous thing!" giggled Ruth. "Somebody played a trick on
+her. I guess she was fooled instead of the candidates being startled,
+eh?"
+
+"I saw somebody--or something--drop off the other side of the fountain and
+run--I saw it myself," declared Madge.
+
+"Here comes Sarah," cried Ruth, under her breath. "And I declare she
+_is_ all wet!"
+
+Sarah Fish was actually laughing, but in a hysterical way.
+
+"Oh, dear me! was ever anything so ridiculous before?" she gasped.
+
+"Hush! Don't get Miss Picolet after us," begged Madge.
+
+"What really happened?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"Why--I'll tell you," replied Sarah, whose gown clung to her as though it
+had been pasted upon her figure. "See? I'm just _soaked_. Talk about
+sprinkling those silly lambs of candidates! Why, _I_ was immersed--you
+see."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"I slipped over there before the procession started from these steps. I
+was watching the girls, and listening to them sing, and didn't pay much
+attention to anything else.
+
+"But when I dodged down into the little garden, I thought I heard a
+footstep on the flags. I looked all around, and saw nothing. Now I know
+the person must have already climbed up on the fountain and gotten into
+the shadow of the statue--just as I wanted to do."
+
+"Was there really somebody there?" demanded Madge.
+
+"How do you think I got into the fountain, if not?" snapped Sarah Fish.
+
+"Fell in."
+
+"I did not!" cried Sarah. "I was pushed."
+
+"'Did She Fall, or Was She Pushed?'" giggled Madge. "Sounds like a
+moving picture title."
+
+"You can laugh," scoffed Sarah. "I wonder what you'd have done?"
+
+"Got just as wet as you did, most likely," said Ruth, calming the
+troubled waters. "Do go on, Sarah. So you really _saw_ somebody?"
+
+"And felt somebody. When I climbed up to get a footing beside the
+sitting figure, so that the girls would not see me, somebody shoved
+me--with both hands--right into the fountain."
+
+"That's when you squalled?" asked Madge.
+
+"Yes, indeed! And I rolled out of the fountain just as the--the person
+who pushed me, tumbled down off the pedestal and ran."
+
+"For pity's sake!" ejaculated Ruth. "Do tell us who it was, Sarah."
+
+"Don't you think I would if I could?" responded Sarah, trying to wring
+the water out of her narrow skirt.
+
+Through the gloom appeared another figure--the too, too solid figure of
+Jennie Stone.
+
+"Oh--dear--me! Oh--dear--me!" she panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish
+dripping there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and giggled. "Oh,
+Sarah!" she gasped. "For once, your appearance fits your name, all
+right. You look like a fish out of its element."
+
+"Laugh----"
+
+"I have to," responded Heavy.
+
+"Well, if it were you----"
+
+"I know. I'd be floundering there in the water yet."
+
+"But tell me!" cried Ruth, under her breath. "Was it a girl who pushed
+you into the fountain, Sarah?"
+
+"It wore skirts--I'm sure of that, at least," grumbled Sarah.
+
+"But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw run," vouchsafed Heavy.
+"_Did_ you see her just skimming across the campus toward the main
+building? Like the wind!"
+
+"It must be one of our girls," declared Madge.
+
+"All right," said Heavy. "But if so, it's a girl I never saw run before.
+You can't tell me."
+
+"You had better go in and get off your clothes, Sarah," advised Ruth.
+Then she looked at Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at
+Briarwood. "Let's go and see if we can find the girl," Ruth suggested.
+
+"I'm game," cried Madge, as the other stragglers mounted the steps and
+disappeared behind the dormitory building door.
+
+Both girls hurried down the walk under the trees to the main building.
+In one end of this Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode. In
+the other end was the dining-room, with the kitchens and other offices
+in the basement. Besides, Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work
+about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook, had their living rooms in
+the basement of this building.
+
+Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter of the mysterious
+marauder without arousing the little old Irishman, but already they saw
+his lantern behind the grated window in the front basement, and, as the
+two girls came nearer, they heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
+
+"Bad 'cess to 'em! I seen 'em cavortin' across the campus, I tell ye,
+Mary Ann! There's wan of thim down here in the airy----"
+
+It was evident that the old couple had been aroused, and that Tony was
+talking to his wife, who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized Madge's
+wrist and whispered in her ear:
+
+"You run around one way, and I'll go the other. There must be _somebody_
+about, for Tony saw her----"
+
+"If it _is_ a girl."
+
+"Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I'm not afraid," declared Ruth, and she
+started off alone at once.
+
+Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth had darted into the heavily
+shaded space between the end of the main building and the next brick
+structure. There were no lights here, but there was a gas lamp on a post
+beyond the far corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw a
+shadow flit across the illuminated space about this post, and disappear
+behind a clump of snowball bushes.
+
+Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the other end of the clump of
+thick bushes, and suddenly collided with somebody who uttered a muffled
+scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both shoulders and held on.
+
+It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl, who was considerably
+smaller, and far slighter than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did
+not say a word at first, only straining to get away from Ruth's strong
+grip.
+
+"Now stop! now wait!" panted Ruth. "I want to know who you are----"
+
+The other tugged her best, but the girl of the Red Mill was very strong
+for her age, and she held on.
+
+"Stop!" panted Ruth again. "If you make a noise, you'll bring old Tony
+here--and then you _will_ be in trouble. I want to know who you are and
+what you were doing down there at the fountain--and why you pushed Sarah
+into the water?"
+
+"And I'd like to push _you_ in!" ejaculated the other girl, suddenly.
+"You let go of me, or I'll scratch you!"
+
+"You can't," replied Ruth, firmly. "I'm holding you too tight."
+
+"Then I'll bite you!" vowed the other.
+
+"Why--you're a regular wild girl," exclaimed Ruth. "You stop struggling,
+or I'll shout for help, and then Tony will come running."
+
+"D--don't give me away," gasped the strange girl, suddenly ceasing her
+struggles.
+
+"Do you belong here?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Belong here? Naw! I don't belong nowheres. An' you better lemme go,
+Miss."
+
+"Why--you _are_ a strange girl," said Ruth, greatly amazed. "You can't be
+one of us Briarwoods."
+
+"That ain't my name a-tall," whispered the frightened girl. "My name's
+Raby."
+
+"But what were you doing over there at the fountain?"
+
+"Gettin' a drink. Was _that_ any harm?" demanded the girl, sharply. "I'd
+found some dry pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a box there by
+the back door. I reckoned she didn't want the bread, and _I_ did."
+
+"Oh, dear me!" whispered Ruth.
+
+"And dry bread's dry eatin'," said the strange girl. "I had ter have a
+drink o' water to wash it down. And jest as I got down into that little
+place where I seed the fountain this afternoon----"
+
+"Oh, my, dear!" gasped Ruth. "Have you been lurking about the school all
+that time and never came and asked good old Mary Ann for something
+decent to eat?"
+
+"Huh! mebbe she'd a drove me off. Or mebbe she'd done worse to me," said
+the other, quickly. "They beat me again day 'fore yesterday----"
+
+"Who beat you?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Them Perkinses. Now! don't you go for to tell I said that. I don't want
+to go back to 'em--and their house ain't such a fur ways from here. If
+that cook--or any other grown folk--seen me, they'd want to send me back.
+I know 'em!" exclaimed the girl, bitterly. "But mebbe you'll be decent
+about it, and keep your mouth shut."
+
+"Oh! I won't tell a soul," murmured Ruth. "But I'm so sorry. Only dry
+bread and water--"
+
+"Huh! it'll keep a feller alive," said this strangely spoken girl. "I
+ain't no softie. Now, you lemme go, will yer? My! but you _are_ strong."
+
+"I'll let you go. But I do want to help you. I want to know more about
+you--_all_ about you. But if Tony comes----"
+
+"That's his lantern. I see it. He's a-comin'," gasped the other, trying
+to wriggle free.
+
+"Where will you stay to-night?" asked Ruth, anxiously.
+
+"I gotter place. It's warm and dry. I stayed there las' night. Come! you
+lemme go."
+
+"But I want to help you----"
+
+"'Twon't help me none to git me cotched."
+
+"Oh, I know it! Wait! Meet me somewhere near here to-morrow morning--will
+you? I'll bring some money with me. I'll help you."
+
+"Say! ain't you foolin'?" demanded the other, seemingly startled by the
+fact that Ruth wished to help her.
+
+"No. I speak the truth. I will help you."
+
+"Then I'll meet you--but you won't tell nobody?"
+
+"Not a soul?"
+
+"Cross yer heart?"
+
+"I don't do such foolish things," said Ruth. "If I say I'll do a thing,
+I will do it."
+
+"All right. What time'll I see you?"
+
+"Ten o'clock."
+
+"Aw-right," agreed the strange girl. "I'll be across the road from that
+path that's bordered by them cedar trees----"
+
+"The Cedar Walk?"
+
+"Guess so."
+
+"I shall be there. And will you?"
+
+"Huh! I kin keep my word as well as you kin," said the girl, sharply.
+Then she suddenly broke away from Ruth and ran. Tony Foyle came
+blundering around the corner of the house and Ruth, much excited,
+slipped away from the brush clump and ran as fast as she could to meet
+Madge Steele.
+
+"Oh! is that you, Ruth?" exclaimed the senior, when Ruth ran into her
+arms. "Tony's out. We had better go back to bed, or he'll report us to
+Mrs. Tellingham in the morning. I don't know where the strange girl
+could have gone."
+
+Ruth did not say a word. Madge did not ask her, and the girl of the Red
+Mill allowed her friend to think that her own search had been quite as
+unsuccessful. But, as Ruth looked at it, it was not _her_ secret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--SADIE RABY'S STORY
+
+
+Ruth did not sleep at all well that night. Luckily, Helen had nothing on
+_her_ mind or conscience, or she must have been disturbed by Ruth's
+tossing and wakefulness. The other two girls in the big quartette
+room--Mercy Curtis and Ann Hicks--were likewise unaware of Ruth's
+restlessness.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill felt that she could take nobody into her
+confidence regarding the strange girl who said her name was Raby.
+Perhaps Ruth had no right to aid the girl if she was a runaway; yet
+there must be some very strong reason for making a girl prefer practical
+starvation to the shelter of "them Perkinses."
+
+Bread and water! The thought of the child being so hungry that she had
+eaten discarded, dry bread, washed down with water from the fountain in
+the campus, brought tears to Ruth's eyes.
+
+"Oh! I wish I knew what was best to do for her," thought Ruth. "Should I
+tell Mrs. Tellingham? Or, mightn't I get some of the girls interested in
+her? Dear Helen has plenty of money, and she is just as tender-hearted
+as she can be."
+
+Yet Ruth had given her promise to take nobody into her confidence about
+the half-wild girl; and, with Ruth Fielding, "a promise was a promise!"
+
+In the morning, there was soon a buzz of excitement all over the school
+regarding the strange happening at the fountain on the campus. One girl
+whispered it to another, and the tale spread like wildfire. However, the
+teachers and the principal did not hear of the affair.
+
+Ruth's lips, she decided, were sealed for the present regarding the
+mysterious girl who had pushed Sarah Fish into what Heavy declared was
+"her proper element." The wildest and most improbable stories and
+suspicions were circulated before assembly hour, regarding the Unknown.
+
+There was so much said, and so many questions asked, in the quartette
+room where Ruth was located, that she felt like running away herself.
+But at mail time Madge Steele burst into the dormitory "charged to the
+muzzle," as The Fox expressed it, with a new topic of conversation.
+
+"What do you think, girls? Oh! what do you think?" she cried. "We're
+going to live at Sunrise Farm."
+
+"Ha! you ask us a question and answer it in the same breath," said
+Mercy, with a snap. "Now you've spilled the beans and we don't care
+anything about it at all."
+
+"You _do_ care," declared Madge. "I ask _you_ first of all, Mercy. I
+invite every one of you for the last week in June and the first two
+weeks of July at Sunrise Farm----"
+
+"Oh, wait!" exclaimed Mary Cox, otherwise "The Fox." "Do begin at the
+beginning. I, for one, never heard of Sunrise Farm before."
+
+"I--I believe _I_ have," said Ruth slowly. "But I don't suppose it can be
+the same farm Madge means. It is a big stock farm and it's not many
+miles from Darrowtown where I--I used to live once. _That_ farm belonged
+to a family named Benson----"
+
+"And a family named Steele owns it now," put in Madge, promptly. "It's
+the very same farm. It's a big place--five hundred acres. It's on a big,
+flat-topped hill. Father has been negotiating for the other farms around
+about, and has gotten options on most of them, too. He's been doing it
+very quietly.
+
+"Now he says that the old house on the main farm is in good enough shape
+for us to live there this summer, while he builds a bigger house. And
+you shall all come with us--all you eight girls--the Brilliant Octette of
+Briarwood Hall.
+
+"And Bob will get Helen's brother, and Busy Izzy; and Belle shall invite
+her brothers if she likes, and----"
+
+"Say! are you figuring on having a standing army there?" demanded Mercy.
+
+"That's all right. There is room. The old garret has been made over into
+two great dormitories----"
+
+"And you've been keeping all this to yourself, Madge Steele?" cried
+Helen. "What a nice girl you are. It sounds lovely."
+
+"And your mother and father will wish we had never arrived, after we've
+been there two days," declared Heavy. "By the way, do they know I eat
+three square meals each day?"
+
+"Yes. And that if you are hungry, you get up in your sleep and find the
+pantry," giggled The Fox.
+
+"Might as well have all the important details understood right at the
+start," said Heavy, firmly.
+
+"If you'll all say you'll come," said Madge, smiling broadly, "we'll
+just have the lov-li-est time!"
+
+"But we'll have to write home for permission," Lluella Fairfax ventured.
+
+"Of course we shall," chimed in Helen.
+
+"Then do so at once," commanded the senior. "You see, this will be my
+graduation party. No more Briarwood for me after this June, and I don't
+know what I shall do when I go to Poughkeepsie next fall and leave all
+you 'Infants' behind here----"
+
+"_Infants!_ Listen to her!" shouted Belle Tingley. "Get out of here!"
+and under a shower of sofa pillows Madge Steele had to retire from the
+room.
+
+Ruth slipped away easily after that, for the other girls were gabbling
+so fast over the invitation for the early summer vacation, that they did
+not notice her departure.
+
+This was the hour she had promised to meet the strange girl in whom she
+had taken such a great interest the night before--it was between the two
+morning recitation hours.
+
+She ran down past the end of the dormitory building into the head of the
+long serpentine path, known as the Cedar Walk. The lines of closely
+growing cedars sheltered her from observation from any of the girls'
+windows.
+
+The great bell in the clock tower boomed out ten strokes as Ruth reached
+the muddy road at the end of the walk. Nobody was in sight. Ruth looked
+up and down. Then she walked a little way in both directions to see if
+the girl she had come to meet was approaching.
+
+"I--I am afraid she isn't going to keep her word," thought Ruth. "And
+yet--somehow--she seemed so frank and honest----"
+
+She heard a shrill, but low whistle, and the sound made her start and
+turn. She faced a thicket of scrubby bushes across the road. Suddenly
+she saw a face appear from behind this screen--a girl's face.
+
+"Oh! Is it you?" cried Ruth, starting in that direction.
+
+"Cheese it! don't yell it out. Somebody'll hear you," said the girl,
+hoarsely.
+
+"Oh, dear me! you have a dreadful cold," urged Ruth, darting around the
+clump of brush and coming face to face with the strange girl.
+
+"Oh, _that_ don't give me so much worry," said the Raby girl. "Aw--My
+goodness! Is that for _me_?"
+
+Ruth had unfolded a paper covered parcel she carried. There were
+sandwiches, two apples, a piece of cake, and half a box of chocolate
+candies. Ruth had obtained these supplies with some difficulty.
+
+"I didn't suppose you would have any breakfast," said Ruth, softly. "You
+sit right down on that dry log and eat. Don't mind me. I--I was awake
+most all night worrying about you being out here, hungry and alone."
+
+The girl had begun to eat ravenously, and now, with her mouth full, she
+gazed up at her new friend's face with a suddenness that made Ruth
+pause.
+
+"Say!" said the girl, with difficulty. "You're all right. I seen you
+come down the path alone, but reckoned I'd better wait and see if you
+didn't have somebody follerin' on behind. Ye might have give me away."
+
+"Why! I told you I would tell nobody."
+
+"Aw, yes--I know. Mebbe I'd oughter have believed ye; but I dunno. Lots
+of folks has fooled me. Them Perkinses was as soft as butter when they
+came to take me away from the orphanage. But now they treat me as mean
+as dirt--yes, they do!"
+
+"Oh, dear me! So you haven't any mother or father?"
+
+"Not a one," confessed the other. "Didn't I tell you I was took from an
+orphanage? Willie and Dickie was taken away by other folks. I wisht
+somebody would ha' taken us all three together; but I'm mighty glad them
+Perkinses didn't git the kids."
+
+She sighed with present contentment, and wiped her fingers on her skirt.
+For some moments Ruth had remained silent, listening to her. Now she had
+for the first time the opportunity of examining the strange girl.
+
+It had been too dark for her to see much of her the night before. Now
+the light of day revealed a very unkempt and not at all attractive
+figure. She might have been twelve--possibly fourteen. She was slight for
+her age, but she might be stronger than she appeared to Ruth. Certainly
+she was vigorous enough.
+
+She had black hair which was in a dreadful tangle. Her complexion was
+naturally dark, and she had a deep layer of tan, and over that quite a
+thick layer of dirt. Her hands and wrists were stained and dirty, too.
+
+She wore no hat, raw as the weather was. Her ragged dress was an old
+faded gingham; over it she wore a three-quarter length coat of some
+indeterminate, shoddy material, much soiled, and shapeless as a
+mealsack. Her shoes and stockings were in keeping with the rest of her
+outfit.
+
+Altogether her appearance touched Ruth Fielding deeply. This Raby girl
+was an orphan. Ruth remembered keenly the time when the loss of her own
+parents was still a fresh wound. Supposing no kind friends had been
+raised up for her? Suppose there had been no Red Mill for her to go to?
+She might have been much the same sort of castaway as this.
+
+"Tell me who you are--tell me all about yourself--do!" begged the girl of
+the Red Mill, sitting down beside the other on the log. "I am an orphan
+as well as you, my dear. Really, I am."
+
+"Was you in the orphanage?" demanded the Raby girl, quickly.
+
+"Oh, no. I had friends----"
+
+"You warn't never a reg'lar orphan, then," was the sharp response.
+
+"Tell me about it," urged Ruth.
+
+"Me an' the kids was taken to the orphanage just as soon as Mom died,"
+said the girl, in quite a matter-of-fact manner. "Pa died two months
+before. It was sudden. But Mom had been sickly for a long time--I can
+remember. I was six."
+
+"And how old are you now?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Twelve and a half. They puts us out to work at twelve anyhow, so them
+Perkinses got me," explained the child. "I was pretty sharp and foxy
+when we went to the orphanage. The kids was only two and a half----"
+
+"Both of them?" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yep. They're twins, Willie and Dickie is. An' awful smart--an' pretty
+before they lopped off their curls at the orphanage. I was glad Mom was
+dead then," said the girl, nodding. "She'd been heart-broke to see 'em
+at first without their long curls.
+
+"I dunno now--not rightly--just what's become of 'em," went on the girl.
+"Mebbe they come back to the orphanage. The folks that took 'em was nice
+enough, I guess, but the man thought two boys would be too much for his
+wife to take care of. She was a weakly lookin' critter.
+
+"But the matron always said they shouldn't go away for keeps, unless
+they went together. My goodness me! they'd never be happy apart," said
+the strange girl, wagging her head confidentially. "And they're only
+nine now. There's three years yet for the matron to find them a good
+home. Ye see, folks take young orphans on trial. I wisht them Perkinses
+had taken _me_ on trial and then had sent me back. Or, I wisht they'd
+let the orphans take folks on trial instead of the other way 'round."
+
+"Oh, it must be very hard!" murmured Ruth. "And you and your little
+brothers had to be separated?'
+
+"Yep. And Willie and Dickie liked their sister Sade a heap," and the
+girl suddenly "knuckled" her eyes with her dirty hand to wipe away the
+tears. "Huh! I'm a big baby, ain't I? Well! that's how it is."
+
+"And you really have run away from the people that took you from the
+orphanage, Sadie?"
+
+"Betcher! So would you. Mis' Perkins is awful cross, an' he's crosser! I
+got enough----"
+
+"Wouldn't they take you back at the orphanage?"
+
+"Nope. No runaways there. I've seen other girls come back and they made
+'em go right away again with the same folks. You see, there's a Board,
+or sumpin'; an' the Board finds out all about the folks that take away
+the orphans in the first place. Then they won't never own up that they
+was fooled, that Board won't. They allus say it's the kids' fault if
+they ain't suited."
+
+Suddenly the girl jumped up and peered through the bushes. Ruth had
+heard the thumping of horses' hoofs on the wet road.
+
+"My goodness!" gasped Sadie Raby. "Here's ol' Perkins hisself. He's come
+clean over this road to look for me. Don't you tell him----"
+
+She seized Ruth's wrist with her claw-like little hand.
+
+"Don't you be afraid," said Ruth. "And take this." She thrust a
+closely-folded dollar bill into the girl's grimy fingers. "I wish it was
+more. I'll come here again to-morrow----"
+
+The other had darted into the woods ere she had ceased speaking.
+Somebody shouted "Whoa!" in a very harsh voice, and then a heavy pair of
+cowhide boots landed solidly in the road.
+
+"I see ye, ye little witch!" exclaimed the harsh voice. "Come out o'
+there before I tan ye with this whip!" and the whip in question snapped
+viciously as the speaker pounded violently through the clump of bushes,
+right upon the startled Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--"THEM PERKINSES"
+
+
+It was a fact that Ruth crouched back behind the log, fearful of the
+wrathful farmer. He was a big, coarse, high-booted, red-faced man, and
+he swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he carried as though he really
+intended using the cruel instrument upon the tender body of the girl,
+whose figure he had evidently seen dimly through the bushes.
+
+"Come out 'o that!" he bawled, striding toward the log, and making the
+whiplash whistle once more in the air.
+
+Ruth leaped up, screaming with fear. "Don't you touch me, sir! Don't you
+dare!" she cried, and ran around the bushes out in to the road.
+
+The blundering farmer followed her, still snapping the whip. Perhaps he
+had been drinking; at least, it was certain he was too angry to see the
+girl very well until they were both in the road.
+
+Then he halted, and added:
+
+"I'll be whipsawed if that's the gal!"
+
+"I am _not_ the girl--not the girl you want--poor thing!" gasped Ruth.
+"Oh! you are horrid--terrible----"
+
+"Shut up, ye little fool!" exclaimed the man, harshly. "You know where
+Sade is, then, I'll be bound."
+
+"How do you know----?"
+
+"Ha! ye jest the same as told me," he returned, grinning suddenly and
+again snapping the whip. "You can tell me where that runaway's gone."
+
+"I don't know. Even if I did, I would not tell you, sir," declared Ruth,
+recovering some of her natural courage now.
+
+"Don't ye sass me--nor don't ye lie to me," and this time he swung the
+cruel whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at a
+level with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth cringed and shrieked
+aloud again.
+
+"Stop yer howling!" commanded Perkins. "Tell me about Sade Raby. Where's
+she gone?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Warn't she right there in them bushes with you?"
+
+"I shan't tell you anything more," declared Ruth.
+
+"Ye won't?"
+
+The brute swung the blacksnake--this time in earnest. It cracked, and
+then the snapper laid along the girl's forearm as though it were seared
+with a hot iron.
+
+Ruth shrieked again. The pain was more than she could bear in silence.
+She turned to flee up the Cedar Walk, but Perkins shouted at her to
+stand.
+
+"You try ter run, my beauty, and I'll cut ye worse than that," he
+promised. "You tell me about Sade Raby."
+
+Suddenly there came a hail, and Ruth turned in hope of assistance. Old
+Dolliver's stage came tearing along the road, his bony horses at a
+hand-gallop. The old man, whom the girls of Briarwood Hall called "Uncle
+Noah," brought his horses--and the Ark--to a sudden halt.
+
+"What yer doin' to that gal, Sim Perkins?" the old man demanded.
+
+"What's that to you, Dolliver?"
+
+"You'll find out mighty quick. Git out o' here or you'll git into
+trouble. Did he hurt you, Miss Ruth?"
+
+"No-o--not much," stammered Ruth, who desired nothing so much as to get
+way from the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No wonder she had been
+forced to run away from "them Perkinses."
+
+"I'll see you jailed yet, Sim, for some of your meanness," said the old
+stage driver. "And you'll git there quick if you bother Mis'
+Tellingham's gals----"
+
+"I didn't know she was one 'o them tony school gals," growled Perkins,
+getting aboard his wagon again.
+
+"Well, she is--an' one 'o the best of the lot," said Dolliver, and he
+smiled comfortably at Ruth.
+
+"Huh! whad-she wanter be in comp'ny of that brat 'o mine, then?"
+demanded Perkins, gathering up his reins.
+
+"Oh! are you hunting that orphanage gal ye took to raise? I heard she
+couldn't stand you and Ma Perkins no longer," Dolliver said, with
+sarcasm.
+
+"Never you mind. I'll git her," said Perkins, and whipped up his horses.
+
+"Oh, dear, me!" cried Ruth, when he had gone. "What a terrible man, Mr.
+Dolliver."
+
+"Yah!" scoffed the old driver. "Jest a bag of wind. Mean as can be, but
+a big coward. Meanes' folks around here, them Perkinses air."
+
+"But why were they allowed to have that poor girl, then?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"They went a-fur off to git her. Clean to Harburg. Nobody knowed 'em
+there, I s'pose. Why, Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn't melt in
+her mouth, if she wants to. But I sartainly am sorry for that poor
+little Sade Raby, as they call her."
+
+"Oh! I do pity her so," said Ruth, sadly.
+
+The old man's eyes twinkled. Old Dolliver was sly! "Then ye _do_ know
+suthin' about Sade--jes' as Perkins said?"
+
+"She was here just now. I gave her something to eat--and a little money.
+You won't tell, Mr. Dolliver?"
+
+"Huh! No. But dunno's ye'd oughter helped a runaway. That's agin' the
+law, ye see."
+
+"Would the law give that poor girl back to those ugly people?"
+
+"I s'pect so," said Dolliver, scratching his head. "Ye see, Sim Perkins
+an' his wife air folks ye can't really go agin'--not _much_. Sim owns a
+good farm, an' pays his taxes, an' ain't a bad neighbor. But they've had
+trouble before naow with orphans. But before, 'twas boys."
+
+"I just hope they all ran away!" cried Ruth, with emphasis.
+
+"Wal--they did, by golly!" ejaculated the stage driver, preparing to
+drive on.
+
+"And if you see this poor girl, you won't tell anybody, will you, Mr.
+Dolliver?" pleaded Ruth.
+
+"I jes' sha'n't see her," said the man, his little eyes twinkling. "But
+you take my advice, Miss Fielding--don't _you_ see her, nuther!"
+
+Ruth ran back to the school then--it was time. She could not think of her
+lessons properly because of her pity for Sadie Raby. Suppose that horrid
+man should find the poor girl!
+
+Every time Ruth saw the red welt on her arm, where the whiplash had
+touched her, she wondered how many times Perkins had lashed Sadie when
+he was angry. It was a dreadful thought.
+
+Although she had promised Sadie to keep her secret, Ruth wondered if she
+might not do the girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about her.
+Ruth was not afraid of the dignified principal of Briarwood Hall--she
+knew too well Mrs. Grace Tellingham's good heart.
+
+She determined at least that if Sadie appeared at the end of the Cedar
+Walk the next day she would try to get the runaway girl to go with her
+to the principal's office. Surely the girl should not run wild in the
+woods and live any way and how she could--especially so early in the
+season, for there was still frost at night.
+
+When Ruth ran down the long walk between the cedar trees the next
+forenoon at ten, there was nobody peering through the bushes where Sadie
+Raby had watched the day before. Ruth went up and down the road, into
+the woods a little way, too--and called, and called. No reply. Nothing
+answered but a chattering squirrel and a jay who seemed to object to any
+human being disturbing the usual tenor of the woods' life thereabout.
+
+"Perhaps she'll come this afternoon," thought Ruth, and she hid the
+package of food she had brought, and went back to her classes.
+
+In the afternoon she had no better luck. The runaway did not appear. The
+food had not been touched. Ruth left the packet, hoping sadly that the
+girl might find it.
+
+The next morning she went again. She even got up an hour earlier than
+usual and slipped out ahead of the other girls. The food had been
+disturbed--oh, yes! But by a dog or some "varmint." Sadie had not been to
+the rendezvous.
+
+Hoping against hope, Ruth Fielding tacked a note in an envelope to the
+log on which she and Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she could
+do, save to go each day for a time to see if the strange girl had found
+the note.
+
+There came a rain and the letter was turned to pulp. Then Ruth Fielding
+gave up hope of ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told her that
+the orphan had never returned to "them Perkinses." For this Ruth might
+be thankful, if for nothing more.
+
+The busy days and weeks passed. All the girls of Ruth's clique were
+writing back and forth to their homes to arrange for the visit they
+expected to make to Madge Steele's summer home--Sunrise Farm. The senior
+was forever singing the praises of her father's new acquisition. Mr.
+Steele had closed contracts to buy several of the neighboring farms, so
+that, altogether, he hoped to have more than a thousand acres in his
+estate.
+
+"And, don't you _dare_ disappoint me, Ruthie Fielding," cried Madge,
+shaking her playfully. "We won't have any good time without you, and you
+haven't said you'd go yet!"
+
+"But I can't say so until I know myself," Ruth told her. "Uncle Jabez----"
+
+"That uncle of yours must be a regular ogre, just as Helen says."
+
+"What does Mercy say about him?" asked Ruth, with a quiet smile. "Mercy
+knows him fully as well, and she has a sharp tongue."
+
+"Humph! that's odd, too. She doesn't seem to think your Uncle Jabez is a
+very harsh man. She calls him 'Dusty Miller,' I know."
+
+"Uncle Jabez has a prickly rind, I guess," said Ruth. "But the meat
+inside is sweet. Only he's old-fashioned and he can't get used to
+new-fashioned ways. He doesn't see any reason for my 'traipsing around'
+so much. I ought to be at the mill between schooltimes, helping Aunt
+Alvirah--so he says. And I am afraid he is right. I feel condemned----"
+
+"You're too tender-hearted. Helen says he's as rich as can be and might
+hire a dozen girls to help 'Aunt Alviry'."
+
+"He might, but he wouldn't," returned Ruth, smiling. "I can't tell you
+yet for sure that I can go to Sunrise Farm. I'd love to. I've always
+heard 'twas a beautiful place."
+
+"And it is, indeed! It's going to be the finest gentleman's estate in
+that section, when father gets through with it. He's going to make it a
+great, big, paying farm--so he says. If it wasn't for that man Caslon,
+we'd own the whole hill all the way around, as well as the top of it."
+
+"Who's that?" asked Ruth, surprised that Madge should speak so sharply
+about the unknown Caslon.
+
+"Why, he owns one of the farms adjoining. Father's bought all the
+neighbors up but Caslon. _He_ won't sell. But I reckon father will find
+a way to make him, before he gets through. Father usually carries his
+point," added Madge, with much pride in Mr. Steele's business acumen.
+
+Uncle Jabez had not yet said Ruth could go with the crowd to the
+Steeles' summer home; Aunt Alvirah wrote that he was "studyin' about
+it." But there was so much to do at Briarwood as the end of the school
+year approached, that the girl of the Red Mill had little time to worry
+about the subject.
+
+Although Ruth and Helen Cameron were far from graduation themselves,
+they both had parts of some prominence in the exercises which were to
+close the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was in a quartette selected from
+the Glee Club for some special music, and Helen had a small violin solo
+part in one of the orchestral numbers.
+
+Not many of the juniors, unless they belonged to either the school
+orchestra or the Glee Club, would appear to much advantage at
+graduation. The upper senior class was in the limelight--and Madge Steele
+was the only one of Ruth's close friends who was to receive her diploma.
+
+"We who aren't seniors have to sit around like bumps on a log," growled
+Heavy. "Might as well go home for good the day before."
+
+"You should have learned to play, or sing, or something," advised one of
+the other girls, laughing at Heavy's apparently woebegone face.
+
+"Did you ever hear me try to sing, Lluella?" demanded the plump young
+lady. "I like music myself--I'm very fond of it, no matter how it sounds!
+But I can't even stand my own chest-tones."
+
+Preparations for the great day went on apace. There was to be a
+professional director for the augmented orchestra and he insisted,
+because of the acoustics of the hall, upon building an elevated
+extension to the stage, upon which to stand to conduct the music.
+
+"Gee!" gasped Heavy, when she saw it the first time. "What's the
+diving-board for?"
+
+"That's not a diving-board," snapped Mercy Curtis. "It's the lookout
+station for the captain to watch the high C's."
+
+The bustle and confusion of departure punctuated the final day of the
+term, too. There were so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer;
+and some, of course, would never come back to Briarwood Hall again--as
+scholars, at least.
+
+In the midst of the excitement Ruth received a letter in the crabbed
+hand of dear old Aunt Alvirah. The old lady enclosed a small money
+order, fearing that Ruth might not have all the money she needed for her
+home-coming. But the best item in the letter beside the expression of
+Aunt Alvirah's love, was the statement that "Your Uncle Jabe, he's come
+round to agreeing you should go to that Sunrise Farm place with your
+young friends. I made him let me hire a tramping girl that came by, and
+we got the house all rid up, so when you come home, my pretty, all you
+got to do is to visit."
+
+"And I _will_ visit with her--the unselfish old dear!" Ruth told herself.
+"Dear me! how very, very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid poor
+Uncle Jabez wouldn't be so kind if he wasn't influenced by Aunt
+Alvirah."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--"THE TRAMPING GAL"
+
+
+The old clock that had hung in the Red Mill kitchen from the time of
+Uncle Jabez Potter's grandfather--and that was early time on the Lumano,
+indeed!--hesitatingly tolled the hour of four.
+
+Daybreak was just behind the eastern hills. A light mist swathed the
+silent current of the river. Here and there, along the water's edge, a
+tall tree seemed floating in the air, its bole and roots cut off by the
+drifting mist.
+
+"Oh, it is very, very beautiful here!" sighed Ruth Fielding, kneeling at
+the open window and looking out upon the awakening world--as she had done
+many and many another early morning since first she was given this
+little gable-windowed room for her very own.
+
+The sweet, clean, cool air breathed in upon her bare throat and
+shoulders, revealed through the lace trimming of her night robe. Ruth
+loved linen like other girls, and although Uncle Jabez gave her spending
+money with a rather niggardly hand, she and Aunt Alvirah knew how to
+make the pennies "go a long way" in purchasing and making her gowns and
+undergarments.
+
+There lay over a chair, too, a pretty, light blue, silk trimmed
+crepe-cloth kimona, with warm, fur-edged slippers to match, on the
+floor. The moment she heard Uncle Jabez rattle the stove-shaker in the
+kitchen, Ruth slipped into this robe, and thrust her bare feet into the
+slippers. Her braids she drew over her shoulders--one on either side--as
+she hurried out of the little chamber and down the back stairs.
+
+She had arrived home from Briarwood the night before. For more than
+eight months she had seen neither Uncle Jabez nor Aunt Alvirah; and she
+had been so tired and sleepy on her arrival that she had quickly gone to
+bed. She felt as though she had scarcely greeted the two old people.
+
+Uncle Jabez was bending over the kitchen stove. He always looked gray of
+face, and dusty. The mill-dust seemed ground into both his clothes and
+his complexion.
+
+The first the old man knew of her presence, the arms of Ruth were around
+his neck.
+
+"Ugh-huh?" questioned the old man, raising up stiffly as the fire began
+to chatter, the flames flashing under the lids, and turned to face the
+girl who held him so lovingly. "What's wanted, Niece Ruth?" he added,
+looking at her grimly under his bristling brows.
+
+Ruth was not afraid of his grimness. She had learned long since that
+Uncle Jabez was much softer under the surface than he appeared. He
+claimed to be only just to her; but Ruth knew that his "justice" often
+leaned toward the side of mercy.
+
+Her mother, Mary Potter, had been the miller's favorite niece; when she
+had married Ruth's father, Uncle Jabez had been angry, and for years the
+family had been separated. But when Uncle Jabez had taken Ruth in "just
+out of charity," old Aunt Alvirah had assured the heartsick girl that
+the miller was kinder at heart than he wished people to suppose.
+
+"He don't never let his right hand know what his left hand doeth,"
+declared the loyal little old woman who had been so long housekeeper for
+the miller. "He saved me from the poorhouse--yes, he did!--jest to git all
+the work out o' me he could--to hear him tell it!
+
+"But it ain't so," quoth Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head. "He saw a lone
+ol' woman turned out o' what she'd thought would be her home till she
+come to death's door. An' so he opened his house and his hand to her.
+An' he's opened his house and hand to _you_, my pretty; and who knows?
+mebbe 'twill open wide his heart, too."
+
+Ruth had been hoping the old man's heart _was_ open, not only to her,
+but to the whole world. She knew that, in secret, Uncle Jabez was
+helping to pay Mercy Curtis's tuition at Briarwood. He still loved
+money; he always would love it, in all probability. But he had learned
+to "loosen up," as Tom Cameron expressed it, in a most astonishing way.
+One could not honestly call Uncle Jabez a miser nowadays.
+
+He was miserly in the outward expression of any affection, however. And
+that apparent coldness Ruth Fielding longed to break down.
+
+Now the girl, all flushed from her deep sleep, and smiling, lifted her
+rosy lips to be kissed. "I didn't scarcely say 'how-do' to you last
+night, Uncle," she said. "Do tell me you're glad to see me back."
+
+"Ha! Ye ain't minded to stay long, it seems."
+
+"I won't go to Sunrise Farm if you want me here, Uncle Jabez," declared
+Ruth, still clinging to him, and with the same smiling light in her
+eyes.
+
+"Ha! ye don't mean that," he grunted.
+
+He knew she did. His wrinkled, hard old face finally began to change.
+His eyes tried to escape her gaze.
+
+"I just _love_ you, Uncle," she breathed, softly. "Won't--won't you let
+me?"
+
+"There, there, child!" He tried for a moment to break her firm hold;
+then he stooped shamefacedly and touched her fresh lips with his own.
+
+Ruth nestled against his big, strong body, and clung a moment longer.
+His rough hand smoothed her sleek head almost timidly.
+
+"There, there!" he grumbled. "You're gittin' to be a big gal, I swow!
+And what good's so much schoolin' goin' ter do ye? Other gals like you
+air helpin' in their mothers' kitchens--or goin' to work in the mills at
+Cheslow. Seems like a wicked waste of time and money."
+
+But he did not say it so harshly as had been his wont in the old times.
+Ruth smiled up at him again.
+
+"Trust me, Uncle," she said. "The time'll come when I'll prove to you
+the worth of it. Give me the education I crave, and I'll support myself
+and pay you all back--with interest! You see if I don't."
+
+"Well, well! It's new-fashioned, I s'pose," growled the old man,
+starting for the mill. "Gals, as well as boys, is lots more expense now
+than they used ter be to raise. The 'three R's' was enough for us when I
+was young.
+
+"But I won't stop yer fun. I promised yer Aunt Alviry I wouldn't," he
+added, with his hand upon the door-latch. "You kin go to that Sunrise
+place for a while, if ye want. Yer Aunt Alviry got a trampin' gal that
+came along, ter help her clean house."
+
+"Oh! and isn't the girl here now?" asked Ruth, preparing to run back to
+dress.
+
+"Nope. She's gone on. Couldn't keep her no longer. And my! how that
+young 'un could eat! Never saw the beat of her," added Uncle Jabez as he
+clumped out in his heavy boots.
+
+Ruth heard more about "that trampin' girl" when Aunt Alvirah appeared.
+Before that happened, however, the newly returned schoolgirl proved she
+had not forgotten how to make a country breakfast.
+
+The sliced corned ham was frying nicely; the potatoes were browning
+delightfully in another pan. Fluffy biscuits were ready to take out of
+the oven, and the cream was already whipped for the berries and the
+coffee.
+
+"Gracious me! child alive!" exclaimed the little old woman, coming
+haltingly into the room. "You an' Jabez air in a conspiracy to spile
+me--right from the start. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" and she lowered
+herself carefully into a chair.
+
+"I did sartain sure oversleep this day. Ben done the chores? An' ye air
+all ready, my pretty? Jest blow the horn, then, and yer uncle will come
+in. My! what a smart leetle housekeeper you be, Ruth. School ain't
+spiled ye a mite."
+
+"Uncle is still afraid it will," laughed Ruth, kissing the old woman
+fondly.
+
+"He only _says_ that," whispered Aunt Alvirah, with twinkling eyes.
+"He's as proud of ye as he can stick--I know!"
+
+"It--it would be nice, if he said so once in a while," admitted the girl.
+
+After the hearty breakfast was disposed of and the miller and his hired
+man had tramped out again, the old housekeeper and Ruth became more
+confidential.
+
+"It sartain sure did please me," said Aunt Alvirah, "when Jabez let me
+take in that trampin' gal for a week an' more. He paid her without a
+whimper, too. But, she _did_ eat!"
+
+"So he said," chuckled Ruth.
+
+"Yes. More'n a hired hand in thrashin' time. I never seen her beat. But
+I reckon the poor little thing was plumb starved. They never feed 'em
+ha'f enough in them orphan 'sylums, I don't s'pect."
+
+"From an orphanage?" cried Ruth, with sudden interest born of her
+remembrance of the mysterious Sadie Raby.
+
+"So I believe. She'd run away, I s'pect. I hadn't the heart to blame
+her. An' she was close-mouthed as a clam," declared Aunt Alvirah.
+
+"How did you come to get her?" queried the interested Ruth.
+
+"She walked right up to the door. She'd been travelin' far--ye could see
+that by her shoes, if ye could call 'em shoes. I made her take 'em off
+by the fire, an' then I picked 'em up with the tongs--they was just
+pulp--and I pitched 'em onto the ash-heap.
+
+"Well, she stayed that night, o' course. It was rainin'. Your Uncle
+Jabez wouldn't ha' turned a dog out in sech weather. But he made me put
+her to bed on chairs here.
+
+"It was plain she was delighted to have somebody to talk to--and as that
+somebody was 'her pretty,' the dear old soul was all the more joyful.
+
+"So, one thing led to another," pursued Aunt Alvirah, "and I got him to
+let me keep her to help rid the house up. You know, you wrote me to wait
+till you come home for house-cleanin'. But I worked Jabez Potter
+_right_; I know how to manage him," said she, nodding and smiling.
+
+"And you didn't know who the girl was?" asked Ruth, still curious.
+"Nothing about her at all?"
+
+"Not much. She was short-tongued, I tell ye. But I gathered she had been
+an orphan a long time and had lived at an institution."
+
+"Not even her name?" asked Ruth, at last.
+
+"Oh, yes. She told her name--and it was her true one, I reckon," Aunt
+Alviry said. "It was Sadie Raby."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--SEEKING THE TRAIL
+
+
+"I might have known that! I might have known it!" Ruth exclaimed when
+she heard this. "And if I'd only written you or Uncle Jabez about her,
+maybe you would have kept her till I came. I wanted to help that girl,"
+and Ruth all but shed tears.
+
+"Deary, deary me!" cried Aunt Alvirah. "Tell me all about it, my
+pretty."
+
+So Ruth related all she knew about the half-wild girl whose acquaintance
+she had made at Briarwood Hall under such peculiar circumstances. And
+she told just how Sadie looked and all about her.
+
+"Yes," agreed Aunt Alvirah. "That was the trampin' gal sure enough. She
+was honest, jest as you say. But your uncle had his doubts. However, she
+looked better when she went away from here."
+
+"I'm glad of that," Ruth said, heartily.
+
+"You know one o' them old dresses of yours you wore to Miss Cramp's
+school--the one Helen give you?" said old Aunt Alvirah, hesitatingly.
+
+"Yes, indeed!" said Ruth. "And how badly I felt when the girls found out
+they were 'hand-me-downs.' I'll never forget them."
+
+"One of them I fitted to that poor child," said Aunt Alvirah. "The poor,
+skinny little thing. I wisht I could ha' kep' her long enough to put
+some flesh on her bones."
+
+Ruth hugged the little old woman. "You're a dear, Aunty! I bet you fixed
+her up nice before she went away."
+
+"Wal, she didn't look quite sech a tatterdemalion," granted Aunt
+Alvirah. "But I was sorry for her. I am allus sorry for any young thing
+that's strayin' about without a home or a mother. But natcherly Jabez
+wouldn't hear to keepin' her after the cleanin' was done. It's his
+_nearness_, Ruthie; he can't help it. Some men chew tobacco, and your
+Uncle Jabez is _close_. It's their nater. I'd ruther have a stingy man
+about, than a tobacco chewin' man--yes, indeed I had!"
+
+Ruth laughed and agreed with her. Yet she was very sorry that Sadie
+Raby, "the tramping girl," had been allowed to move on without those at
+the Red Mill, who had sheltered her, discovering her destination.
+
+She learned that Sadie had gone to Cheslow--at least, in that
+direction--and when Helen came spinning along in one of her father's cars
+from Outlook that afternoon, and wanted to take Ruth for a drive, the
+latter begged to ride "Cheslowward."
+
+"Besides, we both want to see Dr. Davison--and there's Mercy's mother.
+And Miss Cramp will be glad to see me, I know; we'll wait till her
+school is out," Ruth suggested.
+
+"You're boss," declared her chum. "And paying calls 'all by our
+lonesomes' will be fun enough. Tom's deserted me. He's gone tramping
+with Reno over toward the Wilkins Corner road--you know, that place where
+he was hurt that time, and you and Reno found him," Helen concluded.
+
+This was "harking back" to the very first night Ruth had arrived at
+Cheslow from her old home at Darrowtown. But she was not likely to
+forget it, for through that accident of Master Tom Cameron's, she had
+met this very dear friend beside her now in the automobile.
+
+"Oh, dear me! and the fun we used to have when we were little
+girls--'member, Ruthie?" demanded Helen, laughing. "My! isn't it warm? Is
+my face shiny?"
+
+"Just a little," admitted Ruth.
+
+"Never can keep the shine off," said Helen, bitterly. "Here! you take
+the wheel and let me find my powder-paper. Tom says he believes I smoke
+cigarettes and roll them myself," and Helen giggled.
+
+Ruth carefully changed seats with her chum, who immediately produced the
+booklet of slips from her vanity case and rubbed the offending nose
+vigorously.
+
+"Have a care, Helen! you'll make it all red," urged Ruth, laughing. "You
+_do_ go at everything so excitedly. Anybody would think you were grating
+a nutmeg."
+
+"Horrid thing! My nose doesn't look at all like a nutmeg."
+
+"But it will--if you don't look out," laughed Ruth. "Oh, dear, me! here
+comes a big wagon. Do you suppose I can get by it safely?"
+
+"If he gives you any room. There! he has begun to turn out. Now, just
+skim around him."
+
+Ruth was careful and slowed down. This did not suit the fly-away Helen.
+"Come on!" she urged. "We'll never even get to the old doctor's house if
+you don't hurry."
+
+She began to manipulate the levers herself and soon they were shooting
+along the Cheslow road at a speed that made Ruth's eyes water.
+
+They came safely to the house with the green lamps before it, and ran in
+gaily to see their friend, Dr. Davison. For the moment the good old
+gentleman chanced to be busy and waved them into the back office to wait
+until he was free.
+
+Old Mammy, who presided over the doctor's old-fashioned establishment,
+had spied the girls and almost immediately the tinkling of ice in a
+pitcher announced the approach of one of Mammy's pickaninny
+grandchildren with a supply of her famous lemonade and a plate of cakes.
+
+"Mammy said you done git hungery waitin'," declared the grinning,
+kinky-haired child who presented herself with the refreshments. "An' a
+drink on one o' dese yere dusty days is allus welcome, misses."
+
+Then she giggled, and darted away to the lower regions of the house,
+leaving the two chums to enjoy the goodies. Helen was cheerfully
+curious, and had to go looking about the big office, peeking into the
+bookcases, looking at the "specimens" in bottles along the shelf, trying
+to spell out and understand the Latin labels on the jars of drugs.
+
+"Miss Nosey!" whispered Ruth, admonishingly.
+
+"There you go! hitting my nose again," sighed Helen. And then she jumped
+back and almost screamed. For in fooling with the knob of a narrow
+closet door, it had snapped open, the door swung outward, and Helen
+found herself facing an articulated skeleton!
+
+"Goodness gracious me!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Oh, no," giggled Ruth. "It's not you at all. It's somebody else."
+
+"Funny!" scoffed Helen. Then she laughed, too. "It's somebody the
+doctor's awfully choice of. Do you suppose it was his first patient?"
+
+"Hush! Suppose he heard you?"
+
+"He'd laugh," returned Helen, knowing the kindly old physician too well
+to be afraid of him in any case. "Now, behave! Don't say a word. I'm
+going to dress him up."
+
+"What?" gasped Ruth.
+
+"You'll see," said the daring Helen, and she seized an old hat of the
+doctor's from the top of the bookcase and set it jauntily upon the
+grinning skull.
+
+"My goodness! doesn't he look terrible that way? Oh! I'll shut the door.
+He wiggles all over--_just as though he were alive_!"
+
+Just then they heard the doctor bidding his caller good-bye, or Helen
+might have done some other ridiculous thing. The old gentleman came in,
+rubbing his hands, and with his eyes twinkling. He was a man who had
+never really grown old, and he liked to hear the girls tell of their
+school experiences, chuckling over their scrapes and antics with much
+delight.
+
+"And how has my Goody Two-sticks gotten along this year?" he asked, for
+he was much interested in Mercy Curtis and her improvement, both
+physically and mentally. Had it not been for the doctor, Mercy might
+never have gotten out of her wheelchair, or gone to Briarwood Hall.
+
+"She's going to beat us all," Helen declared, with enthusiasm. "Isn't
+she, Ruth?"
+
+"She will if we don't work pretty hard," admitted the girl of the Red
+Mill, who was hoping herself to be finally among the first few members
+of her class at the Hall. "But I would rather see Mercy win first place,
+I believe, than anybody else--unless it is you, Helen."
+
+"Don't you fret," laughed Helen. "You'll never see little me at the head
+of the class--and you know it."
+
+The two friends did not bore the physician by staying too long, but
+after he bade them good-bye at the door, Helen ran down the path
+giggling.
+
+"What do you suppose he'll say when he finds that hat on the skeleton?"
+she demanded, her eyes dancing.
+
+"He'll say, 'That Helen Cameron was in here--that explains it!' You can't
+fool Dr. Davison," laughed Ruth.
+
+Ruth had taken Helen into her confidence ere this about the strange
+runaway, Sadie Raby, and during their call at the doctor's, she had
+asked that gentleman if he had seen the tramping girl, after the latter
+had left the Red Mill. But he had not. Oddly enough, however, Ruth found
+some trace of Sadie at Mercy's house, where the girls in the automobile
+next went to call.
+
+Mercy's mother had taken the girl in for a night, and fed her. The
+latter had asked Mr. Curtis about the trains going west, but he had sold
+Sadie no ticket.
+
+"She was very reticent," Mrs. Curtis told Ruth. "She was so independent
+and capable-acting, in spite of her tender years, that I did not feel as
+though it was my place to try to stop her. She seemed to have some
+destination in view, but she would not tell me what it was."
+
+"I wonder if that wasn't what Aunt Alvirah meant?" queried Ruth,
+thoughtfully, as she and Helen drove away. "That Sadie is awfully
+independent. I wish you had seen her."
+
+"Maybe she's going to find her twin brothers that she told you about,"
+suggested Helen. "I wish I _had_ seen her."
+
+"And maybe you've guessed it!" cried Ruth. "But that doesn't help us
+find _her_, for she didn't say where Willie and Dickie had been taken
+when they were removed from the orphanage."
+
+"Gracious, Ruthie!" exclaimed her chum, laughing. "You're always
+worrying over somebody else's troubles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--WHAT TOM CAMERON SAW
+
+
+Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she could do anything for Sadie
+Raby if she found her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond of
+shouldering other people's burdens.
+
+It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as though it were a very
+dreadful thing for Sadie to be wandering about the country all alone,
+and without means to feed herself, or get anything like proper shelter.
+
+In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that _she_ might have been as wild
+and neglected if Uncle Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken her
+in and given her a home at the Red Mill.
+
+They stopped and saw Ruth's old school teacher and then, it being past
+mid-afternoon, Helen turned the headlights of the car toward home again.
+As the machine slid so smoothly along the road toward the Lumano and the
+Red Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed ahead. A huge dog had
+leaped out of a side road and stood, barring their way and barking.
+
+"Reno! dear old fellow!" Ruth said, as Helen shut off the power. "He
+knows us."
+
+"Tom must be near, then. That's the Wilkins Corner road," Helen
+observed.
+
+As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff tried to jump in and
+caress the girls with his tongue--poor fellow! he knew no better, though
+Helen scolded him--Ruth stood up and shouted for her friend's twin
+brother.
+
+"Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We're being eaten up by a great
+four-legged beast--get down, Reno! Oh, don't!"
+
+She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and keeping the big dog off
+with both hands. A cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno started and
+turned to look. He had had his master back for only a day, but Tom's
+word was always law to the big mastiff.
+
+"Down, sir!" sang out Tom Cameron, and then he burst into view.
+
+"Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!" gasped Ruth.
+
+"My goodness me!" exclaimed his sister. "Have you been in a fight?"
+
+"Down, Reno!" commanded her brother again. He came striding toward them.
+If he had not been so disheveled, anybody could have seen that, dressed
+in his sister's clothes, and she in his, one could scarcely have told
+them apart. A boy and a girl never could look more alike than Tom and
+Helen Cameron.
+
+"What has happened to you?" demanded Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom's own
+sister.
+
+"Look like I'd been monkeying with the buzz-saw--eh?" he demanded, but a
+little ruefully. "Say! I've had a time. If it hadn't been for Reno----"
+
+"Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!" exclaimed Ruth, hopping out of the
+car and for the first time noticing that there was a cake of partially
+dried blood on the dog's shoulder.
+
+"He isn't hurt much. And neither am I. Only my clothes torn----"
+
+"And your face scratched!" ejaculated Helen.
+
+"Oh--well--_that's_ nothing. That was an accident. She didn't mean to do
+it."
+
+"_Who_ didn't mean to do it? What _are_ you talking about?" screamed his
+sister, at last fully aroused. "You've been in some terrible danger, Tom
+Cameron."
+
+"No, I haven't," returned Tom, beginning to grin again. "Just been
+playing the chivalrous knight."
+
+"And got his face scratched!" tittered Ruth.
+
+"Aw--well---- Now wait! let me tell you," he began.
+
+"Now he's going to make excuses," cried Helen. "You have gotten into
+trouble, you reckless boy, and want to make light of it."
+
+"Gee! I'd like to see _you_ make light of it," exclaimed Tom, with some
+vexation. "If you can make head or tail of it---- And that girl!"
+
+"There he goes again," said Ruth. "He has got to tell us. It is about a
+girl," and she laughed, teasingly.
+
+"Say! I don't know which one of you is the worse," said Tom, ruefully.
+"Listen, will you?"
+
+"Go ahead," said Helen, solemnly.
+
+"Well, Reno and I were hiking along the Wilkins Corner road yonder. It
+was just about where your Uncle Jabe's wagon, Ruth, knocked me down into
+the gully that time--remember?"
+
+Ruth nodded.
+
+"Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a girl. Reno began to growl and I
+held him back till I located the trouble. There was a campfire down
+under that bank and the scream came from that direction.
+
+"'Go to it, old boy!' I says, and let Reno go. I had no reason to
+believe there was real trouble," Tom said, wagging his head. "But I
+followed him down the bank just the same, for although Reno wouldn't
+bite anybody unless he had to, he does look ugly--to strangers.
+
+"Well, what do you think? There were a couple of tramps at the fire, and
+Reno was holding them off from a girl. He showed his teeth all right,
+and one of them had his knife out. _He_ was an ugly looking customer."
+
+"My goodness! a girl?" gasped his sister. "What sort of a looking girl?"
+
+"She wasn't bad looking," Tom said. "Younger than us--mebbe twelve, or
+so. But she'd been sleeping out in her clothes--you could see she had.
+And her face and hands were dirty.
+
+"'What were they trying to do to you?' I asked her.
+
+"'Trying to get my money,' says she. 'I ain't got much, but you bet I
+want that little.'
+
+"'I guess you can keep it,' I said. 'But if I were you, I'd hike out of
+this.'
+
+"'I'm going to,' says she. 'I'm going just as fast as I can to the
+railroad and jump a train. These fellers have been bothering me all day.
+I'm glad you came along. Thanks.'
+
+"And with that she started to move off. But the tramps were real ugly,
+and one of them jumped for her. I tripped him up," said Tom, grinning
+again now in remembrance of the row, "and then there certainly _was_ a
+fuss."
+
+"Oh, Tom!" murmured Helen.
+
+"Well, I had Reno, didn't I? The man I tripped fell into the fire, but
+was more scared than hurt. But the other fellow--the one with the
+knife--slashed at Reno, and cut him.
+
+"Well! you never saw such a girl as that tramping girl was----"
+
+"What's _that_?" gasped Ruth. "Oh, Helen!"
+
+"It might be Sadie Raby--eh?" queried her chum.
+
+"Hel-lo!" exclaimed Master Tom, turning curious. "What do you girls know
+about her? Sadie Raby--that's what she said her name was."
+
+"My goodness me! What do you think of that?" cried his sister.
+
+"And where is she now?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"Aw, wait till I tell you all about it," complained Tom. "You girls take
+the wind all out of my sails."
+
+"All right. Go ahead," begged his sister.
+
+"So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help, and when one of the
+fellows had me down, and Reno was holding the other by the wrist, she
+started to dig into the face of the rascal who held me. And once she
+scratched me by mistake," added Tom, laughing.
+
+"But between us--mostly through Reno's help--we frightened them off. They
+hobbled away through the bushes. Then I took her to the railroad, and
+waited at the tank till a train came along and stopped."
+
+"And put her aboard, Tom!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor with two dollars to let
+her ride as far as Campton. I knew those two tramps would never catch
+her there. Why! what's the matter?"
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with disgust. "Doesn't it take a boy to
+spoil everything?"
+
+"Why--what?" began Tom.
+
+"And her name was Sadie Raby?" demanded Ruth.
+
+"That's what she said."
+
+"We just wanted to see her, that's all," said his sister. "Ruth did,
+anyway. And I'd have been glad to help her."
+
+"Well, I helped her, didn't I?" demanded Tom, rather doggedly.
+
+"Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose is to become of a girl like
+her traveling around the country?"
+
+"She seemed to want to get to Campton real bad. I reckon she has folks
+there," said Tom, slowly.
+
+"She's got no folks--if her story is true," said Ruth, quietly, "save two
+little brothers."
+
+"And they're twins, like us, Tom," said Helen, eagerly. "Oh, dear! it's
+too bad Ruth and I didn't come across Sadie, instead of you."
+
+Tom began to laugh at that. "You'd have had a fine time getting her away
+from those tramps," he scoffed. "She didn't have but a little money, and
+they would have stolen that from her if it hadn't been for Reno and me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--TRAVELING TOWARD SUNRISE FARM
+
+
+Tom Cameron thought a great deal of Ruth, and for that reason alone was
+sorry he had not stayed the departure of the runaway girl, Sadie Raby,
+from the vicinity of Cheslow. Then, as he thought of it more, and heard
+the girls talk about the tramping girl's circumstances as _they_ knew
+them, Tom was even more disturbed.
+
+He and Reno had gotten into the tonneau of the car, which rolled away
+toward the Red Mill at a slower pace. He leaned his arms on the back of
+the front seat and listened to Ruth's story of her meeting with Sadie
+Raby, and her experience with Sim Perkins, and of her surprise at
+finding that Sadie had worked for a while at the Red Mill.
+
+"If we had only been a few days earlier in getting home from school,
+there she would have been," finished Ruth, with a sigh.
+
+"That's so," agreed her chum. "And she even stayed night before last
+with Mercy's mother. My! but she's as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp."
+
+"We could telegraph to Campton and have her stopped," suggested Tom.
+
+"By the police?" demanded his sister.
+
+"Oh! what for?" asked Ruth.
+
+"There! nothing _I_ suggest is any good," said the boy.
+
+"Not unless you suggest something better than that," laughed Ruth. "The
+poor thing doesn't need to be arrested. And she might refuse any help we
+could give her. She's very independent."
+
+"She sure is," admitted Tom, ruefully.
+
+"And we don't know _why_ she wanted to go to Campton," his sister
+remarked.
+
+"Nor if she got there safely," added Ruth.
+
+"Pshaw! if that's worrying you two, I'll find out for sure to-morrow,"
+quoth Master Tom.
+
+He knew the conductor of the freight train with whom he had entrusted
+the strange girl. The next day he went over to the tank at the right
+hour and met the conductor again.
+
+"Sure, I got her on to Campton--poor kid," said the man. "She's a smart
+one, too. When the boys wanted to know who she was, I said she was my
+niece, and she nodded and agreed to it. We had a big feed back here in
+the hack while she was aboard, and she had her share."
+
+"But where was she going?" asked Tom.
+
+"Didn't get much out of her," admitted the conductor. "But she'd lived
+in Harburg, and I reckon she had folks in or near Campton. But I'm not
+sure at all."
+
+This was rather unsatisfactory; but whatever point the strange girl was
+journeying to, she had arrived safely at Campton. This Tom told Ruth and
+the latter had to be content with this information.
+
+The incident of the runaway girl was two or three days old when Ruth
+received a letter from Madge Steele urging them all to come on soon--that
+Sunrise Farm was ready for them, and that she was writing all the girls
+to start on Monday.
+
+The train would take them to Darrowtown. There a conveyance would meet
+and transport the visitors fifteen miles through the country to Mr.
+Steele's big estate.
+
+Mercy Curtis joined the Camerons and Ruth at the Cheslow Station, and on
+the train they boarded were Heavy Stone and The Fox. The girls greeted
+each other as though they had been separated for a year.
+
+"Never was such a clatter of tongues," declared the plump girl, "since
+the workmen struck on the tower of Babel. Here we are--off for the
+sunrise--and traveling due west. How do you make that out?"
+
+"That's easy--anybody could see it with half an eye," said The Fox.
+
+"Half an eye, eh?" demanded Heavy. "And Cyclops had a whole one. Say!
+did you hear about the boy in school who was asked by his teacher (he
+must have been in Tommy's class) 'Who was Cyclops?' He was a bright boy.
+He answered: 'The man who wrote the encyclopaedia.' The association of
+ideas was something fierce--eh?"
+
+"Dear me, Jennie," admonished The Fox, "you are getting slangier every
+day."
+
+"Never mind; I'm not losing flesh over it. Don't you," returned the
+careless "heavyweight."
+
+It was a long, but not a tedious, ride to Darrowtown. The young folk had
+left Cheslow just before dark, and their sleeper was sidetracked at the
+end of the journey, some time in the very early morning. When Ruth first
+opened her eyes she could scarcely--for the moment--think where she was.
+
+Then she peered out of the narrow window above her berth and saw a
+section of the railroad yard and one side of Railroad Avenue beyond. The
+right of way split Darrowtown in two halves and there were grade
+crossings at the intersections of the principal cross streets.
+
+Long as she had been away from the place, the girl recognized the houses
+and the stores, and every other landmark she could see. No further sleep
+for her, although it was scarcely dawn.
+
+She hopped softly out of the berth, disturbed none of her companions or
+even the porter nodding in his corner, and dressed hurriedly. She made
+her toilette and then went into the vestibule and from thence climbed
+down to the cinder path.
+
+There was an opening in the picket fence, and she slipped through in a
+moment. Dear old Darrowtown! Ruth's heart throbbed exultantly and she
+smiled, although there were tears in her eyes.
+
+There was the Brick Church on the corner. The pastor and his wife had
+been so kind to her! And up this next street was the way to the quiet
+cemetery where her father and mother were buried. Ruth turned her steps
+in that direction first of all.
+
+The sun came up, red and jovial; the birds twittered and sang in the
+great maples along the way; even in the graveyard a great flock of
+blackbirds "pumped" and squeaked in noisy, joyous chorus.
+
+The dew sparkled on leaf and bush, the flowers were fragrant, the cool
+breeze fanned her cheek, and the bird chorus rose higher and higher. How
+could one be sad long on such a beautiful, God-made morning?
+
+Impossible! Ruth plucked a spray of a flowering shrub for both graves,
+and laid them on the mounds tenderly, with a little prayer. Here slept
+the dead peacefully, and God had raised her up many, many friends!
+
+The early chimneys were smoking in the suburbs of the town. A
+screen-door slammed now and then. One man whom she knew slightly, but
+who did not remember her, was currying his horse in an alley by his
+stable. Mrs. Barnsworth, notably the smartest housewife in Darrowtown,
+was starting already with her basket for market--and woe be to the grocer
+or marketman if the shops were not open when she arrived!
+
+Stray cats ran along the back fences. A dog ran out of a yard to bark at
+Ruth, but then thought better of it and came to be patted instead.
+
+And then, suddenly, she came in sight of the back garden of Miss True
+Pettis!
+
+It was with that kind-hearted but peculiar spinster lady that Ruth had
+lived previous to being sent to the Red Mill. Miss Pettis was the
+neighborhood seamstress and, as she often had told Ruth, she worked hard
+"with both tongue and needle" for every dollar she earned.
+
+For Miss True Pettis had something more than dressmaking to do when she
+went out "by the day" to cut and fit and run the sewing machine.
+Darrowtown folk expected that the seamstress should have all the latest
+gossip at her tongue's end when she came to sew!
+
+Now, Miss True Pettis often laid down the law. "There's two kinds of
+gossip. One the Bible calls the seventh abomination, an' I guess that's
+right. But for shut-in folks like most housekeepers in Darrowtown, a
+dish of harmless gossip is more inspiritin' than a bowl of boneset tea!
+
+"Lemme have somethin' new to tell folks about folks--that's all. But it
+must be somethin' kind," Miss Pettis declared. "No backbitin', or church
+scandal, or neighborhood rows. If Si Lumpkin's cat has scratched
+Amoskeag Lanfell's dog, let the cat and the dog fight it out, I say; no
+need for Si and Amoskeag, who have been friends and neighbors for years
+an' years, gettin' into a ruction over it.
+
+"I never take sides in any controversy--no, ma'am! If ye can't say a good
+word for a neighbor, don't say nothin' to _me_. That's what I tell 'em.
+But if ye know anythin' good about 'em, or they've had any streak o'
+good luck, or the like, tell me. For the folks in this town--'specially
+the wimmen folks that don't git out much--is just a-honin' for news, and
+True Pettis, when she goes out by the day, has gotter have a full and
+plenty supply of it."
+
+Ruth, smiling quietly to herself, remembered how the thin, sallow, quick
+spoken lady looked when she said all this. Miss Pettis's eyes were black
+and snapping; her nose was a beak; she bit off threads as though her
+temper was biting, too. But Ruth knew better. A kinder-hearted mortal
+never lived than the little old seamstress.
+
+Now the visitor ran across the garden--neatly bedded and with graveled
+paths in which the tiniest weed dared not show its head--and reached the
+kitchen porch. Miss Pettis was always an early riser, and the smoke of
+her chimney was now only a faint blue column rising into the clear air.
+
+Yes! there was a rattle of dishes in the kitchen. Ruth tiptoed up the
+steps. Then she--to her amazement--heard somebody groan. The sound was
+repeated, and then the seamstress's voice murmured:
+
+"Oh, dear, oh, dear! Oh, dear, oh, dear! whatever shall I do----"
+
+Ruth, who had intended opening the door softly and announcing that she
+had come to breakfast, forgot all about the little surprise she was bent
+on giving Miss Pettis. Now she peered fearfully in at the nearest
+window.
+
+Miss Pettis was just sitting down in her rocker, and she rocked to and
+fro, holding one hand with the other, continuing to groan.
+
+"Oh, dear, me!" cried Ruth, bursting in at the door. "What in the world
+is the matter, my dear?"
+
+"It's that dratted felon---- Why, Ruthie Fielding! Did you drop from the
+sky, or pop up out o' the ground? I never!"
+
+The dressmaker got up quickly, but struck her hand against the
+chair-arm. Instantly she fell back with a scream, and Ruth feared she
+had fainted. A felon is a terribly painful thing!
+
+Ruth ran for a glass of water, but before she could sprinkle any of it
+on Miss Pettis' pale face the lady's eyes opened and she exclaimed:
+
+"Don't drop any of that on my dress, child--it'll spot. I'm all right
+now. My mercy! how that hurt."
+
+"A felon, Miss Pettis? How very dreadful," cried Ruth, setting down the
+glass of water.
+
+"And I ain't been able to use my needle for a week, and the
+dishwashin'--well, it jest about kills me to put my hands in water. You
+can see--the sight this kitchen is."
+
+"Now, isn't it lucky that I came this morning--and came so early, too?"
+cried Ruth. "I was going to take breakfast with you. Now I'll get the
+breakfast myself and fix up the house---- Oh, yes, I shall! I'll send word
+down to the hotel to my friends--they'll take breakfast there--and we can
+have a nice visit, Miss True," and Ruth very carefully hugged the thin
+shoulders of the seamstress, so as not to even jar the felon on her
+right fore-finger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE SUNRISE COACH
+
+
+Ruth was determined to have her way, and really, after one has suffered
+with a felon for a week, one is in no shape to combat the determination
+of as strong a character as that of the girl of the Red Mill!
+
+At least, so Miss True Pettis found. She bowed to Ruth's mandate, and
+sat meekly in the rocking chair while that young lady bustled about,
+made the toast, poached eggs, made a pot of the kind of tea the spinster
+liked, and just as she liked it---- Oh, Ruth had not forgotten all her
+little ways, although she had been gone so long from the seamstress's
+tiny cottage here in Darrowtown.
+
+All the time, she was as cheerful as a bluebird--and just as chatty as
+one, too! She ran out and caught a neighbor's boy, and sent him
+scurrying down to the sidetracked sleeping car with a note to Helen. The
+rest of the crowd expected at Sunrise Farm would arrive on an early
+morning train on the other road, and both parties were to meet for
+breakfast at the Darrowtown Inn.
+
+The vehicle to transport them to the farm, however, was not expected
+until ten o'clock.
+
+Therefore, Ruth insisted, she had plenty of time to fix up the house for
+Miss Pettis. This she proceeded to do.
+
+"I allus _did_ say you was the handiest youngun that ever was born in
+Darrowtown," said the seamstress, with a sigh of relief, as Ruth,
+enveloped in a big apron, set to work.
+
+Ruth did more than wash dishes, and sweep, and clean, and scrub. All the
+time she told Miss Pettis about her life at the Red Mill, and her life
+at the boarding school, and of many and various things that had happened
+to her since, two years before, she had gone away from Darrowtown to
+take up her new life with Uncle Jabez.
+
+Not that she had not frequently written to Miss Pettis; but one cannot
+write the particulars that can be told when two folks are "gossiping."
+Miss True Pettis had not enjoyed herself--felon and all!--so much for ages
+as she did that forenoon.
+
+And she would have a long and interesting story to tell regarding "Mary
+Fielding's little girl" when again she took up her work of going out by
+the day and bringing both her nimble needle and her nimble tongue into
+the homes of the busy Darrowtown housewives.
+
+On the other hand, Miss Pettis told Ruth all the news of her old home;
+and although the girl from the Red Mill had no time then to call upon
+any other of her one-time friends--not even Patsy Hope--she finally went
+away feeling just as though she had met them all again. For little of
+value escaped Miss Pettis, and she had told it all.
+
+The Brick Church clock was striking ten when Ruth ran around the corner
+and came in sight of the Darrowtown Inn. There was a crowd of girls and
+boys on the porch, and before it stood a great, shiny yellow coach,
+drawn by four sleek horses.
+
+"Bobbins" himself--Madge Steele's big, white-haired brother, who attended
+the military academy with Tom Cameron, was already on the coachman's
+seat, holding the reins in most approved style. Beside him sat a man in
+livery, it was true; but Bob himself was going to drive the
+four-in-hand.
+
+"Isn't that scrumptious, Ruth?" demanded Belle Tingley, one of those who
+had arrived on the other railroad. "Where have you been all the time?
+Helen was worried for fear you wouldn't get here."
+
+"And here's Ralph!" exclaimed Ruth, heartily shaking hands with one of
+Belle's brothers. "I'm all right. I used to live here in Darrowtown, you
+know, and I was making calls. And here is Isadore!"
+
+"Oh, I say, Ruth!" exclaimed the chap in knickerbockers, who was so
+sharp and curious that he was always called "Busy Izzy" Phelps. "Where
+have you been all the time? We were going to send a searching party
+after you."
+
+"You needn't mind, sir. I can find my way around a bit yet," laughed
+Ruth.
+
+"All ready, now!" exclaimed Bob, importantly, from the high seat. "Can't
+keep these horses standing much longer."
+
+"All right, little boy," said his sister, marshaling the girls down the
+steps of the hotel. "Don't you be impatient."
+
+"It's the horses," he complained. "See that nigh leader beginning to
+dance?"
+
+"Tangoing, I suppose?--or is it the hesitation?" laughed Lluella Fairfax.
+"May anybody sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?"
+
+"I'm afraid not. But there's room on top of the coach for all of you, if
+you'll crowd a bit."
+
+"Me behind with the horn!" cried Tom, swinging himself up into the
+little seat over the luggage rack.
+
+"Now, girls, there are some steep places on the road," said Madge. "If
+any of you feel nervous, I advise you to come inside with me."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Heavy. "It's not my nerves that keep me from climbing
+up on that thing--don't think it. But I'll willingly join you, Madge,"
+and the springs creaked, while the girls laughed, as Heavy entered the
+coach.
+
+They were all quickly seated--the boys of course riding on the roof.
+Ruth, Helen, Lluella and Belle occupied the seat directly behind the
+driver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending the intervening week since
+school closed with Heavy, and would return to Montana after their
+sojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl who ventured to ride
+a-top the coach.
+
+"All ready?" sang out Bobbins, with a backward glance.
+
+Tom put the long silver horn to his lips and blew a blast that startled
+the Darrowtown echoes, and made the frisky nigh leader prance again. Bob
+curled the long lash of the yellow whip over the horses' ears, and at
+the crack of it all four plunged forward.
+
+There was a crowd to see the party off. Darrowtown had not become
+familiar with the Steeles' yellow coach. In fact, there were not many
+wealthy men's estates around the town as yet, and such "goings-on" as
+this coaching party of girls and boys was rather startling to the staid
+inhabitants of Darrowtown.
+
+The road through the town proper was very good, and the heavy coach
+wheels rolled over it smoothly. As soon as they reached the suburbs,
+however, the way was rough, and the horses began to climb, for
+Darrowtown was right at the foot of the hills, on the very highest of
+which Sunrise Farm lay.
+
+There were farms here and there along the way, but there was a great
+deal of rough country, too. Although it was a warm day, those on top of
+the coach were soon well shaded by the trees. The road wound through a
+thick piece of wood, where the broad-branched trees overhung the way
+and--sometimes--almost brushed the girls from their seats.
+
+"Low bridge!" called Bobbins, now and again, and they would all squeal
+and stoop while the leafy branches brushed above them.
+
+Bobbins had been practicing a good deal, so as to have the honor of
+driving his friends home from Darrowtown, and they all praised him for
+being so capable.
+
+As for Tom, he grew red in the face blowing that horn to warn the foxes
+in the hills and the rabbits in the bushes that they were coming.
+
+"You look out, Tommy!" advised Madge from below. "You'll blow yourself
+all away tooting so much, and goodness knows, we don't want any accident
+before luncheon. Mother is expecting all manner of things to happen to
+us after we get to the farm; but I promised faithfully I'd bring you all
+home to one o'clock luncheon in perfect order."
+
+"A whole lot you've got to do with it," grunted Busy Izzy, ungallantly.
+"It's Bobbins that's doing the chief work."
+
+Three hours to Sunrise Farm, yet it was only fifteen miles. The way was
+not always uphill, but the descents were as hard to get over as the
+rising ground, and the coach rolled and shook a good deal over the
+rougher places.
+
+Bye and bye they began to look down into the valleys from the steeps the
+horses climbed. At one place was a great horseshoe curve, around which
+the four steeds rattled at a smart pace, skirting a precipice, the depth
+of which made the girls shriek again.
+
+"I never did see such a road," complained Lluella.
+
+"We saw worse at Silver Ranch--didn't we, Ann?" demanded Ruth of the
+Montana girl.
+
+"Well, this is bad enough, I should hope," said Belle Tingley. "Lucky
+there is a good brake on this coach. Where'd we be----?"
+
+As it chanced, the coach had just pitched over the brow of another
+ridge. Bob had been about to point out proudly the white walls of the
+house at Sunrise Farm which surmounted the next hill.
+
+But there had been a rain within a week, and a hard one. Right here
+there was a small washout in the road, and Bob overlooked it. He did not
+swerve the trotting horses quickly enough, and the nigh fore-wheel
+dropping into this deep, deep rut.
+
+It is true Bob became a little excited. He yelled "Whoa!" and yanked
+back on the lines, for the nigh leader had jumped. The girls screamed as
+the coach came to an abrupt stop.
+
+The four horses were jerked back by the sudden stoppage; then,
+frightened, they all leaped forward together.
+
+"Whoa, there!" yelled Bob again, trying to hold them in. Something broke
+and the nigh leader swung around until he was at right angles with his
+team-mate.
+
+The leader had snapped a tug; he forced his mate over toward the far
+side of the road; and there the ground broke away, abruptly and steeply,
+for many, many yards to the bottom of the hill.
+
+There was neither fence, nor ditch, to guard passengers on the road from
+catastrophe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--"TOUCH AND GO"
+
+
+As it chanced, Mr. Steele's groom, who had been sent with the coach and
+who sat beside Bob, was on the wrong side to give any assistance at this
+crucial moment. To have jumped from the seat threatened to send him
+plunging down the undefended hillside--perhaps with the coach rolling
+after him!
+
+For some seconds it did seem as though the horses would go down in a
+tangle and drag the coach and its occupants after them.
+
+Bob was doing his best with the reins, but the frisky nigh leader was
+dancing and plunging, and forcing his mate off the firm footing of the
+road. Indeed, the latter animal was already slipping over the brink.
+
+"Get him!" yelled Bob, meaning the horse that had broken the trace and
+had stirred up all the trouble.
+
+But who was to "get him"? That was the difficulty. The groom could not
+climb over the young driver to reach the ground.
+
+There was at least one quick-witted person aboard the Sunrise coach in
+this "touch and go" emergency. Ruth was not afraid of horses. She had
+not been used to them, like Ann Hicks, all her life, but she was the
+person now in the best position to help Bob.
+
+To reach the ground on the nigh side of the coach Ann Hicks would have
+to climb over a couple of boys. Ruth was on that end of the seat and she
+swung herself off smartly, and landed firmly on the road.
+
+"Look out, Ruth!" shrieked her chum, "you'll be killed!"
+
+Ruth had no intention of getting near the heels of the horse that had
+broken its harness. She darted around to his head and seized his bridle.
+His mate was already scattering gravel down the hillside as he plunged.
+
+Ruth, paying no attention to the shrieks of the girls or the commands of
+the groom and the boys, jerked the nigh horse's head around, and so gave
+his mate a chance to obtain firm footing again. She instantly led both
+horses toward the inside of the road.
+
+Tom was off his perch by now and had dashed forward to her aid. Amid the
+gabble of the others, they seemed the only two cool persons in the
+party.
+
+"Oh! hold them tight, Tom!" cried his sister. "Don't let them run."
+
+"Pshaw! they don't want to run," growled Bobbins.
+
+The groom climbed carefully over him and leaped down into the road. Tom
+was looking at Ruth with shining eyes.
+
+"You're the girl for me, Ruthie," he whispered in a sudden burst of
+enthusiasm. "I never saw one like you. You always have your wits about
+you."
+
+Ruth smiled and blushed. A word of approbation from Tom Cameron was
+sweeter to her than the praise of any other of her young friends. She
+gave him a grateful look, and then turned back to the coach, where the
+girls were still as excited as a swarm of bees.
+
+They all wanted to get down into the road, until Madge positively
+forbade it, and Ruth swung herself up to her seat again.
+
+"You can't do any good down there, and you'd only be in the way," Madge
+said. "And the danger's over now."
+
+"Thanks to Ruthie!" added Helen, squeezing her chum.
+
+"Oh, you make too much fuss about it," said Ruth. "I just grabbed the
+bridle."
+
+"Yes," said Mercy, from inside. "I thought I'd need my aeroplanes to fly
+with, when that horse began to back over the edge of the hill. You're a
+good child, Ruthie. I always said so."
+
+The others had more or less to say about Ruth's action and she was glad
+to turn the conversation to some other subject.
+
+Meanwhile the groom had mended the harness, and now he and Tom led the
+leaders to straighten out the team, and the four horses threw themselves
+into their collars and jerked the coach-wheel out of the gutter.
+
+The trouble had delayed them but slightly, and soon Tom was cheerfully
+winding the horn, and the horses were rattling down a more gentle
+descent into the last valley.
+
+From this to the top of the hill on which the Steele home stood was a
+steady ascent and the horses could not go rapidly. Bob and Madge pointed
+out the objects of interest as they rolled along--the farmhouses that
+were to be torn down, the fences already straightened, and the dykes and
+walls on which Mr. Steele's men were at work.
+
+"When this whole hill is father's, you'll see some farm," crowed
+Bobbins.
+
+"But whose place is _that?_" demanded one of the girls, behind him,
+suddenly.
+
+The coach had swung around a turn in the road where a great, bald rock
+and a border of trees on the right hand, hid all that lay beyond on this
+gentle slope. The other girls cried out at the beauty of the scene.
+
+A gable-roofed farmhouse, dazzlingly white, with green blinds, stood end
+to the road. There were great, wide-branched oaks all about it. The sod
+was clipped close and looked like velvet. Yet the surroundings of the
+homestead were rather wild, as though Nature had scarcely been disturbed
+by the hand of man since the original clearing was made here in the
+hillside forest.
+
+There were porches, and modern buildings and "ells" added to the great
+old house, but the two huge chimneys, one at either end, pronounced the
+building to be of the architecture of the earliest settlers in this
+section of the State.
+
+There were beds of old-fashioned flowers; there was a summerhouse on the
+lawn, covered with vines; altogether it was a most beautiful and "homey"
+looking place.
+
+"Whose place is it?" repeated the questioner.
+
+"Oh, that? Caslon's," grunted Bob. "He's the chap who won't sell out to
+father. Mean old thing."
+
+"Why, it's a love of an old place!" exclaimed Helen.
+
+"Yes. It is the one house father was going to let stand on the hill
+beside our own. You see, we wanted to put our superintendent in it."
+
+Just then an old gentleman came out of the summer house. He was a
+portly, gray mustached, bald-headed man, in clean linen trousers and a
+white shirt with a short, starched bosom. He wore no collar or necktie,
+but looked clean and comfortable. He smiled at the young people on the
+coach jovially.
+
+Behind him stood a motherly lady some years his junior. She was buxom
+and smiling, too.
+
+Bobbins jerked his head around and snapped his whip over the leaders'
+ears. "These are the people," he said.
+
+"Who?" asked Belle Tingley.
+
+"The Caslons."
+
+"But they're real nice looking people," Helen exclaimed, in wonder.
+
+"Well, they're a thorn--or a pair of thorns--in my father's flesh. You'd
+better not boost them before him."
+
+"And they don't want to sell their old home?" queried Ruth, softly. Then
+to herself, she whispered: "And who could blame them? I wouldn't sell
+it, either, if it were mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--TOBOGGANING IN JUNE
+
+
+The four horses climbed briskly after that and brought the yellow coach
+to an old stone gateway. At the end of the Caslon farm the stone wall
+had begun, and now it stretched ahead, up over the rise, as far as
+anything was to be seen. Indeed, it seemed to melt right into the sky.
+
+Bobbins turned the leaders' noses in at the gateway. Already it was
+shown that the new owner had begun to improve the estate. The driveway
+was an example of what road-making should be--entirely different from the
+hap-hazard work done on the country roads.
+
+There were beautiful pastures on either hand, all fenced in with
+wire--"horse high, bull strong, and pig tight," as Bobbins explained,
+proudly. There were horses in one pasture and a herd of cows in another.
+Beyond, sheep dotted a rocky bit of the hillside, and the thin, sweet
+"baa-as" of the lambs came to their ears as the coach rolled on.
+
+The visitors were delighted. Every minute they saw something to exclaim
+over. A pair of beautifully spotted coach dogs raced down the drive, and
+cavorted about the coach, eagerly welcoming them.
+
+When they finally topped the hill and came out upon the tableland on
+which the house and the main buildings of Sunrise Farm stood, they
+received a welcome indeed.
+
+There was a big farm bell hung to a creaking arm in the water-tower
+beside the old colonial dwelling. The instant the leaders' ears topped
+the rise, and while yet the coach was a long way off, several youngsters
+swung themselves on the bell-rope, and the alarm reverberated across the
+hills and valleys in no uncertain tone.
+
+Beside this, a cannon that was something bigger than a toy, "spoke"
+loudly on the front lawn, and a flag was run up the pole set here in a
+prominent place before the house. Mr. and Mrs. Steele stood on the broad
+veranda, between the main pillars, to receive them, and when the coach
+drew up with a flourish, the horde of younger Steeles--Madge's and Bob's
+brothers and sisters, whom the big sister called "steel filings"--charged
+around from the bell-tower. There were four or five of the younger
+children, all seemingly about of an age, and they made as much confusion
+as an army.
+
+"Welcome to Sunrise, girls and boys," said Mr. Steele, who was a short,
+brisk, chubby man, with an abrupt manner, but with an unmistakably kind
+heart, or he would not have sanctioned the descent of this horde of
+young folk upon the place. "Welcome to Sunrise! We want you all to have
+a good time here. The place is open to you, and all Mother Steele begs
+is that you will not break your necks or get into any other serious
+trouble."
+
+Mrs. Steele was much taller than her husband; it was positive that Madge
+and Bobbins got their height from her side of the family. All the
+younger Steele seemed chubby and round like their father.
+
+Everybody seemed so jolly and kind that it was quite surprising to see
+how the faces of both Mother and Father Steele, as well as their
+children, changed at the long lunch table, half an hour later, when the
+name of Caslon, the neighboring farmer, was mentioned.
+
+"What d'ye think they have been telling me at the stables, Pa?" cried
+Bobbins, when there was a lull in the conversation so that he could be
+heard from his end of the table to his father's seat.
+
+"I can't say. What?" responded Mr. Steele.
+
+"About those Caslons. What do you suppose they're going to do now?"
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed the gentleman, his face darkening. "Nothing you have
+heard could surprise me."
+
+"I bet this does," chuckled Bob. "They are going to take a whole raft of
+fresh air kids to board. What do you know about that? Little ragamuffins
+from some school, or asylum, or hospital, or something. Won't they make
+a mess all over this hill?"
+
+"Ha! he's done that to spite me," exclaimed Mr. Steele. "But I'll post
+my line next to his, and if those young ones trespass, I'll see what my
+lawyer in Darrowtown can do about it."
+
+"It shows what kind of people those Caslons are," said Mrs. Steele, with
+a sigh. "Of course, they know such a crowd of children will be very
+annoying to the neighbors."
+
+"And we're the only neighbors," added Bob.
+
+"Seems to me," said Madge, slowly, "that I have heard the Caslons always
+_do_ take a bunch of fresh air children in the summer."
+
+"Oh, I fancy he is doing it this year just to spite us," said her
+father, shortly. "But I'll show him----"
+
+He became gloomy, and a cloud seemed to fall upon the whole table for
+the remainder of the meal. It was evident that nothing the neighboring
+farmer could do would be looked upon with favorable eyes by the Steeles.
+
+Ruth did not comment upon the situation, as some of the other girls did
+out of hearing of their hosts. It _did_ seem too bad that the Steeles
+should drag this trouble with a neighbor into the public eye so much.
+
+The girl of the Red Mill could not help but remember the jovial looking
+old farmer and his placid wife, and she felt sure they were not people
+who would deliberately annoy their neighbors. Yet, the Steeles had taken
+such a dislike to the Caslons it was evident they could see no good in
+the old farmer and his wife.
+
+The Steeles had come directly from the city and had brought most of
+their servants with them from their city home. They had hired very few
+local men, even on the farm. Therefore they were not at all in touch
+with their neighbors, or with any of the "natives."
+
+Mr. Steele was a city man, through and through. He had not even lived in
+the country when he was a boy. His own children knew much more about
+out-of-doors than he, or his wife.
+
+The host was a very successful business man, had made money of late
+years, and wished to spend some of his gains now in laying out the
+finest "gentleman's farm" in that quarter of the State. To be balked
+right at the start by what he called "a cowhide-booted old Rube" was a
+cross that Mr. Steele could not bear with composure.
+
+The young folks, naturally (save Ruth), were not much interested in the
+controversy between their hosts and the neighboring farmer. There was
+too much fun going on for both girls and boys to think of much beside.
+
+That afternoon they overran the house and stables, numbered the sheep,
+watched the tiny pigs and their mothers in the clover-lot, were
+delighted with the colts that ran with their mothers in the paddock,
+played with the calves, and got acquainted in general with the livestock
+of Sunrise Farm.
+
+"Only we haven't goats," said Bobbins. "I've been trying to get father
+to buy some Angoras. Old Caslon has the best stock anywhere around, and
+father says he won't try to buy of _him_. I'd like to send off for a
+good big billy-goat and turn him into Caslon's back pasture. I bet
+there'd be a fight, for Caslon's got a billy that'll chase you just as
+soon as he'd wink."
+
+"We'd better keep out of _that_ pasture, then," laughed one of the
+girls.
+
+"Oh, father's forbidden us trespassing on Caslon's land. We'd like to
+catch him on _our_ side of the line, that's all!"
+
+"Who--Mr. Caslon, or the billy?" asked Tom, chuckling.
+
+"Either one," said Bob, shaking his head threateningly.
+
+Everyone was in bed early that night, for all were tired; but the boys
+had a whispered colloquy before they went to sleep in their own big room
+at the top of the house, and Bob tied a cord to his big toe and weighted
+the other end so that it would drop out of the window and hang just
+about head-high above the grass.
+
+The first stableman up about the place ran over from the barns and gave
+Master Bob's cord a yank, according to instructions, and pretty nearly
+hauled that ingenious chap out of bed before the eastern sky was even
+streaked with light.
+
+"Gee! have we got to get up now?" demanded Busy Izzy, aroused, as were
+the other boys, by Bobbins dancing about the floor and rubbing his toe.
+"Somebody has been foolin' you--it's nowheres near morning."
+
+"Bet a dog jumped up and bit that string you hung out of the window,"
+chuckled Tom Cameron.
+
+He looked at his watch and saw that it really was after four o'clock.
+
+"Come on, then!" Tom added, rolling Ralph Tingley out of bed. "We must
+do as we said, and surprise the girls."
+
+"Sh!" commanded Bobbins. "No noise. We want to slide out easy."
+
+With much muffled giggling and wrestling, they dressed and made their
+way downstairs. The maids were just astir.
+
+The boys had something particular to do, and they went to work at it
+very promptly, under Tom Cameron's leadership. Behind one of the farther
+barns was a sharp, but smooth slope, well sodded, which descended to the
+line of the farm that adjoined Mr. Caslon's. There, at the bottom, the
+land sloped up again to the stone wall that divided the two estates.
+
+It was a fine place for a slide in winter, somebody had said; but Tom's
+quick wit suggested that it would be a good place for a slide in summer,
+too! And the boys had laid their plans for this early morning job
+accordingly.
+
+Before breakfast they had built a dozen barrel-stave toboggans--each long
+enough to hold two persons, if it was so desired.
+
+Tom and Bobbins tried them first and showed the crowd how fine a slide
+it really was down the long, grassy bank. The most timid girl in the
+crowd finally was convinced that it was safe, and for several hours, the
+shrieks of delight and laughter from that hillside proved that a sport
+out of season was all the better appreciated because it was novel.
+
+Over the broad stone wall was the pasture in which Caslon kept his flock
+of goats. Beautiful, long-haired creatures they were, but the solemn old
+leader of the flock stamped his feet at the curious girls and boys who
+looked over the wall, and shook his horns.
+
+Somewhere, along by the boundary of the two estates, Bob said there was
+a spring, and Ruth and Helen slipped off by themselves to find it. A
+wild bit of brush pasture soon hid them from the view of their friends,
+and as they went over a small ridge and down into the deeper valley, the
+laughter and shouting of those at the slide gradually died away behind
+them.
+
+The girls had to cross the stone wall to get at the spring, and they did
+not remember that in doing so they were "out of bounds." Bob had said
+nothing about the spring being on the Caslon side of the boundary.
+
+Once beside the brook, Helen must needs explore farther. There were
+lovely trees and flowering bushes, and wild strawberries in a small
+meadow that lured the two girls on. They were a long way from the stone
+fence when, of a sudden, a crashing in the bushes behind them brought
+both Ruth and Helen to their feet.
+
+"My! what's that?" demanded Helen.
+
+"Sounds like some animal."
+
+Ruth's remark was not finished.
+
+"The goat! it's the old billy!" sang out Helen, and turned to run as the
+horned head of the bewhiskered leader of the Angora herd came suddenly
+into view.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--A NUMBER OF INTRODUCTIONS
+
+
+"We must run, Ruthie!" Helen declared, instantly. "Now, there's no use
+in our trying to face down that goat. Discretion is the better part of
+valor---- Oh!"
+
+The goat just then shook his horns and charged. Ruth was not much behind
+her chum. She saw before Helen, however, that they were running right
+away from the Steele premises.
+
+"We're getting deeper and deeper into trouble, Helen," she panted.
+"Don't you _see?_"
+
+"I can't see much. Oh! there's a tree we can both climb, I am sure."
+
+"But I don't want to climb a tree," objected Ruth.
+
+"All right. You stay down and play tag with Mr. Billy Goat. Me for the
+high and lofty!" and she sprang up as she spoke and clutched the low
+limb of a widely branching cedar.
+
+"I'll never leave my pal!" Ruth declared, giggling, and jumping for
+another limb.
+
+Both girls had practiced on the ladders in the school gymnasium and they
+quickly swung themselves up into the tree. The goat arrived almost on
+the instant, too. At once he leaped up with his fore-feet against the
+bole of the tree.
+
+"My goodness me!" gasped Helen. "He's going to climb it, too."
+
+"You know goats _can_ climb. They're very sure-footed," said her chum.
+
+"I know all that," admitted Helen. "But I didn't suppose they could
+climb trees."
+
+The goat gave up _that_ attempt, however, very soon. He had no idea, it
+seemed, of going away and leaving his treed victims in peace.
+
+He paced around and around the cedar, casting wicked glances at the
+girls' dangling feet, and shaking his horns in a most threatening way.
+What he would do to them if he got a chance would "be a-plenty," Helen
+declared.
+
+"Don't you suppose he'll get tired, bye and bye?" queried her chum,
+despondently.
+
+"He doesn't look as though he ever got wearied," returned Helen. "What a
+savage looking beast he is! And such whiskers!"
+
+"I wouldn't make fun of him," advised Ruth, timidly. "I believe he
+understands--and it makes him madder! Oh! see him!"
+
+Mr. Goat, impatient of the delay, suddenly charged the tree and banged
+against it with his horns in a desperate attempt to jar down the girls
+perched above.
+
+"Oh, the foolish billy!" cooed Helen. "We're not ripe enough to drop off
+so easily. But he thinks we are."
+
+"You can laugh," complained Ruth. "But I don't think this is much fun."
+
+"Not for the goat, anyway. He is getting so angry that he may have
+apoplexy. Let's shout. Maybe the boys will hear us."
+
+"Not 'way down here, I fear," returned Ruth. "We can't hear a sound from
+_them_. But let's try."
+
+They raised their voices in unison, again and again. But there came no
+reply, save that a number of Mr. Billy Goat's lady friends came trooping
+through the brush and looked up at the girls perched so high above them.
+
+"Bla-a-a-t! bla-a-a-at!" quoth the chorus of nannies.
+
+"The same to you, and many of them!" replied Helen, bowing politely.
+
+"Look out! you'll fall from the limb," advised Ruth, much worried.
+
+"And what a fall would then be there, my countrymen!" sighed Helen.
+"Say, Ruth! did you ever notice before what an expressive countenance a
+goat has? Now, Mr. Billy, here, looks just like a selectman of a country
+school board--long whiskers and all."
+
+"You stop making fun of him," declared Ruth, shaking her head. "I tell
+you it makes him mad."
+
+  "Goaty, goaty, go away,
+  Come again some other day,
+  Ruthie and Helen want to get down and play!"
+
+sang Helen Cameron, with a most ridiculous expression.
+
+"We'll never get down unless somebody comes to drive that beast away,"
+cried Ruth, in disgust.
+
+"And I bet nobody comes over to this end of the farm for days at a
+time."
+
+"That's it! keep on! make it just as bad as you can," groaned Ruth. "Do
+you know it will soon be luncheon time, Helen?"
+
+"But that won't bother Mr. Goat. He hopes to lunch off us, I guess."
+
+"But we can't stay here, Helen!" cried Ruth, in despair.
+
+"You have my permission to hop right down, my dear, and make the closer
+acquaintance of Sir Capricornus, and all the harem. Ex-cuse me! I think
+after due consideration I will retain my lofty perch---- Ugh!"
+
+"You came pretty near slipping off that time!" exclaimed Ruth. "I
+wouldn't be too funny, if I were you."
+
+"Maybe you are right," agreed her friend, in a more subdued tone. "Dear
+me! let us call again, Ruth!"
+
+So both girls again raised their voices. This time there was a response,
+but not from the direction of the stone wall they had crossed to reach
+the spring.
+
+"Hello!" called a jovial sounding voice. "Hello up there!"
+
+"Hello yourself!" shouted Helen. "Oh, do, _do_ come and drive away these
+awful goats."
+
+There was a hearty laugh at this reply, and then a man appeared. Ruth
+had guessed his identity before ever he came in view. It was the portly
+Mr. Caslon.
+
+"Well, well, my dears! how long have you been roosting up there?" he
+demanded, laughing frankly at them. "Get out, you rascal!"
+
+This he said to the big goat, who started for him with head lowered. Mr.
+Caslon leaped nimbly to one side and whacked the goat savagely across
+the back with his knobby stick. The goat kept right on down the
+hillside, evidently having had enough of _that_ play, and the nannies
+followed, bleating.
+
+"You can come down now, young ladies," said the farmer. "But I wouldn't
+come over into this pasture to play much. The goats don't like
+strangers."
+
+"We had no business to come here at all, but we forgot," explained Ruth,
+when both she and her chum had descended from the tree. "We were warned
+not to come over on this side of the line."
+
+"Oh, indeed? you're from up on the hill-top?" he asked.
+
+"We are visiting Madge Steele--yes," said Helen, looking at him
+curiously.
+
+"Ah! I saw all you young folk going by yesterday. You should have a fine
+time about here," said the farmer, smiling broadly. "And, aside from the
+temper of the goats, I don't mind you all coming over here on my land if
+you like."
+
+The girls thanked him warmly for rescuing them from their predicament,
+and then ran up the hill to put the stone wall between them and the
+goats before there was more trouble.
+
+"I like him," said Helen, referring to Mr. Caslon.
+
+"So do I," agreed Ruth. "And it's too bad that Mr. Steele and he do not
+understand each other."
+
+Although their escapade with the goats was a good joke--and a joke worth
+telling to the crowd--Ruth decided that it would be just as well to say
+nothing about it, and she told Helen so.
+
+"I expect you are right," admitted her chum. "It will only cause comment
+because we went out of bounds, and became acquainted with Mr. Caslon.
+But I'm glad the old goat introduced us," and she laughed and tossed her
+head.
+
+So they joined their friends, who had gotten tired by this time of
+tobogganing in June, and they all trooped up the hill again to the
+house. It was growing warm, and the hammocks and lounging chairs in the
+shade of the verandas attracted them until noon.
+
+After luncheon there was tennis and croquet on the lawns, and toward
+evening everybody went driving, although not in the yellow coach this
+time.
+
+The plans for the following day included a long drive by coach to a lake
+beyond Darrowtown, where they had a picnic lunch, and boated and fished
+and had a glorious time in general.
+
+Bobbins drove as before, but there were two men with the party to do the
+work and look after the horses, and Mrs. Steele herself was present to
+have an oversight of the young folk.
+
+Bob Steele was very proud of his ability to drive the four-in-hand, and
+when they swung through Darrowtown on the return trip, with the whip
+cracking and Tom tooting the horn, many people stopped to observe the
+passing of the turnout.
+
+Every other team got out of their way--even the few automobiles they
+passed. But when they got over the first ridge beyond the town and the
+four horses broke into a canter, Mrs. Steele, who sat up behind her son
+on this journey, suddenly put a hand upon his shoulder and called his
+attention to something ahead in the road.
+
+"Do have a care, my son," she said. "There has been an accident
+there--yes? Don't drive too fast----"
+
+"By jiminy!" ejaculated Ralph Tingley. "That's a breakdown, sure
+enough."
+
+"A farm wagon. There's a wheel off," cried Ann Hicks, leaning out from
+the other end of the seat the better to see.
+
+"And who are all those children in blue?" demanded Mercy Curtis, looking
+out from below. "There's such a lot of them! One, two, three, four,
+five---- Goodness me! they jump about so like fleas that I can't count
+them!"
+
+"Why, I bet I know what it is," drawled Bobbins, at last. "It's old
+Caslon and his load of fresh airs. He was going to town to meet them
+to-day, I believe. And he's broken down before he's half way home with
+them--and serves him good and right!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--"THE TERRIBLE TWINS"
+
+
+Ruth heard Bob's last expression, despite the rattling of the harness
+and the chattering of the girls on, and in, the coach, and she was
+sorry. Yet, could he be blamed so much, when similar feelings were
+expressed daily by his own father regarding the Caslons?
+
+Mrs. Steele was shocked as well. "My dear son!" she exclaimed, in a low
+voice, leaning over his shoulder. "Be careful of your tongue. Don't say
+things for which you might be sorry--indeed, for which I am sure you
+_are_ sorry when you stop to think."
+
+"Huh! Isn't that old Caslon as mean as he can be?" demanded Bobbins.
+
+"I am sure," the good lady sighed, "that I wish he would agree to sell
+his place to your father, and so have an end of all this talk and
+worriment. But I am not at all sure that he hasn't a right to do as he
+pleases with his own property."
+
+"Well--now--Mother----"
+
+But she stopped him with: "At any rate, you must halt and offer him
+help. And those children--I hope none of them has been hurt."
+
+"Pooh! you couldn't hurt kids like those," declared Bob.
+
+But he brought the horses down to a walk and the yellow coach approached
+the scene of the accident at a temperate pace.
+
+The big farm-wagon, the body of which had been filled with straw for the
+youngsters to ride in, had been pulled to the side of the road out of
+the way of passing vehicles. It was clear that the smashed wheel was
+past repair by any amateur means, for several spokes were broken, and
+the hub was split.
+
+The youngsters whom Mr. Caslon had taken aboard at the railway station
+in Darrowtown were dancing about and yelling like wild Indians. As the
+coach came nearer, the excited party upon it could more carefully count
+the blue-clad figures, and it was proved that there were twelve.
+
+Six girls were in blue gingham frocks, all alike, and all made "skimpy"
+and awkward looking. The six boys were in new blue overalls and cotton
+shirts. The overalls seemed all of one size, although the boys were not.
+They must have been purchased at the store of one size, and whether a
+boy was six, or twelve, he wore the same number.
+
+Each of the children, too, carried a more or less neatly made up parcel,
+the outer covering of which was a blue and white bandanna, and the
+contents of which was the change of clothing the institution allowed
+them.
+
+"What a terrible noise they make!" sighed Mrs. Steele. "And they are
+perfect little terrors, I suppose. But they _are_ clean."
+
+They had not been out of the sight of the institution nurse long enough
+to be otherwise, for she had come as far as Darrowtown with them. But
+they _were_ noisy, sure enough, for each one was trying to tell his or
+her mates how he or she felt when the wheel crashed and the wagon went
+over.
+
+"I reckon I oughtn't to have risked that wheel, after all," said Mr.
+Caslon, doffing his hat to Mrs. Steele, but smiling broadly as he looked
+up from his examination of the wheel.
+
+"Whoa, Charlie! Don't get too near them heels, youngsters. Charlie an'
+Ned are both old duffers like me; but you can't fool around a horse's
+legs without making him nervous.
+
+"And don't pull them reins. I don't want 'em to start right now.... Yes,
+ma'am. I'll haf ter lead the horses home, and that I don't mind. But
+these young ones---- Now, let that whip lay right where it is, young man!
+That's right.
+
+"You see, ma'am," he proceeded, quite calmly despite all that was going
+on about him, and addressing himself to Mrs. Steele, "it's too long a
+walk for the little ones, and I couldn't tote 'em all on the backs of
+the horses----
+
+"Now, you two curly heads there--what do you call 'em?"
+
+"The Terrible Twins!" quoth two or three of the other orphans, in
+chorus.
+
+"I believe ye! I believe ye! They jest bile over, _they_ do. Now, you
+two boys," he added, addressing two youngsters, very much alike, about
+of a height, and both with short, light curly hair, "never mind tryin'
+to unharness Charlie and Ned. _I'll_ do that.
+
+"Ye see, ma'am, if you could take some of the little ones aboard----" he
+suggested to Mrs. Steele.
+
+The coach was well filled, yet it was not crowded. The girls began to
+call to the little folks to get aboard even before Mrs. Steele could
+speak.
+
+"There's lots of room up here," cried Ruth, leaning from her end of the
+seat and offering her hand. The twins ran at once to climb up and fought
+for "first lift" by Ruth.
+
+"Oh, yes! they can get aboard," said Mrs. Steele. "All there is room
+for."
+
+And the twelve "fresh airs" proved very quickly that there was room for
+them all. Ruth had the "terrible twins" on the seat with her in half a
+minute, and the others swarmed into, or on top of, the coach almost as
+quickly.
+
+"There now! that's a big lift, I do declare," said the farmer, hanging
+the chains of the horses' traces upon the hames, and preparing to lead
+the pair along the road.
+
+"My wife will be some surprised, I bet," and he laughed jovially. "I'm
+certain sure obleeged to ye, Mis' Steele. Neighbors ought to be
+neighborly, an' you air doin' me a good turn this time--yes, ma'am!"
+
+"Now, you see," growled Bob, as the four coach horses trotted on, "he'll
+take advantage of this. We've noticed him once, and he'll always be
+fresh."
+
+"Hush, my son!" whispered Mrs. Steele. "Little pitchers have big ears."
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed one of the wriggling twins, looking up at the lady
+sideways like a bird. "I know what _that_ means. _We're_ little
+pitchers--Dickie an' me. We've heard that before--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," announced his brother, nodding wisely.
+
+These two were certainly wise little scamps! Willie did most of the
+talking, but whatever he said his brother agreed to. Dickie being so
+chary with speech, possibly his brother felt that he must exercise his
+own tongue the more, for he chattered away like a veritable magpie,
+turning now and then to demand:
+
+"Ain't that so, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," vouchsafed the echo, and, thus championed, Willie would rattle on
+again.
+
+Yes. They was all from the same asylum. There were lots more of boys and
+girls in that same place. But only twelve could get to go to this place
+where they were going. They knew boys that went to Mr. Caslon's last
+year.
+
+"Don't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+No. They didn't have a mama or papa. Never had had any. But they had a
+sister. She was a big girl and had gone away from the asylum. Some time,
+when they were big enough, they were going to run away from the asylum
+and find her.
+
+"Ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep."
+
+Whether the other ten "fresh airs" were as funny and cute as the
+"terrible twins," or not, Ruth Fielding did not know, but both she and
+Mrs. Steele were vastly amused by them, and continued to be so all the
+way to the old homestead under the hill where the children had come to
+spend a part of the summer with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--"WHY! OF COURSE!"
+
+
+"I hope you told that Caslon woman, Mother, to keep those brats from
+boiling over upon our premises," said Mr. Steele, cheerfully, at dinner
+that evening, when the story of the day's adventures was pretty well
+told.
+
+"Really, John, I had no time. _Such_ a crowd of eels---- Well! whatever
+she may deserve," said Mrs. Steele, shaking her head, "I am sure she
+does not deserve the trouble those fresh air children will bring her.
+And she--she seems like such a nice old lady."
+
+"Who's a nice old lady?" demanded her husband, from the other end of the
+long table, rather sharply.
+
+"Farmer Caslon's wife."
+
+"Humph! I don't know what she is; I know what _he_ is, however. No doubt
+of that. He's the most unreasonable----"
+
+"Well, they'll have their hands full with all those young ones," laughed
+Madge Steele, breaking in upon her father, perhaps because she did not
+wish him to reveal any further to her guests his ideas upon this topic.
+
+"What under the sun can they do it for?" demanded Lluella Fairfax.
+
+"Just think of troubling one's self with a parcel of ill-bred children
+like those orphanage kids," added Belle Tingley.
+
+"Oh, they do it just to bother the neighbors, of course," growled
+Bobbins, who naturally believed all his father said, or thought, to be
+just right.
+
+"They take a world of trouble on themselves, then, to spite their
+neighbors," laughed Mercy Curtis, in her sharp way. "That's cutting
+one's nose off to spite one's face, sure enough!"
+
+"Goodness only knows _why_ they do it," began Madge, when Ruth, who
+could keep in no longer, now the topic had become generally discussed
+among the young people, exclaimed:
+
+"Both the farmer and his wife look to be very kindly and jolly sort of
+people. I am sure they have no idea of troubling other folk with the
+children they take to board. They must be, I think, very charitable, as
+well as very fond of children."
+
+"Trust Ruth for seeing the best side of it," laughed Heavy.
+
+"And the right side, too, I bet," murmured Tom Cameron.
+
+"We'll hope so," said Mr. Steele, rather grimly. "But if Caslon lets
+them trespass on my land, he'll hear about it, sharp and plenty!"
+
+Now, it so happened, that not twenty-four hours had passed before the
+presence of the "fresh air kids" was felt upon the sacred premises of
+Sunrise Farm. It was very hot that next day, and the girls remained in
+the shade, or played a desultory game of tennis, or two, or knocked the
+croquet balls around a bit, refusing to go tramping through the woods
+with the boys to a pond where it was said the fish would bite.
+
+"So do the mosquitoes--I know them," said Mercy Curtis, when the boys
+started. "Be honest about it, now; I bet you get ten mosquito bites to
+every fish-bite. Tell us when you get back."
+
+Late in the afternoon the rural mail carrier was due and Ruth, Helen,
+Madge and Heavy started for the gate on the main road where the Steeles
+had their letter box.
+
+A little woolly dog ran after Madge--her mother's pet. "Come on,
+Toodles!" she said, and then all four girls started to race with Toodles
+down to the gate.
+
+Suddenly Toodles spied something more entertaining to bark at and caper
+about than the girls' skirts. A cat was slipping through the bushes
+beside the wall, evidently on the trail of some unconscious bird.
+Toodles, uttering a glad "yap, yap, yap!" started for the cat.
+
+Two tousled, curly heads appeared at the gateway. Below the uncapped
+heads were two thin bodies just of a size, clothed in shirts and
+overalls of blue.
+
+"Hello, kiddies!" said Heavy. "How did you get here?"
+
+"On our feet--didn't we, Dickie?" responded Master Willie.
+
+"Yep," said Dickie.
+
+"Oh, dear me! Toodles will hurt that cat!" cried Madge. "One of you boys
+run and save her--save kitty!" she begged.
+
+But as the youngsters started off as per direction, the cat turned
+savagely upon Toodles. She snarled like a wildcat, leaped for his
+fur-covered back, and laid in with her claws in a way that made the pup
+yell with fright and pain.
+
+"Oh, never mind the cat! Help Toodles! Help Toodles!" wailed Madge,
+seeing her pet in such dire trouble.
+
+The youngsters stopped with disgust, as Toodles went kiting up the hill,
+yelping.
+
+"Pshaw!" exclaimed Willie. "Toodles don't need helpin'. Did'ye ever see
+such a dog? What he needs is a nurse--don't he, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," declared the oracular Dickie, with emphasis.
+
+Heavy dropped down on the grass and rolled. As the cat had quickly
+returned from the chase, Madge and Helen joined her. It was too funny.
+The "terrible twins" were just slipping out of the gate, when Ruth
+called to them.
+
+"Don't go yet, boys. Are you having a good time?"
+
+"We ain't allowed in here," said Willie.
+
+"Who told you so?"
+
+"The short, fat man with the squinty eyes and the cane," declared
+Willie, in a matter of fact way.
+
+"Short--fat--squinty---- My goodness! I wonder if he can mean my father?"
+exclaimed Madge, inclined to be offended.
+
+"But you can stand there and talk with us," said Ruth, strolling toward
+the boys. "So you are having a nice time at Mr. Caslon's?"
+
+"Bully--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed the echo.
+
+"And you won't be glad to go back to the orphanage when you have to
+leave here?"
+
+"Say, who ever was glad to go to a 'sylum?" demanded Willie, with scorn.
+
+"And you can't remember any other home, either of you?" asked Ruth, with
+pity.
+
+"Huh! we 'member just the same things. Our ages is just alike, they be,"
+said Willie, with scorn.
+
+"They have you there, Ruth," chuckled Heavy.
+
+Ruth Fielding was really interested in the two youngsters. "And you are
+all alone in the world?" she pursued.
+
+"Nope. We gotter sister."
+
+"Oh! so you said."
+
+"And it's so, too. She used ter be at the 'sylum," explained Willie.
+"But they sent her off to live with somebody. And we was tried out by a
+lady and a gentleman, too; but we was too much work for the lady. We
+made too much extry washin'," said Willie, solemnly.
+
+"My goodness me!" exclaimed Ruth, suddenly. "What are your names?"
+
+"I'm Willie; he's Dickie."
+
+"But Willie and Dickie _what_?" demanded the startled Ruth.
+
+"No, ma'am. It ain't that. It's Raby," declared the youngster, coolly.
+"And our sister, _she's_ Sadie Raby. She's awful smart and some day, she
+told us, she's goin' to come an' steal us from the 'sylum, and then
+we'll all live together and keep house."
+
+"Will you hear this, Helen?" demanded Ruth, eagerly, to her chum who had
+run to her.
+
+"Why, of course! we might have known as much, if we had been smart.
+These are the twins Sadie told you about. And we never guessed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--THE TEMPEST
+
+
+Ruth was much interested in the fresh air children, and so was Helen.
+They found time to walk down to the Caslon farm and become acquainted
+with the entire twelve. Naturally, the "terrible twins" held their
+attention more than the others, for it _did_ seem so strange that the
+little brothers of Sadie Raby should come across Ruth's path in just
+this way.
+
+Of course, in getting so well acquainted with the children, Ruth and her
+chum were bound to know the farmer and his wife better. They were very
+plain, "homey" sort of people, just as Ruth had guessed, and it appeared
+that they were not blessed with an over-abundance of ready money. Few
+farmers in Mr. Caslon's circumstances are.
+
+What means they had, they joyfully divided with the youngsters they had
+taken to board. The Caslons had no living children; indeed, the two they
+had had, years ago, died while they were yet babies. This Mrs. Caslon
+confided to Ruth.
+
+"It left an empty place in our hearts," she said, softly, "that nothing
+but other little children can fill. John has missed them fully as much
+as I have. Yes; he lets these little harum-scarums pull him around, and
+climb all over him, and interfere with his work, and take up his time a
+good deal. Yes, I know the place looks a sight, inside the house and
+out, when they go away.
+
+"But for a few weeks every year we have a host of young things about us,
+and it keeps our hearts young. The bother of 'em, and the trouble of
+'em, is nothing to the good they do us both. Ah, yes!
+
+"Yes, I've often thought of keeping one or two of them for good. There's
+a-many pretty ones, or cunning ones, we'd like to have had. But
+then--think of the disappointment of the rest of the darlings!
+
+"And it would have narrowed down our sympathy--mine and John's,"
+proceeded Mrs. Caslon, shaking her head gently. "We'd have centered all
+our love and longin' into them we took for keeps, just as we centered
+all our interest in the two little ones God lent us for a little while,
+long ago.
+
+"Havin' a number of 'em each year, and almost always different ones, has
+been better, I guess--better for all hands. It keeps John and me
+interested more, and we try to make them so happy here that each poor,
+unfortunate orphan will go away and remember his or her summer here for
+the rest of their lives.
+
+"And they _do_ have so little to be happy over, these orphans--and it
+takes so very little to make them happy.
+
+"If I had money--much money," continued the farmer's wife, clasping her
+hands, fervently, "I'd move many orphan asylums, and such like, out of
+the close, hot cities, where the little ones are cramped for room and
+air, and put each of them on a farm--a great, big farm. City's no place
+for children to grow up--'specially those that have no fathers and
+mothers.
+
+"You can't tell me but that these young ones miss their parents less
+here on this farm than they do back in the brick building they live in
+most of the year," concluded the good woman, earnestly.
+
+Ruth quite fell in love with the old lady--who did not appear so very
+old, after all. Perhaps she had kept her heart young in serving these
+"fresh air" orphans, year after year. And Mr. Caslon seemed a very
+happy, jolly sort of man, too.
+
+The two girls stole away quite frequently to watch the youngsters play,
+or to teach them new means of entertaining themselves, or to talk with
+the farmer's wife. But they did not wish the other girls, and the
+Steeles, to know where they went on these occasions.
+
+Their host, who was the nicest kind of a man in every other way, seemed
+determined to look upon Caslon as his enemy; and Mr. Steele was ready to
+do anything he could to oust the old couple from their home.
+
+"Pshaw! a man like Caslon can make a good living anywhere," Mr. Steele
+declared. "His crops just _grow_ for him. He's an A-1 farmer--I'd like to
+find as good a one before next year, to superintend my whole place. He's
+just holding out for a big price for his farm, that's all he's doing.
+These hayseeds are money-mad, anyway. I haven't offered him enough for
+his old farm, that's all."
+
+Ruth doubted if this were true. The Caslon place was one of the oldest
+homesteads in that part of the State, and the house had been built by a
+Caslon. Mr. Steele could not appreciate the fact that there was a
+sentiment attached to the farmer's occupancy of his old home.
+
+The Caslons had taken root here on this side-hill. The farmer and his
+wife were the last of the name; they had nobody to will it to. But they
+loved every acre of the farm, and the city man's money did not look good
+enough to them.
+
+Ruth Fielding hungered to straighten out the tangle. She wished she
+might make Mr. Steele understand the old farmer's attitude. Was there
+not, too, some way of settling the controversy in a way satisfactory to
+both parties?
+
+Meanwhile the merry party of young folk at Sunrise Farm was busy every
+waking hour. There were picnics, and fishing parties, and games, and
+walks, and of course riding galore, for Mr. Steele had plenty of horses.
+
+Ruth and Helen privately worked up some interest among the girls and
+boys visiting the farm, in a celebration on the Fourth for the fresh air
+children. Ruth had learned that the farmer had purchased some cheap
+fireworks and the like for the entertainment of the orphans; but Ruth
+and her chum wanted to add to his modest preparations.
+
+Ten dollars was raised, and Tom Cameron took charge of the fund. He was
+to ride into town the afternoon before the Fourth to make the purchases,
+but just about as he was to start, a thunderstorm came up.
+
+Mr. Steele, who was a nervous man, forbade any riding or driving with
+that threatening cloud advancing over the hills. The lightning played
+sharply along the edges of the cloud and the thunder rolled ominously.
+
+"You youngsters don't know what a tempest is like here in the hills,"
+said Mr. Steele. "Into the house--all of you. Take that horse and cart
+back to the stables, Jackson. If Tom wants to go to town, he'll have to
+wait until the shower is over--or go to-morrow."
+
+"All right, sir," agreed young Cameron, cheerfully. "Just as you say."
+
+"Are all those girls inside?" sharply demanded Mr. Steele. "I thought I
+saw the flutter of a petticoat in the shrubbery yonder."
+
+"I'll see," said Tom, running indoors.
+
+Nervous Mr. Steele thought he saw somebody there behind the bushes,
+before he heard from Tom. It had already begun to rain in big drops, and
+suddenly there was a flash of lightning and a report seemingly right
+overhead.
+
+The host turned up his coat collar, thrust his cap over his ears, and
+ran out across the lawn toward the path behind the shrubbery. It led to
+a summer house on the side lawn, but this was a frail shelter from such
+a tempest as this that was breaking over the hill.
+
+Mr. Steele saw the flutter of a skirt ahead, and dashed along the path,
+the rain pelting him as he ran.
+
+"Come back here! Come to the house, you foolish girl!" he cried, and
+popped into the summer house just as the clouds seemed to open above and
+the rain descend in a flood.
+
+It was so dark, and Mr. Steele was so blinded for a moment, that he
+could scarcely see the figure of whom he was in search. Then he beheld a
+girl crouching in a corner, with her hands over her ears to shut out the
+roar of the thunder and her eyes tightly closed to shut out the
+lightning.
+
+"For mercy's sake! get up and come into the house. This place will be
+all a-flood in a minute," he gasped.
+
+Suddenly, as he dragged the girl to her feet by one shoulder, he saw
+that she was not one of the house party at all. She was a frail,
+shrinking girl, in very dirty clothing, and her face and hands were
+scratched and dirty, too. A regular ragamuffin she appeared.
+
+"Why--why, where did _you_ come from?" demanded Mr. Steele.
+
+The girl only stuttered and stammered, looking at him fearfully.
+
+"Come on! never mind who you are," he sputtered. "This is no place for
+you in this tempest. Come into the house!"
+
+He set out on a run again for the front veranda, dragging her after him.
+The girl did not cry, although she was certainly badly frightened by the
+storm.
+
+They reached the door of the big house, saturated. Here Mr. Steele
+turned to her again.
+
+"Who are you? What are you doing around here, anyway?" he demanded.
+
+"Ain't--ain't this the place where they got a bunch of fresh air kids?"
+asked the girl.
+
+"What?" gasped Mr. Steele. "I should say not! Are you one of those young
+ones Caslon has taken to board to the annoyance of the whole
+neighborhood? Ha! what were you doing trespassing on my land?"
+
+"I ain't neither!" returned the girl, pulling away her hand. "You lemme
+be."
+
+"I forbade any of you to come up here----"
+
+"I ain't neither," reiterated the girl. "An' I don't know what you mean.
+I jest got there. And I'm lookin' for the place where the fresh air kids
+stay."
+
+In the midst of this the door was drawn open and Mrs. Steele and some of
+the girls appeared.
+
+"Do come in, Father," she cried. "Why! you're soaking wet. And that
+child! bring her in, whoever she is. Oh!"
+
+Another flash of lightning made them all cower--all but Ruth Fielding,
+who had crept forward to look over Mrs. Steele's shoulder. Now she
+dashed out and seized the bedrabbled looking stranger by the hand.
+
+"Why, Sadie Raby! who'd ever expect to see you here? Come in! do let her
+come in out of the storm, Mrs. Steele. I know who she is," begged Ruth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI--THE RUNAWAY
+
+
+Madge said, in something like perplexity: "You _do_ pick up the
+strangest acquaintances, Ruth Fielding. She really does, Ma. But that
+has always been Ruth's way."
+
+Mrs. Steele was first disturbed over her husband's condition. "Go right
+away and change into dry garments--do, Father," she urged. "You will get
+your death of cold standing there. And shut the door. Oh! that
+lightning!"
+
+They had to wait for the thunder to roll away before they could hear her
+again, although Mr. Steele hurried upstairs without another glance at
+the bedrabbled child he had brought in out of the storm.
+
+"This--this girl must go somewhere and dry herself," hesitated Mrs.
+Steele, when next she spoke. "My! isn't she a sight? Call one of the
+maids, someone----"
+
+"Oh, dear Mrs. Steele!" exclaimed Ruth, eagerly, "let me take Sadie
+upstairs and look after her. I am sure I have something she can put on."
+
+"So have I, if you haven't," interposed Helen. "And my clothes will come
+nearer fitting her than Ruth's. Ruth is getting almost as fat as Heavy!"
+
+"There is no need of either of you sacrificing your clothes," said Mrs.
+Steele, slowly. "Of course, I have plenty of outgrown garments of my own
+daughters' put away. Yes. You take care of her if you wish, Ruth, and I
+will hunt out the things."
+
+Here the strange girl interposed. She had been darting quick, shrewd
+glances about the hall at the girls and boys there gathered, and now she
+said:
+
+"Ye don't hafter do nothing for me. A little rainwater won't hurt me--I
+ain't neither sugar nor salt. All I wants to know is where them fresh
+air kids is stayin'. I ain't afraid of the rain--it's the thunder and
+lightning that scares me."
+
+"Goodness knows," laughed Madge, "I guess the water wouldn't hurt you.
+But we'll fix you up a little better, I guess."
+
+"Let Ruth do it," said Mrs. Steele, sharply. "She says she knows the
+girl."
+
+"She's a friend of mine," said the girl of the Red Mill, frankly. "You
+surely remember me, Sadie Raby?"
+
+"Oh, I remember ye, Miss," returned the runaway. "You was kind to me,
+too."
+
+"Come on, then," said Ruth, briskly. "I'm only going to be kind to you
+again--and so is Mrs. Steele going to be kind. Come on!"
+
+An hour later an entirely different looking girl appeared with Ruth in
+the big room at the top of the house which the visiting girls occupied.
+Some of them had come upstairs, for the tempest was over now, and were
+making ready for dinner by slow stages, it still being some time off,
+and there was nothing else to do.
+
+"This is Sadie Raby, girls," explained Ruth, quietly. "She is the sister
+of those cute little twins that are staying at the Caslons' place. She
+has had a hard time getting here, and because she hasn't seen Willie and
+Dickie for eight months, or more, she is very anxious to see them. They
+are all she has in the world."
+
+"And I reckon they're a handful," laughed Heavy. "Come on! tell us all
+about it, Sadie."
+
+It was because of the "terrible twins" that Ruth had gotten Sadie to
+talk at all. The girl, since leaving "them Perkinses," near Briarwood,
+had had a most distressful time in many ways, and she was reticent about
+her adventures.
+
+But she warmed toward Ruth and the others when she found that they
+really were sincerely interested in her trials, and were, likewise,
+interested in the twins.
+
+"Them kids must ha' growed lots since I seen 'em," she said, wistfully.
+"I wrote a letter to a girl that works right near the orphanage. She
+wrote back that the twins was coming out here for a while. So I throwed
+up my job at Campton and hiked over here."
+
+"Dear me! all that way?" cried Helen, pityingly.
+
+"I walked farther than that after I left them Perkinses," declared
+Sadie, promptly. "I walked clean from Lumberton to Cheslow--followed the
+railroad most of the way. Then I struck off through the fields and went
+to a mill on the river, and worked there for a week, for an old lady.
+She was nice----"
+
+"I guess she is!" cried Ruth, quickly. "Didn't you know that was _my_
+home you went to? And you worked for Aunt Alvirah and Uncle Jabez."
+
+No, Sadie had not known that. The little old woman had spoken of there
+being a girl at the Red Mill sometimes, but Sadie had not suspected the
+identity of that girl.
+
+"And then, when you were still near Cheslow, my brother Tom, and his
+dog, rescued you from the tramps," cried Helen.
+
+"Was that your brother, Miss?" responded Sadie. "Well! he's a nice
+feller. He got me a ride clear to Campton. I've been workin' there and
+earnin' my board and keep. But I couldn't save much, and it's all gone
+now."
+
+"But what do you really expect to do here?" asked Madge Steele,
+curiously.
+
+"I gotter see them kids," declared Sadie, doggedly. "Seems to me,
+sometimes, as though something would bust right inside of me here," and
+she clutched her dress at its bosom, "if I don't see Willie and Dickie.
+I thought this big house was likely where the fresh airs was."
+
+"I should say not!" murmured Madge.
+
+"They're all right--don't you be afraid," said Ruth, softly.
+
+"I thought mebbe the folks that was keepin' the kids would let me work
+for them," said Sadie, presently. "For kids is a lot of trouble, and I'm
+used to 'em. The matron at the home said I had a way with young'uns."
+
+She told them a good deal more about her adventures within the next half
+hour, but Madge had left the room just after making her last speech.
+While the girls were still listening to the runaway, a maid rapped at
+the door.
+
+"Mr. Steele will see this--this strange girl in the library," announced
+the servant.
+
+Sadie looked a little scared for a moment, and glanced wildly around the
+big room for some way of escape.
+
+"Gee! I ain't got to talk with that man, have I?" she whispered.
+
+"He won't bite you," laughed Heavy.
+
+"He's just as kind as kind can be," declared Helen.
+
+"I'll go down with you," said Ruth, decisively. "You have plenty of
+friends now, Sadie. You mustn't be expecting to run away all the time."
+
+Sadie Raby went with Ruth doubtfully. The latter was somewhat disturbed
+herself when she saw Mr. Steele's serious visage.
+
+"You'll excuse me, Mr. Steele?" suggested Ruth, timidly. "But she is all
+alone--and I thought it would encourage her to have me here----"
+
+"That is like your kind heart, Ruth," said the gentleman, nodding. "I
+don't mind. Madge has told me her story. It seems that the child is
+rather wild--er--flighty, as it were. I suppose she wants to run away from
+us, too?"
+
+"I ain't figurin' to stay here," said Sadie, doggedly. "I'm obleeged to
+you, but this ain't the house I was aimin' for."
+
+"Humph! no. But I am not sure at all that you would be in good hands
+down there at Caslon's."
+
+Ruth was sorry to hear him say this. But Sadie broke in with: "I don't
+keer how they treat me as long as I'm with my brothers. And _they_ are
+down there, this Ruth girl says."
+
+"Yes. I quite understand that. But we all have our duty to perform in
+this world," said Mr. Steele, gravely. "I wonder that you have fallen in
+with nobody before who has seen the enormity of letting you run wild
+throughout the country. It is preposterous--wrong--impossible! I never
+heard of the like before--a child of your age tramping in the open."
+
+"I didn't do no harm," began Sadie, half fearful of him again.
+
+"Of course it is not your fault," said Mr. Steele, quickly. "But you
+were put in the hands of people who are responsible to the institution
+you came from for their treatment of you----"
+
+"Them Perkinses?" exclaimed Sadie, fearfully. "I won't never go back to
+them--not while I'm alive I won't! I don't care! I jest won't!"
+
+She spoke wildly. She turned to run from the room and would have done
+so, had not Ruth been there to stop her and hold her in her arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII--THE BLACK DOUGLASS
+
+
+"Oh, don't frighten her, Mr. Steele!" begged Ruth, still holding the
+half wild girl. "You would not send her back to those awful people?"
+
+"Tut, tut! I am no ogre, I hope," exclaimed the gentleman, rather put
+out of countenance at this outburst. "I only mean the child well.
+Doesn't she understand?"
+
+"I won't go back to them Perkinses, I tell you!" cried Sadie, with a
+stamp of her foot.
+
+"It is not my intention to send you back. I mean to look up your record
+and the record of the people you were placed with--Perkins, is it? The
+authorities of the institution that had the care of you, should be made
+to be more careful in their selection of homes for their charges.
+
+"No. I will keep you here till I have had the matter sifted. If
+those--those Perkinses, as you call them, are unfit to care for you, you
+shall certainly not go back to them, my girl."
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. "But I don't want to stay here, Mister,"
+she blurted out.
+
+"My girl, you are not of an age when you should be allowed to choose for
+yourself. Others, older and wiser, must choose for you. I would not feel
+that I was doing right in allowing you to run wild again----"
+
+"I gotter see the twins--I jest _gotter_ see 'em," said Sadie, faintly.
+
+"And whether that Caslon is fit to have charge of you," bitterly added
+Mr. Steele, "I have my doubts."
+
+"Oh, surely, you will let her see her little brothers?" cried Ruth,
+pleadingly.
+
+"We will arrange about that--ahem!" said Mr. Steele. "But I will
+communicate at once--by long distance telephone--with the matron of the
+institution from which she came, and they can send a representative here
+to talk with me----"
+
+"And take me back there?" exclaimed Sadie. "No, I sha'n't! I sha'n't go!
+So there!"
+
+"Hoity-toity, Miss! Let's have no more of it, if you please," said the
+gentleman, sternly. "You will stay here for the present. Don't you try
+to run away from me, for if you do, I'll soon have you brought back. We
+intend to treat you kindly here, but you must not abuse our kindness."
+
+It was perhaps somewhat puzzling to Sadie Raby--this attitude of the very
+severe gentleman. She had not been used to much kindness in her life,
+and the sort that is forced on one is not generally appreciated by the
+wisest of us. Therefore it is not strange if Sadie failed to understand
+that Mr. Steele really meant to be her friend.
+
+"Come away, Sadie," whispered Ruth, quite troubled herself by the turn
+affairs had taken. "I am so sorry--but it will all come right in the
+end----"
+
+"If by comin' right, Miss, you means that I am goin' to see them twins,
+you can jest _bet_ it will all come right," returned Sadie, gruffly,
+when they were out in the hall. "For see 'em I will, an' _him_, nor
+nobody else, won't stop me. As for goin' back to them Perkinses, or to
+the orphanage, we'll see 'bout that," added Sadie, to herself, and
+grimly.
+
+Ruth feared very much that Mr. Steele would not have been quite so stern
+and positive with the runaway, had it not been for his dislike for the
+Caslons. Had Sadie's brothers been stopping with some other neighbor,
+would Mr. Steele have delayed letting the runaway girl go to see them?
+
+"Oh, dear, me! If folks would only be good-natured and stop being so
+hateful to each other," thought the girl of the Red Mill. "I just _know_
+that Mr. Steele would like Mr. Caslon a whole lot, if they really once
+got acquainted!"
+
+The rain had ceased falling by this time. The tempest had rolled away
+into the east. A great rainbow had appeared and many of the household
+were on the verandas to watch the bow of promise.
+
+It was too wet, however, to venture upon the grass. The paths and
+driveway glistened with pools of water. And under a big tree not far
+from the front of the house, it was discovered that a multitude of
+little toads had appeared--tiny little fellows no larger than one's
+thumbnail.
+
+"It's just been rainin' toads!" cried one of the younger Steele
+children--Bennie by name. "Come on out, Ruthie, and see the toads that
+comed down with the rainstorm."
+
+Tom Cameron had already come up to speak with Sadie. He shook hands with
+the runaway girl and spoke to her as politely as he would have to any of
+his sister's friends. And Sadie, remembering how kind he had been to her
+on the occasion when the tramps attacked her near Cheslow, responded to
+his advances with less reluctance than she had to those of some of the
+girls.
+
+For it must be confessed that many of the young people looked upon the
+runaway askance. She was so different from themselves!
+
+Now that she was clean, and her hair brushed and tied with one of Ruth's
+own ribbons, and she was dressed neatly, Sadie Raby did not _look_ much
+different from the girls about her on the wide porch; but when she
+spoke, her voice was hoarse, and her language uncouth.
+
+Had she been plumper, she would have been a pretty girl. She was tanned
+very darkly, and her skin was coarse. Nevertheless, given half the care
+these other girls had been used to most of their lives, and Sadie Raby
+would have been the equal of any.
+
+Ruth came strolling back to the veranda, leaving Bennie watching the
+toads--which remained a mystery to him. He was a lively little fellow of
+six and the pet of the whole family.
+
+As it chanced, he was alone out there on the drive, and the others were
+now strolling farther and farther away from him along the veranda. The
+boy ran out farther from the house, and danced up and down, looking at
+the rainbow overhead.
+
+Thus he was--a pretty sight in the glow of the setting sun--when a sudden
+chorus of shouts and frightened cries arose from the rear of the house.
+
+Men and maids were screaming. Then came the pounding of heavy hoofs.
+
+Around the curve of the drive charged a great black horse, a frayed and
+broken lead-rope hanging from his arching neck, his eyes red and
+glowing, and his sleek black body all a-quiver with the joy of his
+escape.
+
+"The Black Douglass!" ejaculated Tom Cameron, in horror, for the great
+horse was charging straight for the dancing child in the driveway.
+
+It was the most dangerous beast upon Sunrise Farm--indeed, almost the
+only savage creature Mr. Steele had retained when he bought out the
+former owner of the stock farm and his stud of horses.
+
+The Black Douglass was a big creature, with an uncertain temper, and was
+handled only by the most careful men in Mr. Steele's employ. Somehow, on
+this occasion, the brute had been allowed to escape.
+
+Spurring the gravel with his iron shod hoofs, the horse galloped
+straight at little Bennie. The child, suddenly made aware of his peril
+by the screams of his brothers and sisters, turned blindly, staggered a
+few steps, and fell upon his hands and knees.
+
+Mr. Steele rushed from the house, but he was too far away. The men
+chasing the released animal were at a distance, too. Tom Cameron started
+down the steps, but Helen shrieked for him to return. Who was there to
+face the snorting, prancing beast?
+
+There was a flash of a slight figure down the steps and across the sod.
+Like an arrow from a strong bow, Sadie Raby darted before the fallen
+child. Nor was she helpless. The runaway knew what she was about.
+
+As she ran from the veranda, she had seized a parasol that was leaning
+against one of the pillars. Holding this in both hands, she presented it
+to the charging horse, opening and shutting it rapidly as she advanced.
+
+She leaped across Bennie and confronted the Black Douglass. The flighty
+animal, seeing something before him that he did not at all understand,
+changed his course with a frightened snort, and dashed off across the
+lawn, cutting out great clods as he ran, and so around the house again
+and out of sight.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Steele were both running to the spot. The gentleman picked
+up the frightened Bennie, but handed him at once to his mother. Then he
+turned and seized the girl by her thin shoulders.
+
+"My dear girl! My dear girl!" he said, rather brokenly, turning her so
+as to face him. "That was a brave thing to do. We can't thank you
+enough. You can't understand----"
+
+"Aw, it warn't anything. I knowed that horse wouldn't jump at us when he
+seen the umbrel'. Horses is fools that way," said Sadie Raby, rather
+shamefacedly.
+
+But when Mrs. Steele knelt right down in the damp gravel beside her, and
+with one arm around Bennie, put the other around the runaway and hugged
+her--hugged her _tight_--Sadie was quite overcome, herself.
+
+Madge Steele was crying frankly. Bobbins came rushing upon the scene,
+and there was a general riot of exclamation and explanation.
+
+"Say! you goin' to let me see my brothers now?" demanded the runaway,
+who had a practical mind, if nothing more.
+
+"Bob," said his father, quickly, "you have the pony put in the cart and
+drive down there to Caslon's and bring those babies up here."
+
+"Aw, Father! what'll I tell Caslon?" demanded the big fellow,
+hesitatingly.
+
+"Tell him--tell him----" For a moment, it was true, that Mr. Steele was
+rather put to it for a reply. He found Ruth beside him, plucking his
+sleeve.
+
+"Let me go with Bobbins, sir," whispered the girl of the Red Mill. "I'll
+know what to say to Mr. and Mrs. Caslon."
+
+"I guess you will, Ruth. That's right. You bring the twins up here to
+see their sister." Then he turned and smiled down at Sadie, and there
+were tears behind his eyeglasses. "If I have my way, young lady, your
+coming here to Sunrise Farm will be the best thing--for you and the
+twins--that ever happened in your young lives!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII--SUNDRY PLANS
+
+
+Perhaps Sadie Raby would have been just as well pleased had Mr. Steele
+allowed her to go to the Caslons' to see her brothers, instead of having
+them brought up the hill to Sunrise Farm. The gentleman, however, did
+not do this because he disliked Caslon; Sadie had saved Bennie from what
+might have been certain death, and the wealthy Mr. Steele was quite as
+grateful as he was obstinate.
+
+He was determined to show his gratitude to the friendless girl in a
+practical manner. And the object of his gratitude would include her two
+little brothers, as well. Oh, yes! Mr. Steele proposed to make Sadie
+Raby glad that she had saved Bennie from the runaway horse.
+
+The other girls and boys, beside the members of the Steele family, were
+anxious now to show their approval of Sadie's brave deed. The wanderer
+was quite bewildered at first by all the attention she received.
+
+She was such a different looking girl, too, as has been already pointed
+out, from the miserable little creature who had been found by Mr. Steele
+in the shrubbery, that it was not hard to develop an interest in Sadie
+Raby.
+
+Encircled by the family and their young visitors on the veranda, Sadie
+again related the particulars of her life and experience--and it was a
+particularly sympathetic audience that listened to her. Mr. Steele drew
+out a new detail that had escaped Ruth, even, in her confidences with
+the strange child.
+
+Although the "terrible twins" were unable to remember either father or
+mother--orphan asylums are not calculated to encourage such remembrances
+in infant minds--Sadie, as she had once said to Ruth, could clearly
+remember both her parents.
+
+And although they had died in distant Harburg, where the children had
+been put into the orphanage, Sadie remembered that the family had
+removed to that city, soon after the twins were born, from no less a
+place than Darrowtown!
+
+"Me, I got it in my head that mebbe somebody would remember pa and mom
+in Darrowtown, and would give me a chance. That's another reason I come
+hiking clear over here," said Sadie.
+
+"We'll hunt your friends up--if there are any," Mr. Steele assured her.
+
+Sadie looked at him shrewdly. "Say!" said she, "you treat me a whole lot
+nicer than you did a while ago. Do folks have to do somethin' for your
+family before you forget to be cross with them?"
+
+It certainly was a facer! Mr. Steele flushed a little and scarcely knew
+what to say in reply to this frank criticism. But at that moment the
+two-wheel cart came into sight with the pony on the trot, and Ruth and
+the twins waving their hands and shouting.
+
+The meeting of the little chaps with their runaway sister was touching.
+The three Raby orphans were very popular indeed at Sunrise Farm just
+then.
+
+Mr. Steele frankly admitted that this might be a case where custom could
+be over-ridden, and the orphanage authorities ignored.
+
+"Whether those Perkins people she was farmed out to, were as harsh as
+she says----" he began, when Ruth interrupted eagerly:
+
+"Oh, sir! I can vouch for _that_. The man was an awful brute. He struck
+_me_ with his whip, and I don't believe Sadie told a story when she says
+he beat her."
+
+"I wish I'd been there," ejaculated Tom Cameron, in a low voice, "when
+the scoundrel struck you, Ruth. I would have done something to him!"
+
+"However," pursued Mr. Steele, "the girl is here now and near to
+Darrowtown, which she says is her old home. We may find somebody there
+who knew the Rabys. At any rate, they shall be cared for--I promise you."
+
+"I know!" cried Ruth, suddenly. "If anybody will remember them, it's
+Miss Pettis."
+
+"Another of your queer friends, Ruth?" asked Madge, laughing.
+
+"Why--Miss True Pettis isn't queer. But she knows about everybody who
+lives in Darrowtown, or who ever did live there--and their histories from
+away back!"
+
+"A human encyclopedia," exclaimed Heavy.
+
+"She's a lovely lady," said Ruth, quietly, "and she'll do anything to
+help these unfortunate Rabys--be sure of that."
+
+The late dinner was announced, and by that time the twins, as well as
+Sadie, had become a little more used to their surroundings. Willie and
+Dickie had been put into "spandy clean" overalls and shirts before Mrs.
+Caslon would let them out of her hands. They were really pretty
+children, in a delicate way, like their sister.
+
+With so many about the long dining table, the meals at the Steele home
+at this time were like a continuous picnic. There was so much talking
+and laughter that Mr. and Mrs. Steele had to communicate with signs, for
+the most part, from their stations at either end of the table, or else
+they must send messages back and forth by one of the waitresses.
+
+The twins and Sadie were down at Mrs. Steele's end of the table on this
+occasion, with the girls all about them. Ruth and the others took a lot
+more interest in keeping the orphans supplied with good things than they
+did in their own plates.
+
+That is, all but Heavy; of course _she_ wasted no time in heaping her
+own plate. The twins were a little bashful at first; but it was plain
+that Willie and Dickie had been taught some of the refinements of life
+at the orphanage, as both had very good table manners.
+
+They had to be tempted to eat, however, and finally Heavy offered to run
+a race with them, declaring that she could eat as much as both of the
+boys put together.
+
+Dickie was just as silent in his sister's presence as usual, his
+communications being generally in the form of monosyllables. But he was
+faithful in echoing Willie's sentiments on any and every
+occasion--noticeably at chicken time. The little fellows ate the
+fricassee with appetite, but they refused the nice, rich gravy, in which
+the cook had put macaroni. Mrs. Steele urged them to take gravy once or
+twice, and finally Sadie considered that she should come to the rescue.
+
+"What's the matter with you kids?" she demanded, hoarsely, in an attempt
+to communicate with them aside. "Ye was glad 'nough to git chicken gravy
+on Thanksgivin' at the orphanage--warn't ye?"
+
+"Yes, I know, Sadie," returned Willie, wistfully. "But they never left
+the windpipes in it--did they, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," responded Dickie, feelingly, likewise gazing at the macaroni
+askance.
+
+It set the table in a roar and finally Willie and Dickie were encouraged
+to try some of the gravy, "windpipes" and all!
+
+"They're all right," laughed Busy Izzy, greatly delighted. "They're
+one--or two--of the seven wonders of the world----"
+
+"Pooh!" interrupted Heavy, witheringly, "You don't even know what the
+seven wonders of the world are."
+
+"I can tell you one thing they're _not_," grinned Busy Izzy. "They're
+not a baseball team, for there's not enough of them. Now will you be
+good?"
+
+Madge turned her head suddenly and ran right into Belle Tingley's elbow,
+as Belle was reaching up to settle her hair-ribbon.
+
+"Oh, oh! My eye! I believe you poked it out, Belle. You have _such_
+sharp elbows," wailed Madge.
+
+"You'll have to see Doc. Blodgett at Lumberton," advised Heavy, "and get
+your eye tended to. He's a great old doctor----"
+
+"Why, I didn't know he was an eye doctor," exclaimed Madge. "I thought
+he was a chiropodist."
+
+"He used to be," Heavy returned, with perfect seriousness. "He began at
+the foot and worked up, you see."
+
+Amid all the fun and hilarity, Mr. Steele called them to order. This was
+at the dessert stage, and there were tall cones of parti-colored ice
+cream before them, with great, heaping plates of cake.
+
+"Can you give me a moment's attention, girls and boys?" asked their
+host. "I want to speak about to-morrow."
+
+"The 'great and glorious,'" murmured Heavy.
+
+"We've all promised to be good, sir," said Tom. "No pistols, or
+explosives, on the place."
+
+"Only the cannon," interposed Bobbins. "You're going to let us salute
+with _that_; eh, Pa?"
+
+"I'm not sure that I shall," returned his father, "if you do not give me
+your attention, and keep silent. We are determined to have a safe and
+sane Fourth on Sunrise Farm. But at night we will set off a splendid lot
+of fireworks that I bought last week----"
+
+"Oh, fine, Pa! I do love fireworks," cried Madge.
+
+"The girls are as bad as the boys, Mother," said Mr. Steele, shaking his
+head. "What I wanted to say," he added, raising his voice, "was that we
+ought to invite these little chaps--these brothers of Sadie Raby--to come
+up at night to see our show."
+
+"Oh, let's have all the fresh airs, Pa!" cried Madge, eagerly. "_What_ a
+good time they'd have."
+
+"I--don't--know," said her father, soberly, looking at his wife. "I am
+afraid that will be too much for your mother."
+
+"Mr. Caslon has some fireworks for the children," broke in Ruth,
+timidly. "I happen to know that. And Tom was going down to buy ten
+dollar's worth more to put with what Mr. Caslon has."
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Steele.
+
+"You see, some of us thought we'd give the little folk a good time down
+there, and it wouldn't bother you and Mrs. Steele, sir," Ruth hastened
+to explain.
+
+"Well, well!" exclaimed the gentleman, not very sharply after all, "if
+those Caslons can stand the racket, I guess mother and I can--eh,
+mother?"
+
+"We need not have them in the house," said Mrs. Steele. "We can put
+tables on the veranda, and give them ice cream and cake after the
+fireworks. Get the men to hang Chinese lanterns, and so forth."
+
+"Bully!" cried the younger Steeles, in chorus, and the visitors to
+Sunrise Farm were quite delighted, too, with this suggestion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX--A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH?
+
+
+Of course, somebody had to go to the Caslons and explain all this, and
+that duty devolved upon Ruth. Naturally, permission had to be sought of
+the farmer and his wife before the "fresh air kids" could be carried off
+bodily to Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was decided that the ten dollars, of which Tom had taken charge,
+should be spent for extra bunting and lanterns to decorate with, and to
+buy little gifts for each of the fresh airs to find next his or her
+plate on the evening of the Fourth.
+
+Therefore, Tom started again for Darrowtown right after breakfast, and
+Ruth rode with him in the high, two-wheeled cart.
+
+Ruth had two important errands. One was in Darrowtown. But the first
+stop, at Mr. Caslon's, troubled her a little.
+
+How would the farmer and his wife take the idea of the Steeles suddenly
+patronizing the fresh air children? Were the Caslons anything like Mr.
+Steele himself, in temperament, Ruth's errand would not be a pleasant
+one, she knew.
+
+The orphans ran out shrieking a welcome when Tom drove into the yard of
+the house under the hill. Where were the "terrible twins"? Had their
+sister really come to see them? Were Willie and Dickie coming back to
+the orphanage at all?
+
+These and a dozen other questions were hurled at Ruth. Some of the
+bigger girls remembered Sadie Raby and asked a multitude of questions
+about her. So the girl of the Red Mill contented herself at first with
+trying to reply to all these queries.
+
+Then Mrs. Caslon appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands of
+dish-water, and the old farmer himself came from the stables. Their
+friendly greeting and smiling faces opened the way for Ruth's task. She
+threw herself, figuratively speaking, into their arms.
+
+"I know you are both just as kind as you can be," said Ruth, eagerly,
+"and you won't mind if I ask you to change your program a little to-day
+for the youngsters? They want to give them all a good time up at Sunrise
+Farm."
+
+"Good land!" exclaimed Mrs. Caslon. "Not _all_ of them?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth, and she sketched briefly the idea of the
+celebration on the hill-top, including the presents she and Tom were to
+buy in Darrowtown for the kiddies.
+
+"My soul and body!" exclaimed the farmer's wife. "That lady, Mis'
+Steele, don't know what she's runnin' into, does she, Father?"
+
+"I reckon not," chuckled Mr. Caslon, wagging his head.
+
+"But you won't mind? You'll let us have the children?" asked Ruth,
+anxiously.
+
+"Why----" Mrs. Caslon looked at the old gentleman. But he was shaking all
+over with inward mirth.
+
+"Do 'em good, Mother--do 'em good," he chuckled--and he did not mean the
+fresh air children, either. Ruth could see that.
+
+"It'll be a mortal shame," began Mrs. Caslon, again, but once more her
+husband interrupted:
+
+"Don't you fuss about other folks, Mother," he said, gravely. "It'll do
+'em good--mebbe--as I say. Nothin' like tryin' a game once by the way. And
+I bet twelve little tykes like these 'uns will keep that Steele man
+hoppin' for a while."
+
+"But his poor wife----"
+
+"Don't you worry, Mrs. Caslon," Ruth urged, but wishing to laugh, too.
+"We girls will take care of the kiddies, and Mrs. Steele sha'n't be
+bothered too much."
+
+"Besides," drawled Mr. Caslon, "the woman's got a good sized family of
+her own--there's six or seven of 'em, ain't there?" he demanded of Ruth.
+
+"Eight, sir."
+
+"But that don't make a speck of difference," the farmer's wife
+interposed. "She's always had plenty of maids and the like to look out
+for them. She don't know----"
+
+"Let her learn a little, then," said Mr. Caslon, good naturedly enough.
+"It'll do both him and her good. And it'll give you a rest for a few
+hours, Mother.
+
+"Besides," added Mr. Caslon, with another deep chuckle, "I hear Steele
+has been rantin' around about takin' the kids to board just for the sake
+of spitin' the neighbors. Now, if he thinks boardin' a dozen young'uns
+like these is all fun----"
+
+"Don't be harsh, John," urged Mrs. Caslon.
+
+"I ain't! I ain't!" cried the farmer, laughing again. "But they're
+bitin' off a big chaw, and it tickles me to see 'em do it."
+
+It was arranged, therefore, that the orphans should be ready to go up to
+Sunrise Farm that afternoon. Then Ruth and Tom drove to Darrowtown. They
+had a fast horse, and got over the rough road at a very good pace.
+
+Tom drove first around into the side street where Miss True Pettis's
+little cottage was situated.
+
+"You dear child!" was the little spinster's greeting. "Are you having a
+nice time with your rich friends at Sunrise Farm? Tell me all about
+them--and the farm. Everybody in Darrowtown is that curious!"
+
+Tom had driven away to attend to the errands he could do alone, so Ruth
+could afford the time to visit a bit with her old friend. The felon was
+better, and that fact being assured, Ruth considered it better to
+satisfy Miss Pettis regarding the Sunrise Farm folk before getting to
+the Raby orphans.
+
+And that was the way to get to them, too. For the story of the tempest
+the day before, and the appearance of Sadie Raby, the runaway, and her
+reunion with the twins, naturally came into the tale Ruth had to tell--a
+tale that was eagerly listened to and as greatly enjoyed by the
+Darrowtown seamstress, as one can well imagine.
+
+"Just like a book--or a movie," sighed Miss Pettis, shaking her head.
+"It's really wonderful, Ruthie Fielding, what's happened to you since
+you left us here in Darrowtown. But, I always said, this town is dead
+and nothing really happens _here_!"
+
+"But it's lovely in Darrowtown," declared Ruth. "And just to think!
+Those Raby children lived here once."
+
+"No?"
+
+"Yes they did. Sadie was six or seven years old, I guess, when they left
+here. Tom Raby was her father. He was a mason's helper----"
+
+"Don't you tell me another thing about 'em!" cried Miss Pettis, starting
+up suddenly. "Now you remind me. I remember them well. Mis' Raby was as
+nice a woman as ever stepped--but weakly. And Tom Raby----
+
+"Why, how could I forget it? And after that man from Canady came to
+trace 'em, too, only three years ago. Didn't you ever hear of it, Ruth?"
+
+"What man?" asked Ruth, quite bewildered now. "Are--are you sure it was
+the same family? And _who_ would want to trace them?"
+
+"Lemme see. Listen!" commanded Miss Pettis. "You answer me about these
+poor children."
+
+And under the seamstress's skillful questioning Ruth related every
+detail she knew about the Raby orphans--and Mr. Steele, in her presence,
+had cross-questioned Sadie exhaustively the evening before. The story
+lost nothing in Ruth's telling, for she had a retentive memory.
+
+"My goodness me, Ruthie!" ejaculated the spinster, excitedly. "It's the
+same folks--sure. Why, do you know, they came from Quebec, and there's
+some property they've fell heir to--property from their mother's side--Oh,
+let me tell you! Funny you never heard us talkin' about that Canady
+lawyer while you was livin' here with me. My!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX--THE RABY ROMANCE
+
+
+Miss True Pettis thrilled with the joy of telling the romance. The
+little seamstress had been all her life entertaining people with the dry
+details of unimportant neighborhood happenings. It was only once in a
+long while that a story like that of the Rabys' came within her ken.
+
+"Why, do you believe me!" she said to Ruth, "that Mis' Raby came of
+quite a nice family in Quebec. Not to say Tom Raby wasn't a fine man,
+for he was, but he warn't educated much and his trade didn't bring 'em
+more'n a livin'. But her folks had school teachers, and doctors, and
+even ministers in their family--yes, indeed!
+
+"And it seems like, so the Canady lawyer said, that a minister in the
+family what was an uncle of Mis' Raby's, left her and her children some
+property. It was in what he called 'the fun's'--that's like stocks an'
+bonds, I reckon. But them Canadians talk different from us.
+
+"Well, I can remember that man--tall, lean man he was, with a yaller
+mustache. He had traced the Rabys to Darrowtown, and he saw the
+minister, and Deacon Giles, and Amoskeag Lanfell, askin' did they know
+where the Rabys went when they moved away from here.
+
+"I was workin' for Amoskeag's wife that day, so I heard all the talk,"
+pursued Miss Pettis. "He said--this Canady lawyer did--that the property
+amounted to several thousand dollars. It was left by the minister (who
+had no family of his own) to his niece, Mis' Raby, or to her children if
+she was dead.
+
+"Course they asked me if _I_ knowed what became of the family," said the
+spinster, with some pride. "It bein' well known here in Darrowtown that
+I'm most as good as a parish register--and why wouldn't I be? Everybody
+expects me to know all the news. But if I ever _did_ know where them
+Rabys went, I'd forgot, and I told the lawyer man so.
+
+"But he give me his card and axed me to write to him if I ever heard
+anything further from 'em, or about 'em. And I certain sure would have
+done so," declared Miss Pettis, "if it had ever come to my mind."
+
+"Have you the gentleman's card now, Miss True?" asked Ruth, eagerly.
+
+"I s'pect so."
+
+"Will you find it? I know Mr. Steele is interested in the Rabys, and he
+can communicate with this Canadian lawyer----"
+
+"Now! ain't you a bright girl?" cried the spinster. "Of course!"
+
+She at once began to hustle about, turning things out of her bureau
+drawers, searching the cubby holes of an old maple "secretary" that had
+set in the corner of the kitchen since her father's time, discovering
+things which she had mislaid for years--and forgotten--but not coming upon
+the card in question right away.
+
+"Of course I've got it," she declared. "I never lose anything--I never
+throw a scrap of anything away that might come of use----"
+
+And still she rummaged. Tom came back with the cart and Ruth had to go
+shopping. "But do look, Miss Pettis," she begged, "and we'll stop again
+before we go back to the farm."
+
+Tom and she were some time selecting a dozen timely, funny, and
+attractive nicknacks for the fresh airs. But they succeeded at last, and
+Ruth was sure the girls would be pleased with their selections.
+
+"So much better than spending the money for noise and a powder smell,"
+added Ruth.
+
+"Humph! the kids would like the noise all right," sniffed Tom. "I heard
+those little chaps begging Mr. Caslon for punk and firecrackers. That
+old farmer was a boy himself once, and I bet he got something for them
+that will smell of powder, beside the little tad of fireworks he showed
+me."
+
+"Oh! I hope they won't any of them get burned."
+
+"Kind of put a damper on the 'safe and sane Fourth' Mr. Steele spoke
+about, eh?" chuckled Tom.
+
+Miss Pettis was looking out of the window and smiling at them when they
+arrived back at the cottage. She held in her hand a yellowed bit of
+pasteboard, which she passed to the eager Ruth.
+
+"Where do you suppose I found it, Ruthie?" she demanded.
+
+"I couldn't guess."
+
+"Why, stuck right into the corner of my lookin'-glass in my bedroom. I
+s'pose I have handled it every day I've dusted that glass for three
+year, an' then couldn't remember where it was. Ain't that the
+beatenes'?"
+
+Ruth and Tom drove off in high excitement. She had already told Master
+Tom all about the Raby romance--such details as he did not already
+know--and now they both looked at the yellowed business card before Ruth
+put it safely away in her pocket:
+
+                           Mr. Angus MacDorough
+                               _Solicitor_
+                        13, King Crescent, Quebec
+
+"Mr. Steele will go right ahead with this, I know," said Tom, nodding.
+"He's taken a fancy to those kids----"
+
+"Well! he ought to, to Sadie!" cried Ruth.
+
+"Sure. And he's a generous man, after all. Too bad he's taken such a
+dislike to old Caslon."
+
+"Oh, dear, Tom! we ought to fix that," sighed Ruth.
+
+"Crickey! you'd tackle any job in the world, I believe, Ruthie, if you
+thought you could help folks."
+
+"Nonsense! But both of them--both Mr. Steele and Mr. Caslon--are such
+awfully nice people----"
+
+"Well! there's not much hope, I guess. Mr. Steele's lawyer is trying to
+find a flaw in Caslon's title. It seems that, way back, a long time ago,
+some of the Caslons got poor, or careless, and the farm was sold for
+taxes. It was never properly straightened out--on the county records,
+anyway--and the lawyer is trying to see if he can't buy up the interest
+of whoever bought the farm in at that time--or their heirs--and so have
+some kind of a basis for a suit against old Caslon."
+
+"Goodness! that's not very clear," said Ruth, staring.
+
+"No. It's pretty muddy. But you know how some lawyers are. And Mr.
+Steele is willing to hire the shyster to do it. He thinks it's all
+right. It's business."
+
+"_Your_ father wouldn't do such a thing, Tom!" cried Ruth.
+
+"No. I hope he wouldn't, anyway," said Master Tom, wagging his head.
+"But I couldn't say that to Bobbins when he told me about it, could I?"
+
+"No call to. But, oh, dear! I hope Mr. Steele won't be successful. I do
+hope he won't be."
+
+"Same here," grunted Tom. "Just the same, he's a nice man, and I like
+him."
+
+"Yes--so do I," admitted Ruth. "But I'd like him so much more, if he
+wouldn't try to get the best of an old man like Mr. Caslon."
+
+The Raby matter, however, was a more pleasant topic of conversation for
+the two friends. The big bay horse got over the ground rapidly--Tom said
+the creature did not know a hill when he saw one!--and it still lacked
+half an hour of noon when they came in sight of Caslon's house.
+
+The orphans were all in force in the front yard. Mr. Caslon appeared,
+too.
+
+That yard was untidy for the first time since Ruth had seen it. And most
+of the untidiness was caused by telltale bits of red, yellow, and green
+paper. Even before the cart came to the gate, Ruth smelled the tang of
+powder smoke.
+
+"Oh, Tom! they _have_ got firecrackers," she exclaimed.
+
+"So have I--a whole box full--under the front seat," chuckled Tom. "What's
+the Fourth without a weeny bit of noise? Bobbins and I are going to let
+them off in a big hogshead he's found behind the stable."
+
+"You boys are rascals!" breathed Ruth. "Why! there are the twins!"
+
+Sadie's young brothers ran out to the cart. Mr. Caslon appeared with a
+good-sized box in his arms, too.
+
+"Just take this--and the youngsters--aboard, will you, young fellow?" said
+the farmer. "Might as well have all the rockets and such up there on the
+hill. They'll show off better. And the twins was down for the clean
+clo'es mother promised them."
+
+It was a two-seated cart and there was plenty of room for the two boys
+on the back seat. Mr. Caslon carefully placed the open box in the bottom
+of the cart, between the seats. The fireworks he had purchased had been
+taken out of their wrappings and were placed loosely in the box.
+
+"There ye are," said the farmer, jovially. "Hop up here, youngsters!"
+
+He seized Willie and hoisted him into the seat. But Dickie had run
+around to the other side of the cart and clambered up like a monkey, to
+join his brother.
+
+"All right, sir," said Tom, wheeling the eager bay horse. It was nearing
+time for the latter's oats, and he smelled them! "Out of the way, kids.
+They'll send a wagon down for you, all right, after luncheon, I reckon."
+
+Just then Ruth happened to notice something smoking in Dickie's hand.
+
+"What have you there, child?" she demanded. "Not a nasty cigarette?"
+
+He held out, solemnly, and as usual wordlessly, a smoking bit of punk.
+
+"Where did you get that? Oh! drop it!" cried Ruth, fearing for the
+fireworks and the explosives under the front seat. She meant for Dickie
+to throw it out of the wagon, but the youngster took the command
+literally.
+
+He dropped it. He dropped it right into the box of fireworks. Then
+things began to happen!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI--A VERY BUSY TIME
+
+
+"Oh, Tom!" shrieked Ruth, and seized the boy's arm. The bay horse was
+just plunging ahead, eager to be off for the stable and his manger. The
+high cart was whirled through the gateway as the first explosion came!
+
+Pop,pop,pop! sputter--BANG!
+
+It seemed as though the horse leaped more than his own length, and
+yanked all four wheels of the cart off the ground. There was a chorus of
+screams in the Caslons' dooryard, but after that first cry, Ruth kept
+silent.
+
+The rockets shot out of the box amidships with a shower of sparks. The
+Roman candles sprayed their varied colored balls--dimmed now by
+daylight--all about the cart.
+
+Tom hung to the lines desperately, but the scared horse had taken the
+bit in his teeth and was galloping up the road toward Sunrise Farm,
+quite out of hand.
+
+After that first grab at Tom's arm, Ruth did not interfere with him. She
+turned about, knelt on the seat-cushion, and, one after the other, swept
+the twins across the sputtering, shooting bunch of fireworks, and into
+the space between her and Tom and the dashboard.
+
+Providentially the shooting rockets headed into the air, and to the
+rear. As the big horse dashed up the hill, swinging the light vehicle
+from side to side behind him, there was left behind a trail of smoke and
+fire that (had it been night-time) would have been a brilliant
+spectacle.
+
+Mr. Caslon and the orphans started after the amazing thing tearing up
+the road--but to no purpose. Nothing could be done to stop the explosion
+now. The sparks flew all about. Although Mr. Caslon had bought a wealth
+of small rockets, candles, mines, flower-pots, and the like, never had
+so many pieces been discharged in so short a time!
+
+It was sputter, sputter, bang, bang, the cart vomiting flame and smoke,
+while the horse became a perfectly frenzied creature, urged on by the
+noise behind him. Tom could only cling to the reins, Ruth clung to the
+twins, and all by good providence were saved from an overturn.
+
+All the time--and, of course, the half-mile or more from Caslons' to the
+entrance to the Steele estate, was covered in a very few moments--all the
+time Ruth was praying that the fire-crackers Tom had bought and hidden
+under the front seat would not be ignited.
+
+The reports of the rockets, and the like, became desultory. Some set
+pieces and triangles went off with the hissing of snakes. Was the
+explosion over?
+
+So it seemed, and the maddened horse turned in at the gateway. The cart
+went in on two wheels, but it did not overturn.
+
+The race had begun to tell on the bay. He was covered with foam and his
+pace was slackening. Perhaps the peril was over--Ruth drew a long breath
+for the first time since the horse had made its initial jump.
+
+And then--with startling suddenness--there was a sputter and bang! Off
+went the firecrackers, package after package. A spark had burned through
+the paper wrapper and soon there was such a popping under that front
+seat as shamed the former explosions!
+
+Had the horse been able to run any faster, undoubtedly he would have
+done so; but as the cart went tearing up the drive toward the front of
+the big house, the display of fireworks, etc., behind the front seat,
+and the display of alarm on the part of the four on the seat, advertised
+to all beholders that the occasion was not, to say the least, a common
+one.
+
+The cart itself was scorched and was afire in places, the sputtering of
+the fire-crackers continued while the horse tore up the hill. Tom had
+bought a generous supply and it took some time for them all to explode.
+
+Fortunately the front drop of the seat was a solid panel of deal, or
+Ruth's skirt might have caught on fire--or perhaps the legs of the twins
+would have been burned.
+
+As for the two little fellows, they never even squealed! Their eyes
+shone, they had lost their caps in the back of the cart, their short
+curls blew out straight in the wind, and their cheeks glowed. When the
+runaway appeared over the crest of the hill and the crowd at Sunrise
+Farm beheld them, it was evident that Willie and Dickie were enjoying
+themselves to the full!
+
+Poor Tom, on whose young shoulders the responsibility of the whole
+affair rested, was braced back, with his feet against the footboard, the
+lines wrapped around his wrists, and holding the maddened horse in to
+the best of his ability.
+
+Bobbins on one side, and Ralph Tingley on the other, ran into the
+roadway and caught the runaway by the bridle. The bay was, perhaps,
+quite willing to halt by this time. Mr. Steele ran out, and his first
+exclamation was:
+
+"My goodness, Tom Cameron! you've finished that horse!"
+
+"I hope not, sir," panted Tom, rather pale. "But I thought he'd finish
+us before he got through."
+
+By this time the explosions had ceased. Everything of an explosive
+nature--saving the twins themselves--in the cart seemed to have gone off.
+And now Willie ejaculated:
+
+"Gee! I never rode so fast before. Wasn't it great, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed Master Dickie, with rather more emphasis than usual.
+
+Sister Sadie appeared from the rear premises, vastly excited, too, but
+when she lifted the twins down and found not a scratch upon them, she
+turned to Ruth with a delighted face.
+
+"You took care of them just like you loved 'em, Miss," she whispered, as
+Ruth tumbled out of the cart, too, into her arms. "Oh, dear! don't you
+dare get sick--you ain't hurt, are you?"
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed Ruth, having hard work to crowd back the tears. "But
+I'm almost scared to death. That--that young one!" and she grabbed at
+Dickie. "What did you drop that punk into the fireworks for?"
+
+"Huh?" questioned the imperturbable Dickie.
+
+"Why didn't you throw that lighted punk away?" and Ruth was tempted to
+shake the little rascal.
+
+But instantly the voluble Willie shouldered his way to the front. "Gee,
+Miss! he thought you wanted him to drop it right there. You said so.
+An'--an'---- Well, he didn't know the things in the box would go off of
+themselves. Did you Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," responded his twin.
+
+"Do forgive 'em, Miss Ruth," whispered Sadie Raby. "I wouldn't want Mr.
+Steele to get after 'em. You know--he can be sumpin' fierce!"
+
+"Well," sighed Ruth Fielding, "they're the 'terrible twins' right
+enough. Oh, Tom!" she added, as young Cameron came to her to shake
+hands.
+
+"You're getting better and better," said Tom, grinning. "I'd rather be
+in a wreck with you, Ruthie--of almost any kind--than with anybody else I
+know. Those kids don't even know what you saved them from, when you
+dragged 'em over the back of that seat."
+
+"Sh!" she begged, softly.
+
+"And it's a wonder we weren't all blown to glory!"
+
+"It was a mercy we were not seriously hurt," agreed Ruth.
+
+But then there was too much bustle and general talk for them to discuss
+the incident quietly. The horse was led away to the stable and there
+attended to. Fortunately he was not really injured, but the cart would
+have to go to the painter's.
+
+"A fine beginning for this celebration we have on hand," declared Mr.
+Steele, looking ruefully at his wife. "If all that can happen with only
+two of those fresh air kids, as Bob calls them, on hand, what do you
+suppose will happen to-night when we have a dozen at Sunrise Farm?"
+
+"Mercy!" gasped the lady. "I am trembling in my shoes--I am, indeed. But
+we have agreed to do it, Father, and we must carry it through."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII--THE TERRIBLE TWINS ON THE RAMPAGE
+
+
+The girls who had come to Sunrise Farm to visit at Madge Steele's
+invitation, felt no little responsibility when it came to the
+entertainment for the fresh air orphans. As The Fox said, with her usual
+decision:
+
+"Now that we've put Madge and her folks into this business, we'll just
+have to back up their play, and make sure that the fresh airs don't tear
+the place down. And that Sadie will have to keep an eye on the 'terrible
+twins.' Is that right?"
+
+"I've spoken to poor Sadie," said Ruth, with a sigh. "I am afraid that
+Mrs. Steele is very much worried over what may occur to-night, while the
+children are here. We'll have to be on the watch all the time."
+
+"I should say!" exclaimed Heavy Stone. "Let's suggest to Mr. Steele that
+he rope off a place out front where he is going to have the fireworks.
+Some of those little rascals will want to help celebrate, the way Willie
+and Dickie did," and the plump girl giggled ecstatically.
+
+"'Twas no laughing matter, Jennie," complained Ruth, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, that's all right," Lluella broke in. "If Tom hadn't bought the
+fire-crackers--and that was right against Mr. Steele's advice----"
+
+"Oh, here now!" interrupted Helen, loyal to her twin. "Tom wasn't any
+more to blame than Bobbins. They were just bought for a joke."
+
+"It was a joke all right," Belle said, laughing. "Who's going to pay for
+the damage to the cart?"
+
+"Now, let's not get to bickering," urged Ruth. "What's done, is done. We
+must plan now to make the celebration this afternoon and evening as easy
+for Mrs. Steele as possible."
+
+This conversation went on after luncheon, while Bob and Tom had driven
+down the hill with a big wagon to bring up the ten remaining orphans
+from Mr. Caslon's place.
+
+The gaily decorated wagon came in sight just about this time.
+Fortunately the decorations Tom and Ruth had purchased that forenoon in
+Darrowtown had not been destroyed when the fireworks went off in the
+cart.
+
+The girls from Briarwood Hall welcomed the fresh airs cheerfully and
+took entire charge of the six little girls. The little boys did not wish
+to play "girls' games" on the lawn, and therefore Bob and his chums
+agreed to keep an eye on the youngsters, including the "terrible twins."
+
+Sadie had been drafted to assist Madge and her mother, and some of the
+maids, in preparing for the evening collation. Therefore the visitors
+were divided for the time into two bands.
+
+The girls from the orphanage were quiet enough and well behaved when
+separated from their boy friends. Indeed, on the lawn and under the big
+tent Mr. Steele had had erected, the celebration of a "safe and sane"
+Fourth went on in a most commendable way.
+
+It was a very hot afternoon, and after indulging in a ball game in the
+field behind the stables, Bobbins, in a thoughtless moment, suggested a
+swim. Half a mile away there was a pond in a hollow. The boys had been
+there almost every day for a dip, and Bob's suggestion was hailed--even
+by the usually thoughtful Tom Cameron--with satisfaction.
+
+"What about the kids?" demanded Ralph Tingley.
+
+"Let them come along," said Bobbins.
+
+"Sure," urged Busy Izzy. "What harm can come to them? We'll keep our
+eyes on them."
+
+The twins and their small chums from the orphanage were eager to go to
+the pond, too, and so expressed themselves. The half-mile walk through
+the hot sun did not make them quail. They were proud to be allowed to
+accompany the bigger boys to the swimming hole.
+
+The little fellows raced along in their bare feet behind the bigger boys
+and were pleased enough, until they reached the pond and learned that
+they would only be allowed to go in wading, while the others slipped
+into their bathing trunks and "went in all over."
+
+"No! you can't go in," declared Bobbins, who put his foot down with
+decision, having his own small brothers in mind. (They had been left
+behind, by the way, to be dressed for the evening.)
+
+"Say! the water won't wet us no more'n it does you--will it, Dickie?"
+demanded the talkative twin.
+
+"Nope," agreed his brother.
+
+"Now, you kids keep your clothes on," said Bob, threateningly. "And
+don't wade more than to your knees. If you get your overalls wet, you'll
+hear about it. You know Mrs. Caslon fixed you all up for the afternoon
+and told you to keep clean."
+
+The smaller chaps were unhappy. That was plain. They paddled their dusty
+feet in the water for a while, but the sight of the older lads diving
+and swimming and having such a good time in the pond was a continual
+temptation. The active minds of the terrible twins were soon at work.
+Willie began to whisper to Dickie, and the latter nodded his head
+solemnly.
+
+"Say!" blurted out Willie, finally, as Bob and Tom were racing past them
+in a boisterous game of "tag." "We wanter go back. This ain't no fun--is
+it, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope," said his twin.
+
+"Go on back, if you want to. You know the path," said Bobbins,
+breathlessly.
+
+"We're goin', too," said one of the other fresh airs.
+
+"We'd rather play with the girls than stay here. Hadn't we, Dickie?"
+proposed Willie Raby.
+
+"Yep," agreed Master Dickie, with due solemnity.
+
+"Go on!" cried Bob. "And see you go straight back to the house. My!" he
+added to Tom, "but those kids are a nuisance."
+
+"Think we ought to let them go alone?" queried Tom, with some faint
+doubt on the subject. "You reckon they'll be all right, Bobbins?"
+
+"Great Scott! they sure know the way to the house," said Bob. "It's a
+straight path."
+
+But, as it happened, the twins had no idea of going straight to the
+house. The pond was fed by a stream that ran in from the east. The
+little fellows had seen this, and Willie's idea was to circle around
+through the woods and find that stream. There they could go in bathing
+like the bigger boys, "and nobody would ever know."
+
+"Our heads will be wet," objected one of the orphans.
+
+"Gee!" said Willie Raby, "don't let's wet our heads. We ain't got
+to--have we?"
+
+"Nope," said his brother, promptly.
+
+There was some doubt, still, in the minds of the other boys.
+
+"What you goin' to say to those folks up to the big house?" demanded one
+of the fresh airs.
+
+"Ain't goin' to say nothin'," declared the bold Willie. "Cause why? they
+ain't goin' to know--'nless you fellers snitch."
+
+"Aw, who's goin' to snitch?" cried the objector, angered at once by the
+accusation of the worst crime in all the category of boyhood. "We ain't
+no tattle-tales--are we, Jim?"
+
+"Naw. We're as safe to hold our tongues as you an' yer brother are,
+Willie Raby--so now!"
+
+"Sure we are!" agreed the other orphans.
+
+"Then come along," urged the talkative twin. "Nobody's got to know."
+
+"Suppose yer sister finds it out?" sneered one.
+
+"Aw--well--she jes' ain't go'n' ter," cried Willie, exasperated. "An' what
+if she does? She runned away herself--didn't she?"
+
+The spirit of restlessness was strong in the Raby nature, it was
+evident. Willie was a born leader. The others trailed after him when he
+left the pathway that led directly back to Sunrise Farm, and pushed into
+the thicker wood in the direction he believed the stream lay.
+
+The juvenile leader of the party did not know (how should he?) that just
+above the pond the stream which fed it made a sharp turn. Its waters
+came out of a deep gorge, lying in an entirely different direction from
+that toward which the "terrible twins" and their chums were aiming.
+
+The little fellows plodded on for a long time, and the sun dropped
+suddenly behind the hills to the westward, and there they were--quite
+surprisingly to themselves--in a strange and fast-darkening forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII--LOST
+
+
+The girl visitors from Briarwood Hall did all they could to help the
+mistress of Sunrise Farm and Madge prepare for the evening festivities,
+and not alone in employing the attention of the six little girls from
+the orphanage.
+
+There were the decorations to arrange, and the paper lanterns to hang,
+and the long tables on the porch to prepare for the supper. Twelve
+extra, hungry little mouths to feed was, of itself, a fact of no small
+importance.
+
+When the wagon had come up from Caslon's with the orphans, Mrs. Steele
+had thought it rather a liberty on the part of the farmer's wife because
+she had, with the children, sent a great hamper of cakes, which she
+(Mrs. Caslon) herself had baked the day before.
+
+But the cakes were so good, and already the children were so hungry,
+that the worried mistress of the big farm was thankful that these
+supplies were in her pantry.
+
+"When the boys come back from the pond, I expect they will be ravenous,
+too," sighed the good lady. "_Do_ you think, Madge, that there will be
+enough ham and tongue sandwiches for supper? I am sure of the cream and
+cake--thanks to that good old woman (though I hope your father won't hear
+me say it). But that is to be served after the fireworks. They will want
+something hearty at suppertime--and goodness me, Madge! It is five
+o'clock now. Those boys should be back from their swim."
+
+As for Mr. Steele, he was immensely satisfied with the celebration of
+the day so far. To tell the truth, he had very little to do with the
+work of getting ready for the orphans' entertainment. Aside from the
+explosion of the fireworks in the cart, the occasion had been a
+perfectly "safe and sane" celebration of a holiday that he usually
+looked forward to with no little dread.
+
+Before anybody really began to worry over their delay, the boys came
+into view. They had had a refreshing swim and announced the state of
+their appetites the moment they joined the girls at the big tent.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Madge, "we know all about that, Bobbie dear. But his
+little tootie-wootsums must wait till hims gets his bib put on, an' let
+sister see if his hannies is nice and clean. Can't sit down to eat if
+hims a dirty boy," and she rumpled her big brother's hair, while he
+looked foolish enough over her "baby talk."
+
+"Don't be ridiculous, Madge," said Helen, briskly. "Of course they are
+hungry---- But where's the rest of them?"
+
+"The rest of what?" demanded Busy Izzy. "I guess we're all here."
+
+"Say! you _must_ be hungry," chuckled Heavy. "Did you eat the kids?"
+
+"What kids?" snapped Tom, in sudden alarm.
+
+"The fresh airs, of course. The 'terrible twins' and their mates. My
+goodness!" cried Ann Hicks, "you didn't forget and leave them down there
+at the pond, did you?"
+
+The boys looked at each other for a moment. "What's the joke?" Bobbins
+finally drawled.
+
+"It's no joke," Ruth said, quickly. "You don't mean to say that you
+forgot those little boys?"
+
+"Now, stop that, Ruth Fielding!" cried Isadore Phelps, very red in the
+face. "A joke's a joke; but don't push it too far. You know very well
+those kids came back up here more'n an hour ago."
+
+"They didn't do any such thing," cried Sadie, having heard the
+discussion, and now running out to the tent. "They haven't been near the
+house since you big boys took them to the pond. Now, say! what d'ye know
+about it?"
+
+"They're playing a trick on us," declared Tom, gloomily.
+
+"Let's hunt out in the stables, and around," suggested Ralph Tingley,
+feebly.
+
+"Maybe they went back to Caslon's," Isadore said, hopefully.
+
+"We'll find out about that pretty quick," said Madge. "I'll tell father
+and he'll send somebody down to see if they went there."
+
+"Come on, boys!" exclaimed Tom, starting for the rear of the house.
+"Those little scamps are fooling us."
+
+"Suppose they _have_ wandered away into the woods?" breathed Ruth to
+Helen. "Whatever shall we do?"
+
+Sadie could not wait. She was unable to remain idle, when it was
+possible that the twin brothers she had so lately rejoined, were in
+danger. She flashed after the boys and hunted the stables, too.
+
+Nobody there had seen the "fresh airs" since they had followed the
+bigger boys to the pond.
+
+"And ye sure didn't leave 'em down there?" demanded Sadie Raby of Tom.
+
+"Goodness me! No!" exclaimed Tom. "They couldn't go in swimming as we
+did, and so they got mad and wouldn't stay. But they started right up
+this way, and we thought they were all right."
+
+"They might have slanted off and gone across the fields to Caslon's,"
+said Bobbins, doubtfully.
+
+"That would have taken them into the back pasture where Caslon keeps his
+Angoras--wouldn't it?" demanded the much-worried young man.
+
+"Well, you can go look for 'em with the goats," snapped Sadie, starting
+off. "But me for that Caslon place. If they didn't go there, then they
+are in the woods somewhere."
+
+She started down the hill, fleet-footed as a dog. Before Mr. Steele had
+stopped sputtering over the catastrophe, and bethought him to start
+somebody for the Caslon premises to make inquiries, Sadie came in view
+again, with the old, gray-mustached farmer in tow.
+
+The serious look on Mr. Caslon's face was enough for all those waiting
+at Sunrise Farm to realize that the absent children were actually lost.
+Tom and Bobbins had come up from the goat pasture without having seen,
+or heard, the six little fellows.
+
+"I forgot to tell ye," said Caslon, seriously, "that ye had to keep one
+eye at least on them 'terrible twins' all the time. We locked 'em into
+their bedroom at night. No knowin' when or where they're likely to break
+out. But I reckoned this here sister of theirs would keep 'em close to
+her----"
+
+"Well!" snapped Sadie Raby, eyeing Tom and Bobbins with much disfavor,
+"I thought that a bunch of big fellers like them could look after half a
+dozen little mites."
+
+Mr. Steele had come forward slowly; the fact that the six orphan boys
+really seemed to be lost, was an occasion to break down even _his_
+barrier of dislike for the neighbor. Besides, Mr. Caslon ignored any
+difference there might be between them in a most generous manner.
+
+"I blame myself, Neighbor Steele--I sure do," Mr. Caslon said, before the
+owner of Sunrise Farm could speak. "I'd ought to warned you about them
+twins. They got bit by the runaway bug bad--that's right."
+
+"Humph! a family trait--is it?" demanded Mr. Steele, rather grimly eyeing
+the sister of the runaways.
+
+"I couldn't say about that," chuckled the farmer. "But Willie and Dickie
+started off twice from our place, trailin' most of the other kids with
+'em. But I caught 'em in time. Now, their sister tells me, they've got
+at least an hour and a half's start."
+
+"It is getting dark--or it will soon be," said Mr. Steele, nervously. "If
+they are not found before night, I shall be greatly disturbed. I feel as
+though I were responsible. My oldest boy, here----"
+
+"Now, it ain't nobody's fault, like enough," interrupted Mr. Caslon,
+cheerfully, and seeing Bobbins's woebegone face. "We'll start right out
+and hunt for them."
+
+"But if it grows dark----"
+
+"Let me have what men you can spare, and all the lanterns around the
+place," said Caslon, briskly, taking charge of the matter on the
+instant. "These bigger boys can help."
+
+"I--I can go with you, sir," began Mr. Steele, but the farmer waved him
+back.
+
+"No. You ain't used to the woods--nor to trampin'--like I be. And it won't
+hurt your boys. You leave it to us--we'll find 'em."
+
+Mrs. Steele had retired to the tent on the lawn in tears, and most of
+the girls were gathered about her. Sadie Raby clung to Farmer Caslon's
+side, and nobody tried to call her back.
+
+Since returning from Darrowtown that morning, Ruth Fielding had divulged
+to Mr. Steele all she had discovered through Miss True Pettis regarding
+the Raby family, and about the Canadian lawyer who had once searched for
+Mrs. Raby and her children.
+
+The gentleman had expressed deep interest in the matter, and while the
+fresh air children were being entertained during the afternoon, Mr.
+Steele had already set in motion an effort to learn the whereabouts of
+Mr. Angus MacDorough and to discover just what the property was that had
+been willed to the mother of the Raby orphans.
+
+Sadie had been told nothing about this wonderful discovery as yet.
+Indeed, there had been no time. Sadie had been busy, with Mrs. Steele
+and the others, in preparing for that "safe and sane" celebration with
+which Mr. Steele had desired to entertain the "terrible twins" and their
+little companions at Sunrise Farm.
+
+Now this sudden catastrophe had occurred. The loss of the six little
+boys was no small trouble. It threatened to be a tragedy.
+
+Down there beyond the pond the mountainside was heavily timbered, and
+there were many dangerous ravines and sudden precipices over which a
+careless foot might stray.
+
+Dusk was coming on. In the wood it would already be dark. And if the
+frightened children went plunging about, seeking, in terror, to escape,
+they might at any moment be cast into some pit where the searchers would
+possibly never find them.
+
+Mr. Steele felt his responsibility gravely. He was, at best, a nervous
+man, and this happening assumed the very gravest outlines in his anxious
+mind.
+
+"Never ought to have let them out of my own sight," he sputtered, having
+Ruth for a confidant. "I might have known something extraordinary would
+happen. It was a crazy thing to have all those children up here,
+anyway."
+
+"Oh, dear, Mr. Steele!" cried Ruth, much worried, "_that_ is partly my
+fault. I was one of those who suggested it."
+
+"Nonsense! nonsense, child! Nobody blames you," returned the gentleman.
+"I should have put my foot down and said 'No.' Nobody influenced me at
+all. Why--why, I _wanted_ to give the poor little kiddies a nice time.
+And now--see what has come of it?"
+
+"Oh, it may be that they will be found almost at once," cried Ruth,
+hopefully. "I am sure Mr. Caslon will do what he can----"
+
+"Caslon's an eminently practical man--yes, indeed," admitted Mr. Steele,
+and not grudgingly. "If anybody can find them, he will, I have no
+doubt."
+
+And this commendation of the neighbor whom he so disliked struck Ruth
+completely silent for the time being.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV--"SO THAT'S ALL RIGHT"
+
+
+"And here it is 'ong past suppertime," groaned Heavy; "it's getting
+darker every minute, and the fireworks ought to be set off, and we can't
+do a thing!"
+
+"Who'd have the heart to eat, with those children wandering out there in
+the woods?" snapped Mercy Curtis.
+
+"What's _heart_ got to do with eating?" grumbled the plump girl. "And I
+was thinking quite as much of the little girls here as I was of myself.
+Why! here is one of the poor kiddies asleep, I do declare."
+
+The party in the big tent was pretty solemn. Even the six little girls
+from the orphanage could not play, or laugh, under the present
+circumstances. And, in addition, it looked as though all the fun for the
+evening would be spoiled.
+
+The searching party had been gone an hour. Those remaining behind had
+seen the twinkling lanterns trail away over the edge of the hill and
+disappear. Now all they could see from the tent were the stars, and the
+fireflies, with now and then a rocket soaring heavenward from some
+distant farm, or hamlet, where the Glorious Fourth was being fittingly
+celebrated.
+
+Madge and Helen came out with a hamper of sandwiches and there was
+lemonade, but not even the little folk ate with an appetite. The day
+which, at Sunrise Farm, was planned to be so memorable, threatened now
+to be remembered for a very unhappy cause.
+
+Down in the wood lot that extended from below some of Mr. Steele's
+hayfields clear into the next township, the little party of searchers,
+led by old Mr. Caslon, had separated into parties of two each, to comb
+the wilderness.
+
+None of the men knew the wood as did Mr. Caslon, and of course the boys
+and Sadie (who had refused to go back) were quite unfamiliar with it.
+
+"Don't go out of sight of the flash of each other's lanterns," advised
+the farmer.
+
+And by sticking to this rule it was not likely that any of the sorely
+troubled searchers would, themselves, be lost. As they floundered
+through the thick undergrowth, they shouted, now and then, as loudly as
+they could. But nothing but the echoes, and the startled nightbirds,
+replied.
+
+Again and again they called for the lost boys by name. Sadie's shrill
+voice carried as far as anybody's, without doubt, and her crying for
+"Willie" and "Dickie" should have brought those delinquents to light,
+had they heard her.
+
+Sadie stuck close to Mr. Caslon, as he told her to. But the way through
+the brush was harder for the girl than for the rest of them. Thick mats
+of greenbriars halted them. They were torn, and scratched, and stung by
+the vegetable pests; yet Sadie made no complaint.
+
+As for the mosquitoes and other stinging insects--well, they were out on
+this night, it seemed, in full force. They buzzed around the heads of
+the searchers in clouds, attracted by the lanterns. Above, in the trees,
+complaining owls hooted their objections to the searchers' presence in
+the forest. The whip-poor-wills reiterated their determination from dead
+limbs or rotting fence posts. And in the wet places the deep-voiced
+frogs gave tongue in many minor keys.
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Sadie to the farmer, "the little fellers will be
+scared half to death when they hear all these critters."
+
+"And how about you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I'm used to 'em. Why, I've slept out in places as bad as this
+more'n one night. But Willie and Dickie ain't used to it."
+
+One end of the line of searchers touched the pond. They shouted that
+information to the others, and then they all pushed on. It was in the
+mind of all that, perhaps, the children had circled back to the pond.
+
+But their shouts brought no hoped-for reply, although they echoed across
+the open water, and were answered eerily from the farther shore.
+
+There were six couples; therefore the line extended for a long way into
+the wood, and swept a wide area. They marched on, bursting through the
+vines and climbers, searching thick patches of jungle, and often
+shouting in chorus till the wood rang again.
+
+Tom and one of the stablemen, who were at the lower end of the line,
+finally came to the mouth of that gorge out of which the brook sprang.
+To the east of this opening lay a considerable valley and it was decided
+to search this vale thoroughly before following the stream higher.
+
+It was well they did so, for half a mile farther on, Tom and his
+companion made a discovery. They came upon the tall, blasted trunk of a
+huge old tree that had a great hollow at its foot. This hollow was
+blinded by a growth of vines and brush, yet as Tom flashed his lantern
+upon it, it seemed to him as though the vines had been disturbed.
+
+"It may be the lair of some animal, sir," suggested the stableman, as
+Tom attempted to peer in.
+
+"Nothing much more dangerous than foxes in these woods now, I am told,"
+returned the boy. "And this is not a fox's burrow--hello!"
+
+His sudden, delighted shriek rang through the wood and up the hillside.
+
+"I've found them! I've found them!" the boy repeated, and dived into the
+hollow tree.
+
+His lantern showed him and the stableman the six wanderers rolled up
+like kittens in a nest. They opened their eyes sleepily, yawning and
+blinking. One began to snivel, but Willie Raby at once delivered a sharp
+punch to that one, saying, in grand disgust:
+
+"Baby! Didn't I tell you they'd come for us? They was sure to--wasn't
+they, Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," responded that youngster, quite as cool about it as his brother.
+
+Tom's shouts brought the rest of the party in a hurry. Mr. Caslon hauled
+each "fresh air" out by the collar and stood him on his feet. When he
+had counted them twice over to make sure, he said:
+
+"Well, sir! of all the young scamps that ever were born--Willie Raby!
+weren't you scared?"
+
+"Nope," declared Willie. "Some of these other kids begun ter snivel when
+it got dark; but Dickie an' me would ha' licked 'em if they'd kep' that
+up. Then we found that good place to sleep----"
+
+"But suppose it had been the bed of some animal?" asked Bobbins,
+chuckling.
+
+"Nope," said Willie, shaking his head. "There was spider webs all over
+the hole we went in at, so we knowed nobody had been there much lately.
+And it was a pretty good place to sleep. Only it was too warm in there
+at first. I couldn't get to sleep right away."
+
+"But you didn't hear us shouting for you?" queried one of the other
+searchers.
+
+"Nope. I got to sleep. You see, I thought about bears an' burglars an'
+goblins, an' all those sort o' things, an' that made me shiver, so I
+went to sleep," declared the earnest twin.
+
+A shout of laughter greeted this statement. The searchers picked up the
+little fellows and carried them down to the edge of the pond, where the
+way was much clearer, and so on to the plain path to Sunrise Farm.
+
+So delighted were they to have found the six youngsters without a
+scratch upon them, that nobody--not even Mr. Caslon--thought to ask the
+runaways how they had come to wander so far from Sunrise Farm.
+
+It was ten o'clock when the party arrived at the big house on the hill.
+Isadore had run ahead to tell the good news and everybody was
+aroused--even to the six fellow-orphans of the runaways--to welcome the
+wanderers.
+
+"My goodness! let's have the fireworks and celebrate their return,"
+exclaimed Madge.
+
+But Mr. Steele quickly put his foot down on that.
+
+"I am afraid that Willie and Dickie, and Jim and the rest of them, ought
+really to be punished for their escapade, and the trouble and fright
+they have given us," declared the proprietor of Sunrise Farm.
+
+"However, perhaps going without their supper and postponing the rest of
+the celebration until to-morrow night, will be punishment enough. But
+don't you let me hear of you six boys trying to run away again, while
+you remain with Mr. and Mrs. Caslon," and he shook a threatening finger
+at the wanderers.
+
+"Now Mr. and Mrs. Caslon will take you home," for the big wagon had been
+driven around from the stables while he was speaking. Mrs. Caslon, too
+worried to remain in doubt about the fresh airs, had trudged away up the
+hill to Sunrise Farm, while the party was out in search of the lost
+ones.
+
+Mrs. Steele and the girls bade a cordial good-night to the farmer's
+wife, as she climbed up to the front seat of the vehicle on one side. On
+the other, Mr. Steele stopped Mr. Caslon before he could climb up.
+
+"The women folks have arranged for you and your wife to come to-morrow
+evening and help take care of these little mischiefs, while we finish
+the celebration," said the rich man, with a detaining hand upon Mr.
+Caslon's shoulder. "We need you."
+
+"I reckon so, neighbor," said the farmer, chuckling. "We're a little
+more used to them lively young eels than you be."
+
+"And--and we want you and your wife to come for your own sakes," added
+Mr. Steele, in some confusion. "We haven't even been acquainted before,
+sir. I consider that I am at fault, Caslon. I hope you'll overlook it
+and--and--as you say yourself--_be neighborly_."
+
+"Sure! Of course!" exclaimed the old man, heartily. "Ain't no need of
+two neighbors bein' at outs, Mr. Steele. You'll find that soft words
+butter more parsnips than any other kind. If you an' I ain't jest agreed
+on ev'ry p'int, let's get together an' settle it ourselves. No need of
+lawyers' work in it," and the old farmer climbed nimbly to the high
+seat, and the wagon load of cheering, laughing youngsters started down
+the hill.
+
+"And so _that's_ all right," exclaimed the delighted Ruth, who had heard
+the conversation between the two men, and could scarcely hide her
+delight in it.
+
+"I feel like dancing," she said to Helen. "I just _know_ Mr. Steele and
+Mr. Caslon will understand each other after this, and that there will be
+no quarrel between them over the farms."
+
+Which later results proved to be true. Not many months afterward, Madge
+wrote to Ruth that her father and the old farmer had come to a very
+satisfactory agreement. Mr. Caslon had agreed to sell the old homestead
+to Mr. Steele for a certain price, retaining a life occupancy of it for
+himself and wife, and, in addition, the farmer was to take over the
+general superintendency of Sunrise Farm for Mr. Steele, on a yearly
+salary.
+
+"So much for the work of the 'terrible twins'!" Ruth declared when she
+heard this, for the girl of the Red Mill did not realize how much she,
+herself, had to do with bringing about Mr. Steele's change of attitude
+toward his neighbor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV--THE ORPHANS' FORTUNE
+
+
+A great deal happened at Sunrise Farm before these later occurrences
+which so delighted Ruth Fielding. The excitement of the loss of the six
+"fresh airs" was not easily forgotten. Whenever any of the orphans was
+on the Sunrise premises again, they had a bodyguard of older girls or
+boys who kept a bright lookout that nothing unusual happened to them.
+
+As for the twins, Sadie took them in hand with a reformatory spirit that
+amazed Willie and Dickie. Those two youngsters were kept at Sunrise Farm
+and put in special charge of Sadie. Thus Mr. Steele had the three Raby
+orphans under his own eye until he could hear from Canada, and from the
+orphanage, and learn all the particulars of the fortune that might be in
+store for them.
+
+After a bit Willie and Dickie found the watchfulness of their sister
+somewhat irksome.
+
+"Say!" the talkative twin observed, "you ain't got no reason to be so
+sharp on us, Sadie Raby. _You_ run away your ownself--didn't she,
+Dickie?"
+
+"Yep," agreed the oracular one.
+
+"An' we don't want no gal follerin' us around and tellin' us to 'stop'
+all the time--do we, Dickie?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"We're big boys now," declared Willie, strutting like the young bantam
+he was. "There ain't nothin' goin' to hurt us. We're too big----"
+
+"What's that on your finger---- No! the other one?" snapped Sadie, eyeing
+Willie sharply.
+
+"Scratch," announced the boy.
+
+"Where'd you get it?"
+
+"I--I cut it on the cat," admitted Willie, with less bombast.
+
+"Humph! you're a big boy--ain't you? Don't even know enough to let the
+cat alone--and I hope her claw done you some good. Come here an' let me
+borrer Miss Ruth's peroxide bottle and put some on it. Cat's claws is
+poison," said Sadie. "You ain't so fit to get along without somebody
+watchin' you as ye think, kid. Remember that, now."
+
+"We don't want no gal trailin' after us all the time!" cried Willie,
+angrily. "An' we ain't goin' to stand it," and he kicked his bare toe
+into the sand to express the emphasis that his voice would not vent.
+
+"Humph!" said Sadie, eyeing him sideways, meanwhile trimming carefully a
+stout branch she had broken from the lilac bush. "So you want to be your
+own boss, do you, Willie Raby?"
+
+"We _be_ our own boss--ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+For the first time, the echo of Dickie's agreement failed to
+materialize. Dickie was eyeing that lilac sprout--and looked from that to
+his sister's determined face. He backed away several feet and put his
+hands behind him.
+
+"And so you ain't goin' to mind me--nor Miss Ruth--nor Mr. Steele--nor Mr.
+Caslon--nor nobody?" proceeded Sadie, more earnestness apparent in each
+section of her query.
+
+Her hand reached out suddenly and gripped Willie by the shoulder of his
+shirt. He tried to writhe out of her grasp, but his sister's muscles
+were hardened, and she was twice as strong as Willie had believed. The
+lilac sprout was raised.
+
+"So you're too big to mind anybody, heh?" she queried.
+
+"Yes, we be!" snarled the writhing Willie. "Ain't we, Dickie?"
+
+"No, we're not!" screamed his twin, suddenly, refusing to echo Willie's
+declaration. "Don't hit him, Sade! Oh, don't!" and he cast himself upon
+his sister and held her tight about the waist. "We--we'll be good," he
+sobbed.
+
+"How about it, Willie Raby?" demanded the stern sister, without lowering
+the stick. "Are you goin' to mind and be good?"
+
+Willie stared, tried to writhe away, saw it was no use, and capitulated.
+"Aw--yes--if _he's_ goin' to cry about it," he grumbled. He said it with
+an air intimating that Dickie was, after all, quite a millstone about
+his neck and would always be holding him back from deeds of valor which
+Willie, himself, knew he could perform.
+
+However, the twins behaved pretty well after that. They remained with
+Sadie at Sunrise Farm, for the whole Steele family had become interested
+in them.
+
+The inquiries Mr. Steele set afoot resulted, in a short time, in
+information of surprising moment to the three Raby orphans. The old
+inquiry which had brought the lawyer, Mr. Angus MacDorough, to
+Darrowtown three years before, was ferreted out by another lawyer
+engaged by Mr. Steele.
+
+It was found that Mr. MacDorough had, soon after his visit to the States
+in the matter of the Raby fortune, been stricken ill and, after a long
+sickness, had died. His affairs had never been straightened out, and his
+business was still in a chaotic state.
+
+However, it was found beyond a doubt that Mr. MacDorough had been
+engaged to search out the whereabouts of Mrs. Tom Raby and her children
+by the administrators of the estate of Mrs. Raby's elderly relative, now
+some time deceased.
+
+Nearly two thousand dollars in American money had been left as a legacy
+to the Rabys. In time this property was put into Mr. Steele's care to
+hold in trust for the three orphans--and it was enough to promise them
+all an education and a start in life.
+
+Had it not been so, Mr. and Mrs. Steele would have felt sufficiently in
+Sadie's debt, because of her having saved little Bennie Steele from the
+hoofs of the Black Douglass, to have made the girl's way--and that of the
+twins--plain before them, until they were grown.
+
+How much Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen, were delighted by all this
+can be imagined. Sadie held an almost worshipful attitude toward Ruth;
+Ruth had been her first real friend when she ran away from "them
+Perkinses."
+
+That Ruth and her chum bore the affairs of the Raby orphans in mind, and
+continued to have many other and varied interests, as well as a
+multitude of adventures during the summer, will be explained in the next
+volume of our series, to be entitled: "Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies;
+Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace."
+
+Meanwhile, the visit to Sunrise Farm came to a glorious close. The
+belated Fourth of July was celebrated on the evening of the fifth, in a
+perfectly "safe and sane" manner by the burning of the wealth of
+fireworks that Mr. Steele had supplied.
+
+The days that followed to the end of the stay of the girls of Briarwood
+Hall and their brothers, were filled with delightful incidents. Picnics,
+fishing parties, tramps over the hills, rides, games on the lawn, and
+many other activities occupied the delightful hours at Sunrise Farm.
+
+"This surely is the nicest place I ever was at," Busy Izzy admitted, on
+the closing day of the party. "If I have as good a time the rest of the
+summer, I won't mind going back to school and suffering for eight months
+in the year."
+
+"Hear! hear!" cried Heavy Jennie Stone. "And the eats!"
+
+"And the rides," said Mercy Curtis, the lame girl. "Such beautiful rides
+through the hills!"
+
+"And such a fine time watching those fresh airs to see that they didn't
+kill themselves," added Tom Cameron, with a grimace.
+
+"Don't say a word against the poor little dears, Tommy," urged his
+sister. "Suppose _you_ had to live in an for orphanage all but four
+weeks in the year?"
+
+"Tom is only fooling," Ruth said, quietly. "I know him. He enjoyed
+seeing the children have a good time, too."
+
+"Oh! if you say so, Miss Fielding," said Tom, laughing and bowing to
+her, "it must be so."
+
+The big yellow coach, with the four prancing horses, came around to the
+door. Bobbins mounted to the driver's seat and gathered up the ribbons.
+The visitors climbed aboard.
+
+Ruth stood up and waved her hand to the rest of the Steele family, and
+Sadie and the twins gathered on the porch.
+
+"We've had the finest time ever!" she cried. "We love you all for giving
+us such a nice vacation. And we're going to cheer you----"
+
+And cheer they did. At the noise, the leaders sprang forward and the
+yellow coach rolled away. Ruth, laughing, sat down suddenly beside her
+chum, and Helen hugged her tight.
+
+"We always have a dandy time when we go anywhere with _you_, Ruth," she
+declared. "For you always take your 'good times' with you."
+
+And perhaps Helen Cameron had made a very important discovery.
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her
+adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every
+reader.
+
+Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.
+
+  1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+  2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+  3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+  4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+  5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+  6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+  7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+  8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+  9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+  10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+  11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+  12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+  13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+  14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+  15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+  16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+  17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+  18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+  19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+  20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+  21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+  22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA
+  23. RUTH FIELDING AND HER GREAT SCENARIO
+  24. RUTH FIELDING AT CAMERON HALL
+  25. RUTH FIELDING CLEARING HER NAME
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS
+
+By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket.
+
+Price 50 cents per volume.
+
+Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls who is bound to win instant
+popularity. Her style is somewhat of a reminder of that of Louisa M.
+Alcott, but thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action. Clean tales that
+all the girls will enjoy reading.
+
+1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY or Laura Mayford's City Experiences
+
+2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL or The Mystery of the School by the
+Lake
+
+3. NELL GRAYSON'S RANCHING DAYS or A City Girl in the Great West
+
+4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way
+
+5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY or The Girl Who Won Out
+
+6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE or The Old Bachelor's Ward
+
+7. HAZEL HOOD'S STRANGE DISCOVERY or The Old Scientist's Treasure Box
+
+8. TWO GIRLS AND A MYSTERY or The Old House in the Glen
+
+9. THE GIRLS OF LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Strange Sea Chest
+
+10. KATE MARTIN'S PROBLEM or Facing the Wide World
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM or The Mystery of a Nobody
+
+  At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON or Strange Adventures in a Great City
+
+  Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and has several
+  unusual adventures.
+
+3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune
+
+  From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our
+  country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+  Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
+
+  At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery.
+
+6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK or School Chums on the Boardwalk
+
+  A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+
+7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS or Bringing the Rebels to Terms
+
+  Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH or Cowboy Joe's Secret
+
+  Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS or The Secret of the Mountains
+
+  Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held for
+  ransom in a mountain cave.
+
+10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS or A Mystery of The Seaside
+
+  Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and Betty
+  becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls.
+
+11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS or The Secret of the Trunk Room
+
+  An up-to-date college story with a strange mystery that is bound to
+  fascinate any girl reader.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES
+
+By JANET D. WHEELER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE or The Queer Homestead at Cherry
+Corners
+
+Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and
+located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went
+there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened,
+go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL or Leading a Needed Rebellion
+
+Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time
+after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the
+school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of
+two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
+very plain food and little of it--and then there was a row!
+
+3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Mystery of the Wreck
+
+One of Billie's friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island,
+near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island.
+There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed
+ashore.
+
+4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES or The Secret of the Locked Tower
+
+Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who
+had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention,
+and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+
+5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore
+
+A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great
+variety of adventures. They visit an artists' colony and there fall in
+with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly.
+
+6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE or The Old Sailor's Secret
+
+A lively story of school girl doings. How Billie heard of the treasure
+and how she and her chums went in quest of the same is told in a
+peculiarly absorbing manner.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE LINGER-NOT SERIES
+
+By AGNES MILLER
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+This new series of girls' books is in a new style of story writing. The
+interest is in knowing the girls and seeing them solve the problems that
+develop their character. Incidentally, a great deal of historical
+information is imparted.
+
+1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE or The Story of Nine
+Adventurous Girls
+
+How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,
+but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club serve
+a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces a new
+type of girlhood.
+
+2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD or the Great West Point Chain
+
+The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or
+mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some
+surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the
+valley better because of their visit.
+
+3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST or The Log of the Ocean
+Monarch
+
+For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into
+the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader
+sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to
+come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
+
+4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARM or The Secret from Old
+Alaska
+
+Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied
+with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to
+solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to a
+sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES
+
+By LILIAN GARIS
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 50 cents. Postage 10 cents additional.
+
+The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated by the foremost
+organizations of America form the background for these stories and while
+unobtrusive there is a message in every volume.
+
+1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS or Winning the First B. C.
+
+A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
+girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
+The story is correct in scout detail.
+
+2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE or Maid Mary's Awakening
+
+The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
+girls' activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
+was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as "Maid
+Mary" makes a fascinating story.
+
+3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST or the Wig Wag Rescue
+
+Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
+seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
+all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
+
+4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG or Peg of Tamarack Hills
+
+The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
+Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
+up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
+
+5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE or Nora's Real Vacation
+
+Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
+for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed to
+appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif, becomes
+a problem for the girls to solve.
+
+Send for Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO GIRLS SERIES
+
+By MARGARET PENROSE
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors.
+
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.
+
+A new and up-to-date series, taking in the activities of several bright
+girls who become interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling
+exploits, outdoor life and the great part the Radio plays in the
+adventures of the girls and in solving their mysteries. Fascinating
+books that girls of all ages will want to read.
+
+1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN or A Strange Message from the Air
+
+Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in
+radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and
+how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air.
+A girl wanted as witness in a celebrated law case disappears, and the
+radio girls go to the rescue.
+
+2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM or Singing and Reciting at the Sending
+Station
+
+When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number
+who of us has not longed to "look behind the scenes" to see how it was
+done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending station manager
+and in this volume are permitted to get on the program, much to their
+delight. A tale full of action and fun.
+
+3. The RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND or The Wireless from the Steam
+Yacht
+
+In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation on
+an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big brother
+of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a pleasure
+party those on the island receive word by radio that the yacht is on
+fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
+
+4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE or The Strange Hut in the Swamp
+
+The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful lake
+and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids them
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