Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm
ooted, red-faced man, and he swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he carried as though he really intended using t
ing toward the log, and making the w
ou touch me, sir! Don't you dare!" she cried,
haps he had been drinking; at least, it was certain he was too a
halted,
psawed if th
you want-poor thing!" gasped Rut
med the man, harshly. "You know w
o you
, grinning suddenly and again snapping the whi
not tell you, sir," declared Ruth, rec
l whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at a level wit
ed Perkins. "Tell me about
n't k
t there in them
ou anything more
wo
It cracked, and then the snapper laid along the gir
could bear in silence. She turned to flee up the
ll cut ye worse than that," he prom
came tearing along the road, his bony horses at a hand-gallop. The old man, whom the gir
at gal, Sim Perkins?"
at to you,
out o' here or you'll git into tr
as to get way from the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No
nness," said the old stage driver. "And you'll git
tony school gals," growled Perkin
t of the lot," said Dolliver, an
of that brat 'o mine, then?" deman
to raise? I heard she couldn't stand you and Ma
t her," said Perkins, an
when he had gone. "What a
f wind. Mean as can be, but a big coward. Me
ed to have that poor gir
pose. Why, Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, if she wan
y her so," sa
liver was sly! "Then ye do know suth
something to eat-and a little mon
oughter helped a runaway. T
that poor girl back
olks ye can't really go agin'-not much. Sim owns a good farm, an' pays his taxes, an' ain'
ll ran away!" cried
ejaculated the stage dri
you won't tell anybody, will y
little eyes twinkling. "But you take my advi
t think of her lessons properly because of her pity for Sa
lash had touched her, she wondered how many times Perkins h
he girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about her. Ruth was not afraid of the dign
et the runaway girl to go with her to the principal's office. Surely the girl should not run wild in the wo
aby 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 a
ht Ruth, and she hid the package of food sh
id not appear. The food had not been touched. Ruth lef
l and slipped out ahead of the other girls. The food had been disturbed-oh
on which she and Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she could do, s
e of ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told her that the orphan had never
ted to make to Madge Steele's summer home-Sunrise Farm. The senior was forever singing the praises of her father's new acquisition. Mr. Steel
ried Madge, shaking her playfully. "We won't have any g
l I know myself," Ruth t
must be a regular ogr
th, with a quiet smile. "Mercy knows him
to think your Uncle Jabez is a very harsh
e can't get used to new-fashioned ways. He doesn't see any reason for my 'traipsing around' so much. I ought to be
he's as rich as can be and might hire
an't tell you yet for sure that I can go to Sunrise Farm.
r gets through with it. He's going to make it a great, big, paying farm-so he says. If it wasn
sed that Madge should speak so s
He won't sell. But I reckon father will find a way to make him, before he gets through. Fat
h wrote that he was "studyin' about it." But there was so much to do at Briarwood as the end of th
in the exercises which were to close the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was in a quartette selected from the
ub, would appear to much advantage at graduation. The upper senior class was in the limelig
like bumps on a log," growled Heavy. "Migh
something," advised one of the other girls,
p young lady. "I like music myself-I'm very fond of it, no mat
for the augmented orchestra and he insisted, because of the acoustics of the hall, upo
he saw it the first time. "
ercy Curtis. "It's the lookout station
too. There were so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer; and some, o
eeded 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
"Dear me! how very, very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid poor