Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods

wn Rolling River when I was a little shaver; but marm hung on till I got growed. Ya-as! I mean till I g

ods have to cut their own vittles pretty airly. I was doin' a man'

was a wilder country then than it is now, and I never see a soul, nor heard the sound of an axe in walking four miles. Just at the end o' them four miles," continued Long Jerry, his eyes twinkling, "there was a turn in

he smile on thet thar b'ar's face and the way she spread her arms w

been scared to death!" gasp

assiety I natcherly balked when that ol' she b'ar appeared so lovin'. I had pretty nigh walked right into her arms and there wasn't much chance to make any particular preparations. Fact was, I didn't

t!" giggled Ruth.

seen at once what she'd do to me if she got me, so I left them parts, an' left 'em quick! I started off through the woods, hittin' only the high spots, and fancied I could beat th

big tree she'd race me to the top of it and get me, too. Ye see, a small-round tree was my only chance. A b'ar

it did seem to me as though she'd have a chunk out o' me afore I could climb out o' reach. It was j

to the tree and tried to scrape me off with both paws. She missed me by half a fraction of an infinitessimal part of an inch -that's a good word, th

" laughed Ruth, highly delig

r was chawin' of me. I felt I was pretty numb like below my waist. And how I did stretch up that tree! No wonder I g

reat strips. She cleaned the pole, as far up as she could reach, as clean as a bald man's head. She jumped as far as she could, gnashed her teeth, and tried he

ked up to see how fur I was gettin' toward the top, so, all of a suddent-like, the tree top begun to bend over with me an' sumpin' snapped. 'Twarn't my

inks over all his hull endurin' life when he's goin' down. I believe it. Sure I do. 'Twarn't twenty feet from the top o' that tree to the ground, but I even remembered how I stole my sister Jane's rag baby

Ruth. "Falling right

aws. The next thing I done was to land square on her back-I swanny! that was a crack. Purty nigh drove my spine up through the top of my head, it did. And the ol' b'ar must ha' been mighty sorry arterwards that she was right there

begun to grow so tall, Miss," he added. "Stretchin' an' st

glad to fall in with the suggestion of bed. She was put to sleep in a great, plainly furnished room, where t

he sun shone broadly on the clearing about the camp when she f

's ate long ago and Janey's fussin' in the kitchen. Besides, the folks will be ov

ried the girl from t

lling himself Fred Hatfield, and the catamount, on the timber cart, and later her first long walk on snow-shoes, had together strained

ck and oh,

ding forget small troubles. Besides, the muscles of youth are elastic and the weariness soon went out of her bones. Before the party arrived

d most of the upper rooms, very comfortable indeed. The walls of this hall were hung with snowshoes, Canadian toboggans-so light, apparently, that they would not hold one man, let alone four, but

ith the old hermit, and the boy who called himself Fred Hatfield, they had come down a long incline in sight of the camp. Now, Ruth saw that a course had been made level upon that hillside, banked up on

all these things sleig

to welcome