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