Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island; Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box

oars were perfectly safe before any of the teachers arrived. With them came R

s the moment she could get ashore. "If she hadn't known how to fling a la

he ranch, who knows what to do when folks ar

rn girl so meanly about the dunce cap had been in the boat, and they asked Ann to

ent back to play with the little ones. Meanwhile she showed Ruth where Jerry

erry's rough hand. "I was afraid I wouldn't be able t

t I ain't got no call to expect it. Mr. Potter was pretty

n't got to tr

ay hopin' I'd hit it at Lumberton. But they're disch

work in the woods than anyw

un, and I'm a good camp cook. I can't get a guide's license, but I

ng right where you've always lived-a

d, flushing deeply. "I wouldn't work for

f my chums has invited me to go to Cliff Island for the Christmas hol

s!" ejacul

mmented. "Now, you wouldn't refuse

is that t

through Belle, to hire you.

te!" excla

ng there ourselves. I think it would just be jolly to have y

m," agreed Jerry.

earnestly. "I am not quite sure that I can go myself, yet. But I'll know for sure in a few days. And I'll see if Belle won't ask

Uncle Pete, the landslide at the west end of the island buried his tr

here caves on

cle Pete wasn't plumb crazy, he had his money

my talking with 'a strange young man' so long," laughed Ru

will. And tha

t of funds? Yo

y, smiling. "Thanks to that nice black-eye

s, because she knew how to fling a rope," cried Ruth, looking

siastically. "They ought to be proud

d Ruth. "I am so glad. Now, I must run.

up the children's swing and at first had paid little attention to the enthusiasm of the

e'd all be in the water, sure enough, if you hadn't got that ro

r. Flinging that rope didn't make any

d taken a prominent part in the dunce cap trick. "You make me awfully ashamed of

she was not naturally a bad-tempered girl. She was just d

er of friendliness, made her feel more awkward than ev

her start. Somebody beside the "primes" gave her "the glad hand and the smil

em" once that she could do something the ordinary eastern girl could not do and Ann

sed as the term advanced. Her lessons,

mped hand-writing which assured her that Uncle Jabez would make no objecti

ece, if the sperit so moves him," wrote Aunt Alvirah, in her old-fashioned

tation for the frolic, Ruth diffidently put forward h

"He has worked for my uncle, and Uncle Jabez prais

ghed Belle. "You're an odd girl, Ruth. You're

be," interposed Mercy, in her sharp way.

few days' work near the school, that he could go back to Cliff Island and present himself to Mr. Tingley's f