CHAPTER XXV
HOLIDAYS--CONCLUSION
It was rather fortunate that Ralph Birdsall had shot way his lastcartridge in killing the fox three nights before from the garretwindow of Red Deer Lodge. Otherwise he might have hurt Tom Jonah.
For the old dog scrambled through the drift ahead of the searchingparty that had started out as soon as the gale ceased. Tom Jonah waspretty near crazy--or he acted so.
Barking and leaping, the dog threw himself upon Ralph and tumbled himover. He was prodigal with his expressions of joy and affection, goingfrom one to the other of the five children, and in his boisterousnesstumbling them in heaps.
"I never did! Tom Jonah! why don't you behave?" demanded Tess. "And Ihave been telling Rowdy and Rafe, these nice boys, just how good andsmart you are."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" gasped Sammy, finally getting his breath. "Theyain't boys!"
"Who aren't boys?" asked Tess, wonderingly.
"Well--well, _this_ one isn't," said Sammy, pointing at Rowdy. "He's agirl, that's what he is."
"Why, Rowdy! I _thought_ there was something funny about you," TessKenway said. "You--you were so much nicer than boys are. I declare!"
But this point was discussed no further at the time. For into theentrance to the cave came tumbling Neale O'Neil and Luke Shepard,covered with snow and shouting their joy, while behind them was IkeM'Graw.
"Ralph! Roweny!" shouted the old timber cruiser. "Jest what sort ofdoin's do you call this?"
Neale and Luke greeted the three lost Milton children with vehemence.Afterward Sammy confessed that maybe it was a good thing to get lost,for then you found out how much folks thought of you.
These three, with Tom Jonah, made up the searching party this time.They had come away from Red Deer Lodge without letting the others knowwhere they were going.
It was really Agnes who started them off on the right trail. While thegale still rocked Red Deer Lodge in its arms and nobody could go outof doors, Agnes remembered about the fork in the road where she andher friends had coasted.
"If the little ones tried to slide, they might have taken that wrongroad," she said. "They could have slid right into it without knowing.Where does it go, Mr. M'Graw?"
It did not take Ike long to study out what she meant. Then he did somemore "figgering." He knew exactly where the branch road led to.
He was so successful in this figuring that he encouraged the youngpeople from Milton to believe as he did. He saw a chance for the threelittle folks who had gone sliding to be safely housed in the cave thathe called "Ralph and little Missie's playhouse."
The Birdsall twins had often camped out in that cave hollowed in thehillside at the bottom of the valley. If Sammy and Tess and Dot hadslid down there, more than likely, so Ike said, they had found thecave and had taken refuge there.
In addition (but this was his own secret) the timber cruiser believedthat the twins, having been in Red Deer Lodge, had started for thatvery cave some hours before the gale broke.
If the young Birdsalls were there, the lost children would be safeenough. This had proved to be the case.
Nevertheless, the old woodsman scolded Ralph and Rowena heartily.
"What d'you mean?" he demanded, "by running way from your guardian!Mr. Howbridge is as fine a man as ever stepped in shoe-leather. I'mashamed of you children. And when you did come clean up here, whydidn't you come to my shack and stay?"
"We did go there; but you were away. Then we thought we had a right tolive in our own house. You know papa built it," said Rowena, bravely."We didn't know anybody was coming there this winter. And we broughtsome food with us from Coxford. Then those people came, and we waitedtill we could get out without being caught at it."
"Some young ones! Some young ones!" groaned M'Graw. "Well, now, you'llgo back to the Lodge and see what Mr. Howbridge has to say to you. Andyou dressed like a boy, Roweny!"
"I don't care," said "Rowdy." "Ralph dressed up like a girl at first.We came up here that way. But other kids picked on us so that Ithought I'd better be a boy as well as Ralph. And we had these clothesat Red Deer Lodge. I make as good a boy as he does a girl."
"Say!" asked Neale O'Neil, vastly interested, "you two stopped a weekat the village on the ice and fished, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Rowena.
"And you were girls there?"
"Yes."
"Well," said Neale, laughing now, "what I want to know is, which ofyou it was that thrashed those two boys that tried to steal yourset-lines?"
"That was Rowena!" croaked Ralph from the bed. "I acted just like agirl ought to and let them take the lines; but Rowena fought them, andlicked them good, too!"
There was a deal of talk after that, but most of it was done followingthe arrival of the party at Red Deer Lodge. As soon as that hadoccurred, however, and Mrs. MacCall had heard Ralph cough and heardabout the itching, she made an examination.
"There!" she declared, half an hour later after she had put the boybetween blankets and given him a hot drink, "I might have knownsomething would happen if we came up to this out-of-the-world place."
"I should think something had happened!" murmured Ruth, who still heldDot in her lap and hugged her as though she could not let her goagain. "What is the matter with Ralph?"
"Chickenpox. And it's coming out thick on him right this minute."
"Oh! Oh! _Chickens?_" gasped the smallest Corner House girl. "Are theyroosting on him? No wonder Rafe scratched."
"And like enough you'll be scratching my lassie," said the Scotchwoman. "One an' all of you. I never knew it to fail. If one bairn getsit, all the others in the neighborhood catches it."
Nor was she a poor prophet. All the little folks, even Rowena,developed mild cases of chickenpox and were kept in the house for mostof the holidays.
Holidays they were, nevertheless. Perhaps the little Corner House folkhad never had so good a time over Christmas and New Year's. Ralph andRowena Birdsall proved to be rollicking, good-natured children, andthey felt themselves at home at Red Deer Lodge and could entertainTess and Dot and Sammy Pinkney.
"We won't blame them for giving us chicken scratches," said Dot toTess. "At least, Ralph did. But he couldn't help it. And mine's mostgone, anyway."
The "older young folks," as Mr. Howbridge called them, had mostdelightful times out of doors, as well as in. There was four or fivefeet of snow on the ground, on the level, and it was packed hardenough to make splendid snow-shoeing.
Ike M'Graw had plenty of snowshoes, and he taught them all how to usethem. When they became adept he led them in short jaunts all about thesection in which Red Deer Lodge was situated.
The boys went out with him at night, hunting. Neale and Luke bothkilled rabbits, and Neale shot a bigger fox than the one RalphBirdsall had knocked over.
Those were wonderful days; but the nights were still more wonderful,for they were moon-lighted for most of the holiday time.
There is nothing better than coasting by moonlight, and of that sportRuth, Agnes and Cecile, as well as the two boys, had their fill.
Nor did they overlook the two holidays, Christmas and New Year's. Ikecut and trimmed a huge Christmas tree and that was set up in the mainhall of the Lodge and decorated in a most beautiful manner. Presentshad been brought up from Milton for everybody. And although Ralph andRowena Birdsall and Ike M'Graw were "added entries," as Luke said,they were not allowed to feel slighted when the presents were givenout on Christmas night.
A big sledge came through from Coxford two days after Christmas, andthis brought additional supplies for the party at Red Deer Lodge.There came on the sledge, too, the red-faced Mr. Neven who wished tobuy the standing timber on a part of the Birdsall tract.
There was much talk between the lumberman, Mr. Howbridge and M'Grawregarding the timber. But Ike proved himself a good "figgerer" in moreways than one. The lawyer remained determined to accept the old timbercruiser's report as correct and finally Neven came to their terms.
Before the holiday of the Mil
ton party was ended, a big gang oflumbermen came up the tote-road from Coxford and the lake, ready toset up a camp in the valley near the twins' cave, and finish theseason by cutting over several acres of the Birdsall piece.
"I won't want to see our place up here again until the new timber isgrown," cried Rowena, mournfully.
"Then you'll have to wait till we get through college," Ralph toldher. "Mr. Howbridge is going to have us live with him till we go tocollege. But I expect he'll bring us up here once in a while if youchange your mind, Rowdy, and want to come."
"Don't call me 'Rowdy,' Ralph," said his sister. "That was only forour trip up here. And, anyhow, I am not going to be a boy--never--anymore!"
"We're going to have a lot to tell the kids back home," remarked SammyPinkney one day before they left Red Deer Lodge. "Je-ru-sa-_lem_!think of that long slide, Tess."
"But it ended bad," said Tess.
"It ended good!" cried the boy. "Didn't we find Ralph and Rowena, andlive in a cave, and eat rabbit stew, and--"
"And get chicken scratches," put in Dot. "But mine don't scratch anynow. The chickens went away quick."
THE END
CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS
(From eight to twelve years old)
THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SERIES
BY GRACE BROOKS HILL
Four girls from eight to fourteen years of age receive word that arich bachelor uncle has died, leaving them the old Corner House heoccupied. They move into it and then the fun begins. What they findand do will provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, they enter school andmake many friends. One of these invites the girls to spend a few weeksat a bungalow owned by her parents; and the adventures they meet withmake very interesting reading. Clean, wholesome stories of humor andadventure, sure to appeal to all young girls.
1 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS. 2 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL. 3 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. 4 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY. 5 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS' ODD FIND. 6 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR. 7 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP. 8 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND. 9 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT. 10 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES. 11 CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND.
BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y.
THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES
BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL
Polly Pendleton is a resourceful, wide-awake American girl who goes toa boarding school on the Hudson River some miles above New York. Byher pluck and resourcefulness, she soon makes a place for herself andthis she holds right through the course. The account of boardingschool life is faithful and pleasing and will attract every girl inher teens.
1 POLLY'S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL 2 POLLY'S SUMMER VACATION 3 POLLY'S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL 4 POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR 5 POLLY AND LOIS 6 POLLY AND BOB
Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated.
BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y.
CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES
By LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE
Chicken Little Jane is a Western prairie girl who lives a happy,outdoor life in a country where there is plenty of room to turnaround. She is a wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly winher way into the hearts of other girls. And what good times shehas!--with her pets, her friends, and her many interests. "ChickenLittle" is the affectionate nickname given to her when she is very,very good, but when she misbehaves it is "Jane"--just Jane!
Adventures of Chicken Little Jane Chicken Little Jane on the "Big John" Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town
With numerous illustrations in pen and ink
By CHARLES D. HUBBARD
BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y.
DOROTHY WHITEHILL SERIES FOR GIRLS
Here is a sparkling new series of stories for girls--just what theywill like, and ask for more of the same kind. It is all about twinsisters, who for the first few years in their lives grow up inignorance of each other's existence. Then they are at last broughttogether and things begin to happen. Janet is an independent go-aheadsort of girl; while her sister Phyllis is--but meet the twins foryourself and be entertained.
6 Titles, Cloth, large 12mo.
Covers in color.
1. JANET, A TWIN 2. PHYLLIS, A TWIN 3. THE TWINS IN THE WEST 4. THE TWINS IN THE SOUTH 5. THE TWINS' SUMMER VACATION 6. THE TWINS AND TOMMY JR.
BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS NEWARK, N. J.--NEW YORK, N. Y.
The Corner House Girls Snowbound Page 25
