CHAPTER IV--"THEM PERKINSES"
It was a fact that Ruth crouched back behind the log, fearful of thewrathful farmer. He was a big, coarse, high-booted, red-faced man, andhe swung and snapped the blacksnake whip he carried as though he reallyintended using the cruel instrument upon the tender body of the girl,whose figure he had evidently seen dimly through the bushes.
"Come out 'o that!" he bawled, striding toward the log, and making thewhiplash whistle once more in the air.
Ruth leaped up, screaming with fear. "Don't you touch me, sir! Don't youdare!" she cried, and ran around the bushes out in to the road.
The blundering farmer followed her, still snapping the whip. Perhaps hehad been drinking; at least, it was certain he was too angry to see thegirl very well until they were both in the road.
Then he halted, and added:
"I'll be whipsawed if that's the gal!"
"I am _not_ the girl--not the girl you want--poor thing!" gasped Ruth."Oh! you are horrid--terrible----"
"Shut up, ye little fool!" exclaimed the man, harshly. "You know whereSade is, then, I'll be bound."
"How do you know----?"
"Ha! ye jest the same as told me," he returned, grinning suddenly andagain snapping the whip. "You can tell me where that runaway's gone."
"I don't know. Even if I did, I would not tell you, sir," declared Ruth,recovering some of her natural courage now.
"Don't ye sass me--nor don't ye lie to me," and this time he swung thecruel whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at alevel with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth cringed and shriekedaloud again.
"Stop yer howling!" commanded Perkins. "Tell me about Sade Raby. Where'sshe gone?"
"I don't know."
"Warn't she right there in them bushes with you?"
"I shan't tell you anything more," declared Ruth.
"Ye won't?"
The brute swung the blacksnake--this time in earnest. It cracked, andthen the snapper laid along the girl's forearm as though it were searedwith a hot iron.
Ruth shrieked again. The pain was more than she could bear in silence.She turned to flee up the Cedar Walk, but Perkins shouted at her tostand.
"You try ter run, my beauty, and I'll cut ye worse than that," hepromised. "You tell me about Sade Raby."
Suddenly there came a hail, and Ruth turned in hope of assistance. OldDolliver's stage came tearing along the road, his bony horses at ahand-gallop. The old man, whom the girls of Briarwood Hall called "UncleNoah," brought his horses--and the Ark--to a sudden halt.
"What yer doin' to that gal, Sim Perkins?" the old man demanded.
"What's that to you, Dolliver?"
"You'll find out mighty quick. Git out o' here or you'll git intotrouble. Did he hurt you, Miss Ruth?"
"No-o--not much," stammered Ruth, who desired nothing so much as to getway from the awful Mr. Perkins. Poor Sadie Raby! No wonder she had beenforced to run away from "them Perkinses."
"I'll see you jailed yet, Sim, for some of your meanness," said the oldstage driver. "And you'll git there quick if you bother Mis'Tellingham's gals----"
"I didn't know she was one 'o them tony school gals," growled Perkins,getting aboard his wagon again.
"Well, she is--an' one 'o the best of the lot," said Dolliver, and hesmiled comfortably at Ruth.
"Huh! whad-she wanter be in comp'ny of that brat 'o mine, then?"demanded Perkins, gathering up his reins.
"Oh! are you hunting that orphanage gal ye took to raise? I heard shecouldn't stand you and Ma Perkins no longer," Dolliver said, withsarcasm.
"Never you mind. I'll git her," said Perkins, and whipped up his horses.
"Oh, dear, me!" cried Ruth, when he had gone. "What a terrible man, Mr.Dolliver."
"Yah!" scoffed the old driver. "Jest a bag of wind. Mean as can be, buta big coward. Meanes' folks around here, them Perkinses air."
"But why were they allowed to have that poor girl, then?" demanded Ruth.
"They went a-fur off to git her. Clean to Harburg. Nobody knowed 'emthere, I s'pose. Why, Ma Perkins kin act like butter wouldn't melt inher mouth, if she wants to. But I sartainly am sorry for that poorlittle Sade Raby, as they call her."
"Oh! I do pity her so," said Ruth, sadly.
The old man's eyes twinkled. Old Dolliver was sly! "Then ye _do_ knowsuthin' about Sade--jes' as Perkins said?"
"She was here just now. I gave her something to eat--and a little money.You won't tell, Mr. Dolliver?"
"Huh! No. But dunno's ye'd oughter helped a runaway. That's agin' thelaw, ye see."
"Would the law give that poor girl back to those ugly people?"
"I s'pect so," said Dolliver, scratching his head. "Ye see, Sim Perkinsan' his wife air folks ye can't really go agin'--not _much_. Sim owns agood farm, an' pays his taxes, an' ain't a bad neighbor. But they've hadtrouble before naow with orphans. But before, 'twas boys."
"I just hope they all ran away!" cried Ruth, with emphasis.
"Wal--they did, by golly!" ejaculated the stage driver, preparing todrive on.
"And if you see this poor girl, you won't tell anybody, will you, Mr.Dolliver?" pleaded Ruth.
"I jes' sha'n't see her," said the man, his little eyes twinkling. "Butyou take my advice, Miss Fielding--don't _you_ see her, nuther!"
Ruth ran back to the school then--it was time. She could not think of herlessons properly because of her pity for Sadie Raby. Suppose that horridman should find the poor girl!
Every time Ruth saw the red welt on her arm, where the whiplash hadtouched her, she wondered how many times Perkins had lashed Sadie whenhe was angry. It was a dreadful thought.
Although she had promised Sadie to keep her secret, Ruth wondered if shemight not do the girl some good by telling Mrs. Tellingham about her.Ruth was not afraid of the dignified principal of Briarwood Hall--sheknew too well Mrs. Grace Tellingham's good heart.
She determined at least that if Sadie appeared at the end of the CedarWalk the next day she would try to get the runaway girl to go with herto the principal's office. Surely the girl should not run wild in thewoods and live any way and how she could--especially so early in theseason, for there was still frost at night.
When Ruth ran down the long walk between the cedar trees the nextforenoon at ten, there was nobody peering through the bushes where SadieRaby had watched the day before. Ruth went up and down the road, intothe woods a little way, too--and called, and called. No reply. Nothinganswered but a chattering squirrel and a jay who seemed to object to anyhuman being disturbing the usual tenor of the woods' life thereabout.
"Perhaps she'll come this afternoon," thought Ruth, and she hid thepackage of food she had brought, and went back to her classes.
In the afternoon she had no better luck. The runaway did not appear. Thefood had not been touched. Ruth left the packet, hoping sadly that thegirl might find it.
The next morning she went again. She even got up an hour earlier thanusual and slipped out ahead of the other girls. The food had beendisturbed--oh, yes! But by a dog or some "varmint." Sadie had not been tothe rendezvous.
Hoping against hope, Ruth Fielding tacked a note in an envelope to thelog on which she and Sadie had sat side by side. That was all she coulddo, save to go each day for a time to see if the strange girl had foundthe note.
There came a rain and the letter was turned to pulp. Then Ruth Fieldinggave up hope of ever seeing Sadie Raby again. Old Dolliver told her thatthe orphan had never returned to "them Perkinses." For this Ruth mightbe thankful, if for nothing more.
The busy days and weeks passed. All the girls of Ruth's clique werewriting back and forth to their homes to arrange for the visit theyexpected to make to Madge Steele's summer home--Sunrise Farm. The seniorwas forever singing the praises of her father's new acquisition. Mr.Steele had closed contracts to buy several of the neighboring farms, sothat, altogether, he hoped to have more than a thousand acres in hisestate.
"And, don't you _dare_ disappoint me, Ruthie Fi
elding," cried Madge,shaking her playfully. "We won't have any good time without you, and youhaven't said you'd go yet!"
"But I can't say so until I know myself," Ruth told her. "Uncle Jabez----"
"That uncle of yours must be a regular ogre, just as Helen says."
"What does Mercy say about him?" asked Ruth, with a quiet smile. "Mercyknows him fully as well, and she has a sharp tongue."
"Humph! that's odd, too. She doesn't seem to think your Uncle Jabez is avery harsh man. She calls him 'Dusty Miller,' I know."
"Uncle Jabez has a prickly rind, I guess," said Ruth. "But the meatinside is sweet. Only he's old-fashioned and he can't get used tonew-fashioned ways. He doesn't see any reason for my 'traipsing around'so much. I ought to be at the mill between schooltimes, helping AuntAlvirah--so he says. And I am afraid he is right. I feel condemned----"
"You're too tender-hearted. Helen says he's as rich as can be and mighthire a dozen girls to help 'Aunt Alviry'."
"He might, but he wouldn't," returned Ruth, smiling. "I can't tell youyet for sure that I can go to Sunrise Farm. I'd love to. I've alwaysheard 'twas a beautiful place."
"And it is, indeed! It's going to be the finest gentleman's estate inthat section, when father gets through with it. He's going to make it agreat, big, paying farm--so he says. If it wasn't for that man Caslon,we'd own the whole hill all the way around, as well as the top of it."
"Who's that?" asked Ruth, surprised that Madge should speak so sharplyabout the unknown Caslon.
"Why, he owns one of the farms adjoining. Father's bought all theneighbors up but Caslon. _He_ won't sell. But I reckon father will finda way to make him, before he gets through. Father usually carries hispoint," added Madge, with much pride in Mr. Steele's business acumen.
Uncle Jabez had not yet said Ruth could go with the crowd to theSteeles' summer home; Aunt Alvirah wrote that he was "studyin' aboutit." But there was so much to do at Briarwood as the end of the schoolyear approached, that the girl of the Red Mill had little time to worryabout the subject.
Although Ruth and Helen Cameron were far from graduation themselves,they both had parts of some prominence in the exercises which were toclose the year at Briarwood Hall. Ruth was in a quartette selected fromthe Glee Club for some special music, and Helen had a small violin solopart in one of the orchestral numbers.
Not many of the juniors, unless they belonged to either the schoolorchestra or the Glee Club, would appear to much advantage atgraduation. The upper senior class was in the limelight--and Madge Steelewas the only one of Ruth's close friends who was to receive her diploma.
"We who aren't seniors have to sit around like bumps on a log," growledHeavy. "Might as well go home for good the day before."
"You should have learned to play, or sing, or something," advised one ofthe other girls, laughing at Heavy's apparently woebegone face.
"Did you ever hear me try to sing, Lluella?" demanded the plump younglady. "I like music myself--I'm very fond of it, no matter how it sounds!But I can't even stand my own chest-tones."
Preparations for the great day went on apace. There was to be aprofessional director for the augmented orchestra and he insisted,because of the acoustics of the hall, upon building an elevatedextension to the stage, upon which to stand to conduct the music.
"Gee!" gasped Heavy, when she saw it the first time. "What's thediving-board for?"
"That's not a diving-board," snapped Mercy Curtis. "It's the lookoutstation for the captain to watch the high C's."
The bustle and confusion of departure punctuated the final day of theterm, too. There were so many girls to say good-bye to for the summer;and some, of course, would never come back to Briarwood Hall again--asscholars, at least.
In the midst of the excitement Ruth received a letter in the crabbedhand of dear old Aunt Alvirah. The old lady enclosed a small moneyorder, fearing that Ruth might not have all the money she needed for herhome-coming. But the best item in the letter beside the expression ofAunt Alvirah's love, was the statement that "Your Uncle Jabe, he's comeround to agreeing you should go to that Sunrise Farm place with youryoung friends. I made him let me hire a tramping girl that came by, andwe got the house all rid up, so when you come home, my pretty, all yougot to do is to visit."
"And I _will_ visit with her--the unselfish old dear!" Ruth told herself."Dear me! how very, very good everybody is to me. But I am afraid poorUncle Jabez wouldn't be so kind if he wasn't influenced by AuntAlvirah."
Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm; Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans Page 5
