Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: "IT'S A BEAUTIFUL OLD PLACE, HELEN," SIGHED RUTH.]
Ruth Fielding
at Briarwood Hall
OR
Solving the Campus Mystery
BY
ALICE B. EMERSON
AUTHOR OF "RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL,"
"RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Books for Girls
BY ALICE B. EMERSON
RUTH FIELDING SERIES
l2mo Cloth. Illustrated.
RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW LODGE
Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.
RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
CUPPLES & LEON Co., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. THE EXODUS
II. THE MAN WITH THE HARP
III. APPROACHING THE PROMISED LAND
IV. THE RIVALRY OF THE UPEDES AND THE FUSSY CURLS
V. THE DUET
VI. THE ENTERING WEDGE
VII. THE UPEDES
VIII. THE MARBLE HARP
IX. THE GHOSTLY TRIBUNAL
X. SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS
XI. THE VOICE OF THE HARP
XII. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
XIII. BEGINNINGS
XIV. THE SWEETBRIARS
XV. THE NIGHT OF HARPOCRATES
XVI. THE HAWK AMONG THE CHICKENS
XVII. GOODY TWO-STICKS
XVIII. THE MYSTERY AGAIN
XIX. THE TRIUMVIRATE
XX. AT TRITON LAKE
XXI. ON THE ICE
XXII. THE HARPIST ONCE MORE
XXIII. THE SECRET
XXIV. WHO IS THE "TATTLE-TALE?"
XXV. GETTING ON
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
CHAPTER I
THE EXODUS
The sun was a regular lie-abed on this Autumn morning, banked about by
soft clouds and draperies of mist; but they glowed pink along the
horizon--perhaps blushing for Old Sol's delinquency. The mist hung
tenderly over the river, too--indeed, it masked the entire Valley of
the Lumano--lying thick and dank upon the marshes and the low meadows,
but wreathed more lightly about the farmhouses and their outbuildings,
and the fodder and haystacks upon the higher ground.
But suddenly the sun flung off the bedclothes and leaped right into the
sky. That long, low bank of cloud that had been masking him, melted
away and the shreds of mist were burned up in a hurry as his warm rays
spread abroad, taking the entire valley in their arms.
Farmhouses, where the kitchen chimney smoke had been rising straightly
into the air, immediately put on a new bustle. Doors opened and shut.
There was the stamping of horses in the stables as they crunched their
corn; cows lowed as the milk-pails rattled; sheep baa-a-ed in their
folds, and the swine, fearing that some other of the farm stock would
get _their_ share of the breakfast, squealed in eager anticipation.
On a knoll by the river side stood the rambling buildings belonging to
Jabez Potter, who kept the Red Mill. The great wheel beside the mill
end of the main structure had not yet begun to turn, but there was
plenty of bustle about the pleasant house.
The sun had scarcely popped up when a very pretty, bright-looking girl
ran out upon the porch and gazed earnestly along the road that followed
the Lumano toward Osago Lake. She looked out from under a shielding
hand, for the sun was in her eyes. Around the corner of the house came
a tall, dark-faced man whose long jaws were cleanly shaven and deeply
lined. His clothing was full of milldust and it seemed to have been
ground into his face for so many years that it was now a part of the
grain and texture of his skin. He did not smile at the girl as he said:
"You ain't looking for them yet; air you, Ruth? It's much too early.
Help your Aunt Alviry put breakfast on the table. She'll hev it all to
do when you're gone."
The tone was stern, but the girl seemed to be used to it, for her face
did not cloud over, and the smiles rippled about her mouth as she
replied:
"I'm so full of happiness, Uncle Jabez, that you mustn't mind if I'm
looking for Helen and Tom ahead of time. It doesn't seem possible that
I am actually going with them."
"It seems real enough to me," grumbled Jabez Potter. "I hope you'll
get enough out of it to pay us for all the trouble and cost of your
going--that I do."
But even this seemingly unkind speech did not ruffle the girl's temper.
"You wait and see, Uncle Jabez--you just wait and see," she said,
nodding to him. "I'll prove it the best investment you ever made."
He didn't smile--Jabez Potter was not one of the smiling kind; but his
face relaxed and his eyes twinkled a little.
"I sha'n't look for cent. per cent. interest on my money, Niece Ruth,"
he said, and stumped into the house in his heavy boots.
Ruth Fielding, who had come to the Red Mill only a few months before,
having lost all other relatives but her great-uncle, who owned the
mill, ran into the kitchen, too, where a little old woman, with bent
back and very bright eyes, was hovering over the stove. The breakfast
was ready to be served and this little woman was pottering about,
muttering to herself a continual complaining phrase:
"Oh, my back and oh, my bones!"
Aunt Alvirah Boggs (who was everybody's Aunt Alvirah, but no blood
relation to either Ruth or her uncle) was not a morose person, however,
despite her rheumatic troubles. She smiled on Ruth and patted her hand
as the girl sat down beside her at the table.
"Seems like we'd be lost without our pretty leetle creetur about," said
Aunt Alvirah. "I don't see what the old house will do without her."
"I'll be home at Thanksgiving--if Uncle will let me," said Ruth,
quickly, and glancing at the old man; "and again at Christmas, and at
Easter. Why, the intervals will go like _that_," and she snapped her
fingers.
"All this junketing up and down the country will cost money, Niece
Ruth," admonished Uncle Jabez.
He was, by nature, a very close and careful man with money--a reputed
miser, in fact. And that he did hoard up money, and loved it for
itself, must be confessed. When he had lost a cash-box he kept in the
mill, containing money and other valuables, it had been a great trouble
to Uncle Jabez. But through a fortuitous train of circumstances Ruth
Fielding had recovered the cash-box for him, with its contents
untouched. It was really because he considered himself in her debt for
this act, and that he prided himself upon paying his debts, that Jabez
Potter had come to agree that Ruth should go away to school.
He had not done the thing in a niggardly way, when once he gave his
consent. Ruth's new trunk was at the Cheslow railroad station and in
it was an adequate supply of such frocks and necessities as a girl of
her age would need in the school to which she was bound. Her ticket
was bought, too, and in her purse was a crisp ten-dollar note--both
purse and money being a special present from Uncle Jabez.
Ruth had learned that the miller was by no means as grim as he looked,
and she likewise knew that now he was kindly disposed toward her and
really was doing a great deal for her. She was determined to never be
ungrateful to Uncle Jabez for satisfying the greatest longing she had
ever had--to go to Briarwood Hall, a boarding school.
Suddenly a young man put his head in at the kitchen door, grinned, and
said:
"They're a-comin', Miss Ruthie. I see 'em up the road."
Ruth jumped up at once and ran for her coat and hat.
"There, child!" cried Aunt Alvirah, "ye haven't eaten enough breakfast
to keep a fly alive. Lucky I've got a good basket of lunch put up for
ye. It'll be a long journey--by train, boat, and stage coach. You'll
be hungry enough before ye git there---- Oh, my back and oh, my
bones!" she added, as she hobbled to the dresser for the luncheon box.
Ruth flashed back into the room and cried to the youth on the porch:
"Is the car really in sight, Ben?"
"It's almost here, Miss."
Indeed, they could hear the purring of a motor-car coming up the river
road. Ruth flung her arms about Uncle Jabez's neck, although he did
not rise from the table where he was methodically putting his breakfast
away as though nothing unusual was happening.
"You've been a dear, good uncle to me," she whispered, "and I love you
for it. I'll be careful of the money, and I'll get all the learning I
can for the money you pay out--now just you see if I don't!"
"I ain't sure that it'll do either of us much good," grumbled Uncle
Jabez, and he did not even follow her to the door as she ran out.
But Aunt Alvirah hobbled after her, and pressed her close before she
would let the girl run down the walk.
"Blessin's on ye, ye pretty creetur," she crooned over Ruth. "I'll
think of ye ev'ry moment ye air away. This is your home, Ruthie; ye
ain't got nary 'nother--don't fergit that. And yer old A'nt Alviry'll
be waitin' for ye here, an' jest longin' for the time when ye come
home."
Ruth kissed her again and again. Two excited young voices called to
her from the automobile.
"Come on! Come on, Ruth. Do come away!"
She kissed Aunt Alvirah once more, waved her hand to bashful Ben, who
was Uncle Jabez's man-of-all-work, and ran down to the waiting car. In
the seat beside the chauffeur was a bright-looking, black-haired boy in
a military uniform of blue, who seized her lunch basket and handbag and
put them both in a safe place. In the tonneau was a plainly dressed
lady and a brilliantly pretty girl perhaps a year older than Ruth.
This young lady received the girl from the Red Mill rapturously when
she sprang into the tonneau, and hugged her tightly as the car started
on. She was Ruth's dearest friend, Helen Cameron. It was her brother
Tom in front, and the lady was Mrs. Murchiston, who had been the
governess of the Cameron twins since their babyhood, and was now to
remain in the great house--"Outlook"--Mr. Macy Cameron's home, as
housekeeper, while his son and daughter were away at school.
For Tom was bound for Seven Oaks Military Academy, and that was only
ten miles, or so, this side of Lumberton, near which was situated
Briarwood Hall, the boarding school which was the girls' destination.
Tom had attended Cheslow High School for a year; but Ruth and Helen
were about equally advanced in their studies and expected to be both
roommates and classmates at the Hall.
Ruth stood up in the car as it rolled up the hill toward Cheslow and
looked back at the Red Mill. She fluttered her handkerchief as long as
she could see the little figure of Aunt Alvirah on the porch. Uncle
Jabez came out and strode down the path to the mill. Then the car shot
around a curve in the road and the scene was blotted out.
How much was to happen to her before she saw the Red Mill again!