HOLIDAYS--CONCLUSION
It was rather fortunate that Ralph Birdsall had shot way his last
cartridge in killing the fox three nights before from the garret
window of Red Deer Lodge. Otherwise he might have hurt Tom Jonah.
For the old dog scrambled through the drift ahead of the searching
party that had started out as soon as the gale ceased. Tom Jonah was
pretty near crazy--or he acted so.
Barking and leaping, the dog threw himself upon Ralph and tumbled him
over. He was prodigal with his expressions of joy and affection, going
from one to the other of the five children, and in his boisterousness
tumbling them in heaps.
"I never did! Tom Jonah! why don't you behave?" demanded Tess. "And I
have been telling Rowdy and Rafe, these nice boys, just how good and
smart you are."
"Je-ru-sa-_lem_!" gasped Sammy, finally getting his breath. "They
ain't boys!"
"Who aren't boys?" asked Tess, wonderingly.
"Well--well, _this_ one isn't," said Sammy, pointing at Rowdy. "He's a
girl, that's what he is."
"Why, Rowdy! I _thought_ there was something funny about you," Tess
Kenway said. "You--you were so much nicer than boys are. I declare!"
But this point was discussed no further at the time. For into the
entrance to the cave came tumbling Neale O'Neil and Luke Shepard,
covered with snow and shouting their joy, while behind them was Ike
M'Graw.
"Ralph! Roweny!" shouted the old timber cruiser. "Jest what sort of
doin'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 know
where they were going.
It was really Agnes who started them off on the right trail. While the
gale still rocked Red Deer Lodge in its arms and nobody could go out
of doors, Agnes remembered about the fork in the road where she and
her friends had coasted.
"If the little ones tried to slide, they might have taken that wrong
road," 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 some
more "figgering." He knew exactly where the branch road led to.
He was so successful in this figuring that he encouraged the young
people from Milton to believe as he did. He saw a chance for the three
little folks who had gone sliding to be safely housed in the cave that
he called "Ralph and little Missie's playhouse."
The Birdsall twins had often camped out in that cave hollowed in the
hillside at the bottom of the valley. If Sammy and Tess and Dot had
slid down there, more than likely, so Ike said, they had found the
cave and had taken refuge there.
In addition (but this was his own secret) the timber cruiser believed
that the twins, having been in Red Deer Lodge, had started for that
very cave some hours before the gale broke.
If the young Birdsalls were there, the lost children would be safe
enough. 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'm
ashamed of you children. And when you did come clean up here, why
didn't you come to my shack and stay?"
"We did go there; but you were away. Then we thought we had a right to
live in our own house. You know papa built it," said Rowena, bravely.
"We didn't know anybody was coming there this winter. And we brought
some food with us from Coxford. Then those people came, and we waited
till we could get out without being caught at it."
"Some young ones! Some young ones!" groaned M'Graw. "Well, now, you'll
go back to the Lodge and see what Mr. Howbridge has to say to you. And
you 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 I
thought I'd better be a boy as well as Ralph. And we had these clothes
at 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 week
at 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 of
you it was that thrashed those two boys that tried to steal your
set-lines?"
"That was Rowena!" croaked Ralph from the bed. "I acted just like a
girl ought to and let them take the lines; but Rowena fought them, and
licked them good, too!"
There was a deal of talk after that, but most of it was done following
the arrival of the party at Red Deer Lodge. As soon as that had
occurred, however, and Mrs. MacCall had heard Ralph cough and heard
about the itching, she made an examination.
"There!" she declared, half an hour later after she had put the boy
between blankets and given him a hot drink, "I might have known
something would happen if we came up to this out-of-the-world place."
"I should think something had happened!" murmured Ruth, who still held
Dot in her lap and hugged her as though she could not let her go
again. "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 they
roosting on him? No wonder Rafe scratched."
"And like enough you'll be scratching my lassie," said the Scotch
woman. "One an' all of you. I never knew it to fail. If one bairn gets
it, 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 most
of the holidays.
Holidays they were, nevertheless. Perhaps the little Corner House folk
had never had so good a time over Christmas and New Year's. Ralph and
Rowena Birdsall proved to be rollicking, good-natured children, and
they felt themselves at home at Red Deer Lodge and could entertain
Tess and Dot and Sammy Pinkney.
"We won't blame them for giving us chicken scratches," said Dot to
Tess. "At least, Ralph did. But he couldn't help it. And mine's most
gone, anyway."
The "older young folks," as Mr. Howbridge called them, had most
delightful times out of doors, as well as in. There was four or five
feet of snow on the ground, on the level, and it was packed hard
enough to make splendid snow-shoeing.
Ike M'Graw had plenty of snowshoes, and he taught them all how to use
them. When they became adept he led them in short jaunts all about the
section in which Red Deer Lodge was situated.
The boys went out with him at night, hunting. Neale and Luke both
killed rabbits, and Neale shot a bigger fox than the one Ralph
Birdsall 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 sport
Ruth, Agnes and Cecile, as well as the two boys, had their fill.
Nor did they overlook the two holidays, Christmas and New Year's. Ike
cut and trimmed a huge Christmas tree and that was set up in the main
hall of the Lodge and decorated in a most beautiful manner. Presents
had been brought up from Milton for everybody. And although Ralph and
Rowena Birdsall and Ike M'Graw were "added entries," as Luke said,
they were not allowed to feel slighted when the presents were given
out on Christmas night.
A big sledge came through from Coxford two days after Christmas, and
this brought additional supplies for the party at Red Deer Lodge.
There came on the sledge, too, the red-faced Mr. Neven who wished to
buy the standing timber on a part of the Birdsall tract.
There was much talk between the lumberman, Mr. Howbridge and M'Graw
regarding the timber. But Ike proved himself a good "figgerer" in more
ways than one. The lawyer remained determined to accept the old timber
cruiser's report as correct and finally Neven came to their terms.
Before the holiday of the Milton party was ended, a big gang of
lumbermen came up the tote-road from Coxford and the lake, ready to
set up a camp in the valley near the twins' cave, and finish the
season by cutting over several acres of the Birdsall piece.
"I won't want to see our place up here again until the new timber is
grown," cried Rowena, mournfully.
"Then you'll have to wait till we get through college," Ralph told
her. "Mr. Howbridge is going to have us live with him till we go to
college. But I expect he'll bring us up here once in a while if you
change your mind, Rowdy, and want to come."
"Don't call me 'Rowdy,' Ralph," said his sister. "That was only for
our trip up here. And, anyhow, I am not going to be a boy--never--any
more!"
"We're going to have a lot to tell the kids back home," remarked Sammy
Pinkney 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, and
live in a cave, and eat rabbit stew, and--"
"And get chicken scratches," put in Dot. "But mine don't scratch any
now. 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 a
rich bachelor uncle has died, leaving them the old Corner House he
occupied. They move into it and then the fun begins. What they find
and do will provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, they enter school and
make many friends. One of these invites the girls to spend a few weeks
at a bungalow owned by her parents; and the adventures they meet with
make very interesting reading. Clean, wholesome stories of humor and
adventure, 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 to
a boarding school on the Hudson River some miles above New York. By
her pluck and resourcefulness, she soon makes a place for herself and
this she holds right through the course. The account of boarding
school life is faithful and pleasing and will attract every girl in
her 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 turn
around. She is a wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly win
her way into the hearts of other girls. And what good times she
has!--with her pets, her friends, and her many interests. "Chicken
Little" 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 they
will like, and ask for more of the same kind. It is all about twin
sisters, who for the first few years in their lives grow up in
ignorance of each other's existence. Then they are at last brought
together and things begin to happen. Janet is an independent go-ahead
sort of girl; while her sister Phyllis is--but meet the twins for
yourself 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.