Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm Part 27

"We'd rather play with the girls than stay here. Hadn't we, d.i.c.kie?"

proposed Willie Raby.

"Yep," agreed Master d.i.c.kie, with due solemnity.

"Go on!" cried Bob. "And see you go straight back to the house. My!" he added to Tom, "but those kids are a nuisance."

"Think we ought to let them go alone?" queried Tom, with some faint doubt on the subject. "You reckon they'll be all right, Bobbins?"

"Great Scott! they sure know the way to the house," said Bob. "It's a straight path."

But, as it happened, the twins had no idea of going straight to the house. The pond was fed by a stream that ran in from the east. The little fellows had seen this, and Willie's idea was to circle around through the woods and find that stream. There they could go in bathing like the bigger boys, "and n.o.body would ever know."

"Our heads will be wet," objected one of the orphans.

"Gee!" said Willie Raby, "don't let's wet our heads. We ain't got to-have we?"

"Nope," said his brother, promptly.

There was some doubt, still, in the minds of the other boys.

"What you goin' to say to those folks up to the big house?" demanded one of the fresh airs.

"Ain't goin' to say nothin'," declared the bold Willie. "Cause why? they ain't goin' to know-'nless you fellers snitch."

"Aw, who's goin' to snitch?" cried the objector, angered at once by the accusation of the worst crime in all the category of boyhood. "We ain't no tattle-tales-are we, Jim?"

"Naw. We're as safe to hold our tongues as you an' yer brother are, Willie Raby-so now!"

"Sure we are!" agreed the other orphans.

"Then come along," urged the talkative twin. "n.o.body's got to know."

"Suppose yer sister finds it out?" sneered one.

"Aw-well-she jes' ain't go'n' ter," cried Willie, exasperated. "An' what if she does? She runned away herself-didn't she?"

The spirit of restlessness was strong in the Raby nature, it was evident. Willie was a born leader. The others trailed after him when he left the pathway that led directly back to Sunrise Farm, and pushed into the thicker wood in the direction he believed the stream lay.

The juvenile leader of the party did not know (how should he?) that just above the pond the stream which fed it made a sharp turn. Its waters came out of a deep gorge, lying in an entirely different direction from that toward which the "terrible twins" and their chums were aiming.

The little fellows plodded on for a long time, and the sun dropped suddenly behind the hills to the westward, and there they were-quite surprisingly to themselves-in a strange and fast-darkening forest.

CHAPTER XXIII-LOST

The girl visitors from Briarwood Hall did all they could to help the mistress of Sunrise Farm and Madge prepare for the evening festivities, and not alone in employing the attention of the six little girls from the orphanage.

There were the decorations to arrange, and the paper lanterns to hang, and the long tables on the porch to prepare for the supper. Twelve extra, hungry little mouths to feed was, of itself, a fact of no small importance.

When the wagon had come up from Caslon's with the orphans, Mrs. Steele had thought it rather a liberty on the part of the farmer's wife because she had, with the children, sent a great hamper of cakes, which she (Mrs. Caslon) herself had baked the day before.

But the cakes were so good, and already the children were so hungry, that the worried mistress of the big farm was thankful that these supplies were in her pantry.

"When the boys come back from the pond, I expect they will be ravenous, too," sighed the good lady. "_Do_ you think, Madge, that there will be enough ham and tongue sandwiches for supper? I am sure of the cream and cake-thanks to that good old woman (though I hope your father won't hear me say it). But that is to be served after the fireworks. They will want something hearty at suppertime-and goodness me, Madge! It is five o'clock now. Those boys should be back from their swim."

As for Mr. Steele, he was immensely satisfied with the celebration of the day so far. To tell the truth, he had very little to do with the work of getting ready for the orphans' entertainment. Aside from the explosion of the fireworks in the cart, the occasion had been a perfectly "safe and sane" celebration of a holiday that he usually looked forward to with no little dread.

Before anybody really began to worry over their delay, the boys came into view. They had had a refres.h.i.+ng swim and announced the state of their appet.i.tes the moment they joined the girls at the big tent.

"Yes, yes," said Madge, "we know all about that, Bobbie dear. But his little tootie-wootsums must wait till hims gets his bib put on, an' let sister see if his hannies is nice and clean. Can't sit down to eat if hims a dirty boy," and she rumpled her big brother's hair, while he looked foolish enough over her "baby talk."

"Don't be ridiculous, Madge," said Helen, briskly. "Of course they are hungry-- But where's the rest of them?"

"The rest of what?" demanded Busy Izzy. "I guess we're all here."

"Say! you _must_ be hungry," chuckled Heavy. "Did you eat the kids?"

"What kids?" snapped Tom, in sudden alarm.

"The fresh airs, of course. The 'terrible twins' and their mates. My goodness!" cried Ann Hicks, "you didn't forget and leave them down there at the pond, did you?"

The boys looked at each other for a moment. "What's the joke?" Bobbins finally drawled.

"It's no joke," Ruth said, quickly. "You don't mean to say that you forgot those little boys?"

"Now, stop that, Ruth Fielding!" cried Isadore Phelps, very red in the face. "A joke's a joke; but don't push it too far. You know very well those kids came back up here more'n an hour ago."

"They didn't do any such thing," cried Sadie, having heard the discussion, and now running out to the tent. "They haven't been near the house since you big boys took them to the pond. Now, say! what d'ye know about it?"

"They're playing a trick on us," declared Tom, gloomily.

"Let's hunt out in the stables, and around," suggested Ralph Tingley, feebly.

"Maybe they went back to Caslon's," Isadore said, hopefully.

"We'll find out about that pretty quick," said Madge. "I'll tell father and he'll send somebody down to see if they went there."

"Come on, boys!" exclaimed Tom, starting for the rear of the house.

"Those little scamps are fooling us."

"Suppose they _have_ wandered away into the woods?" breathed Ruth to Helen. "Whatever shall we do?"

Sadie could not wait. She was unable to remain idle, when it was possible that the twin brothers she had so lately rejoined, were in danger. She flashed after the boys and hunted the stables, too.

n.o.body there had seen the "fresh airs" since they had followed the bigger boys to the pond.