Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm Part 16

"h.e.l.lo yourself!" shouted Helen. "Oh, do, _do_ come and drive away these awful goats."

There was a hearty laugh at this reply, and then a man appeared. Ruth had guessed his ident.i.ty before ever he came in view. It was the portly Mr. Caslon.

"Well, well, my dears! how long have you been roosting up there?" he demanded, laughing frankly at them. "Get out, you rascal!"

This he said to the big goat, who started for him with head lowered. Mr.

Caslon leaped nimbly to one side and whacked the goat savagely across the back with his k.n.o.bby stick. The goat kept right on down the hillside, evidently having had enough of _that_ play, and the nannies followed, bleating.

"You can come down now, young ladies," said the farmer. "But I wouldn't come over into this pasture to play much. The goats don't like strangers."

"We had no business to come here at all, but we forgot," explained Ruth, when both she and her chum had descended from the tree. "We were warned not to come over on this side of the line."

"Oh, indeed? you're from up on the hill-top?" he asked.

"We are visiting Madge Steele-yes," said Helen, looking at him curiously.

"Ah! I saw all you young folk going by yesterday. You should have a fine time about here," said the farmer, smiling broadly. "And, aside from the temper of the goats, I don't mind you all coming over here on my land if you like."

The girls thanked him warmly for rescuing them from their predicament, and then ran up the hill to put the stone wall between them and the goats before there was more trouble.

"I like him," said Helen, referring to Mr. Caslon.

"So do I," agreed Ruth. "And it's too bad that Mr. Steele and he do not understand each other."

Although their escapade with the goats was a good joke-and a joke worth telling to the crowd-Ruth decided that it would be just as well to say nothing about it, and she told Helen so.

"I expect you are right," admitted her chum. "It will only cause comment because we went out of bounds, and became acquainted with Mr. Caslon.

But I'm glad the old goat introduced us," and she laughed and tossed her head.

So they joined their friends, who had gotten tired by this time of tobogganing in June, and they all trooped up the hill again to the house. It was growing warm, and the hammocks and lounging chairs in the shade of the verandas attracted them until noon.

After luncheon there was tennis and croquet on the lawns, and toward evening everybody went driving, although not in the yellow coach this time.

The plans for the following day included a long drive by coach to a lake beyond Darrowtown, where they had a picnic lunch, and boated and fished and had a glorious time in general.

Bobbins drove as before, but there were two men with the party to do the work and look after the horses, and Mrs. Steele herself was present to have an oversight of the young folk.

Bob Steele was very proud of his ability to drive the four-in-hand, and when they swung through Darrowtown on the return trip, with the whip cracking and Tom tooting the horn, many people stopped to observe the pa.s.sing of the turnout.

Every other team got out of their way-even the few automobiles they pa.s.sed. But when they got over the first ridge beyond the town and the four horses broke into a canter, Mrs. Steele, who sat up behind her son on this journey, suddenly put a hand upon his shoulder and called his attention to something ahead in the road.

"Do have a care, my son," she said. "There has been an accident there-yes? Don't drive too fast--"

"By jiminy!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ralph Tingley. "That's a breakdown, sure enough."

"A farm wagon. There's a wheel off," cried Ann Hicks, leaning out from the other end of the seat the better to see.

"And who are all those children in blue?" demanded Mercy Curtis, looking out from below. "There's such a lot of them! One, two, three, four, five-- Goodness me! they jump about so like fleas that I can't count them!"

"Why, I bet I know what it is," drawled Bobbins, at last. "It's old Caslon and his load of fresh airs. He was going to town to meet them to-day, I believe. And he's broken down before he's half way home with them-and serves him good and right!"

CHAPTER XIII-"THE TERRIBLE TWINS"

Ruth heard Bob's last expression, despite the rattling of the harness and the chattering of the girls on, and in, the coach, and she was sorry. Yet, could he be blamed so much, when similar feelings were expressed daily by his own father regarding the Caslons?

Mrs. Steele was shocked as well. "My dear son!" she exclaimed, in a low voice, leaning over his shoulder. "Be careful of your tongue. Don't say things for which you might be sorry-indeed, for which I am sure you _are_ sorry when you stop to think."

"Huh! Isn't that old Caslon as mean as he can be?" demanded Bobbins.

"I am sure," the good lady sighed, "that I wish he would agree to sell his place to your father, and so have an end of all this talk and worriment. But I am not at all sure that he hasn't a right to do as he pleases with his own property."

"Well-now-Mother--"

But she stopped him with: "At any rate, you must halt and offer him help. And those children-I hope none of them has been hurt."

"Pooh! you couldn't hurt kids like those," declared Bob.

But he brought the horses down to a walk and the yellow coach approached the scene of the accident at a temperate pace.

The big farm-wagon, the body of which had been filled with straw for the youngsters to ride in, had been pulled to the side of the road out of the way of pa.s.sing vehicles. It was clear that the smashed wheel was past repair by any amateur means, for several spokes were broken, and the hub was split.

The youngsters whom Mr. Caslon had taken aboard at the railway station in Darrowtown were dancing about and yelling like wild Indians. As the coach came nearer, the excited party upon it could more carefully count the blue-clad figures, and it was proved that there were twelve.

Six girls were in blue gingham frocks, all alike, and all made "skimpy"

and awkward looking. The six boys were in new blue overalls and cotton s.h.i.+rts. The overalls seemed all of one size, although the boys were not.

They must have been purchased at the store of one size, and whether a boy was six, or twelve, he wore the same number.

Each of the children, too, carried a more or less neatly made up parcel, the outer covering of which was a blue and white bandanna, and the contents of which was the change of clothing the inst.i.tution allowed them.

"What a terrible noise they make!" sighed Mrs. Steele. "And they are perfect little terrors, I suppose. But they _are_ clean."

They had not been out of the sight of the inst.i.tution nurse long enough to be otherwise, for she had come as far as Darrowtown with them. But they _were_ noisy, sure enough, for each one was trying to tell his or her mates how he or she felt when the wheel crashed and the wagon went over.

"I reckon I oughtn't to have risked that wheel, after all," said Mr.

Caslon, doffing his hat to Mrs. Steele, but smiling broadly as he looked up from his examination of the wheel.

"Whoa, Charlie! Don't get too near them heels, youngsters. Charlie an'

Ned are both old duffers like me; but you can't fool around a horse's legs without making him nervous.

"And don't pull them reins. I don't want 'em to start right now.... Yes, ma'am. I'll haf ter lead the horses home, and that I don't mind. But these young ones-- Now, let that whip lay right where it is, young man!

That's right.

"You see, ma'am," he proceeded, quite calmly despite all that was going on about him, and addressing himself to Mrs. Steele, "it's too long a walk for the little ones, and I couldn't tote 'em all on the backs of the horses--

"Now, you two curly heads there-what do you call 'em?"