So on the morning following the feast-day
there were two wagonettes waiting at the entrance
to the Briarwood grounds to take the girls two miles
by road to a certain boathouse on Triton Lake.
When Ruth and Helen came out of their room, leaving
Mercy cozily ensconced in the window-seat with her
books and the box of bonbons, the door of the
quartette was open and a faint groan sounded from within.
Helen’s eyes twinkled, as she
said: “The others have gone, but Jennie’s
up in dry-dock for repairs. No wonder she wouldn’t
promise to be one of the skating party. The
pleasures of the table must be paid for
How do you feel now, Heavy?” she added, putting
her head in at the door.
“No better. Oh!”
came back the complaining voice. “I do
have such dreadful ill-fortune. I can’t
eat just a little bit without its distressing
me abominably!”
The chums ran down to the wagonettes
and found most of the girls who were going already
there. Ruth, seeing that there was more room
in the second carriage, whisked into it, and Helen
was following her when Mary Cox came up.
“Going to get in here, Cameron?”
she said. “Well, I’ll get in with
you no, I won’t!” she suddenly
exclaimed, seeing Ruth peering out. “Come
on to the other wagonette; Belle and Lluella are there.”
For a moment Helen hesitated.
Then Mary said, jerking at her sleeve:
“Come on! We want to start
in a minute. I’ve heard from the boys and
I want to tell you. They’ve sent a whole
sleighload of things out to the Minnetonka the
boat that’s frozen in, you know and
music, and we’ll have great fun. Sh!
Miss Reynolds don’t know. She’s
such a fuss-budget! If she knew the boys were
coming well!”
“Oh, Tom, too!” gasped
Helen, delighted. Then she turned and said, in
a whisper: “Ruth!”
“Come on and let that tattle-tale
alone!” exclaimed Mary Cox. “Tell
her, and she’ll run to Miss Reynolds with it.”
Helen went with her.
Had Ruth Fielding possessed the power
of movement just then, she would have gotten out of
the wagon and run away to the dormitory. But
she was stricken motionless as well as speechless
by her chum’s defection, and before she could
recover her poise the wagons had begun to move, rattling
over the frozen road toward Triton Lake.
Ah! how it hurt! For weeks Ruth
had endured slights, and haughty looks, and innuendoes
from Mary Cox and her Upedes and the girl
from the Red Mill had accepted all uncomplainingly.
She had heretofore believed Helen only thoughtless.
But this was more than Ruth Fielding could bear.
She was the last girl to get into the wagonette, and
she turned her head away, that her companions might
not see her tears.
The other girls chattered, and laughed,
and sang, and enjoyed themselves. Ruth Fielding
passed the few minutes which elapsed during the drive
to the boathouse in trying to stifle her sobs and remove
the traces of her emotion. She was tempted to
remain in the wagonette and go back to the school
at once for the carriages would return to
town, coming out again for the party of Briarwood
students late in the afternoon.
This thought was her first intention;
but as her sobs subsided she felt more the hurt of
the treatment she had received. And this hurt
stirred within her a self-assertion that was becoming
a more prominent characteristic of Ruth every day.
Why should she relapse into tears because her chum
had done a cruel thing? Hurt as she was, why
should she give The Fox the satisfaction of knowing
she felt the slight?
Ruth began to take herself to task
for her “softness.” Let Helen go
with the Upedes if she wished. Here were nice
girls all about her, and all the Sweetbriars particularly
thought a great deal of her, Ruth knew. She
need not mope and weep just because Helen Cameron,
her oldest friend, had neglected her. The other
girls stood ready to be her friends.
They had not noticed Ruth’s
silence and abstraction much less her tears.
She wiped her eyes hard, gulped down her sobs, and
determined to have a good time in spite of either
the Upedes or Helen’s hardness of heart.
The first wagonette reached the shore
of the lake some time ahead of the second. And
perhaps this fact, as well as the placing of Miss
Reynolds in the latter, had been arranged by the wily
Miss Cox.
“Oh, Mary Cox!” cried
Helen, looking out, “there’s a whole lot
of folks here BOYS!”
But when one of the boys came running
to help her down the steps, Helen shouted with delight.
She came “flopping” down into Tom Cameron’s
arms.
“How scrumptious you look, Nell!”
cried her brother, kissing her frankly. “Here
is Bob Steele I want you to know him.
He’s my bunkie at Seven Oaks. Isn’t
his sister with you Madge Steele?”
“Yes. Miss Steele’s here,”
gasped Helen.
“But where’s Ruth?”
demanded the excited Tom. “Come on and
get her. We want to get our skates on and make
for the steamer. The ice is like glass.”
“Why Ruth’s in the other wagonette,”
said Helen.
“She’s not with you?”
exclaimed Tom, rather chagrined. “Why,
how’s that?”
“We we happened to
get into different ones,” said his sister.
To tell the truth, she had not thought
of Ruth since leaving the school.
“Is that the other one coming ’way
back on the road there?”
“Yes,” said Helen.
“Here’s Miss Cox, Tom. Mary, this
is my brother.”
Bob Steele, who was a tall, blond
fellow, was at hand to be introduced, too. His
sister jumped out of the wagon and said: “Hullo,
Bobbie! How’s your poor croup?”
Madge was a year and a half older than her brother
and always treated him as though he were a very small
boy in knickerbockers if not actually in
pinafores.
The girls giggled over this, and Bob
Steele blushed. But he took his sister’s
chaffing good-naturedly. Tom Cameron, however,
was very much disturbed over the absence of Ruth Fielding.
“We’d better hurry out
on the ice. We’ve got an awful strict teacher
with us,” said Mary Cox, hastily.
“You take care of my sister,
too; will you, Bob?” said Tom, bluntly.
“I shall wait and bring Miss Fielding down.”
“Oh, she’ll look out for
herself,” said Mary Cox, slightingly. “We
must hurry if we want any fun.”
“Helen and I wouldn’t
have much fun if Ruth were left behind,” declared
Master Tom, firmly. “Go on, Bob; we’ll
catch up with you.”
“Hadn’t you better come,
too, Tom?” whispered Helen, doubtfully.
“Why, we want Ruth with us;
don’t we?” demanded the puzzled Tom, looking
at her in wonder. “Go on, Nell. We’ll
be with you shortly.”
“Why, I want to introduce you
to the other girls,” said Helen, pouting.
“And I haven’t seen you myself for so long.”
“It’s too bad you got
separated from your spoon, Nell,” said her brother,
calmly. “But I shall wait and bring her.”
The others even Madge Steele were
already trooping down to the landing, where there
were settees for the girls to sit on while their skates
were being adjusted. Helen had to run after them,
and Tom waited alone the arrival of the second wagonette
from Briarwood Hall.