Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm/Chapter 23

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 refreshing swim and announced the state of their appetites 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.

Nobody there had seen the "fresh airs" since they had followed the bigger boys to the pond.

"And ye sure didn't leave 'em down there?" demanded Sadie Raby of Tom.

"Goodness me! No!" exclaimed Tom. "They couldn't go in swimming as we did, and so they got mad and wouldn't stay. But they started right up this way, and we thought they were all right."

"They might have slanted off and gone across the fields to Caslon's," said Bobbins, doubtfully.

​"That would have taken them into the back pasture where Caslon keeps his Angoras—wouldn't it?" demanded the much-worried young man.

"Well, you can go look for 'em with the goats," snapped Sadie, starting off. "But me for that Caslon place. If they didn't go there, then they are in the woods somewhere."

She started down the hill, fleet-footed as a dog. Before Mr. Steele had stopped sputtering over the catastrophe, and bethought him to start somebody for the Caslon premises to make inquiries, Sadie came in view again, with the old, gray-mustached farmer in tow.

The serious look on Mr. Caslon's face was enough for all those waiting at Sunrise Farm to realize that the absent children were actually lost. Tom and Bobbins had come up from the goat pasture without having seen, or heard, the six little fellows.

"I forgot to tell ye," said Caslon, seriously, "that ye had to keep one eye at least on them 'terrible twins' all the time. We locked 'em into their bedroom at night. No knowin' when or where they're likely to break out. But I reckoned this here sister of theirs would keep 'em close to her——"

"Well!" snapped Sadie Raby, eyeing Tom and Bobbins with much disfavor, "I thought that ​a bunch of big fellers like them could look after half a dozen little mites."

Mr. Steele had come forward slowly; the fact that the six orphan boys really seemed to be lost, was an occasion to break down even his barrier of dislike for the neighbor. Besides, Mr. Caslon ignored any difference there might be between them in a most generous manner.

"I blame myself, Neighbor Steele I sure do," Mr. Caslon said, before the owner of Sunrise Farm could speak. "I'd ought to warned you about them twins. They got bit by the runaway bug bad—that's right."

"Humph! a family trait—is it?" demanded Mr. Steele, rather grimly eyeing the sister of the runaways.

"I couldn't say about that," chuckled the farmer. "But Willie and Dickie started off twice from our place, trailin' most of the other kids with 'em. But I caught 'em in time. Now, their sister tells me, they've got at least an hour and a half's start."

"It is getting dark or it will soon be," said Mr, Steele, nervously. "If they are not found before night, I shall be greatly disturbed. I feel as though I were responsible. My oldest boy, here——"

"Now, it ain't nobody's fault, like enough," interrupted Mr. Caslon, cheerfully, and seeing ​Bobbins's woebegone face. We'll start right out and hunt for them."

"But if it grows dark——"

"Let me have what men you can spare, and all the lanterns around the place," said Caslon, briskly, taking charge of the matter on the instant. "These bigger boys can help."

"I—I can go with you, sir," began Mr. Steele, but the farmer waved him back.

"No. You ain't used to the woods—nor to trampin' like I be. And it won't hurt your boys. You leave it to us—we'll find 'em."

Mrs. Steele had retired to the tent on the lawn in tears, and most of the girls were gathered about her. Sadie Raby clung to Farmer Caslon's side, and nobody tried to call her back.

Since returning from Darrowtown that morning, Ruth Fielding had divulged to Mr. Steele all she had discovered through Miss True Pettis regarding the Raby family, and about the Canadian lawyer who had once searched for Mrs. Raby and her children.

The gentleman had expressed deep interest in the matter, and while the fresh air children were being entertained during the afternoon, Mr. Steele had already set in motion an effort to learn the whereabouts of Mr. Angus MacDorough and to discover just what the property was ​that had been willed to the mother of the Raby orphans.

Sadie had been told nothing about this wonderful discovery as yet. Indeed, there had been no time. Sadie had been busy, with Mrs. Steele and the others, in preparing for that "safe and sane" celebration with which Mr. Steele had desired to entertain the "terrible twins" and their little companions at Sunrise Farm.

Now this sudden catastrophe had occurred. The loss of the six little boys was no small trouble. It threatened to be a tragedy.

Down there beyond the pond the mountainside was heavily timbered, and there were many dangerous ravines and sudden precipies over which a careless foot might stray.

Dusk was coming on. In the wood it would already be dark. And if the frightened children went plunging about, seeking, in terror, to escape, they might at any moment be cast into some pit where the searchers would possibly never find them.

Mr. Steele felt his responsibility gravely. He was, at best, a nervous man, and this happening assumed the very gravest outlines in his anxious mind.

"Never ought to have let them out of my own sight," he sputtered, having Ruth for a confidant. ​"I might have known something extraordinary would happen. It was a crazy thing to have all those children up here, anyway."

"Oh, dear, Mr. Steele!" cried Ruth, much worried, "that is partly my fault. I was one of those who suggested it."

"Nonsense! nonsense, child! Nobody blames you," returned the gentleman. "I should have put my foot down and said 'No.' Nobody influenced me at all. Why—why, I wanted to give the poor little kiddies a nice time. And now—see what has come of it?"

"Oh, it may be that they will be found almost at once," cried Ruth, hopefully. "I am sure Mr. Caslon will do what he can——"

"Caslon's an eminently practical man yes, indeed," admitted Mr. Steele, and not grudgingly. "If anybody can find them, he will, I have no doubt."

And this commendation of the neighbor whom he so disliked struck Ruth completely silent for the time being.