Chapter XXV The Orphans’ Fortune
A great deal happened at Sunrise Farm before these later occurrences which so delighted Ruth Fielding. The excitement of the loss of the six “fresh airs” was not easily forgotten. Whenever any of the orphans was on the Sunrise premises again, they had a bodyguard of older girls or boys who kept a bright lookout that nothing unusual happened to them.
As for the twins, Sadie took them in hand with a reformatory spirit that amazed Willie and Dickie. Those two youngsters were kept at Sunrise Farm and put in special charge of Sadie. Thus Mr. Steele had the three Raby orphans under his own eye until he could hear from Canada, and from the orphanage, and learn all the particulars of the fortune that might be in store for them.
After a bit Willie and Dickie found the watchfulness of their sister somewhat irksome.
“Say!” the talkative twin observed, “you ain’t got no reason to be so sharp on us, Sadie Raby. You run away your ownself—didn’t she, Dickie?”
“Yep,” agreed the oracular one.
“An’ we don’t want no gal follerin’ us around and tellin’ us to ‘stop’ all the time—do we, Dickie?”
“Nope.”
“We’re big boys now,” declared Willie, strutting like the young bantam he was. “There ain’t nothin’ goin’ to hurt us. We’re too big——”
“What’s that on your finger—— No! the other one?” snapped Sadie, eyeing Willie sharply.
“Scratch,” announced the boy.
“Where’d you get it?”
“I—I cut it on the cat,” admitted Willie, with less bombast.
“Humph! you’re a big boy—ain’t you? Don’t even know enough to let the cat alone—and I hope her claw done you some good. Come here an’ let me borrer Miss Ruth’s peroxide bottle and put some on it. Cat’s claws is poison,” said Sadie. “You ain’t so fit to get along without somebody watchin’ you as ye think, kid. Remember that, now.”
“We don’t want no gal trailin’ after us all the time!” cried Willie, angrily. “An’ we ain’t goin’ to stand it,” and he kicked his bare toe into the sand to express the emphasis that his voice would not vent.
“Humph!” said Sadie, eyeing him sideways, meanwhile trimming carefully a stout branch she had broken from the lilac bush. “So you want to be your own boss, do you, Willie Raby?”
“We be our own boss—ain’t we, Dickie?”
For the first time, the echo of Dickie’s agreement failed to materialize. Dickie was eyeing that lilac sprout—and looked from that to his sister’s determined face. He backed away several feet and put his hands behind him.
“And so you ain’t goin’ to mind me—nor Miss Ruth—nor Mr. Steele—nor Mr. Caslon—nor nobody?” proceeded Sadie, more earnestness apparent in each section of her query.
Her hand reached out suddenly and gripped Willie by the shoulder of his shirt. He tried to writhe out of her grasp, but his sister’s muscles were hardened, and she was twice as strong as Willie had believed. The lilac sprout was raised.
“So you’re too big to mind anybody, heh?” she queried.
“Yes, we be!” snarled the writhing Willie. “Ain’t we, Dickie?”
“No, we’re not!” screamed his twin, suddenly, refusing to echo Willie’s declaration. “Don’t hit him, Sade! Oh, don’t!” and he cast himself upon his sister and held her tight about the waist. “We—we’ll be good,” he sobbed.
“How about it, Willie Raby?” demanded the stern sister, without lowering the stick. “Are you goin’ to mind and be good?”
Willie stared, tried to writhe away, saw it was no use, and capitulated. “Aw—yes—if he’s goin’ to cry about it,” he grumbled. He said it with an air intimating that Dickie was, after all, quite a millstone about his neck and would always be holding him back from deeds of valor which Willie, himself, knew he could perform.
However, the twins behaved pretty well after that. They remained with Sadie at Sunrise Farm, for the whole Steele family had become interested in them.
The inquiries Mr. Steele set afoot resulted, in a short time, in information of surprising moment to the three Raby orphans. The old inquiry which had brought the lawyer, Mr. Angus MacDorough, to Darrowtown three years before, was ferreted out by another lawyer engaged by Mr. Steele.
It was found that Mr. MacDorough had, soon after his visit to the States in the matter of the Raby fortune, been stricken ill and, after a long sickness, had died. His affairs had never been straightened out, and his business was still in a chaotic state.
However, it was found beyond a doubt that Mr. MacDorough had been engaged to search out the whereabouts of Mrs. Tom Raby and her children by the administrators of the estate of Mrs. Raby’s elderly relative, now some time deceased.
Nearly two thousand dollars in American money had been left as a legacy to the Rabys. In time this property was put into Mr. Steele’s care to hold in trust for the three orphans—and it was enough to promise them all an education and a start in life.
Had it not been so, Mr. and Mrs. Steele would have felt sufficiently in Sadie’s debt, because of her having saved little Bennie Steele from the hoofs of the Black Douglass, to have made the girl’s way—and that of the twins—plain before them, until they were grown.
How much Ruth Fielding and her chum, Helen, were delighted by all this can be imagined. Sadie held an almost worshipful attitude toward Ruth; Ruth had been her first real friend when she ran away from “them Perkinses.”
That Ruth and her chum bore the affairs of the Raby orphans in mind, and continued to have many other and varied interests, as well as a multitude of adventures during the summer, will be explained in the next volume of our series, to be entitled: “Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.”
Meanwhile, the visit to Sunrise Farm came to a glorious close. The belated Fourth of July was celebrated on the evening of the fifth, in a perfectly “safe and sane” manner by the burning of the wealth of fireworks that Mr. Steele had supplied.
The days that followed to the end of the stay of the girls of Briarwood Hall and their brothers, were filled with delightful incidents. Picnics, fishing parties, tramps over the hills, rides, games on the lawn, and many other activities occupied the delightful hours at Sunrise Farm.
“This surely is the nicest place I ever was at,” Busy Izzy admitted, on the closing day of the party. “If I have as good a time the rest of the summer, I won’t mind going back to school and suffering for eight months in the year.”
“Hear! hear!” cried Heavy Jennie Stone. “And the eats!”
“And the rides,” said Mercy Curtis, the lame girl. “Such beautiful rides through the hills!”
“And such a fine time watching those fresh airs to see that they didn’t kill themselves,” added Tom Cameron, with a grimace.
“Don’t say a word against the poor little dears, Tommy,” urged his sister. “Suppose you had to live in an for orphanage all but four weeks in the year?”
“Tom is only fooling,” Ruth said, quietly. “I know him. He enjoyed seeing the children have a good time, too.”
“Oh! if you say so, Miss Fielding,” said Tom, laughing and bowing to her, “it must be so.”
The big yellow coach, with the four prancing horses, came around to the door. Bobbins mounted to the driver’s seat and gathered up the ribbons. The visitors climbed aboard.
Ruth stood up and waved her hand to the rest of the Steele family, and Sadie and the twins gathered on the porch.
“We’ve had the finest time ever!” she cried. “We love you all for giving us such a nice vacation. And we’re going to cheer you——”
And cheer they did. At the noise, the leaders sprang forward and the yellow coach rolled away. Ruth, laughing, sat down suddenly beside her chum, and Helen hugged her tight.
“We always have a dandy time when we go anywhere with you, Ruth,” she declared. “For you always take your ‘good times’ with you.”
And perhaps Helen Cameron had made a very important discovery.
The End
Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened, go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL or Leading a Needed Rebellion
Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very, very plain food and little of it—and then there was a row!
3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Mystery of the Wreck
One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island, near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed ashore.
4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES or The Secret of the Locked Tower
Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore
A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her constantly.
6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE or The Old Sailor’s Secret
A lively story of school girl doings. How Billie heard of the treasure and how she and her chums went in quest of the same is told in a peculiarly absorbing manner.
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For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARM or The Secret from Old Alaska
Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to a sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
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A new and up-to-date series, taking in the activities of several bright girls who become interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling exploits, outdoor life and the great part the Radio plays in the adventures of the girls and in solving their mysteries. Fascinating books that girls of all ages will want to read.
1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN or A Strange Message from the Air
Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air. A girl wanted as witness in a celebrated law case disappears, and the radio girls go to the rescue.
2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM or Singing and Reciting at the Sending Station
When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number who of us has not longed to “look behind the scenes” to see how it was done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending station manager and in this volume are permitted to get on the program, much to their delight. A tale full of action and fun.
3. The RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND or The Wireless from the Steam Yacht
In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation on an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big brother of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a pleasure party those on the island receive word by radio that the yacht is on fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE or The Strange Hut in the Swamp
The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful lake and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids them in rounding up some undesirable folks who occupy the strange hut in the swamp.
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CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK