Part 23 (1/2)

”The girls are as bad as the boys, Mother,” said Mr. Steele, shaking his head. ”What I wanted to say,” he added, raising his voice, ”was that we ought to invite these little chaps-these brothers of Sadie Raby-to come up at night to see our show.”

”Oh, let's have all the fresh airs, Pa!” cried Madge, eagerly. ”_What_ a good time they'd have.”

”I-don't-know,” said her father, soberly, looking at his wife. ”I am afraid that will be too much for your mother.”

”Mr. Caslon has some fireworks for the children,” broke in Ruth, timidly. ”I happen to know that. And Tom was going down to buy ten dollar's worth more to put with what Mr. Caslon has.”

”Humph!” said Mr. Steele.

”You see, some of us thought we'd give the little folk a good time down there, and it wouldn't bother you and Mrs. Steele, sir,” Ruth hastened to explain.

”Well, well!” exclaimed the gentleman, not very sharply after all, ”if those Caslons can stand the racket, I guess mother and I can-eh, mother?”

”We need not have them in the house,” said Mrs. Steele. ”We can put tables on the veranda, and give them ice cream and cake after the fireworks. Get the men to hang Chinese lanterns, and so forth.”

”Bully!” cried the younger Steeles, in chorus, and the visitors to Sunrise Farm were quite delighted, too, with this suggestion.

CHAPTER XIX-A SAFE AND SANE FOURTH?

Of course, somebody had to go to the Caslons and explain all this, and that duty devolved upon Ruth. Naturally, permission had to be sought of the farmer and his wife before the ”fresh air kids” could be carried off bodily to Sunrise Farm.

It was decided that the ten dollars, of which Tom had taken charge, should be spent for extra bunting and lanterns to decorate with, and to buy little gifts for each of the fresh airs to find next his or her plate on the evening of the Fourth.

Therefore, Tom started again for Darrowtown right after breakfast, and Ruth rode with him in the high, two-wheeled cart.

Ruth had two important errands. One was in Darrowtown. But the first stop, at Mr. Caslon's, troubled her a little.

How would the farmer and his wife take the idea of the Steeles suddenly patronizing the fresh air children? Were the Caslons anything like Mr.

Steele himself, in temperament, Ruth's errand would not be a pleasant one, she knew.

The orphans ran out shrieking a welcome when Tom drove into the yard of the house under the hill. Where were the ”terrible twins”? Had their sister really come to see them? Were Willie and d.i.c.kie coming back to the orphanage at all?

These and a dozen other questions were hurled at Ruth. Some of the bigger girls remembered Sadie Raby and asked a mult.i.tude of questions about her. So the girl of the Red Mill contented herself at first with trying to reply to all these queries.

Then Mrs. Caslon appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands of dish-water, and the old farmer himself came from the stables. Their friendly greeting and smiling faces opened the way for Ruth's task. She threw herself, figuratively speaking, into their arms.

”I know you are both just as kind as you can be,” said Ruth, eagerly, ”and you won't mind if I ask you to change your program a little to-day for the youngsters? They want to give them all a good time up at Sunrise Farm.”

”Good land!” exclaimed Mrs. Caslon. ”Not _all_ of them?”

”Yes, ma'am,” said Ruth, and she sketched briefly the idea of the celebration on the hill-top, including the presents she and Tom were to buy in Darrowtown for the kiddies.

”My soul and body!” exclaimed the farmer's wife. ”That lady, Mis'

Steele, don't know what she's runnin' into, does she, Father?”

”I reckon not,” chuckled Mr. Caslon, wagging his head.

”But you won't mind? You'll let us have the children?” asked Ruth, anxiously.