CHAPTER IX--THE SUNRISE COACH
Ruth was determined to have her way, and really, after one has sufferedwith a felon for a week, one is in no shape to combat the determinationof as strong a character as that of the girl of the Red Mill!
At least, so Miss True Pettis found. She bowed to Ruth's mandate, andsat meekly in the rocking chair while that young lady bustled about,made the toast, poached eggs, made a pot of the kind of tea the spinsterliked, and just as she liked it---- Oh, Ruth had not forgotten all herlittle ways, although she had been gone so long from the seamstress'stiny cottage here in Darrowtown.
All the time, she was as cheerful as a bluebird--and just as chatty asone, too! She ran out and caught a neighbor's boy, and sent himscurrying down to the sidetracked sleeping car with a note to Helen. Therest of the crowd expected at Sunrise Farm would arrive on an earlymorning train on the other road, and both parties were to meet forbreakfast at the Darrowtown Inn.
The vehicle to transport them to the farm, however, was not expecteduntil ten o'clock.
Therefore, Ruth insisted, she had plenty of time to fix up the house forMiss Pettis. This she proceeded to do.
"I allus _did_ say you was the handiest youngun that ever was born inDarrowtown," said the seamstress, with a sigh of relief, as Ruth,enveloped in a big apron, set to work.
Ruth did more than wash dishes, and sweep, and clean, and scrub. All thetime she told Miss Pettis about her life at the Red Mill, and her lifeat the boarding school, and of many and various things that had happenedto her since, two years before, she had gone away from Darrowtown totake up her new life with Uncle Jabez.
Not that she had not frequently written to Miss Pettis; but one cannotwrite the particulars that can be told when two folks are "gossiping."Miss True Pettis had not enjoyed herself--felon and all!--so much for agesas she did that forenoon.
And she would have a long and interesting story to tell regarding "MaryFielding's little girl" when again she took up her work of going out bythe day and bringing both her nimble needle and her nimble tongue intothe homes of the busy Darrowtown housewives.
On the other hand, Miss Pettis told Ruth all the news of her old home;and although the girl from the Red Mill had no time then to call uponany other of her one-time friends--not even Patsy Hope--she finally wentaway feeling just as though she had met them all again. For little ofvalue escaped Miss Pettis, and she had told it all.
The Brick Church clock was striking ten when Ruth ran around the cornerand came in sight of the Darrowtown Inn. There was a crowd of girls andboys on the porch, and before it stood a great, shiny yellow coach,drawn by four sleek horses.
"Bobbins" himself--Madge Steele's big, white-haired brother, who attendedthe military academy with Tom Cameron, was already on the coachman'sseat, holding the reins in most approved style. Beside him sat a man inlivery, it was true; but Bob himself was going to drive thefour-in-hand.
"Isn't that scrumptious, Ruth?" demanded Belle Tingley, one of those whohad arrived on the other railroad. "Where have you been all the time?Helen was worried for fear you wouldn't get here."
"And here's Ralph!" exclaimed Ruth, heartily shaking hands with one ofBelle's brothers. "I'm all right. I used to live here in Darrowtown, youknow, and I was making calls. And here is Isadore!"
"Oh, I say, Ruth!" exclaimed the chap in knickerbockers, who was sosharp and curious that he was always called "Busy Izzy" Phelps. "Wherehave you been all the time? We were going to send a searching partyafter you."
"You needn't mind, sir. I can find my way around a bit yet," laughedRuth.
"All ready, now!" exclaimed Bob, importantly, from the high seat. "Can'tkeep these horses standing much longer."
"All right, little boy," said his sister, marshaling the girls down thesteps of the hotel. "Don't you be impatient."
"It's the horses," he complained. "See that nigh leader beginning todance?"
"Tangoing, I suppose?--or is it the hesitation?" laughed Lluella Fairfax."May anybody sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?"
"I'm afraid not. But there's room on top of the coach for all of you, ifyou'll crowd a bit."
"Me behind with the horn!" cried Tom, swinging himself up into thelittle seat over the luggage rack.
"Now, girls, there are some steep places on the road," said Madge. "Ifany of you feel nervous, I advise you to come inside with me."
"Ha!" ejaculated Heavy. "It's not my nerves that keep me from climbingup on that thing--don't think it. But I'll willingly join you, Madge,"and the springs creaked, while the girls laughed, as Heavy entered thecoach.
They were all quickly seated--the boys of course riding on the roof.Ruth, Helen, Lluella and Belle occupied the seat directly behind thedriver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending the intervening week sinceschool closed with Heavy, and would return to Montana after theirsojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl who ventured to ridea-top the coach.
"All ready?" sang out Bobbins, with a backward glance.
Tom put the long silver horn to his lips and blew a blast that startledthe Darrowtown echoes, and made the frisky nigh leader prance again. Bobcurled the long lash of the yellow whip over the horses' ears, and atthe crack of it all four plunged forward.
There was a crowd to see the party off. Darrowtown had not becomefamiliar with the Steeles' yellow coach. In fact, there were not manywealthy men's estates around the town as yet, and such "goings-on" asthis coaching party of girls and boys was rather startling to the staidinhabitants of Darrowtown.
The road through the town proper was very good, and the heavy coachwheels rolled over it smoothly. As soon as they reached the suburbs,however, the way was rough, and the horses began to climb, forDarrowtown was right at the foot of the hills, on the very highest ofwhich Sunrise Farm lay.
There were farms here and there along the way, but there was a greatdeal of rough country, too. Although it was a warm day, those on top ofthe coach were soon well shaded by the trees. The road wound through athick piece of wood, where the broad-branched trees overhung the wayand--sometimes--almost brushed the girls from their seats.
"Low bridge!" called Bobbins, now and again, and they would all squealand stoop while the leafy branches brushed above them.
Bobbins had been practicing a good deal, so as to have the honor ofdriving his friends home from Darrowtown, and they all praised him forbeing so capable.
As for Tom, he grew red in the face blowing that horn to warn the foxesin the hills and the rabbits in the bushes that they were coming.
"You look out, Tommy!" advised Madge from below. "You'll blow yourselfall away tooting so much, and goodness knows, we don't want any accidentbefore luncheon. Mother is expecting all manner of things to happen tous after we get to the farm; but I promised faithfully I'd bring you allhome to one o'clock luncheon in perfect order."
"A whole lot you've got to do with it," grunted Busy Izzy, ungallantly."It's Bobbins that's doing the chief work."
Three hours to Sunrise Farm, yet it was only fifteen miles. The way wasnot always uphill, but the descents were as hard to get over as therising ground, and the coach rolled and shook a good deal over therougher places.
Bye and bye they began to look down into the valleys from the steeps thehorses climbed. At one place was a great horseshoe curve, around whichthe four steeds rattled at a smart pace, skirting a precipice, the depthof which made the girls shriek again.
"I never did see such a road," complained Lluella.
"We saw worse at Silver Ranch--didn't we, Ann?" demanded Ruth of theMontana girl.
"Well, this is bad enough, I should hope," said Belle Tingley. "Luckythere is a good brake on this coach. Where'd we be----?"
As it chanced, the coach had just pitched over the brow of anotherridge. Bob had been about to point out proudly the white walls of thehouse at Sunrise Farm which surmounted the next hill.
But there had been a rain within a week, and a hard one. Right herethere was a small washout in the road, and Bob overlooked it
. He did notswerve the trotting horses quickly enough, and the nigh fore-wheeldropping into this deep, deep rut.
It is true Bob became a little excited. He yelled "Whoa!" and yankedback on the lines, for the nigh leader had jumped. The girls screamed asthe coach came to an abrupt stop.
The four horses were jerked back by the sudden stoppage; then,frightened, they all leaped forward together.
"Whoa, there!" yelled Bob again, trying to hold them in. Something brokeand the nigh leader swung around until he was at right angles with histeam-mate.
The leader had snapped a tug; he forced his mate over toward the farside of the road; and there the ground broke away, abruptly and steeply,for many, many yards to the bottom of the hill.
There was neither fence, nor ditch, to guard passengers on the road fromcatastrophe.