Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods

								


Produced by Avinash Kothare, Tom Allen, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

RUTH FIELDING
AT SNOW CAMP
OR
LOST IN THE BACKWOODS
BY
ALICE B. EMERSON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I.     A LIVELY TIME
II.    A SURPRISING APPEARANCE
III.   THE NEWSPAPER CLIPPING
IV.    THE MYSTERIOUS BEHAVIOR OF FRED HATFIELD
V.     OFF FOR THE BACKWOODS
VI.    ON THE TRAIN
VII.   A RUNAWAY IN GOOD EARNEST
VIII.  FIRST AT SNOW CAMP
IX.    "LONG JERRY" TODD
X.     BEARS--AND OTHER THINGS
XI.    THE FROST GAMES
XII.   PERIL--AND A TAFFY PULL
XIII.  SHELLS AND KERNELS
XIV.   A TELEPHONE CHASE
XV.    THE BATTLE IN THE SNOW
XVI.   AN APPEARANCE AND A DISAPPEARANCE
XVII.  LONG JERRY'S STORY
XVIII. "THE AMAZON MARCH"
XIX.   BESIEGED BY THE STORM KING
XX.    THE SNOW SHROUD
XXI.   ADRIFT IN THE STORM
XXII.  THE HIDEOUT
XXIII. A DOUBLE CAPTIVITY
XXIV.  THE SEARCH
XXV.   CERTAIN EXPLANATIONS

RUTH FIELDING
AT SNOW CAMP

CHAPTER I
A LIVELY TIME

"I don't think we'd better go home that way, Helen."
"Why not? Mr. Bassett won't care--and it's the nearest way to the
road."
"But he's got a sign up--and his cattle run in this pasture," said
Ruth Fielding, who, with her chum, Helen Cameron, and Helen's twin
brother, Tom, had been skating on the Lumano River, where the ice was
smooth below the mouth of the creek which emptied into the larger
stream near the Red Mill.
"Aw, come on, Ruthie!" cried Tom, stamping his feet to restore
circulation.
The ground was hard and the ice was thick on the river; but the
early snows that had fallen were gone. It was the day after
Christmas, and Helen and Ruth had been at home from school at
Briarwood Hall less than a week. Tom, too, who attended the Military
Academy at Seven Oaks, was home for the winter holidays. It was
snapping cold weather, but the sun had been bright this day and for
three hours or more the friends had enjoyed themselves on the ice.
"Surely Hiram Bassett hasn't turned his cows out in this weather,"
laughed Helen.
"But maybe he has turned out his bull," said Ruth. "You know how
ugly that creature is. And there's the sign."
"I declare! you do beat Peter!" ejaculated Tom, shrugging his
shoulders. "We are only going to cut across Bassett's field--it won't
take ten minutes. And it will save us half an hour in getting to the
mill. We can't go along shore, for the ice is open there at the creek."
"All right," agreed Ruth Fielding, doubtfully. She was younger than
the twins and did not mean to be a wet blanket on their fun at any
time; but admiring Helen so much, she often gave up her own
inclinations, or was won by the elder girl from a course which she
thought wise. There had been times during their first term at
Briarwood Hall, now just completed, when Ruth had been obliged to
take a different course from her chum. This occasion, however, seemed