"Gran says you"re overworked," Curly said. "Why don"t you run away from school if they make you work so hard? _I_ would. Our teacher"s sick so there isn"t any session at the district school to-morrow."
"Oh, Curly! Play hooky?" gasped Ruth, clasping her hands.
"Yep. Only you girls haven"t any pluck."
"If I played hooky would you let me go fishing with you to-morrow?" asked Ruth, her eyes dancing.
"You haven"t the sand," scoffed Curly.
"But can I go if I _dare_ run away?" urged Ruth.
"Yep," said the boy, but with rather a sour grin.
"What time are you going to start?"
"Four."
"If I"m not down in the kitchen by that time, throw some gravel up to the window," commanded Ruth. "But don"t break the window."
"Oh, shucks! you won"t go when you see how dark and damp it is," declared Curly.
When, just after four o"clock in the morning, Curly crept downstairs from his shed chamber, knuckling his eyes to get the sleep out, there was a light in the kitchen and Ruth was just pouring out two fragrant cups of coffee which flanked a heaping plate of doughnuts.
"Old Scratch!" gasped Curly. "Gran will have our hides and hair! You"re not _going_, Ruth Fielding?"
"If you will let me," said Ruth, meekly.
"Well--if you want. But you"ll get wet and dirty and mussy----"
Then he stopped. He saw that Ruth had on an old gymnasium suit, her rubber boots lay on the chair, and a warm polo coat was at hand. She already wore her tam-o-shanter.
"Huh! I see you"re ready," Curly said. "You might as well go. But remember, if you want to come home before afternoon, you"ll have to find your way back alone. I"m not going to be bothered by a girl"s fantods."
"All right, Curly," said Ruth, cheerfully.
Curly put his face under the spigot, brushed his hair before the little mirror in the corner, and was ready to sample Ruth"s coffee.
"We want to hurry," he said, filling his pockets with the doughnuts, "it"ll be broad daylight before we know it, and then everybody we see will want to come along. The other fellows aren"t on to the old dam yet this season. The fish are running early."
He brought forth a basket with tackle and bait, dug over night. Ruth burdened herself with a big, square box, neatly wrapped and tied. Curly eyed this askance.
"I s"pose you expect to tear your clo"es and want something to wear back to town that"s decent," he growled.
"Well, I want to look half way respectable," laughed Ruth, as they set forth.
The damp smell of thawing earth greeted their nostrils as they left the house. No plowing had been done, save in very warm corners; but the lush buds on the trees and bushes, and the crocuses by the corner of the old house, promised spring.
A clape called at them raucously as he rapped out his warning on a dead limb beside the road. A rabbit rose from its form and shot away into the dripping woods. The sun poked a jolly red face above the wooded ridge before the two runaways left the beaten track and took a narrow woodpath that would cut off about a mile of their walk.
It was a rough way and the pace Curly set was made to force Ruth to beg for time. But the girl gritted her teeth, minded not the pain in her side, and st.u.r.dily followed him. By and by the pain stopped, she got her second wind, and then she began to tread close on Curly"s heels.
"Huh!" he grunted at last, "you needn"t be in such a hurry. The dam will stay there--and so will the fish."
"All right," responded Ruth, still meekly, but with dancing eyes.
The fishing place was reached and while yet the early rays of the sun fell aslant the dimpling pools under the dam, the two threw in their baited hooks. Curly evidently expected to see the girl balk at the bait, but Ruth seized firmly the fat, squirmy worm and impaled it scientifically upon her hook.
She caught the first fish, too! In fact, as the morning drew leisurely along, Ruth"s string splashing in the cool water grew much faster than Curly"s.
"I never saw the beat of your luck!" declared the boy. "You must have been fishing before, Ruth Fielding."
"Lots of times."
"Where?"
Ruth told him of the Red Mill on the bank of the Lumano, of her fishing trips with Tom Cameron, and of all the fun that they had about Cheslow, and up the river above the mill.
Mid-forenoon came and Curly produced some crackers and a piece of bologna.
The doughnuts he had pocketed were gone long ago.
"Have a bite, Ruth?" he said generously. "I wish it was better, but I didn"t have much money, and Gran won"t ever let me carry any lunch. She says the proper place for a boy to eat is at his own table. It"s there for me, and if I don"t get home to get it, then I can do without."
Ruth accepted a piece of the bologna and the crackers gravely. She baited her hook with a piece of the bologna and caught a big, struggling carp.
"What do you know about that?" cried Curly, in disgust. "You could bait your hook with a marble and catch a whopper, I believe!"
Meanwhile, Ruth was having a most delightful time. The roses had come back into her cheeks at the first. Her eyes sparkled, and she "wriggled all over," as she expressed it, "with just the _feel_ of spring."
She did not spend all her time fishing, but ran about and examined the early plants and sprouting bushes, and woke up the first violets and searched for May flowers, which, of course, she did not find. Squirrels chattered at them, and a blue jay hung about, squalling, evidently hoping for crumbs from their lunch. Only there were no crumbs of Curly"s frugal bologna and crackers left.
When the sun was in mid-heaven the boy confessed to being as hungry as ever, and tightened his belt. "Crackers don"t stick to your ribs much," he grumbled.
Ruth calmly began opening her box. Curly looked at her askance.
"You aren"t figgering on going home _now_, are you?" he asked.
"Oh, no. I sha"n"t go home till you do."
Then she produced from the box sandwiches, deviled eggs, a jelly roll, a jar of peanut b.u.t.ter, crackers, olives, and some more of Mrs. Smith"s good doughnuts.
"Old Scratch!" Curly e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "You"re the best fellow to go fishing with, Ruth Fielding, that I ever saw. You can come to _my_ parties any time you like."
They spent the whole day delightfully and, tired, scratched, and not a little wind-burned, Ruth tramped home behind Curly in good season for supper at Mrs. Sadoc Smith"s.
She did not tell the boy that the whole outing had been arranged the night before with his grandmother before Ruth herself went to bed. Curly expected to be "called down," as he expressed it, by his grandmother when they arrived home. To his amazement they were met cheerfully and ushered in to a bounteous supper on which Mrs. Smith had expended no little thought and time.
Curly was stricken almost dumb by his grandmother"s generosity and good-nature. After supper he whispered to Ruth: