Ruth Fielding Down in Dixie Part 14

"No. But there's no sign that says you sha'n't," complained Helen. "And I don't see--"

Just then there was a fierce whistle and a big stag charged. Helen looked all around-save in the right direction-for the sound. She was leaning against the wire fence, but with her head turned so that she did not see the gentle little doe bound away as her master came savagely down the slope.

The next instant the brute crashed against the fence and the shock of his collision sent Helen to the ground. Although the angry stag was on the other side of the woven-wire fence, so savage did he appear that other people standing about ran screaming away.

The stag was tearing up the sod with his forefeet and throwing himself against the shaking fence as though determined to get at the prostrate Helen.

The latter was really hurt a little, and so badly frightened that she could not arise instantly. Nettie was the nearest of her party; but she was trembling and crying. Ruth was too far away, as was Mrs. Parsons, to help her chum immediately, though she started running in her direction.

But there was a rescuer at hand. A boy in a faded suit of overalls, who must have been working near, ran down to drag the frightened girl away from the fence. As he pa.s.sed an old gentleman on the walk he seized the latter's cane and darting between Helen and the fence, dealt the angry stag a heavy blow upon the nose.

Although the wire-fence saved the beast from serious injury, the blow was heavy enough to make him fall back and cease his charges against the wire netting. Then the boy helped Helen to her feet.

"Oh!" shrieked the frightened girl. And after that, although the boy quickly slipped away through the gathering crowd, and out of sight, Helen said no other word.

"Oh, my dear!" gasped Ruth, reaching her. "You did not even thank him."

"I know it," whispered Helen.

"Are-are you hurt, dear?"

"Only my dignity is hurt," confessed her chum, beginning to laugh hysterically.

"But that boy--"

"Hush, Ruthie!" begged Helen, her lips close to her chum's ear. "Do you know who he was?"

"Why-I--Of course not! I did not see his face."

"It was Curly. Don't say a word," breathed Helen. "Here comes a policeman."

Ruth was as much amazed as Helen at the unexpected appearance of Henry Smith. He was constantly bobbing up before them just like an imp in a pantomime.

Their friends hurried the chums away from the caged deer and the crowd that had gathered. Helen had a few bruises but was not, fortunately, really injured. But she confessed that she had seen all the deer she cared to see for the time.

"And I thought they were such gentle, affectionate creatures," she sighed. "Why, that one was as savage as a bear!"

They returned to the water-front and went aboard the Richmond boat in good season for dinner. Ruth and Helen were rather used to boat travel they thought by this time, and they found this smaller craft quite as pleasant as the big steamer on which they had come down the coast.

While they were at table in the saloon the boat started, and so nicely was it eased off, and so quiet was the water, that the girls had no idea the vessel had started.

The girls ran out on deck, arranged a comfortable place for Mrs.

Parsons, and there watched the panoramic view of the roads and the sh.o.r.es until darkness fell.

"We shall miss many of the beauties of the James River plantations and towns," Mrs. Parsons said; "by taking this night boat; but we shall have a good night's sleep and see more of Richmond to-morrow than we otherwise could."

The chums did not have quite as much freedom on the river trip as they did coming down on the New Union Line boat; for Mrs. Parsons insisted upon an early bedtime. She would not have liked their sitting out on the deck alone at a late hour. She did not believe in too much freedom for young girls of her niece's age.

However, she was very pleasant to travel with. Ruth and Helen marveled at the attention Mrs. Parsons received from all the employees of the boat, both white and black.

"And she doesn't have to tip extravagantly to get service," Ruth pointed out to Helen. "You see, these darkeys consider it an honor to attend Mrs. Parsons. We Northerners are interlopers, after all; they sell us their servile attentions at a high price; but they are glad to serve the descendants of their old masters. There is a bond between the whites and blacks of the South that we cannot quite understand."

"I guess we're too independent and want to help ourselves too much,"

Helen said. "You let me alone, Ruth Fielding, and I'll loll around just like Nettie does and let the colored people fetch and carry for me."

"You lazy little thing!" Ruth threw at her, laughing. "It doesn't become your father's daughter to long for such methods and habits. Goodness!

the negroes themselves are so slow they give me the fidgets."

In the morning they awoke from sleep as the boat was being docked. It was another beautiful, sunshiny day. The negro dockhands lolled upon the wharves. Up the river they could see the bridge to Manchester and the rapids, up which no boat could sail.

They ate their breakfast in a leisurely manner on the boat, and then took an open carriage on Main Street, where the sickish odor of the tobacco factories was all that spoiled the ride.

They rode east and pa.s.sed the site of the old Libby tobacco warehouse-execrated by the prisoners during the Civil War as "Libby Prison"-and saw, too, Libby Hill Park, Marshall's Park and the beautiful Chimborazo reservation.

Coming back they climbed the Broad Street hill and stopped at the hotel, remaining there for rest and luncheon. Then the girls walked on Broad Street and saw the shops and bought a few souvenirs and some needfuls, while Mrs. Parsons remained in the hotel. The sun was hot, but the air was dry and invigorating.

Later in the afternoon the whole party went down into Capitol Square-a very beautiful park, in which are located the state-house, the library, and the Washington Monument.

"Besides," declared Helen, "'most a million squirrels. Did you ever see so many of the little dears? And see how tame they are."

The squirrels and the children with their black nurses in Capitol Square are among the pleasantest sights of Richmond. There was the old bell tower, too, near the North Twelfth Street side, which interested the girls, and they walked back to the hotel by way of Franklin Street and saw the old home of General Robert E. Lee and some other famous dwellings.

The party was to remain one night in Richmond, and in the morning the girls went alone to the Confederate Museum on Clay Street, which during the Civil War was the "White House of the Confederacy."

"I leave you young people to do the rest of the sightseeing," Mrs.

Parsons said, and took her breakfast in bed, waited on by a colored maid.

But at noon she appeared, trim and fresh again, in time for luncheon and the ride to the railway station where they took the train for the South.

"Now we're off for the Land of Cotton!" cried Helen. "This dip into Dixie so far has only been a taste. What adventures are before us now, do you suppose, Ruth?"

Her chum could not tell her. Indeed, neither of them could have imagined quite what was to happen to them before they again turned their faces north for the return journey.

CHAPTER XI-AT THE MERREDITH PLANTATION

The noontide bell at some distant cotton house sent a solemn note-like an alarm-ringing across the lowlands. The warm, sweet smell of the brakes almost overpowered the girls from the North. And lulling their senses, too, were the bird-notes, seemingly from every tree and bush.

Long festoons of moss hung from some of the wide-armed trees. Here and there, cleared hammocks were shaded by mighty oaks which may have been standing when the first white settlers on this coast of the New World established themselves at Georgetown, not many miles away.

Riding in the comfortable open carriage, behind a handsome pair of bay horses, and driven by a liveried coachman with a footman likewise caparisoned on the seat beside him, Ruth and Helen, as guests of Mrs.

Rachel Parsons and Nettie, had already come twenty miles from the railroad station.

Despite the moisture and the heat, the girls from the North were enjoying themselves hugely. The week that had pa.s.sed since they had met Nettie and her aunt at Old Point Comfort had been a most delightful one for the chums.