{"product_id":"2940013562202","title":"Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm OR WHAT BECAME OF THE RABY ORPHANS","description":"RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I—SWEET BRIARS AND SOUR PICKLES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and\u003cbr\u003emade so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the\u003cbr\u003epassage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which\u003cbr\u003ewere realities and which shadows in the long gallery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory\u003cbr\u003edoors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within\u003cbr\u003ethe duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall.\u003cbr\u003eThere were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and—without doubt—the\u003cbr\u003emembers of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of\u003cbr\u003ethe trade of being a schoolgirl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt one door—and it was the portal of the largest “quartette” room on the\u003cbr\u003efloor—a tall figure kept guard. At first this figure was so silent and\u003cbr\u003emotionless that it seemed like a shadow only. But when another shadow\u003cbr\u003ecrept toward it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard demanded,\u003cbr\u003ehissingly:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“S-s-stop! who goes there?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge Steele!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sh!” commanded the guard. “Who goes there?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Why—why—— It’s _I_.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Give the password instantly. Answer!” commanded the guard again, and\u003cbr\u003ewith some vexation. “‘I’ isn’t anybody.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that _this_ ‘I’ is somebody—according to\u003cbr\u003ethe gym. scales. I gained three pounds over the Easter holidays,” said\u003cbr\u003e“Heavy” Jennie Stone, who had begun her reply with a giggle, but ended\u003cbr\u003eit with a sigh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Password, Miss!” snapped the guard, grimly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh! of course!” Then the fat girl whispered shrilly:\u003cbr\u003e“‘Sincerity—befriend.’ That is what ‘S. B.’ stands for, I s’pose.\u003cbr\u003eSweetbriars! and I have a big bag of sour pickles to offset the cloying\u003cbr\u003esweetness of the Sweetbriars,” chuckled Heavy. “Besides, they say that\u003cbr\u003evinegar pickles will make you thin——”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I don’t need them for that purpose,” admitted the guard at the door,\u003cbr\u003estill in a whisper, but accepting the large, “warty” pickle Heavy thrust\u003cbr\u003einto her hand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Will make _me_ thin, then,” agreed the other. “Let me in, Madge.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe guard, sucking the pickle convulsively the while, opened the door\u003cbr\u003ejust a little way. A blanket had been hung on a frame inside in such a\u003cbr\u003emanner that scarcely a gleam of lamplight reached the corridor when the\u003cbr\u003edoor was open.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Pass the Sweetbriar!” choked Madge, with her mouth full and the tears\u003cbr\u003erunning down her cheeks. “My goodness, Jennie Stone! these pickles are\u003cbr\u003eright out of vitriol!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sour, aren’t they?” chuckled Heavy. “I handed you a real one for fair,\u003cbr\u003ethat time, didn’t I, Madge?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen she tried to sidle through the narrow opening, got stuck, and was\u003cbr\u003eurged on by Madge pushing her. With a bang—punctuated by a chorus of\u003cbr\u003emuffled exclamations from the girls already assembled—she tore away the\u003cbr\u003eframe and the blanket and got through.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Shut the door, quick, guard!” exclaimed Helen Cameron.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Of course, that would be Heavy—entering like a female Samson and\u003cbr\u003etearing down the pillars of the temple,” snapped Mercy Curtis, the lame\u003cbr\u003egirl, in her sharp way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Please repair the damage, Helen,” said Ruth Fielding, who presided at\u003cbr\u003ethe far end of the room, sitting cross-legged on one of the beds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe other girls were arranged on the chairs, or upon the floor before\u003cbr\u003eher. There was a goodly number of them, and they now included most of\u003cbr\u003ethe members of the secret society known at Briarwood Hall as the\u003cbr\u003e“S. B.’s.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth herself was a bright, brown-haired girl who, without possessing\u003cbr\u003emany pretensions to real beauty of feature, still was quite good to look\u003cbr\u003eat and proved particularly charming when one grew to know her well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe was rather plump, happy of disposition, and with the kindest heart\u003cbr\u003ein the world. She made both friends and enemies. No person of real\u003cbr\u003echaracter can escape being disliked, now and then, by those of envious\u003cbr\u003edisposition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth Fielding succeeded, usually, in winning to her those who at first\u003cbr\u003edisliked her. And this, I claim, is a better gift than that of being\u003cbr\u003euniversally popular from the start.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079578108144,"sku":"2940013562202","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013562202_p0.jpg?v=1763582382","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013562202","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}