in November."

"We'll have just the loveliest time!" went on Helen, with her usual
enthusiasm. "Tom and I spent a week-end at Snow Camp when Mr. Parrish
owned it, and when we knew he was going to sell, we just _begged_ papa
to buy it. You never saw such a lovely old log cabin--"

"I never saw a log cabin at all," responded Ruth, laughing.

They had climbed the steep bank now and started across the pasture
in what Tom called "a catter-cornering" direction, meaning to come
out upon the main road to Osago Lake within sight of the Red Mill,
which was the property of Mr. Jabez Potter, Ruth's uncle.

Ruth Fielding, after her parents died, had come from Darrowtown to
live with her mother's uncle at the Red Mill, as was told in the
first volume of this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill;
Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret." The girl had found Uncle Jabez very hard
to get along with at first, for he was a good deal of a miser, and
his finer feelings seemed to have been neglected during a long life
of hoarding and selfishness.

But through a happy turn of circumstances Ruth was enabled to get at
the heart of her crotchety uncle, and when Ruth's very dear friend,
Helen Cameron, planned to go away to school, Uncle Jabez was won over
to the idea of sending Ruth with her. The girls were now home for the
winter holidays after spending their first term at Briarwood Hall,
where they had made many friends as well as learning a good many
practical and necessary things. The fun and work of this first term
is all related in "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving the