CHAPTER IV
A QUEER PROPOSAL
Oak Farm was a most delightful place. Ruth and Alice agreed to this even before the first meal was served. They stood at the window of their room—a large one with two beds—and gazed across the green meadows, off to the greener woodland and then to the distant hills which girt the valley holding Oak Farm in its clasp.
The hills were purple now with the coming of night—a deep purple like the depth of a woodland violet—and their tops were shrouded in mist.
At the foot of the hills ran a little river, and now it looked like some ribbon of silver, twining in and out amid the green carpet of the fields.
"Oh, isn't it beautiful—just beautiful!" sighed Ruth.
"Do you mean the odor of that fried chicken?" asked Alice, with a frank laugh, as she let down her hair, preparatory to putting it
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