He came stamping up the steps and burst into the kitchen in a jolly
way, and Helen ran to him with a kiss.

"Hullo I what's all this?" he demanded, his black eyes taking in the
grove of airing garments around the stove. "Tom been in the river?
No! Those aren't Tom's duds, I'll be switched if they are!"

"No, no," cried Helen. "It's another boy."

And here Tom himself appeared from the bedroom.

"I thought Tom could keep out of the river when the ice was four
inches thick--eh, son?" laughed Mr. Cameron.

His children began to tell him, both together, of the adventure with
the bull and the mysterious appearance of the strange boy.

"Aye, aye!" he said. "And Ruth Fielding was in it, of course--and
did her part in extricating you all from the mess, too, I'll be
bound! Whatever would we do without Ruth?" and he smiled and shook
hands with the miller's niece.

"I guess we were all equally scared. But it certainly was my fault
that the old bull bunted the hollow stump into the creek. So this boy
can thank me for getting him such a ducking," laughed Ruth.

"And who is he? Where does he come from?"

Ruth showed Mr. Cameron the stencil on the inside of the wallet.