# Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp/Chapter 13
#### CHAPTER XIII
##### SHELLS AND KERNELS

The three boys stuck to their work, with only a whisper or two, until there was a great bowl of nutmeats, and Ruth pronounced the quantity sufficient. Meanwhile, the taffy was boiling in the big kettle, and Ruth and Jennie had buttered three dripping pans. They spread the nutmeats evenly in the pans and then set the pans carefully on a snowdrift outside the back door to get thoroughly cold before the taffy was poured thinly over the nuts.
Everybody was on the qui vive about the candy then. The girls couldn't drive the boys out of the room. The bubbling molasses filled the great kitchen with a rich odor. Jennie began popping corn with which to make cornballs of the taffy that could not be run into the three pans of nuts.
Isadore Phelps disappeared for possibly three minutes—no longer; and the girls never missed him.
At last the candy could be "spun" and Ruth pronounced it ready to pour into the pans outside. Isadore said he would help—the kettle was ​too heavy for the girls to carry. He was adjured to be very, very careful and the girls followed him to the door in a body when he carried out the steaming couldron.
"Do pour it carefully, Izzy!" cried Helen.
"If that boy spoils it, I'll never forgive him," sighed Heavy.
Ruth ran out after him. But Isadore took great care in pouring the mixture into the pans as he had been instructed, and even she had no complaint to make. He hurried back to the kitchen, too, poured the residue of the boiled molasses upon the popcorn and they made up the cornballs at once.
"Come on, now," said Izzy, in a great hurry. "Give us fellows our share of the cornballs and we'll beat it. We're going skating. We'll help you eat your old candy when we come back.
"Maybe it will be all gone by that time," said Heavy, slily.
"I wish you joy of it, then, Miss Smartie," returned Isadore, chuckling. "Come on, fellows."
They seized their skates and ran away. Isadore could hardly talk for laughter; and he carried a good sized paper bag besides his share of the popcorn balls.
The girls "cleaned up"—for that had been the agreement with Janey when she let them have her kitchen—and then sat down before the hall ​fire to make pine pillows, of which they were determined to take a number to Briarwood to give to their friends. Helen had bought a lot of denim covers stamped and lettered with mottoes, including the ever-favorite "I Pine for Thee and Likewise Balsam."
But although they were very merry around the fire, Heavy could not long be content. The popcorn balls disappeared like magic and the stout girl kept worrying the others with questions about the taffy.
"Don't you suppose that candy's cool? I declare! those boys might play a joke on us—they might creep back and steal all three pans."
"Dear me, Jennie!" cried Ruth Fielding. "If you are so anxious, why don't you run and bring a pan in? We'll see if it's brittle enough to break up."
Heavy sighed, but put down her work and arose. "It's always I who has to do the work," she complained.
"Bring the pan in here and break the candy," advised Madge Steele. "We'll have to watch you."
Heavy came back with one of the candy pans in short order, bringing a hammer, too, with which to crack the brittle taffy.
"Come! we'll see how it tastes; and if it's good enough," she added, smiling broadly, "we won't ​let the boys have even a little bit. They were mean enough to go off skating without us."
She cracked up a part of the candy, passed the pan around quickly, and popped a piece into her own mouth. In a moment she spat the candy into the fire, with a shriek, and put her hand to her jaw.
"Oh! oh! oh!" she cried.
"What's the matter with you, Heavy?" demanded Helen, startled.
"Oh, I've broken a tooth I believe. Oh!"
"Why were you so greedy?" began Madge, sedately. And then, suddenly, she stopped chewing the bit of candy she had taken into her mouth, and a sudden flush overspread her face.
"Why, here's a piece of nutshell!" cried Lluella.
"How careless those boys were!" Helen added. "They got some of the shells in with the meat."
"We should have expected it," Belle cried. "They never should have been trusted to crack the nuts."
"Oh, girls!" gasped Ruth, who had quickly examined the candy in the pan.
Her voice was tragic, and the others looked at her (all but Madge) in surprise. "What have those horrid boys done?" demanded Jennie Stone.
​"They've spoiled it all!" Ruth cried "There's nothing but shells in the candy. They've ruined it!"
"Oh! oh! oh!" shrieked Heavy again. "It can't be true!"
"It can be, for it is!" said Madge Steele, decidedly. "Those mean boys! I certainly will fix Bob for that."
"And Tom!" cried Helen, almost in tears. "How could he be so mean?"
"I don't believe Tom did it, Helen," said Ruth, slowly.
"He was just as bad as the others, I venture to say," Madge said, sharply.
"If he is, I won't speak to him for a month!" cried his twin sister. "We won't have anything more to do with them while we are here—there now! Oh, how mean!"
"Maybe it's only one pan that is this way," suggested Heavy, timidly.
They all ran out to see. The other pans were just like the first one. The nut meats had been removed and shells scattered in the pans instead. No wonder Isadore Phelps had wanted to pour the molasses taffy!
"And they've got all the meats," said Belle Tingley. "They are eating them and chuckling over the trick right now, I wager."
"It's a mean, mean trick!" gasped Helen, in a ​temper. "I never will forgive Tom. And I just hate those other boys."
"You're welcome to hate Bobbie," said Madge. "He deserves it."
"Such a contemptible joke!" groaned Belle.
"Let's make some more," Ruth suggested. "And we won't give them any."
"No, I don't want to go all through it again," Helen said, shaking her head.
At that moment the telephone rang. Ruth was nearest and she jumped up and answered the call. At the other end of the wire an excited female voice demanded:
"Is this Snow Camp?"
"Yes," replied Ruth, "it is."
"Mr. Cameron's camp?"
"Yes. But he is not in the house just now."
"Aren't any of your men-folks there?" queried the excited voice.
" I guess most of the men are drawing in logs for the fires," said Ruth. "What is the matter?"
"I want to warn you all to look out for the panther. It is supposed to be coming your way—towards Snow Camp. The beast has just killed a pig for us, and was frightened away. It's done other damage to-day among the neighbors' cattle. Do you hear me?"
"Oh, I hear you!" cried Ruth, and then held ​her hand over the mouthpiece and spoke to the other girls: "That panther—that catamount!" she cried. "It is supposed to be coming this way. Where is your father, Helen?" And Long Jerry Todd?"