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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4985-h.zip b/4985-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..768769a --- /dev/null +++ b/4985-h.zip diff --git a/4985-h/4985-h.htm b/4985-h/4985-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abb1935 --- /dev/null +++ b/4985-h/4985-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5130 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> + +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<meta name="AUTHOR" content="Emerson, Alice B."> +<meta name="SUPERTITLE" content=""> +<meta name="TITLE" content="Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill"> +<meta name="SUBTITLE" content="or, Jasper Parloe's Secret"> +<meta name="YEAR" content="1913"> +<meta name="TRANSLATOR" content=""> +<meta name="TRUE_URL" content="."> +<meta name="STATUS" content="finished"> + <TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook: Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, by Alice B. Emerson</TITLE> +</HEAD> +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, by Alice B. Emerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill + +Author: Alice B. Emerson + +Posting Date: July 6, 2011 [EBook #4985] +Release Date: January, 2004 +[This file was first posted on April 7, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL *** + + + + +Produced by Jim Weiler, xooqi.com. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill</h1> +<h4>or</h4> +<h4>Jasper Parloe's Secret</h4> +<h2>by Alice B. Emerson, 1913</h2> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> +<h4>THE RED FLAME IN THE NIGHT</h4> +<P> +The sound of the drumming wheels! It had roared in the ears of Ruth Fielding +for hours as she sat on the comfortably upholstered seat in the last car +of the afternoon Limited, the train whirling her from the West to the East, +through the fertile valleys of Upper New York State. +<P> +This had been a very long journey for the girl, but Ruth knew that it would +soon come to an end. Cheslow was not many miles ahead now; she had searched +it out upon the railroad timetable, and upon the map printed on the back +of the sheet; and as the stations flew by, she had spelled their names out +with her quick eyes, until dusk had fallen and she could no longer see more +than the signal lamps and switch targets as the train whirled her on. +<P> +But she still stared through the window. This last car of the train was fairly +well filled, but she had been fortunate in having a seat all to herself; +she was glad this was so, for a person in the seat with her might have discovered +how hard it was for her to keep back the tears. +<P> +For Ruth Fielding was by no means one of the "crying kind," and she had forbidden +herself the luxury of tears on this occasion. +<P> +"We had all <I>that</I> out weeks ago, you know we did!" she whispered, +apostrophizing that inner self that really wanted to break the brave compact. +"When we knew we had to leave dear old Darrowtown, and Miss True Pettis, +and Patsy Hope, and—and 'all other perspiring friends,' to quote Amoskeag +Lanfell's letter that she wrote home from Conference. +<P> +"No, Ruth Fielding! Uncle Jabez Potter may be the very nicest kind of an +old dear. And to live in a mill—and one painted red, too! <I>That</I> ought +to make up for a good many disappointments—" +<P> +Her soliloquy was interrupted by a light tap upon her shoulder. Ruth glanced +around and up quickly. She saw standing beside her the tall old gentleman +who had been sitting two seats behind on the other side of the aisle ever +since the train left Buffalo. +<P> +He was a spare old gentleman, with a gaunt, eagle-beaked face, cleanly shaven +but for a sweeping iron-gray mustache, his iron-gray hair waved over the +collar of his black coat—a regular mane of hair which flowed out from under +the brim of his well-brushed, soft-crowned hat. His face would have been +very stern in its expression had it not been for the little twinkle in his +bright, dark eyes. +<P> +"Why don't you do it?" he asked Ruth, softly. +<P> +"Why don't I do what, sir?" she responded, not without a little gulp, for +that lump <I>would</I> rise in her throat. +<P> +"Why don't you cry?" questioned the strange old gentleman, still speaking +softly and with that little twinkle in his eye. +<P> +"Because I am determined not to cry, sir," and now Ruth could call up a little +smile, though perhaps the corners of her mouth trembled a bit. +<P> +The gentleman sat down beside her, although she had not invited him to do +so. She was not at all afraid of him and, after all, perhaps she was glad +to have him do it. +<P> +"Tell me all about it," he suggested, with such an air of confidence and +interest that Ruth warmed more and more toward him. +<P> +But it <I>was</I> a little hard to begin. When he told her, however, that +he was going to Cheslow, too—indeed, that that was his home—it was easier +by far. +<P> +"I am Doctor Davison, my dear," he said. "If you are going to live in Cheslow +you will hear all about Doctor Davison, and you would better know him at +first-hand, to avoid mistakes," and his eyes twinkled more than ever, though +his stern mouth never relaxed. +<P> +"I expect that my new home is some little way outside of Cheslow," Ruth said, +timidly. "They call it the Red Mill." +<P> +The humorous light faded out of the dark, bright eyes of the gentleman. Yet +even then his countenance did not impress her as being unkindly. +<P> +"Jabez Potter's mill," he said, thoughtfully. +<P> +"Yes, sir. That is my uncle's name." +<P> +"Your uncle?" +<P> +"My great uncle, to be exact," said Ruth. "He was mother's uncle." +<P> +"Then you," he said, speaking even more gently than before, "are little Mary +Potter's daughter?" +<P> +"Mother was Mary Potter before she married papa," said Ruth, more easily +now. "She died four years ago." +<P> +He nodded, looking away from her out of the window at the fast-darkening +landscape which hurried by them. +<P> +"And poor papa died last winter. I had no claim upon the kind friends who +helped me when he died," pursued Ruth, bravely. "They wrote to Uncle Jabez +and he—he said I could come and live with him and Aunt Alvirah Boggs." +<P> +In a flash the twinkle came back into his eyes, and he nodded again. +<P> +"Ah, yes! Aunt Alviry," he said, giving the name its old-fashioned, homely +pronunciation. "I had forgotten Aunt Alviry," and he seemed quite pleased +to remember her. +<P> +"She keeps house for Uncle Jabez, I understand," Ruth continued. "But she +isn't <I>my</I> aunt." +<P> +"She is everybody's Aunt Alviry, I think," said Doctor Davison, encouragingly. +<P> +For some reason this made Ruth feel better. He spoke as though she would +love Aunt Alviry, and Ruth had left so many kind friends behind her in Darrowtown +that she was glad to be assured that somebody in the new home where she was +going would be kind, too. +<P> +Miss True Pettis had not shown her Uncle Jabez's letter and she had feared +that perhaps her mother's uncle (whom she had never seen nor known much about) +might not have written as kindly for his niece to come to the Red Mill as +Miss True could have wished. But Miss True was poor; most of the Darrowtown +friends had been poor people. Ruth had felt that she could not remain a burden +on them. +<P> +Somehow she did not have to explain all this to Doctor Davison. He seemed +to understand it when he nodded and his eyes twinkled so glowingly. +<P> +"Cheslow is a pleasant town. You will like it," he said, cheerfully. "The +Red Mill is five miles out on the Lake Osago Road. It is a pretty country. +It will be dark when you ride over it to-night; but you will like it when +you see it by daylight." +<P> +He took it for granted that Uncle Jabez would come to the station to meet +her with a carriage, and that comforted Ruth not a little. +<P> +"You will pass my house on that road," continued Doctor Davison. "But when +you come to town you must <I>not</I> pass it." +<P> +"Sir?" she asked him, surprised. +<P> +"Not without stopping to see me," he explained, his eyes twinkling more than +ever. And then he left her and went back to his seat. +<P> +But Ruth found, when he had gone, that the choke came back into her throat +again and the sting of unshed tears to her eyes. But she would <I>not</I> +let those same tears fall! +<P> +She stared out of the plate-glass window and saw that it was now quite dark. +The whistle of the fast-flying locomotive shrieked its long-drawn warning, +and a group of signal lights flashed past. Then she heard the loud ringing +of a gong at a grade crossing. They must be nearing Cheslow now. +<P> +And then she saw that they were on a curve quite a sharp curve, for she saw +the lights of the locomotive and the mail car far ahead upon the gleaming +rails. They began to slow down, too, and the wheels wailed under the pressure +of the brakes. +<P> +She could see the signal lights along the tracks ahead and then—with a start, +for she knew what it meant—a sharp red flame appeared out of the darkness +beyond the rushing engine pilot. +<P> +Danger! That is what that red light meant. The brakes clamped down upon the +wheels again so suddenly that the easily-riding coach jarred through all +its parts. The red eye was winked out instantly; but the long and heavy train +came to an abrupt stop. +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> +<h4>RENO</h4> +<P> +But the Limited had stopped so that Ruth could see along the length of the +train. Lanterns winked and blinked in the dark as the trainmen carried them +forward. Something had happened up front of more importance than an ordinary +halt for permission to run in on the next block. Besides, the afternoon Limited +was a train of the first-class and was supposed to have the right of way +over all other trains. No signal should have stopped it here. +<P> +"How far are we from Cheslow, please?" she asked of the rear brakeman (whom +she knew was called the flagman) as he came down the car with his lantern. +<P> +"Not above a mile, Miss," he replied. +<P> +His smile, and his way of speaking, encouraged her to ask: +<P> +"Can you tell me why we have stopped?" +<P> +"Something on the track, Miss. I have set out my signal lamp and am going +forward to inquire." +<P> +Three or four of the male passengers followed him out of the car. Ruth saw +that quite a number had disembarked from the cars ahead, that a goodly company +was moving forward, and that there were ladies among the curious crowd. If +it was perfectly safe for them to satisfy their curiosity, why not she? She +arose and hurried out of the car, following the swinging lamp of the brakeman +as he strode on. +<P> +Ruth ran a little, seeing well enough to pick her way over the ends of the +ties, and arrived to find at least half a hundred people grouped on the track +ahead of the locomotive pilot. The great, unblinking, white eye of the huge +machine revealed the group clearly—and the object around which the curious +passengers, as well as the train crew, had gathered. +<P> +It was a dog—a great, handsome, fawn-colored mastiff, sleek of coat and +well fed, but muddied now along his flanks, evidently having waded through +the mire of the wet meadow beside the tracks. He had come under, or through, +a barbed wire fence, too, for there was a long scratch upon his shoulder +and another raw cut upon his muzzle. +<P> +To his broad collar was fastened a red lamp. Nobody had taken it off, for +both the train men and the passengers were excitedly discussing what his +presence here might mean; and some of them seemed afraid of the great fellow. +<P> +But Ruth had been used to dogs, and this noble looking fellow had no terrors +for her. He seemed so woebegone, his great brown eyes pleaded so earnestly, +that she could only pity and fondle him. +<P> +"Look out, Miss; maybe he bites," warned the anxious conductor. "I wager +this is some boy's trick to stop the train. And yet—" +<P> +Ruth bent down, still patting the dog's head, and turned the great silver +plate on his collar so that she could read, in the light of the lanterns, +that which was engraved upon it. She read the words aloud: +<P> +<I>"'This is Reno, Tom Cameron's Dog.'"</I> +<P> +"Cameron?" repeated some man behind her. "That Tom Cameron lives just outside +of Cheslow. His father is the rich dry-goods merchant, Macy Cameron. What's +his dog doing here?" +<P> +"And with a red light tied to his collar?" propounded somebody else. +<P> +"It's some boy's trick, I tell you," stormed the conductor. "I'll have to +report this at headquarters." +<P> +Just then Ruth made a discovery. Wound about the collar was a bit of twisted +cloth—a strip of linen—part of a white handkerchief. Her nimble fingers +unwound it quickly and she spread out the soiled rag. +<P> +"Oh, see here!" she cried, in amazement as well as fear. "See! What can it +mean? See what's drawn on this cloth—" +<P> +It was a single word—a word smeared across the rag in shaking, uneven letters: +<P> +"HELP!" +<P> +"By George!" exclaimed one of the brakemen. "The little girl's right. That +spells 'Help!' plain enough." +<P> +"It—it is written in something red, sir," cried Ruth, her voice trembling. +"See! It is blood!" +<P> +"I tell you we've wasted a lot of time here," declared the conductor. "I +am sorry if anybody is hurt, but we cannot stop for him. Get back to the +cars, please, gentlemen. Do you belong aboard?" he added, to Ruth. "Get aboard, +if you do." +<P> +"Oh, sir! You will not leave the poor dog here?" Ruth asked. +<P> +"Not with that red lamp on his collar—no!" exclaimed the conductor. "He +will be fooling some other engineer—" +<P> +He reached to disentangle the wire from the dog's collar; but Reno uttered +a low growl. +<P> +"Plague take the dog!" ejaculated the conductor, stepping back hastily. "Whoever +it is that's hurt, or wherever he is, we cannot send him help from here. +We'll report the circumstance at the Cheslow Station. Put the dog in the +baggage car. He can find the place where his master is hurt, from Cheslow +as well as from here, it's likely." +<P> +"You try to make him follow you, Miss," added the conductor to Ruth. "He +doesn't like me, it's plain." +<P> +"Come here, Reno!" Ruth commanded. "Come here, old fellow." +<P> +The big dog hesitated, stepped a yard or two after her, stopped, looked around +and across the track toward the swamp meadow, and whined. +<P> +Ruth went back to him and put both arms about the noble fellow's neck. "Come, +Reno," she said "Come with me. We will go to find your master by and by." +<P> +She started for the cars again, with one hand on the dog's neck. He trotted +meekly beside her with head hanging. At the open baggage-car door one of +the brakemen lifted her in. +<P> +"Come, Reno! Come up, sir!" she said, and the great mastiff, crouching for +an instant, sprang into the car. +<P> +Even before they were fairly aboard, the train started. They were late enough, +indeed! But the engineer dared not speed up much for that last mile of the +lap to Cheslow. There <I>might</I> be something ahead on the track. +<P> +"You get out at Cheslow; don't you Miss?" asked the conductor. +<P> +"Yes, sir," returned Ruth, sitting down with an air of possession upon her +old-fashioned cowhide trunk that had already been put out by the door ready +for discharging at the next station. +<P> +"And you were sitting in the last car. Have you a bag there?" +<P> +"Yes, sir, a small bag. That is all." +<P> +"I'll send it forward to you," he said, not unkindly, and bustled away. +<P> +And so Ruth Fielding was sitting on her own trunk, with her bag in her lap, +and the great mastiff lying on the floor of the baggage car beside her, when +the train slowed down and stopped beside the Cheslow platform. She had not +expected to arrive just in this way at her journey's end. +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> +<h4>WHAT HAS HAPPENED?</h4> +<P> +The baggage-car door was wheeled wide open again and the lamps on the platform +shone in. There was the forward brakeman to "jump" her down from the high +doorway, and Reno, with the little red light still hung to his collar, bounded +after her. +<P> +The conductor bustled away to tell the station master about the dog with +the red light, and of the word scrawled on the cloth which Ruth had found +wound around his collar. Indeed, Ruth herself was very anxious and very much +excited regarding this mystery; but she was anxious, too, about herself. +Was Uncle Jabez here to meet her? Or had he sent somebody to take her to +the Red Mill? He had been informed by Miss True Pettis the week before on +which train to expect his niece. +<P> +Carrying her bag and followed dejectedly by the huge mastiff, Ruth started +down the long platform. The conductor ran out of the station, signalled the +train crew with his hand, and lanterns waved the length of the train. Panting, +with its huge springs squeaking, the locomotive started the string of cars. +Faster and faster the train moved, and before Ruth reached the pent-house +roof of the little brick station, the tail-lights of the last car had passed +her. +<P> +A short, bullet-headed old man, with close-cropped, whitish-yellow hair, +atop of which was a boy's baseball cap, his face smoothly shaven and deeply +lined, and the stain of tobacco at either corner of his mouth, was standing +on the platform. He was not a nice looking old man at all, he was dressed +in shabby and patched garments, and his little eyes seemed so sly that they +were even trying to hide from each other on either side of a hawksbill nose. +<P> +He began to eye Ruth curiously as the girl approached, and she, seeing that +he was the only person who gave her any attention, jumped to the conclusion +that <I>this</I> was Uncle Jabez. The thought shocked her. She instinctively +feared and disliked this queer looking old man. The lump in her throat that +would not be swallowed almost choked her again, and she winked her eyes fast +to keep from crying. +<P> +She would, in her fear and disappointment, have passed the old man by without +speaking had he not stepped in front of her. +<P> +"Where d'ye wanter go, Miss?" he whined, looking at her still more sharply +out of his narrow eyes. "Yeou be a stranger here, eh?" +<P> +"Yes, sir," admitted Ruth. +<P> +"Where are you goin'?" asked the man again, and Ruth had enough Yankee blood +in her to answer the query by asking: +<P> +"Are you Mr. Jabez Potter?" +<P> +"Me Jabez Potter? Why, ef I was Jabe Potter I'd be owing myself money, that's +what I'd be doin'. You warn't never lookin' for Jabe Potter?" +<P> +Much relieved, Ruth admitted the fact frankly. "He is my uncle, sir," she +said. "I am going to live at the Red Mill." +<P> +The strange old man puckered up his lips into a whistle, and shook his head, +eyeing her all the time so slily that Ruth was more and more thankful that +he had not proven to be Uncle Jabez. +<P> +"Do you know Mr. Potter?" she asked, undecided what to do. +<P> +"Do I know Jabe Potter?" repeated the man. "Well, I don't know much good +of him, I assure ye! I worked for him onct, I did. And I tell ye he owes +me money yet. You ax him if he don't owe Jasper Parloe money—you jest ax +him!" +<P> +He began to get excited and did not seem at all inclined to step out of Ruth's +path. But just then somebody spoke to her and she turned to see the station +master and two or three other men with him. +<P> +"This is the girl Mr. Mason spoke to me about, isn't it?" the railroad man +asked. "The conductor of the express, I mean. He said the dog would mind +you." +<P> +"He seems to like me," she replied, turning to the mastiff that had stood +all this time close to her. +<P> +"That is Tom Cameron's dog all right," said one of the other men. "And that +lantern is off his motorcycle, I bet anything! He went through town about +dark on that contraption, and I shouldn't wonder if he's got a tumble." +<P> +Ruth showed the station master, whose name was Curtis, the bit of handkerchief +with the appeal for help traced upon it. +<P> +"That is blood," she said. "You see it's blood, don't you? Can't somebody +take Reno and hunt for him? He must be very badly hurt." +<P> +"Mason said he expected it was nothing but some fool joke of the boys. But +it doesn't look like a joke to me," Mr. Curtis said, gravely. "Come, Parloe, +you know that patch of woods well enough, over beyond the swamp and Hiram +Jennings' big field. Isn't there a steep and rocky road down there, that +shoots off the Osago Lake pike?" +<P> +"The Wilkins Corners road—yep," said the old man, snappishly. +<P> +"Then, can't you take the dog and see if you can find young Tom?" +<P> +"Who's going to pay me for it?" snarled Jasper Parloe. "I ain't got no love +for them Camerons. This here Tom is as sassy a boy as there is in this county." +<P> +"But he may be seriously hurt," said Ruth, looking angrily at Jasper Parloe. +<P> +"'Tain't nothin' to me—no more than your goin' out ter live with Jabe Potter +ain't nothin' to me," responded the old man, with an ugly grin. +<P> +"You're a pretty fellow, you are, Jasper!" exclaimed Mr. Curtis, and turned +his back upon the fellow. "I can't leave the station now—Ah! here's Doctor +Davison. <I>He'll</I> know what to do." +<P> +Doctor Davison came forward and put his hand upon Ruth's shoulder most kindly. +"What is all this?" he asked. "And there is the mastiff. They tell me you +are a dog tamer, Miss Fielding." +<P> +He listened very closely to what Mr. Curtis had to say, and looked, too, +at the smeared handkerchief. +<P> +"The dog can find him—no doubt of that. Come, boys, get some lanterns and +we'll go right along to the Wilkins Corners road and search it." Then to +Ruth he said: "You <I>are</I> a brave girl, sure enough." +<P> +But when the party was ready to start, half a dozen strong, with Parloe trailing +on behind, and with lanterns and a stretcher, Reno would not budge. The man +called him, but he looked up at Ruth and did not move from her side. +<P> +"I declare for't," exclaimed one man. "That girl will have to go with us, +Doctor Davison. You see what the dog means to do." +<P> +Ruth spoke to the mastiff, commanded him to leave her and find "Tom." But +although the dog looked at her intelligently enough, and barked his response—a +deep, sudden, explosive bark—he refused to start without her. +<P> +"It's a long way for the girl," objected Doctor Davison. "Besides, she is +waiting to meet her uncle." +<P> +"I am not tired," she told him, quickly. "Remember I've been sitting all +the afternoon. And perhaps every minute is precious. We don't know how badly +the dog's master may be hurt. I'll go. I'm sure I can keep up with you." +<P> +Reno seemed to understand her words perfectly, and uttered another short, +sharp bark. +<P> +"Let us go, then," said Doctor Davison, hurriedly. +<P> +So the men picked up their lanterns and the stretcher again. They crossed +the tracks and came to a street that soon became a country road. Cheslow +did not spread itself very far in this direction. Doctor Davison explained +to Ruth that the settlement had begun to grow in the parts beyond the railroad +and that all this side of the tracks was considered the old part of the town. +<P> +The street lights were soon behind them and they depended entirely upon the +lanterns the men carried. Ruth could see very little of the houses they passed; +but at one spot—although it was on the other side of the road—there were +two green lanterns, one on either side of an arched gate, and there seemed +to be a rather large, but gloomy, house behind the hedge before which these +lanterns burned. +<P> +"You will always know my house," Doctor Davison said, softly, and still retaining +her hand, "by its green eyes." +<P> +So Ruth knew she had passed his home, to which he had so kindly invited her. +And that made her think for a moment about Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alvirah. +Would she find somebody waiting to take her to the Red Mill when she got +back to the station? +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> +<h4>THE GATE OF THE GREEN EYES</h4> +<P> +It was a dark lane, beneath overhanging oaks, that met and intertwined their +branches from either side—this was the Wilkins Corners road. And it was +very steep and stony—up hill and down dale—with deep ruts in places and +other spots where the Spring rains had washed out the gravel and sand and +left exposed the very foundations of the world. +<P> +It seemed as though no bicyclist, or motor-cyclist would have chosen this +road to travel after dark. Yet there was a narrow path at the side—just +wide enough for Ruth and Doctor Davison to walk abreast, and Reno to trot +by the girl's side which seemed pretty smooth. +<P> +"We don't want to go by the spot, Doctor," said one of the men walking ahead +with the lights. "Don't the dog show no signs of looking for Tom?" +<P> +"Where's Tom, Reno? Where's Tom?" asked Ruth, earnestly, believing that the +dog would recognize his master's name. +<P> +The mastiff raised his muzzle and barked sharply again, but trotted onward. +<P> +"He might have fallen down any of these gullies, and we'd miss him, it's +so dark," observed the previous speaker. +<P> +"I don't believe the dog will miss the place," responded Doctor Davison. +<P> +Just then Reno leaped forward with a long-drawn whine. Ruth hurried with +him, leaving the doctor to come on in the rear. Reno took the lead and the +girl tried to keep pace with him. +<P> +It was not for many yards. Reno stopped at the brink of a steep bank beside +the road. This bank fell away into the darkness, but through the trees, in +the far distance, the girl could see several twinkling lights in a row. She +knew that they were on the railroad, and that she was looking across the +great swamp-meadow. +<P> +"Hullo!" shouted one man, loudly. "Something down there, old fellow?" +<P> +Reno answered with a short bark and began to scramble down the rough bank. +<P> +"Here's where somebody has gone down ahead of him," cried another of the +searchers, holding his own lantern close to the ground. "See how the bank's +all torn up? Bet his wheel hit that stone yonder in the dusk and threw him, +wheel and all, into this gulley." +<P> +"Wait here, child," ordered Doctor Davison, quickly. "If he is in bad shape, +boys, call me and I'll come down. Lift him carefully—" +<P> +"He's here, sir!" cried the first man to descend. +<P> +And then Reno lifted up his voice in a mournful howl. +<P> +"Oh, dear! oh, dear!" murmured Ruth. "I am afraid he is badly hurt." +<P> +"Come, come!" returned Doctor Davison. "Be a brave girl now. If he is badly +hurt he'll need us both to keep our wits about us, you know." +<P> +"Ye needn't fret none, leetle gal," said Jasper Parloe's voice, behind her. +"Ye couldn't kill that there Cameron boy, I tell ye! He is as sassy a young'un +as there is in this county." +<P> +Doctor Davison turned as though to say something sharp to the mean old man; +but just then the men below shouted up to him: +<P> +"He's hit his head and his arm's twisted under him, Doctor. He isn't conscious, +but doesn't seem much hurt otherwise." +<P> +"Can you bring him up?" queried the physician. +<P> +"That's what we mean to do," was the reply. +<P> +Ruth waited beside the old doctor, not without some apprehension. How would +this Tom Cameron look? What kind of a boy was he? According to Jasper Parloe +he was a very bad boy, indeed. She had heard that he was the son of a rich +man. While the men were bringing the senseless body up the steep bank her +mind ran riot with the possibilities that lay in store for her because of +this accident to the dry-goods merchant's son. +<P> +And now the bearers were at the top of the bank, and she could see the limp +form borne by them—a man holding the body under the arms and another by +his feet. But, altogether, it looked really as though they carried a limp +sack between them. +<P> +"Fust time I ever see <I>that</I> boy still," murmured Jasper Parloe. +<P> +"Cracky! He's pale; ain't he?" said another man. +<P> +Doctor Davison dropped on one knee beside the body as they laid it down. +The lanterns were drawn together that their combined light might illuminate +the spot. Ruth saw that the figure was that of a youth not much older than +herself—lean, long limbed, well dressed, and with a face that, had it not +been so pale, she would have thought very nice looking indeed. +<P> +"Poor lad!" Ruth heard the physician murmur. "He has had a hard fall—and +that's a nasty knock on his head." +<P> +The wound was upon the side of his head above the left ear and was now all +clotted with blood. It was from this wound, in some moment of consciousness, +that he had traced the word "Help" on his torn handkerchief, and fastened +the latter, with the lamp of his motorcycle, to the dog's collar. +<P> +Here was the machine, bent and twisted enough, brought up the bank by two +of the men. +<P> +"Dunno what you can do for the boy, Doctor," said one of them; "but it looks +to me as though this contraption warn't scurcely wuth savin'." +<P> +"Oh, we'll bring the boy around all right," said Doctor Davison, who had +felt Tom Cameron's pulse and now rose quickly. "Lift him carefully upon the +stretcher. We will get him into bed before I do a thing to him. He's best +as he is while we are moving him." +<P> +"It'll be a mighty long way to his house," grumbled one of the men. +<P> +"I believe yeou!" rejoined Jasper Parloe. "Three miles beyond Jabe Potter's +mill." +<P> +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Doctor Davison, in his soft voice. "You know we'll not +take him so far. My house is near enough. Surely you can carry him there." +<P> +"If you say the word, Doctor," said the fellow, more cheerfully, while old +Parloe grunted. +<P> +They were more than half an hour in getting to the turn in the main road +where she could observe the two green lights before the doctor's house. There +the men put the stretcher down for a moment. Jasper Parloe grumblingly took +his turn at carrying one end. +<P> +"I never did see the use of boys, noway," he growled. "They's only an aggravation +and vexation of speret. And this here one is the aggravatingest and +vexationingest of any I ever see." +<P> +"Don't be too hard on the boy, Jasper," said Doctor Davison, passing on ahead, +so as to reach his house first. +<P> +Ruth remained behind, for the old gentleman walked too fast for her. Before +the men picked up the stretcher again there was a movement and a murmur from +the injured boy. +<P> +"Hullo!" said one of the men. "He's a-talkin', ain't he?" +<P> +"Jest mutterin'," said Parloe, who was at Tom's head. "'Tain't nothin'" +<P> +But Ruth heard the murmur of the unconscious boy, and the words startled +her. They were: +<P> +"It was Jabe Potter—he did it! It was Jabe Potter—he did it!" +<P> +What did they mean? Or, was there no meaning at all to the muttering of the +wounded boy? Ruth saw that Parloe was looking at her in his sly and disagreeable +way, and she knew that he, too, had heard the words. +<P> +"It was Jabe Potter—he did it!" Was it an accusation referring to the boy's +present plight? And how could her Uncle Jabez—the relative she had not as +yet seen—be the cause of Tom Cameron's injury? The spot where the boy was +hurt must have been five miles from the Red Mill, and not even on the Osago +Lake turnpike, on which highway she had been given to understand the Red +Mill stood. +<P> +Not many moments more and the little procession was at the gateway, on either +side of which burned the two green lamps. +<P> +Jasper Parloe, who had been relieved, shuffled off into the darkness. Reno +after one pleading look into the face of the hesitating Ruth, followed the +stretcher on which his master lay, in at the gate. +<P> +And Ruth Fielding, beginning again to feel most embarrassed and forsaken, +was left alone where the two green eyes winked in the warm, moist darkness +of the Spring night. +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> +<h4>THE GIRL IN THE AUTOMOBILE</h4> +<P> +The men who had gone in with the unconscious boy and the stretcher hung about +the doctor's door, which was some yards from the gateway. Everybody seemed +to have forgotten the girl, a stranger in Cheslow, and for the first day +of her life away from kind and indulgent friends. +<P> +It was only ten minutes walk to the railroad station, and Ruth remembered +that it was a straight road. She arrived in the waiting room safely enough. +Sam Curtis, the station master, descried her immediately and came out of +his office with her bag. +<P> +"Well, and what happened? Is that boy really hurt?" he asked. +<P> +"He has a broken arm and his head is cut. I do not know how seriously, for +Doctor Davison had not finished examining him when I—I came away," she replied, +bravely enough, and hiding the fact that she had been overlooked. +<P> +"They took him to the doctor's house, did they?" asked Sam. +<P> +"Yes, sir," said Ruth. "But—" +<P> +"Mr. Curtis, has there been anybody here for me?" +<P> +"For you, Miss?" the station master returned, somewhat surprised it seemed. +<P> +"Yes, sir. Anybody from Red Mill?" +<P> +Curtis smote one fist into his other palm, exclaiming: +<P> +"You don't mean to say that you was what Jabe Potter was after?" +<P> +"Mr. Jabez Potter, who keeps the Red Mill, is my uncle," Ruth observed, with +dignity. +<P> +"My goodness gracious me, Miss! He was here long before your train was due. +He's kind of short in his speech, Miss. And he asked me if there was anything +here for him, and I told him no. And he stumped out again without another +word. Why, I thought he was looking for an express package, or freight. Never +had an idea he was expectin' a niece!" +<P> +Ruth still looked at him earnestly. The man did not suspect, by her appearance, +how hard a time she was having to keep the tears from overrunning those calm, +gray eyes. +<P> +"And you expected to go out to the Red Mill to-night, Miss?" he continued. +"They're country folk out there and they'd all be abed before you could get +there, even if you took a carriage." +<P> +"I don't know that I have enough to pay for carriage hire," Ruth said, softly. +"Is—is there any place I can stop over night in the village? Then I can +walk out in the morning." +<P> +"Why—there's a hotel. But a young girl like you—You'll excuse me, Miss. +You're young to be traveling alone." +<P> +"Perhaps I haven't money enough to pay for a lodging there?" suggested Ruth. +"I have a dollar. It was given me to spend as I liked on the way. But Miss +True gave me such a big box of luncheon that I did not want anything." +<P> +"A dollar wouldn't go far at the Brick Hotel," murmured the station agent. +He still stared at her, stroking his lean, shaven jaw. Finally he burst out +with: "I tell you! We'll go home and see what my wife says." +<P> +At the moment the station began to jar with the thunder of a coming train +and Ruth could not make herself heard in reply to his proposal. Besides, +Sam Curtis hurried out on the platform. Nor was Ruth ready to assert her +independence and refuse any kind of help the station master might offer. +So she sat down patiently and waited for him. +<P> +There were one or two passengers only to disembark from this train and they +went away from the station without even coming into the waiting room. Then +Curtis came back, putting out the lights and locking his ticket office. The +baggage room was already locked and Ruth's old trunk was in it. +<P> +"Come on now, girl—What's your name?" asked Curtis. +<P> +"Ruth Fielding." +<P> +"Just so! Well, it's only a step to our house and wife will have supper waiting. +And there's nobody else there save Mercy." +<P> +Ruth was a little curious about "Mercy"—whether it referred to abounding +grace, or was a person's name. But she asked no questions as they came out +of the railroad station and Sam Curtis locked the door. +<P> +They did not cross the tracks this time, but went into the new part of the +town. Turning a corner very soon as they walked up what Curtis said was Market +Street, they reached, on a narrow side street, a little, warm-looking cottage, +from almost all the lower windows of which the lamplight shone cheerfully. +There was a garden beside it, with a big grape arbor arranged like a summer-house +with rustic chairs and a table. The light shining on the side porch revealed +the arbor to Ruth's quick eyes. +<P> +When they stepped upon this porch Ruth heard a very shrill and not at all +pleasant voice saying—very rapidly, and over and over again: "I don't want +to! I don't want to! I don't want to!" It might have been a parrot, or some +other ill-natured talking bird; only Ruth saw nothing of the feathered +conversationalist when Sam opened the door and ushered her in. +<P> +"Here we are, wife!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. "And how's Mercy?" +<P> +The reiterated declaration had stopped instantly. A comely, kind-faced woman +with snow-white hair, came forward. Ruth saw that she was some years younger +than Curtis, and he was not yet forty. It was not Father Time that had powdered +Mrs. Curtis' head so thickly. +<P> +"Mercy is—Why, who's this?" she asked espying Ruth. "One of the girls come +in to see her?" +<P> +Instantly the same whining, shrill voice began: +<P> +"I don't want her to see me! They come to stare at me! I hate 'em all! All +girls do is to run and jump and play tag and ring-around-a-rosy and run errands, +and dance! I hate 'em!" +<P> +This was said very, very fast—almost chattered; and it sounded so ill-natured, +so impatient, so altogether mean and hateful, that Ruth fell back a step, +almost afraid to enter the pleasant room. But then she saw the white-haired +lady's face, and it was so grieved, yet looked such a warm welcome to her, +that she took heart and stepped farther in, so that Sam Curtis could shut +the door. +<P> +The father appeared to pay no attention to the fault-finding, shrill declamation +of the unhappy voice. He said, in explanation, to his wife: +<P> +"This is Ruth Fielding. She has come a long way by train to-day, expecting +to meet her uncle, old Jabe Potter of the Red Mill. And you know how funny +Jabe is, wife? He came before the train, and did not wait, but drove right +away with his mules and so there was nobody here to meet Ruthie. She's marooned +here till the morning, you see." +<P> +"Then she shall stay with us to-night," declared Mrs. Curtis, quickly. +<P> +"I don't want her to stay here to-night!" ejaculated the same shrill voice. +<P> +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis paid no attention to what was said by this mysterious +third party. Ruth, coming farther into the room, found that it was large +and pleasant. There was a comfortable look about it all. The supper table +was set and the door was opened into the warm kitchen, from which delicious +odors of tea and toast with some warm dish of meat, were wafted in. But the +shrill and complaining voice had not come from the next room. +<P> +In the other corner beside the stove, yet not too near it, stood a small +canopy bed with the pretty chintz curtains drawn all about it. Beside it +stood a wheel-chair such as Ruth knew was used by invalids who could not +walk. It was a tiny chair, too, and it and the small bed went together. But +of the occupant of either she saw not a sign. +<P> +"Supper will be ready just as soon as our guest has a chance to remove the +traces of travel, Sam," said Mrs. Curtis, briskly. "Come with me, Ruth." +<P> +When they returned from the pleasant little bed-chamber which the good-hearted +lady told Ruth was to be her own for that night, they heard voices in the +sitting room—the voice of Mr. Curtis and the querulous one. But it was not +so sharp and strained as it seemed before. However, on opening the door, +Mr. Curtis was revealed sitting alone and there was no sign of the owner +of the sharp voice, which Ruth supposed must belong to the invalid. +<P> +"Mercy has had her supper; hasn't she, wife?" said the station master as +he drew his chair to the table and motioned Ruth to the extra place Mrs. +Curtis had set. +<P> +The woman nodded and went briskly about putting the supper on the table. +While they ate Mr. Curtis told about Reno stopping the train, and of the +search for and recovery of the injured Cameron boy. All the time Ruth, who +sat sideways to the canopied bed, realized that the curtains at the foot +were drawn apart just a crack and that two very bright, pin-point eyes were +watching her. So interested did these eyes become as the story progressed, +and Ruth answered questions, that more of Mercy Curtis' face was revealed—a +sharp, worn little face, with a peaked chin and pale, thin cheeks. +<P> +Ruth was very tired when supper was ended and the kind Mrs. Curtis suggested +that she go to bed and obtain a good night's rest if she was to walk to the +Red Mill in the morning. But even when she bade her entertainers good-night +she did not see the child in the canopy bed and she felt diffident about +asking Mrs. Curtis about her. The young traveler slept soundly—almost from +the moment her head touched the pillow. Yet her last thought was of Uncle +Jabez. He had been in town some time before the train on which she arrived +was due and had driven away from the station with his mules, Mr. Curtis said. +Had he driven over that dark and dangerous road on which Tom Cameron met +with his accident, and had he run down the injured boy, or forced him over +the bank of the deep gully where they had found Tom lying unconscious? +<P> +"It was Jabe Potter—he did it," the injured lad had murmured, and these +words were woven in the pattern of Ruth's dreams all night. +<P> +The little cottage was astir early and Ruth was no laggard. She came down +to breakfast while the sun was just peeping above the house-tops and as she +entered the sitting room she found an occupant at last in the little wheel-chair. +It was the sharp, pale little face that confronted her above the warm wrapper +and the rug that covered the lower part of the child's body; for child Mercy +Curtis was, and little older than Ruth herself, although her face seemed +so old. +<P> +To Ruth's surprise the first greeting of the invalid was a most ill-natured +one. She made a very unpleasant face at the visitor, ran out her tongue, +and then said, in her shrill, discordant voice: +<P> +"I don't like you at all—I tell you that, Miss!" +<P> +"I am sorry you do not like me," replied Ruth, gently. "I think I should +like you if you'd let me." +<P> +"Yah!" ejaculated the very unpleasant, but much to be pitied invalid. +<P> +The mother and father ignored all this ill-nature on the part of the lame +girl and were as kind and friendly with their visitor as they had been on +the previous evening. Once during breakfast time (Mercy took hers from a +tray that was fastened to her chair before her) the child burst out again, +speaking to Ruth. There were eggs on the table and, pointing to the golden-brown +fried egg that Mrs. Curtis had just placed upon Ruth's plate, Mercy snapped: +<P> +"Do you know what's the worst wish I'd wish on My Enemy?" +<P> +Ruth looked her astonishment and hesitated to reply. But Mercy did not expect +a reply, for she continued quickly: +<P> +"I'd wish My Enemy to have to eat every morning for breakfast two soft fried +eggs with his best clothes on—<I>that's</I> what I'd wish!" +<P> +And this is every word she would say to the visitor while Ruth remained. +But Mr. Curtis bade Ruth good-bye very kindly when he hurried away to the +station, and Mrs. Curtis urged her to come and see them whenever she came +to town after getting settled at the Red Mill. +<P> +It was a fresh and lovely morning, although to the weather-wise the haze +in the West foredoomed the end of the day to disaster. Ruth felt more cheerful +as she crossed the railroad tracks and struck into the same street she had +followed with the searching party the evening before. She could not mistake +Doctor Davison's house when she passed it, and there was a fine big automobile +standing before the gate where the two green lanterns were. But there was +nobody in the car, nor did she see anybody about the doctor's house. +<P> +Beyond the doctor's abode the houses were far apart—farther and farther +apart as she trudged on. Nobody noticed or spoke to the girl as she went +on with her small bag—the bag that grew heavy, despite its smallness, as +she progressed. And so she traveled two miles, or more, along the pleasant +road. Then she heard the purring of an automobile behind her—the first vehicle +that she had seen since leaving town. +<P> +It was the big gray car that had been standing before Doctor Davison's house +when she had passed, and Ruth would have known the girl who sat at the steering +wheel and was driving the car alone, even had Reno, the big mastiff, not +sat in great dignity on the seat beside her. For no girl could look so much +like Tom Cameron without being Tom Cameron's sister. +<P> +And the girl, the moment she saw Ruth on the road, retarded the speed of +the machine. Reno, too, lost all semblance of dignity and would not wait +for the car to completely stop before bounding into the road and coming to +caress her hand. +<P> +"I know who you are!" cried the girl in the automobile. "You are Ruth Fielding." +<P> +She was a brilliant, black-eyed, vivacious girl, perhaps a year or more older +than Ruth, and really handsome, having her brother's olive complexion with +plenty of color in cheeks and lips. And that her nature was impulsive and +frank there could be no doubt, for she immediately leaped out of the automobile, +when it had stopped, and ran to embrace Ruth. +<P> +"Thank you! thank you!" she cried. "Doctor Davison has told us all about +you—and how brave you are! And see how fond Reno is of you! He knows who +found his master; don't you, Reno?" +<P> +"Oh, dear me," said Ruth, breathlessly, "Doctor Davison has been too kind. +I did nothing at all toward finding your brother—I suppose he is your brother, +Miss?" +<P> +"How <I>dare </I>you 'Miss' me?" demanded the other girl, hugging her again. +"You're a dear; I knew you must be! And I was running back and intended to +stop at the Red Mill to see you. I took father to town this morning, as he +had to take an early train to the city, and we wished to see Tom again." +<P> +"He—he isn't badly hurt, then—your brother, I mean?" said Ruth, timidly. +<P> +"He is going to stay at the doctor's to-day, and then he can come home. But +he will carry his arm in a sling for a while, although no bone was broken, +after all. His head is badly cut, but his hair will hide that. Poor Tom! +he is always falling down, or getting bumped, or something. And he's just +as reckless as he can be. Father says he is not to be trusted with the car +as much as <I>I</I> am." +<P> +"How—how did he come to fall over that bank?" asked Ruth, anxiously. +<P> +"Why—it was dark, I suppose. That was the way of it. I don't know as he +really told me what made him do such a foolish thing. And wasn't it lucky +Reno was along with him?" cried Tom's sister. +<P> +"Now, I see you remained in town over night. They thought somebody had come +for yon and taken you out to the mill. Is Jabez Potter really your uncle?" +<P> +"Yes. He was my mother's uncle. And I have no other relative." +<P> +"Well, dear, I am more than sorry for you," declared the girl from the +automobile. "And now we will climb right in and I'll take you along to the +mill." +<P> +But whether she was sorry for Ruth Fielding's friendlessness, or sorry because +she was related to Jabez Potter, the young traveler could not decide. +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> +<h4>THE RED MILL</h4> +<P> +"Now, my name's Helen, and you are Ruth," declared Miss Cameron, when she +had carefully started the car once more. "We are going to be the very best +of friends, and we might as well begin by telling each other all about ourselves. +Tom and I are twins and he is an awful tease! But, then, boys <I>are.</I> +He is a good brother generally. We live in the first yellow house on the +right—up among the trees—beyond Mr. Potter's mill—near enough so that +we can run back and forth and see each other just <I>lots."</I> +<P> +Ruth found herself warmly drawn toward this vivacious miss. Nor was she less +frank in giving information about herself, her old home, in Darrowtown, that +she still wore black for her father, and that she had been sent by her friends +to Uncle Jabez because he was supposed to be better able to take care of +and educate her. Helen listened very earnestly to the tale, but she shook +her head at the end of it. +<P> +"I don't know," she said. "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Ruthie. But +Jabez Potter isn't liked very well by people in general, although I guess +he is a good miller. He is stingy—" +<P> +"I must say it. He isn't given to kind actions, and I am surprised that he +should have agreed to take and educate you. Of course, he didn't have to." +<P> +"I don't suppose he did have to," Ruth said, slowly. "And it wasn't as though +I couldn't have remained in Darrowtown. But Miss True Pettis—" +<P> +"Miss True?" repeated Helen, curiously. +<P> +"Short for Truthful. Her name is Rechelsea Truthful Tomlinson Pettis and +she is the dearest little old spinster lady—much nicer than her name." +<P> +"Well!" ejaculated the amazed Helen. +<P> +"Miss True isn't rich. Indeed, she is very poor. So are Patsy Hope's folks—Patsy +is really Patricia, but <I>that's</I> too long for her. And all the other +folks that knew me about Darrowtown had a hard time to get along, and most +of them had plenty of children without taking another that wasn't any kin +to them," concluded Ruth, who was worldly wise in some things, and had seen +the harder side of life since she had opened her eyes upon this world. +<P> +"But your uncle is said to be a regular miser," declared Helen, earnestly. +"And he is so gruff and grim! Didn't your friends know him?" +<P> +"I guess they never saw him, or heard much about him," said Ruth, slowly. +"I'm sure I never did myself." +<P> +"But don't you be afraid," said the other, warmly. "If he isn't good to you +there are friends enough here to look out for you. I know Doctor Davison +thinks you are very brave, and Daddy will do anything for you that Tom and +I ask him to." +<P> +"I am quite sure I shall get on nicely with Uncle Jabez," she said. "And +then, there is Aunt Alvirah." +<P> +"Oh, yes. There is an old lady who keeps house for Mr. Potter. And she seems +kind enough, too. But she acts afraid of Mr. Potter. I don't blame her, he +is so grim." +<P> +The automobile, wheeling so smoothly over the hard pike, just then was mounting +a little hill. They came over the summit of this and there, lying before +them, was the beautiful slope of farming country down to the very bank of +the Lumano River. Fenced fields, tilled and untilled, checkered the slope, +with here and there a white farmhouse with its group of outbuildings. There +was no hamlet in sight, merely scattered farms. The river, swollen and yellow +with the Spring rains, swept upon its bosom fence rails, hen-coops, and other +flotsam of a Spring flood. Yonder, at a crossing, part of the bridge had +been carried away. +<P> +"If the dam at Minturn goes, we shall be flooded all through this low land +again," Helen Cameron explained. "I remember seeing this valley covered with +water once during the Spring. But we live on the shoulder of Mount Burgoyne, +and you see, even the mill sets on quite high ground." +<P> +Ruth's eyes had already seen and lingered upon the mill. It was a rambling +structure, the great, splashing millwheel at the far end, the long warehouse +in the middle, and the dwelling attached to the other end. There were barns, +corn-cribs and other outbuildings as well, and some little tillable land +connected with the mill; and all the buildings were vividly painted with +red mineral paint, trimmed with white. So bright and sparkling was the paint +that it seemed to have been put on over night. +<P> +"Mr. Potter is considered a good miller," said Helen, again; "and he does +not neglect his property. He is not miserly in <I>that</I> way. There isn't +a picket off the fence, or a hinge loose anywhere. He isn't at all what you +consider a miser must be and look like; yet he is always hoarding money and +never spends any. But indeed I do not tell you this to trouble you, Ruthie. +I want you to believe, my dear, that if you can't stand it at Mr. Potter's +you <I>can</I> stand it at Mr. Cameron's—and you'll be welcome there. +<P> +"Our mother is dead. We talk of her a good deal, just as though she were +living and had gone on a little journey somewhere, and we should see her +again soon. God took her when Tom and I were only a few weeks old; but Daddy +has made himself our playfellow and dear, dear friend; and there has always +been Nurse Babette and Mrs. Murchiston—at least, Mrs. Murchiston has been +with us since we can remember. But what Daddy says is law, and he said this +morning that he'd like to have a girl like you come to our house to be company +for me. It gets lonely for me sometimes, you see, for Tom doesn't want to +play with girls much, now he is so big. Perhaps next fall I'll go away to +boarding school—won't that be fun?" +<P> +"It will be fun for you, I hope, Helen," said Ruth, with rather a wistful +smile. "I don't know where I shall go to school." +<P> +"There is your uncle now!" exclaimed Miss Cameron. "See that man in the old +dusty suit?" +<P> +Ruth had already seen the tall, stoop-shouldered figure, who looked as though +he had been powdered with flour, coming down the short path from one of the +open doors of the mill to the road, where a little, one horse wagon stood. +He bore a bag of meal or flour on his shoulder which he pitched into the +wagon. The man on the seat was speaking as the automobile came to a stop +immediately behind the wagon. +<P> +"Jefers pelters! Ef there's one thing yeou know how to do, it's to take toll, +Jabe. Let the flour be poor, or good, there's little enough of it comes back +to the man that raises the wheat." +<P> +"You don't have to bring your wheat here, Jasper Parloe," said the miller, +in a strong, harsh voice. "There is no law compels ye." +<P> +"Yah!" snarled old Parloe. "We all know ye, Jabe Potter. We know what ye +be." Potter turned away. He had not noticed the two girls in the automobile. +But now Jasper Parloe saw them. "Ho!" he cried, "here's somebody else that +will l'arn ter know ye, too. Didn't know you was ter hev comp'ny; did ye, +Jabe? Here's yer niece, Jabe, come ter live on ye an' be an expense to ye," +and so, chuckling and screwing up his mean, sly face, Parloe drove on, leaving +the miller standing with arms akimbo, and staring at Ruth, who was slowly +alighting from the automobile with her bag. +<P> +Helen squeezed her hand tightly as she got out "Don't forget that we are +your friends, Ruthie," she whispered. "I'm coming by again this afternoon +when I drive over to the station for father. If—if anything happens you +be out here—now remember!" +<P> +What could possibly happen to her, Ruth could not imagine. She was not really +afraid of Uncle Jabez. She walked directly to him, as he stood there, staring +gloomily, in front of the Red Mill. He was not only tall and stoop-shouldered, +and very dusty; but his dusty eyebrows almost met over his light blue eyes. +He was lantern-jawed, and it did seem as though his dry, shaven lips had +never in all his life wrinkled into a smile. His throat was wrinkled and +scraggy and his head was plainly very bald on top, for the miller's cap he +wore did not entirely cover the bald spot. +<P> +"I am Ruth Fielding, from Darrowtown," she said, in a voice that she controlled +well. "I have come to—to live with you, Uncle Jabez." +<P> +"Where was you last night?" demanded the miller, without so much as returning +her greeting. "Was you with them Camerons?" +<P> +"I stayed all night with the station master," she said, in explanation. +<P> +"What time did you get to the station?" +<P> +Ruth told him. Never once did his voice change or his grim look relax. +<P> +"I mistook the time of the train," he said, without expressing any sorrow. +<P> +"I—I hope you will be glad to have me come," the said. "Miss True—" +<P> +"You mean that old maid that wrote to me?" he asked, harshly. +<P> +"Miss True Pettis. She said she thought you would like to have me here as +we were so near related." +<P> +"Not so near related as some," was all he said in reply to this. After a +moment, he added: "You can go along to the house yonder. Aunt Alviry will +show you what to do." +<P> +Ruth could not have said another word just then without breaking down and +weeping, so she only nodded and turned to walk up a path toward the house +door. +<P> +"One thing," urged the old man, before she had gone far. She turned to look +at him and he continued: "One thing I want you to understand, if you live +here you have got to work. I don't like no laggards around me." +<P> +She could only nod again, for her heart seemed to be right in her throat, +and the sting of the tears she wanted to shed, but could not, almost blinded +her as she went on slowly to the house door. +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> +<h4>AUNT ALVIRAH'S BACK AND BONES</h4> +<P> +Ruth came to the kitchen door and found that the lower half was closed; but +she could see over the upper panel that had been flung wide to let in the +sweet Spring air and sunlight. A little old woman was stooping to brush the +rag carpet with a whisk broom and dustpan, and as she hobbled around the +big stove and around the table, which was already set neatly for dinner, +she was crooning to herself: +<P> +"Oh, my back and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" +<P> +She was a very neat-looking old lady, with a kerchief crossed on her breast +in the style of the old-fashioned Quakeresses. She was not much taller than +Ruth herself, for when she stood upright—or as upright as she could stand—her +eyes were just about on a level with Ruth's eyes looking in over the half +door. +<P> +But the face of the old lady seemed, to the lonely, tear-filled girl, almost +the gentlest, sweetest face she had ever seen, as it slowly smiled upon her. +Aunt Alviry's welcome was like the daybreak. +<P> +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated she, rising upright by degrees with her +hand upon the back she had been apostrophizing. "If here isn't a pretty little +creeter come to see her Aunt Alviry. How-de-do, girl?" +<P> +Ruth had set down her bag. Now she opened the door and stepped in. The smile +of the old lady broke down every bit of fortitude the girl had left and she +walked directly into Aunt Alviry's arms and burst into tears. +<P> +"There! there! Deary, deary me!" murmured the little old lady, patting her +shoulder. "Somebody has been treating you badly, I know. And you've come +right to your Aunt Alviry for comfort. And you've come to the right place, +my pretty girl, for I've got tons of comfort for ye." +<P> +She found a chair and lowered herself into it, not without the formula which +Ruth had heard before, of "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" Ruth dropped on +her knees before her, hid her face in the old lady's lap, and had her cry +out. Meanwhile Aunt Alvirah seemed to have taken in several things about +her guest that were significant. She touched the stuff of which Ruth's gown +was made, and nodded; even the black hair-ribbon did not go unnoticed. +<P> +"Now," said Ruth, rising after a few moments, "I guess that's all of +<I>that</I> foolishness. I—I don't usually cry, Aunt Alvirah." +<P> +"Pshaw, now! I could tell that," said the old lady, comfortably. +<P> +"I am going right to work to help you," said the girl. "I can stoop better +than you can." +<P> +"I expect you can, you pretty creeter," admitted the old lady. +<P> +Ruth had already taken the brush and pan and was at work upon the floor. +The lady said: "You ain't familiar to me, child. You've lost some folks lately, +I see. Do you live 'round here?" +<P> +The little girl stopped and looked up at her in surprise. "Why, don't you +know about it?" she cried. +<P> +"Know about what, child?" +<P> +"Didn't you know I had come here to live with you?" +<P> +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated Aunt Alvirah. "How <I>did</I> that happen?" +<P> +"Didn't my uncle tell you?" cried Ruth, much more surprised than the old +lady. +<P> +"Who's your uncle, child?" +<P> +"Why, Mr. Potter—Uncle Jabez." +<P> +So astonished did the old lady appear to be that she started from her chair +and her ejaculation was changed to a moan of pain as she murmured her old +formula: "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" +<P> +"Jabez ain't said a word to me about it. Why should he take anybody to help +<I>me?</I> Is he struck with the fear o' his latter end?" +<P> +She said this in no cross-grained way, but because she was so amazed. She +likewise stared harder and harder at her visitor. +<P> +"You ain't come from the poor farm, child?" she asked, finally. +<P> +The flush upon Ruth's cheek and the expression which came into her face told +Aunt Alviry that she was wrong there. +<P> +"Not that you look like poorhouse breed—not at all. You're too pretty dressed +and you're too well fed. I know what they be there, for I have been there +myself. Yes, ma'am! Jabez Potter came after me to the poor farm. I was sickly, +too. There's them that said he went to Doctor Davison first to find out if +I was goin' to git well before he come arter me; but Jabez ain't never treated +me noways but kind. Starn he is—by natur and by practice; an' clost he is +in money matters. But he's been good to an old woman without a home who warn't +neither kith nor kin to him." +<P> +Ruth listened to the first good word she had heard of Uncle Jabez, and the +speech comforted her somewhat. Perhaps there was something better within +the rough husk of Uncle Jabez, after all. +<P> +"I did not live near here," Ruth said, quietly. "But my papa and mama +<I>did.</I> I came from Darrowtown." +<P> +Aunt Alviry opened wide her bright brown eyes, and still stared in wonder. +<P> +"My mother's name was Mary Potter, and she was Mr. Potter's niece. So he +is my great-uncle." +<P> +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated Aunt Alviry, again, shaking her head. +"I never heard a word of it—never! I 'member Mary Potter, and a sweet, pretty +child she was. But Jabez never had no fondness for any of his kin. You—you +are all alone in the world, child?" +<P> +"All alone save for Uncle Jabez." +<P> +She had come near to the old woman again. As she dropped quietly on her knees +Aunt Alviry gathered her head close to her bosom; but Ruth did not weep any +more. She only said: +<P> +"I know I shall love you very, very much, dear Aunt Alvirah. And I hope I +shall help your back and your bones a great deal, too!" +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> +<h4>HOARDING UP: PASSIONS—MONEY—WATER</h4> +<P> +This was Ruth Fielding's introduction to the Red Mill, its occupants, and +its surroundings. The spot was, indeed, beautiful, and an hour after she +had arrived she knew that she would love it. The Lumano River was a wide +stream and from the little window of the chamber that Aunt Alviry said would +be her own, she could look both up and down the river for several miles. +<P> +Uncle Jabez had a young man to help him in the mill. It was true, Aunt Alviry +said, that Jasper Parloe had worked for some time at the Red Mill; but he +was quarrelsome and Mr. Potter had declared he was not honest. When the mill +owner was obliged to be absent and people had come to have corn or wheat +ground, paying for the milling instead of giving toll, Jasper had sometimes +kept the money instead of turning it over to Mr. Potter. This had finally +resulted in a quarrel between the two, and Mr. Potter had discharged Parloe +without paying him for his last month's work. +<P> +The young newcomer had learned a great deal about the big mill and the homestead, +and about the work Aunt Alviry had to do, before the first meal was prepared. +She was of much assistance, too, and when Uncle Jabez came in, after washing +at the pump, but bringing a cloud of flour with him on his clothes, the old +woman was seated comfortably in her chair and Ruth "dished up the dinner." +<P> +At the end of his meal her uncle spoke just once to Ruth. "You have l'arned +to work, I see. Your Aunt Alviry has trouble with her back and bones. If +you make yourself of use to her you can stay here. I expect all cats to catch +mice around the Red Mill. Them that don't goes into the sluice. There's enough +to do here. You won't be idle for want of work." +<P> +And this was every word of his welcome, in a tone that showed neither interest +nor care for the girl. It was what help she could be and how much he could +save by her. It was plain enough that Uncle Jabez Potter was as saving as +a person could possibly be. There was none too much food on the table, and +Ruth watched the ravenous hunger of the hired man, when he came in, with +a feeling as though she were watching a half-starved dog at his meal. +<P> +Jabez Potter was not like the misers Ruth had read about, save in his personal +appearance. He was not well dressed, nor was he very clean. But naturally +the mill-dust would stick to him and to his clothing. It seemed to have worked +into the very texture of his skin during all the years he had controlled +the mill, until he was all of a dead gray. +<P> +Sometimes there were half a dozen wagons or buggies waiting at the mill, +and not all of them gave toll for their milling. Ruth, in the afternoon, +and because it had begun to rain and she could not go out, went into the +mill to quench her curiosity regarding it. She saw that there was a tiny +office over the water, with a fireproof safe in it. Her uncle brought the +money he took from his customers and put it in a little locked, japanned +box, which he kept upon a shelf. The safe appeared to be full of ledgers. +<P> +Farther down the mill was a wide door and platform overhanging the water +(this was below the dam) where flour and meal could be loaded upon barges +for transportation to Osago Lake, some miles away. There were great bins +of wheat and corn, many elevator pipes, several mills turning all the time, +grinding different grains, and a great corn-sheller that went by power, and +which the young man fed when he had nothing else to do. +<P> +All the time the building trembled and throbbed, and this throbbing was +communicated to the house. As she sat with Aunt Alvirah, and sewed carpet-rags +for a braided mat, the distant thunder of the mills and the trembling of +the machinery made the whole house vibrate. +<P> +Late in the afternoon Ruth heard the honking of an auto horn and ran out +upon the covered porch. Between the scuds of rain that drove along the valley +she saw the gray automobile coming slowly past the mill. There was a man +driving it now, and he stopped and let Helen Cameron out so that she could +run up to great Ruth under the shelter of the porch. +<P> +"Oh, you dear! How are you getting on?" cried Helen, kissing her impulsively +and as glad to see Ruth as though they had been separated for days instead +of for only a few hours. "Colfax wanted to drive down to the station alone +for Daddy—for we won't bring poor Tom home in this rain—but I just couldn't +resist coming to see how you were getting on." She looked around with big +eyes. "How does the Ogre treat you?" she whispered. +<P> +But Ruth could laugh now and did so, saying, cheerfully: "He hasn't eaten +me up yet! And Aunt Alvirah is the dearest little lady who ever lived." +<P> +"She likes you, then?" +<P> +"Of course she does." +<P> +"I knew she would, she was bound to love you. But I don't know about the +Ogre," and she shook her head. "But there! I must run. We don't want to be +late for the train. That will put Daddy out. And I must stop and see Tom +at the doctor's, too." +<P> +"I hope you will find your brother ever so mach better," cried Ruth, as her +friend ran down the walk again. +<P> +"You'll see him come by here to-morrow, if it quits raining," returned Helen, +over her shoulder. +<P> +But it did not stop raining that night, nor for a full week. The scuds of +rain, blowing across the river, slapped sharply against the side of the house, +and against Ruth's window all night. She did not sleep that first night as +well as she had in the charitable home of the station master and his good +wife. The evening meal had been as stiff and unpleasant as the noon meal. +The evening was spent in the same room—the kitchen. Aunt Alviry knitted +and sewed; Uncle Jabez pored over certain accounts and counted money very +softly behind the uplifted cover of the japanned cash-box that he had brought +in from the mill. +<P> +She got in time to know that cash-box very well indeed. It often came into +the house under Uncle Jabez's arm at dinner, too. He scarcely seemed willing +to trust it out of his sight. And Ruth was sure that he locked himself into +his room with it at night. +<P> +A loaded shotgun lay upon rests over the kitchen door all the time, and there +was a big, two-barreled, muzzle-loading pistol on the stand beside Uncle +Jabez's bed. Ruth was much more afraid of these loaded weapons than she was +of burglars. But the old man evidently expected to be attacked for his wealth +at some time although, Aunt Alvirah told her, nobody had ever troubled him +in all the years she had lived at the Red Mill. +<P> +So it was not fear of marauders that kept Ruth so wakeful on this first night +under her uncle's roof. She thought of all the kind friends she had left +in Darrowtown, and her long journey here, and her cold welcome to what she +supposed would be her future home. Without Helen, and without Aunt Alvirah, +she knew she would have gotten up, put on her clothing, packed her bag, and +run away in the rain to some other place. She could not have stood Uncle +Jabez alone. +<P> +Jabez Potter was hoarding up something besides money, too. Ruth did not +understand this until it had already rained several days, and the roaring +of the waters fretting against the river banks and against the dam, had become +all but deafening in her ears. +<P> +Then, during a lull in the storm, and on the afternoon that Tom Cameron was +taken home from Dr. Davison's, the old doctor himself stopped at the mill +and shouted for Jabez to come out. The doctor drove a very fast red and white +mare and had difficulty in holding her in, for she was eager to be moving. +<P> +Uncle Jabez came out and seemed to look upon the doctor in no very friendly +way. Ruth, standing at the open door of the kitchen, could hear Dr. Davison's +voice plainly. +<P> +"Jabez," he said, "do you know how the river is at Minturn?" +<P> +"No," returned the miller, briefly. +<P> +"It's higher than it's ever been. That dam is not safe. Why don't you let +your water out so that, if Minturn should break, she'd have free sweep here +and so do less damage below? Let this small flood out and when the greater +one comes there'll be less danger of a disaster." +<P> +"And how <I>do</I> I know the Minturn dam will burst, Dr. Davison?" asked +Mr. Potter, tartly. +<P> +"You don't know it. I'm only advising that precaution." +<P> +"And if it don't burst I'll have my pains for my trouble—and no water for +the summer, perhaps. They wouldn't let me have water later, if I needed it." +<P> +"But you're risking your own property here." +<P> +"And it's mine to risk, Dr. Davison," said Potter, in his sullen way. +<P> +"But there are other people to think of—" +<P> +"I don't agree with you," interrupted the miller. "I have enough to do to +attend to my own concerns. I don't bother about other people's business." +<P> +"Meaning that I <I>do</I> when I speak to you about the water; eh?" said +the old doctor, cheerfully. "Well, I've done my duty. You'll learn some time, +Jabez." +<P> +He let out the impatient mare then, and the mud spattered from his wheels +as he flew up the road toward Cheslow. +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> +<h4>THE CREST OF THE WAVE</h4> +<P> +The rain could not last forever; Nature must cease weeping some time. Just +as girls, far away from their old homes and their old friends, must cease +wetting their pillows with regretful tears after a time, and look forward +to the new interests and new friends to which they have come. +<P> +Not that Ruth wept much. But the rainy days of that first week were necessarily +trying. On Saturday, however, came a clear day. The sun shone, the drenched +trees shook themselves, and the wind came and blew softly and warmly through +their branches to dry the tender foliage. The birds popped out of their +hiding-places and began to sing and chirp as though they never could be glad +enough for this change in the weather. +<P> +There was so much to see from the kitchen door at the Red Mill that Ruth +did not mind her work that morning. She had learned now to help Aunt Alvirah +in many ways. Not often did the old lady have to go about moaning her old +refrain: +<P> +"Oh, my back and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" +<P> +The housework was all done and the kitchen swept and as neat as a new pin +when the gay tooting of the Cameron automobile horn called Ruth to the porch. +There was only Helen on the front seat of the car; but in the tonneau was +a bundled-up figure surmounted by what looked to be a scarlet cap which Ruth +knew instantly must be Tom's. Ruth did not know many boys and, never having +had a brother, was not a little bashful. Besides, she was afraid Tom Cameron +would make much of her connection with his being found on the Wilkins Corners +road that dark night, after his accident. +<P> +And there was another thing that made Ruth feel diffident about approaching +the boy. She had borne it all the time in her mind, and the instant she saw +Tom in the automobile it bobbed up to the surface of her thought again. +<P> +"It was Jabe Potter—he did it." +<P> +So, for more reasons than one, Ruth approached the motor car with hesitation. +<P> +"Oh, Ruth!" cried Helen, putting out a gauntleted hand to her. "So this horrid +rain has not washed you away? You won't like the Red Mill if the weather +keeps this way. And how do you get on?" she added, lowering her voice. "How +about the Ogre?" +<P> +"He has not ground me into bread-flour yet," responded Ruth, smiling. +<P> +"I see he hasn't. You're just as plump as ever, so he hasn't starved you, +either. Now, Ruth, I want you to know my brother Tom, whom you have met before +without his having been aware of it at the time," and she laughed again. +<P> +Tom's left arm was in a sling, and the scarlet bandage around his head made +him look like a pirate; but he grinned broadly at Ruth and put out his lean +brown hand. +<P> +"When I heard about you, Miss Fielding, I knew you were a spunky one," he +said. "And anybody that Reno takes to, the way she did to you, is all right. +Besides, Nell is just spoons on you already, and Nell, like Reno, doesn't +take to every girl." +<P> +"The doctor said an outing in the car wouldn't hurt Tom," went on Helen, +"and we're going to run up the valley road a way. Now Ruth Fielding, you +get your hat and coat and come with us." +<P> +"I don't know that I may," Ruth said, timidly. +<P> +"I'll believe that he is an ogre then, and that you are kept a prisoner in +this awful castle," cried Helen. +<P> +"I'd love to go," murmured Ruth. +<P> +"Then run and ask," urged her friend, while Tom added, good-naturedly: +<P> +"Yes, why not come along? Don't be afraid of Nell's driving. She handles +the car all right." +<P> +Ruth knew that Uncle Jabez had gone to town. She had a feeling that he did +not like the Camerons and might oppose her friendliness with them. But he +was not at hand now to interfere with her innocent pleasures. She went in +and asked Aunt Alvirah if she could take the ride. +<P> +"Why not, child? You've been the very best helpmate ever an old woman had—Oh, +my back and oh, my bones! Run along and have your fun, deary. You need not +be back till supper time. You have earned your little outing, that's sure +and sartain." +<P> +Before Helen had picked her up on the road to the Red Mill that first day, +Ruth had never ridden in a motor car. On that occasion they had traveled +very slowly, while the girls talked. But now, when she was seated beside +her new friend, Helen ran the auto on its high gear, and they shot away up +the level river road at a pace that almost took Ruth's breath away. +<P> +"Up here among the foothills is the big Minturn Pond Dam," Tom said, leaning +forward to speak to their guest. "It's twenty miles above your uncle's dam +and is a deal bigger. And some say it is not safe—Wait, Nell! Slow down +so that we can see the face of the dam from the Overlook." +<P> +The speed of the car was immediately reduced under Helen's manipulation, +and then she swerved it into a short side road running toward the river, +and they came out upon a little graveled plaza in the center of a tiny park, +which gave a splendid view of the valley in both directions. +<P> +But the young people in the motor car turned their eyes to the west. There +the face of the Minturn dam could be discerned; and even as they looked at +it they seemed to see it changing—dissolving, covered with mist, and spouting +geysers of what at first seemed like smoke. But it was Tom who realized the +truth. +<P> +"She's burst!" he cried. "The old dam's burst! There she goes in a dozen +places!" +<P> +Although they were several miles down the valley, the thunder of the bursting +masonry now echoed in their ears. And up from the bottom of the wall, near +its center, a great geyser spouted. In a moment the wall crumbled and they +saw tons upon tons of the masonry melt away. The waters of the pond burst +through in a solid flood and charged down the valley, spreading wider and +wider as it charged on, and bearing upon its crest every light and unstable +structure found in its path. +<P> +It was a startling—a terrifying sight. No wonder the two girls cried out +in alarm and clung together. The sight of the charging flood fascinated them. +<P> +But then they were aroused—and that within the first half minute of their +terror—by Tom. He was trying, crippled as he was, to climb over into their +seat. +<P> +"What are you doing, you foolish boy?" cried Helen. "Sit down." +<P> +"We've got to get out of here!" muttered the excited youth. +<P> +"Why, we are safe here. The water will never rise to this height." +<P> +"I know it! I know it!" groaned Tom, falling back in his seat and paling +because of the pain from his arm, which he had twisted. "But don't you +<I>see?</I> There are many down the valley who won't know of this until too +late. Why, they can't see it at the bridge—at Culm Falls—until the flood +is right upon them." +<P> +"It's true!" gasped Helen. "What shall we do?" +<P> +"We must warn them—we can warn them, can't we?" demanded Ruth. "This car +runs so fast—you control it so well, Helen. Can't we warn them?" +<P> +"Try it, Sis!" shouted Tom. "You can do it!" +<P> +And already his sister, setting her teeth hard upon her lower lip, was backing +and turning the motor car. In twenty seconds they were dashing off upon the +track over which they had so recently come—on the road down the valley with +the flood following fast behind them. +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> +<h4>THE RACE</h4> +<P> +The two girls on the front seat of the flying automobile were not prepared +for racing. Of course, Ruth Fielding had no proper automobile outfit, and +Helen had not expected such an emergency when she had started with her crippled +brother for this afternoon run. She had no goggles, nor any mask; but she +had the presence of mind to raise the wind-shield. +<P> +Already they could have heard the steady roaring of the advancing flood had +not the racing motor car drowned all other sounds. There was, however, no +need to look behind; they knew the wave was there and that it was sweeping +down the valley of the Lumano with frightful velocity. +<P> +Indeed, they were not at all sure for those first few miles whether they +were traveling as fast as the flood, or not. Suppose the wave should reach +and sweep away the bridge before they could cross the river? The thought +was in the mind of both Helen and Ruth, whether Tom, on the rear seat, considered +it or not. When they finally shot out of the woods and turned toward the +toll-bridge, all glanced around. From here the upper reaches of the Lumano +were plainly revealed. And extending clear across the valley was the foam-crested +wave charging down upon the lowlands, but a number of miles away. +<P> +Here was the first house, too. They saw a man and woman and several children +out front, staring at the automobile as it raced down the road. Perhaps they +had been called from the house by the vibration of the bursting dam. +<P> +Tom sprang up in the car and pointed behind him, yelling: +<P> +"The flood! The flood!" +<P> +It is doubtful if they heard what he said; and they, too, were on a knoll +and likely out of the reach of the water. But the three in the automobile +saw the whole family turn and run for the higher ground behind their house. +They understood the peril which menaced the whole valley. +<P> +In a flash the auto had turned the bend in the river road, and the occupants +saw the toll-bridge and the peaceful hamlet of Culm Falls. There was no stir +there. The toll-bridge keeper was not even out of his cottage, and the light +and flimsy gates were down across the driveway at either end of the bridge. +The bend in the river hid the advancing wall of water. Perhaps, too, it deadened +the sound of the bursting dam and the roar of the waters. +<P> +There was another house at the bend. Helen tooted the automobile horn as +though it had gone crazy. The raucous notes must of a certainty have awakened +anybody but the Seven Sleepers. But the three in the car saw no sign of life +about the premises. Helen had started to slow down; but Tom stopped her with +a hand on her arm. +<P> +"Not here! Not here!" he yelled. "Get across the river first, Nell! That +wave is coming!" +<P> +Indeed it was. And the toll-bridge keeper did not appear, and the gates were +shut. But Helen Cameron was excited now and her racing blood was up. She +never hesitated at the frail barrier, but drove straight through it, smashing +the gate to kindling wood, and smashing their own wind shield as well. +<P> +Out ran the toll-man then; but they were half way across the bridge; he could +barely have raised the other gate had he set about it instantly. So they +went through that, too, leaving him bawling and shrieking after them, but +soon to learn by looking up the river what Tom meant by his excited words +as the motor car swept by. +<P> +Helen slowed down at the smithy. There were several men there and a number +of wagons. The trio in the car screamed at them: "The dam has burst! The +flood is coming!" and then started up again and swept through the little +village, looking back to see the group at the smithy running in all directions +to give the alarm. +<P> +Now the road, clear to the Red Mill and beyond, ran within sight of the river. +The mill was all of ten miles away. The valley was low here and as far as +they could see ahead it broadened considerably on this side of the Lumano. +But the hills arose abruptly on the farther bank and all the force and mass +of the flood must sweep across these meadows. +<P> +As the car moved on, Helen tooted the horn constantly. Its blasts alone should +have warned people of what threatened, without Tom's frantic shouts and +gesticulations. They were obliged, however, to slow down before several houses +to make the occupants understand their danger. +<P> +They were not half way to the Red Mill when the roar of the advancing tidal +wave was apparent even above the noise of the auto. Then they saw the crest +of the flood appear around the bend and the already heavily burdened waters +dashed themselves upon the toll-bridge. It crumpled up and disappeared like +a spider-web bridge, and the flood rolled on, the wave widening and overflowing +the lowlands behind the automobile. +<P align=justify> +Ahead of them now upon the road there was a single foot-passenger—a man +carrying a heavy basket. He seemed so far from the higher ground, and so +determined to keep to the road, that Ruth cried out and laid her hand upon +Helen's arm. The latter nodded and shut off the engine so that the automobile +ran down and almost stopped by this pedestrian. +<P> +"Here, you!" shouted Tom, from the tonneau. "Get in here quick! There's no +time to lose!" +<P> +Much of what he said was lost in the roaring of the waters; but the fellow +understood him well enough, and scrambled into the car with his basket. It +was Jasper Parloe, and the old man was shaking as with palsy. +<P> +"My goodness gracious!" he croaked, falling back in the seat as the car darted +away again. "Ain't this awful? Ain't this jest awful?" +<P> +He was too scared, one would have supposed, to think of much else than the +peril of the flood sweeping the valley behind them; yet he stared up at Tom +Cameron again and again as the auto hurried them on toward the safety of +the higher ground about the Red Mill, and there was something very sly in +his look. +<P> +"Ye warn't hurt so bad then, arter all, was ye, Master Cameron?" he croaked. +<P> +"I reckon I shall live to get over it," returned the boy, shortly. +<P> +"But no thanks to Jabe Potter—heh? Ha! I know, I know!" +<P> +Tom stared in return angrily, but the old man kept shaking his head and smiling +up at him slily and in such a significant way that, had the boy not been +so disturbed by what was going on behind them, he certainly would have demanded +to know what the old fellow meant. +<P> +But the car was getting close to the long hill that mounted to the crest +on which the Red Mill stood. How much better would it have been for Jabez +Potter and all concerned had he taken Doctor Davison's advice and let out +the water behind his dam! But now he was not even at home to do anything +before the thousands upon thousands of tons of water from the Minturn reservoir +swept through the Red Mill dam. +<P> +They saw the foaming, yellow water spread over the country behind them; but +within half a mile of the mill it gathered into narrower compass again because +of the nature of the land, and the wave grew higher as it rushed down upon +Potter's dam. The motor car puffed up the hill and halted before the mill +door. +<P> +"Will we be safe here, Tom?" cried Helen, as pale as a ghost now, but too +brave to give way. "Are we safe?" +<P> +"We're all right, I believe," said Tom. +<P> +Jasper Parloe was already out of the car and ran into the mill. Only the +hired man was there, and he came to the door with a face whiter than it was +naturally made by the flour dust. +<P> +"Come in, quick!" he cried to the young people. "This mill can't go—it's +too solid." +<P> +Beyond the Red Mill the ground was low again; had the Camerons tried to keep +on the road for home the flood would have overtaken the car. And to take +the road that branched off for Cheslow would have endangered the car, too. +In a few seconds the knoll on which the mill stood was an island! +<P> +The girls and Tom ran indoors. They could hardly hear each other shout during +the next few minutes. The waters rose and poured over the dam, and part of +it was swept out. Great waves beat upon the river-wall of the mill. And then, +with a tearing crash of rent timbers and masonry, the front of the little +office and the storeroom, built out over the river, was torn away. +<P> +From that quarter Jasper Parloe ran, yelling wildly. Ruth saw him dart out +of the far door of the mill, stooping low and with his coat over his head +as though he expected the whole structure to fall about his ears. +<P> +But only that wall and the loading platform for the boats were sliced off +by the flood. Then the bulk of the angry waters swept past, carrying all +sorts of debris before it, and no farther harm was done to the mill, or to +Mr. Potter's other buildings. +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> +<h4>UNCLE JABEZ IS EXCITED</h4> +<P> +So rapidly had all this taken place that the girls had remained in the mill. +But now Ruth, crying: "Aunt Alvirah will be frightened to death, Helen!" +led the way down the long passage and through the shed into the kitchen porch. +The water on this side of the building had swept up the road and actually +into the yard; but the automobile stood in a puddle only and was not injured. +<P> +Aunt Alviry was sitting in her rocker by the window. The old woman was very +pale and wan. She had her Bible open on her knees and her lips trembled in +a smile of welcome when the girls burst into the room. +<P> +"Oh, my dears! my dears!" she cried. "I am so thankful to see you both safe!" +She started to rise, and the old phrase came to her lips: "Oh, my back and +oh, my bones!" +<P> +Then she rose and hobbled across the room. Her bright little, birdlike eyes, +that had never yet known spectacles, had seen something up the Cheslow road. +<P> +"Who's this a-coming? For the land's sake, what recklessness! Is that Jabez +and his mules, Ruthie? Bless us and save us! what's he going to try and do?" +<P> +The two girls ran to the door. Down the hill thundered a farm wagon drawn +by a pair of mules, said mules being on the dead run while their driver stood +in the wagon and snapped his long, blacksnake whip over their ears. Such +a descent of the hill was reckless enough in any case; but now, at the foot, +rolled the deep water. It had washed away a little bridge that spanned what +was usually a rill, but the banks of this stream being overflowed for yards +on either side, the channel was at least ten feet deep. +<P> +It was Jabez Potter driving so recklessly down the hill from Cheslow. +<P> +"Oh, oh!" screamed the old lady. "Jabez will be killed! Oh, my back and oh, +my bones! Oh, deary, deary me!" +<P> +She had crossed the porch and was hobbling down the steps. Her rheumatic +twinges evidently caused her excruciating pain, but the fear she felt for +the miller's safety spurred her to get as far as the fence. And there Ruth +and Helen kept her from splashing into the muddy water that covered the road. +<P> +"You can do no good, Aunt Alvirah!" cried Ruth. +<P> +"The mules are not running away with him, Mrs. Boggs," urged Helen. +<P> +"They'll kill him! He's crazy! It's his money—the poor, poor man!" +<P> +It was evident that Aunt Alvirah read the miller's excitement aright. Ruth +remembered the cash-box and wondered if it had been left in the mill while +her uncle went to Cheslow? However that might be, her attention—indeed, +the attention of everybody about the mill—was held by the reckless actions +of Mr. Potter. +<P> +It was not fifteen minutes after the wave had hit the mill and torn away +a part of the outer office wall and the loading platform, or wharf, when +the racing mules came down to the turbulent stream that lay between the Cheslow +road and the Red Mill. The frightened animals would have balked at the stream, +but the miller, still standing in the wagon, coiled the whip around his head +and then lashed out with it, laying it, like a tongue of living fire, across +the mules' backs. +<P> +They were young animals and they had been unused, until this day, to the +touch of the blacksnake. They leaped forward with almost force enough to +break out of their harness, but landing in the deep water with the wagon +behind them. So far out did they leap that they went completely under and +the wagon dipped until the body was full of water. +<P> +But there stood the miller, upright and silent, plying the whip when they +came to the surface, and urging them on. Ruth had noticed before this that +Uncle Jabez was not cruel to his team, or to his other animals; but this +was actual brutality. +<P> +However, the mules won through the flood. The turgid stream was not wide +and it was not a long fight. But there was the peril of mules, wagon and +man being swept out into the main stream of the flood and carried over the +dam. +<P> +"He is awful! awful!" murmured Helen, in Ruth's ear, as they clung together +and watched the miller and his outfit come through and the mules scramble +out upon solid ground. +<P> +The miller had brought his half-mad team to the mill and pulled the mules +down right beside the Cameron's automobile. Already the young fellow who +worked for him had flown out of the mill to Jabez's assistance. He seized +the frightened mules by their bits. +<P> +"How much has gone, boy?" cried Jabez, in a strained, hoarse voice. +<P> +"Not much, boss. Only a part of the office an'—" +<P> +The miller was already in at the door. In a moment, it seemed, he was back +again, having seen the damage done by the flood to his building. But that +damage was comparatively slight. It should not have caused the old man to +display such profound despair. +<P> +He wrung his hands, tore off his hat and stamped upon it on the walk, and +behaved in such a manner that it was little wonder Helen Cameron was vastly +frightened. He seemed beside himself with rage and despair. +<P> +Ruth, herself torn by conflicting emotions, could not bear to see the old +man so convulsed with what seemed to be anguish of spirit, without offering +her sympathy. During this week that she had been at the Red Mill it could +not be said that she had gained Uncle Jabez's confidence—that she had drawn +close to him at all. But it was not for a will on her part to do so. +<P> +The girl now left Aunt Alvirah and Helen on the porch and walked straight +down to the old man. She was beside him, with a hand upon his arm, before +he was aware of her coming. +<P> +He stared at her so angrily—with such an expression of rage and hopelessness +upon his face—that she was held speechless for a moment. +<P> +"What do you know about it, girl?" he demanded, hoarsely. +<P> +"About what, Uncle?" she returned. +<P> +"The box—the cash-box—my money!" he cried, in a low voice. "Do you know +anything about it? Was it saved?" +<P> +"Oh, Uncle! We only got here in the automobile just in time to escape the +flood. The office was wrecked at that very moment. Was the box there?" +<P> +"Gone! Gone!" he murmured, shaking his head; and turning on his heel, he +strode into the mill. +<P> +The boy had taken the mules around to the stable. Ruth hesitated, then followed +the old man into the mill. There Jabez confronted Tom Cameron, sitting on +a sack of meal and watching the turbid waters falling over the dam. +<P> +"Ha! Young Cameron," muttered Uncle Jabez. "<I>You</I> didn't see the cash-box, +of course?" +<P> +"Where was it?" asked Tom, quietly. +<P> +"In that office—on a shelf, with an old coat thrown over it. I believed +it to be as safe there as in the house with nobody but an old woman to guard +it." +<P> +"Better put your money in the bank, sir," said Tom, coolly. +<P> +"And have some sleek and oily scoundrel steal it, eh?" snarled Uncle Jabez. +<P> +"Well, the water stole it, I reckon," Tom said. "I'm sorry for you if there +was much money in the box. But I know nothing about it. Jasper Parloe might +have saved the box had he known about it; he was over there by the office +when the water tore away the wall." +<P> +"Jasper Parloe!" ejaculated Uncle Jabez, starting. "Was <I>he</I> here?" +<P> +"He wasn't here long," chuckled Tom. "He thought the mill was going and he +lit out in a hurry." +<P> +Uncle Jabez made another despairing gesture and walked away. Ruth followed +him and her hands closed upon the toil-hardened fist clenched at his side. +<P> +"I'm sorry, Uncle," she whispered. +<P> +He suddenly stared down at her. +<P> +"There! I believe you be, child. But your being sorry can't help it none. +The money's gone—hard it come and it's hard to part with in this way." +<P> +"Was it a large sum, Uncle?" +<P> +"All the ready cash I had in the world. Every cent I owned. That boy said, +put it in a bank. I lost money when the Cheslow Bank failed forty year ago. +I don't get caught twice in the same trap—no, sir! I've lost more this time; +but no dishonest blackleg will have the benefit of it, that's sure. The river's +got it, and nobody will ever be a cent the better off for it. All! All gone!" +<P> +He jerked his hand away from Ruth's sympathetic pressure and walked moodily +away. +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> +<h4>THE CATASTROPHE</h4> +<P> +This was the beginning of some little confidence between Ruth and Uncle Jabez. +He had not been quite so stern and unbending, even in his passion, as before. +He said nothing more about the lost cash-box—Aunt Alviry dared not even +broach the subject—but Ruth tried to show him in quiet ways that she was +sorry for his loss. +<P> +Uncle Jabez was not a gentle man, however; his voice being so seldom heard +did not make it the less rough and passionate. There were times when, because +of his black looks, Ruth did not even dare address him. And there was one +topic she longed to address him upon very much indeed. She wanted to go to +school. +<P> +She had always been quick at her books, and had stood well in the graded +school of Darrowtown. There was a schoolhouse up the road from the Red Mill—not +half a mile away; this district school was a very good one and the teacher +had called on Aunt Alvirah and Ruth liked her very much. +<P> +The flood had long since subsided and the repairs to the mill and the dam +were under way. Uncle Jabez grew no more pleasant, however, for the freshet +had damaged his dam so that all the water had to be let out and he might +go into midsummer with such low pressure behind the dam that he could not +run the mill through the drouth. This possibility, together with the loss +of the cash-box, made him—even Aunt Alvirah admitted—"like a dog with a +sore head." Nevertheless Ruth determined to speak to him about the school. +<P> +She chose an evening when the kitchen was particularly bright and homelike +and her uncle had eaten his supper as though he very much enjoyed it. There +was no cash-box for him to be absorbed in now; but every evening he made +countless calculations in an old ledger which he took to bed with him with +as much care as he had the money-box. +<P> +Before he opened his ledger on this evening, however, Ruth stood beside him +and put a hand upon his arm. +<P> +"Uncle," she said, bravely, "can I go to school?" +<P> +He stared at her directly for a moment, from under his heavy brows; but her +own gaze never wavered. +<P> +"How much schoolin' do you want?" he demanded, harshly. +<P> +"If you please Uncle Jabez, all I can get," replied Ruth. +<P> +"Ha! Readin', writin', an' mighty little 'rithmatic—we called 'em 'the three +R's '—did for me when I was a boy. The school tax they put onto me ev'ry +year is something wicked. And I never had chick nor child to go to their +blamed old school." +<P> +"Let me go, Uncle, and so get some of your money back that way," Ruth said, +quickly, and smiling in her little, birdlike way with her head on one side. +<P> +"Ha! I don't know about that," he growled, shaking his head. "I don't see +what I'll be makin' out of it." +<P> +"Perhaps I can help you later, if you'll let me learn enough," she urged. +"I can learn enough arithmetic to keep your books. I'll try real hard." +<P> +"I don't know about that," he said, again, eyeing her suspiciously. "The +little money I make I kin keep watch of—when I'm here to watch it, that +is. There ain't no book-keeping necessary in my business. And then—there's +your Aunt Alviry. She needs you." +<P> +"Don't you go for to say that, Jabez," interposed the old woman, briskly. +"That child's the greatest help that ever was; but she can do all that's +necessary before and arter school, and on Saturdays. She's a good smart child, +Jabez. Let her have a chance to l'arn." +<P> +"Ain't no good ever come of books," muttered the miller. +<P> +"Oh, Uncle! Just let me show you," begged the girl, in her earnestness clinging +to his arm with both hands. +<P> +He looked down for a moment at her hands as though he would fling off her +hold. But he thought better of it, and waited fully a minute before he spoke. +<P> +"You know your Aunt Alviry needs ye," he said. "If you kin fix it with her, +why I don't see as I need object." +<P> +"Will it be too much trouble for you to get my trunk, Uncle, so that I can +begin going to school next week?" Ruth asked. +<P> +"Ain't you got nothin' to wear to school?" he said. "It's dress; is it? Beginning +that trouble airly; ain't ye?" +<P> +He seemed to be quite cross again, and the girl looked at him in surprise. +<P> +"Dear Uncle! You will get the trunk from the station, won't you?" +<P> +"No I won't," he said. "Because why? Because I can't." +<P> +"You can't?" she gasped, and even Aunt Alvirah looked startled. +<P> +"That's what I said." +<P> +"Why—why can't you?" cried Ruth. "Has something happened to my trunk?" +<P> +"That's jest it—and it warn't no fault o' mine," said the miller. "I got +the trunk like I said I would and it was in the wagon when we came down the +hill yonder. +<P> +"Oh, oh!" gasped Ruth, her hands clasped. "You don't mean when you ran the +mules into the water, Uncle?" +<P> +"I had to get to my mill. I didn't know what was being done over here," he +said, uglily. "And didn't I lose enough? What's the loss of some old rags, +and a trunk, 'side of my money?" +<P> +He said it with such force, and with so angry a gesture, that she shrank +back from him. But her pain and disappointment were so strong that she had +to speak. +<P> +"And the trunk was washed out of the wagon, Uncle Jabez? It's gone?" +<P> +"That's what happened to it, I suppose," he grunted, and dropping his head, +opened the ledger and began to study the long lines of figures there displayed. +Not a word to show that he was sorry for her loss. No appreciation of the +girl's pain and sorrow. He selfishly hugged to him the misfortune of his +own loss and gave no heed to Ruth. +<P> +But Aunt Alvirah caught her hand as she passed swiftly. The old woman carried +the plump little hand to her lips in mute sympathy, and then Ruth broke away +even from her and ran upstairs to her room. There she cast herself upon the +bed and, with her sobs smothered in the pillows, gave way to the grief that +had long been swelling her heart to the bursting point. +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> +<h4>BUTTER AND BUTTERCUPS</h4> +<P> +Such little keepsakes as remained of her father and mother—their photographs, +a thin old bracelet, her mother's wedding ring, her father's battered silver +watch had fortunately been in Ruth's bag. Those keepsakes had been too precious +to risk in the trunk and in the baggage car. And how glad the girl was now +that she had thus treasured these things. +<P> +But the loss of the trunk, with all her clothing —common though that clothing +had been—was a disaster that Ruth could not easily get over. She cried herself +to sleep that night and in the morning came down with a woebegone face indeed. +Uncle Jabez did not notice her, and even Aunt Alvirah did not comment upon +her swollen eyes and tear-streaked countenance. But the old woman, if anything, +was kinder than ever to her. +<P> +It was Saturday, and butter day. Uncle Jabez owned one cow, and since Ruth +had come to the mill it was her work twice a week to churn the butter. The +churn was a stone crock with a wooden dasher and Ruth had just emptied in +the thick cream when Helen Cameron ran in. +<P> +"Oh, Ruth!" she cried. "You're always busy—especially if I chance to want +you at all particularly." +<P> +"If you will be a drone yourself, Helen, you must expect to be always hunting +company," laughed Ruth. "Just what is troubling Miss Cameron at present?" +<P> +"We're going to dress the Cove Chapel for to-morrow. You know, I told you +our guild attends to the decoration of the chapel and I've just set my heart +on making a great pillow of buttercups. The fields are full of them. And +Tom says he'll help. Now, you'll come; won't you?" +<P> +"If I come for buttercups it will have to be after the butter comes!" returned +Ruth, laughing. +<P> +She had begun to beat the dasher up and down and little particles of cream +sprayed up through the hole in the cover of the jar, around the handle of +the dasher. Helen looked on with growing interest. +<P> +"And is <I>that</I> the way to make butter?" she asked. "And the cream's +almost white. Our butter is yellow—golden. Just as golden as the buttercups. +Do you color it?" +<P> +"Not at this time of year. I used to help Miss True make butter. She had +a cow. She said I was a good butter maker. You see, it's all in the washing +after the butter comes. You wait and see." +<P> +"But I want to pick buttercups—and Tom is waiting down by the bridge." +<P> +"Can't help it. Butter before buttercups," declared Ruth, keeping the dasher +steadily at work. "And then, Aunt Alvirah may want me for something else +before dinner." +<P> +"We've got dinner with us—or, Tom has. At least, Babette put us up a basket +of lunch." +<P> +"Oh! A picnic!" cried Ruth, flushing with pleasure. This visit had driven +out of her mind —for the time, at least—her trouble of overnight. +<P> +"I'm going to ask Aunt Alviry for you," went on Helen, and skipped away to +find the little old woman who, despite the drawback of "her back and her +bones" was a very neat and particular housekeeper. She was back in a few +moments. +<P> +"She says you can go, just as soon as you get the butter made. Now, hurry +up, and let us get into the buttercup field, which is a whole lot nicer than +the butter churn and—Oh! it smells much nicer, too. Why, Ruth, that cream +actually smells sour!" +<P> +"I expect it is sour," laughed her friend. "Didn't you know that sweet butter +comes from sour cream? And that most nice things are the result of hard work? +The sweet from the bitter, you know." +<P> +"My! how philosophical we are this morning. Isn't that butter <I>ever</I> +coming?" +<P> +"Impatience! Didn't you ever have to wait for anything you wanted in your +life?" +<P> +"Why, I've got to wait till next fall before I go to Briarwood Hall. That's +a rhyme, Ruthie; it's been singing itself over and over in my mind for days. +I'm really going to boarding school in the autumn. It's decided. Tom is going +to the military academy on the other side of Osago Lake. He'll be within +ten miles of Briarwood." +<P> +Ruth's face had lost its brightness as Helen said this. The word "school" +had brought again to the girl's mind her own unfortunate position and Uncle +Jabez's unkindness. +<P> +"I hope you will have a delightful time at Briarwood," Ruth said, softly. +"I expect I shall miss you dreadfully." +<P> +"Oh, suppose the Ogre should send you to school there, too!" cried Helen, +with clasped hands. "Wouldn't that be splendid!" +<P> +"That would be beyond all imagination," said Ruth, shaking her head. "I—I +don't know that I shall be able to attend the balance of the term here." +<P> +"Why not?" demanded Helen. "Won't he let you?" +<P> +"He has said I could." Ruth could say no more just then. She hid her face +from her friend, but made believe that it was the butter that occupied her +attention. The dasher began to slap, slap, slap suggestively in the churn +and little particles of beaten cream began to gather on the handle of the +dasher. +<P> +"Oh!" cried Helen. "It's getting hard!" +<P> +"The butter is coming. Now a little cold water to help it separate. And then +you shall have a most delicious glass of buttermilk." +<P> +"No, thank you!" cried Helen. "They say it's good for one to drink it. But +I never do like anything that's good for me." +<P> +"Give it to <I>me,</I> Ruth," interposed another voice, and Tom put a smiling +face around the corner of the well. "I thought you were never coming, Miss +Flyaway," he said, to his sister. +<P> +"Butter before buttercups, young man," responded Helen, primly. "We must +wait for Ruth to—er—<I>wash</I> the butter, is it?" +<P> +"Yes," said her friend, seriously, opening the churn and beginning to ladle +out the now yellow butter into a wooden bowl. +<P> +"May I assist at the butter's toilet?" queried Tom, grinning. +<P> +"You may sit down and watch," said his sister, in a tone intended to quell +any undue levity on her brother's part. +<P> +Ruth had rolled her sleeves above her elbows, so displaying her pretty plump +arms, and now worked and worked the butter in cold water right "from the +north side of the well" as though she were kneading bread. First she had +poured Tom a pitcher of the fresh buttermilk, and given him a glass. Even +Helen tasted a little of the tart drink. +<P> +"Oh, it's ever so nice, I suppose," she said, with a little grimace; "but +I much prefer my milk sweet." +<P> +Again and again Ruth poured off the milky water and ran fresh, cold water +upon her butter until no amount of kneading and washing would subtract another +particle of milk from the yellow ball. The water was perfectly clear. +<P> +"Now I'll salt it," she said; "and put it away until this afternoon, and +then I'll work it again and put it down in the butter-jar. When I grow up +and get rich I am going to have a great, big dairy; with a herd of registered +cattle, and I'm going to make all the butter myself." +<P> +"And Tom's going to raise horses. He's going to own a stock farm—so he says. +You'd better combine interests," said Helen, with some scorn. "I like horses +to ride, and butter to eat, but—well, I prefer buttercups just now. Hurry +up, Miss Slow-poke! We'll never get enough flowers for a pillow." +<P> +So Ruth cleaned her face, taking a peep into the glass in the kitchen to +make sure, before going out to her friends. Tom looked at her with plain +approval, and Helen jumped up to squeeze her again. +<P> +"No wonder Aunt Alvirah calls you 'pretty creetur'," she whispered in Ruth's +ear. "For that's what you <I>are.</I>" Then to Tom: "Now young man, have +you the lunch basket?" +<P> +"What there is left of it is in charge of Reno down at the bridge," he replied, +coolly. +<P> +They found the huge mastiff lying with the napkin-covered basket between +his forepaws, on the grass by the water side. Reno was growling warningly +and had his eyes fixed upon a figure leaning upon the bridge railing. +<P> +"That there dawg don't seem ter take to me," drawled Jasper Parloe, who was +the person on the bridge. "He needn't be afraid. <I>I</I> wouldn't touch +the basket." +<P> +"You won't be likely to touch it while Reno has charge of it," said Tom, +quietly, while the girls passed on swiftly. Neither Ruth nor Helen liked +to have anything to do with Parloe. When Tom released Reno from his watch +and ward, the dog trotted after Ruth and put his nose into her hand. +<P> +"Ye been up ter the mill, hev ye?" queried Parloe, eyeing Tom Cameron aslant, +"ye oughter be gre't friends with Jabe Potter. Or has he squared hisself +with ye?" +<P> +"Say, Mister Parloe," said Tom, sharply, "you've been hinting something about +the miller every time you've seen me lately. +<P> +"Only since yeou was knocked down that bank inter the gully, an' yer arm +an' head hurt. There warn't nothin' about Jabe ter interest yeou afore that," +returned Parloe, quickly. +<P> +Tom flushed suddenly and he looked at the old fellow with new interest. +<P> +"Just what do you mean?" he asked, slowly. +<P> +"Ye know well enough. Your dad, Tom Cameron, is mighty riled up over your +bein' hurt. I heered him say that he'd give a ten-dollar note ter know who +it was drove by ye that night and crowded ye inter the ditch. Would you give +more than that not ter have it known who done it?" +<P> +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Tom, angrily. +<P> +"I guess ye like this here gal that's cone to live on Jabez, purty well; +don't ye—yeou an' yer sister?" croaked old Parloe. "Wal, if your dad an' +the miller gits inter a row—comes ter a clinch, as ye might say—yeou an' +yer sister won't be let ter hev much ter do with Ruth, eh, now?" +<P> +"I don't know that <I>that's</I> so," Tom said doggedly. +<P> +"Oh, yes, ye do. Think it over. Old Jabe will put his foot right down an' +he'll stop Ruth havin' anything ter do with ye—ye know it! Wal, now; think +it over. I got a conscience, I have," pursued Parloe, cringing and rubbing +his hands together, his sly little eyes sparkling. "I r'ally feel as though +I'd oughter tell yer dad who it was almost run ye down that night and made +ye fall into the gully." +<P> +"You mean, you'd like to handle Dad's ten dollars!" cried Tom, angrily. +<P> +Parloe smirked and still rubbed his hands together. "Don't matter a mite +<I>whose </I>ten dollars I handle," he said, suggestively. "Your ten dollars +would be jest as welcome to me as your Dad's, Master Cameron." +<P> +"Ten dollars is a lot of money," said Tom. +<P> +"Yes. It's right smart. I could make use of it I'm a poor man, an' I could +use it nicely," admitted the sly and furtive Parloe. +<P> +"I haven't got so much money now," growled the boy. +<P> +"Yeou kin get it, I warrant." +<P> +"I suppose I can." He drew his purse from his pocket. "I've got three dollars +and a half here. I'll have the rest for you on Monday." +<P> +"Quite correct," said Jasper Parloe, clutching eagerly at the money. "I'll +trust ye till then—<I>oh,</I> yes! I'll trust ye till then." +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> +<h4>JUST A MATTER OF A DRESS</h4> +<P> +"Well, I really believe, Tommy Cameron!" cried his sister Helen, when he +overtook the girls and Reno, swinging the basket recklessly, "that you are +developing a love for low company. I don't see how you can bear to talk with +that Jasper Parloe." +<P> +"I don't see how I can, either," muttered Tom, and he was rather silent—for +him—until they were well off the road and the incident at the bridge was +some minutes behind them. +<P> +But the day was such a glorious one, and the fields and woods were so beautiful, +that no healthy boy could long be gloomy. Besides, Tom Cameron had assured +his sister that he thought Ruth Fielding "just immense," and he was determined +to give the girl of the Red Mill as pleasant a time as possible. +<P> +He worked like a Trojan to gather buttercups, and after they had eaten the +luncheon old Babette had put up for them (and it was the very nicest and +daintiest luncheon that Ruth Fielding had ever tasted) he told the girls +to remain seated on the flat stone he had found for them and weave the foundation +for the pillow while he picked bushels upon bushels of buttercups. +<P> +"You'll need a two-horse load, anyway to have enough for a pillow of the +size Nell has planned," he said, grinning. "And perhaps she'll finish it +if you help her, Ruth. She's always trying to do some big thing and 'falling +down' on it." +<P> +"That's not so, Master Sauce-box!" cried his sister. +<P> +Tom went off laughing, and the two girls set to work on the great mass of +buttercups they had already picked. They grew so large, and were so dewey +and golden, that a more brilliant bed of color one could scarce imagine than +the pillow, as it began to grow under the dexterous hands of Helen and Ruth. +And, being alone together now, they began to grow confidential. +<P> +"And how does the Ogre treat you?" asked Helen. "I thought, when I came this +morning, that you had been feeling badly." +<P> +"I am not very happy," admitted Ruth. +<P> +"It's that horrid Ogre!" cried Helen. +<P> +"It isn't right to call Uncle Jabez names," said Ruth, quietly. "He is greatly +to be pitied, I do believe. And just now, particularly so." +<P> +"You mean because of the loss of that cash-box?" +<P> +"Yes." +<P> +"Do you suppose there was much in it?" +<P> +"He told me that it contained every cent he had saved in all these years." +<P> +"My!" cried Helen. "Then he must have lost a fortune! He has been a miser +for forty years, so they say." +<P> +"I do not know about that," Ruth pursued. "He is harsh and—and he seems +to be very selfish. He—he says I can go to school, though." +<P> +"Well, I should hope so!" cried Helen. +<P> +"But I don't know that I <I>can</I> go," Ruth continued, shaking her head. +<P> +"For pity's sake I why not?" asked her friend. +<P> +Then, out came the story of the lost trunk. Nor could Ruth keep back the +tears as she told her friend about Uncle Jabez's cruelty. +<P> +"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Helen, almost weeping herself. "The mean, mean thing! +No, I won't call him Ogre again; he isn't as good as an Ogre. I—I don't +know what to call him!" +<P> +"Calling him names won't bring back my trunk, Helen," sobbed Ruth. +<P> +"That's so. I—I'd make him pay for it! I'd make him get me dresses for those +that were lost." +<P> +"Uncle is giving me a home; I suppose he will give me to wear all that he +thinks I need. But I shall have to wear <I>this </I> dress to school, and +it will soon not be fit to wear anywhere else." +<P> +"It's just too mean for anything, Ruth! I just wish—" +<P> +What Miss Cameron wished she did not proceed to explain. She stopped and +bit her lip, looking at her friend all the time and nodding. Ruth was busily +wiping her eyes and did not notice the very wise expression on Helen's face. +<P> +"Look out! here comes Tom," whispered Helen, suddenly, and Ruth made a last +dab at her eyes and put away her handkerchief in a hurry. +<P> +"Say! ain't you ever going to get that thing done?" demanded Tom. "Seems +to me you haven't done anything at all since I was here last." +<P> +The girls became very busy then and worked swiftly until the pillow was +completed. By that time it was late afternoon and they started homeward. +Ruth separated from Helen and Tom at the main road and walked alone toward +the Red Mill. She came to the bridge, which was at the corner of her uncle's +farm, and climbed the stile, intending to follow the path up through the +orchard to the rear of the house—the same path by which she and her friends +had started on their little jaunt in the morning. +<P> +The brook which ran into the river, and bounded this lower end of Mr. Potter's +place, was screened by clumps of willows. Just beyond the first group of +saplings Ruth heard a rough voice say: +<P> +"And I tell you to git out! Go on the other side of the crick, Jasper Parloe, +if ye wanter fish. That ain't my land, but this is." +<P> +"Ain't ye mighty brash, Jabe?" demanded the snarling voice of Parloe, and +Ruth knew the first speaker to be her uncle. "Who are yeou ter drive me away?" +<P> +"The last time ye was at the mill I lost something—I lost more than I kin +afford to lose again," continued Uncle Jabez. "I don't say ye took it. They +tell me the flood took it. But I'm going to know the right of it some time, +and if you know more about it than you ought—" +<P> +"What air ye talkin' about, Jabe Potter?" shrilled Parloe. "I've lost money +by you; ye ain't never paid me for the last month I worked for ye." +<P> +"Ye paid yerself—ye paid yerself," said Jabe, tartly. "And if ye stole once +ye would again—" +<P> +"Now stop right there, Jabe Potter!" cried Parloe, and Ruth knew that he +had stepped closer to Mr. Potter, and was speaking in a trembling rage. "Don't +ye intermate an' insinerate; for if ye do, I kin fling out some insinerations +likewise. Yeou jest open yer mouth about <I>me</I> stealin' an' I'll put +a flea in old man Cameron's ear. Ha! Ye know what I mean. Better hev a care, +Jabe Potter—better hev a care!" +<P> +There was silence. Her uncle made no reply, and Ruth, fearing she would be +seen, and not wishing to be thought an eavesdropper (although the conversation +had so surprised and terrified her that she had not thought what she did, +before) the girl ran lightly up the hill, leaving the two old men to their +wrangle. When Uncle Jabez came in to supper that evening his scowl was heavier +than usual, if that were possible, and he did not speak to either Ruth or +Aunt Alvirah all the evening. +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> +<h4>IN SCHOOL</h4> +<P> +Ruth thought it all over, and she came to this conclusion: Uncle Jabez had +given his permission—albeit a grumpy one—and she would begin school on +Monday. The black cloth dress that was so shabby and would look so odd and +proverty-stricken among the frocks of the other girls (for she <I>had</I> +watched them going to and from school, and already knew some of them to speak +to) would have to be worn, if possible, through the term. Perhaps Uncle Jabez +might notice how shabby she looked, finally, and give her something more +appropriate to wear. Especially as it had been through him that her other +frocks were lost. +<P> +But it was not an easy thing to face a whole schoolroom full of girls and +boys—and most of them strangers to her—looking so "dowdyish." Ruth's love +of pretty things was born in her. She had always taken pride in her appearance, +and she felt her shortcomings in this line quicker and more acutely than +most girls of her age. +<P> +She faced the school on Monday morning and found it not so hard as she had +supposed. Miss Cramp welcomed her kindly, and put her through quite a thorough +examination to decide her grade. The Darrowtown schools had been so good +that Ruth was able to take a high place in this one, and the teacher seated +her among the most advanced of her pupils, although Ruth was younger than +some of them. +<P> +The fact that Ruth was well grounded in the same studies that the scholars +at this district school were engaged in, made a difficulty for her at the +start. But she did not know it then. She only knew that Miss Cramp, seating +her pupils according to their grade, sent her to an empty seat beside one +of the largest girls—Julia Semple. +<P> +A good many of the girls stared at the new-comer with more than ordinary +attention; but Julia immediately turned her back on her new seatmate. Ruth +did not, however, give Julia much attention at the time. She was quite as +bashful as most girls of her age; and, too, there were many things during +that first session to hold her attention. But at recess she found that Julia +walked away from her without a word and that most of the girls who seemed +to be in her grade kept aloof, too. As a stranger in the school the girl +from the Red Mill felt no little unhappiness at this evident slight; but +she was too proud to show her disappointment. She made friends with the younger +girls and was warmly welcomed in their games and pastimes. +<P> +"Julia's mad at you, you see," one of her new acquaintances confided to Ruth. +<P> +"Mad at me? What for?" asked the surprised new scholar. +<P> +"Why, that seat was Rosy Ball's. Rosy has gone away to see her sister married +and she's coming back to-morrow. If you hadn't come in to take her place, +Rosy would have been let sit beside Julia again, of course, although like +enough she's fallen behind the class. Miss Cramp is very strict." +<P> +"But I didn't know that. I couldn't help it," cried Ruth. +<P> +"Just the same, Julia says she doesn't like you and that you're a nobody—that +Jabe Potter has taken you in out of charity. And Julia pretty nearly bosses +everything and everybody around this school. Her father, Mr. Semple, you +see, is chairman of the school board." +<P> +Her plain-spoken friend never realized how much she was hurting Ruth by telling +her this. Ruth's pride kept her up, nor would she make further overtures +toward friendship with her classmates. She determined, during those first +few days at the district school, that she would do her very best to get ahead +and to win the commendation of her teacher. There was a splendid high school +at Cheslow, and she learned that Miss Cramp could graduate pupils from her +school directly into the Cheslow High. It was possible, the teacher assured +her, for Ruth to fit herself for such advancement between that time and the +fall term. +<P> +It seemed as though Ruth could never make her crotchety old uncle love her. +As time passed, the loss of his cash-box seemed to prey upon the miller's +mind more and more. He never spoke of it in the house again; it is doubtful +if he spoke of it elsewhere. But the loss of the money increased (were that +possible) his moroseness. He often spoke to neither the girl nor Aunt Alvirah +from sunrise to sunset. +<P> +But although Uncle Jabez was so moody and so unkind to her, in the little +old woman, whose back and whose bones gave her so much trouble, Ruth found +a loving and thoughtful friend. Aunt Alvirah was as troubled at first about +Ruth's lack of frocks as the girl was herself. But before Ruth had been attending +school a week, she suddenly became very light-hearted upon the question of +dress. +<P> +"Now, don't you fret about it, deary," said Aunt Alviry, wagging her head +knowingly. "Gals like you has jest got ter hev frocks, an' the good Lord +knows it, jest the same as He knows when a sparrer falls. There'll be a way +pervided—there'll be a way pervided. Ef I can't make ye a purty dress, 'cause +o' my back an' my bones, there's them that kin. We'll hev Miss 'Cretia Lock +in by the day, and we'll make 'em." +<P> +"But, dear," said Ruth, wonderingly, "how will we get the goods—and the +trimmings—and pay Miss Lock for her work?" +<P> +"Don't you fret about that. Jest you wait and see," declared Aunt Alvirah, +mysteriously. +<P> +Ruth knew very well that the old woman had not a penny of her own. Uncle +Jabez would never have given her a cent without knowing just what it was +for, and haggling over the expenditure then, a good deal. To his view, Aunt +Alviry was an object of his charity, too, although for more than ten years +the old woman had kept his house like wax and had saved him the wages of +a housekeeper. +<P> +This very day, on coming home from school, Ruth had met Doctor Davison coming +away from the Red Mill. She thought the red and white mare, that was so spirited +and handsome, had been tied to the post in front of the kitchen door, and +that the physician must have called upon Aunt Alvirah. +<P> +"So this is the young lady who wouldn't stop at my house but went to Sam +Curtis' to stay all night," he said, holding in the mare and looking down +at Ruth. "And you haven't been past the gate with the green eyes since?" +<P> +"No, sir," Ruth said, timidly. "I have never even been to town." +<P> +"No. Or you would not have failed to see the Curtises again. At least, I +hope you'll see them. Mercy has never ceased talking about you." +<P> +"The lame girl, sir?" cried Ruth, in wonder. "Why, she spoke awfully unkindly +to me, and I thought her mother only thought I would feel bad and wanted +to smooth it over, when she asked me to come again." +<P> +"No," said the doctor, seriously, shaking his head. "Nobody knows Mercy like +her mother. That's not to be expected. She's a poor, unfortunate, cramp-minded +child. I've done what I can for her back—she has spinal trouble; but I can +do little for Mercy's twisted and warped mind. She tells me she has cramps +in her back and legs and I tell her she has worse cramps in her mind. Bright! +Why, child, she knows more than most grown folks. Reads every book she can +get hold of; there is scarcely a child in the Cheslow High School who could +compete with her for a month in any study she had a mind to take hold of. +But," and the doctor shook his head again, "her mind's warped and cramped +because of her affliction." +<P> +"I pitied her," said Ruth, quietly. +<P> +"But don't tell her so. Go and see her again—that's all. And mind you don't +come to town without turning in at the gate with the green eyes;" and so +saying he let the eager mare out and she swiftly carried him away. +<P> +It was after this Aunt Alvirah seemed so confident that a way would be provided +for Ruth to get the frocks that she so sadly needed. On the very next day, +when Ruth came home from school, she found the little old lady in a flutter +of excitement. +<P> +"Now, Ruthie," she whispered, "you mustn't ask too many questions, and I'll +surely tell ye a gre't secret, child." +<P> +"It must be something very nice, Aunt Alviry, or you'd never be like this. +What is it?" +<P> +"Now Ruthie, you mustn't ask too many questions, I tell you. But to make +no secret of it, for secrets I do despise, somebody's made you a present." +<P> +"Made me a present?" gasped Ruth. +<P> +"Now, careful about questions," warned Aunt Alvirah. "I told you that a way +would be pervided for you to have frocks. And it is true. You are a-goin' +to have 'em." +<P> +"Auntie! New frocks!" +<P> +"Just as good as new. Ev'ry bit as good as new. Somebody that's—that's seen +ye, deary, and knows how badly you want to go to school, and that you need +dresses, has given you three." +<P> +"My goodness me!" cried Ruth, clasping her hands. "Not <I>three?"</I> +<P> +"Yes, my dear. And they're jest as good as new—about. 'Cretia Lock won't +be two days fixin' 'em over to fit you. And you won't mind, deary, if the +little girl who wore them before you is—is—Well, deary, she won't never +want them any more." +<P> +"Oh, my dear!" cried Ruth. "Three frocks all at once! And—and I'm not to +ask who gave them to me?" +<P> +"That's it. You're not to ask that. I'll git 'em and show you—Oh, my back +and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" the old lady added, starting +from her chair and hobbling out of the room. +<P> +Ruth was so amazed that she hardly knew what her other feelings at the moment +might be. But there had sprung into her mind, full-fledged, the suspicion +that Doctor Davison had been the donor of the frocks. Perhaps he had had +a little girl sometime, who had died. For Ruth had quite decided, from what +Aunt Alvirah said, that the girl who had formerly worn the frocks in question +was no longer upon earth. +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> +<h4>BEHIND THE GREEN LAMPS</h4> +<P> +Aunt Alvirah returned in a short time with such a pile of pretty colors over +her arm that Ruth gasped with delight, she couldn't help it The dresses were +all nice ginghams, each of a different color, nicely trimmed and delightfully +made. They were not too fancy for school wear, and they were good, practical +frocks. +<P> +Ruth had worn her little black and white frocks at school while she was still +in Darrowtown, and had she remained longer Miss True Pettis would have helped +her to make other frocks in colors. It is a sad thing to see a child in black, +or black and white, and Ruth's father had been dead now six months. +<P> +"Ye needn't be scart at the colors, child," said old Aunt Alviry. "Here's +this pretty lavender. We'll make that over first. 'Cretia Lock will be here +to-morrow and we'll make a big beginnin'." +<P> +"But what will uncle say?" gasped Ruth, almost bursting with questions, but +being debarred from asking the most important ones. +<P> +"Don't you fret about your Uncle Jabez. He ain't got nothin' ter do with +it," declared the little old woman, firmly. "Nor he won't say nothin'." +<P> +Which was very true. Uncle Jabez seldom spoke to his niece now. His moodiness +grew upon him as time passed. And in the evening, as he sat over his endless +calculations at the kitchen table, the girl and the old woman scarcely dared +speak to each other save in whispers. +<P> +Miss Lock worked three days, instead of two, at the Red Mill, helping Aunt +Alvirah "dress-make." How she was paid, Ruth did not know; but she feared +that the pennies Aunt Alvirah saved from her egg and chicken money had done +this. However, the shabby black frock was put away and Ruth blossomed out +into as pretty an appearance as any girl attending Miss Cramp's school. +<P> +But she did not make friends among her classmates. Julia Semple had such +influence that she seemed to have set all the girls of the higher class in +the district school against Ruth. Julia herself could not pass Ruth without +tossing her head and staring at her haughtily; and sometimes she would whisper +to her companions and look at the girl from the Red Mill in so scornful a +way that Ruth could not help feeling uncomfortable. +<P> +Indeed, Ruth would have lacked almost all young company had it not been for +Helen Cameron and Tom. Tom didn't think much of "playing with girls;" but +he could always be depended upon to do anything Ruth and Helen wanted him +to. Helen was at the Red Mill often after Ruth's school hours, and seldom +did a Saturday pass that the two chums did not spend at least half the day +together. Aunt Alvirah declared Ruth should have Saturday afternoons to herself, +and often Helen came in her little pony carriage and drove Ruth about the +country. There was a fat old pony named Tubby that drew the phaeton, and +Tubby jogged along the pleasant country roads with them in a most delightfully +gypsyish way. +<P> +One Saturday afternoon they went to town. Ruth had never seen Cheslow save +on the night of her arrival and on the following morning, when she had started +directly after breakfast at the station master's house to walk to the Red +Mill. +<P> +"Why, you'll like Cheslow," declared Helen, in her enthusiastic way. "It's +just as pretty as it can be—you'll love it! I often drive in to shop, and +sometimes Mrs. Murchiston goes with me. Get up, Tubby!" +<P> +Tubby had to be urged incessantly; exertion was not loved by him. He would +rather walk than trot; he would rather stand than walk; and he always had +the appearance of being asleep—save when he was at his manger. +<P> +Ruth remembered that she had been warned not to go past "the gate with the +green eyes" and she told Helen of her promise to Doctor Davison. +<P> +"Oh, splendid!" cried her chum. "I don't know anybody whom I like to call +upon in Cheslow ahead of Doctor Davison. It's almost as good as having him +come to see you when you're sick." +<P> +"But I don't think," Ruth objected, "that it's any fun to have <I>any +</I>doctor come to see one on business." +<P> +"You don't half mind being ill when Doctor Davison calls," declared Helen, +with unabated enthusiasm. "And when you call there! Well," concluded Helen, +with a sigh of anticipation, "you'll soon know what <I>that</I> means. He's +got a colored Mammy for cook who makes the most wonderful jumbles and cakes +that you ever tasted—they about melt in pour mouth!" +<P> +Ruth soon had the opportunity of judging Mammy 'Liza's goodies for herself, +for the doctor was at home, and the girls had scarcely become seated in his +consultation room when a little colored girl with her wool "done" in innumerable +pigtails, like tiny horns, and sticking out all over her brown head in every +direction, came in with a tray on which was a plate piled high with fancy +cakes and two tall glasses of yellow-gold beaten egg and milk with a dust +of nutmeg floating upon the surface of each glassful. +<P> +"'Liza done sez as how yo'-all might be hongry aftah yo' ride," said the +child, timidly, and then darted out of the room before Ruth and Helen could +thank her. +<P> +They were munching the goodies when Doctor Davison came smilingly in. +<P> +"That's Mammy 'Liza all over," he said, shaking his head, but with his dark +eyes twinkling. "I try to keep my young folk in good digestion and she is +bound to make a patient of everybody who comes to see me. Cookies and cakes +and sweets are what she believes girls live for; or else she is trying to +make customers for my nasty drugs." +<P> +Doctor Davison seemed to have plenty of time to give to the society of young +folk who called upon him. And he showed an interest in Ruth and her affairs +which warmed our heroine's heart. He wanted to know how she got along at +school, and if it was true that she was trying to "make" the High by the +opening of the fall term. +<P> +"Not that I want any of my young folk to travel the road to knowledge too +steadily, or travel it when their bodily condition is not the best. But you +are strong and well, Ruthie, and you can do a deal that other girls of your +age would find irksome. I shall be proud if you prepare to enter the High +at your age." +<P> +And this made Ruth feel more and more sure that Doctor Davison had taken +interest enough in her career at school to supply the pretty frocks, one +of which she was then wearing. But Aunt Alvirah had warned her that the frocks +were to remain a mystery by the special request of the donor, and she could +not ask the good old doctor anything about them. His interest in her progress +seemed to infer that he expected Ruth to accomplish a great deal in her school, +and the girl from the Red Mill determined not to disappoint him. +<P> +When Helen told Doctor Davison where else they intended to call, he nodded +understandingly. "That is," he added, "Ruth will call on Mercy while you +do your shopping, Miss Cameron. Oh, yes! that is the better plan. You know +very well that Mercy Curtis won't want to see you, Helen." +<P> +"I don't know why not," said Helen, pouting. "I know she never treats anyone +nicely, but I don't mind. If it does her good to do what Tom calls +'bully-ragging,' I can stand it as well as Ruth—better, perhaps." +<P> +"No," said the doctor, gravely. "I have told you before why you shouldn't +call there. You have everything that Mercy can possibly desire. Comparisons +with poor Mercy certainly are odious. Ruth, she knows, is not so fortunately +placed in life as yourself. She is not so fortunately placed, indeed, as +Mercy is. And Mercy is in an extremely nervous state just now, and I do not +wish her to excite herself beyond reason." +<P> +"Well, I declare," exclaimed Helen, but good-naturedly after all. "I don't +like to be told I'm not wanted anywhere. But if you say so, I'll not go with +Ruth to the house." +<P> +Doctor Davison opened a new topic of conversation by asking after Tom. +<P> +"Oh, his head is all healed up—you can just barely see the scar," Helen +declared. "And his arm is only a little tender. We think he got out of it +very lucky indeed—thanks to Ruth here." +<P> +"Yes, thanks to Ruth," repeated the doctor, his eyes twinkling. +<P> +Ruth was "on pins and needles," as the saying is, for she very well remembered +what the injured boy had murmured, in his half conscious state, when they +brought him along the road on the stretcher. Had it been Jabez Potter who +ran down Tom Cameron and forced him down the embankment with his motorcycle? +This thought had been bobbing up in Ruth's mind ever since she had come to +the Red Mill. +<P> +She had seen her uncle driving his team of mules in one of his reckless moods. +She would never forget how the team tore down the long hill and was forced +through the flood the day the Minturn dam had burst. Had Jabez Potter been +driving through the dark road where Tom Cameron was hurt, in any such way +as that, he would have run down a dozen cyclists without noticing them. +<P> +Fortunately Tom's injury had not been permanent. He was all right now. Ruth +felt that she must be loyal to her uncle and say nothing about her own +suspicions; but as long as the matter was discussed between Helen and Doctor +Davison she was anxious. Therefore she hurried their departure from the kind +physician's office, by rising and saying: +<P> +"I think we would better go, Helen. You know how slow Tubby is, and perhaps +I can give the little Curtis girl some pleasure by calling on her." +<P> +"Without doubt she'll have pleasure," observed Helen, somewhat bitingly. +"She is likely to scold and 'bullyrag' to her heart's content. You're such +a meek thing that you'll let her." +<P> +"If that's what gives her pleasure, Helen," said Ruth, with a quiet smile, +"why, I guess I can stand it for an hour." +<P> +Doctor Davison had risen likewise, and he went to the front door with them, +his hand resting lightly on Ruth's shoulder. +<P> +"You have the right idea of it, Ruthie," he said. "Let Mercy take her pleasure +in that way if it's all the pleasure she can get. But perhaps a better mind +as well as a better body may come to the poor child in time." Then to Ruth +he added, more personally: "Remember you have a friend in here behind the +green lamps. Don't forget to come to him with any troubles you may have. +Perhaps I do not look it, but I am something like a fairy godmother—I have +a wonderful power of transmogrification. I can often turn dark clouds inside +out and show you the silver on the other side." +<P> +"I believe that, Doctor Davison," she whispered, and squeezed his hand hard, +running after Helen the next moment down the walk. +<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3> +<h4>TORMENTING MERCY</h4> +<P> +After they had awakened Tubby and urged him into something resembling a trot +they got into Cheslow proper by degrees. By the light of the very sunshiny +afternoon Ruth thought the town looked far prettier than any place she had +ever seen. This side of the railroad the houses were mostly old-fashioned, +and there were few stores. There were many lawns and pretty, old-time gardens, +while the elms and maples met in green arches overhead so that many of the +streets were like rustic tunnels, the sun sifting through the thick branches +to make only a fine, lacework pattern upon the walks and driveway. +<P> +They crossed the railroad near the station and struck into Market Street. +Ruth would not allow Helen to drive her directly to the Curtis cottage. She +had remembered Doctor Davison's words, and she thought that perhaps Mercy +Curtis might be looking from the window and see her visitor arrive in the +pony cart. So she got down at the corner, promising to meet her friend at +that spot in an hour. +<P> +She could see the pretty cottage belonging to the railroad station agent +before she had walked far. Its garden on the side was already a bower. But +the rustic arbor on which the grape vines were trained was not yet sufficiently +covered to yield any shelter from the street; therefore Ruth did not expect +to find it occupied. +<P> +Just before she reached the cottage, however, she saw two little girls ahead +of her, hesitating on the walk. They were talking seriously together when +Ruth approached within earshot, and she heard one say to the other: +<P> +"Now, she'll be there in the window. We mustn't notice her, no matter what +she does or says. You know what mamma said." +<P> +The other child was sobbing softly. "But she made me, oh, <I>such </I>a face! +And she <I>chopped </I> her teeth at me just as though she'd bite me! I think +she's the very hatefulest thing—" +<P> +"Hush! she's greatly to be pitied," said the older sister, with an air and +in a tone that showed she copied it from the "grown-ups" whom she had heard +discussing poor Mercy Curtis. +<P> +"I wish we'd gone 'round the other way," complained the other child. +<P> +"Now, come on. You needn't look into the window and smile. <I>I'll</I> do +that." +<P> +"No," said the little one, stubbornly. "I'll go by on the opposite side of +the way. And you must come, too, Anna. She—she'd bite me if she could get +the chance." +<P> +"Oh, well! Come on, little silly!" said her sister, and the two crossed over +and Ruth, who watched them interestedly, saw them hurry by the cottage with +scarcely a glance at the front windows. +<P> +But Ruth could see the outline of the lame girl's figure at one of the windows +and she saw a lean fist shaken in the air at the two children going by. She +could imagine the face Mercy Curtis "pulled," as well, and did not wonder +that the two little ones took to their heels and ran away as fast as ever +they could. +<P> +But, thus prepared for an unpleasant greeting from, the unfortunate and much +to be pitied Mercy, Ruth smiled happily herself and waved her hand at the +lame girl's window. Mercy saw her and, for a moment, was stricken with surprise +so that she could neither greet her with frown or smile. She knew the girl +from the Red Mill, although she had seen her so many weeks before; but Ruth +ran into the yard and up the porch steps at the side of the house, and knocked +at the door before the lame girl recovered from her amazement. +<P> +The motherly Mrs. Curtis came to the door and, the moment she saw who it +was, received Ruth with open arms. +<P> +"You dear child! I am so glad you have come again. Did Doctor Davison tell +you?" she whispered. +<P> +"He told me that Mercy would be glad to see me again; but I should have come +before, as I promised, if I could have gotten in," Ruth said. "Will she see +me?" +<P> +"She is not so well to-day," sighed the harassed mother. "This is one of +her days of torment. I do not know how she will treat you, Ruth Fielding; +but don't mind what she says to you, dear. Your being here will take her +mind off her pain and off her own self." +<P> +Ruth laid aside her hat and coat and went into the sitting room. The crippled +girl was in her wheel chair by the window. The instant Ruth entered she seized +the wheels on either side and propelled the chair across the room in a sudden +dash that threatened to run her visitor down. And her face was screwed up +into such a mean look, and her eyes flashed so angrily, that Ruth was startled +for a moment. But she stood her ground and instead of colliding with her, +the nervous hands brought the chair to a sudden stop right before her. +<P> +"Thought you were going to be run down; didn't you?" snapped Mercy. "I'd +ought to break your legs—you run on them so fine. Showing off; wasn't you?" +<P> +She was offended because Ruth had run so lightly into the cottage and the +girl from the Red Mill made a decision there and then that she would never +come in to see Mercy again saving at a sedate walk. But she laughed lightly, +and said: +<P> +"Do you want me to come on crutches, Mercy? That wouldn't help <I>you</I> +a bit." +<P> +She put out her hand to take the lame girl's, but Mercy struck it smartly +with her own, then whirled her chair around and returned to her former position +by the window. She handled the wheel chair with remarkable dexterity, and +Ruth, following her and taking a neighboring chair said: +<P> +"How quick you are! You get around your room so nicely. I think that's fine." +<P> +"You do; do you?" snapped the cripple. "If you'd been tied to this chair +like I have, you'd be quick, too. I suppose it's something for me to be grateful +for; eh?" +<P> +"It must be a lot better than lying abed all the time," said Ruth, quietly. +<P> +"Oh, yes! I suppose so!" snapped Mercy. Her conversation was mostly made +up of snaps and snarls. "Everybody tells me all about how happy I ought to +be because I'm not worse off than I am. That's their tormenting ways—I know +'em! There!" she added, looking out of the window. "Here's another of those +dratted young ones!" +<P> +Ruth glanced out, too. A lady was coming along the walk holding a little +boy by the hand. Before they reached the cottage the little boy said something +to his mother and then broke away from her hand and went to the other side +of her, nearest the curb. +<P> +"There! he's hiding from me," said Mercy, bitterly. +<P> +The lady looked up and smiled pleasantly, but the cripple only returned her +pleasant salutation with a cold nod. The child peeped out from around his +mother's skirt. +<P> +"There! go along, you nasty little thing!" muttered Mercy. "See him trot +on his little fat legs. I wish a dog would bite 'em!" It was useless, Ruth +saw, to try and bring the cripple to a better mind. But she ignored her sallies +at people who went by the window, and began to talk about the Red Mill and +all that had happened to her since she had come to live with Uncle Jabez. +Gradually she drew Mercy's attention from the street. She told about the +flood, and how she, with Helen and Tom, had raced in the big automobile down +the river road to warn the people that the water was coming. Mercy's eyes +grew big with wonder and she listened with increasing interest. +<P> +"That's a nice place to live—that mill," the cripple finally admitted, +grudgingly. "And it's right on the river, too!" +<P> +"I can look 'way up and down the river from my window the first thing when +I get up in the morning," Ruth said. "It's very pretty at sunrise. And then, +the orchard and the fields are pretty. And I like to see the men ploughing +and working the land. And the garden stuff is all coming up so pretty and +green." +<P> +"I've got a garden, too. But it's not warm enough yet to plant many flower +seeds," said Mercy. +<P> +"I suppose, when it comes warm, you can sit out in the arbor?" +<P> +"When the grape leaves get big enough to hide me—yes," said Mercy. "I don't +go into the garden excepting in schooltime. Then the young ones aren't always +running by and tormenting me," snapped the cripple, chopping off her speech +at the end. +<P> +She was a self-tormentor. It was plain that the poor child made herself very +miserable by believing that everybody possessing a strong back and lively +legs felt his or her superiority to her and delighted in "showing off" before +her. The girl of the Red Mill felt only pity for a sufferer possessing such +an unfortunate disposition. +<P> +She tried to turn the conversation always into pleasant channels. She held +Mercy's interest in the Red Mill and her life there. She told her of the +broods of downy chicks that she cared for, and the butter-making, and the +household tasks she was able to help Aunt Alviry about. +<P> +"And don't you go to school?" demanded Mercy. +<P> +"I am going now. I hope this spring and summer to prepare myself for entering +the Cheslow High." +<P> +"And then you'll be in town every day?" said Mercy, with one of her occasional +wistful looks. +<P> +"I hope to. I don't know how I will get here. But I mean to try. Miss Cramp +says if I'll come two or three times a week this summer, after our school +closes, that she will help me to prepare for the High School exams., so I +can enter at the beginning of the fall term. +<P> +"I know Miss Cramp," said Mercy. "She lives on this street. You'll be so +busy then that you'll <I>never</I> get in to see me at all, I suppose." +<P> +"Why, I can come much oftener," cried Ruth. "Of course I will." +<P> +If Mercy was pleased by this statement, she would not show it. +<P> +"I studied to enter High," she said, after a little silence. "But what's +the use? I'll never go to school again. Reading books isn't any fun. Just +studying, and studying, and studying doesn't get you anywhere." +<P> +"Why, I should think that would be nice," Ruth declared. "You've got so much +chance to study. You see, you don't have to work around the house, or outside, +and so you have all your time to devote to study. I should like that." +<P> +"Yah!" snarled Mercy, in her most unpleasant way. "That's what you say. I +wish you were here to try it, and I could be out to the Red Mill." Then she +paid more softly: "I'd like to see that mill and the river—and all the things +you tell about." +<P> +"You wait!" cried Ruth. "I'll ask Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alviry. Maybe we can +fix it so you could come out and see me. Wouldn't that be fine?" +<P> +"Yah!" snarled the cripple again. "I'll never get that far away from this +old chair." +<P> +"Perhaps not; but you might bring the chair with you," returned Ruth, unshaken. +"Wait till vacation. I'll not give up the idea until I've seen if it can't +be arranged." +<P> +That the thought pleased Mercy, the cripple could not deny. Her eyes shone +and a warmth of unusual color appeared in her thin cheeks. Her mother came +in with a tray of cakes and lemonade, and Mercy became quite pleasant as +she did the honors. Having already eaten her fill at the doctor's, Ruth found +it a little difficult to do justice to this collation; but she would not +hurt Mercy's feelings by refusing. +<P> +The hour passed in more pleasant converse. The cripple's mind was evidently +coaxed from its wrong and unhappy thoughts. When Ruth rose to leave, promising +to come again as soon as she could get into town, Mercy was plainly softened. +<P> +"You just hate to come—I know you do!" she said, but she said it wistfully. +"Everybody hates to come to see me. But I don't mind having you come as much +as I do them. Oh, yes; you can come again if you will," and she gave Ruth +her hand at parting. +<P> +Mrs. Curtis put her arms about the girl from the Red Mill and kissed her +warmly at the door. +<P> +"Dear, dear!" said the cripple's mother, "how your own mother would have +loved you, if she had lived until now. You are like sunshine in the house." +<P> +So, after waving her hand and smiling at the cripple in the window, Ruth +went slowly back to the corner to meet Helen, and found herself wiping some +tender tears from her eyes because of Mrs. Curtis's words. +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> +<h4>THE SPELLING BEE</h4> +<P> +In spite of the fact that the big girls at the district school, led by Julia +Semple, whose father was the chairman of the board of trustees, had very +little to say to Ruth Fielding, and shunned her almost altogether outside +of the schoolroom, Ruth was glad of her chance to study and learn. She brought +home no complaints to Aunt Alvirah regarding the treatment she received from +the girls of her own class, and of course uncle Jabez never spoke to her +about her schooling, nor she to him. +<P> +At school Ruth pleased Miss Cramp very much. She had gradually worked her +way toward the top of the class—and this fact did not make her any more +friends. For a new scholar to come into the school and show herself to be +quicker and more thorough in her preparation for recitations than the older +scholars naturally made some of the latter more than a little jealous. +<P> +Up to this time Ruth had never been to the big yellow house on the +hill—"Overlook," as Mr. Macy Cameron called his estate. Always something +had intervened when Ruth was about to go. But Helen and Tom insisted upon +the very next Saturday following the girls' trip to Cheslow as the date when +Ruth must come to the big house to luncheon. The Camerons lived all of three +miles from the Red Mill; otherwise Ruth would in all probability have been +to her chum's home before. +<P> +Tom agreed to run down in the machine for his sister's guest at half-past +eleven on the day in question, and Ruth hurried her tasks as much as possible +so as to be all ready when he appeared in the big drab automobile. She even +rose a little earlier, and the way she flew about the kitchen and porch at +her usual Saturday morning tasks was, as Aunt Alvirah said, "a caution." +But before Tom appeared Ruth saw, on one of her excursions into the yard, +the old, dock-tailed, bony horse of Jasper Parloe drawing that gentleman +in his rickety wagon up to the mill door. +<P> +"Hi, Jabe!" called Jasper, in his cracked voice. "Hi, Jabe! Here's a grindin' +for ye. And for massy's sake don't take out a double toll as you us'ally +do. Remember I'm a poor man—I ain't got lashin's of money like you to count +ev'ry night of my life—he, he, he!" +<P> +The boy had appeared at the mill door first, and he stepped down and would +have taken the bag of grain out of the wagon, had not the miller himself +suddenly appeared and said, in his stern way: +<P> +"Let it be." +<P> +"Hi, Jabe!" cackled Jasper. "Don't be mean about it. He's younger than me, +or you. Let him shoulder the sack into the mill." +<P> +"The sack isn't coming into the mill," said Jabez, shortly. +<P> +"What? what?" cried Parloe. "You haven't retired from business; have you, +miller? Ye ain't got so wealthy that ye ain't goin' to grind any more?" +<P> +"I grind for those whom it pleases me to grind for," said the miller, sternly. +<P> +"Then take in the bag, boy," said Jasper, still grinning. +<P> +But Mr. Potter waved the boy away, and stood looking at Jasper with folded +arms and a heavy frown upon his face. +<P> +"Come, come, Jabe! you keep a mill. You grind for the public, you know," +said Jasper. +<P> +"I grind no more for you," rejoined the miller. "I have told you so. Get +you gone, Jasper Parloe." +<P> +"No," said the latter, obstinately. "I am going to have my meal." +<P> +"Not here," said the miller. +<P> +"Now, that's all nonsense, Jabe," exclaimed Jasper Parloe, wagging his head. +"Ye know ye can't refuse me." +<P> +"I do refuse you." +<P> +"Then ye'll take the consequences, Jabe—ye'll take the consequences. Ye +know very well if I say the word to Mr. Cameron—" +<P> +"Get away from here!" commanded Potter, interrupting. "I want nothing to +do with you." +<P> +"You mean to <I>dare</I> me; do ye, Jabe?" demanded Jasper, with an evil +smile. +<P> +"I don't mean to have anything to do with a thief," growled the miller, and +turning on his heel went back into the mill. +<P> +It was just then that Ruth spied the automobile coming down the road with +Tom Cameron at the steering wheel. Ruth bobbed into the house in a hurry, +with a single wave of her hand to Tom, for she was not yet quite ready. When +she came down five minutes later, with a fresh ribbon in her hair and one +of the new frocks that she had never worn before looking its very trimmest, +Jasper Parloe had alighted from his ramshackle wagon and was talking with +Tom, who still sat in the automobile. +<P> +And as Ruth stood in the porch a moment, while Aunt Alvirah proudly looked +her over to see that she was all right, the girl saw by the expression on +Tom's face that whatever Parloe talked about was not pleasing the lad in +the least. +<P> +She saw, too, that Tom pulled something from his pocket hastily and thrust +it into Parloe's hand. The old man chuckled slily, said something else to +the boy, and then turned away and climbed into his wagon again. He drove +away as Ruth ran down the path to the waiting auto. +<P> +"Hullo, Tom!" she cried. "I told you I wouldn't keep you waiting long." +<P> +"How-do, Ruth," he returned; but it must be confessed that he was not as +bright and smiling as usual, and he looked away from Ruth and after Parloe +the next moment. +<P> +As the girl reached the machine Uncle Jabez came to the mill door again. +He observed Ruth about to get in and he came down the steps and strode toward +the Cameron automobile. Jasper Parloe had clucked to his old nag and was +now rattling away from the place. +<P> +"Where are you going, Ruth?" the miller demanded, sternly eyeing Tom Cameron, +and without returning the lad's polite greeting. +<P> +"She is going up to our house to lunch with my sister, Mr. Potter," Tom hastened +to say before Ruth could reply. +<P> +"She will do nothing of the kind," said Uncle Jabez, shortly. "Ruth, go back +to the house and help your Aunt Alvirah. You are going about too much and +leaving your aunt to do everything." +<P> +This was not so, and Ruth knew very well that her uncle knew it was not so. +She flushed and hesitated, and he said: +<P> +"Do you hear me? I expect to be obeyed if you remain here at the Red Mill. +Just because I lay few commands upon you, is no reason why you should consider +it the part of wisdom to be disobedient when I <I>do</I> give an order." +<P> +"Oh, Uncle! do let me go," begged Ruth, fairly crying. "Helen has been so +kind to me—and Aunt Alvirah did not suppose you would object. They come +here—" +<P> +"But I do not propose that they shall come here any more," declared Uncle +Jabez, in the same stern tone. "You can drive on, young man. The less I see +of any of you Camerons the better I shall like it." +<P> +"But, Mr. Potter—" began Tom. +<P> +The old man raised his hand and stopped him. +<P> +"I won't hear any talk about it. I know just how much these Camerons have +done for you," he said to Ruth. "They've done enough—altogether too much. +We will stop this intimacy right here and now. At least, you will not go +to their house, Ruth. Do as I tell you—go in to your Aunt Alviry." +<P> +Then, as the weeping girl turned away, she heard him say, even more harshly +than he had spoken to her: "I don't want anything to do with people who are +hand and glove with that Jasper Parloe. He's a thief—a bigger thief, perhaps, +than people generally know. At least, he's cost me enough. Now, you drive +on and don't let me see you or your sister about here again." +<P> +He turned on his heel and went back to the mill without giving Tom time to +say a word. The boy, angry enough, it was evident from his expression of +countenance, hesitated several minutes after the miller was gone. Once he +arose, as though he would get out of the car and follow Jabez into the mill. +But finally he started the engine, turned the car, and drove slowly away. +<P> +This was a dreadful day indeed for the girl of the Red Mill. Never in her +life had she been so hurt—never had she felt herself so ill-used since coming +to this place to live. Uncle Jabez had never been really kind to her; but +aside from the matter of the loss of her trunk he had never before been actually +cruel. +<P> +He could have selected no way that would have hurt her more keenly. To refuse +to let her go to see the girl she loved—her only close friend and playmate! +And to refuse to allow Helen and Tom to come here to see her! This intimacy +was all (and Ruth admitted it now, in a torrent of tears, as she lay upon +her little bed) that made life at the Red Mill endurable. Had she not met +Helen and found her such a dear girl and so kind a companion, Ruth told herself +now that she never could have borne the dull existence of this house. +<P> +She heard Aunt Alvirah's halting step upon the stair and before the old woman +reached the top of the flight, Ruth plainly heard her moaning to herself: +"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" Thus groaning and halting, Aunt Alvirah +came to Ruth's door and pushed it open. +<P> +"Oh, deary, deary, me!" she whispered, limping into the room. "Don't-ee cry +no more, poor lamb. Old Aunt Alviry knows jest how it hurts—she wishes she +could bear it for ye! Now, now, my pretty creetur—don't-ee take on so. Things +will turn out all right yet. Don't lose hope." +<P> +She had reached the bed ere this and had gathered the sobbing girl into her +arms. She sat upon the side of the bed and rocked Ruth to and fro, with her +arms about her. She did not say much more, but her unspoken sympathy was +wonderfully comforting. +<P> +Aunt Alvirah did not criticise Uncle Jabez's course. She never did. But she +gave Ruth in her sorrow all the sympathy of which her great nature was capable. +She seemed to understand just how the girl felt, without a spoken word on +her part. She did not seek to explain the miller's reason for acting as he +did. Perhaps she had less idea than had Ruth why Jabez Potter should have +taken such a violent dislike to the Camerons. +<P> +For Ruth half believed that she held the key to <I>that</I> mystery. When +she came to think it over afterward she put what she had heard between the +two old men—Jabez and Parloe—down at the brook, with what had occurred +at the mill just before Tom Cameron had come in sight; and putting these +two incidents together and remembering that Jasper Parloe had overheard Tom +in his delirium accuse the miller of being the cause of his injury, Ruth +was pretty sure that in that combination of circumstances was the true +explanation of Uncle Jabez's cruel decision. +<P> +Ruth was not the girl to lie on her bed and weep for long. She was sensible +enough to know very well that such a display of disappointment and sorrow +would not better the circumstances. While she remained at the Red Mill she +must obey Uncle Jabez, and his decisions could not be controverted. She had +never won a place near enough to the miller's real nature to coax him, or +to reason with him regarding this gruff decision he had made. She had to +make up her mind that, unless something unexpected happened to change Uncle +Jabez, she was cut off from much future association with her dear chum, Helen +Cameron. +<P> +She got up in a little while, bathed her face and eyes, and kissed Aunt Alvirah +warmly. +<P> +"You are a dear!" she declared, hugging the little old woman. "Come! I won't +cry any more. I'll come down stairs with you, Auntie, and help get dinner." +<P> +But Ruth could eat none herself. She did not feel as though she could even +sit at the table with Uncle Jabez that noon, and remained outside while the +miller ate. He never remarked upon her absence, or paid her the least attention. +Oh, how heartily Ruth wished now that she had never come away from Darrowtown +and had never seen the Red Mill. +<P> +The next Monday morning the rural mail carrier brought her a long letter +from Helen. Uncle Jabez had not said anything against a correspondence; indeed, +Ruth did not consider that he had more than refused to have the Camerons +come to see her or she to return their visits. If she met them on the road, +or away from the house, she did not consider that it would be disobeying +Uncle Jabez to associate with Helen and Tom. +<P> +This letter from Helen was very bitter against the miller and wildly proposed +that Ruth should run away from the Red Mill and come to Overlook to live. +She declared that her papa would not object—indeed, that everybody would +warmly welcome the appearance of Ruth Fielding "even if she came like a tramp +"; and that Tom would linger about the Red Mill for an hour or two every +evening so that Ruth could slip out and communicate with her friends, or +could be helped away if she wanted to leave without the miller's permission. +<P> +But Ruth, coming now to consider her situation more dispassionately, simply +wrote a loving letter in reply to Helen's, entrusting it to the post, and +went on upon her usual way, helping Aunt Alviry, going to school, and studying +harder than ever. She missed Helen's companionship vastly; she often wet +her pillow with tears at night (and that was not like Ruth) and felt very +miserable indeed at times. +<P> +But school and its routine took up a deal of the girl's thought. Her studies +confined her more and more as the end of the term approached. And in addition +to the extra work assigned the girl at the Red Mill by Miss Cramp, there +was a special study which Ruth wished to excel in. Miss Cramp was old-fashioned +enough to believe that spelling was the very best training for the mind and +the memory and that it was a positive crime for any child to grow up to be +a slovenly speller. Four times a year Miss Cramp held an old-fashioned +"spelling-bee" at the schoolhouse, on designated Friday evenings; and now +came the last of the four for this school year. +<P> +Ruth had never been an extra good speller, but because her kind teacher was +so insistent upon the point, the girl from the Red Mill put forth special +efforts to please Miss Cramp in this particular. She had given much spare +time to the study of the spelling book, and particularly did she devote herself +to that study now that she hadn't her chum to associate with. +<P> +The spelling-bees were attended by the parents of the pupils and all the +neighbors thereabout, and Helen wrote that she and Tom were going to attend +on the evening in question and that Tom said he hoped to see Ruth "just eat +up those other girls" when it came to spelling. But Ruth Fielding much doubted +her cannibalistic ability in this line. Julia Semple had borne off the honors +on two occasions during the winter, and her particular friend Rosa Ball, +had won the odd trial. Now it was generally considered that the final +spelling-bee would be the occasion of a personal trial of strength between +the two friendly rivals. Either Julia or Rosa must win. +<P> +But Ruth was the kind of a person who, in attempting a thing, did her very +best to accomplish it. She had given some time and thought to the spelling +book. She was not likely to "go down" before any easy, or well-known word. +Indeed, she believed herself letter perfect in the very hardest page of the +spelling-book some time before the fateful evening. +<P> +"Oh, perhaps you think you know them all, Ruth Fielding!" exclaimed one of +the little girls one day when the spelling-bee was being discussed at recess. +"But Miss Cramp doesn't stick to the speller. You just wait till she tackles +the dictionary." +<P> +"The dictionary!" cried Ruth. +<P> +"That's what Miss Cramp does," the child assured her. "If she can't spell +them down out of the speller, she begins at the beginning of the dictionary +and gives words out until she finds one that floors them all. You wait and +see!" +<P> +So Ruth thought it would do no harm to study the dictionary a little, and +taking her cue from what the little girls said, she remained in between sessions +and began with "aperse," committing to memory as well as she could those +words that looked to be "puzzlers." Before the day of the spelling-bee she +believed that, if Miss Cramp didn't go beyond the first letter of the alphabet, +she would be fairly well grounded in the words as they came in rotation. +<P> +Ruth knew that every other pupil in the school would have friends in the +audience that evening save herself. She wished that Aunt Alvirah could have +attended the spelling-bee; but of course her back and her bones precluded +her walking so far, and neither of them dared ask Uncle Jabez to hitch up +and take them to the schoolhouse in his wagon. +<P> +The schoolhouse was crowded, all the extra seats that could be provided were +arranged in rows, and, it being a mild evening, the men and bigger boys stood +outside the open windows. There was a great bustle and whispering until Miss +Cramp's tinkling bell called the audience as well as the pupils to order. +<P> +The scholars took their places according to their class standing in a long +row around the room. As one was spelled down he or she took a seat again, +and so the class was rapidly thinned out, for many of the little folk missed +on the very easiest words in the speller. Ruth stood within ten pupils of +the head of the line at the beginning and when the spelling began she had +an encouraging smile and nod from Helen, who, with her brother, sat where +they could see the girl from the Red Mill Ruth determined to do her best. +<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3> +<h4>THE STING OF POVERTY</h4> +<P> +At first Miss Cramp's "giving out" of the words was like repeated volleys +of small-arms in this orthographical battle. Every pupil well knew the pages +of two-syllable words beginning, "baker, maker, poker, broker, quaker, shaker" +and even the boys rattled these off, grinning the while in a most sheepish +fashion at their elder brothers or their women-folk, who beamed in pride +upon them until such lists as "food, soup, meat, bread, dough, butter" bowled +over the more shaky ones. +<P> +The first failures (and usually upon comparatively easy words) were greeted +with some laughter, and the ridiculed spellers sought their seats with hanging +heads. By and by, however, the failures were not all at the bottom of the +class; here and there such lists as "inane, profane, humane, insane, mundane, +urbane," or, "staid, unlaid, mermaid, prayed, weighed, portrayed" began to +pick out uncertain ones the entire length of the line. +<P> +Miss Cramp shot out word after word, her spectacles gleaming and her eyes +twinkling. The grim little smile upon her lips when one big girl above Ruth +went down before "forswear," spelling it with an extra "e," showed that the +teacher considered the miss deserved to fail because of her heedlessness. +Then, when she reached the list ending in "ay, ey and eigh" they fell like +ripe huckleberries all down the line. "Inveigh" dropped so many that it was +indeed a massacre, and some of the nervous spellers got together such weird +combinations of letters to represent that single word that the audience was +soon in a very hilarious state. +<P> +"Move up," commanded Miss Cramp to the pupils left standing, and there was +a great clumping of feet as the line closed up. Not more than two dozen were +standing by this time, and half an hour had not passed. But after that it +was another story. The good spellers remained. They spelled carefully and +quietly and a hush fell upon the whole room as Miss Cramp gave out the words +with less haste and more precision. +<P> +The "seeds," as all the children called the puzzling list, floored two, and +several of the best spellers had to think carefully while the list was being +given out: "proceed, succeed, exceed, accede, secede, recede, impede, precede, +concede, antecede, intercede, supersede." Fortunately Ruth, who now kept +her eyes upon Miss Cramp's face, spelled carefully and correctly, without +any sign of hesitancy. The match went on then, for page after page, without +a pupil failing. Perhaps there was hesitation at times, but Miss Cramp gave +any deserving scholar ample time. +<P> +Page after page of the spelling-book was turned. That tricksey little list +of "goblin, problem, conduct, rocket, pontiff, compact, prospect, ostrich" +finally left but three scholars between Ruth and Julia at the head of the +class. One of these was Oliver Shortsleeves, a French Canadian lad whose +parents had Anglicised their name when they came down into New York State. +He was as sharp as could be and he had pushed Julia Semple and Rosa Ball +hard before in the spelling matches. But he was the only boy left standing +within the next few minutes, and again the pupils moved up. There were but +fifteen of them. Rosa Ball came next to Ruth, below her, and the girl from +the Red Mill knew very well that Miss Ball would only be too delighted to +spell her, Ruth, down. +<P> +Indeed, when Ruth waited a moment before spelling "seraglio," Rosa in her +haste blurted out the word, and Julia smiled and there was a little rustle +of expectancy. It was evident that many of the scholars, as well as the audience, +thought Ruth had failed. +<P> +"Wait!" exclaimed Miss Cramp, sharply. "Did I pass that word to you, Rosa?" +<P> +"No, ma'am; but I thought..." +<P> +"Never mind what you thought. You know the rule well enough," said Miss Cramp. +"That will be your word, and I will give Ruth Fielding another. Spell 'seraglio' +again, Rosa." +<P> +"'S e r a l g i o'," spelled Rosa. +<P> +"I thought in your haste to get ahead of Ruth you spelled it wrongly, Rosa," +said Miss Cramp, calmly. "You may go down. Next—'Seraglio.'" +<P> +Miss Ball went down in tears—angry tears—but there was not much sympathy +shown her by the audience, and little by her fellow-pupils. It was soon seen +that there was some sort of rivalry between Ruth and Julia, and that the +girl from the Red Mill had not been treated fairly. +<P> +Oliver Shortsleeves became sadly twisted up after hearing those immediately +before him spell in succession "schooner, tetrarch, pibroch and anarchy" +and tried to spell "architrave" with so many letters that he would have needed +no more to have spelled it twice over. So Ruth then became fourth in the +line. She continued to spell carefully and serenely. Nothing disturbed her +poise, for she neither looked around the room nor gave heed to anything that +went on save Miss Cramp's distinctly uttered words. +<P> +On and on went the steady voice of Miss Cramp. She bowled over one pupil +with "microcosm," another the next minute with "metonymy "; "nymphean" and +"naphtha" sent two more to their seats; while the silent "m" in "mnemonics" +cut a most fearful swath in the remainder, so that after the smoke of that +bomb was dissipated only Julia, Ruth, and two others stood of all the class. +<P> +Julia Semple had darted many angry glances et Ruth since the cutting down +of her friend, Rosa Ball, and her flaunting of the girl from the Red Mill, +and her scornful looks, might easily have disturbed Ruth had the latter not +been wise enough to keep her own gaze fixed upon the teacher. +<P> +Helen and Tom were delighted and plainly showed their enjoyment of Ruth's +success. Now, as the situation became more strained, the audience applauded +when one of the spellers overcame a more than ordinarily difficult word. +So that when the girl next to Ruth missed "tergiversation" and it passed +to the girl from the Red Mill, who spelled it without hesitation, and correctly, +Helen applauded softly, while Tom audibly exclaimed: "Good for Ruthie!" +<P> +This did not make Julia Semple any more pleasant. She actually looked across +at Helen and Tom and scowled at them. It had already begun to be whispered +about the room that the match was easily Julia's—that she was sure to win; +and Mr. Semple, the chairman of the trustees, who sat on the platform with +the teacher, looked very well satisfied indeed. +<P> +But Miss Cramp had come down now to the final words in the speller—down +to "zenith" and "zoology." And still there were three standing. Miss Cramp +looked for a moment as though she would like to announce the match a tie +between the trio, for it was plain there would be hard feelings engendered +among some of the audience, as well as the pupils, if the match continued. +Her custom had been, however, to go on to the bitter end—to spell down the +very last one, and she could not easily make a change in her method now. +<P> +A general sigh and whispering went around when she was seen to reach for +the academic dictionary which was always the foundation of the tower of books +upon the northeast corner of Miss Cramp's desk. She opened the volume and +shot out the word: "Aperse." +<P> +The girl standing between Ruth and Julia staggered along until they reached +"abstinence"; she put an "e" instead of an "i" in the middle syllable, and +went down. But the audience applauded her. Julia Semple began to hesitate +now. The end was near. Perhaps she had never taken the time to follow down +the rows of words in the dictionary. At "acalycal" she stumbled, started +twice, then stopped and asked to have it repeated. +<P> +"'Acalycal,'" said Miss Cramp, steadily. +<P> +"'A c a l l y c a l,'" stammered Julia. +<P> +"Wrong," said Miss Cramp, dispassionately. +<P> +"Next. 'Acalycal'?" +<P> +Ruth spelled it with two 'l's' only and Miss Cramp looked up quickly. +<P> +"Right," she said. "You may step down, Julia. It has been our custom to keep +on until the winner is spelled down, too. Next word, Ruth: 'acalycine.'" +<P> +But there was such a buzz of comment that Miss Cramp looked up again. Julia +Semple had seemed half stunned for the moment. Then she wheeled on Ruth and +said, in a sharp whisper: +<P> +"I saw that Cameron girl spell it for you! She's been helping you all the +time! Everybody knows she's patronizing and helping you. Why, you're wearing +her old, cast-off clothes. You've got one of her dresses on now! Pauper!" +<P> +Ruth started back, her face turned red, then white, as though she had been +struck. The smarting tears started to her eyes, and blinded her. +<P> +"Julia! take your seat instantly!" said Miss Cramp, more sharply. "Ruth! +spell 'acalycine.'" +<P> +But Ruth could not open her lips. Had she done so she would have burst into +tears. And she could not have spelled the word right—nor any other word +right—at that moment. She merely shook her head and followed Julia to her +seat, stumblingly, while a dead silence fell upon the room. +<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3> +<h4>UNCLE JABEZ IS MYSTERIOUS</h4> +<P> +Miss Cramp was in the habit of calling upon some trustee to speak at the +close of the exercises—usually Mr. Semple—and then there was a little social +time before the assemblage broke up. But the frown on the chairman's face +did not suggest that that gentleman had anything very jovial to say at the +moment, and the teacher closed the exercises herself in a few words that +were not at all personal to the winner of the spelling-match. +<P> +When the stir of people moving about aroused Ruth, her only thought was to +get away from the schoolhouse. Perhaps not more than two dozen people had +distinctly heard what Julia so cruelly said to her; but it seemed to the +girl from the Red Mill as though everybody in that throng knew that she was +a charity child—that, as Julia said, the very frock she had on belonged +to somebody else. +<P> +And to Helen! She had never for a moment suspected that Helen had been the +donor of the three frocks. Of course everybody in the neighborhood had known +all the time that she was wearing Helen's cast-off clothing. Everybody but +Ruth herself would have recognized the dresses; she had been in the neighborhood +so short a time that, of course, she was not very well acquainted with Helen's +wardrobe. +<P> +At the moment she could not feel thankful to her chum. She could only remember +Julia's cutting words, and feel the sting to her pride that she should have +shown herself before all beholders the recipient of her friend's alms. +<P> +Nobody spoke to her as she glided through the moving crowd and reached the +door. Miss Cramp was delayed in getting to her; Helen and Tom did not see +her go, for they were across the room and farthest from the door. And so +she reached the exit and slipped out. +<P> +The men and boys from outside thronged the tiny anteroom and the steps. As +she pushed through them one man said: +<P> +"Why, here's the smart leetle gal that took Semple's gal down a peg—eh? +She'd oughter have a prize for that, that's what she ought!" +<P> +But Ruth could not reply to this, although she knew it was meant kindly. +She went out into the darkness. There were many horses hitched about the +schoolhouse, but she reached the clear road in safety and ran toward the +Red Mill. +<P> +The girl came to the mill and went quietly into the kitchen. She had got +the best of her tears now, but Aunt Alviry's bright eyes discovered at once +that she was unhappy. Uncle Jabez did not even raise his eyes when she came +in. +<P> +"What is the matter with my pretty leetle creetur?" whispered the old woman, +creeping close to Ruth. +<P> +"Nothing is the matter now," returned Ruth, in the same low tone. +<P> +"Didn't you do well?" asked the old woman, wistfully. +<P> +"I won the spelling match," replied Ruth. "I stood up longer than anybody +else." +<P> +"Is that so!" exclaimed Aunt Alvirah, with pride. "I told ye so, Ruthie. +And ye beat that Semple gal?" +<P> +"She was the last one to fail before me," Ruth returned. +<P> +"Well, well! D'ye hear that, Jabez? Our Ruth won the spellin'-match." +<P> +The miller did not raise his head from his accounts; only grunted and nodded. +<P> +"But something went wrong wi' ye, deary?" persisted Aunt Alvirah, watching +Ruth's face closely. +<P> +"Oh, Auntie! why didn't you tell me that Helen gave me the frocks?" +<P> +"Deary, deary, me!" ejaculated Aunt Alvirah. "How did you know?" +<P> +"Julia Semple told me—she told me before everybody!" gasped Ruth, fighting +hard to keep back the tears. "She called me a pauper! She called it out before +them all, and said that I wore Helen's cast-off clothes!" +<P> +"The mean thing!" said Aunt Alvirah, with more sharpness then she usually +expressed. "Isn't that jest like the Semples? They're all that way. Got mad +with you because you beat her at spelling; eh?" +<P> +"Yes. But she has known it right along, of course." +<P> +"Deary me!" said Aunt Alvirah. "Nobody supposed them frocks would be +reckernized—least of all Helen. She meant it kindly, Ruthie. It <I>was</I> +kindly meant." +<P> +"I wish I'd worn my old black dress to rags!" cried Ruth, who was too hurt +to be sensible or just. "I suppose Helen meant it kindly. And you did what +you thought was right, Auntie. But all the girls have turned up their noses +at me—" +<P> +"Let 'em stay turned up—what do you care?" suddenly growled Uncle Jabez. +<P> +For the moment Ruth had forgotten his presence and she and Aunt Alvirah had +been talking more loudly. They both fell suddenly silent and stared at him. +<P> +"Are ye too proud to wear dresses that's give to ye?" demanded Uncle Jabez. +"Ye ain't too proud to take food and shelter from <I>me.</I> And I'm a poorer +man than Macy Cameron an' less able to give." +<P> +The tone and the words were both cruel—or seemed to be to Ruth's mind. But +she said, bravely: +<P> +"People know that you're my uncle—" +<P> +"I was yer mother's uncle; that's all. The relationship ain't much," declared +Uncle Jabez. +<P> +"Jabez," said the little old woman, solemnly, "you've been a good friend +to me—ye've borne with me in sickness and in weakness. Ye took me from the +a'mshouse when I didn't have a penny to my name and nobody else to turn to, +it seemed. I've tried ter do for ye faithfully. But I ain't done my duty +by you no more than this child here has since she's come here to the Red +Mill. You know that well yourself, too. Don't blame the pretty leetle creetur +for havin' the nateral vanity that all young things hez. Remember, Jabez, +that it was through <I>you</I> that she has had to accept clothing from +outsiders." +<P> +"Through <I>me?"</I> growled the miller, raising his countenance and scowling +at the brave old woman—for it took courage for Aunt Alvirah to speak to +him in this way. +<P> +"Helen Cam'ron wouldn't have been called on to give Ruthie her frocks which +she only wore last year, and outgrew, if you hadn't lost Ruthie's trunk. +Ye know that, Jabez," urged Aunt Alvirah. +<P> +"I s'pose I'm never to hear the last of that!" stormed the miller. +<P> +"You are still to hear the <I>first</I> word from Ruthie about it, Jabez," +admonished his housekeeper. +<P> +"Well!" +<P> +"Well," repeated Aunt Alvirah, still speaking quietly but earnestly. "You +know it ain't my way to interfere in your affairs, Jabez. But right is right. +It was you lost Ruthie's trunk. I never knew ye ter be dishonest—" +<P> +"What's that?" gasped Mr. Potter, the red mantling his gray cheek dully. +<P> +"I never knew ye ter do a dishonest thing afore, Jabez," pursued Aunt Alvirah, +with her voice shaking now. "But it's dishonest for ye to never even perpose +ter make good what ye lost. If you'd lost a sack of grain for a neighbor +ye'd made it up to him; wouldn't ye?" +<P> +"What's thet gotter do with a lot of foolish fal-lals an' rigamagigs belonging +to a gal that I've taken in—" +<P> +"To help us. And she does help us," declared the old woman, quickly. "She +more'n airns her keep, Jabez. Ye know she does." +<P> +"Well!" grunted the miller again, but he actually looked somewhat abashed +and dropped his gaze to the ledger. +<P> +"Well, then, Jabez Potter," said the old housekeeper, "you think it over—think +it over, Jabez. And as sure as my name's Alviry Boggs, if you <I>do</I> think +it over, something will come of it!" +<P> +This seemed like a rather mysterious saying, and there seemed to be nothing +for the miller to observe in answer to it. Ruth had ere this dried her eyes +and it was soon bedtime. It is a long time from Friday night to Monday +morning—especially to young folk. The hurt that Ruth had felt over Julia +Semple's unkind words had lost its keenness in Ruth's mind ere school began +again. So Ruth took up her school duties quite as usual, wearing one of the +pretty frocks in which, however, she could no longer take such pride and +delight. +<P> +There was really nothing for her to do but wear them. She realized that. +She felt, however, that whenever any girl looked at her she remembered that +it was Helen Cameron's cast-off dress she wore; so she was glad that the +big girls were no more friendly than before and that they seldom looked at +her. +<P> +Besides, all the school was very busy now. In a fortnight would came graduation. +About all Ruth heard at recess and between sessions, even among the smaller +girls, was the discussion of what they were to wear on the last day of the +term. It was a great day at this school, and Miss Cramp was to graduate from +her care seven pupils—four girls and three boys—all of whom would go to +the Cheslow High the coming year. Ruth would not be ready to graduate; but +before fall, if she was faithful to the tasks Miss Cramp set her, that kind +teacher assured the girl from the Red Mill that she would be able to enter +the higher school with this graduating class. +<P> +All the older girls and many of the others were to wear white. Miss Cramp +approved of this, for even a simple white dress would look pretty and nice +and was within the means of most of the girl pupils. Nobody asked Ruth what +she would wear; and she was glad of that, for she knew that she had no choice +but to don the shabby black cloth frock she had worn at first, or one of +the "charity" frocks. +<P> +In this first week after the spelling-bee she did not see Helen or Tom, and +only received a brief note from Helen which she tried to answer with her +usual cheerfulness. Helen and Tom were going to the city for a few days, +therefore Ruth was not likely to see either until the end of the term. +<P> +At the Red Mill matters went much the same as usual. If Uncle Jabez had taken +to heart anything that Aunt Alvirah had said, he did not show it. He was +as moody as ever and spoke no more to Ruth than before. But once or twice +the girl found him looking at her with a puzzled frown which she did not +understand. +<P> +On Saturday, however, at dinner, Mr. Potter said: "Alviry, if the gal has +got her work done she can go to town with me this afternoon." +<P> +Ruth shrank a little and looked appealingly at the old woman. But Aunt Alvirah +would not or did not, understand Ruth's pleading, and said, briskly: +<P> +"She shall be ready when you've shaved and Ben's harnessed the mules, Jabez." +<P> +"Oh, Auntie!" whispered Ruth, when the miller had gone out, "I don't want +to go with him! I don't really!" +<P> +"Now, don't say that, child," said Aunt Alvirah. "Don't do nothing to make +him feel that ye air afraid of him. Go 'long. Ye can call on that leetle +lame gal ye was tellin' us about while Jabez does his errands. Now hurry, +deary." +<P> +Ruth felt quite confused by this. It seemed that there must be some private +understanding between Aunt Alvirah and the miller. She went slowly and changed +her frock. The old lady, crying up the stairway after her, advised her to +look her smartest—so as to please Jabez, forsooth! Indeed, she finally hobbled +up stairs, with many ejaculations of "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" for +the purpose of satisfying herself that Ruth was as nicely dressed as she +could be. +<P> +And Uncle Jabez—or no other man—need have been ashamed of the appearance +of Ruth Fielding when the mules came around hitched to the heavy farm-wagon +which Mr. Potter usually drove. It was piled high with bags of flour and +meal, which he proposed to exchange at the Cheslow stores for such supplies +as he might need. The load seemed heavier than usual this day. +<P> +It was not a bad wagon to ride in, though dusty; for there was a spring seat +and over it a new hood to shield the riders from the sun. Ruth followed Uncle +Jabez out of the house and climbed up over the wheel and into the seat when +he nodded for her to do so. He followed her, took up the reins, and the boy, +Ben, stood away from the mules' heads. +<P> +Aunt Alvirah stood on the porch and waved her apron at Ruth every time the +girl turned around, until the wagon had crossed the bridge and was way up +the long hill on the Cheslow road. It was a delightful June afternoon and +had Ruth been traversing this pleasant highway in almost any other way, she +would have enjoyed the ride mightily. +<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3> +<h4>THE END OF THE TERM</h4> +<P> +But the companionship of the grim and glum proprietor of the Red Mill was +not conducive—in Ruth's case, at least—to any feeling of pleasure. Uncle +Jabez seemed about to speak to her a dozen times before they were out of +sight of the mill; but every time Ruth turned toward him, half expecting +to be addressed, his lips were grimly set and he was looking straight ahead +over the mules' ears. +<P> +It is doubtful if Uncle Jabez saw anything of the beauty of the day or the +variety of the landscape. Looking as he did he could not have observed by +his eyes of flesh much but the brown ribbon of road before them, for miles. +And it is doubtful if, spiritually, he appreciated much of the beauty of +the June day. The mules toiled up the long hill, straining in their collars; +but they began to trot upon the other side of the ridge and the five miles +to Cheslow were covered in a comparatively short time. +<P> +Finally, when Uncle Jabez drew up before one of the largest stores, she felt +that she <I>must</I> break the awful silence. And stumblingly she preferred +her request: +<P> +"If you are going to be some time trading, Uncle Jabez, can't I go down to +call on Mercy Curtis? I can come here again and meet you at any time you +say." +<P> +"Who's that? Sam Curtis' gal—the cripple?" asked Uncle Jabez, shortly. +<P> +"Yes, sir. She likes to have me come and see her." +<P> +"Can't you find nothing more interestin' to do when ye come to town than +go to see a sick gal?" was the miller's surprising inquiry. +<P> +"I—I promised to call on her if I could whenever I was in town. She really +likes to have me come," explained Ruth. +<P> +"Well, you can go," grunted Uncle Jabez. "I'll stop there for ye when I'm +done tradin'." +<P> +He had already climbed down from the high seat. Ruth came lightly down after +him and he actually turned and jumped her over the wheel so that her dress +should not be soiled. Then, suddenly, he said: +<P> +"Wait. I want you to go into this store with me first." +<P> +He turned away abruptly, so that Ruth could not see what his countenance +expressed. He carefully tied his mules to a hitching post and then stumped +into the store without again glancing in her direction. Ruth followed him +timidly. +<P> +It was a big store with many departments, and on one side were dry goods +and clothing, where the clerks were women, or young girls, while the groceries, +provisions, hardware and agricultural tools were displayed upon the other +side of the long room. Uncle Jabez strode straight to the first woman he +saw who was disengaged. +<P> +"This girl wants a dress to wear to the school graduating," he said, in his +harsh voice. "It must be white. Let her pick out the goods, all the fal-lals +that go with it, and a pattern to make it by. Ye understand?" +<P> +"Yes, sir," said the woman, smiling. +<P> +"You know me?" asked Uncle Jabez. "Yes? Then send the bill to the other side +of the store and I'll pay it when I sell my meal and flour." Then to the +astounded Ruth he said: "I'll come to Sam Curtis' for you when I'm done. +See you don't keep me waiting." +<P> +He wheeled and strode away before Ruth could find her voice. She was so amazed +that she actually felt faint She could not understand it. A white dress! +And she to make her choice alone, without regard to material, or price! She +could have been no more stunned had Uncle Jabez suddenly run mad and been +caught by the authorities and sent to an asylum. +<P> +But the shop woman awoke her, having asked her twice what kind of white goods +she wanted to see. The repeated query brought Ruth to her senses. She put +the astonishing fact that Uncle Jabez had done this, behind her, and remembered +at once the importance of the task before her. +<P> +She had not listened to the talk of the other girls at school for nothing. +She knew just what was the most popular fabric that season for simple white +dresses that could be "done up" when soiled. She had even found the style +of a dress she liked in a fashion magazine that one of the girls had had +at school. Ruth was self-posessed at once. She went about her shopping as +carefully and with as little haste as though she had been buying for herself +for years; whereas this was the very first frock that she had ever been allowed +to have the choice of. +<P> +There were costlier goods, and some of the girls of the graduating class +were to have them; but Ruth chose something so durable and at so low a price +that she hoped Uncle Jabez would not be sorry for his generosity. She saw +the goods, and lace, and buttons, and all the rest, made up into a neat package +and sent across to the other counter with the bill, and then went out of +the store and up Market Street toward the railroad. +<P> +She saw Uncle Jabez nowhere, or she would have run to him to thank him for +the present. And she had been in Mercy Curtis' front window for quite an +hour before the mules turned the corner into the street and the wagon rattled +up to the house and stopped. +<P> +"And is that ugly old man your uncle?" demanded Mercy, who had been less +crusty and exacting herself on this occasion. +<P> +"That is Uncle Jabez;" admitted Ruth, hastening to put on her hat. +<P> +"He <I>is</I> an ugly one; isn't he? I'd like to know him, I would," declared +the odd child. "He ain't one that's always smirking and smiling, I bet you!" +<P> +"He isn't given much to smiling, I must admit," laughed Ruth, stooping to +kiss the crippled girl. +<P> +"There! Go along with you," said Mercy, sharply. "You tell that ugly, dusty +man—Dusty Miller, that's what he is—that I'm coming out to the Red Mill, +whether he wants me to or not." +<P> +And when Ruth got out upon the street Mercy had her window open and cried +through the opening, shaking her little fist the while: +<P> +"Remember! You tell Dusty Miller what I told you! I'm coming out there." +<P> +"What's the matter with that young one?" growled Uncle Jabez, as Ruth climbed +aboard and the mules started at a trot before she was really seated beside +him. +<P> +Ruth told him, smiling, that Mercy had taken a fancy to his looks, and a +fancy, too, to the Red Mill from her description of it. "She wants very much +to come out there this summer—if she can be moved that far." +<P> +Then Ruth tried to thank the miller for the frock—which bundle she saw carefully +placed among the other packages in the body of the wagon—but Uncle Jabez +listened very grumpily to her broken words. +<P> +"I don't know how to thank you, sir; for of all the things I wanted most, +I believe this is the very first thing," Ruth said, stumblingly. "I really +don't know how to thank you." +<P> +"Don't try, then," he growled, but without looking at her. "I reckon you +can thank Alviry Boggs as much as anybody. She says I owed it to you." +<P> +"Oh, Uncle—" +<P> +"There, there! I don't wanter hear no more about it," declared the miller. +But after they had rattled on for a while in silence, he said, pursuing the +former topic: "There ain't no reason, I s'pose, why that gal can't come out +an' see you bimeby, if you want her to." +<P> +"Oh, thank you, Uncle Jabez!" cried Ruth, feeling as though something very +strange indeed must have happened to the miller to make him so agreeable. +And she tried to be chatty and pleasant with him for the rest of the way +home. But Uncle Jabez was short on conversation—he seemed to have hoarded +<I>that</I> up, too, and was unable to get at his stores of small-talk. Most +of his observations were mere grunts and nods, and that evening he was just +as glum and silent as ever over his money and accounts. +<P> +Miss 'Cretia Lock arrived early on Monday morning and when Ruth came home +from school in the afternoon the wonderful dress was cut out. They made it +in two days and Aunt Alvirah washed and starched and ironed it herself and +it was ready for appearance on the last Friday afternoon of the term, when +the district school held its graduating exercises. +<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3> +<h4>MERCY</h4> +<P> +Ruth felt that she was not very successful at Miss Cramp's school. Not that +she had fallen behind in her studies, or failed to please her kind instructor; +but among the pupils of the upper grade she was all but unconsidered. Perhaps, +had time been given her, Ruth might have won her way with some of the +fairer-minded girls; but in the few short weeks she had been in the district +she had only managed to make enemies among the members of her own class. +<P> +There was probably no girl in the graduating class, from Julia Semple and +Rosa Ball, down the line, who was not glad that the girl from the Red Mill—a +charity child!—was not numbered in the regular class and had no part in +the graduating exercises. Nevertheless, Ruth proposed, if it were possible, +to enter the Cheslow High School in the fall, and to that end she was determined +to work at her books—with Miss Cramp's help—all summer. +<P> +When it came to the last day, however, and it was known that Ruth would not +come back to that school again in the autumn, the smaller girls gathered +about her and were really sorry that she was to go. Forced out of any part +with her own grade of pupils, Ruth had taken the little ones about her and +played and taught them games, had told them stories on rainy days, and otherwise +endeared herself to them. And now the little folk made much of her on this +last day, bringing her flowers, and little presents, and clinging about her +before the afternoon session began and their parents and friends came to +listen to the exercises, in a way that was very pretty to behold. +<P> +Aunt Alvirah wanted to come to the closing exercises of the school; but to +expect Uncle Jabez to leave the mill in business hours for any such thing +as that was altogether ridiculous to contemplate. Uncle Jabez <I>had,</I> +however, paid some small attention to Ruth in her new dress. Before she started +for school that last day she went to the mill door and showed herself to +the miller. +<P> +"Well, I don't see but you look as fine as the rest of 'em," he said, slowly. +"And the price ain't much. You used judgment in buying, Niece Ruth. I'll +say that much for ye." +<P> +This being the first word of approval the miller had ever given her, the +girl appreciated it to its full value. Since he had given her the dress she +had wished more than ever to become friendly with him. But he was so moody +and so given up to his accounts and the hoarding of wealth, that it seemed +next to impossible for the girl to get near Uncle Jabez. Besides, he had +never recovered from the bitterness engendered by the loss of the cash-box. +A heavy scowl rested upon his brow all the time. Sometimes he sighed and +shook his head when he sat idle at the table, or on the porch in the evening; +and Ruth believed he must be mourning the money which the flood was supposed +to have swept away. +<P> +But although neither of the old folks at the Red Mill came to see the graduating +exercises, Ruth was not exactly unhappy. The little children showing her +that they liked her so well, could not fail to be a lasting pleasure to Ruth. +And Helen and Tom, with their governess, Mrs. Murchiston, attended the exercises, +and Helen sat with Ruth. +<P> +"And we're going to take you home; the carriage will come for us," Helen +whispered in her ear. +<P> +"No," Ruth said, shaking her head, "I cannot go home with you. You know, +Uncle—" +<P> +"He <I>is</I> an ogre," whispered Helen, with vigor. +<P> +That made Ruth smile a little, and she told Helen what Mercy Curtis called +the owner of the Red Mill, and of the fancy the lame girl had taken for Uncle +Jabez. "He is 'Dusty Miller' to Mercy, and I shouldn't be surprised if Uncle +Jabez had her out for a day or two, if the doctor will let her come. And +you mustn't call him names, I tell you. See how good he has been to me. He +gave me this new dress." +<P> +"That must have hurt him awfully," said Helen, sharply. "Not but that the +dress is becoming and pretty, dear. But that's the only thing he's ever given +you, I warrant—and he lost your trunk!" +<P> +The Camerons insisted upon driving Ruth as far as the Red Mill, just the +same. Mrs. Murchiston was a very pleasant lady, and Helen and Tom evidently +thought a good deal of her. +<P> +"I should have been glad to have you for Helen's playmate this summer, my +dear," said the governess to Ruth. "And I wish you were fortunate enough +to be able to go with Helen this fall. You have just the characteristics +in your nature to balance dear Helen's impetuosity." +<P> +"Oh, I wish indeed she <I>was</I> going to Briarwood Hall," cried Helen. +<P> +"I shall be satisfied if the way is opened for me to go to high school," +Ruth declared, smiling. "Uncle has said nothing against it, and I shall begin +next week walking in to Miss Cramp's to recite." +<P> +Helen asked very minutely about Ruth's plans for going to Cheslow to recite, +and the very first day of the next week, when the girl of the Red Mill started +for town, who should overtake her within half a mile of the mill, but Helen +and her governess going to Cheslow on a shopping errand, and drawn by Tubby, +the pony. Of course, there was room for Ruth in the phaeton, and Helen and +Mrs. Murchiston remained in town as long as Ruth did and brought her back +with them. Ruth had time to run in and see Mercy Curtis. +<P> +"I'm coming out to the Red Mill, so now!" declared the lame girl. "I asked +Doctor Davison, and he says yes. And if he says so, that uncle of yours, +Dusty Miller, will have to let me. Folks have to do as Doctor Davison says, +you know. And your uncle—isn't he just an ugly dear? Does he look just that +cross all the time? I bet he never forgives <I>his</I> Enemy!" +<P> +This novel reason for liking Uncle Jabez would have been amusing had there +not been a serious side to it. This odd child, with her warped and twisted +fancies, was to be pitied, and Ruth secretly pitied her with all her heart. +But she was careful now not to show Mercy that she commiserated her condition; +<I>that</I> way was not the way to the cripple's heart. +<P> +Nevertheless, being a little less afraid of Uncle Jabez than she once was, +that very evening she mentioned Mercy's desire to him. Uncle Jabez never +smiled, but it could be said that his face relaxed when she called up the +memory of Sam Curtis' crippled daughter. +<P> +"Yes; why not?" rejoined Aunt Alvirah. "Have the poor leetle creetur out +here, Jabez. She'll be no bother to you. And she kin sleep with Ruthie." +<P> +"How'll she get up and down stairs?" demanded the miller, quite surprising +Ruth and Aunt Alvirah by considering this phase of the matter. "You'll have +to open the East bedroom, Alviry." +<P> +"Jest as you say, Jabez," answered the old woman, very meekly, but her bright +eyes sparkling as she glanced aside at Ruth. "She kin roll herself in her +chair in and out of that room, and onto the porch." +<P> +"I'll see Doc. Davison when he drives by to-morrer," promised Uncle Jabez, +with his usual bruskness. "If he says it's all right, she can come. I'll +bring her chair and her luggage out in the wagon on Saturday. The Doc. will +arrange about her being brought out comfortably." +<P> +All this was so amazing that Ruth could not speak. Except when he had been +angry, or at the time his cash-box was lost when the flood came down the +river, she had never heard Uncle Jabez make so long a speech. Aunt Alvirah +was no person with whom she could discuss this great change in the miller; +and when Doctor Davison was hailed by Mr. Potter the next day and stopped +at the mill for quite half an hour to confer with him, Ruth was still more +amazed. +<P> +Every other day Ruth was to go to town, if it was fair. Uncle Jabez made +no comment upon her absence; nor did he put himself out in the least to arrange +for any means of transportation for his niece. He seldom went to Cheslow +himself, save on Saturdays. +<P> +Ruth's next trip to Miss Cramp's was on a very hot day indeed. There was +a glare of hot sun on the long hill and just enough fitful breeze to sift +the road-dust all over her as she walked. But—and how fortunate that +was!—before she had gone far the purring of a motor-car engine aroused her +attention and Tom Cameron ran along beside her in his father's auto and stopped. +<P> +"Ain't I lucky?" he cried. "Get in here, Ruthie, and I'll take you to town +in a jiffy." +<P> +"I'm the lucky one, I think," said Ruth, smiling in return as she slipped +into the seat beside him. "And I almost believe, Tommy Cameron, that you +knew I was starting for town and came along just to give me a lift." +<P> +He grinned at her. "Don't you think you're mighty important?" he teased. +"Suppose I haven't anything else to think about but you girls?" +<P> +Just the same, Ruth stuck to this belief. But she had to confess that she +was glad of the ride to town. It would have been very, very hot in the sun +and dust. +<P> +"And it's real summer, now," she said. "It will be hot in town. I'm so glad +Mercy is going to get out of it." +<P> +"What do you mean?" demanded Tom. "Is she going to be taken away?" +<P> +Ruth told him of the remarkable interest Uncle Jabez had taken in the crippled +girl. Tom could scarcely have been more surprised. +<P> +"Why, the old curmudgeon has got a decent streak in him, after all; hasn't +he?" he exclaimed, rather thoughtlessly. +<P> +"Don't speak that way of him, Tom," urged Ruth. "I know you've got reason +for disliking him—" +<P> +"What do you mean?" demanded Tom, turning on her sharply. +<P> +"Oh, I—Well, Tom, you know I believe I could easily find the man who almost +drove the team over you the night you were hurt? And you've known it all +the time, and kept still about it!" +<P> +"That mean, contemptible Jasper Parloe! He's told!" gasped Tom. +<P> +"Jasper Parloe told?" repeated Ruth. "Not me." +<P> +"Then—" +<P> +"You muttered it when they carried you to the doctor's house that night. +You said it was my uncle," said Ruth, quietly. "I have known it all along, +and so has Parloe, I suppose. He and I were the only persons who heard what +you said when you were but half conscious. You've kept still about it so +as to shield Uncle, and I thank you." +<P> +Tom looked abashed; but he was angry, too. "Confound that Parloe!" he exclaimed +again. "He's been bleeding me, too! Threatened to go to my father and tell +about it—and Dad would have been pretty hot with your uncle, I expect." +<P> +"It was just fine of you, Tommy," Ruth said, admiringly. "But I'd let that +Parloe tell anything he liked. Uncle Jabez never meant to run you down, I'm +sure." +<P> +"I tell you what," said Tom. "I'll go to him myself and talk with him. Guess +I can do a little bargaining on my own hook. If I don't make him any trouble +about my accident, he ought to let you and Helen be spoons again. She's just +about worrying herself sick over you." +<P> +"It will come right, Tom, in the end," returned Ruth, quietly, and repeating +Aunt Alvirah's favorite word of cheer. "Uncle is changed, I believe. Think +of his taking so much interest in Mercy!" +<P> +"I'll see Doctor Davison," said Tom, eagerly; "and perhaps I'll bring the +sick girl out on Saturday. She ought to be very comfortable in this machine. +Helen would be glad to do something for her, too." +<P> +"But you don't want to make any show of doing anything for Mercy," returned +Ruth, shaking her head as she got out before the station master's cottage. +"There she is at the window. She'll be curious about you, I've no doubt." +<P> +She only ran in for a few moments to see Mercy before going on to Miss Cramp's. +<P> +"That's that Cameron boy," said the crippled girl, in her sharp way. "I see +him and that sister of his whizzing through this street before in their car. +Wish it'd blow up some day when they're showing off." +<P> +Ruth had got so now that she never showed surprise at Mercy's harsh speeches. +She refused to admit that she took the lame girl seriously in her ugly moods. +<P> +"Now, you'd better not wish that, Mercy," she laughed. "Tom wants to take +you out to the Red Mill on Saturday in that same automobile. Uncle Jabez +is going to take the wheel chair and your baggage. You'll like riding in +the car well enough." +<P> +For a moment the cripple was silent and her eyes fell before Ruth's gaze. +Suddenly the guest saw that Mercy's shoulders shook and that tears were actually +dropping from Mercy's eyes. +<P> +"My dear!" she cried. +<P> +"Go away!" murmured the crippled girl. "I want to be alone. I ain't never +believed," she went on, with more vigor than grammar, "that I'd ever get +out to your house. Is—is it really so that I can?" +<P> +"Uncle Jabez is determined you shall come. So is Doctor Davison. So am I. +Everybody is helping. Why, Mercy, you'd have to come to the Red Mill on a +visit now, even if you didn't want to!" cried Ruth, laughing happily. +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII</h3> +<h4>IN OLAKAH GLEN</h4> +<P> +And Mercy Curtis really came to the Red Mill. Perhaps it was because of Doctor +Davison, for it was notorious that when the good physician set out to do +a thing, or to have it done, it was accomplished. +<P> +Yet in this case it seemed as though the miller himself had as much to do +with the successful outcome of the plan as anybody. He had little to say +about it—or little to say at first to the crippled girl. But he saw that +Aunt Alvirah and Ruth had the east bedroom ready for Mercy's occupancy before +he started to town with his usual load of flour and meal on Saturday afternoon; +and he was at home in good season for supper with the empty grain sacks, +the fruits of his Saturday's trading, and Mercy's wheel chair in the wagon. +But before he returned to the Red Mill the Camerons' big car, with Helen +and Tom and the chauffeur, flashed past the Red Mill on its way to town and +in a remarkably short time reappeared with Mercy sitting beside Helen in +the tonneau. Doctor Davison arrived at about the same time, too, and +superintended the removal of the cripple into the house. +<P> +Mercy was as excited as she could be. There was actually color in her face. +She was so excited that she forgot to be snappy, and thanked them all for +their kindness to her. +<P> +"Into bed you go at once, Mercy," commanded Doctor Davison; "and in the morning +you may get up as early as you please—or as early as Ruth gets up." For +Ruth was to sleep on the couch in the sick girl's room during her visit to +the Red Mill. +<P> +The doctor drove the Camerons away then, and adjured Mercy to be quiet, leaving +her to the tender nursing of Ruth and Aunt Alvirah. Mercy was in a mood to +be friendly with everybody—for once. She was delighted with Aunt Alvirah. +When Uncle Jabez arrived with the wheelchair she actually made him do errands +for her and talked to him with a freedom that astonished both Ruth and Mrs. +Alvirah Boggs. +<P> +"There! I knew you'd do it, Dusty Miller," Mercy said to the old man, tartly. +"You men are all alike—just as forgetful as you can be. It's all very well +to bring this old wheelchair; but where are my two sticks? Didn't they give +you my canes, Dusty Miller? I assure you I have to move around a bit now +and then without using this horseless carriage. I've got to have something +to hobble on. I'm Goody Two-sticks, I am. You know very well that one of +my legs isn't worth anything at all." +<P> +"Ha!" croaked Jabez Potter, eyeing her with his usual frown, "I didn't bring +any canes; because why? There weren't any given me. They're not in the wagon." +<P> +"My! do you always frown just like that?" demanded Mercy Curtis, in a manner +which would have been impertinent in any other person, but was her natural +way of speaking. "You don't waste your time in smiling and smirking; do you?" +<P> +"I never saw any use in it—unless ye had something perticular to smile for," +admitted Mr. Potter. +<P> +"Then it won't spoil your smile if I tell you that you'll have to find me +canes somewhere if I'm to help myself at all," she said. +<P> +He gravely brought two rough staffs, measured them off at just the right +height for her, and spent the bulk of the evening in smoothing the rough +sticks and tacking on bits of leather at the small ends of the canes in lieu +of ferrules. +<P> +The east bedroom was at the end of the passage leading from the kitchen. +It was right next to Uncle Jabez's own room. They all sat in the east room +that evening, for its windows opened upon the wide, honeysuckle-shaded porch, +and the breeze was cool. It was the beginning of many such evenings, for +although Uncle Jabez sometimes retired to his bedroom where a lamp burned, +and made up his cash-book and counted his money (or so Ruth supposed) not +an evening went by that the miller was not, for a time at least, in the cripple's +room. +<P> +He did not talk much. Indeed, if he talked to anyone more than to another +it was to Ruth; but he seemed to take a quizzical interest in watching Mercy's +wry faces when she was in one of her ugly moods, and in listening to her +sharp speeches. +<P> +The outdoor air and sun, and the plentiful supply of fresh milk and vegetables +and farm cooking, began to make another girl of Mercy before a week went +over her head. She had actually some natural color, her hands became less +like bird-claws, and her hollow cheeks began to fill out. +<P> +On Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Curtis drove out to see her. The Red Mill had not +been so lively a place since Ruth came to it, she knew, and, she could imagine; +for many a long year before. Doctor Davison was there every day. Other neighbors +were continually running in to see Mercy, or to bring something for the invalid. +At first, in her old, snappy, snarly way, Mercy would say: +<P> +"Old cat! just wanted to see how humpy and mean I look. Thought I was as +ugly as a bullfrog, I s'pose. I know what they're after!" +<P> +But as she really began to feel better, and slept long and sweetly at night, +and altogether to gain in health, she dropped such sharp speeches and had +a smile when visitors came and when they left. Everybody who drove by and +saw her sitting on the porch, or wheeling herself, or being wheeled by Ruth, +about the paths, had something to say to her, or waved a hand at her, and +Mercy Curtis began to be pleasant mannered. +<P> +She hobbled around her room more on the "two-sticks" Uncle Jabez had made +for her; but she never liked to have even Ruth see her at these exercises. +She certainly did get about in a very queer manner—"just like a crab with +the St. Vitus dance," so she herself said. +<P> +The doctor watched her closely. He was more attentive than he had been when +she was much worse off in health; and finally, after Mercy had been at the +Red Mill for nearly a month, he brought a strange physician to see her. This +gentleman was a great surgeon from New York, who asked Mercy a few questions, +but who watched her with so intent a look that the little crippled girl was +half frightened at him. He inspired confidence, however, and when he said +to her, on departing: "You are going to see me again before long," Mercy +was quite excited about it. She never asked a question of Doctor Davison, +or of anybody else, about the strange surgeon, or his opinion of her case; +but Ruth often heard her humming an odd little song (she often made up little +tunes and put words to them herself) of which Ruth did not catch the burden +for some days. When Mercy was singing it she mumbled the words, or dropped +her voice to a whisper whenever anybody came near. But one morning Ruth was +bringing the beaten egg and milk that she drank as a "pick-me-up" between +breakfast and dinner, and Mercy did not hear her coming, and the odd little +song came clearly to the ears of the girl of the Red Mill: +<P> + "He's going to cure me! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!<br> + He's going to cure me! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" +<P> +Ruth knew instantly to what the little doggerel song referred. It is true +Mercy had filched Aunt Alvirah's phrase and made it her own—and it applied +to the poor child as well as to the rheumatic old woman. But it was a song +of joy—a song of expectation. +<P> +Ruth tried to be even more kind to Mercy after that. She was with her almost +all the time. But there were occasions when Helen and Tom Cameron really +<I>made</I> her come out with them on some little jaunt. Since Mercy's arrival +at the Red Mill the Camerons had fallen into the habit of calling occasionally, +and Uncle Jabez had said nothing about it. Ostensibly they called on Mercy; +but it was Ruth that they came for with the pony carriage one day and took +away for a visit to Olakah Glen. +<P> +This beautiful spot was not so very far away, but it called for a picnic +lunch, and Tubby was quite two hours in getting them there. It was a wild +hollow, with great beech trees, and a noisy stream chaffing in a rocky bed +down the middle of the glen. There were some farms thereabout; but many of +the farmers were no more than squatters, for a vast tract of field and forest, +including the glen, belonged to an estate which had long been in the courts +for settlement. +<P> +Just before leaving all signs of civilization behind, Tom had pointed out +a shanty and several outbuildings on a high hillock overlooking the road, +and told the girls that that was where Jasper Parloe lived, all alone. +<P> +"I came up here fishing with some of the other fellows once, and Jasper tried +to drive us out of the glen. Said he owned it. Likely story! He won't trouble +us to-day." +<P> +Indeed, wild as the spot was, there was little likelihood of anybody troubling +the young people, for they had Reno along. This faithful creature watched +over the trio most jealously and, as they were eating on the grass, he found +some sudden reason to become excited. He rose up, stiffening his back, the +hair rising on his neck, and a low growl issuing from his throat. The girls +were a little startled, but Tom sprang up, motioned to Helen and Ruth to +keep still, and ran to the angry mastiff. +<P> +"What's the matter with you, Reno?" demanded Tom, softly, but putting a +restraining hand upon his collar. +<P> +Reno lurched forward, and Tom gripped the collar tightly as he was dragged +directly toward a thick dump of shrubbery not many yards away. +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3> +<h4>THE INITIALS</h4> +<P> +There was no sound that Tom Cameron or the girls could hear from the shrubbery; +but Reno evidently knew that somebody was lurking there. And by the dog's +actions Tom thought it must be somebody whom Reno disliked. +<P> +"Oh, don't leave us, Tom!" begged Helen, running behind her brother and the +mastiff. +<P> +"Come on—both of you!" muttered Tom. "We'll see what this means. Stick close +to me." +<P> +He had picked up a stout club; but it was in the huge and intelligent mastiff +that they all put their confidence. The dog, although he snuffed now and +then as though the scent that had first disturbed him still came down the +wind, had ceased to growl. +<P> +They came to a path in the thicket and followed it for a few yards only, +when Reno stopped and stiffened again. +<P> +"Hush!" whispered Tom, and parted the bushes with one hand, his other still +clinging to the mastic's collar. +<P> +There was a tiny opening in the shrubbery. It surrounded the foot of a huge +beech tree. In some past day a careless hunter had built a fire close to +the trunk of this tree. It was now hollow at the base, but vines and creepers +growing up the tall tree had hidden the opening. +<P> +A man was on his knees at the foot of the tree and had drawn the matted curtain +of creepers aside with one hand while with the other he reached in to the +full length of his arm. He had no suspicion of the presence of the young +people and Reno. +<P> +Out of the hollow in the tree trunk he drew something wrapped in an old pair +of overalls. He unwrapped it, still with his back to the spot where the dog +and his master and the girls stood. But the three friends could see over +his shoulder as he knelt on the ground, and saw plainly that the object he +had withdrawn from the tree trunk was a flat black box, evidently japanned, +and there was a fair-sized brass padlock which fastened it. +<P> +"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled the man to himself, as he wrapped the box up again +in the old clothes, and then thrust it hastily into the hollow tree. "Safe +yet! safe yet!" +<P> +He rose up then and without even looking about him, started directly away +from the glen. He plainly had no suspicion of the presence of the dog and +the trio of young folks. When he was quite out of sight and sound, Tom whispered, +patting Reno: +<P> +"I declare, girls! That was Jasper Parloe!" +<P> +"That mean thing!" returned his sister. "I guess he's a miser as well as +a hermit; isn't he?" +<P> +"Looks like it. I've a good mind to take that thing he put in there and hide +it somewhere else. He wouldn't be so sure about it's being safe then; would +he?" +<P> +"No! Don't you touch his nasty things, Tom," advised Helen, turning away. +<P> +But Ruth still stared at the hidden hollow in the tree and suddenly she darted +forward and knelt where Parloe had knelt. +<P> +"What are you going to do, Ruth?" demanded her chum. +<P> +"I want to see that box—I must see it!" cried the girl from the Red Mill. +<P> +"Hold on!" said Tom. "I'll get it for you. You'll get your dress dirty." +<P> +"I wouldn't touch it," cried Helen, warningly. +<P> +"I must!" gasped Ruth, greatly excited. +<P> +"It don't belong to you," quoth Helen. +<P> +"And I'm very sure it doesn't belong to Jasper Parloe," declared Ruth, earnestly. +<P> +Tom glanced at the girl from the Red Mill suddenly, and with close attention. +He seemed to understand her excitement. +<P> +"Let me in there," said the youth. "I can reach it, Ruthie." +<P> +He pushed her gently, and while Ruth and Helen held aside the mass of vines +the boy crawled in and reached the bundle of rags. He carefully hauled it +all forth and the japanned box tumbled out of its loose wrappings. +<P> +"There it is!" grunted Tom, getting up and wiping his hands on a tuft of +grass. "What do you make of it?" +<P> +Ruth had the box in her hands. Helen, looking over her shoulder, pointed +to two faded letters painted on the cover of the box. +<P> +"That belongs to Jasper Parloe. His initials are on the box," she said. +<P> +"'J. P.'—that's right, I guess," muttered Tom. +<P> +It could not be gainsaid that Parloe's initials were there. Ruth stared at +them for some moments in silence. +<P> +"Better put it back. I don't know what he can possibly have to hide in this +way," Tom said. "But we wouldn't want to get into trouble with him. He's +a mean customer." +<P> +"It isn't his box!" said Ruth, quietly. +<P> +"Why isn't it?" cried Helen, in amazement. +<P> +"I never noticed the letters on the box before. The box has been cleaned +since I saw it—" +<P> +"You don't mean that it is your uncle's cash-box, Ruth?" interrupted Tom, +in excitement. +<P> +"Why, you ridiculous boy!" declared Helen. "You know that was lost in the +flood." +<P> +"I don't know. Do you?" Tom demanded, shortly. +<P> +"But, Ruth!" gasped Helen. +<P> +"It looks like Uncle Jabez's box," Ruth whispered. +<P> +"But the letters! Jasper Parloe's initials," cried the hard-to-be-convinced +Helen Cameron. +<P> +"They're uncle's initials, too," explained Ruth, quietly. +<P> +"Whew!" ejaculated Tom. "So they are. 'J. P.—Jabez Potter.' Can't get around +that." +<P> +"Well, I never!" gasped Helen. +<P> +"Do you suppose all old Jabe's money is in this?" muttered Tom, weighing +the cash-box in his hands. "It can't be in coin." +<P> +"I do not know that he had much money in coin," said Ruth. "I think he used +to change the gold and silver for notes, quite frequently. At least, Aunt +Alvirah says so." +<P> +"But suppose it should be Parloe's after all?" objected Helen. +<P> +"Let's find that out," said Tom, vigorously. "Come on, girls. We'll finish +eating, pack up, and start back. We'll drive right up to Parloe's and show +him this box, and ask him if it is his. If he says yes, we'll make him come +along to the mill and face Mr. Potter, and then if there is any doubt of +it, let them go before a magistrate and fight it out!" +<P> +The girls were impressed with the wisdom of this declaration, and all went +back to rescue the remains of their luncheon from the birds and from a saucy +gray squirrel that had already dropped down to the lowest limb of the tree +under which they had spread their cloth, and who sat there and chattered +angrily while they remained thereafter, as though he considered that he had +been personally cheated out of a banquet. +<P> +The girls and Tom were so excited that they could not enjoy the remainder +of the nice things that Babette had packed in their lunch basket They were +soon in the carriage, and Tubby was startled out of a pleasant dream and +urged up the hilly road that led through the woods to the squatter's cabin, +where Jasper Parloe had taken up his quarters after he had been discharged +from employment at the Red Mill. +<h3>CHAPTER XXV</h3> +<h4>ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS</h4> +<P> +When the pony carriage drove into the little clearing about the squatter's +hut, Parloe was pottering about the yard and he stood up and looked at them +with arms akimbo and a growing grin upon his sly face. +<P> +"Well, well, well!" he croaked. "All together, air ye? Havin' a picnic?" +<P> +"We've been down yonder in the glen," said Tom, sternly. +<P> +For an instant Jasper Parloe changed color and looked a bit worried. But +it was only for an instant. Then he grinned again and his little eyes twinkled +just as though he were amused. But Tom kept on, bluntly, saying: +<P> +"We found something there, Parloe, and we came up here to see if it belongs +to you." +<P> +"What's that?" asked the man, drawing nearer. "I ain't lost nothing." +<P> +"Don't say that," said Tom, quickly. "At least, don't say you haven't <I>hidden +</I>something." +<P> +But he could not catch Mr. Parloe again. The man shook his head slowly and +looked as though he hadn't the least idea of what Tom was driving at. +<P> +"Look here," continued the boy, and drew forth the japanned box. +<P> +"Well! Well!" and Jasper's mean little eyes twinkled more than ever. "You +don't mean to say you found that down yonder?" +<P> +"We did," said Tom, tartly. +<P> +"Now, where was it?" +<P> +"Where it had been hidden," snapped Tom, quite disgusted with the old man. +"Where it was supposed to be very <I>safe,</I> I reckon." +<P> +"Like enough, Tom," said Jasper, mildly. "What do you reckon on doing with +it?" +<P> +"You don't claim it to be yours, then?" demanded Tom, in some surprise. +<P> +"No-o," said Parloe, slowly. +<P> +"It has your initials on it," said Helen, quickly. +<P> +"That's odd, ain't it?" returned Parloe, standing where he was and not offering +to touch the box. "But other people have the same initials that I have." +His grin grew to huge proportions, and he looked so sly that nothing but +his high, bony nose kept his two little eyes from running together and making +one eye of it. "Jabe Potter, for instance." +<P> +"Then you think this is likely to be Mr. Potter's?" queried Tom. +<P> +"Couldn't say. Jabe will probably claim it. <I>He</I> would take advantage +of the initials, sure enough." +<P> +"And why don't you?" asked Helen. +<P> +"'Cause me and Jabe are two different men," declared Parloe, righteously. +"Nobody ever could say, with proof, that Jasper Parloe took what warn't his +own." +<P> +"This is my uncle's cash-box, I am very sure," interposed Ruth, with some +anger. "It was not swept away the day of the flood. You were there in his +little office at the very moment the waters struck the mill, and we saw you +running from the place as though you were scared." +<P> +"Jefers-pelters!" croaked Jasper. "It was enough to scare anybody!" +<P> +"That may be. But you weren't too scared to grab this box when you ran. And +you must have hidden it under your coat as you left the mill. I am going +to tell my uncle all about it—and how we saw you down the hill yonder, looking +at this very box before you thrust it back in its hiding place." +<P> +Jasper Parloe grew enraged rather than frightened by this threat. +<P> +"Tell!" he barked. "You tell what ye please. Provin's another thing. I don't +know nothin' about the box. I never opened it. I don't know what's in it. +And you kin tell Jabe that if he tries to make me trouble over it I'll make +him trouble in a certain locality—he knows where and what about." +<P> +"I shall give him the box and tell him how it came into my possession," repeated +Ruth, firmly, and then she and her friends drove away. +<P> +They hurried Tubby back to the Red Mill and Ruth ran in ahead of her friends +with the cash-box in her hands. The moment Uncle Jabez saw it he started +forward with a loud cry. He almost tore the box from her grasp; but then +became gentle again in a moment. +<P> +"Gal!" he ejaculated, softly, "how'd ye git this away from Parloe?" +<P> +"Oh, Uncle! how did you know he had it?" +<P> +"I've been suspicious. He couldn't scarce keep it to hisself. He ain't opened +it, I see." +<P> +"I don't think he has." +<P> +"We'll see. Tell me about it," urged the miller, staring at Helen and Tom +as they approached. +<P> +Ruth told him all about it. She pointed, too, to the fact that Helen and +Tom—and especially Tom's dog—had had more to do with the recovery of the +cash-box than she had. Uncle Jabez listened and nodded as though he appreciated +that fact. Meanwhile, however, he hunted up the key to the japanned box and +unlocked it. +<P> +It was plain that the contents of the box were for the most part securities +in the shape of stocks and bonds, with a good deal of currency in small notes. +There was a little coin—gold and silver—packed into one compartment. Uncle +Jabez counted it all with feverish anxiety. +<P> +"Right to a penny!" he gasped, when he had finished, and mopped the perspiration +from his brow. "The rascal didn't touch it. He didn't dare!" +<P> +"But he'll dare something else, Uncle," said Ruth, hastily. "I believe he's +going right to Mr. Cameron to make you trouble." +<P> +"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Uncle Jabez, and looked hard at Tom. +<P> +"I'm sorry if he makes trouble about that old thing, Mr. Potter," said Tom, +stumblingly. "I've tried to keep his mouth shut—" +<P> +"Ah-ha!" said Uncle Jabez, again. Then he added: "And I shouldn't be at all +surprised, young man, if you'd given Jasper money to keep his mouth shut—eh?" +<P> +Tom flushed and nodded "I didn't want any row—especially when Helen and +I think so much of Ruth." +<P> +"You wouldn't have bought Jasper off for my sake, I reckon," said Jabez, +sharply. "You wouldn't have done it for my sake?" +<P> +"Why should I?" returned Tom, coolly. "You never have been any too friendly +towards me." +<P> +"Hah!" said the miller, nodding. "That's true. But let me tell you, young +man, that I saw your father about the time I ran you down. We don't get along +very well, I admit. I ain't got much use for you Camerons. But I had no intention +of doing you harm. You can believe that, or not. If you will remember, the +evening you went over that embankment on the Wilkins Corners road, I came +up behind you. My mules were young, and your dog jumped out at them and scared +them. They bolted, and I never knew till next day that you had been knocked +over the embankment." +<P> +"We'll let bygones be bygones, Mr. Potter," said Tom, good-humoredly. "I +came out of it all right." +<P> +"But you had no business to pay Jasper Parloe money for keeping still about +it," said the miller, sourly. "Being bled by a blackmailer is never the action +of a wise man. When he threatened <I>me</I> I went to your father at once +and got ahead of Parloe. We agreed to say nothing about it—that's about +all we <I>did</I> agree on, however," added Mr. Potter, grimly. "Now you +children run along. Ruth, come here. I figger I owe you something because +of the finding of this box. Yes! I know how much the others had to do with +it, too. But they'd never been over there in Olakah Glen if it hadn't been +for you. I'll make this up to you. I never yet owed a debt that I didn't +repay in full. I'll remember this one, gal." +<P> +But so much happened in those next two weeks, following the finding of the +cash-box, that Ruth quite forgot this promise on her uncle's part. She realized, +however, that he seemed really desirous of being kind to her, and that much +of his grimness had disappeared. +<P> +Everybody at the Red Mill—and many other people, too—had their thoughts +fixed upon Mercy Curtis at this time. She had been getting stronger all the +while. She had been able to hobble on her two sticks from her bedroom to +the porch. She had been to ride half a dozen times in the Camerons' automobile. +And then, suddenly, without other warning, Doctor Davison and the strange +surgeon who had once examined Mercy, appeared in a big limousine car, with +a couch arranged inside, and they whisked Mercy off to a sanitarium some +miles away, where she was operated on by the famous surgeon, with Doctor +Davison's help, and from which place the report came back in a few days that +the operation had been successful and that Mercy Curtis would—in time—walk +again! +<P> +Meanwhile, Ruth had kept up her recitations to Miss Cramp, often walking +back and forth to town, but sometimes getting "a lift," and the teacher +pronounced her prepared to enter the Cheslow High School. She had taken the +studies that Helen Cameron had taken, and, on comparing notes, the chums +found that they were in much the same condition of advancement. +<P> +"Oh, if you were only going to Briarwood with me, instead of to Cheslow High!" +wailed Helen, one day, as they sat on the porch of the Red Mill house. +<P> +"Ah, dear!" said Ruth, quietly, "don't talk about it. I want to go with you +more than I ever wanted to do anything in my whole life—" +<P> +"What's that?" exclaimed Uncle Jabez's gruff voice behind them. "What's that +you want to do, Ruth?" +<P> +"To—to go to boarding school, Uncle," stammered his niece. +<P> +"Hah!" grunted the miller. "Ain't you calculatin' on going to high school?" +<P> +"Oh, Mr. Potter!" broke in Helen, frightened by her own temerity. "That isn't +the school Ruth wants to go to. I am going to Briarwood Hall, and she wants +to go, too. Do, <I>do</I> let her. It would be—it would be <I>just +heavenly,</I> if she could go there, and we could be together!" +<P> +Jabez Potter came out upon the porch and looked down upon his niece. The +grim lines of his face could not relax, it seemed; but his eyes did seem +to twinkle as he said: +<P> +"And that's the greatest wish of your life; is it, Ruth?" +<P> +"I—I believe it is, Uncle Jabez," she whispered, looking at him in wonder. +<P> +"Well, well!" he said, gruffly, dropping his gaze. "Mebbe I owe it ye. My +savin's of years was in that cash-box, Ruth. I—I—Well, I'll think it over +and see if it can be arranged about this Briarwood business. I'll—I'll see +your Aunt Alvirah." +<P> +And that Uncle Jabez Potter "saw about it" to some purpose is proven by the +fact that the reader may meet Ruth and her friends again in the next volume +of this series to be entitled "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall; Or, Solving +the Campus Mystery." +<P> +"Perhaps he isn't such an ogre after all," whispered Helen, when she and +Ruth were alone. +<P> +"Not after you get to know him," replied the girl of the Red Mill, with a +quiet smile. +<h4>THE END</h4> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, by Alice B. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill + +Author: Alice B. Emerson + +Posting Date: July 6, 2011 [EBook #4985] +Release Date: January, 2004 +[This file was first posted on April 7, 2002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL *** + + + + +Produced by Jim Weiler, xooqi.com. + + + + + + + + +Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill + +or + +Jasper Parloe's Secret + +by Alice B. Emerson, 1913 + + + CHAPTER I + + THE RED FLAME IN THE NIGHT + +The sound of the drumming wheels! It had roared in the ears of Ruth +Fielding for hours as she sat on the comfortably upholstered seat in +the last car of the afternoon Limited, the train whirling her from the +West to the East, through the fertile valleys of Upper New York State. + +This had been a very long journey for the girl, but Ruth knew that it +would soon come to an end. Cheslow was not many miles ahead now; she +had searched it out upon the railroad timetable, and upon the map +printed on the back of the sheet; and as the stations flew by, she had +spelled their names out with her quick eyes, until dusk had fallen and +she could no longer see more than the signal lamps and switch targets +as the train whirled her on. + +But she still stared through the window. This last car of the train +was fairly well filled, but she had been fortunate in having a seat +all to herself; she was glad this was so, for a person in the seat +with her might have discovered how hard it was for her to keep back +the tears. + +For Ruth Fielding was by no means one of the "crying kind," and she +had forbidden herself the luxury of tears on this occasion. + +"We had all that out weeks ago, you know we did!" she whispered, +apostrophizing that inner self that really wanted to break the brave +compact. "When we knew we had to leave dear old Darrowtown, and Miss +True Pettis, and Patsy Hope, and--and 'all other perspiring friends,' +to quote Amoskeag Lanfell's letter that she wrote home from +Conference. + +"No, Ruth Fielding! Uncle Jabez Potter may be the very nicest kind of +an old dear. And to live in a mill--and one painted red, too! That +ought to make up for a good many disappointments--" + +Her soliloquy was interrupted by a light tap upon her shoulder. Ruth +glanced around and up quickly. She saw standing beside her the tall +old gentleman who had been sitting two seats behind on the other side +of the aisle ever since the train left Buffalo. + +He was a spare old gentleman, with a gaunt, eagle-beaked face, cleanly +shaven but for a sweeping iron-gray mustache, his iron-gray hair waved +over the collar of his black coat--a regular mane of hair which +flowed out from under the brim of his well-brushed, soft-crowned hat. +His face would have been very stern in its expression had it not been +for the little twinkle in his bright, dark eyes. + +"Why don't you do it?" he asked Ruth, softly. + +"Why don't I do what, sir?" she responded, not without a little gulp, +for that lump would rise in her throat. + +"Why don't you cry?" questioned the strange old gentleman, still +speaking softly and with that little twinkle in his eye. + +"Because I am determined not to cry, sir," and now Ruth could call up +a little smile, though perhaps the corners of her mouth trembled a +bit. + +The gentleman sat down beside her, although she had not invited him to +do so. She was not at all afraid of him and, after all, perhaps she +was glad to have him do it. + +"Tell me all about it," he suggested, with such an air of confidence +and interest that Ruth warmed more and more toward him. + +But it was a little hard to begin. When he told her, however, that he +was going to Cheslow, too--indeed, that that was his home--it was +easier by far. + +"I am Doctor Davison, my dear," he said. "If you are going to live in +Cheslow you will hear all about Doctor Davison, and you would better +know him at first-hand, to avoid mistakes," and his eyes twinkled more +than ever, though his stern mouth never relaxed. + +"I expect that my new home is some little way outside of Cheslow," +Ruth said, timidly. "They call it the Red Mill." + +The humorous light faded out of the dark, bright eyes of the +gentleman. Yet even then his countenance did not impress her as being +unkindly. + +"Jabez Potter's mill," he said, thoughtfully. + +"Yes, sir. That is my uncle's name." + +"Your uncle?" + +"My great uncle, to be exact," said Ruth. "He was mother's uncle." + +"Then you," he said, speaking even more gently than before, "are +little Mary Potter's daughter?" + +"Mother was Mary Potter before she married papa," said Ruth, more +easily now. "She died four years ago." + +He nodded, looking away from her out of the window at the +fast-darkening landscape which hurried by them. + +"And poor papa died last winter. I had no claim upon the kind friends +who helped me when he died," pursued Ruth, bravely. "They wrote to +Uncle Jabez and he--he said I could come and live with him and Aunt +Alvirah Boggs." + +In a flash the twinkle came back into his eyes, and he nodded again. + +"Ah, yes! Aunt Alviry," he said, giving the name its old-fashioned, +homely pronunciation. "I had forgotten Aunt Alviry," and he seemed +quite pleased to remember her. + +"She keeps house for Uncle Jabez, I understand," Ruth continued. "But +she isn't my aunt." + +"She is everybody's Aunt Alviry, I think," said Doctor Davison, +encouragingly. + +For some reason this made Ruth feel better. He spoke as though she +would love Aunt Alviry, and Ruth had left so many kind friends behind +her in Darrowtown that she was glad to be assured that somebody in the +new home where she was going would be kind, too. + +Miss True Pettis had not shown her Uncle Jabez's letter and she had +feared that perhaps her mother's uncle (whom she had never seen nor +known much about) might not have written as kindly for his niece to +come to the Red Mill as Miss True could have wished. But Miss True was +poor; most of the Darrowtown friends had been poor people. Ruth had +felt that she could not remain a burden on them. + +Somehow she did not have to explain all this to Doctor Davison. He +seemed to understand it when he nodded and his eyes twinkled so +glowingly. + +"Cheslow is a pleasant town. You will like it," he said, cheerfully. +"The Red Mill is five miles out on the Lake Osago Road. It is a pretty +country. It will be dark when you ride over it to-night; but you will +like it when you see it by daylight." + +He took it for granted that Uncle Jabez would come to the station to +meet her with a carriage, and that comforted Ruth not a little. + +"You will pass my house on that road," continued Doctor Davison. "But +when you come to town you must not pass it." + +"Sir?" she asked him, surprised. + +"Not without stopping to see me," he explained, his eyes twinkling +more than ever. And then he left her and went back to his seat. + +But Ruth found, when he had gone, that the choke came back into her +throat again and the sting of unshed tears to her eyes. But she would +not let those same tears fall! + +She stared out of the plate-glass window and saw that it was now quite +dark. The whistle of the fast-flying locomotive shrieked its +long-drawn warning, and a group of signal lights flashed past. Then +she heard the loud ringing of a gong at a grade crossing. They must be +nearing Cheslow now. + +And then she saw that they were on a curve quite a sharp curve, for +she saw the lights of the locomotive and the mail car far ahead upon +the gleaming rails. They began to slow down, too, and the wheels +wailed under the pressure of the brakes. + +She could see the signal lights along the tracks ahead and then--with +a start, for she knew what it meant--a sharp red flame appeared out +of the darkness beyond the rushing engine pilot. + +Danger! That is what that red light meant. The brakes clamped down +upon the wheels again so suddenly that the easily-riding coach jarred +through all its parts. The red eye was winked out instantly; but the +long and heavy train came to an abrupt stop. + + CHAPTER II + + RENO + +But the Limited had stopped so that Ruth could see along the length of +the train. Lanterns winked and blinked in the dark as the trainmen +carried them forward. Something had happened up front of more +importance than an ordinary halt for permission to run in on the next +block. Besides, the afternoon Limited was a train of the first-class +and was supposed to have the right of way over all other trains. No +signal should have stopped it here. + +"How far are we from Cheslow, please?" she asked of the rear brakeman +(whom she knew was called the flagman) as he came down the car with +his lantern. + +"Not above a mile, Miss," he replied. + +His smile, and his way of speaking, encouraged her to ask: + +"Can you tell me why we have stopped?" + +"Something on the track, Miss. I have set out my signal lamp and am +going forward to inquire." + +Three or four of the male passengers followed him out of the car. Ruth +saw that quite a number had disembarked from the cars ahead, that a +goodly company was moving forward, and that there were ladies among +the curious crowd. If it was perfectly safe for them to satisfy their +curiosity, why not she? She arose and hurried out of the car, +following the swinging lamp of the brakeman as he strode on. + +Ruth ran a little, seeing well enough to pick her way over the ends of +the ties, and arrived to find at least half a hundred people grouped +on the track ahead of the locomotive pilot. The great, unblinking, +white eye of the huge machine revealed the group clearly--and the +object around which the curious passengers, as well as the train crew, +had gathered. + +It was a dog--a great, handsome, fawn-colored mastiff, sleek of coat +and well fed, but muddied now along his flanks, evidently having waded +through the mire of the wet meadow beside the tracks. He had come +under, or through, a barbed wire fence, too, for there was a long +scratch upon his shoulder and another raw cut upon his muzzle. + +To his broad collar was fastened a red lamp. Nobody had taken it off, +for both the train men and the passengers were excitedly discussing +what his presence here might mean; and some of them seemed afraid of +the great fellow. + +But Ruth had been used to dogs, and this noble looking fellow had no +terrors for her. He seemed so woebegone, his great brown eyes pleaded +so earnestly, that she could only pity and fondle him. + +"Look out, Miss; maybe he bites," warned the anxious conductor. "I +wager this is some boy's trick to stop the train. And yet--" + +Ruth bent down, still patting the dog's head, and turned the great +silver plate on his collar so that she could read, in the light of the +lanterns, that which was engraved upon it. She read the words aloud: + +"'This is Reno, Tom Cameron's Dog.'" + +"Cameron?" repeated some man behind her. "That Tom Cameron lives just +outside of Cheslow. His father is the rich dry-goods merchant, Macy +Cameron. What's his dog doing here?" + +"And with a red light tied to his collar?" propounded somebody else. + +"It's some boy's trick, I tell you," stormed the conductor. "I'll have +to report this at headquarters." + +Just then Ruth made a discovery. Wound about the collar was a bit of +twisted cloth--a strip of linen--part of a white handkerchief. Her +nimble fingers unwound it quickly and she spread out the soiled rag. + +"Oh, see here!" she cried, in amazement as well as fear. "See! What +can it mean? See what's drawn on this cloth--" + +It was a single word--a word smeared across the rag in shaking, +uneven letters: + +"HELP!" + +"By George!" exclaimed one of the brakemen. "The little girl's right. +That spells 'Help!' plain enough." + +"It--it is written in something red, sir," cried Ruth, her voice +trembling. "See! It is blood!" + +"I tell you we've wasted a lot of time here," declared the conductor. +"I am sorry if anybody is hurt, but we cannot stop for him. Get back +to the cars, please, gentlemen. Do you belong aboard?" he added, to +Ruth. "Get aboard, if you do." + +"Oh, sir! You will not leave the poor dog here?" Ruth asked. + +"Not with that red lamp on his collar--no!" exclaimed the conductor. +"He will be fooling some other engineer--" + +He reached to disentangle the wire from the dog's collar; but Reno +uttered a low growl. + +"Plague take the dog!" ejaculated the conductor, stepping back +hastily. "Whoever it is that's hurt, or wherever he is, we cannot send +him help from here. We'll report the circumstance at the Cheslow +Station. Put the dog in the baggage car. He can find the place where +his master is hurt, from Cheslow as well as from here, it's likely." + +"You try to make him follow you, Miss," added the conductor to Ruth. +"He doesn't like me, it's plain." + +"Come here, Reno!" Ruth commanded. "Come here, old fellow." + +The big dog hesitated, stepped a yard or two after her, stopped, +looked around and across the track toward the swamp meadow, and +whined. + +Ruth went back to him and put both arms about the noble fellow's neck. +"Come, Reno," she said "Come with me. We will go to find your master +by and by." + +She started for the cars again, with one hand on the dog's neck. He +trotted meekly beside her with head hanging. At the open baggage-car +door one of the brakemen lifted her in. + +"Come, Reno! Come up, sir!" she said, and the great mastiff, crouching +for an instant, sprang into the car. + +Even before they were fairly aboard, the train started. They were late +enough, indeed! But the engineer dared not speed up much for that last +mile of the lap to Cheslow. There might be something ahead on the +track. + +"You get out at Cheslow; don't you Miss?" asked the conductor. + +"Yes, sir," returned Ruth, sitting down with an air of possession upon +her old-fashioned cowhide trunk that had already been put out by the +door ready for discharging at the next station. + +"And you were sitting in the last car. Have you a bag there?" + +"Yes, sir, a small bag. That is all." + +"I'll send it forward to you," he said, not unkindly, and bustled +away. + +And so Ruth Fielding was sitting on her own trunk, with her bag in her +lap, and the great mastiff lying on the floor of the baggage car +beside her, when the train slowed down and stopped beside the Cheslow +platform. She had not expected to arrive just in this way at her +journey's end. + + CHAPTER III + + WHAT HAS HAPPENED? + +The baggage-car door was wheeled wide open again and the lamps on the +platform shone in. There was the forward brakeman to "jump" her down +from the high doorway, and Reno, with the little red light still hung +to his collar, bounded after her. + +The conductor bustled away to tell the station master about the dog +with the red light, and of the word scrawled on the cloth which Ruth +had found wound around his collar. Indeed, Ruth herself was very +anxious and very much excited regarding this mystery; but she was +anxious, too, about herself. Was Uncle Jabez here to meet her? Or had +he sent somebody to take her to the Red Mill? He had been informed by +Miss True Pettis the week before on which train to expect his niece. + +Carrying her bag and followed dejectedly by the huge mastiff, Ruth +started down the long platform. The conductor ran out of the station, +signalled the train crew with his hand, and lanterns waved the length +of the train. Panting, with its huge springs squeaking, the locomotive +started the string of cars. Faster and faster the train moved, and +before Ruth reached the pent-house roof of the little brick station, +the tail-lights of the last car had passed her. + +A short, bullet-headed old man, with close-cropped, whitish-yellow +hair, atop of which was a boy's baseball cap, his face smoothly shaven +and deeply lined, and the stain of tobacco at either corner of his +mouth, was standing on the platform. He was not a nice looking old man +at all, he was dressed in shabby and patched garments, and his little +eyes seemed so sly that they were even trying to hide from each other +on either side of a hawksbill nose. + +He began to eye Ruth curiously as the girl approached, and she, seeing +that he was the only person who gave her any attention, jumped to the +conclusion that this was Uncle Jabez. The thought shocked her. She +instinctively feared and disliked this queer looking old man. The lump +in her throat that would not be swallowed almost choked her again, and +she winked her eyes fast to keep from crying. + +She would, in her fear and disappointment, have passed the old man by +without speaking had he not stepped in front of her. + +"Where d'ye wanter go, Miss?" he whined, looking at her still more +sharply out of his narrow eyes. "Yeou be a stranger here, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," admitted Ruth. + +"Where are you goin'?" asked the man again, and Ruth had enough Yankee +blood in her to answer the query by asking: + +"Are you Mr. Jabez Potter?" + +"Me Jabez Potter? Why, ef I was Jabe Potter I'd be owing myself money, +that's what I'd be doin'. You warn't never lookin' for Jabe Potter?" + +Much relieved, Ruth admitted the fact frankly. "He is my uncle, sir," +she said. "I am going to live at the Red Mill." + +The strange old man puckered up his lips into a whistle, and shook his +head, eyeing her all the time so slily that Ruth was more and more +thankful that he had not proven to be Uncle Jabez. + +"Do you know Mr. Potter?" she asked, undecided what to do. + +"Do I know Jabe Potter?" repeated the man. "Well, I don't know much +good of him, I assure ye! I worked for him onct, I did. And I tell ye +he owes me money yet. You ax him if he don't owe Jasper Parloe money-- +you jest ax him!" + +He began to get excited and did not seem at all inclined to step out +of Ruth's path. But just then somebody spoke to her and she turned to +see the station master and two or three other men with him. + +"This is the girl Mr. Mason spoke to me about, isn't it?" the railroad +man asked. "The conductor of the express, I mean. He said the dog +would mind you." + +"He seems to like me," she replied, turning to the mastiff that had +stood all this time close to her. + +"That is Tom Cameron's dog all right," said one of the other men. "And +that lantern is off his motorcycle, I bet anything! He went through +town about dark on that contraption, and I shouldn't wonder if he's +got a tumble." + +Ruth showed the station master, whose name was Curtis, the bit of +handkerchief with the appeal for help traced upon it. + +"That is blood," she said. "You see it's blood, don't you? Can't +somebody take Reno and hunt for him? He must be very badly hurt." + +"Mason said he expected it was nothing but some fool joke of the boys. +But it doesn't look like a joke to me," Mr. Curtis said, gravely. +"Come, Parloe, you know that patch of woods well enough, over beyond +the swamp and Hiram Jennings' big field. Isn't there a steep and rocky +road down there, that shoots off the Osago Lake pike?" + +"The Wilkins Corners road--yep," said the old man, snappishly. + +"Then, can't you take the dog and see if you can find young Tom?" + +"Who's going to pay me for it?" snarled Jasper Parloe. "I ain't got no +love for them Camerons. This here Tom is as sassy a boy as there is in +this county." + +"But he may be seriously hurt," said Ruth, looking angrily at Jasper +Parloe. + +"'Tain't nothin' to me--no more than your goin' out ter live with +Jabe Potter ain't nothin' to me," responded the old man, with an ugly +grin. + +"You're a pretty fellow, you are, Jasper!" exclaimed Mr. Curtis, and +turned his back upon the fellow. "I can't leave the station now--Ah! +here's Doctor Davison. He'll know what to do." + +Doctor Davison came forward and put his hand upon Ruth's shoulder most +kindly. "What is all this?" he asked. "And there is the mastiff. They +tell me you are a dog tamer, Miss Fielding." + +He listened very closely to what Mr. Curtis had to say, and looked, +too, at the smeared handkerchief. + +"The dog can find him--no doubt of that. Come, boys, get some +lanterns and we'll go right along to the Wilkins Corners road and +search it." Then to Ruth he said: "You are a brave girl, sure enough." + +But when the party was ready to start, half a dozen strong, with +Parloe trailing on behind, and with lanterns and a stretcher, Reno +would not budge. The man called him, but he looked up at Ruth and did +not move from her side. + +"I declare for't," exclaimed one man. "That girl will have to go with +us, Doctor Davison. You see what the dog means to do." + +Ruth spoke to the mastiff, commanded him to leave her and find "Tom." +But although the dog looked at her intelligently enough, and barked +his response--a deep, sudden, explosive bark--he refused to start +without her. + +"It's a long way for the girl," objected Doctor Davison. "Besides, she +is waiting to meet her uncle." + +"I am not tired," she told him, quickly. "Remember I've been sitting +all the afternoon. And perhaps every minute is precious. We don't know +how badly the dog's master may be hurt. I'll go. I'm sure I can keep +up with you." + +Reno seemed to understand her words perfectly, and uttered another +short, sharp bark. + +"Let us go, then," said Doctor Davison, hurriedly. + +So the men picked up their lanterns and the stretcher again. They +crossed the tracks and came to a street that soon became a country +road. Cheslow did not spread itself very far in this direction. Doctor +Davison explained to Ruth that the settlement had begun to grow in the +parts beyond the railroad and that all this side of the tracks was +considered the old part of the town. + +The street lights were soon behind them and they depended entirely +upon the lanterns the men carried. Ruth could see very little of the +houses they passed; but at one spot--although it was on the other +side of the road--there were two green lanterns, one on either side +of an arched gate, and there seemed to be a rather large, but gloomy, +house behind the hedge before which these lanterns burned. + +"You will always know my house," Doctor Davison said, softly, and +still retaining her hand, "by its green eyes." + +So Ruth knew she had passed his home, to which he had so kindly +invited her. And that made her think for a moment about Uncle Jabez +and Aunt Alvirah. Would she find somebody waiting to take her to the +Red Mill when she got back to the station? + + CHAPTER IV + + THE GATE OF THE GREEN EYES + +It was a dark lane, beneath overhanging oaks, that met and intertwined +their branches from either side--this was the Wilkins Corners road. +And it was very steep and stony--up hill and down dale--with deep +ruts in places and other spots where the Spring rains had washed out +the gravel and sand and left exposed the very foundations of the +world. + +It seemed as though no bicyclist, or motor-cyclist would have chosen +this road to travel after dark. Yet there was a narrow path at the +side--just wide enough for Ruth and Doctor Davison to walk abreast, +and Reno to trot by the girl's side which seemed pretty smooth. + +"We don't want to go by the spot, Doctor," said one of the men walking +ahead with the lights. "Don't the dog show no signs of looking for +Tom?" + +"Where's Tom, Reno? Where's Tom?" asked Ruth, earnestly, believing +that the dog would recognize his master's name. + +The mastiff raised his muzzle and barked sharply again, but trotted +onward. + +"He might have fallen down any of these gullies, and we'd miss him, +it's so dark," observed the previous speaker. + +"I don't believe the dog will miss the place," responded Doctor +Davison. + +Just then Reno leaped forward with a long-drawn whine. Ruth hurried +with him, leaving the doctor to come on in the rear. Reno took the +lead and the girl tried to keep pace with him. + +It was not for many yards. Reno stopped at the brink of a steep bank +beside the road. This bank fell away into the darkness, but through +the trees, in the far distance, the girl could see several twinkling +lights in a row. She knew that they were on the railroad, and that she +was looking across the great swamp-meadow. + +"Hullo!" shouted one man, loudly. "Something down there, old fellow?" + +Reno answered with a short bark and began to scramble down the rough +bank. + +"Here's where somebody has gone down ahead of him," cried another of +the searchers, holding his own lantern close to the ground. "See how +the bank's all torn up? Bet his wheel hit that stone yonder in the +dusk and threw him, wheel and all, into this gulley." + +"Wait here, child," ordered Doctor Davison, quickly. "If he is in bad +shape, boys, call me and I'll come down. Lift him carefully--" + +"He's here, sir!" cried the first man to descend. + +And then Reno lifted up his voice in a mournful howl. + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear!" murmured Ruth. "I am afraid he is badly hurt." + +"Come, come!" returned Doctor Davison. "Be a brave girl now. If he is +badly hurt he'll need us both to keep our wits about us, you know." + +"Ye needn't fret none, leetle gal," said Jasper Parloe's voice, behind +her. "Ye couldn't kill that there Cameron boy, I tell ye! He is as +sassy a young'un as there is in this county." + +Doctor Davison turned as though to say something sharp to the mean old +man; but just then the men below shouted up to him: + +"He's hit his head and his arm's twisted under him, Doctor. He isn't +conscious, but doesn't seem much hurt otherwise." + +"Can you bring him up?" queried the physician. + +"That's what we mean to do," was the reply. + +Ruth waited beside the old doctor, not without some apprehension. How +would this Tom Cameron look? What kind of a boy was he? According to +Jasper Parloe he was a very bad boy, indeed. She had heard that he was +the son of a rich man. While the men were bringing the senseless body +up the steep bank her mind ran riot with the possibilities that lay in +store for her because of this accident to the dry-goods merchant's +son. + +And now the bearers were at the top of the bank, and she could see the +limp form borne by them--a man holding the body under the arms and +another by his feet. But, altogether, it looked really as though they +carried a limp sack between them. + +"Fust time I ever see that boy still," murmured Jasper Parloe. + +"Cracky! He's pale; ain't he?" said another man. + +Doctor Davison dropped on one knee beside the body as they laid it +down. The lanterns were drawn together that their combined light might +illuminate the spot. Ruth saw that the figure was that of a youth not +much older than herself--lean, long limbed, well dressed, and with a +face that, had it not been so pale, she would have thought very nice +looking indeed. + +"Poor lad!" Ruth heard the physician murmur. "He has had a hard fall-- +and that's a nasty knock on his head." + +The wound was upon the side of his head above the left ear and was now +all clotted with blood. It was from this wound, in some moment of +consciousness, that he had traced the word "Help" on his torn +handkerchief, and fastened the latter, with the lamp of his +motorcycle, to the dog's collar. + +Here was the machine, bent and twisted enough, brought up the bank by +two of the men. + +"Dunno what you can do for the boy, Doctor," said one of them; "but it +looks to me as though this contraption warn't scurcely wuth savin'." + +"Oh, we'll bring the boy around all right," said Doctor Davison, who +had felt Tom Cameron's pulse and now rose quickly. "Lift him carefully +upon the stretcher. We will get him into bed before I do a thing to +him. He's best as he is while we are moving him." + +"It'll be a mighty long way to his house," grumbled one of the men. + +"I believe yeou!" rejoined Jasper Parloe. "Three miles beyond Jabe +Potter's mill." + +"Pshaw!" exclaimed Doctor Davison, in his soft voice. "You know we'll +not take him so far. My house is near enough. Surely you can carry him +there." + +"If you say the word, Doctor," said the fellow, more cheerfully, while +old Parloe grunted. + +They were more than half an hour in getting to the turn in the main +road where she could observe the two green lights before the doctor's +house. There the men put the stretcher down for a moment. Jasper +Parloe grumblingly took his turn at carrying one end. + +"I never did see the use of boys, noway," he growled. "They's only an +aggravation and vexation of speret. And this here one is the +aggravatingest and vexationingest of any I ever see." + +"Don't be too hard on the boy, Jasper," said Doctor Davison, passing +on ahead, so as to reach his house first. + +Ruth remained behind, for the old gentleman walked too fast for her. +Before the men picked up the stretcher again there was a movement and +a murmur from the injured boy. + +"Hullo!" said one of the men. "He's a-talkin', ain't he?" + +"Jest mutterin'," said Parloe, who was at Tom's head. "'Tain't nothin'" + +But Ruth heard the murmur of the unconscious boy, and the words +startled her. They were: + +"It was Jabe Potter--he did it! It was Jabe Potter--he did it!" + +What did they mean? Or, was there no meaning at all to the muttering +of the wounded boy? Ruth saw that Parloe was looking at her in his sly +and disagreeable way, and she knew that he, too, had heard the words. + +"It was Jabe Potter--he did it!" Was it an accusation referring to +the boy's present plight? And how could her Uncle Jabez--the relative +she had not as yet seen--be the cause of Tom Cameron's injury? The +spot where the boy was hurt must have been five miles from the Red +Mill, and not even on the Osago Lake turnpike, on which highway she +had been given to understand the Red Mill stood. + +Not many moments more and the little procession was at the gateway, on +either side of which burned the two green lamps. + +Jasper Parloe, who had been relieved, shuffled off into the darkness. +Reno after one pleading look into the face of the hesitating Ruth, +followed the stretcher on which his master lay, in at the gate. + +And Ruth Fielding, beginning again to feel most embarrassed and +forsaken, was left alone where the two green eyes winked in the warm, +moist darkness of the Spring night. + + CHAPTER V + + THE GIRL IN THE AUTOMOBILE + +The men who had gone in with the unconscious boy and the stretcher +hung about the doctor's door, which was some yards from the gateway. +Everybody seemed to have forgotten the girl, a stranger in Cheslow, +and for the first day of her life away from kind and indulgent +friends. + +It was only ten minutes walk to the railroad station, and Ruth +remembered that it was a straight road. She arrived in the waiting +room safely enough. Sam Curtis, the station master, descried her +immediately and came out of his office with her bag. + +"Well, and what happened? Is that boy really hurt?" he asked. + +"He has a broken arm and his head is cut. I do not know how seriously, +for Doctor Davison had not finished examining him when I--I came +away," she replied, bravely enough, and hiding the fact that she had +been overlooked. + +"They took him to the doctor's house, did they?" asked Sam. + +"Yes, sir," said Ruth. "But--" + +"Mr. Curtis, has there been anybody here for me?" + +"For you, Miss?" the station master returned, somewhat surprised it +seemed. + +"Yes, sir. Anybody from Red Mill?" + +Curtis smote one fist into his other palm, exclaiming: + +"You don't mean to say that you was what Jabe Potter was after?" + +"Mr. Jabez Potter, who keeps the Red Mill, is my uncle," Ruth +observed, with dignity. + +"My goodness gracious me, Miss! He was here long before your train was +due. He's kind of short in his speech, Miss. And he asked me if there +was anything here for him, and I told him no. And he stumped out again +without another word. Why, I thought he was looking for an express +package, or freight. Never had an idea he was expectin' a niece!" + +Ruth still looked at him earnestly. The man did not suspect, by her +appearance, how hard a time she was having to keep the tears from +overrunning those calm, gray eyes. + +"And you expected to go out to the Red Mill to-night, Miss?" he +continued. "They're country folk out there and they'd all be abed +before you could get there, even if you took a carriage." + +"I don't know that I have enough to pay for carriage hire," Ruth said, +softly. "Is--is there any place I can stop over night in the village? +Then I can walk out in the morning." + +"Why--there's a hotel. But a young girl like you--You'll excuse me, +Miss. You're young to be traveling alone." + +"Perhaps I haven't money enough to pay for a lodging there?" suggested +Ruth. "I have a dollar. It was given me to spend as I liked on the +way. But Miss True gave me such a big box of luncheon that I did not +want anything." + +"A dollar wouldn't go far at the Brick Hotel," murmured the station +agent. He still stared at her, stroking his lean, shaven jaw. Finally +he burst out with: "I tell you! We'll go home and see what my wife +says." + +At the moment the station began to jar with the thunder of a coming +train and Ruth could not make herself heard in reply to his proposal. +Besides, Sam Curtis hurried out on the platform. Nor was Ruth ready to +assert her independence and refuse any kind of help the station master +might offer. So she sat down patiently and waited for him. + +There were one or two passengers only to disembark from this train and +they went away from the station without even coming into the waiting +room. Then Curtis came back, putting out the lights and locking his +ticket office. The baggage room was already locked and Ruth's old +trunk was in it. + +"Come on now, girl--What's your name?" asked Curtis. + +"Ruth Fielding." + +"Just so! Well, it's only a step to our house and wife will have +supper waiting. And there's nobody else there save Mercy." + +Ruth was a little curious about "Mercy"--whether it referred to +abounding grace, or was a person's name. But she asked no questions as +they came out of the railroad station and Sam Curtis locked the door. + +They did not cross the tracks this time, but went into the new part of +the town. Turning a corner very soon as they walked up what Curtis +said was Market Street, they reached, on a narrow side street, a +little, warm-looking cottage, from almost all the lower windows of +which the lamplight shone cheerfully. There was a garden beside it, +with a big grape arbor arranged like a summer-house with rustic chairs +and a table. The light shining on the side porch revealed the arbor to +Ruth's quick eyes. + +When they stepped upon this porch Ruth heard a very shrill and not at +all pleasant voice saying--very rapidly, and over and over again: "I +don't want to! I don't want to! I don't want to!" It might have been a +parrot, or some other ill-natured talking bird; only Ruth saw nothing +of the feathered conversationalist when Sam opened the door and +ushered her in. + +"Here we are, wife!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. "And how's Mercy?" + +The reiterated declaration had stopped instantly. A comely, kind-faced +woman with snow-white hair, came forward. Ruth saw that she was some +years younger than Curtis, and he was not yet forty. It was not Father +Time that had powdered Mrs. Curtis' head so thickly. + +"Mercy is--Why, who's this?" she asked espying Ruth. "One of the +girls come in to see her?" + +Instantly the same whining, shrill voice began: + +"I don't want her to see me! They come to stare at me! I hate 'em all! +All girls do is to run and jump and play tag and ring-around-a-rosy +and run errands, and dance! I hate 'em!" + +This was said very, very fast--almost chattered; and it sounded so +ill-natured, so impatient, so altogether mean and hateful, that Ruth +fell back a step, almost afraid to enter the pleasant room. But then +she saw the white-haired lady's face, and it was so grieved, yet +looked such a warm welcome to her, that she took heart and stepped +farther in, so that Sam Curtis could shut the door. + +The father appeared to pay no attention to the fault-finding, shrill +declamation of the unhappy voice. He said, in explanation, to his +wife: + +"This is Ruth Fielding. She has come a long way by train to-day, +expecting to meet her uncle, old Jabe Potter of the Red Mill. And you +know how funny Jabe is, wife? He came before the train, and did not +wait, but drove right away with his mules and so there was nobody here +to meet Ruthie. She's marooned here till the morning, you see." + +"Then she shall stay with us to-night," declared Mrs. Curtis, quickly. + +"I don't want her to stay here to-night!" ejaculated the same shrill +voice. + +Mr. and Mrs. Curtis paid no attention to what was said by this +mysterious third party. Ruth, coming farther into the room, found that +it was large and pleasant. There was a comfortable look about it all. +The supper table was set and the door was opened into the warm +kitchen, from which delicious odors of tea and toast with some warm +dish of meat, were wafted in. But the shrill and complaining voice had +not come from the next room. + +In the other corner beside the stove, yet not too near it, stood a +small canopy bed with the pretty chintz curtains drawn all about it. +Beside it stood a wheel-chair such as Ruth knew was used by invalids +who could not walk. It was a tiny chair, too, and it and the small bed +went together. But of the occupant of either she saw not a sign. + +"Supper will be ready just as soon as our guest has a chance to remove +the traces of travel, Sam," said Mrs. Curtis, briskly. "Come with me, +Ruth." + +When they returned from the pleasant little bed-chamber which the +good-hearted lady told Ruth was to be her own for that night, they +heard voices in the sitting room--the voice of Mr. Curtis and the +querulous one. But it was not so sharp and strained as it seemed +before. However, on opening the door, Mr. Curtis was revealed sitting +alone and there was no sign of the owner of the sharp voice, which +Ruth supposed must belong to the invalid. + +"Mercy has had her supper; hasn't she, wife?" said the station master +as he drew his chair to the table and motioned Ruth to the extra place +Mrs. Curtis had set. + +The woman nodded and went briskly about putting the supper on the +table. While they ate Mr. Curtis told about Reno stopping the train, +and of the search for and recovery of the injured Cameron boy. All the +time Ruth, who sat sideways to the canopied bed, realized that the +curtains at the foot were drawn apart just a crack and that two very +bright, pin-point eyes were watching her. So interested did these eyes +become as the story progressed, and Ruth answered questions, that more +of Mercy Curtis' face was revealed--a sharp, worn little face, with a +peaked chin and pale, thin cheeks. + +Ruth was very tired when supper was ended and the kind Mrs. Curtis +suggested that she go to bed and obtain a good night's rest if she was +to walk to the Red Mill in the morning. But even when she bade her +entertainers good-night she did not see the child in the canopy bed +and she felt diffident about asking Mrs. Curtis about her. The young +traveler slept soundly--almost from the moment her head touched the +pillow. Yet her last thought was of Uncle Jabez. He had been in town +some time before the train on which she arrived was due and had driven +away from the station with his mules, Mr. Curtis said. Had he driven +over that dark and dangerous road on which Tom Cameron met with his +accident, and had he run down the injured boy, or forced him over the +bank of the deep gully where they had found Tom lying unconscious? + +"It was Jabe Potter--he did it," the injured lad had murmured, and +these words were woven in the pattern of Ruth's dreams all night. + +The little cottage was astir early and Ruth was no laggard. She came +down to breakfast while the sun was just peeping above the house-tops +and as she entered the sitting room she found an occupant at last in +the little wheel-chair. It was the sharp, pale little face that +confronted her above the warm wrapper and the rug that covered the +lower part of the child's body; for child Mercy Curtis was, and little +older than Ruth herself, although her face seemed so old. + +To Ruth's surprise the first greeting of the invalid was a most +ill-natured one. She made a very unpleasant face at the visitor, ran +out her tongue, and then said, in her shrill, discordant voice: + +"I don't like you at all--I tell you that, Miss!" + +"I am sorry you do not like me," replied Ruth, gently. "I think I +should like you if you'd let me." + +"Yah!" ejaculated the very unpleasant, but much to be pitied invalid. + +The mother and father ignored all this ill-nature on the part of the +lame girl and were as kind and friendly with their visitor as they had +been on the previous evening. Once during breakfast time (Mercy took +hers from a tray that was fastened to her chair before her) the child +burst out again, speaking to Ruth. There were eggs on the table and, +pointing to the golden-brown fried egg that Mrs. Curtis had just +placed upon Ruth's plate, Mercy snapped: + +"Do you know what's the worst wish I'd wish on My Enemy?" + +Ruth looked her astonishment and hesitated to reply. But Mercy did not +expect a reply, for she continued quickly: + +"I'd wish My Enemy to have to eat every morning for breakfast two soft +fried eggs with his best clothes on--that's what I'd wish!" + +And this is every word she would say to the visitor while Ruth +remained. But Mr. Curtis bade Ruth good-bye very kindly when he +hurried away to the station, and Mrs. Curtis urged her to come and see +them whenever she came to town after getting settled at the Red Mill. + +It was a fresh and lovely morning, although to the weather-wise the +haze in the West foredoomed the end of the day to disaster. Ruth felt +more cheerful as she crossed the railroad tracks and struck into the +same street she had followed with the searching party the evening +before. She could not mistake Doctor Davison's house when she passed +it, and there was a fine big automobile standing before the gate where +the two green lanterns were. But there was nobody in the car, nor did +she see anybody about the doctor's house. + +Beyond the doctor's abode the houses were far apart--farther and +farther apart as she trudged on. Nobody noticed or spoke to the girl +as she went on with her small bag--the bag that grew heavy, despite +its smallness, as she progressed. And so she traveled two miles, or +more, along the pleasant road. Then she heard the purring of an +automobile behind her--the first vehicle that she had seen since +leaving town. + +It was the big gray car that had been standing before Doctor Davison's +house when she had passed, and Ruth would have known the girl who sat +at the steering wheel and was driving the car alone, even had Reno, +the big mastiff, not sat in great dignity on the seat beside her. For +no girl could look so much like Tom Cameron without being Tom +Cameron's sister. + +And the girl, the moment she saw Ruth on the road, retarded the speed +of the machine. Reno, too, lost all semblance of dignity and would not +wait for the car to completely stop before bounding into the road and +coming to caress her hand. + +"I know who you are!" cried the girl in the automobile. "You are Ruth +Fielding." + +She was a brilliant, black-eyed, vivacious girl, perhaps a year or +more older than Ruth, and really handsome, having her brother's olive +complexion with plenty of color in cheeks and lips. And that her +nature was impulsive and frank there could be no doubt, for she +immediately leaped out of the automobile, when it had stopped, and ran +to embrace Ruth. + +"Thank you! thank you!" she cried. "Doctor Davison has told us all +about you--and how brave you are! And see how fond Reno is of you! He +knows who found his master; don't you, Reno?" + +"Oh, dear me," said Ruth, breathlessly, "Doctor Davison has been too +kind. I did nothing at all toward finding your brother--I suppose he +is your brother, Miss?" + +"How dare you 'Miss' me?" demanded the other girl, hugging her again. +"You're a dear; I knew you must be! And I was running back and +intended to stop at the Red Mill to see you. I took father to town +this morning, as he had to take an early train to the city, and we +wished to see Tom again." + +"He--he isn't badly hurt, then--your brother, I mean?" said Ruth, +timidly. + +"He is going to stay at the doctor's to-day, and then he can come +home. But he will carry his arm in a sling for a while, although no +bone was broken, after all. His head is badly cut, but his hair will +hide that. Poor Tom! he is always falling down, or getting bumped, or +something. And he's just as reckless as he can be. Father says he is +not to be trusted with the car as much as I am." + +"How--how did he come to fall over that bank?" asked Ruth, anxiously. + +"Why--it was dark, I suppose. That was the way of it. I don't know as +he really told me what made him do such a foolish thing. And wasn't it +lucky Reno was along with him?" cried Tom's sister. + +"Now, I see you remained in town over night. They thought somebody had +come for yon and taken you out to the mill. Is Jabez Potter really +your uncle?" + +"Yes. He was my mother's uncle. And I have no other relative." + +"Well, dear, I am more than sorry for you," declared the girl from the +automobile. "And now we will climb right in and I'll take you along to +the mill." + +But whether she was sorry for Ruth Fielding's friendlessness, or sorry +because she was related to Jabez Potter, the young traveler could not +decide. + + CHAPTER VI + + THE RED MILL + +"Now, my name's Helen, and you are Ruth," declared Miss Cameron, when +she had carefully started the car once more. "We are going to be the +very best of friends, and we might as well begin by telling each other +all about ourselves. Tom and I are twins and he is an awful tease! +But, then, boys are. He is a good brother generally. We live in the +first yellow house on the right--up among the trees--beyond Mr. +Potter's mill--near enough so that we can run back and forth and see +each other just lots." + +Ruth found herself warmly drawn toward this vivacious miss. Nor was +she less frank in giving information about herself, her old home, in +Darrowtown, that she still wore black for her father, and that she had +been sent by her friends to Uncle Jabez because he was supposed to be +better able to take care of and educate her. Helen listened very +earnestly to the tale, but she shook her head at the end of it. + +"I don't know," she said. "I don't want to hurt your feelings, Ruthie. +But Jabez Potter isn't liked very well by people in general, although +I guess he is a good miller. He is stingy--" + +"I must say it. He isn't given to kind actions, and I am surprised that +he should have agreed to take and educate you. Of course, he didn't +have to." + +"I don't suppose he did have to," Ruth said, slowly. "And it wasn't as +though I couldn't have remained in Darrowtown. But Miss True Pettis--" + +"Miss True?" repeated Helen, curiously. + +"Short for Truthful. Her name is Rechelsea Truthful Tomlinson Pettis +and she is the dearest little old spinster lady--much nicer than her +name." + +"Well!" ejaculated the amazed Helen. + +"Miss True isn't rich. Indeed, she is very poor. So are Patsy Hope's +folks--Patsy is really Patricia, but that's too long for her. And all +the other folks that knew me about Darrowtown had a hard time to get +along, and most of them had plenty of children without taking another +that wasn't any kin to them," concluded Ruth, who was worldly wise in +some things, and had seen the harder side of life since she had opened +her eyes upon this world. + +"But your uncle is said to be a regular miser," declared Helen, +earnestly. "And he is so gruff and grim! Didn't your friends know +him?" + +"I guess they never saw him, or heard much about him," said Ruth, +slowly. "I'm sure I never did myself." + +"But don't you be afraid," said the other, warmly. "If he isn't good +to you there are friends enough here to look out for you. I know +Doctor Davison thinks you are very brave, and Daddy will do anything +for you that Tom and I ask him to." + +"I am quite sure I shall get on nicely with Uncle Jabez," she said. +"And then, there is Aunt Alvirah." + +"Oh, yes. There is an old lady who keeps house for Mr. Potter. And she +seems kind enough, too. But she acts afraid of Mr. Potter. I don't +blame her, he is so grim." + +The automobile, wheeling so smoothly over the hard pike, just then was +mounting a little hill. They came over the summit of this and there, +lying before them, was the beautiful slope of farming country down to +the very bank of the Lumano River. Fenced fields, tilled and untilled, +checkered the slope, with here and there a white farmhouse with its +group of outbuildings. There was no hamlet in sight, merely scattered +farms. The river, swollen and yellow with the Spring rains, swept upon +its bosom fence rails, hen-coops, and other flotsam of a Spring flood. +Yonder, at a crossing, part of the bridge had been carried away. + +"If the dam at Minturn goes, we shall be flooded all through this low +land again," Helen Cameron explained. "I remember seeing this valley +covered with water once during the Spring. But we live on the shoulder +of Mount Burgoyne, and you see, even the mill sets on quite high +ground." + +Ruth's eyes had already seen and lingered upon the mill. It was a +rambling structure, the great, splashing millwheel at the far end, the +long warehouse in the middle, and the dwelling attached to the other +end. There were barns, corn-cribs and other outbuildings as well, and +some little tillable land connected with the mill; and all the +buildings were vividly painted with red mineral paint, trimmed with +white. So bright and sparkling was the paint that it seemed to have +been put on over night. + +"Mr. Potter is considered a good miller," said Helen, again; "and he +does not neglect his property. He is not miserly in that way. There +isn't a picket off the fence, or a hinge loose anywhere. He isn't at +all what you consider a miser must be and look like; yet he is always +hoarding money and never spends any. But indeed I do not tell you this +to trouble you, Ruthie. I want you to believe, my dear, that if you +can't stand it at Mr. Potter's you can stand it at Mr. Cameron's--and +you'll be welcome there. + +"Our mother is dead. We talk of her a good deal, just as though she +were living and had gone on a little journey somewhere, and we should +see her again soon. God took her when Tom and I were only a few weeks +old; but Daddy has made himself our playfellow and dear, dear friend; +and there has always been Nurse Babette and Mrs. Murchiston--at +least, Mrs. Murchiston has been with us since we can remember. But +what Daddy says is law, and he said this morning that he'd like to +have a girl like you come to our house to be company for me. It gets +lonely for me sometimes, you see, for Tom doesn't want to play with +girls much, now he is so big. Perhaps next fall I'll go away to +boarding school--won't that be fun?" + +"It will be fun for you, I hope, Helen," said Ruth, with rather a +wistful smile. "I don't know where I shall go to school." + +"There is your uncle now!" exclaimed Miss Cameron. "See that man in +the old dusty suit?" + +Ruth had already seen the tall, stoop-shouldered figure, who looked as +though he had been powdered with flour, coming down the short path +from one of the open doors of the mill to the road, where a little, +one horse wagon stood. He bore a bag of meal or flour on his shoulder +which he pitched into the wagon. The man on the seat was speaking as +the automobile came to a stop immediately behind the wagon. + +"Jefers pelters! Ef there's one thing yeou know how to do, it's to +take toll, Jabe. Let the flour be poor, or good, there's little enough +of it comes back to the man that raises the wheat." + +"You don't have to bring your wheat here, Jasper Parloe," said the +miller, in a strong, harsh voice. "There is no law compels ye." + +"Yah!" snarled old Parloe. "We all know ye, Jabe Potter. We know what +ye be." Potter turned away. He had not noticed the two girls in the +automobile. But now Jasper Parloe saw them. "Ho!" he cried, "here's +somebody else that will l'arn ter know ye, too. Didn't know you was +ter hev comp'ny; did ye, Jabe? Here's yer niece, Jabe, come ter live +on ye an' be an expense to ye," and so, chuckling and screwing up his +mean, sly face, Parloe drove on, leaving the miller standing with arms +akimbo, and staring at Ruth, who was slowly alighting from the +automobile with her bag. + +Helen squeezed her hand tightly as she got out "Don't forget that we +are your friends, Ruthie," she whispered. "I'm coming by again this +afternoon when I drive over to the station for father. If--if +anything happens you be out here--now remember!" + +What could possibly happen to her, Ruth could not imagine. She was not +really afraid of Uncle Jabez. She walked directly to him, as he stood +there, staring gloomily, in front of the Red Mill. He was not only +tall and stoop-shouldered, and very dusty; but his dusty eyebrows +almost met over his light blue eyes. He was lantern-jawed, and it did +seem as though his dry, shaven lips had never in all his life wrinkled +into a smile. His throat was wrinkled and scraggy and his head was +plainly very bald on top, for the miller's cap he wore did not +entirely cover the bald spot. + +"I am Ruth Fielding, from Darrowtown," she said, in a voice that she +controlled well. "I have come to--to live with you, Uncle Jabez." + +"Where was you last night?" demanded the miller, without so much as +returning her greeting. "Was you with them Camerons?" + +"I stayed all night with the station master," she said, in +explanation. + +"What time did you get to the station?" + +Ruth told him. Never once did his voice change or his grim look relax. + +"I mistook the time of the train," he said, without expressing any +sorrow. + +"I--I hope you will be glad to have me come," the said. "Miss True--" + +"You mean that old maid that wrote to me?" he asked, harshly. + +"Miss True Pettis. She said she thought you would like to have me here +as we were so near related." + +"Not so near related as some," was all he said in reply to this. After +a moment, he added: "You can go along to the house yonder. Aunt Alviry +will show you what to do." + +Ruth could not have said another word just then without breaking down +and weeping, so she only nodded and turned to walk up a path toward +the house door. + +"One thing," urged the old man, before she had gone far. She turned to +look at him and he continued: "One thing I want you to understand, if +you live here you have got to work. I don't like no laggards around +me." + +She could only nod again, for her heart seemed to be right in her +throat, and the sting of the tears she wanted to shed, but could not, +almost blinded her as she went on slowly to the house door. + + CHAPTER VII + + AUNT ALVIRAH'S BACK AND BONES + +Ruth came to the kitchen door and found that the lower half was +closed; but she could see over the upper panel that had been flung +wide to let in the sweet Spring air and sunlight. A little old woman +was stooping to brush the rag carpet with a whisk broom and dustpan, +and as she hobbled around the big stove and around the table, which +was already set neatly for dinner, she was crooning to herself: + +"Oh, my back and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" + +She was a very neat-looking old lady, with a kerchief crossed on her +breast in the style of the old-fashioned Quakeresses. She was not much +taller than Ruth herself, for when she stood upright--or as upright +as she could stand--her eyes were just about on a level with Ruth's +eyes looking in over the half door. + +But the face of the old lady seemed, to the lonely, tear-filled girl, +almost the gentlest, sweetest face she had ever seen, as it slowly +smiled upon her. Aunt Alviry's welcome was like the daybreak. + +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated she, rising upright by degrees with +her hand upon the back she had been apostrophizing. "If here isn't a +pretty little creeter come to see her Aunt Alviry. How-de-do, girl?" + +Ruth had set down her bag. Now she opened the door and stepped in. The +smile of the old lady broke down every bit of fortitude the girl had +left and she walked directly into Aunt Alviry's arms and burst into +tears. + +"There! there! Deary, deary me!" murmured the little old lady, patting +her shoulder. "Somebody has been treating you badly, I know. And +you've come right to your Aunt Alviry for comfort. And you've come to +the right place, my pretty girl, for I've got tons of comfort for ye." + +She found a chair and lowered herself into it, not without the formula +which Ruth had heard before, of "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" Ruth +dropped on her knees before her, hid her face in the old lady's lap, +and had her cry out. Meanwhile Aunt Alvirah seemed to have taken in +several things about her guest that were significant. She touched the +stuff of which Ruth's gown was made, and nodded; even the black +hair-ribbon did not go unnoticed. + +"Now," said Ruth, rising after a few moments, "I guess that's all of +that foolishness. I--I don't usually cry, Aunt Alvirah." + +"Pshaw, now! I could tell that," said the old lady, comfortably. + +"I am going right to work to help you," said the girl. "I can stoop +better than you can." + +"I expect you can, you pretty creeter," admitted the old lady. + +Ruth had already taken the brush and pan and was at work upon the +floor. The lady said: "You ain't familiar to me, child. You've lost +some folks lately, I see. Do you live 'round here?" + +The little girl stopped and looked up at her in surprise. "Why, don't +you know about it?" she cried. + +"Know about what, child?" + +"Didn't you know I had come here to live with you?" + +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated Aunt Alvirah. "How did that +happen?" + +"Didn't my uncle tell you?" cried Ruth, much more surprised than the +old lady. + +"Who's your uncle, child?" + +"Why, Mr. Potter--Uncle Jabez." + +So astonished did the old lady appear to be that she started from her +chair and her ejaculation was changed to a moan of pain as she +murmured her old formula: "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" + +"Jabez ain't said a word to me about it. Why should he take anybody to +help me? Is he struck with the fear o' his latter end?" + +She said this in no cross-grained way, but because she was so amazed. +She likewise stared harder and harder at her visitor. + +"You ain't come from the poor farm, child?" she asked, finally. + +The flush upon Ruth's cheek and the expression which came into her +face told Aunt Alviry that she was wrong there. + +"Not that you look like poorhouse breed--not at all. You're too +pretty dressed and you're too well fed. I know what they be there, for +I have been there myself. Yes, ma'am! Jabez Potter came after me to +the poor farm. I was sickly, too. There's them that said he went to +Doctor Davison first to find out if I was goin' to git well before he +come arter me; but Jabez ain't never treated me noways but kind. Starn +he is--by natur and by practice; an' clost he is in money matters. +But he's been good to an old woman without a home who warn't neither +kith nor kin to him." + +Ruth listened to the first good word she had heard of Uncle Jabez, and +the speech comforted her somewhat. Perhaps there was something better +within the rough husk of Uncle Jabez, after all. + +"I did not live near here," Ruth said, quietly. "But my papa and mama +did. I came from Darrowtown." + +Aunt Alviry opened wide her bright brown eyes, and still stared in +wonder. + +"My mother's name was Mary Potter, and she was Mr. Potter's niece. So +he is my great-uncle." + +"Bless us and save us!" ejaculated Aunt Alviry, again, shaking her +head. "I never heard a word of it--never! I 'member Mary Potter, and +a sweet, pretty child she was. But Jabez never had no fondness for any +of his kin. You--you are all alone in the world, child?" + +"All alone save for Uncle Jabez." + +She had come near to the old woman again. As she dropped quietly on +her knees Aunt Alviry gathered her head close to her bosom; but Ruth +did not weep any more. She only said: + +"I know I shall love you very, very much, dear Aunt Alvirah. And I +hope I shall help your back and your bones a great deal, too!" + + CHAPTER VIII + + HOARDING UP: PASSIONS--MONEY--WATER + +This was Ruth Fielding's introduction to the Red Mill, its occupants, +and its surroundings. The spot was, indeed, beautiful, and an hour +after she had arrived she knew that she would love it. The Lumano +River was a wide stream and from the little window of the chamber that +Aunt Alviry said would be her own, she could look both up and down the +river for several miles. + +Uncle Jabez had a young man to help him in the mill. It was true, Aunt +Alviry said, that Jasper Parloe had worked for some time at the Red +Mill; but he was quarrelsome and Mr. Potter had declared he was not +honest. When the mill owner was obliged to be absent and people had +come to have corn or wheat ground, paying for the milling instead of +giving toll, Jasper had sometimes kept the money instead of turning it +over to Mr. Potter. This had finally resulted in a quarrel between the +two, and Mr. Potter had discharged Parloe without paying him for his +last month's work. + +The young newcomer had learned a great deal about the big mill and the +homestead, and about the work Aunt Alviry had to do, before the first +meal was prepared. She was of much assistance, too, and when Uncle +Jabez came in, after washing at the pump, but bringing a cloud of +flour with him on his clothes, the old woman was seated comfortably in +her chair and Ruth "dished up the dinner." + +At the end of his meal her uncle spoke just once to Ruth. "You have +l'arned to work, I see. Your Aunt Alviry has trouble with her back and +bones. If you make yourself of use to her you can stay here. I expect +all cats to catch mice around the Red Mill. Them that don't goes into +the sluice. There's enough to do here. You won't be idle for want of +work." + +And this was every word of his welcome, in a tone that showed neither +interest nor care for the girl. It was what help she could be and how +much he could save by her. It was plain enough that Uncle Jabez Potter +was as saving as a person could possibly be. There was none too much +food on the table, and Ruth watched the ravenous hunger of the hired +man, when he came in, with a feeling as though she were watching a +half-starved dog at his meal. + +Jabez Potter was not like the misers Ruth had read about, save in his +personal appearance. He was not well dressed, nor was he very clean. +But naturally the mill-dust would stick to him and to his clothing. It +seemed to have worked into the very texture of his skin during all the +years he had controlled the mill, until he was all of a dead gray. + +Sometimes there were half a dozen wagons or buggies waiting at the +mill, and not all of them gave toll for their milling. Ruth, in the +afternoon, and because it had begun to rain and she could not go out, +went into the mill to quench her curiosity regarding it. She saw that +there was a tiny office over the water, with a fireproof safe in it. +Her uncle brought the money he took from his customers and put it in a +little locked, japanned box, which he kept upon a shelf. The safe +appeared to be full of ledgers. + +Farther down the mill was a wide door and platform overhanging the +water (this was below the dam) where flour and meal could be loaded +upon barges for transportation to Osago Lake, some miles away. There +were great bins of wheat and corn, many elevator pipes, several mills +turning all the time, grinding different grains, and a great +corn-sheller that went by power, and which the young man fed when he +had nothing else to do. + +All the time the building trembled and throbbed, and this throbbing +was communicated to the house. As she sat with Aunt Alvirah, and sewed +carpet-rags for a braided mat, the distant thunder of the mills and +the trembling of the machinery made the whole house vibrate. + +Late in the afternoon Ruth heard the honking of an auto horn and ran +out upon the covered porch. Between the scuds of rain that drove along +the valley she saw the gray automobile coming slowly past the mill. +There was a man driving it now, and he stopped and let Helen Cameron +out so that she could run up to great Ruth under the shelter of the +porch. + +"Oh, you dear! How are you getting on?" cried Helen, kissing her +impulsively and as glad to see Ruth as though they had been separated +for days instead of for only a few hours. "Colfax wanted to drive down +to the station alone for Daddy--for we won't bring poor Tom home in +this rain--but I just couldn't resist coming to see how you were +getting on." She looked around with big eyes. "How does the Ogre treat +you?" she whispered. + +But Ruth could laugh now and did so, saying, cheerfully: "He hasn't +eaten me up yet! And Aunt Alvirah is the dearest little lady who ever +lived." + +"She likes you, then?" + +"Of course she does." + +"I knew she would, she was bound to love you. But I don't know about +the Ogre," and she shook her head. "But there! I must run. We don't +want to be late for the train. That will put Daddy out. And I must +stop and see Tom at the doctor's, too." + +"I hope you will find your brother ever so mach better," cried Ruth, +as her friend ran down the walk again. + +"You'll see him come by here to-morrow, if it quits raining," returned +Helen, over her shoulder. + +But it did not stop raining that night, nor for a full week. The scuds +of rain, blowing across the river, slapped sharply against the side of +the house, and against Ruth's window all night. She did not sleep that +first night as well as she had in the charitable home of the station +master and his good wife. The evening meal had been as stiff and +unpleasant as the noon meal. The evening was spent in the same room-- +the kitchen. Aunt Alviry knitted and sewed; Uncle Jabez pored over +certain accounts and counted money very softly behind the uplifted +cover of the japanned cash-box that he had brought in from the mill. + +She got in time to know that cash-box very well indeed. It often came +into the house under Uncle Jabez's arm at dinner, too. He scarcely +seemed willing to trust it out of his sight. And Ruth was sure that he +locked himself into his room with it at night. + +A loaded shotgun lay upon rests over the kitchen door all the time, +and there was a big, two-barreled, muzzle-loading pistol on the stand +beside Uncle Jabez's bed. Ruth was much more afraid of these loaded +weapons than she was of burglars. But the old man evidently expected +to be attacked for his wealth at some time although, Aunt Alvirah told +her, nobody had ever troubled him in all the years she had lived at +the Red Mill. + +So it was not fear of marauders that kept Ruth so wakeful on this +first night under her uncle's roof. She thought of all the kind +friends she had left in Darrowtown, and her long journey here, and her +cold welcome to what she supposed would be her future home. Without +Helen, and without Aunt Alvirah, she knew she would have gotten up, +put on her clothing, packed her bag, and run away in the rain to some +other place. She could not have stood Uncle Jabez alone. + +Jabez Potter was hoarding up something besides money, too. Ruth did +not understand this until it had already rained several days, and the +roaring of the waters fretting against the river banks and against the +dam, had become all but deafening in her ears. + +Then, during a lull in the storm, and on the afternoon that Tom +Cameron was taken home from Dr. Davison's, the old doctor himself +stopped at the mill and shouted for Jabez to come out. The doctor +drove a very fast red and white mare and had difficulty in holding her +in, for she was eager to be moving. + +Uncle Jabez came out and seemed to look upon the doctor in no very +friendly way. Ruth, standing at the open door of the kitchen, could +hear Dr. Davison's voice plainly. + +"Jabez," he said, "do you know how the river is at Minturn?" + +"No," returned the miller, briefly. + +"It's higher than it's ever been. That dam is not safe. Why don't you +let your water out so that, if Minturn should break, she'd have free +sweep here and so do less damage below? Let this small flood out and +when the greater one comes there'll be less danger of a disaster." + +"And how do I know the Minturn dam will burst, Dr. Davison?" asked Mr. +Potter, tartly. + +"You don't know it. I'm only advising that precaution." + +"And if it don't burst I'll have my pains for my trouble--and no +water for the summer, perhaps. They wouldn't let me have water later, +if I needed it." + +"But you're risking your own property here." + +"And it's mine to risk, Dr. Davison," said Potter, in his sullen way. + +"But there are other people to think of--" + +"I don't agree with you," interrupted the miller. "I have enough to do +to attend to my own concerns. I don't bother about other people's +business." + +"Meaning that I do when I speak to you about the water; eh?" said the +old doctor, cheerfully. "Well, I've done my duty. You'll learn some +time, Jabez." + +He let out the impatient mare then, and the mud spattered from his +wheels as he flew up the road toward Cheslow. + + CHAPTER IX + + THE CREST OF THE WAVE + +The rain could not last forever; Nature must cease weeping some time. +Just as girls, far away from their old homes and their old friends, +must cease wetting their pillows with regretful tears after a time, +and look forward to the new interests and new friends to which they +have come. + +Not that Ruth wept much. But the rainy days of that first week were +necessarily trying. On Saturday, however, came a clear day. The sun +shone, the drenched trees shook themselves, and the wind came and blew +softly and warmly through their branches to dry the tender foliage. +The birds popped out of their hiding-places and began to sing and +chirp as though they never could be glad enough for this change in the +weather. + +There was so much to see from the kitchen door at the Red Mill that +Ruth did not mind her work that morning. She had learned now to help +Aunt Alvirah in many ways. Not often did the old lady have to go about +moaning her old refrain: + +"Oh, my back and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" + +The housework was all done and the kitchen swept and as neat as a new +pin when the gay tooting of the Cameron automobile horn called Ruth to +the porch. There was only Helen on the front seat of the car; but in +the tonneau was a bundled-up figure surmounted by what looked to be a +scarlet cap which Ruth knew instantly must be Tom's. Ruth did not know +many boys and, never having had a brother, was not a little bashful. +Besides, she was afraid Tom Cameron would make much of her connection +with his being found on the Wilkins Corners road that dark night, +after his accident. + +And there was another thing that made Ruth feel diffident about +approaching the boy. She had borne it all the time in her mind, and +the instant she saw Tom in the automobile it bobbed up to the surface +of her thought again. + +"It was Jabe Potter--he did it." + +So, for more reasons than one, Ruth approached the motor car with +hesitation. + +"Oh, Ruth!" cried Helen, putting out a gauntleted hand to her. "So +this horrid rain has not washed you away? You won't like the Red Mill +if the weather keeps this way. And how do you get on?" she added, +lowering her voice. "How about the Ogre?" + +"He has not ground me into bread-flour yet," responded Ruth, smiling. + +"I see he hasn't. You're just as plump as ever, so he hasn't starved +you, either. Now, Ruth, I want you to know my brother Tom, whom you +have met before without his having been aware of it at the time," and +she laughed again. + +Tom's left arm was in a sling, and the scarlet bandage around his head +made him look like a pirate; but he grinned broadly at Ruth and put +out his lean brown hand. + +"When I heard about you, Miss Fielding, I knew you were a spunky one," +he said. "And anybody that Reno takes to, the way she did to you, is +all right. Besides, Nell is just spoons on you already, and Nell, like +Reno, doesn't take to every girl." + +"The doctor said an outing in the car wouldn't hurt Tom," went on +Helen, "and we're going to run up the valley road a way. Now Ruth +Fielding, you get your hat and coat and come with us." + +"I don't know that I may," Ruth said, timidly. + +"I'll believe that he is an ogre then, and that you are kept a +prisoner in this awful castle," cried Helen. + +"I'd love to go," murmured Ruth. + +"Then run and ask," urged her friend, while Tom added, good-naturedly: + +"Yes, why not come along? Don't be afraid of Nell's driving. She +handles the car all right." + +Ruth knew that Uncle Jabez had gone to town. She had a feeling that he +did not like the Camerons and might oppose her friendliness with them. +But he was not at hand now to interfere with her innocent pleasures. +She went in and asked Aunt Alvirah if she could take the ride. + +"Why not, child? You've been the very best helpmate ever an old woman +had--Oh, my back and oh, my bones! Run along and have your fun, +deary. You need not be back till supper time. You have earned your +little outing, that's sure and sartain." + +Before Helen had picked her up on the road to the Red Mill that first +day, Ruth had never ridden in a motor car. On that occasion they had +traveled very slowly, while the girls talked. But now, when she was +seated beside her new friend, Helen ran the auto on its high gear, and +they shot away up the level river road at a pace that almost took +Ruth's breath away. + +"Up here among the foothills is the big Minturn Pond Dam," Tom said, +leaning forward to speak to their guest. "It's twenty miles above your +uncle's dam and is a deal bigger. And some say it is not safe--Wait, +Nell! Slow down so that we can see the face of the dam from the +Overlook." + +The speed of the car was immediately reduced under Helen's +manipulation, and then she swerved it into a short side road running +toward the river, and they came out upon a little graveled plaza in +the center of a tiny park, which gave a splendid view of the valley in +both directions. + +But the young people in the motor car turned their eyes to the west. +There the face of the Minturn dam could be discerned; and even as they +looked at it they seemed to see it changing--dissolving, covered with +mist, and spouting geysers of what at first seemed like smoke. But it +was Tom who realized the truth. + +"She's burst!" he cried. "The old dam's burst! There she goes in a +dozen places!" + +Although they were several miles down the valley, the thunder of the +bursting masonry now echoed in their ears. And up from the bottom of +the wall, near its center, a great geyser spouted. In a moment the +wall crumbled and they saw tons upon tons of the masonry melt away. +The waters of the pond burst through in a solid flood and charged down +the valley, spreading wider and wider as it charged on, and bearing +upon its crest every light and unstable structure found in its path. + +It was a startling--a terrifying sight. No wonder the two girls cried +out in alarm and clung together. The sight of the charging flood +fascinated them. + +But then they were aroused--and that within the first half minute of +their terror--by Tom. He was trying, crippled as he was, to climb +over into their seat. + +"What are you doing, you foolish boy?" cried Helen. "Sit down." + +"We've got to get out of here!" muttered the excited youth. + +"Why, we are safe here. The water will never rise to this height." + +"I know it! I know it!" groaned Tom, falling back in his seat and +paling because of the pain from his arm, which he had twisted. "But +don't you see? There are many down the valley who won't know of this +until too late. Why, they can't see it at the bridge--at Culm Falls-- +until the flood is right upon them." + +"It's true!" gasped Helen. "What shall we do?" + +"We must warn them--we can warn them, can't we?" demanded Ruth. "This +car runs so fast--you control it so well, Helen. Can't we warn them?" + +"Try it, Sis!" shouted Tom. "You can do it!" + +And already his sister, setting her teeth hard upon her lower lip, was +backing and turning the motor car. In twenty seconds they were dashing +off upon the track over which they had so recently come--on the road +down the valley with the flood following fast behind them. + + CHAPTER X + + THE RACE + +The two girls on the front seat of the flying automobile were not +prepared for racing. Of course, Ruth Fielding had no proper automobile +outfit, and Helen had not expected such an emergency when she had +started with her crippled brother for this afternoon run. She had no +goggles, nor any mask; but she had the presence of mind to raise the +wind-shield. + +Already they could have heard the steady roaring of the advancing +flood had not the racing motor car drowned all other sounds. There +was, however, no need to look behind; they knew the wave was there and +that it was sweeping down the valley of the Lumano with frightful +velocity. + +Indeed, they were not at all sure for those first few miles whether +they were traveling as fast as the flood, or not. Suppose the wave +should reach and sweep away the bridge before they could cross the +river? The thought was in the mind of both Helen and Ruth, whether +Tom, on the rear seat, considered it or not. When they finally shot +out of the woods and turned toward the toll-bridge, all glanced +around. From here the upper reaches of the Lumano were plainly +revealed. And extending clear across the valley was the foam-crested +wave charging down upon the lowlands, but a number of miles away. + +Here was the first house, too. They saw a man and woman and several +children out front, staring at the automobile as it raced down the +road. Perhaps they had been called from the house by the vibration of +the bursting dam. + +Tom sprang up in the car and pointed behind him, yelling: + +"The flood! The flood!" + +It is doubtful if they heard what he said; and they, too, were on a +knoll and likely out of the reach of the water. But the three in the +automobile saw the whole family turn and run for the higher ground +behind their house. They understood the peril which menaced the whole +valley. + +In a flash the auto had turned the bend in the river road, and the +occupants saw the toll-bridge and the peaceful hamlet of Culm Falls. +There was no stir there. The toll-bridge keeper was not even out of +his cottage, and the light and flimsy gates were down across the +driveway at either end of the bridge. The bend in the river hid the +advancing wall of water. Perhaps, too, it deadened the sound of the +bursting dam and the roar of the waters. + +There was another house at the bend. Helen tooted the automobile horn +as though it had gone crazy. The raucous notes must of a certainty +have awakened anybody but the Seven Sleepers. But the three in the car +saw no sign of life about the premises. Helen had started to slow +down; but Tom stopped her with a hand on her arm. + +"Not here! Not here!" he yelled. "Get across the river first, Nell! +That wave is coming!" + +Indeed it was. And the toll-bridge keeper did not appear, and the +gates were shut. But Helen Cameron was excited now and her racing +blood was up. She never hesitated at the frail barrier, but drove +straight through it, smashing the gate to kindling wood, and smashing +their own wind shield as well. + +Out ran the toll-man then; but they were half way across the bridge; +he could barely have raised the other gate had he set about it +instantly. So they went through that, too, leaving him bawling and +shrieking after them, but soon to learn by looking up the river what +Tom meant by his excited words as the motor car swept by. + +Helen slowed down at the smithy. There were several men there and a +number of wagons. The trio in the car screamed at them: "The dam has +burst! The flood is coming!" and then started up again and swept +through the little village, looking back to see the group at the +smithy running in all directions to give the alarm. + +Now the road, clear to the Red Mill and beyond, ran within sight of +the river. The mill was all of ten miles away. The valley was low here +and as far as they could see ahead it broadened considerably on this +side of the Lumano. But the hills arose abruptly on the farther bank +and all the force and mass of the flood must sweep across these +meadows. + +As the car moved on, Helen tooted the horn constantly. Its blasts +alone should have warned people of what threatened, without Tom's +frantic shouts and gesticulations. They were obliged, however, to slow +down before several houses to make the occupants understand their +danger. + +They were not half way to the Red Mill when the roar of the advancing +tidal wave was apparent even above the noise of the auto. Then they +saw the crest of the flood appear around the bend and the already +heavily burdened waters dashed themselves upon the toll-bridge. It +crumpled up and disappeared like a spider-web bridge, and the flood +rolled on, the wave widening and overflowing the lowlands behind the +automobile. + +Ahead of them now upon the road there was a single foot-passenger--a +man carrying a heavy basket. He seemed so far from the higher ground, +and so determined to keep to the road, that Ruth cried out and laid +her hand upon Helen's arm. The latter nodded and shut off the engine +so that the automobile ran down and almost stopped by this pedestrian. + +"Here, you!" shouted Tom, from the tonneau. "Get in here quick! +There's no time to lose!" + +Much of what he said was lost in the roaring of the waters; but the +fellow understood him well enough, and scrambled into the car with his +basket. It was Jasper Parloe, and the old man was shaking as with +palsy. + +"My goodness gracious!" he croaked, falling back in the seat as the +car darted away again. "Ain't this awful? Ain't this jest awful?" + +He was too scared, one would have supposed, to think of much else than +the peril of the flood sweeping the valley behind them; yet he stared +up at Tom Cameron again and again as the auto hurried them on toward +the safety of the higher ground about the Red Mill, and there was +something very sly in his look. + +"Ye warn't hurt so bad then, arter all, was ye, Master Cameron?" he +croaked. + +"I reckon I shall live to get over it," returned the boy, shortly. + +"But no thanks to Jabe Potter--heh? Ha! I know, I know!" + +Tom stared in return angrily, but the old man kept shaking his head +and smiling up at him slily and in such a significant way that, had +the boy not been so disturbed by what was going on behind them, he +certainly would have demanded to know what the old fellow meant. + +But the car was getting close to the long hill that mounted to the +crest on which the Red Mill stood. How much better would it have been +for Jabez Potter and all concerned had he taken Doctor Davison's +advice and let out the water behind his dam! But now he was not even +at home to do anything before the thousands upon thousands of tons of +water from the Minturn reservoir swept through the Red Mill dam. + +They saw the foaming, yellow water spread over the country behind +them; but within half a mile of the mill it gathered into narrower +compass again because of the nature of the land, and the wave grew +higher as it rushed down upon Potter's dam. The motor car puffed up +the hill and halted before the mill door. + +"Will we be safe here, Tom?" cried Helen, as pale as a ghost now, but +too brave to give way. "Are we safe?" + +"We're all right, I believe," said Tom. + +Jasper Parloe was already out of the car and ran into the mill. Only +the hired man was there, and he came to the door with a face whiter +than it was naturally made by the flour dust. + +"Come in, quick!" he cried to the young people. "This mill can't go-- +it's too solid." + +Beyond the Red Mill the ground was low again; had the Camerons tried +to keep on the road for home the flood would have overtaken the car. +And to take the road that branched off for Cheslow would have +endangered the car, too. In a few seconds the knoll on which the mill +stood was an island! + +The girls and Tom ran indoors. They could hardly hear each other shout +during the next few minutes. The waters rose and poured over the dam, +and part of it was swept out. Great waves beat upon the river-wall of +the mill. And then, with a tearing crash of rent timbers and masonry, +the front of the little office and the storeroom, built out over the +river, was torn away. + +From that quarter Jasper Parloe ran, yelling wildly. Ruth saw him dart +out of the far door of the mill, stooping low and with his coat over +his head as though he expected the whole structure to fall about his +ears. + +But only that wall and the loading platform for the boats were sliced +off by the flood. Then the bulk of the angry waters swept past, +carrying all sorts of debris before it, and no farther harm was done +to the mill, or to Mr. Potter's other buildings. + + CHAPTER XI + + UNCLE JABEZ IS EXCITED + +So rapidly had all this taken place that the girls had remained in the +mill. But now Ruth, crying: "Aunt Alvirah will be frightened to death, +Helen!" led the way down the long passage and through the shed into +the kitchen porch. The water on this side of the building had swept up +the road and actually into the yard; but the automobile stood in a +puddle only and was not injured. + +Aunt Alviry was sitting in her rocker by the window. The old woman was +very pale and wan. She had her Bible open on her knees and her lips +trembled in a smile of welcome when the girls burst into the room. + +"Oh, my dears! my dears!" she cried. "I am so thankful to see you both +safe!" She started to rise, and the old phrase came to her lips: "Oh, +my back and oh, my bones!" + +Then she rose and hobbled across the room. Her bright little, birdlike +eyes, that had never yet known spectacles, had seen something up the +Cheslow road. + +"Who's this a-coming? For the land's sake, what recklessness! Is that +Jabez and his mules, Ruthie? Bless us and save us! what's he going to +try and do?" + +The two girls ran to the door. Down the hill thundered a farm wagon +drawn by a pair of mules, said mules being on the dead run while their +driver stood in the wagon and snapped his long, blacksnake whip over +their ears. Such a descent of the hill was reckless enough in any +case; but now, at the foot, rolled the deep water. It had washed away +a little bridge that spanned what was usually a rill, but the banks of +this stream being overflowed for yards on either side, the channel was +at least ten feet deep. + +It was Jabez Potter driving so recklessly down the hill from Cheslow. + +"Oh, oh!" screamed the old lady. "Jabez will be killed! Oh, my back +and oh, my bones! Oh, deary, deary me!" + +She had crossed the porch and was hobbling down the steps. Her +rheumatic twinges evidently caused her excruciating pain, but the fear +she felt for the miller's safety spurred her to get as far as the +fence. And there Ruth and Helen kept her from splashing into the muddy +water that covered the road. + +"You can do no good, Aunt Alvirah!" cried Ruth. + +"The mules are not running away with him, Mrs. Boggs," urged Helen. + +"They'll kill him! He's crazy! It's his money--the poor, poor man!" + +It was evident that Aunt Alvirah read the miller's excitement aright. +Ruth remembered the cash-box and wondered if it had been left in the +mill while her uncle went to Cheslow? However that might be, her +attention--indeed, the attention of everybody about the mill--was +held by the reckless actions of Mr. Potter. + +It was not fifteen minutes after the wave had hit the mill and torn +away a part of the outer office wall and the loading platform, or +wharf, when the racing mules came down to the turbulent stream that +lay between the Cheslow road and the Red Mill. The frightened animals +would have balked at the stream, but the miller, still standing in the +wagon, coiled the whip around his head and then lashed out with it, +laying it, like a tongue of living fire, across the mules' backs. + +They were young animals and they had been unused, until this day, to +the touch of the blacksnake. They leaped forward with almost force +enough to break out of their harness, but landing in the deep water +with the wagon behind them. So far out did they leap that they went +completely under and the wagon dipped until the body was full of +water. + +But there stood the miller, upright and silent, plying the whip when +they came to the surface, and urging them on. Ruth had noticed before +this that Uncle Jabez was not cruel to his team, or to his other +animals; but this was actual brutality. + +However, the mules won through the flood. The turgid stream was not +wide and it was not a long fight. But there was the peril of mules, +wagon and man being swept out into the main stream of the flood and +carried over the dam. + +"He is awful! awful!" murmured Helen, in Ruth's ear, as they clung +together and watched the miller and his outfit come through and the +mules scramble out upon solid ground. + +The miller had brought his half-mad team to the mill and pulled the +mules down right beside the Cameron's automobile. Already the young +fellow who worked for him had flown out of the mill to Jabez's +assistance. He seized the frightened mules by their bits. + +"How much has gone, boy?" cried Jabez, in a strained, hoarse voice. + +"Not much, boss. Only a part of the office an'--" + +The miller was already in at the door. In a moment, it seemed, he was +back again, having seen the damage done by the flood to his building. +But that damage was comparatively slight. It should not have caused +the old man to display such profound despair. + +He wrung his hands, tore off his hat and stamped upon it on the walk, +and behaved in such a manner that it was little wonder Helen Cameron +was vastly frightened. He seemed beside himself with rage and despair. + +Ruth, herself torn by conflicting emotions, could not bear to see the +old man so convulsed with what seemed to be anguish of spirit, without +offering her sympathy. During this week that she had been at the Red +Mill it could not be said that she had gained Uncle Jabez's +confidence--that she had drawn close to him at all. But it was not +for a will on her part to do so. + +The girl now left Aunt Alvirah and Helen on the porch and walked +straight down to the old man. She was beside him, with a hand upon his +arm, before he was aware of her coming. + +He stared at her so angrily--with such an expression of rage and +hopelessness upon his face--that she was held speechless for a +moment. + +"What do you know about it, girl?" he demanded, hoarsely. + +"About what, Uncle?" she returned. + +"The box--the cash-box--my money!" he cried, in a low voice. "Do you +know anything about it? Was it saved?" + +"Oh, Uncle! We only got here in the automobile just in time to escape +the flood. The office was wrecked at that very moment. Was the box +there?" + +"Gone! Gone!" he murmured, shaking his head; and turning on his heel, +he strode into the mill. + +The boy had taken the mules around to the stable. Ruth hesitated, then +followed the old man into the mill. There Jabez confronted Tom +Cameron, sitting on a sack of meal and watching the turbid waters +falling over the dam. + +"Ha! Young Cameron," muttered Uncle Jabez. "You didn't see the +cash-box, of course?" + +"Where was it?" asked Tom, quietly. + +"In that office--on a shelf, with an old coat thrown over it. I +believed it to be as safe there as in the house with nobody but an old +woman to guard it." + +"Better put your money in the bank, sir," said Tom, coolly. + +"And have some sleek and oily scoundrel steal it, eh?" snarled Uncle +Jabez. + +"Well, the water stole it, I reckon," Tom said. "I'm sorry for you if +there was much money in the box. But I know nothing about it. Jasper +Parloe might have saved the box had he known about it; he was over +there by the office when the water tore away the wall." + +"Jasper Parloe!" ejaculated Uncle Jabez, starting. "Was he here?" + +"He wasn't here long," chuckled Tom. "He thought the mill was going +and he lit out in a hurry." + +Uncle Jabez made another despairing gesture and walked away. Ruth +followed him and her hands closed upon the toil-hardened fist clenched +at his side. + +"I'm sorry, Uncle," she whispered. + +He suddenly stared down at her. + +"There! I believe you be, child. But your being sorry can't help it +none. The money's gone--hard it come and it's hard to part with in +this way." + +"Was it a large sum, Uncle?" + +"All the ready cash I had in the world. Every cent I owned. That boy +said, put it in a bank. I lost money when the Cheslow Bank failed +forty year ago. I don't get caught twice in the same trap--no, sir! +I've lost more this time; but no dishonest blackleg will have the +benefit of it, that's sure. The river's got it, and nobody will ever +be a cent the better off for it. All! All gone!" + +He jerked his hand away from Ruth's sympathetic pressure and walked +moodily away. + + CHAPTER XII + + THE CATASTROPHE + +This was the beginning of some little confidence between Ruth and +Uncle Jabez. He had not been quite so stern and unbending, even in his +passion, as before. He said nothing more about the lost cash-box-- +Aunt Alviry dared not even broach the subject--but Ruth tried to show +him in quiet ways that she was sorry for his loss. + +Uncle Jabez was not a gentle man, however; his voice being so seldom +heard did not make it the less rough and passionate. There were times +when, because of his black looks, Ruth did not even dare address him. +And there was one topic she longed to address him upon very much +indeed. She wanted to go to school. + +She had always been quick at her books, and had stood well in the +graded school of Darrowtown. There was a schoolhouse up the road from +the Red Mill--not half a mile away; this district school was a very +good one and the teacher had called on Aunt Alvirah and Ruth liked her +very much. + +The flood had long since subsided and the repairs to the mill and the +dam were under way. Uncle Jabez grew no more pleasant, however, for +the freshet had damaged his dam so that all the water had to be let +out and he might go into midsummer with such low pressure behind the +dam that he could not run the mill through the drouth. This +possibility, together with the loss of the cash-box, made him--even +Aunt Alvirah admitted--"like a dog with a sore head." Nevertheless +Ruth determined to speak to him about the school. + +She chose an evening when the kitchen was particularly bright and +homelike and her uncle had eaten his supper as though he very much +enjoyed it. There was no cash-box for him to be absorbed in now; but +every evening he made countless calculations in an old ledger which he +took to bed with him with as much care as he had the money-box. + +Before he opened his ledger on this evening, however, Ruth stood +beside him and put a hand upon his arm. + +"Uncle," she said, bravely, "can I go to school?" + +He stared at her directly for a moment, from under his heavy brows; +but her own gaze never wavered. + +"How much schoolin' do you want?" he demanded, harshly. + +"If you please Uncle Jabez, all I can get," replied Ruth. + +"Ha! Readin', writin', an' mighty little 'rithmatic--we called 'em +'the three R's '--did for me when I was a boy. The school tax they +put onto me ev'ry year is something wicked. And I never had chick nor +child to go to their blamed old school." + +"Let me go, Uncle, and so get some of your money back that way," Ruth +said, quickly, and smiling in her little, birdlike way with her head +on one side. + +"Ha! I don't know about that," he growled, shaking his head. "I don't +see what I'll be makin' out of it." + +"Perhaps I can help you later, if you'll let me learn enough," she +urged. "I can learn enough arithmetic to keep your books. I'll try +real hard." + +"I don't know about that," he said, again, eyeing her suspiciously. +"The little money I make I kin keep watch of--when I'm here to watch +it, that is. There ain't no book-keeping necessary in my business. And +then--there's your Aunt Alviry. She needs you." + +"Don't you go for to say that, Jabez," interposed the old woman, +briskly. "That child's the greatest help that ever was; but she can do +all that's necessary before and arter school, and on Saturdays. She's +a good smart child, Jabez. Let her have a chance to l'arn." + +"Ain't no good ever come of books," muttered the miller. + +"Oh, Uncle! Just let me show you," begged the girl, in her earnestness +clinging to his arm with both hands. + +He looked down for a moment at her hands as though he would fling off +her hold. But he thought better of it, and waited fully a minute +before he spoke. + +"You know your Aunt Alviry needs ye," he said. "If you kin fix it with +her, why I don't see as I need object." + +"Will it be too much trouble for you to get my trunk, Uncle, so that I +can begin going to school next week?" Ruth asked. + +"Ain't you got nothin' to wear to school?" he said. "It's dress; is +it? Beginning that trouble airly; ain't ye?" + +He seemed to be quite cross again, and the girl looked at him in +surprise. + +"Dear Uncle! You will get the trunk from the station, won't you?" + +"No I won't," he said. "Because why? Because I can't." + +"You can't?" she gasped, and even Aunt Alvirah looked startled. + +"That's what I said." + +"Why--why can't you?" cried Ruth. "Has something happened to my +trunk?" + +"That's jest it--and it warn't no fault o' mine," said the miller. "I +got the trunk like I said I would and it was in the wagon when we came +down the hill yonder. + +"Oh, oh!" gasped Ruth, her hands clasped. "You don't mean when you ran +the mules into the water, Uncle?" + +"I had to get to my mill. I didn't know what was being done over +here," he said, uglily. "And didn't I lose enough? What's the loss of +some old rags, and a trunk, 'side of my money?" + +He said it with such force, and with so angry a gesture, that she +shrank back from him. But her pain and disappointment were so strong +that she had to speak. + +"And the trunk was washed out of the wagon, Uncle Jabez? It's gone?" + +"That's what happened to it, I suppose," he grunted, and dropping his +head, opened the ledger and began to study the long lines of figures +there displayed. Not a word to show that he was sorry for her loss. No +appreciation of the girl's pain and sorrow. He selfishly hugged to him +the misfortune of his own loss and gave no heed to Ruth. + +But Aunt Alvirah caught her hand as she passed swiftly. The old woman +carried the plump little hand to her lips in mute sympathy, and then +Ruth broke away even from her and ran upstairs to her room. There she +cast herself upon the bed and, with her sobs smothered in the pillows, +gave way to the grief that had long been swelling her heart to the +bursting point. + + CHAPTER XIII + + BUTTER AND BUTTERCUPS + +Such little keepsakes as remained of her father and mother--their +photographs, a thin old bracelet, her mother's wedding ring, her +father's battered silver watch had fortunately been in Ruth's bag. +Those keepsakes had been too precious to risk in the trunk and in the +baggage car. And how glad the girl was now that she had thus treasured +these things. + +But the loss of the trunk, with all her clothing --common though that +clothing had been--was a disaster that Ruth could not easily get +over. She cried herself to sleep that night and in the morning came +down with a woebegone face indeed. Uncle Jabez did not notice her, and +even Aunt Alvirah did not comment upon her swollen eyes and +tear-streaked countenance. But the old woman, if anything, was kinder +than ever to her. + +It was Saturday, and butter day. Uncle Jabez owned one cow, and since +Ruth had come to the mill it was her work twice a week to churn the +butter. The churn was a stone crock with a wooden dasher and Ruth had +just emptied in the thick cream when Helen Cameron ran in. + +"Oh, Ruth!" she cried. "You're always busy--especially if I chance to +want you at all particularly." + +"If you will be a drone yourself, Helen, you must expect to be always +hunting company," laughed Ruth. "Just what is troubling Miss Cameron +at present?" + +"We're going to dress the Cove Chapel for to-morrow. You know, I told +you our guild attends to the decoration of the chapel and I've just +set my heart on making a great pillow of buttercups. The fields are +full of them. And Tom says he'll help. Now, you'll come; won't you?" + +"If I come for buttercups it will have to be after the butter comes!" +returned Ruth, laughing. + +She had begun to beat the dasher up and down and little particles of +cream sprayed up through the hole in the cover of the jar, around the +handle of the dasher. Helen looked on with growing interest. + +"And is that the way to make butter?" she asked. "And the cream's +almost white. Our butter is yellow--golden. Just as golden as the +buttercups. Do you color it?" + +"Not at this time of year. I used to help Miss True make butter. She +had a cow. She said I was a good butter maker. You see, it's all in +the washing after the butter comes. You wait and see." + +"But I want to pick buttercups--and Tom is waiting down by the +bridge." + +"Can't help it. Butter before buttercups," declared Ruth, keeping the +dasher steadily at work. "And then, Aunt Alvirah may want me for +something else before dinner." + +"We've got dinner with us--or, Tom has. At least, Babette put us up a +basket of lunch." + +"Oh! A picnic!" cried Ruth, flushing with pleasure. This visit had +driven out of her mind --for the time, at least--her trouble of +overnight. + +"I'm going to ask Aunt Alviry for you," went on Helen, and skipped +away to find the little old woman who, despite the drawback of "her +back and her bones" was a very neat and particular housekeeper. She +was back in a few moments. + +"She says you can go, just as soon as you get the butter made. Now, +hurry up, and let us get into the buttercup field, which is a whole +lot nicer than the butter churn and--Oh! it smells much nicer, too. +Why, Ruth, that cream actually smells sour!" + +"I expect it is sour," laughed her friend. "Didn't you know that sweet +butter comes from sour cream? And that most nice things are the result +of hard work? The sweet from the bitter, you know." + +"My! how philosophical we are this morning. Isn't that butter ever +coming?" + +"Impatience! Didn't you ever have to wait for anything you wanted in +your life?" + +"Why, I've got to wait till next fall before I go to Briarwood Hall. +That's a rhyme, Ruthie; it's been singing itself over and over in my +mind for days. I'm really going to boarding school in the autumn. It's +decided. Tom is going to the military academy on the other side of +Osago Lake. He'll be within ten miles of Briarwood." + +Ruth's face had lost its brightness as Helen said this. The word +"school" had brought again to the girl's mind her own unfortunate +position and Uncle Jabez's unkindness. + +"I hope you will have a delightful time at Briarwood," Ruth said, +softly. "I expect I shall miss you dreadfully." + +"Oh, suppose the Ogre should send you to school there, too!" cried +Helen, with clasped hands. "Wouldn't that be splendid!" + +"That would be beyond all imagination," said Ruth, shaking her head. +"I--I don't know that I shall be able to attend the balance of the +term here." + +"Why not?" demanded Helen. "Won't he let you?" + +"He has said I could." Ruth could say no more just then. She hid her +face from her friend, but made believe that it was the butter that +occupied her attention. The dasher began to slap, slap, slap +suggestively in the churn and little particles of beaten cream began +to gather on the handle of the dasher. + +"Oh!" cried Helen. "It's getting hard!" + +"The butter is coming. Now a little cold water to help it separate. +And then you shall have a most delicious glass of buttermilk." + +"No, thank you!" cried Helen. "They say it's good for one to drink it. +But I never do like anything that's good for me." + +"Give it to me, Ruth," interposed another voice, and Tom put a smiling +face around the corner of the well. "I thought you were never coming, +Miss Flyaway," he said, to his sister. + +"Butter before buttercups, young man," responded Helen, primly. "We +must wait for Ruth to--er--wash the butter, is it?" + +"Yes," said her friend, seriously, opening the churn and beginning to +ladle out the now yellow butter into a wooden bowl. + +"May I assist at the butter's toilet?" queried Tom, grinning. + +"You may sit down and watch," said his sister, in a tone intended to +quell any undue levity on her brother's part. + +Ruth had rolled her sleeves above her elbows, so displaying her pretty +plump arms, and now worked and worked the butter in cold water right +"from the north side of the well" as though she were kneading bread. +First she had poured Tom a pitcher of the fresh buttermilk, and given +him a glass. Even Helen tasted a little of the tart drink. + +"Oh, it's ever so nice, I suppose," she said, with a little grimace; +"but I much prefer my milk sweet." + +Again and again Ruth poured off the milky water and ran fresh, cold +water upon her butter until no amount of kneading and washing would +subtract another particle of milk from the yellow ball. The water was +perfectly clear. + +"Now I'll salt it," she said; "and put it away until this afternoon, +and then I'll work it again and put it down in the butter-jar. When I +grow up and get rich I am going to have a great, big dairy; with a +herd of registered cattle, and I'm going to make all the butter +myself." + +"And Tom's going to raise horses. He's going to own a stock farm--so +he says. You'd better combine interests," said Helen, with some scorn. +"I like horses to ride, and butter to eat, but--well, I prefer +buttercups just now. Hurry up, Miss Slow-poke! We'll never get enough +flowers for a pillow." + +So Ruth cleaned her face, taking a peep into the glass in the kitchen +to make sure, before going out to her friends. Tom looked at her with +plain approval, and Helen jumped up to squeeze her again. + +"No wonder Aunt Alvirah calls you 'pretty creetur'," she whispered in +Ruth's ear. "For that's what you are." Then to Tom: "Now young man, +have you the lunch basket?" + +"What there is left of it is in charge of Reno down at the bridge," he +replied, coolly. + +They found the huge mastiff lying with the napkin-covered basket +between his forepaws, on the grass by the water side. Reno was +growling warningly and had his eyes fixed upon a figure leaning upon +the bridge railing. + +"That there dawg don't seem ter take to me," drawled Jasper Parloe, +who was the person on the bridge. "He needn't be afraid. I wouldn't +touch the basket." + +"You won't be likely to touch it while Reno has charge of it," said +Tom, quietly, while the girls passed on swiftly. Neither Ruth nor +Helen liked to have anything to do with Parloe. When Tom released Reno +from his watch and ward, the dog trotted after Ruth and put his nose +into her hand. + +"Ye been up ter the mill, hev ye?" queried Parloe, eyeing Tom Cameron +aslant, "ye oughter be gre't friends with Jabe Potter. Or has he +squared hisself with ye?" + +"Say, Mister Parloe," said Tom, sharply, "you've been hinting +something about the miller every time you've seen me lately. + +"Only since yeou was knocked down that bank inter the gully, an' yer +arm an' head hurt. There warn't nothin' about Jabe ter interest yeou +afore that," returned Parloe, quickly. + +Tom flushed suddenly and he looked at the old fellow with new +interest. + +"Just what do you mean?" he asked, slowly. + +"Ye know well enough. Your dad, Tom Cameron, is mighty riled up over +your bein' hurt. I heered him say that he'd give a ten-dollar note ter +know who it was drove by ye that night and crowded ye inter the ditch. +Would you give more than that not ter have it known who done it?" + +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Tom, angrily. + +"I guess ye like this here gal that's cone to live on Jabez, purty +well; don't ye--yeou an' yer sister?" croaked old Parloe. "Wal, if +your dad an' the miller gits inter a row--comes ter a clinch, as ye +might say--yeou an' yer sister won't be let ter hev much ter do with +Ruth, eh, now?" + +"I don't know that that's so," Tom said doggedly. + +"Oh, yes, ye do. Think it over. Old Jabe will put his foot right down +an' he'll stop Ruth havin' anything ter do with ye--ye know it! Wal, +now; think it over. I got a conscience, I have," pursued Parloe, +cringing and rubbing his hands together, his sly little eyes +sparkling. "I r'ally feel as though I'd oughter tell yer dad who it +was almost run ye down that night and made ye fall into the gully." + +"You mean, you'd like to handle Dad's ten dollars!" cried Tom, +angrily. + +Parloe smirked and still rubbed his hands together. "Don't matter a +mite whose ten dollars I handle," he said, suggestively. "Your ten +dollars would be jest as welcome to me as your Dad's, Master Cameron." + +"Ten dollars is a lot of money," said Tom. + +"Yes. It's right smart. I could make use of it I'm a poor man, an' I +could use it nicely," admitted the sly and furtive Parloe. + +"I haven't got so much money now," growled the boy. + +"Yeou kin get it, I warrant." + +"I suppose I can." He drew his purse from his pocket. "I've got three +dollars and a half here. I'll have the rest for you on Monday." + +"Quite correct," said Jasper Parloe, clutching eagerly at the money. +"I'll trust ye till then--oh, yes! I'll trust ye till then." + + CHAPTER XIV + + JUST A MATTER OF A DRESS + +"Well, I really believe, Tommy Cameron!" cried his sister Helen, when +he overtook the girls and Reno, swinging the basket recklessly, "that +you are developing a love for low company. I don't see how you can +bear to talk with that Jasper Parloe." + +"I don't see how I can, either," muttered Tom, and he was rather +silent--for him--until they were well off the road and the incident +at the bridge was some minutes behind them. + +But the day was such a glorious one, and the fields and woods were so +beautiful, that no healthy boy could long be gloomy. Besides, Tom +Cameron had assured his sister that he thought Ruth Fielding "just +immense," and he was determined to give the girl of the Red Mill as +pleasant a time as possible. + +He worked like a Trojan to gather buttercups, and after they had eaten +the luncheon old Babette had put up for them (and it was the very +nicest and daintiest luncheon that Ruth Fielding had ever tasted) he +told the girls to remain seated on the flat stone he had found for +them and weave the foundation for the pillow while he picked bushels +upon bushels of buttercups. + +"You'll need a two-horse load, anyway to have enough for a pillow of +the size Nell has planned," he said, grinning. "And perhaps she'll +finish it if you help her, Ruth. She's always trying to do some big +thing and 'falling down' on it." + +"That's not so, Master Sauce-box!" cried his sister. + +Tom went off laughing, and the two girls set to work on the great mass +of buttercups they had already picked. They grew so large, and were so +dewey and golden, that a more brilliant bed of color one could scarce +imagine than the pillow, as it began to grow under the dexterous hands +of Helen and Ruth. And, being alone together now, they began to grow +confidential. + +"And how does the Ogre treat you?" asked Helen. "I thought, when I +came this morning, that you had been feeling badly." + +"I am not very happy," admitted Ruth. + +"It's that horrid Ogre!" cried Helen. + +"It isn't right to call Uncle Jabez names," said Ruth, quietly. "He is +greatly to be pitied, I do believe. And just now, particularly so." + +"You mean because of the loss of that cash-box?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you suppose there was much in it?" + +"He told me that it contained every cent he had saved in all these +years." + +"My!" cried Helen. "Then he must have lost a fortune! He has been a +miser for forty years, so they say." + +"I do not know about that," Ruth pursued. "He is harsh and--and he +seems to be very selfish. He--he says I can go to school, though." + +"Well, I should hope so!" cried Helen. + +"But I don't know that I can go," Ruth continued, shaking her head. + +"For pity's sake I why not?" asked her friend. + +Then, out came the story of the lost trunk. Nor could Ruth keep back +the tears as she told her friend about Uncle Jabez's cruelty. + +"Oh, oh, oh!" cried Helen, almost weeping herself. "The mean, mean +thing! No, I won't call him Ogre again; he isn't as good as an Ogre. +I--I don't know what to call him!" + +"Calling him names won't bring back my trunk, Helen," sobbed Ruth. + +"That's so. I--I'd make him pay for it! I'd make him get me dresses +for those that were lost." + +"Uncle is giving me a home; I suppose he will give me to wear all that +he thinks I need. But I shall have to wear this dress to school, and +it will soon not be fit to wear anywhere else." + +"It's just too mean for anything, Ruth! I just wish--" + +What Miss Cameron wished she did not proceed to explain. She stopped +and bit her lip, looking at her friend all the time and nodding. Ruth +was busily wiping her eyes and did not notice the very wise expression +on Helen's face. + +"Look out! here comes Tom," whispered Helen, suddenly, and Ruth made a +last dab at her eyes and put away her handkerchief in a hurry. + +"Say! ain't you ever going to get that thing done?" demanded Tom. +"Seems to me you haven't done anything at all since I was here last." + +The girls became very busy then and worked swiftly until the pillow +was completed. By that time it was late afternoon and they started +homeward. Ruth separated from Helen and Tom at the main road and +walked alone toward the Red Mill. She came to the bridge, which was at +the corner of her uncle's farm, and climbed the stile, intending to +follow the path up through the orchard to the rear of the house--the +same path by which she and her friends had started on their little +jaunt in the morning. + +The brook which ran into the river, and bounded this lower end of Mr. +Potter's place, was screened by clumps of willows. Just beyond the +first group of saplings Ruth heard a rough voice say: + +"And I tell you to git out! Go on the other side of the crick, Jasper +Parloe, if ye wanter fish. That ain't my land, but this is." + +"Ain't ye mighty brash, Jabe?" demanded the snarling voice of Parloe, +and Ruth knew the first speaker to be her uncle. "Who are yeou ter +drive me away?" + +"The last time ye was at the mill I lost something--I lost more than +I kin afford to lose again," continued Uncle Jabez. "I don't say ye +took it. They tell me the flood took it. But I'm going to know the +right of it some time, and if you know more about it than you ought--" + +"What air ye talkin' about, Jabe Potter?" shrilled Parloe. "I've lost +money by you; ye ain't never paid me for the last month I worked for +ye." + +"Ye paid yerself--ye paid yerself," said Jabe, tartly. "And if ye +stole once ye would again--" + +"Now stop right there, Jabe Potter!" cried Parloe, and Ruth knew that +he had stepped closer to Mr. Potter, and was speaking in a trembling +rage. "Don't ye intermate an' insinerate; for if ye do, I kin fling +out some insinerations likewise. Yeou jest open yer mouth about me +stealin' an' I'll put a flea in old man Cameron's ear. Ha! Ye know +what I mean. Better hev a care, Jabe Potter--better hev a care!" + +There was silence. Her uncle made no reply, and Ruth, fearing she +would be seen, and not wishing to be thought an eavesdropper (although +the conversation had so surprised and terrified her that she had not +thought what she did, before) the girl ran lightly up the hill, +leaving the two old men to their wrangle. When Uncle Jabez came in to +supper that evening his scowl was heavier than usual, if that were +possible, and he did not speak to either Ruth or Aunt Alvirah all the +evening. + + CHAPTER XV + + IN SCHOOL + +Ruth thought it all over, and she came to this conclusion: Uncle Jabez +had given his permission--albeit a grumpy one--and she would begin +school on Monday. The black cloth dress that was so shabby and would +look so odd and proverty-stricken among the frocks of the other girls +(for she had watched them going to and from school, and already knew +some of them to speak to) would have to be worn, if possible, through +the term. Perhaps Uncle Jabez might notice how shabby she looked, +finally, and give her something more appropriate to wear. Especially +as it had been through him that her other frocks were lost. + +But it was not an easy thing to face a whole schoolroom full of girls +and boys--and most of them strangers to her--looking so "dowdyish." +Ruth's love of pretty things was born in her. She had always taken +pride in her appearance, and she felt her shortcomings in this line +quicker and more acutely than most girls of her age. + +She faced the school on Monday morning and found it not so hard as she +had supposed. Miss Cramp welcomed her kindly, and put her through +quite a thorough examination to decide her grade. The Darrowtown +schools had been so good that Ruth was able to take a high place in +this one, and the teacher seated her among the most advanced of her +pupils, although Ruth was younger than some of them. + +The fact that Ruth was well grounded in the same studies that the +scholars at this district school were engaged in, made a difficulty +for her at the start. But she did not know it then. She only knew that +Miss Cramp, seating her pupils according to their grade, sent her to +an empty seat beside one of the largest girls--Julia Semple. + +A good many of the girls stared at the new-comer with more than +ordinary attention; but Julia immediately turned her back on her new +seatmate. Ruth did not, however, give Julia much attention at the +time. She was quite as bashful as most girls of her age; and, too, +there were many things during that first session to hold her +attention. But at recess she found that Julia walked away from her +without a word and that most of the girls who seemed to be in her +grade kept aloof, too. As a stranger in the school the girl from the +Red Mill felt no little unhappiness at this evident slight; but she +was too proud to show her disappointment. She made friends with the +younger girls and was warmly welcomed in their games and pastimes. + +"Julia's mad at you, you see," one of her new acquaintances confided +to Ruth. + +"Mad at me? What for?" asked the surprised new scholar. + +"Why, that seat was Rosy Ball's. Rosy has gone away to see her sister +married and she's coming back to-morrow. If you hadn't come in to take +her place, Rosy would have been let sit beside Julia again, of course, +although like enough she's fallen behind the class. Miss Cramp is very +strict." + +"But I didn't know that. I couldn't help it," cried Ruth. + +"Just the same, Julia says she doesn't like you and that you're a +nobody--that Jabe Potter has taken you in out of charity. And Julia +pretty nearly bosses everything and everybody around this school. Her +father, Mr. Semple, you see, is chairman of the school board." + +Her plain-spoken friend never realized how much she was hurting Ruth +by telling her this. Ruth's pride kept her up, nor would she make +further overtures toward friendship with her classmates. She +determined, during those first few days at the district school, that +she would do her very best to get ahead and to win the commendation of +her teacher. There was a splendid high school at Cheslow, and she +learned that Miss Cramp could graduate pupils from her school directly +into the Cheslow High. It was possible, the teacher assured her, for +Ruth to fit herself for such advancement between that time and the +fall term. + +It seemed as though Ruth could never make her crotchety old uncle love +her. As time passed, the loss of his cash-box seemed to prey upon the +miller's mind more and more. He never spoke of it in the house again; +it is doubtful if he spoke of it elsewhere. But the loss of the money +increased (were that possible) his moroseness. He often spoke to +neither the girl nor Aunt Alvirah from sunrise to sunset. + +But although Uncle Jabez was so moody and so unkind to her, in the +little old woman, whose back and whose bones gave her so much trouble, +Ruth found a loving and thoughtful friend. Aunt Alvirah was as +troubled at first about Ruth's lack of frocks as the girl was herself. +But before Ruth had been attending school a week, she suddenly became +very light-hearted upon the question of dress. + +"Now, don't you fret about it, deary," said Aunt Alviry, wagging her +head knowingly. "Gals like you has jest got ter hev frocks, an' the +good Lord knows it, jest the same as He knows when a sparrer falls. +There'll be a way pervided--there'll be a way pervided. Ef I can't +make ye a purty dress, 'cause o' my back an' my bones, there's them +that kin. We'll hev Miss 'Cretia Lock in by the day, and we'll make +'em." + +"But, dear," said Ruth, wonderingly, "how will we get the goods--and +the trimmings--and pay Miss Lock for her work?" + +"Don't you fret about that. Jest you wait and see," declared Aunt +Alvirah, mysteriously. + +Ruth knew very well that the old woman had not a penny of her own. +Uncle Jabez would never have given her a cent without knowing just +what it was for, and haggling over the expenditure then, a good deal. +To his view, Aunt Alviry was an object of his charity, too, although +for more than ten years the old woman had kept his house like wax and +had saved him the wages of a housekeeper. + +This very day, on coming home from school, Ruth had met Doctor Davison +coming away from the Red Mill. She thought the red and white mare, +that was so spirited and handsome, had been tied to the post in front +of the kitchen door, and that the physician must have called upon Aunt +Alvirah. + +"So this is the young lady who wouldn't stop at my house but went to +Sam Curtis' to stay all night," he said, holding in the mare and +looking down at Ruth. "And you haven't been past the gate with the +green eyes since?" + +"No, sir," Ruth said, timidly. "I have never even been to town." + +"No. Or you would not have failed to see the Curtises again. At least, +I hope you'll see them. Mercy has never ceased talking about you." + +"The lame girl, sir?" cried Ruth, in wonder. "Why, she spoke awfully +unkindly to me, and I thought her mother only thought I would feel bad +and wanted to smooth it over, when she asked me to come again." + +"No," said the doctor, seriously, shaking his head. "Nobody knows +Mercy like her mother. That's not to be expected. She's a poor, +unfortunate, cramp-minded child. I've done what I can for her back-- +she has spinal trouble; but I can do little for Mercy's twisted and +warped mind. She tells me she has cramps in her back and legs and I +tell her she has worse cramps in her mind. Bright! Why, child, she +knows more than most grown folks. Reads every book she can get hold +of; there is scarcely a child in the Cheslow High School who could +compete with her for a month in any study she had a mind to take hold +of. But," and the doctor shook his head again, "her mind's warped and +cramped because of her affliction." + +"I pitied her," said Ruth, quietly. + +"But don't tell her so. Go and see her again--that's all. And mind +you don't come to town without turning in at the gate with the green +eyes;" and so saying he let the eager mare out and she swiftly carried +him away. + +It was after this Aunt Alvirah seemed so confident that a way would be +provided for Ruth to get the frocks that she so sadly needed. On the +very next day, when Ruth came home from school, she found the little +old lady in a flutter of excitement. + +"Now, Ruthie," she whispered, "you mustn't ask too many questions, and +I'll surely tell ye a gre't secret, child." + +"It must be something very nice, Aunt Alviry, or you'd never be like +this. What is it?" + +"Now Ruthie, you mustn't ask too many questions, I tell you. But to +make no secret of it, for secrets I do despise, somebody's made you a +present." + +"Made me a present?" gasped Ruth. + +"Now, careful about questions," warned Aunt Alvirah. "I told you that +a way would be pervided for you to have frocks. And it is true. You +are a-goin' to have 'em." + +"Auntie! New frocks!" + +"Just as good as new. Ev'ry bit as good as new. Somebody that's-- +that's seen ye, deary, and knows how badly you want to go to school, +and that you need dresses, has given you three." + +"My goodness me!" cried Ruth, clasping her hands. "Not three?" + +"Yes, my dear. And they're jest as good as new--about. 'Cretia Lock +won't be two days fixin' 'em over to fit you. And you won't mind, +deary, if the little girl who wore them before you is--is--Well, +deary, she won't never want them any more." + +"Oh, my dear!" cried Ruth. "Three frocks all at once! And--and I'm +not to ask who gave them to me?" + +"That's it. You're not to ask that. I'll git 'em and show you--Oh, my +back and oh, my bones! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" the old lady +added, starting from her chair and hobbling out of the room. + +Ruth was so amazed that she hardly knew what her other feelings at the +moment might be. But there had sprung into her mind, full-fledged, the +suspicion that Doctor Davison had been the donor of the frocks. +Perhaps he had had a little girl sometime, who had died. For Ruth had +quite decided, from what Aunt Alvirah said, that the girl who had +formerly worn the frocks in question was no longer upon earth. + + CHAPTER XVI + + BEHIND THE GREEN LAMPS + +Aunt Alvirah returned in a short time with such a pile of pretty +colors over her arm that Ruth gasped with delight, she couldn't help +it The dresses were all nice ginghams, each of a different color, +nicely trimmed and delightfully made. They were not too fancy for +school wear, and they were good, practical frocks. + +Ruth had worn her little black and white frocks at school while she +was still in Darrowtown, and had she remained longer Miss True Pettis +would have helped her to make other frocks in colors. It is a sad +thing to see a child in black, or black and white, and Ruth's father +had been dead now six months. + +"Ye needn't be scart at the colors, child," said old Aunt Alviry. +"Here's this pretty lavender. We'll make that over first. 'Cretia Lock +will be here to-morrow and we'll make a big beginnin'." + +"But what will uncle say?" gasped Ruth, almost bursting with +questions, but being debarred from asking the most important ones. + +"Don't you fret about your Uncle Jabez. He ain't got nothin' ter do +with it," declared the little old woman, firmly. "Nor he won't say +nothin'." + +Which was very true. Uncle Jabez seldom spoke to his niece now. His +moodiness grew upon him as time passed. And in the evening, as he sat +over his endless calculations at the kitchen table, the girl and the +old woman scarcely dared speak to each other save in whispers. + +Miss Lock worked three days, instead of two, at the Red Mill, helping +Aunt Alvirah "dress-make." How she was paid, Ruth did not know; but +she feared that the pennies Aunt Alvirah saved from her egg and +chicken money had done this. However, the shabby black frock was put +away and Ruth blossomed out into as pretty an appearance as any girl +attending Miss Cramp's school. + +But she did not make friends among her classmates. Julia Semple had +such influence that she seemed to have set all the girls of the higher +class in the district school against Ruth. Julia herself could not +pass Ruth without tossing her head and staring at her haughtily; and +sometimes she would whisper to her companions and look at the girl +from the Red Mill in so scornful a way that Ruth could not help +feeling uncomfortable. + +Indeed, Ruth would have lacked almost all young company had it not +been for Helen Cameron and Tom. Tom didn't think much of "playing with +girls;" but he could always be depended upon to do anything Ruth and +Helen wanted him to. Helen was at the Red Mill often after Ruth's +school hours, and seldom did a Saturday pass that the two chums did +not spend at least half the day together. Aunt Alvirah declared Ruth +should have Saturday afternoons to herself, and often Helen came in +her little pony carriage and drove Ruth about the country. There was a +fat old pony named Tubby that drew the phaeton, and Tubby jogged along +the pleasant country roads with them in a most delightfully gypsyish +way. + +One Saturday afternoon they went to town. Ruth had never seen Cheslow +save on the night of her arrival and on the following morning, when +she had started directly after breakfast at the station master's house +to walk to the Red Mill. + +"Why, you'll like Cheslow," declared Helen, in her enthusiastic way. +"It's just as pretty as it can be--you'll love it! I often drive in +to shop, and sometimes Mrs. Murchiston goes with me. Get up, Tubby!" + +Tubby had to be urged incessantly; exertion was not loved by him. He +would rather walk than trot; he would rather stand than walk; and he +always had the appearance of being asleep--save when he was at his +manger. + +Ruth remembered that she had been warned not to go past "the gate with +the green eyes" and she told Helen of her promise to Doctor Davison. + +"Oh, splendid!" cried her chum. "I don't know anybody whom I like to +call upon in Cheslow ahead of Doctor Davison. It's almost as good as +having him come to see you when you're sick." + +"But I don't think," Ruth objected, "that it's any fun to have any +doctor come to see one on business." + +"You don't half mind being ill when Doctor Davison calls," declared +Helen, with unabated enthusiasm. "And when you call there! Well," +concluded Helen, with a sigh of anticipation, "you'll soon know what +that means. He's got a colored Mammy for cook who makes the most +wonderful jumbles and cakes that you ever tasted--they about melt in +pour mouth!" + +Ruth soon had the opportunity of judging Mammy 'Liza's goodies for +herself, for the doctor was at home, and the girls had scarcely become +seated in his consultation room when a little colored girl with her +wool "done" in innumerable pigtails, like tiny horns, and sticking out +all over her brown head in every direction, came in with a tray on +which was a plate piled high with fancy cakes and two tall glasses of +yellow-gold beaten egg and milk with a dust of nutmeg floating upon +the surface of each glassful. + +"'Liza done sez as how yo'-all might be hongry aftah yo' ride," said +the child, timidly, and then darted out of the room before Ruth and +Helen could thank her. + +They were munching the goodies when Doctor Davison came smilingly in. + +"That's Mammy 'Liza all over," he said, shaking his head, but with his +dark eyes twinkling. "I try to keep my young folk in good digestion +and she is bound to make a patient of everybody who comes to see me. +Cookies and cakes and sweets are what she believes girls live for; or +else she is trying to make customers for my nasty drugs." + +Doctor Davison seemed to have plenty of time to give to the society of +young folk who called upon him. And he showed an interest in Ruth and +her affairs which warmed our heroine's heart. He wanted to know how +she got along at school, and if it was true that she was trying to +"make" the High by the opening of the fall term. + +"Not that I want any of my young folk to travel the road to knowledge +too steadily, or travel it when their bodily condition is not the +best. But you are strong and well, Ruthie, and you can do a deal that +other girls of your age would find irksome. I shall be proud if you +prepare to enter the High at your age." + +And this made Ruth feel more and more sure that Doctor Davison had +taken interest enough in her career at school to supply the pretty +frocks, one of which she was then wearing. But Aunt Alvirah had warned +her that the frocks were to remain a mystery by the special request of +the donor, and she could not ask the good old doctor anything about +them. His interest in her progress seemed to infer that he expected +Ruth to accomplish a great deal in her school, and the girl from the +Red Mill determined not to disappoint him. + +When Helen told Doctor Davison where else they intended to call, he +nodded understandingly. "That is," he added, "Ruth will call on Mercy +while you do your shopping, Miss Cameron. Oh, yes! that is the better +plan. You know very well that Mercy Curtis won't want to see you, +Helen." + +"I don't know why not," said Helen, pouting. "I know she never treats +anyone nicely, but I don't mind. If it does her good to do what Tom +calls 'bully-ragging,' I can stand it as well as Ruth--better, +perhaps." + +"No," said the doctor, gravely. "I have told you before why you +shouldn't call there. You have everything that Mercy can possibly +desire. Comparisons with poor Mercy certainly are odious. Ruth, she +knows, is not so fortunately placed in life as yourself. She is not so +fortunately placed, indeed, as Mercy is. And Mercy is in an extremely +nervous state just now, and I do not wish her to excite herself beyond +reason." + +"Well, I declare," exclaimed Helen, but good-naturedly after all. "I +don't like to be told I'm not wanted anywhere. But if you say so, I'll +not go with Ruth to the house." + +Doctor Davison opened a new topic of conversation by asking after Tom. + +"Oh, his head is all healed up--you can just barely see the scar," +Helen declared. "And his arm is only a little tender. We think he got +out of it very lucky indeed--thanks to Ruth here." + +"Yes, thanks to Ruth," repeated the doctor, his eyes twinkling. + +Ruth was "on pins and needles," as the saying is, for she very well +remembered what the injured boy had murmured, in his half conscious +state, when they brought him along the road on the stretcher. Had it +been Jabez Potter who ran down Tom Cameron and forced him down the +embankment with his motorcycle? This thought had been bobbing up in +Ruth's mind ever since she had come to the Red Mill. + +She had seen her uncle driving his team of mules in one of his +reckless moods. She would never forget how the team tore down the long +hill and was forced through the flood the day the Minturn dam had +burst. Had Jabez Potter been driving through the dark road where Tom +Cameron was hurt, in any such way as that, he would have run down a +dozen cyclists without noticing them. + +Fortunately Tom's injury had not been permanent. He was all right now. +Ruth felt that she must be loyal to her uncle and say nothing about +her own suspicions; but as long as the matter was discussed between +Helen and Doctor Davison she was anxious. Therefore she hurried their +departure from the kind physician's office, by rising and saying: + +"I think we would better go, Helen. You know how slow Tubby is, and +perhaps I can give the little Curtis girl some pleasure by calling on +her." + +"Without doubt she'll have pleasure," observed Helen, somewhat +bitingly. "She is likely to scold and 'bullyrag' to her heart's +content. You're such a meek thing that you'll let her." + +"If that's what gives her pleasure, Helen," said Ruth, with a quiet +smile, "why, I guess I can stand it for an hour." + +Doctor Davison had risen likewise, and he went to the front door with +them, his hand resting lightly on Ruth's shoulder. + +"You have the right idea of it, Ruthie," he said. "Let Mercy take her +pleasure in that way if it's all the pleasure she can get. But perhaps +a better mind as well as a better body may come to the poor child in +time." Then to Ruth he added, more personally: "Remember you have a +friend in here behind the green lamps. Don't forget to come to him +with any troubles you may have. Perhaps I do not look it, but I am +something like a fairy godmother--I have a wonderful power of +transmogrification. I can often turn dark clouds inside out and show +you the silver on the other side." + +"I believe that, Doctor Davison," she whispered, and squeezed his hand +hard, running after Helen the next moment down the walk. + + CHAPTER XVII + + TORMENTING MERCY + +After they had awakened Tubby and urged him into something resembling +a trot they got into Cheslow proper by degrees. By the light of the +very sunshiny afternoon Ruth thought the town looked far prettier than +any place she had ever seen. This side of the railroad the houses were +mostly old-fashioned, and there were few stores. There were many lawns +and pretty, old-time gardens, while the elms and maples met in green +arches overhead so that many of the streets were like rustic tunnels, +the sun sifting through the thick branches to make only a fine, +lacework pattern upon the walks and driveway. + +They crossed the railroad near the station and struck into Market +Street. Ruth would not allow Helen to drive her directly to the Curtis +cottage. She had remembered Doctor Davison's words, and she thought +that perhaps Mercy Curtis might be looking from the window and see her +visitor arrive in the pony cart. So she got down at the corner, +promising to meet her friend at that spot in an hour. + +She could see the pretty cottage belonging to the railroad station +agent before she had walked far. Its garden on the side was already a +bower. But the rustic arbor on which the grape vines were trained was +not yet sufficiently covered to yield any shelter from the street; +therefore Ruth did not expect to find it occupied. + +Just before she reached the cottage, however, she saw two little girls +ahead of her, hesitating on the walk. They were talking seriously +together when Ruth approached within earshot, and she heard one say to +the other: + +"Now, she'll be there in the window. We mustn't notice her, no matter +what she does or says. You know what mamma said." + +The other child was sobbing softly. "But she made me, oh, such a face! +And she chopped her teeth at me just as though she'd bite me! I think +she's the very hatefulest thing--" + +"Hush! she's greatly to be pitied," said the older sister, with an air +and in a tone that showed she copied it from the "grown-ups" whom she +had heard discussing poor Mercy Curtis. + +"I wish we'd gone 'round the other way," complained the other child. + +"Now, come on. You needn't look into the window and smile. I'll do +that." + +"No," said the little one, stubbornly. "I'll go by on the opposite +side of the way. And you must come, too, Anna. She--she'd bite me if +she could get the chance." + +"Oh, well! Come on, little silly!" said her sister, and the two +crossed over and Ruth, who watched them interestedly, saw them hurry +by the cottage with scarcely a glance at the front windows. + +But Ruth could see the outline of the lame girl's figure at one of the +windows and she saw a lean fist shaken in the air at the two children +going by. She could imagine the face Mercy Curtis "pulled," as well, +and did not wonder that the two little ones took to their heels and +ran away as fast as ever they could. + +But, thus prepared for an unpleasant greeting from, the unfortunate +and much to be pitied Mercy, Ruth smiled happily herself and waved her +hand at the lame girl's window. Mercy saw her and, for a moment, was +stricken with surprise so that she could neither greet her with frown +or smile. She knew the girl from the Red Mill, although she had seen +her so many weeks before; but Ruth ran into the yard and up the porch +steps at the side of the house, and knocked at the door before the +lame girl recovered from her amazement. + +The motherly Mrs. Curtis came to the door and, the moment she saw who +it was, received Ruth with open arms. + +"You dear child! I am so glad you have come again. Did Doctor Davison +tell you?" she whispered. + +"He told me that Mercy would be glad to see me again; but I should +have come before, as I promised, if I could have gotten in," Ruth +said. "Will she see me?" + +"She is not so well to-day," sighed the harassed mother. "This is one +of her days of torment. I do not know how she will treat you, Ruth +Fielding; but don't mind what she says to you, dear. Your being here +will take her mind off her pain and off her own self." + +Ruth laid aside her hat and coat and went into the sitting room. The +crippled girl was in her wheel chair by the window. The instant Ruth +entered she seized the wheels on either side and propelled the chair +across the room in a sudden dash that threatened to run her visitor +down. And her face was screwed up into such a mean look, and her eyes +flashed so angrily, that Ruth was startled for a moment. But she stood +her ground and instead of colliding with her, the nervous hands +brought the chair to a sudden stop right before her. + +"Thought you were going to be run down; didn't you?" snapped Mercy. +"I'd ought to break your legs--you run on them so fine. Showing off; +wasn't you?" + +She was offended because Ruth had run so lightly into the cottage and +the girl from the Red Mill made a decision there and then that she +would never come in to see Mercy again saving at a sedate walk. But +she laughed lightly, and said: + +"Do you want me to come on crutches, Mercy? That wouldn't help you a +bit." + +She put out her hand to take the lame girl's, but Mercy struck it +smartly with her own, then whirled her chair around and returned to +her former position by the window. She handled the wheel chair with +remarkable dexterity, and Ruth, following her and taking a neighboring +chair said: + +"How quick you are! You get around your room so nicely. I think that's +fine." + +"You do; do you?" snapped the cripple. "If you'd been tied to this +chair like I have, you'd be quick, too. I suppose it's something for +me to be grateful for; eh?" + +"It must be a lot better than lying abed all the time," said Ruth, +quietly. + +"Oh, yes! I suppose so!" snapped Mercy. Her conversation was mostly +made up of snaps and snarls. "Everybody tells me all about how happy I +ought to be because I'm not worse off than I am. That's their +tormenting ways--I know 'em! There!" she added, looking out of the +window. "Here's another of those dratted young ones!" + +Ruth glanced out, too. A lady was coming along the walk holding a +little boy by the hand. Before they reached the cottage the little boy +said something to his mother and then broke away from her hand and +went to the other side of her, nearest the curb. + +"There! he's hiding from me," said Mercy, bitterly. + +The lady looked up and smiled pleasantly, but the cripple only +returned her pleasant salutation with a cold nod. The child peeped out +from around his mother's skirt. + +"There! go along, you nasty little thing!" muttered Mercy. "See him +trot on his little fat legs. I wish a dog would bite 'em!" It was +useless, Ruth saw, to try and bring the cripple to a better mind. But +she ignored her sallies at people who went by the window, and began to +talk about the Red Mill and all that had happened to her since she had +come to live with Uncle Jabez. Gradually she drew Mercy's attention +from the street. She told about the flood, and how she, with Helen and +Tom, had raced in the big automobile down the river road to warn the +people that the water was coming. Mercy's eyes grew big with wonder +and she listened with increasing interest. + +"That's a nice place to live--that mill," the cripple finally +admitted, grudgingly. "And it's right on the river, too!" + +"I can look 'way up and down the river from my window the first thing +when I get up in the morning," Ruth said. "It's very pretty at +sunrise. And then, the orchard and the fields are pretty. And I like +to see the men ploughing and working the land. And the garden stuff is +all coming up so pretty and green." + +"I've got a garden, too. But it's not warm enough yet to plant many +flower seeds," said Mercy. + +"I suppose, when it comes warm, you can sit out in the arbor?" + +"When the grape leaves get big enough to hide me--yes," said Mercy. +"I don't go into the garden excepting in schooltime. Then the young +ones aren't always running by and tormenting me," snapped the cripple, +chopping off her speech at the end. + +She was a self-tormentor. It was plain that the poor child made +herself very miserable by believing that everybody possessing a strong +back and lively legs felt his or her superiority to her and delighted +in "showing off" before her. The girl of the Red Mill felt only pity +for a sufferer possessing such an unfortunate disposition. + +She tried to turn the conversation always into pleasant channels. She +held Mercy's interest in the Red Mill and her life there. She told her +of the broods of downy chicks that she cared for, and the +butter-making, and the household tasks she was able to help Aunt +Alviry about. + +"And don't you go to school?" demanded Mercy. + +"I am going now. I hope this spring and summer to prepare myself for +entering the Cheslow High." + +"And then you'll be in town every day?" said Mercy, with one of her +occasional wistful looks. + +"I hope to. I don't know how I will get here. But I mean to try. Miss +Cramp says if I'll come two or three times a week this summer, after +our school closes, that she will help me to prepare for the High School +exams., so I can enter at the beginning of the fall term. + +"I know Miss Cramp," said Mercy. "She lives on this street. You'll be +so busy then that you'll never get in to see me at all, I suppose." + +"Why, I can come much oftener," cried Ruth. "Of course I will." + +If Mercy was pleased by this statement, she would not show it. + +"I studied to enter High," she said, after a little silence. "But +what's the use? I'll never go to school again. Reading books isn't any +fun. Just studying, and studying, and studying doesn't get you +anywhere." + +"Why, I should think that would be nice," Ruth declared. "You've got +so much chance to study. You see, you don't have to work around the +house, or outside, and so you have all your time to devote to study. I +should like that." + +"Yah!" snarled Mercy, in her most unpleasant way. "That's what you +say. I wish you were here to try it, and I could be out to the Red +Mill." Then she paid more softly: "I'd like to see that mill and the +river--and all the things you tell about." + +"You wait!" cried Ruth. "I'll ask Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alviry. Maybe +we can fix it so you could come out and see me. Wouldn't that be +fine?" + +"Yah!" snarled the cripple again. "I'll never get that far away from +this old chair." + +"Perhaps not; but you might bring the chair with you," returned Ruth, +unshaken. "Wait till vacation. I'll not give up the idea until I've +seen if it can't be arranged." + +That the thought pleased Mercy, the cripple could not deny. Her eyes +shone and a warmth of unusual color appeared in her thin cheeks. Her +mother came in with a tray of cakes and lemonade, and Mercy became +quite pleasant as she did the honors. Having already eaten her fill at +the doctor's, Ruth found it a little difficult to do justice to this +collation; but she would not hurt Mercy's feelings by refusing. + +The hour passed in more pleasant converse. The cripple's mind was +evidently coaxed from its wrong and unhappy thoughts. When Ruth rose +to leave, promising to come again as soon as she could get into town, +Mercy was plainly softened. + +"You just hate to come--I know you do!" she said, but she said it +wistfully. "Everybody hates to come to see me. But I don't mind having +you come as much as I do them. Oh, yes; you can come again if you +will," and she gave Ruth her hand at parting. + +Mrs. Curtis put her arms about the girl from the Red Mill and kissed +her warmly at the door. + +"Dear, dear!" said the cripple's mother, "how your own mother would +have loved you, if she had lived until now. You are like sunshine in +the house." + +So, after waving her hand and smiling at the cripple in the window, +Ruth went slowly back to the corner to meet Helen, and found herself +wiping some tender tears from her eyes because of Mrs. Curtis's words. + + CHAPTER XVIII + + THE SPELLING BEE + +In spite of the fact that the big girls at the district school, led by +Julia Semple, whose father was the chairman of the board of trustees, +had very little to say to Ruth Fielding, and shunned her almost +altogether outside of the schoolroom, Ruth was glad of her chance to +study and learn. She brought home no complaints to Aunt Alvirah +regarding the treatment she received from the girls of her own class, +and of course uncle Jabez never spoke to her about her schooling, nor +she to him. + +At school Ruth pleased Miss Cramp very much. She had gradually worked +her way toward the top of the class--and this fact did not make her +any more friends. For a new scholar to come into the school and show +herself to be quicker and more thorough in her preparation for +recitations than the older scholars naturally made some of the latter +more than a little jealous. + +Up to this time Ruth had never been to the big yellow house on the +hill--"Overlook," as Mr. Macy Cameron called his estate. Always +something had intervened when Ruth was about to go. But Helen and Tom +insisted upon the very next Saturday following the girls' trip to +Cheslow as the date when Ruth must come to the big house to luncheon. +The Camerons lived all of three miles from the Red Mill; otherwise +Ruth would in all probability have been to her chum's home before. + +Tom agreed to run down in the machine for his sister's guest at +half-past eleven on the day in question, and Ruth hurried her tasks as +much as possible so as to be all ready when he appeared in the big +drab automobile. She even rose a little earlier, and the way she flew +about the kitchen and porch at her usual Saturday morning tasks was, +as Aunt Alvirah said, "a caution." But before Tom appeared Ruth saw, +on one of her excursions into the yard, the old, dock-tailed, bony +horse of Jasper Parloe drawing that gentleman in his rickety wagon up +to the mill door. + +"Hi, Jabe!" called Jasper, in his cracked voice. "Hi, Jabe! Here's a +grindin' for ye. And for massy's sake don't take out a double toll as +you us'ally do. Remember I'm a poor man--I ain't got lashin's of +money like you to count ev'ry night of my life--he, he, he!" + +The boy had appeared at the mill door first, and he stepped down and +would have taken the bag of grain out of the wagon, had not the miller +himself suddenly appeared and said, in his stern way: + +"Let it be." + +"Hi, Jabe!" cackled Jasper. "Don't be mean about it. He's younger than +me, or you. Let him shoulder the sack into the mill." + +"The sack isn't coming into the mill," said Jabez, shortly. + +"What? what?" cried Parloe. "You haven't retired from business; have +you, miller? Ye ain't got so wealthy that ye ain't goin' to grind any +more?" + +"I grind for those whom it pleases me to grind for," said the miller, +sternly. + +"Then take in the bag, boy," said Jasper, still grinning. + +But Mr. Potter waved the boy away, and stood looking at Jasper with +folded arms and a heavy frown upon his face. + +"Come, come, Jabe! you keep a mill. You grind for the public, you +know," said Jasper. + +"I grind no more for you," rejoined the miller. "I have told you so. +Get you gone, Jasper Parloe." + +"No," said the latter, obstinately. "I am going to have my meal." + +"Not here," said the miller. + +"Now, that's all nonsense, Jabe," exclaimed Jasper Parloe, wagging his +head. "Ye know ye can't refuse me." + +"I do refuse you." + +"Then ye'll take the consequences, Jabe--ye'll take the consequences. +Ye know very well if I say the word to Mr. Cameron--" + +"Get away from here!" commanded Potter, interrupting. "I want nothing +to do with you." + +"You mean to dare me; do ye, Jabe?" demanded Jasper, with an evil +smile. + +"I don't mean to have anything to do with a thief," growled the +miller, and turning on his heel went back into the mill. + +It was just then that Ruth spied the automobile coming down the road +with Tom Cameron at the steering wheel. Ruth bobbed into the house in +a hurry, with a single wave of her hand to Tom, for she was not yet +quite ready. When she came down five minutes later, with a fresh +ribbon in her hair and one of the new frocks that she had never worn +before looking its very trimmest, Jasper Parloe had alighted from his +ramshackle wagon and was talking with Tom, who still sat in the +automobile. + +And as Ruth stood in the porch a moment, while Aunt Alvirah proudly +looked her over to see that she was all right, the girl saw by the +expression on Tom's face that whatever Parloe talked about was not +pleasing the lad in the least. + +She saw, too, that Tom pulled something from his pocket hastily and +thrust it into Parloe's hand. The old man chuckled slily, said +something else to the boy, and then turned away and climbed into his +wagon again. He drove away as Ruth ran down the path to the waiting +auto. + +"Hullo, Tom!" she cried. "I told you I wouldn't keep you waiting +long." + +"How-do, Ruth," he returned; but it must be confessed that he was not +as bright and smiling as usual, and he looked away from Ruth and after +Parloe the next moment. + +As the girl reached the machine Uncle Jabez came to the mill door +again. He observed Ruth about to get in and he came down the steps and +strode toward the Cameron automobile. Jasper Parloe had clucked to his +old nag and was now rattling away from the place. + +"Where are you going, Ruth?" the miller demanded, sternly eyeing Tom +Cameron, and without returning the lad's polite greeting. + +"She is going up to our house to lunch with my sister, Mr. Potter," +Tom hastened to say before Ruth could reply. + +"She will do nothing of the kind," said Uncle Jabez, shortly. "Ruth, +go back to the house and help your Aunt Alvirah. You are going about +too much and leaving your aunt to do everything." + +This was not so, and Ruth knew very well that her uncle knew it was +not so. She flushed and hesitated, and he said: + +"Do you hear me? I expect to be obeyed if you remain here at the Red +Mill. Just because I lay few commands upon you, is no reason why you +should consider it the part of wisdom to be disobedient when I do give +an order." + +"Oh, Uncle! do let me go," begged Ruth, fairly crying. "Helen has been +so kind to me--and Aunt Alvirah did not suppose you would object. +They come here--" + +"But I do not propose that they shall come here any more," declared +Uncle Jabez, in the same stern tone. "You can drive on, young man. The +less I see of any of you Camerons the better I shall like it." + +"But, Mr. Potter--" began Tom. + +The old man raised his hand and stopped him. + +"I won't hear any talk about it. I know just how much these Camerons +have done for you," he said to Ruth. "They've done enough--altogether +too much. We will stop this intimacy right here and now. At least, you +will not go to their house, Ruth. Do as I tell you--go in to your +Aunt Alviry." + +Then, as the weeping girl turned away, she heard him say, even more +harshly than he had spoken to her: "I don't want anything to do with +people who are hand and glove with that Jasper Parloe. He's a thief-- +a bigger thief, perhaps, than people generally know. At least, he's +cost me enough. Now, you drive on and don't let me see you or your +sister about here again." + +He turned on his heel and went back to the mill without giving Tom +time to say a word. The boy, angry enough, it was evident from his +expression of countenance, hesitated several minutes after the miller +was gone. Once he arose, as though he would get out of the car and +follow Jabez into the mill. But finally he started the engine, turned +the car, and drove slowly away. + +This was a dreadful day indeed for the girl of the Red Mill. Never in +her life had she been so hurt--never had she felt herself so ill-used +since coming to this place to live. Uncle Jabez had never been really +kind to her; but aside from the matter of the loss of her trunk he had +never before been actually cruel. + +He could have selected no way that would have hurt her more keenly. To +refuse to let her go to see the girl she loved--her only close friend +and playmate! And to refuse to allow Helen and Tom to come here to see +her! This intimacy was all (and Ruth admitted it now, in a torrent of +tears, as she lay upon her little bed) that made life at the Red Mill +endurable. Had she not met Helen and found her such a dear girl and so +kind a companion, Ruth told herself now that she never could have +borne the dull existence of this house. + +She heard Aunt Alvirah's halting step upon the stair and before the +old woman reached the top of the flight, Ruth plainly heard her +moaning to herself: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" Thus groaning and +halting, Aunt Alvirah came to Ruth's door and pushed it open. + +"Oh, deary, deary, me!" she whispered, limping into the room. +"Don't-ee cry no more, poor lamb. Old Aunt Alviry knows jest how it +hurts--she wishes she could bear it for ye! Now, now, my pretty +creetur--don't-ee take on so. Things will turn out all right yet. +Don't lose hope." + +She had reached the bed ere this and had gathered the sobbing girl +into her arms. She sat upon the side of the bed and rocked Ruth to and +fro, with her arms about her. She did not say much more, but her +unspoken sympathy was wonderfully comforting. + +Aunt Alvirah did not criticise Uncle Jabez's course. She never did. +But she gave Ruth in her sorrow all the sympathy of which her great +nature was capable. She seemed to understand just how the girl felt, +without a spoken word on her part. She did not seek to explain the +miller's reason for acting as he did. Perhaps she had less idea than +had Ruth why Jabez Potter should have taken such a violent dislike to +the Camerons. + +For Ruth half believed that she held the key to that mystery. When she +came to think it over afterward she put what she had heard between the +two old men--Jabez and Parloe--down at the brook, with what had +occurred at the mill just before Tom Cameron had come in sight; and +putting these two incidents together and remembering that Jasper +Parloe had overheard Tom in his delirium accuse the miller of being +the cause of his injury, Ruth was pretty sure that in that combination +of circumstances was the true explanation of Uncle Jabez's cruel +decision. + +Ruth was not the girl to lie on her bed and weep for long. She was +sensible enough to know very well that such a display of +disappointment and sorrow would not better the circumstances. While +she remained at the Red Mill she must obey Uncle Jabez, and his +decisions could not be controverted. She had never won a place near +enough to the miller's real nature to coax him, or to reason with him +regarding this gruff decision he had made. She had to make up her mind +that, unless something unexpected happened to change Uncle Jabez, she +was cut off from much future association with her dear chum, Helen +Cameron. + +She got up in a little while, bathed her face and eyes, and kissed +Aunt Alvirah warmly. + +"You are a dear!" she declared, hugging the little old woman. "Come! I +won't cry any more. I'll come down stairs with you, Auntie, and help +get dinner." + +But Ruth could eat none herself. She did not feel as though she could +even sit at the table with Uncle Jabez that noon, and remained outside +while the miller ate. He never remarked upon her absence, or paid her +the least attention. Oh, how heartily Ruth wished now that she had +never come away from Darrowtown and had never seen the Red Mill. + +The next Monday morning the rural mail carrier brought her a long +letter from Helen. Uncle Jabez had not said anything against a +correspondence; indeed, Ruth did not consider that he had more than +refused to have the Camerons come to see her or she to return their +visits. If she met them on the road, or away from the house, she did +not consider that it would be disobeying Uncle Jabez to associate with +Helen and Tom. + +This letter from Helen was very bitter against the miller and wildly +proposed that Ruth should run away from the Red Mill and come to +Overlook to live. She declared that her papa would not object-- +indeed, that everybody would warmly welcome the appearance of Ruth +Fielding "even if she came like a tramp "; and that Tom would linger +about the Red Mill for an hour or two every evening so that Ruth could +slip out and communicate with her friends, or could be helped away if +she wanted to leave without the miller's permission. + +But Ruth, coming now to consider her situation more dispassionately, +simply wrote a loving letter in reply to Helen's, entrusting it to the +post, and went on upon her usual way, helping Aunt Alviry, going to +school, and studying harder than ever. She missed Helen's +companionship vastly; she often wet her pillow with tears at night +(and that was not like Ruth) and felt very miserable indeed at times. + +But school and its routine took up a deal of the girl's thought. Her +studies confined her more and more as the end of the term approached. +And in addition to the extra work assigned the girl at the Red Mill by +Miss Cramp, there was a special study which Ruth wished to excel in. +Miss Cramp was old-fashioned enough to believe that spelling was the +very best training for the mind and the memory and that it was a +positive crime for any child to grow up to be a slovenly speller. Four +times a year Miss Cramp held an old-fashioned "spelling-bee" at the +schoolhouse, on designated Friday evenings; and now came the last of +the four for this school year. + +Ruth had never been an extra good speller, but because her kind +teacher was so insistent upon the point, the girl from the Red Mill +put forth special efforts to please Miss Cramp in this particular. She +had given much spare time to the study of the spelling book, and +particularly did she devote herself to that study now that she hadn't +her chum to associate with. + +The spelling-bees were attended by the parents of the pupils and all +the neighbors thereabout, and Helen wrote that she and Tom were going +to attend on the evening in question and that Tom said he hoped to see +Ruth "just eat up those other girls" when it came to spelling. But +Ruth Fielding much doubted her cannibalistic ability in this line. +Julia Semple had borne off the honors on two occasions during the +winter, and her particular friend Rosa Ball, had won the odd trial. +Now it was generally considered that the final spelling-bee would be +the occasion of a personal trial of strength between the two friendly +rivals. Either Julia or Rosa must win. + +But Ruth was the kind of a person who, in attempting a thing, did her +very best to accomplish it. She had given some time and thought to the +spelling book. She was not likely to "go down" before any easy, or +well-known word. Indeed, she believed herself letter perfect in the +very hardest page of the spelling-book some time before the fateful +evening. + +"Oh, perhaps you think you know them all, Ruth Fielding!" exclaimed +one of the little girls one day when the spelling-bee was being +discussed at recess. "But Miss Cramp doesn't stick to the speller. You +just wait till she tackles the dictionary." + +"The dictionary!" cried Ruth. + +"That's what Miss Cramp does," the child assured her. "If she can't +spell them down out of the speller, she begins at the beginning of the +dictionary and gives words out until she finds one that floors them +all. You wait and see!" + +So Ruth thought it would do no harm to study the dictionary a little, +and taking her cue from what the little girls said, she remained in +between sessions and began with "aperse," committing to memory as well +as she could those words that looked to be "puzzlers." Before the day +of the spelling-bee she believed that, if Miss Cramp didn't go beyond +the first letter of the alphabet, she would be fairly well grounded in +the words as they came in rotation. + +Ruth knew that every other pupil in the school would have friends in +the audience that evening save herself. She wished that Aunt Alvirah +could have attended the spelling-bee; but of course her back and her +bones precluded her walking so far, and neither of them dared ask +Uncle Jabez to hitch up and take them to the schoolhouse in his wagon. + +The schoolhouse was crowded, all the extra seats that could be +provided were arranged in rows, and, it being a mild evening, the men +and bigger boys stood outside the open windows. There was a great +bustle and whispering until Miss Cramp's tinkling bell called the +audience as well as the pupils to order. + +The scholars took their places according to their class standing in a +long row around the room. As one was spelled down he or she took a +seat again, and so the class was rapidly thinned out, for many of the +little folk missed on the very easiest words in the speller. Ruth +stood within ten pupils of the head of the line at the beginning and +when the spelling began she had an encouraging smile and nod from +Helen, who, with her brother, sat where they could see the girl from +the Red Mill Ruth determined to do her best. + + CHAPTER XIX + + THE STING OF POVERTY + +At first Miss Cramp's "giving out" of the words was like repeated +volleys of small-arms in this orthographical battle. Every pupil well +knew the pages of two-syllable words beginning, "baker, maker, poker, +broker, quaker, shaker" and even the boys rattled these off, grinning +the while in a most sheepish fashion at their elder brothers or their +women-folk, who beamed in pride upon them until such lists as "food, +soup, meat, bread, dough, butter" bowled over the more shaky ones. + +The first failures (and usually upon comparatively easy words) were +greeted with some laughter, and the ridiculed spellers sought their +seats with hanging heads. By and by, however, the failures were not +all at the bottom of the class; here and there such lists as "inane, +profane, humane, insane, mundane, urbane," or, "staid, unlaid, +mermaid, prayed, weighed, portrayed" began to pick out uncertain ones +the entire length of the line. + +Miss Cramp shot out word after word, her spectacles gleaming and her +eyes twinkling. The grim little smile upon her lips when one big girl +above Ruth went down before "forswear," spelling it with an extra "e," +showed that the teacher considered the miss deserved to fail because +of her heedlessness. Then, when she reached the list ending in "ay, ey +and eigh" they fell like ripe huckleberries all down the line. +"Inveigh" dropped so many that it was indeed a massacre, and some of +the nervous spellers got together such weird combinations of letters +to represent that single word that the audience was soon in a very +hilarious state. + +"Move up," commanded Miss Cramp to the pupils left standing, and there +was a great clumping of feet as the line closed up. Not more than two +dozen were standing by this time, and half an hour had not passed. But +after that it was another story. The good spellers remained. They +spelled carefully and quietly and a hush fell upon the whole room as +Miss Cramp gave out the words with less haste and more precision. + +The "seeds," as all the children called the puzzling list, floored +two, and several of the best spellers had to think carefully while the +list was being given out: "proceed, succeed, exceed, accede, secede, +recede, impede, precede, concede, antecede, intercede, supersede." +Fortunately Ruth, who now kept her eyes upon Miss Cramp's face, +spelled carefully and correctly, without any sign of hesitancy. The +match went on then, for page after page, without a pupil failing. +Perhaps there was hesitation at times, but Miss Cramp gave any +deserving scholar ample time. + +Page after page of the spelling-book was turned. That tricksey little +list of "goblin, problem, conduct, rocket, pontiff, compact, prospect, +ostrich" finally left but three scholars between Ruth and Julia at the +head of the class. One of these was Oliver Shortsleeves, a French +Canadian lad whose parents had Anglicised their name when they came +down into New York State. He was as sharp as could be and he had +pushed Julia Semple and Rosa Ball hard before in the spelling matches. +But he was the only boy left standing within the next few minutes, and +again the pupils moved up. There were but fifteen of them. Rosa Ball +came next to Ruth, below her, and the girl from the Red Mill knew very +well that Miss Ball would only be too delighted to spell her, Ruth, +down. + +Indeed, when Ruth waited a moment before spelling "seraglio," Rosa in +her haste blurted out the word, and Julia smiled and there was a +little rustle of expectancy. It was evident that many of the scholars, +as well as the audience, thought Ruth had failed. + +"Wait!" exclaimed Miss Cramp, sharply. "Did I pass that word to you, +Rosa?" + +"No, ma'am; but I thought..." + +"Never mind what you thought. You know the rule well enough," said +Miss Cramp. "That will be your word, and I will give Ruth Fielding +another. Spell 'seraglio' again, Rosa." + +"'S e r a l g i o'," spelled Rosa. + +"I thought in your haste to get ahead of Ruth you spelled it wrongly, +Rosa," said Miss Cramp, calmly. "You may go down. Next--'Seraglio.'" + +Miss Ball went down in tears--angry tears--but there was not much +sympathy shown her by the audience, and little by her fellow-pupils. +It was soon seen that there was some sort of rivalry between Ruth and +Julia, and that the girl from the Red Mill had not been treated +fairly. + +Oliver Shortsleeves became sadly twisted up after hearing those +immediately before him spell in succession "schooner, tetrarch, +pibroch and anarchy" and tried to spell "architrave" with so many +letters that he would have needed no more to have spelled it twice +over. So Ruth then became fourth in the line. She continued to spell +carefully and serenely. Nothing disturbed her poise, for she neither +looked around the room nor gave heed to anything that went on save +Miss Cramp's distinctly uttered words. + +On and on went the steady voice of Miss Cramp. She bowled over one +pupil with "microcosm," another the next minute with "metonymy "; +"nymphean" and "naphtha" sent two more to their seats; while the +silent "m" in "mnemonics" cut a most fearful swath in the remainder, +so that after the smoke of that bomb was dissipated only Julia, Ruth, +and two others stood of all the class. + +Julia Semple had darted many angry glances et Ruth since the cutting +down of her friend, Rosa Ball, and her flaunting of the girl from the +Red Mill, and her scornful looks, might easily have disturbed Ruth had +the latter not been wise enough to keep her own gaze fixed upon the +teacher. + +Helen and Tom were delighted and plainly showed their enjoyment of +Ruth's success. Now, as the situation became more strained, the +audience applauded when one of the spellers overcame a more than +ordinarily difficult word. So that when the girl next to Ruth missed +"tergiversation" and it passed to the girl from the Red Mill, who +spelled it without hesitation, and correctly, Helen applauded softly, +while Tom audibly exclaimed: "Good for Ruthie!" + +This did not make Julia Semple any more pleasant. She actually looked +across at Helen and Tom and scowled at them. It had already begun to +be whispered about the room that the match was easily Julia's--that +she was sure to win; and Mr. Semple, the chairman of the trustees, who +sat on the platform with the teacher, looked very well satisfied +indeed. + +But Miss Cramp had come down now to the final words in the speller-- +down to "zenith" and "zoology." And still there were three standing. +Miss Cramp looked for a moment as though she would like to announce +the match a tie between the trio, for it was plain there would be hard +feelings engendered among some of the audience, as well as the pupils, +if the match continued. Her custom had been, however, to go on to the +bitter end--to spell down the very last one, and she could not easily +make a change in her method now. + +A general sigh and whispering went around when she was seen to reach +for the academic dictionary which was always the foundation of the +tower of books upon the northeast corner of Miss Cramp's desk. She +opened the volume and shot out the word: "Aperse." + +The girl standing between Ruth and Julia staggered along until they +reached "abstinence"; she put an "e" instead of an "i" in the middle +syllable, and went down. But the audience applauded her. Julia Semple +began to hesitate now. The end was near. Perhaps she had never taken +the time to follow down the rows of words in the dictionary. At +"acalycal" she stumbled, started twice, then stopped and asked to have +it repeated. + +"'Acalycal,'" said Miss Cramp, steadily. + +"'A c a l l y c a l,'" stammered Julia. + +"Wrong," said Miss Cramp, dispassionately. + +"Next. 'Acalycal'?" + +Ruth spelled it with two 'l's' only and Miss Cramp looked up quickly. + +"Right," she said. "You may step down, Julia. It has been our custom +to keep on until the winner is spelled down, too. Next word, Ruth: +'acalycine.'" + +But there was such a buzz of comment that Miss Cramp looked up again. +Julia Semple had seemed half stunned for the moment. Then she wheeled +on Ruth and said, in a sharp whisper: + +"I saw that Cameron girl spell it for you! She's been helping you all +the time! Everybody knows she's patronizing and helping you. Why, +you're wearing her old, cast-off clothes. You've got one of her +dresses on now! Pauper!" + +Ruth started back, her face turned red, then white, as though she had +been struck. The smarting tears started to her eyes, and blinded her. + +"Julia! take your seat instantly!" said Miss Cramp, more sharply. +"Ruth! spell 'acalycine.'" + +But Ruth could not open her lips. Had she done so she would have burst +into tears. And she could not have spelled the word right--nor any +other word right--at that moment. She merely shook her head and +followed Julia to her seat, stumblingly, while a dead silence fell +upon the room. + + CHAPTER XX + + UNCLE JABEZ IS MYSTERIOUS + +Miss Cramp was in the habit of calling upon some trustee to speak at +the close of the exercises--usually Mr. Semple--and then there was a +little social time before the assemblage broke up. But the frown on +the chairman's face did not suggest that that gentleman had anything +very jovial to say at the moment, and the teacher closed the exercises +herself in a few words that were not at all personal to the winner of +the spelling-match. + +When the stir of people moving about aroused Ruth, her only thought +was to get away from the schoolhouse. Perhaps not more than two dozen +people had distinctly heard what Julia so cruelly said to her; but it +seemed to the girl from the Red Mill as though everybody in that +throng knew that she was a charity child--that, as Julia said, the +very frock she had on belonged to somebody else. + +And to Helen! She had never for a moment suspected that Helen had been +the donor of the three frocks. Of course everybody in the neighborhood +had known all the time that she was wearing Helen's cast-off clothing. +Everybody but Ruth herself would have recognized the dresses; she had +been in the neighborhood so short a time that, of course, she was not +very well acquainted with Helen's wardrobe. + +At the moment she could not feel thankful to her chum. She could only +remember Julia's cutting words, and feel the sting to her pride that +she should have shown herself before all beholders the recipient of +her friend's alms. + +Nobody spoke to her as she glided through the moving crowd and reached +the door. Miss Cramp was delayed in getting to her; Helen and Tom did +not see her go, for they were across the room and farthest from the +door. And so she reached the exit and slipped out. + +The men and boys from outside thronged the tiny anteroom and the +steps. As she pushed through them one man said: + +"Why, here's the smart leetle gal that took Semple's gal down a peg-- +eh? She'd oughter have a prize for that, that's what she ought!" + +But Ruth could not reply to this, although she knew it was meant +kindly. She went out into the darkness. There were many horses hitched +about the schoolhouse, but she reached the clear road in safety and +ran toward the Red Mill. + +The girl came to the mill and went quietly into the kitchen. She had +got the best of her tears now, but Aunt Alviry's bright eyes +discovered at once that she was unhappy. Uncle Jabez did not even +raise his eyes when she came in. + +"What is the matter with my pretty leetle creetur?" whispered the old +woman, creeping close to Ruth. + +"Nothing is the matter now," returned Ruth, in the same low tone. + +"Didn't you do well?" asked the old woman, wistfully. + +"I won the spelling match," replied Ruth. "I stood up longer than +anybody else." + +"Is that so!" exclaimed Aunt Alvirah, with pride. "I told ye so, +Ruthie. And ye beat that Semple gal?" + +"She was the last one to fail before me," Ruth returned. + +"Well, well! D'ye hear that, Jabez? Our Ruth won the spellin'-match." + +The miller did not raise his head from his accounts; only grunted and +nodded. + +"But something went wrong wi' ye, deary?" persisted Aunt Alvirah, +watching Ruth's face closely. + +"Oh, Auntie! why didn't you tell me that Helen gave me the frocks?" + +"Deary, deary, me!" ejaculated Aunt Alvirah. "How did you know?" + +"Julia Semple told me--she told me before everybody!" gasped Ruth, +fighting hard to keep back the tears. "She called me a pauper! She +called it out before them all, and said that I wore Helen's cast-off +clothes!" + +"The mean thing!" said Aunt Alvirah, with more sharpness then she +usually expressed. "Isn't that jest like the Semples? They're all that +way. Got mad with you because you beat her at spelling; eh?" + +"Yes. But she has known it right along, of course." + +"Deary me!" said Aunt Alvirah. "Nobody supposed them frocks would be +reckernized--least of all Helen. She meant it kindly, Ruthie. It was +kindly meant." + +"I wish I'd worn my old black dress to rags!" cried Ruth, who was too +hurt to be sensible or just. "I suppose Helen meant it kindly. And you +did what you thought was right, Auntie. But all the girls have turned +up their noses at me--" + +"Let 'em stay turned up--what do you care?" suddenly growled Uncle +Jabez. + +For the moment Ruth had forgotten his presence and she and Aunt +Alvirah had been talking more loudly. They both fell suddenly silent +and stared at him. + +"Are ye too proud to wear dresses that's give to ye?" demanded Uncle +Jabez. "Ye ain't too proud to take food and shelter from me. And I'm a +poorer man than Macy Cameron an' less able to give." + +The tone and the words were both cruel--or seemed to be to Ruth's +mind. But she said, bravely: + +"People know that you're my uncle--" + +"I was yer mother's uncle; that's all. The relationship ain't much," +declared Uncle Jabez. + +"Jabez," said the little old woman, solemnly, "you've been a good +friend to me--ye've borne with me in sickness and in weakness. Ye +took me from the a'mshouse when I didn't have a penny to my name and +nobody else to turn to, it seemed. I've tried ter do for ye +faithfully. But I ain't done my duty by you no more than this child +here has since she's come here to the Red Mill. You know that well +yourself, too. Don't blame the pretty leetle creetur for havin' the +nateral vanity that all young things hez. Remember, Jabez, that it was +through you that she has had to accept clothing from outsiders." + +"Through me?" growled the miller, raising his countenance and scowling +at the brave old woman--for it took courage for Aunt Alvirah to speak +to him in this way. + +"Helen Cam'ron wouldn't have been called on to give Ruthie her frocks +which she only wore last year, and outgrew, if you hadn't lost +Ruthie's trunk. Ye know that, Jabez," urged Aunt Alvirah. + +"I s'pose I'm never to hear the last of that!" stormed the miller. + +"You are still to hear the first word from Ruthie about it, Jabez," +admonished his housekeeper. + +"Well!" + +"Well," repeated Aunt Alvirah, still speaking quietly but earnestly. +"You know it ain't my way to interfere in your affairs, Jabez. But +right is right. It was you lost Ruthie's trunk. I never knew ye ter be +dishonest--" + +"What's that?" gasped Mr. Potter, the red mantling his gray cheek +dully. + +"I never knew ye ter do a dishonest thing afore, Jabez," pursued Aunt +Alvirah, with her voice shaking now. "But it's dishonest for ye to +never even perpose ter make good what ye lost. If you'd lost a sack of +grain for a neighbor ye'd made it up to him; wouldn't ye?" + +"What's thet gotter do with a lot of foolish fal-lals an' rigamagigs +belonging to a gal that I've taken in--" + +"To help us. And she does help us," declared the old woman, quickly. +"She more'n airns her keep, Jabez. Ye know she does." + +"Well!" grunted the miller again, but he actually looked somewhat +abashed and dropped his gaze to the ledger. + +"Well, then, Jabez Potter," said the old housekeeper, "you think it +over--think it over, Jabez. And as sure as my name's Alviry Boggs, if +you do think it over, something will come of it!" + +This seemed like a rather mysterious saying, and there seemed to be +nothing for the miller to observe in answer to it. Ruth had ere this +dried her eyes and it was soon bedtime. It is a long time from Friday +night to Monday morning--especially to young folk. The hurt that Ruth +had felt over Julia Semple's unkind words had lost its keenness in +Ruth's mind ere school began again. So Ruth took up her school duties +quite as usual, wearing one of the pretty frocks in which, however, +she could no longer take such pride and delight. + +There was really nothing for her to do but wear them. She realized +that. She felt, however, that whenever any girl looked at her she +remembered that it was Helen Cameron's cast-off dress she wore; so she +was glad that the big girls were no more friendly than before and that +they seldom looked at her. + +Besides, all the school was very busy now. In a fortnight would came +graduation. About all Ruth heard at recess and between sessions, even +among the smaller girls, was the discussion of what they were to wear +on the last day of the term. It was a great day at this school, and +Miss Cramp was to graduate from her care seven pupils--four girls and +three boys--all of whom would go to the Cheslow High the coming year. +Ruth would not be ready to graduate; but before fall, if she was +faithful to the tasks Miss Cramp set her, that kind teacher assured +the girl from the Red Mill that she would be able to enter the higher +school with this graduating class. + +All the older girls and many of the others were to wear white. Miss +Cramp approved of this, for even a simple white dress would look +pretty and nice and was within the means of most of the girl pupils. +Nobody asked Ruth what she would wear; and she was glad of that, for +she knew that she had no choice but to don the shabby black cloth +frock she had worn at first, or one of the "charity" frocks. + +In this first week after the spelling-bee she did not see Helen or +Tom, and only received a brief note from Helen which she tried to +answer with her usual cheerfulness. Helen and Tom were going to the +city for a few days, therefore Ruth was not likely to see either until +the end of the term. + +At the Red Mill matters went much the same as usual. If Uncle Jabez +had taken to heart anything that Aunt Alvirah had said, he did not +show it. He was as moody as ever and spoke no more to Ruth than +before. But once or twice the girl found him looking at her with a +puzzled frown which she did not understand. + +On Saturday, however, at dinner, Mr. Potter said: "Alviry, if the gal +has got her work done she can go to town with me this afternoon." + +Ruth shrank a little and looked appealingly at the old woman. But Aunt +Alvirah would not or did not, understand Ruth's pleading, and said, +briskly: + +"She shall be ready when you've shaved and Ben's harnessed the mules, +Jabez." + +"Oh, Auntie!" whispered Ruth, when the miller had gone out, "I don't +want to go with him! I don't really!" + +"Now, don't say that, child," said Aunt Alvirah. "Don't do nothing to +make him feel that ye air afraid of him. Go 'long. Ye can call on that +leetle lame gal ye was tellin' us about while Jabez does his errands. +Now hurry, deary." + +Ruth felt quite confused by this. It seemed that there must be some +private understanding between Aunt Alvirah and the miller. She went +slowly and changed her frock. The old lady, crying up the stairway +after her, advised her to look her smartest--so as to please Jabez, +forsooth! Indeed, she finally hobbled up stairs, with many +ejaculations of "Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" for the purpose of +satisfying herself that Ruth was as nicely dressed as she could be. + +And Uncle Jabez--or no other man--need have been ashamed of the +appearance of Ruth Fielding when the mules came around hitched to the +heavy farm-wagon which Mr. Potter usually drove. It was piled high +with bags of flour and meal, which he proposed to exchange at the +Cheslow stores for such supplies as he might need. The load seemed +heavier than usual this day. + +It was not a bad wagon to ride in, though dusty; for there was a +spring seat and over it a new hood to shield the riders from the sun. +Ruth followed Uncle Jabez out of the house and climbed up over the +wheel and into the seat when he nodded for her to do so. He followed +her, took up the reins, and the boy, Ben, stood away from the mules' +heads. + +Aunt Alvirah stood on the porch and waved her apron at Ruth every time +the girl turned around, until the wagon had crossed the bridge and was +way up the long hill on the Cheslow road. It was a delightful June +afternoon and had Ruth been traversing this pleasant highway in almost +any other way, she would have enjoyed the ride mightily. + + CHAPTER XXI + + THE END OF THE TERM + +But the companionship of the grim and glum proprietor of the Red Mill +was not conducive--in Ruth's case, at least--to any feeling of +pleasure. Uncle Jabez seemed about to speak to her a dozen times +before they were out of sight of the mill; but every time Ruth turned +toward him, half expecting to be addressed, his lips were grimly set +and he was looking straight ahead over the mules' ears. + +It is doubtful if Uncle Jabez saw anything of the beauty of the day or +the variety of the landscape. Looking as he did he could not have +observed by his eyes of flesh much but the brown ribbon of road before +them, for miles. And it is doubtful if, spiritually, he appreciated +much of the beauty of the June day. The mules toiled up the long hill, +straining in their collars; but they began to trot upon the other side +of the ridge and the five miles to Cheslow were covered in a +comparatively short time. + +Finally, when Uncle Jabez drew up before one of the largest stores, +she felt that she must break the awful silence. And stumblingly she +preferred her request: + +"If you are going to be some time trading, Uncle Jabez, can't I go +down to call on Mercy Curtis? I can come here again and meet you at +any time you say." + +"Who's that? Sam Curtis' gal--the cripple?" asked Uncle Jabez, +shortly. + +"Yes, sir. She likes to have me come and see her." + +"Can't you find nothing more interestin' to do when ye come to town +than go to see a sick gal?" was the miller's surprising inquiry. + +"I--I promised to call on her if I could whenever I was in town. She +really likes to have me come," explained Ruth. + +"Well, you can go," grunted Uncle Jabez. "I'll stop there for ye when +I'm done tradin'." + +He had already climbed down from the high seat. Ruth came lightly down +after him and he actually turned and jumped her over the wheel so that +her dress should not be soiled. Then, suddenly, he said: + +"Wait. I want you to go into this store with me first." + +He turned away abruptly, so that Ruth could not see what his +countenance expressed. He carefully tied his mules to a hitching post +and then stumped into the store without again glancing in her +direction. Ruth followed him timidly. + +It was a big store with many departments, and on one side were dry +goods and clothing, where the clerks were women, or young girls, while +the groceries, provisions, hardware and agricultural tools were +displayed upon the other side of the long room. Uncle Jabez strode +straight to the first woman he saw who was disengaged. + +"This girl wants a dress to wear to the school graduating," he said, +in his harsh voice. "It must be white. Let her pick out the goods, all +the fal-lals that go with it, and a pattern to make it by. Ye +understand?" + +"Yes, sir," said the woman, smiling. + +"You know me?" asked Uncle Jabez. "Yes? Then send the bill to the +other side of the store and I'll pay it when I sell my meal and +flour." Then to the astounded Ruth he said: "I'll come to Sam Curtis' +for you when I'm done. See you don't keep me waiting." + +He wheeled and strode away before Ruth could find her voice. She was +so amazed that she actually felt faint She could not understand it. A +white dress! And she to make her choice alone, without regard to +material, or price! She could have been no more stunned had Uncle +Jabez suddenly run mad and been caught by the authorities and sent to +an asylum. + +But the shop woman awoke her, having asked her twice what kind of +white goods she wanted to see. The repeated query brought Ruth to her +senses. She put the astonishing fact that Uncle Jabez had done this, +behind her, and remembered at once the importance of the task before +her. + +She had not listened to the talk of the other girls at school for +nothing. She knew just what was the most popular fabric that season +for simple white dresses that could be "done up" when soiled. She had +even found the style of a dress she liked in a fashion magazine that +one of the girls had had at school. Ruth was self-posessed at once. +She went about her shopping as carefully and with as little haste as +though she had been buying for herself for years; whereas this was the +very first frock that she had ever been allowed to have the choice of. + +There were costlier goods, and some of the girls of the graduating +class were to have them; but Ruth chose something so durable and at so +low a price that she hoped Uncle Jabez would not be sorry for his +generosity. She saw the goods, and lace, and buttons, and all the +rest, made up into a neat package and sent across to the other counter +with the bill, and then went out of the store and up Market Street +toward the railroad. + +She saw Uncle Jabez nowhere, or she would have run to him to thank him +for the present. And she had been in Mercy Curtis' front window for +quite an hour before the mules turned the corner into the street and +the wagon rattled up to the house and stopped. + +"And is that ugly old man your uncle?" demanded Mercy, who had been +less crusty and exacting herself on this occasion. + +"That is Uncle Jabez;" admitted Ruth, hastening to put on her hat. + +"He is an ugly one; isn't he? I'd like to know him, I would," declared +the odd child. "He ain't one that's always smirking and smiling, I bet +you!" + +"He isn't given much to smiling, I must admit," laughed Ruth, stooping +to kiss the crippled girl. + +"There! Go along with you," said Mercy, sharply. "You tell that ugly, +dusty man--Dusty Miller, that's what he is--that I'm coming out to +the Red Mill, whether he wants me to or not." + +And when Ruth got out upon the street Mercy had her window open and +cried through the opening, shaking her little fist the while: + +"Remember! You tell Dusty Miller what I told you! I'm coming out +there." + +"What's the matter with that young one?" growled Uncle Jabez, as Ruth +climbed aboard and the mules started at a trot before she was really +seated beside him. + +Ruth told him, smiling, that Mercy had taken a fancy to his looks, and +a fancy, too, to the Red Mill from her description of it. "She wants +very much to come out there this summer--if she can be moved that +far." + +Then Ruth tried to thank the miller for the frock--which bundle she +saw carefully placed among the other packages in the body of the +wagon--but Uncle Jabez listened very grumpily to her broken words. + +"I don't know how to thank you, sir; for of all the things I wanted +most, I believe this is the very first thing," Ruth said, stumblingly. +"I really don't know how to thank you." + +"Don't try, then," he growled, but without looking at her. "I reckon +you can thank Alviry Boggs as much as anybody. She says I owed it to +you." + +"Oh, Uncle--" + +"There, there! I don't wanter hear no more about it," declared the +miller. But after they had rattled on for a while in silence, he said, +pursuing the former topic: "There ain't no reason, I s'pose, why that +gal can't come out an' see you bimeby, if you want her to." + +"Oh, thank you, Uncle Jabez!" cried Ruth, feeling as though something +very strange indeed must have happened to the miller to make him so +agreeable. And she tried to be chatty and pleasant with him for the +rest of the way home. But Uncle Jabez was short on conversation--he +seemed to have hoarded that up, too, and was unable to get at his +stores of small-talk. Most of his observations were mere grunts and +nods, and that evening he was just as glum and silent as ever over his +money and accounts. + +Miss 'Cretia Lock arrived early on Monday morning and when Ruth came +home from school in the afternoon the wonderful dress was cut out. +They made it in two days and Aunt Alvirah washed and starched and +ironed it herself and it was ready for appearance on the last Friday +afternoon of the term, when the district school held its graduating +exercises. + + CHAPTER XXII + + MERCY + +Ruth felt that she was not very successful at Miss Cramp's school. Not +that she had fallen behind in her studies, or failed to please her +kind instructor; but among the pupils of the upper grade she was all +but unconsidered. Perhaps, had time been given her, Ruth might have +won her way with some of the fairer-minded girls; but in the few short +weeks she had been in the district she had only managed to make +enemies among the members of her own class. + +There was probably no girl in the graduating class, from Julia Semple +and Rosa Ball, down the line, who was not glad that the girl from the +Red Mill--a charity child!--was not numbered in the regular class +and had no part in the graduating exercises. Nevertheless, Ruth +proposed, if it were possible, to enter the Cheslow High School in the +fall, and to that end she was determined to work at her books--with +Miss Cramp's help--all summer. + +When it came to the last day, however, and it was known that Ruth +would not come back to that school again in the autumn, the smaller +girls gathered about her and were really sorry that she was to go. +Forced out of any part with her own grade of pupils, Ruth had taken +the little ones about her and played and taught them games, had told +them stories on rainy days, and otherwise endeared herself to them. +And now the little folk made much of her on this last day, bringing +her flowers, and little presents, and clinging about her before the +afternoon session began and their parents and friends came to listen +to the exercises, in a way that was very pretty to behold. + +Aunt Alvirah wanted to come to the closing exercises of the school; +but to expect Uncle Jabez to leave the mill in business hours for any +such thing as that was altogether ridiculous to contemplate. Uncle +Jabez had, however, paid some small attention to Ruth in her new +dress. Before she started for school that last day she went to the +mill door and showed herself to the miller. + +"Well, I don't see but you look as fine as the rest of 'em," he said, +slowly. "And the price ain't much. You used judgment in buying, Niece +Ruth. I'll say that much for ye." + +This being the first word of approval the miller had ever given her, +the girl appreciated it to its full value. Since he had given her the +dress she had wished more than ever to become friendly with him. But +he was so moody and so given up to his accounts and the hoarding of +wealth, that it seemed next to impossible for the girl to get near +Uncle Jabez. Besides, he had never recovered from the bitterness +engendered by the loss of the cash-box. A heavy scowl rested upon his +brow all the time. Sometimes he sighed and shook his head when he sat +idle at the table, or on the porch in the evening; and Ruth believed +he must be mourning the money which the flood was supposed to have +swept away. + +But although neither of the old folks at the Red Mill came to see the +graduating exercises, Ruth was not exactly unhappy. The little +children showing her that they liked her so well, could not fail to be +a lasting pleasure to Ruth. And Helen and Tom, with their governess, +Mrs. Murchiston, attended the exercises, and Helen sat with Ruth. + +"And we're going to take you home; the carriage will come for us," +Helen whispered in her ear. + +"No," Ruth said, shaking her head, "I cannot go home with you. You +know, Uncle--" + +"He is an ogre," whispered Helen, with vigor. + +That made Ruth smile a little, and she told Helen what Mercy Curtis +called the owner of the Red Mill, and of the fancy the lame girl had +taken for Uncle Jabez. "He is 'Dusty Miller' to Mercy, and I shouldn't +be surprised if Uncle Jabez had her out for a day or two, if the +doctor will let her come. And you mustn't call him names, I tell you. +See how good he has been to me. He gave me this new dress." + +"That must have hurt him awfully," said Helen, sharply. "Not but that +the dress is becoming and pretty, dear. But that's the only thing he's +ever given you, I warrant--and he lost your trunk!" + +The Camerons insisted upon driving Ruth as far as the Red Mill, just +the same. Mrs. Murchiston was a very pleasant lady, and Helen and Tom +evidently thought a good deal of her. + +"I should have been glad to have you for Helen's playmate this summer, +my dear," said the governess to Ruth. "And I wish you were fortunate +enough to be able to go with Helen this fall. You have just the +characteristics in your nature to balance dear Helen's impetuosity." + +"Oh, I wish indeed she was going to Briarwood Hall," cried Helen. + +"I shall be satisfied if the way is opened for me to go to high +school," Ruth declared, smiling. "Uncle has said nothing against it, +and I shall begin next week walking in to Miss Cramp's to recite." + +Helen asked very minutely about Ruth's plans for going to Cheslow to +recite, and the very first day of the next week, when the girl of the +Red Mill started for town, who should overtake her within half a mile +of the mill, but Helen and her governess going to Cheslow on a +shopping errand, and drawn by Tubby, the pony. Of course, there was +room for Ruth in the phaeton, and Helen and Mrs. Murchiston remained +in town as long as Ruth did and brought her back with them. Ruth had +time to run in and see Mercy Curtis. + +"I'm coming out to the Red Mill, so now!" declared the lame girl. "I +asked Doctor Davison, and he says yes. And if he says so, that uncle +of yours, Dusty Miller, will have to let me. Folks have to do as +Doctor Davison says, you know. And your uncle--isn't he just an ugly +dear? Does he look just that cross all the time? I bet he never +forgives his Enemy!" + +This novel reason for liking Uncle Jabez would have been amusing had +there not been a serious side to it. This odd child, with her warped +and twisted fancies, was to be pitied, and Ruth secretly pitied her +with all her heart. But she was careful now not to show Mercy that she +commiserated her condition; that way was not the way to the cripple's +heart. + +Nevertheless, being a little less afraid of Uncle Jabez than she once +was, that very evening she mentioned Mercy's desire to him. Uncle +Jabez never smiled, but it could be said that his face relaxed when +she called up the memory of Sam Curtis' crippled daughter. + +"Yes; why not?" rejoined Aunt Alvirah. "Have the poor leetle creetur +out here, Jabez. She'll be no bother to you. And she kin sleep with +Ruthie." + +"How'll she get up and down stairs?" demanded the miller, quite +surprising Ruth and Aunt Alvirah by considering this phase of the +matter. "You'll have to open the East bedroom, Alviry." + +"Jest as you say, Jabez," answered the old woman, very meekly, but her +bright eyes sparkling as she glanced aside at Ruth. "She kin roll +herself in her chair in and out of that room, and onto the porch." + +"I'll see Doc. Davison when he drives by to-morrer," promised Uncle +Jabez, with his usual bruskness. "If he says it's all right, she can +come. I'll bring her chair and her luggage out in the wagon on +Saturday. The Doc. will arrange about her being brought out +comfortably." + +All this was so amazing that Ruth could not speak. Except when he had +been angry, or at the time his cash-box was lost when the flood came +down the river, she had never heard Uncle Jabez make so long a speech. +Aunt Alvirah was no person with whom she could discuss this great +change in the miller; and when Doctor Davison was hailed by Mr. Potter +the next day and stopped at the mill for quite half an hour to confer +with him, Ruth was still more amazed. + +Every other day Ruth was to go to town, if it was fair. Uncle Jabez +made no comment upon her absence; nor did he put himself out in the +least to arrange for any means of transportation for his niece. He +seldom went to Cheslow himself, save on Saturdays. + +Ruth's next trip to Miss Cramp's was on a very hot day indeed. There +was a glare of hot sun on the long hill and just enough fitful breeze +to sift the road-dust all over her as she walked. But--and how +fortunate that was!--before she had gone far the purring of a +motor-car engine aroused her attention and Tom Cameron ran along +beside her in his father's auto and stopped. + +"Ain't I lucky?" he cried. "Get in here, Ruthie, and I'll take you to +town in a jiffy." + +"I'm the lucky one, I think," said Ruth, smiling in return as she +slipped into the seat beside him. "And I almost believe, Tommy +Cameron, that you knew I was starting for town and came along just to +give me a lift." + +He grinned at her. "Don't you think you're mighty important?" he +teased. "Suppose I haven't anything else to think about but you +girls?" + +Just the same, Ruth stuck to this belief. But she had to confess that +she was glad of the ride to town. It would have been very, very hot in +the sun and dust. + +"And it's real summer, now," she said. "It will be hot in town. I'm so +glad Mercy is going to get out of it." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Tom. "Is she going to be taken away?" + +Ruth told him of the remarkable interest Uncle Jabez had taken in the +crippled girl. Tom could scarcely have been more surprised. + +"Why, the old curmudgeon has got a decent streak in him, after all; +hasn't he?" he exclaimed, rather thoughtlessly. + +"Don't speak that way of him, Tom," urged Ruth. "I know you've got +reason for disliking him--" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Tom, turning on her sharply. + +"Oh, I--Well, Tom, you know I believe I could easily find the man who +almost drove the team over you the night you were hurt? And you've +known it all the time, and kept still about it!" + +"That mean, contemptible Jasper Parloe! He's told!" gasped Tom. + +"Jasper Parloe told?" repeated Ruth. "Not me." + +"Then--" + +"You muttered it when they carried you to the doctor's house that +night. You said it was my uncle," said Ruth, quietly. "I have known it +all along, and so has Parloe, I suppose. He and I were the only +persons who heard what you said when you were but half conscious. +You've kept still about it so as to shield Uncle, and I thank you." + +Tom looked abashed; but he was angry, too. "Confound that Parloe!" he +exclaimed again. "He's been bleeding me, too! Threatened to go to my +father and tell about it--and Dad would have been pretty hot with +your uncle, I expect." + +"It was just fine of you, Tommy," Ruth said, admiringly. "But I'd let +that Parloe tell anything he liked. Uncle Jabez never meant to run you +down, I'm sure." + +"I tell you what," said Tom. "I'll go to him myself and talk with him. +Guess I can do a little bargaining on my own hook. If I don't make him +any trouble about my accident, he ought to let you and Helen be spoons +again. She's just about worrying herself sick over you." + +"It will come right, Tom, in the end," returned Ruth, quietly, and +repeating Aunt Alvirah's favorite word of cheer. "Uncle is changed, I +believe. Think of his taking so much interest in Mercy!" + +"I'll see Doctor Davison," said Tom, eagerly; "and perhaps I'll bring +the sick girl out on Saturday. She ought to be very comfortable in +this machine. Helen would be glad to do something for her, too." + +"But you don't want to make any show of doing anything for Mercy," +returned Ruth, shaking her head as she got out before the station +master's cottage. "There she is at the window. She'll be curious about +you, I've no doubt." + +She only ran in for a few moments to see Mercy before going on to Miss +Cramp's. + +"That's that Cameron boy," said the crippled girl, in her sharp way. +"I see him and that sister of his whizzing through this street before +in their car. Wish it'd blow up some day when they're showing off." + +Ruth had got so now that she never showed surprise at Mercy's harsh +speeches. She refused to admit that she took the lame girl seriously +in her ugly moods. + +"Now, you'd better not wish that, Mercy," she laughed. "Tom wants to +take you out to the Red Mill on Saturday in that same automobile. +Uncle Jabez is going to take the wheel chair and your baggage. You'll +like riding in the car well enough." + +For a moment the cripple was silent and her eyes fell before Ruth's +gaze. Suddenly the guest saw that Mercy's shoulders shook and that +tears were actually dropping from Mercy's eyes. + +"My dear!" she cried. + +"Go away!" murmured the crippled girl. "I want to be alone. I ain't +never believed," she went on, with more vigor than grammar, "that I'd +ever get out to your house. Is--is it really so that I can?" + +"Uncle Jabez is determined you shall come. So is Doctor Davison. So am +I. Everybody is helping. Why, Mercy, you'd have to come to the Red +Mill on a visit now, even if you didn't want to!" cried Ruth, laughing +happily. + + CHAPTER XXIII + + IN OLAKAH GLEN + +And Mercy Curtis really came to the Red Mill. Perhaps it was because +of Doctor Davison, for it was notorious that when the good physician +set out to do a thing, or to have it done, it was accomplished. + +Yet in this case it seemed as though the miller himself had as much to +do with the successful outcome of the plan as anybody. He had little +to say about it--or little to say at first to the crippled girl. But +he saw that Aunt Alvirah and Ruth had the east bedroom ready for +Mercy's occupancy before he started to town with his usual load of +flour and meal on Saturday afternoon; and he was at home in good +season for supper with the empty grain sacks, the fruits of his +Saturday's trading, and Mercy's wheel chair in the wagon. But before +he returned to the Red Mill the Camerons' big car, with Helen and Tom +and the chauffeur, flashed past the Red Mill on its way to town and in +a remarkably short time reappeared with Mercy sitting beside Helen in +the tonneau. Doctor Davison arrived at about the same time, too, and +superintended the removal of the cripple into the house. + +Mercy was as excited as she could be. There was actually color in her +face. She was so excited that she forgot to be snappy, and thanked +them all for their kindness to her. + +"Into bed you go at once, Mercy," commanded Doctor Davison; "and in +the morning you may get up as early as you please--or as early as +Ruth gets up." For Ruth was to sleep on the couch in the sick girl's +room during her visit to the Red Mill. + +The doctor drove the Camerons away then, and adjured Mercy to be +quiet, leaving her to the tender nursing of Ruth and Aunt Alvirah. +Mercy was in a mood to be friendly with everybody--for once. She was +delighted with Aunt Alvirah. When Uncle Jabez arrived with the +wheelchair she actually made him do errands for her and talked to him +with a freedom that astonished both Ruth and Mrs. Alvirah Boggs. + +"There! I knew you'd do it, Dusty Miller," Mercy said to the old man, +tartly. "You men are all alike--just as forgetful as you can be. It's +all very well to bring this old wheelchair; but where are my two +sticks? Didn't they give you my canes, Dusty Miller? I assure you I +have to move around a bit now and then without using this horseless +carriage. I've got to have something to hobble on. I'm Goody +Two-sticks, I am. You know very well that one of my legs isn't worth +anything at all." + +"Ha!" croaked Jabez Potter, eyeing her with his usual frown, "I didn't +bring any canes; because why? There weren't any given me. They're not +in the wagon." + +"My! do you always frown just like that?" demanded Mercy Curtis, in a +manner which would have been impertinent in any other person, but was +her natural way of speaking. "You don't waste your time in smiling and +smirking; do you?" + +"I never saw any use in it--unless ye had something perticular to +smile for," admitted Mr. Potter. + +"Then it won't spoil your smile if I tell you that you'll have to find +me canes somewhere if I'm to help myself at all," she said. + +He gravely brought two rough staffs, measured them off at just the +right height for her, and spent the bulk of the evening in smoothing +the rough sticks and tacking on bits of leather at the small ends of +the canes in lieu of ferrules. + +The east bedroom was at the end of the passage leading from the +kitchen. It was right next to Uncle Jabez's own room. They all sat in +the east room that evening, for its windows opened upon the wide, +honeysuckle-shaded porch, and the breeze was cool. It was the +beginning of many such evenings, for although Uncle Jabez sometimes +retired to his bedroom where a lamp burned, and made up his cash-book +and counted his money (or so Ruth supposed) not an evening went by +that the miller was not, for a time at least, in the cripple's room. + +He did not talk much. Indeed, if he talked to anyone more than to +another it was to Ruth; but he seemed to take a quizzical interest in +watching Mercy's wry faces when she was in one of her ugly moods, and +in listening to her sharp speeches. + +The outdoor air and sun, and the plentiful supply of fresh milk and +vegetables and farm cooking, began to make another girl of Mercy +before a week went over her head. She had actually some natural color, +her hands became less like bird-claws, and her hollow cheeks began to +fill out. + +On Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Curtis drove out to see her. The Red Mill had +not been so lively a place since Ruth came to it, she knew, and, she +could imagine; for many a long year before. Doctor Davison was there +every day. Other neighbors were continually running in to see Mercy, +or to bring something for the invalid. At first, in her old, snappy, +snarly way, Mercy would say: + +"Old cat! just wanted to see how humpy and mean I look. Thought I was +as ugly as a bullfrog, I s'pose. I know what they're after!" + +But as she really began to feel better, and slept long and sweetly at +night, and altogether to gain in health, she dropped such sharp +speeches and had a smile when visitors came and when they left. +Everybody who drove by and saw her sitting on the porch, or wheeling +herself, or being wheeled by Ruth, about the paths, had something to +say to her, or waved a hand at her, and Mercy Curtis began to be +pleasant mannered. + +She hobbled around her room more on the "two-sticks" Uncle Jabez had +made for her; but she never liked to have even Ruth see her at these +exercises. She certainly did get about in a very queer manner--"just +like a crab with the St. Vitus dance," so she herself said. + +The doctor watched her closely. He was more attentive than he had been +when she was much worse off in health; and finally, after Mercy had +been at the Red Mill for nearly a month, he brought a strange +physician to see her. This gentleman was a great surgeon from New +York, who asked Mercy a few questions, but who watched her with so +intent a look that the little crippled girl was half frightened at +him. He inspired confidence, however, and when he said to her, on +departing: "You are going to see me again before long," Mercy was +quite excited about it. She never asked a question of Doctor Davison, +or of anybody else, about the strange surgeon, or his opinion of her +case; but Ruth often heard her humming an odd little song (she often +made up little tunes and put words to them herself) of which Ruth did +not catch the burden for some days. When Mercy was singing it she +mumbled the words, or dropped her voice to a whisper whenever anybody +came near. But one morning Ruth was bringing the beaten egg and milk +that she drank as a "pick-me-up" between breakfast and dinner, and +Mercy did not hear her coming, and the odd little song came clearly to +the ears of the girl of the Red Mill: + + "He's going to cure me! Oh, my back and oh, my bones! + He's going to cure me! Oh, my back and oh, my bones!" + +Ruth knew instantly to what the little doggerel song referred. It is +true Mercy had filched Aunt Alvirah's phrase and made it her own--and +it applied to the poor child as well as to the rheumatic old woman. +But it was a song of joy--a song of expectation. + +Ruth tried to be even more kind to Mercy after that. She was with her +almost all the time. But there were occasions when Helen and Tom +Cameron really made her come out with them on some little jaunt. Since +Mercy's arrival at the Red Mill the Camerons had fallen into the habit +of calling occasionally, and Uncle Jabez had said nothing about it. +Ostensibly they called on Mercy; but it was Ruth that they came for +with the pony carriage one day and took away for a visit to Olakah +Glen. + +This beautiful spot was not so very far away, but it called for a +picnic lunch, and Tubby was quite two hours in getting them there. It +was a wild hollow, with great beech trees, and a noisy stream chaffing +in a rocky bed down the middle of the glen. There were some farms +thereabout; but many of the farmers were no more than squatters, for a +vast tract of field and forest, including the glen, belonged to an +estate which had long been in the courts for settlement. + +Just before leaving all signs of civilization behind, Tom had pointed +out a shanty and several outbuildings on a high hillock overlooking +the road, and told the girls that that was where Jasper Parloe lived, +all alone. + +"I came up here fishing with some of the other fellows once, and +Jasper tried to drive us out of the glen. Said he owned it. Likely +story! He won't trouble us to-day." + +Indeed, wild as the spot was, there was little likelihood of anybody +troubling the young people, for they had Reno along. This faithful +creature watched over the trio most jealously and, as they were eating +on the grass, he found some sudden reason to become excited. He rose +up, stiffening his back, the hair rising on his neck, and a low growl +issuing from his throat. The girls were a little startled, but Tom +sprang up, motioned to Helen and Ruth to keep still, and ran to the +angry mastiff. + +"What's the matter with you, Reno?" demanded Tom, softly, but putting +a restraining hand upon his collar. + +Reno lurched forward, and Tom gripped the collar tightly as he was +dragged directly toward a thick dump of shrubbery not many yards away. + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE INITIALS + +There was no sound that Tom Cameron or the girls could hear from the +shrubbery; but Reno evidently knew that somebody was lurking there. +And by the dog's actions Tom thought it must be somebody whom Reno +disliked. + +"Oh, don't leave us, Tom!" begged Helen, running behind her brother +and the mastiff. + +"Come on--both of you!" muttered Tom. "We'll see what this means. +Stick close to me." + +He had picked up a stout club; but it was in the huge and intelligent +mastiff that they all put their confidence. The dog, although he +snuffed now and then as though the scent that had first disturbed him +still came down the wind, had ceased to growl. + +They came to a path in the thicket and followed it for a few yards +only, when Reno stopped and stiffened again. + +"Hush!" whispered Tom, and parted the bushes with one hand, his other +still clinging to the mastic's collar. + +There was a tiny opening in the shrubbery. It surrounded the foot of a +huge beech tree. In some past day a careless hunter had built a fire +close to the trunk of this tree. It was now hollow at the base, but +vines and creepers growing up the tall tree had hidden the opening. + +A man was on his knees at the foot of the tree and had drawn the +matted curtain of creepers aside with one hand while with the other he +reached in to the full length of his arm. He had no suspicion of the +presence of the young people and Reno. + +Out of the hollow in the tree trunk he drew something wrapped in an +old pair of overalls. He unwrapped it, still with his back to the spot +where the dog and his master and the girls stood. But the three +friends could see over his shoulder as he knelt on the ground, and saw +plainly that the object he had withdrawn from the tree trunk was a +flat black box, evidently japanned, and there was a fair-sized brass +padlock which fastened it. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled the man to himself, as he wrapped the box up +again in the old clothes, and then thrust it hastily into the hollow +tree. "Safe yet! safe yet!" + +He rose up then and without even looking about him, started directly +away from the glen. He plainly had no suspicion of the presence of the +dog and the trio of young folks. When he was quite out of sight and +sound, Tom whispered, patting Reno: + +"I declare, girls! That was Jasper Parloe!" + +"That mean thing!" returned his sister. "I guess he's a miser as well +as a hermit; isn't he?" + +"Looks like it. I've a good mind to take that thing he put in there +and hide it somewhere else. He wouldn't be so sure about it's being +safe then; would he?" + +"No! Don't you touch his nasty things, Tom," advised Helen, turning +away. + +But Ruth still stared at the hidden hollow in the tree and suddenly +she darted forward and knelt where Parloe had knelt. + +"What are you going to do, Ruth?" demanded her chum. + +"I want to see that box--I must see it!" cried the girl from the Red +Mill. + +"Hold on!" said Tom. "I'll get it for you. You'll get your dress +dirty." + +"I wouldn't touch it," cried Helen, warningly. + +"I must!" gasped Ruth, greatly excited. + +"It don't belong to you," quoth Helen. + +"And I'm very sure it doesn't belong to Jasper Parloe," declared Ruth, +earnestly. + +Tom glanced at the girl from the Red Mill suddenly, and with close +attention. He seemed to understand her excitement. + +"Let me in there," said the youth. "I can reach it, Ruthie." + +He pushed her gently, and while Ruth and Helen held aside the mass of +vines the boy crawled in and reached the bundle of rags. He carefully +hauled it all forth and the japanned box tumbled out of its loose +wrappings. + +"There it is!" grunted Tom, getting up and wiping his hands on a tuft +of grass. "What do you make of it?" + +Ruth had the box in her hands. Helen, looking over her shoulder, +pointed to two faded letters painted on the cover of the box. + +"That belongs to Jasper Parloe. His initials are on the box," she +said. + +"'J. P.'--that's right, I guess," muttered Tom. + +It could not be gainsaid that Parloe's initials were there. Ruth +stared at them for some moments in silence. + +"Better put it back. I don't know what he can possibly have to hide in +this way," Tom said. "But we wouldn't want to get into trouble with +him. He's a mean customer." + +"It isn't his box!" said Ruth, quietly. + +"Why isn't it?" cried Helen, in amazement. + +"I never noticed the letters on the box before. The box has been +cleaned since I saw it--" + +"You don't mean that it is your uncle's cash-box, Ruth?" interrupted +Tom, in excitement. + +"Why, you ridiculous boy!" declared Helen. "You know that was lost in +the flood." + +"I don't know. Do you?" Tom demanded, shortly. + +"But, Ruth!" gasped Helen. + +"It looks like Uncle Jabez's box," Ruth whispered. + +"But the letters! Jasper Parloe's initials," cried the +hard-to-be-convinced Helen Cameron. + +"They're uncle's initials, too," explained Ruth, quietly. + +"Whew!" ejaculated Tom. "So they are. 'J. P.--Jabez Potter.' Can't +get around that." + +"Well, I never!" gasped Helen. + +"Do you suppose all old Jabe's money is in this?" muttered Tom, +weighing the cash-box in his hands. "It can't be in coin." + +"I do not know that he had much money in coin," said Ruth. "I think he +used to change the gold and silver for notes, quite frequently. At +least, Aunt Alvirah says so." + +"But suppose it should be Parloe's after all?" objected Helen. + +"Let's find that out," said Tom, vigorously. "Come on, girls. We'll +finish eating, pack up, and start back. We'll drive right up to +Parloe's and show him this box, and ask him if it is his. If he says +yes, we'll make him come along to the mill and face Mr. Potter, and +then if there is any doubt of it, let them go before a magistrate and +fight it out!" + +The girls were impressed with the wisdom of this declaration, and all +went back to rescue the remains of their luncheon from the birds and +from a saucy gray squirrel that had already dropped down to the lowest +limb of the tree under which they had spread their cloth, and who sat +there and chattered angrily while they remained thereafter, as though +he considered that he had been personally cheated out of a banquet. + +The girls and Tom were so excited that they could not enjoy the +remainder of the nice things that Babette had packed in their lunch +basket They were soon in the carriage, and Tubby was startled out of a +pleasant dream and urged up the hilly road that led through the woods +to the squatter's cabin, where Jasper Parloe had taken up his quarters +after he had been discharged from employment at the Red Mill. + + CHAPTER XXV + + ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS + +When the pony carriage drove into the little clearing about the +squatter's hut, Parloe was pottering about the yard and he stood up +and looked at them with arms akimbo and a growing grin upon his sly +face. + +"Well, well, well!" he croaked. "All together, air ye? Havin' a +picnic?" + +"We've been down yonder in the glen," said Tom, sternly. + +For an instant Jasper Parloe changed color and looked a bit worried. +But it was only for an instant. Then he grinned again and his little +eyes twinkled just as though he were amused. But Tom kept on, bluntly, +saying: + +"We found something there, Parloe, and we came up here to see if it +belongs to you." + +"What's that?" asked the man, drawing nearer. "I ain't lost nothing." + +"Don't say that," said Tom, quickly. "At least, don't say you haven't +hidden something." + +But he could not catch Mr. Parloe again. The man shook his head slowly +and looked as though he hadn't the least idea of what Tom was driving +at. + +"Look here," continued the boy, and drew forth the japanned box. + +"Well! Well!" and Jasper's mean little eyes twinkled more than ever. +"You don't mean to say you found that down yonder?" + +"We did," said Tom, tartly. + +"Now, where was it?" + +"Where it had been hidden," snapped Tom, quite disgusted with the old +man. "Where it was supposed to be very safe, I reckon." + +"Like enough, Tom," said Jasper, mildly. "What do you reckon on doing +with it?" + +"You don't claim it to be yours, then?" demanded Tom, in some +surprise. + +"No-o," said Parloe, slowly. + +"It has your initials on it," said Helen, quickly. + +"That's odd, ain't it?" returned Parloe, standing where he was and not +offering to touch the box. "But other people have the same initials +that I have." His grin grew to huge proportions, and he looked so sly +that nothing but his high, bony nose kept his two little eyes from +running together and making one eye of it. "Jabe Potter, for +instance." + +"Then you think this is likely to be Mr. Potter's?" queried Tom. + +"Couldn't say. Jabe will probably claim it. He would take advantage of +the initials, sure enough." + +"And why don't you?" asked Helen. + +"'Cause me and Jabe are two different men," declared Parloe, +righteously. "Nobody ever could say, with proof, that Jasper Parloe +took what warn't his own." + +"This is my uncle's cash-box, I am very sure," interposed Ruth, with +some anger. "It was not swept away the day of the flood. You were +there in his little office at the very moment the waters struck the +mill, and we saw you running from the place as though you were +scared." + +"Jefers-pelters!" croaked Jasper. "It was enough to scare anybody!" + +"That may be. But you weren't too scared to grab this box when you +ran. And you must have hidden it under your coat as you left the mill. +I am going to tell my uncle all about it--and how we saw you down the +hill yonder, looking at this very box before you thrust it back in its +hiding place." + +Jasper Parloe grew enraged rather than frightened by this threat. + +"Tell!" he barked. "You tell what ye please. Provin's another thing. I +don't know nothin' about the box. I never opened it. I don't know +what's in it. And you kin tell Jabe that if he tries to make me +trouble over it I'll make him trouble in a certain locality--he knows +where and what about." + +"I shall give him the box and tell him how it came into my +possession," repeated Ruth, firmly, and then she and her friends drove +away. + +They hurried Tubby back to the Red Mill and Ruth ran in ahead of her +friends with the cash-box in her hands. The moment Uncle Jabez saw it +he started forward with a loud cry. He almost tore the box from her +grasp; but then became gentle again in a moment. + +"Gal!" he ejaculated, softly, "how'd ye git this away from Parloe?" + +"Oh, Uncle! how did you know he had it?" + +"I've been suspicious. He couldn't scarce keep it to hisself. He ain't +opened it, I see." + +"I don't think he has." + +"We'll see. Tell me about it," urged the miller, staring at Helen and +Tom as they approached. + +Ruth told him all about it. She pointed, too, to the fact that Helen +and Tom--and especially Tom's dog--had had more to do with the +recovery of the cash-box than she had. Uncle Jabez listened and nodded +as though he appreciated that fact. Meanwhile, however, he hunted up +the key to the japanned box and unlocked it. + +It was plain that the contents of the box were for the most part +securities in the shape of stocks and bonds, with a good deal of +currency in small notes. There was a little coin--gold and silver-- +packed into one compartment. Uncle Jabez counted it all with feverish +anxiety. + +"Right to a penny!" he gasped, when he had finished, and mopped the +perspiration from his brow. "The rascal didn't touch it. He didn't +dare!" + +"But he'll dare something else, Uncle," said Ruth, hastily. "I believe +he's going right to Mr. Cameron to make you trouble." + +"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Uncle Jabez, and looked hard at Tom. + +"I'm sorry if he makes trouble about that old thing, Mr. Potter," said +Tom, stumblingly. "I've tried to keep his mouth shut--" + +"Ah-ha!" said Uncle Jabez, again. Then he added: "And I shouldn't be +at all surprised, young man, if you'd given Jasper money to keep his +mouth shut--eh?" + +Tom flushed and nodded "I didn't want any row--especially when Helen +and I think so much of Ruth." + +"You wouldn't have bought Jasper off for my sake, I reckon," said +Jabez, sharply. "You wouldn't have done it for my sake?" + +"Why should I?" returned Tom, coolly. "You never have been any too +friendly towards me." + +"Hah!" said the miller, nodding. "That's true. But let me tell you, +young man, that I saw your father about the time I ran you down. We +don't get along very well, I admit. I ain't got much use for you +Camerons. But I had no intention of doing you harm. You can believe +that, or not. If you will remember, the evening you went over that +embankment on the Wilkins Corners road, I came up behind you. My mules +were young, and your dog jumped out at them and scared them. They +bolted, and I never knew till next day that you had been knocked over +the embankment." + +"We'll let bygones be bygones, Mr. Potter," said Tom, good-humoredly. +"I came out of it all right." + +"But you had no business to pay Jasper Parloe money for keeping still +about it," said the miller, sourly. "Being bled by a blackmailer is +never the action of a wise man. When he threatened me I went to your +father at once and got ahead of Parloe. We agreed to say nothing about +it--that's about all we did agree on, however," added Mr. Potter, +grimly. "Now you children run along. Ruth, come here. I figger I owe +you something because of the finding of this box. Yes! I know how much +the others had to do with it, too. But they'd never been over there in +Olakah Glen if it hadn't been for you. I'll make this up to you. I +never yet owed a debt that I didn't repay in full. I'll remember this +one, gal." + +But so much happened in those next two weeks, following the finding of +the cash-box, that Ruth quite forgot this promise on her uncle's part. +She realized, however, that he seemed really desirous of being kind to +her, and that much of his grimness had disappeared. + +Everybody at the Red Mill--and many other people, too--had their +thoughts fixed upon Mercy Curtis at this time. She had been getting +stronger all the while. She had been able to hobble on her two sticks +from her bedroom to the porch. She had been to ride half a dozen times +in the Camerons' automobile. And then, suddenly, without other +warning, Doctor Davison and the strange surgeon who had once examined +Mercy, appeared in a big limousine car, with a couch arranged inside, +and they whisked Mercy off to a sanitarium some miles away, where she +was operated on by the famous surgeon, with Doctor Davison's help, and +from which place the report came back in a few days that the operation +had been successful and that Mercy Curtis would--in time--walk +again! + +Meanwhile, Ruth had kept up her recitations to Miss Cramp, often +walking back and forth to town, but sometimes getting "a lift," and +the teacher pronounced her prepared to enter the Cheslow High School. +She had taken the studies that Helen Cameron had taken, and, on +comparing notes, the chums found that they were in much the same +condition of advancement. + +"Oh, if you were only going to Briarwood with me, instead of to +Cheslow High!" wailed Helen, one day, as they sat on the porch of the +Red Mill house. + +"Ah, dear!" said Ruth, quietly, "don't talk about it. I want to go +with you more than I ever wanted to do anything in my whole life--" + +"What's that?" exclaimed Uncle Jabez's gruff voice behind them. +"What's that you want to do, Ruth?" + +"To--to go to boarding school, Uncle," stammered his niece. + +"Hah!" grunted the miller. "Ain't you calculatin' on going to high +school?" + +"Oh, Mr. Potter!" broke in Helen, frightened by her own temerity. +"That isn't the school Ruth wants to go to. I am going to Briarwood +Hall, and she wants to go, too. Do, do let her. It would be--it would +be just heavenly, if she could go there, and we could be together!" + +Jabez Potter came out upon the porch and looked down upon his niece. +The grim lines of his face could not relax, it seemed; but his eyes +did seem to twinkle as he said: + +"And that's the greatest wish of your life; is it, Ruth?" + +"I--I believe it is, Uncle Jabez," she whispered, looking at him in +wonder. + +"Well, well!" he said, gruffly, dropping his gaze. "Mebbe I owe it ye. +My savin's of years was in that cash-box, Ruth. I--I--Well, I'll +think it over and see if it can be arranged about this Briarwood +business. I'll--I'll see your Aunt Alvirah." + +And that Uncle Jabez Potter "saw about it" to some purpose is proven +by the fact that the reader may meet Ruth and her friends again in the +next volume of this series to be entitled "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood +Hall; Or, Solving the Campus Mystery." + +"Perhaps he isn't such an ogre after all," whispered Helen, when she +and Ruth were alone. + +"Not after you get to know him," replied the girl of the Red Mill, +with a quiet smile. + + THE END + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, by Alice B. 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