talking with Tom, who still sat in theautomobile.
And as Ruth stood in the porch a moment, while Aunt Alvirah proudlylooked her over to see that she was all right, the girl saw by theexpression on Tom's face that whatever Parloe talked about was notpleasing the lad in the least.
She saw, too, that Tom pulled something from his pocket hastily andthrust it into Parloe's hand. The old man chuckled slily, saidsomething else to the boy, and then turned away and climbed into hiswagon again. He drove away as Ruth ran down the path to the waitingauto.
"Hullo, Tom!" she cried. "I told you I wouldn't keep you waitinglong."
"How-do, Ruth," he returned; but it must be confessed that he was notas bright and smiling as usual, and he looked away from Ruth and afterParloe the next moment.
As the girl reached the machine Uncle Jabez came to the mill dooragain. He observed Ruth about to get in and he came down the steps andstrode toward the Cameron automobile. Jasper Parloe had clucked to hisold nag and was now rattling away from the place.
"Where are you going, Ruth?" the miller demanded, sternly eyeing TomCameron, 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 abouttoo much and leaving your aunt to do everything."
This was not so, and Ruth knew very well that her uncle knew it wasnot so. She flushed and hesitated, and he said:
"Do you hear me? I expect to be obeyed if you remain here at the RedMill. Just because I lay few commands upon you, is no reason why youshould consider it the part of wisdom to be disobedient when I do givean order."
"Oh, Uncle! do let me go," begged Ruth, fairly crying. "Helen has beenso 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," declaredUncle Jabez, in the same stern tone. "You can drive on, young man. Theless 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 Cameronshave done for you," he said to Ruth. "They've done enough--altogethertoo much. We will stop this intimacy right here and now. At least, youwill not go to their house, Ruth. Do as I tell you--go in to yourAunt Alviry."
Then, as the weeping girl turned away, she heard him say, even moreharshly than he had spoken to her: "I don't want anything to do withpeople who are hand and glove with that Jasper Parloe. He's a thief--a bigger thief, perhaps, than people generally know. At least, he'scost me enough. Now, you drive on and don't let me see you or yoursister about here again."
He turned on his heel and went back to the mill without giving Tomtime to say a word. The boy, angry enough, it was evident from hisexpression of countenance, hesitated several minutes after the millerwas gone. Once he arose, as though he would get out of the car andfollow Jabez into the mill. But finally he started the engine, turnedthe car, and drove slowly away.
This was a dreadful day indeed for the girl of the Red Mill. Never inher life had she been so hurt--never had she felt herself so ill-usedsince coming to this place to live. Uncle Jabez had never been reallykind to her; but aside from the matter of the loss of her trunk he hadnever before been actually cruel.
He could have selected no way that would have hurt her more keenly. Torefuse to let her go to see the girl she loved--her only close friendand playmate! And to refuse to allow Helen and Tom to come here to seeher! This intimacy was all (and Ruth admitted it now, in a torrent oftears, as she lay upon her little bed) that made life at the Red Millendurable. Had she not met Helen and found her such a dear girl and sokind a companion, Ruth told herself now that she never could haveborne the dull existence of this house.
She heard Aunt Alvirah's halting step upon the stair and before theold woman reached the top of the flight, Ruth plainly heard hermoaning to herself: "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" Thus groaning andhalting, 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 ithurts--she wishes she could bear it for ye! Now, now, my prettycreetur--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 girlinto her arms. She sat upon the side of the bed and rocked Ruth to andfro, with her arms about her. She did not say much more, but herunspoken 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 greatnature was capable. She seemed to understand just how the girl felt,without a spoken word on her part. She did not seek to explain themiller's reason for acting as he did. Perhaps she had less idea thanhad Ruth why Jabez Potter should have taken such a violent dislike tothe Camerons.
For Ruth half believed that she held the key to that mystery. When shecame to think it over afterward she put what she had heard between thetwo old men--Jabez and Parloe--down at the brook, with what hadoccurred at the mill just before Tom Cameron had come in sight; andputting these two incidents together and remembering that JasperParloe had overheard Tom in his delirium accuse the miller of beingthe cause of his injury, Ruth was pretty sure that in that combinationof circumstances was the true explanation of Uncle Jabez's crueldecision.
Ruth was not the girl to lie on her bed and weep for long. She wassensible enough to know very well that such a display ofdisappointment and sorrow would not better the circumstances. Whileshe remained at the Red Mill she must obey Uncle Jabez, and hisdecisions could not be controverted. She had never won a place nearenough to the miller's real nature to coax him, or to reason with himregarding this gruff decision he had made. She had to make up her mindthat, unless something unexpected happened to change Uncle Jabez, shewas cut off from much future association with her dear chum, HelenCameron.
She got up in a little while, bathed her face and eyes, and kissedAunt Alvirah warmly.
"You are a dear!" she declared, hugging the little old woman. "Come! Iwon't cry any more. I'll come down stairs with you, Auntie, and helpget dinner."
But Ruth could eat none herself. She did not feel as though she couldeven sit at the table with Uncle Jabez that noon, and remained outsidewhile the miller ate. He never remarked upon her absence, or paid herthe least attention. Oh, how heartily Ruth wished now that she hadnever come away from Darrowtown and had never seen the Red Mill.
The next Monday morning the rural mail carrier brought her a longletter from Helen. Uncle Jabez had not said anything against acorrespondence; indeed, Ruth did not consider that he had more thanrefused to have the Camerons come to see her or she to return theirvisits. If she met them on the road, or away from the house, she didnot consider that it would be disobeying Uncle Jabez to associate withHelen and Tom.
This letter from Helen was very bitter against the miller and wildlyproposed that Ruth should run away from the Red Mill and come toOverlook to live. She declared that her papa would not object--indeed, that everybody would warmly welcome the appearance of RuthFielding "even if she came like a tramp "; and that Tom would lingerabout the Red Mill for an hour or two every evening so that Ruth couldslip out and communicate with her friends, or could be helped away ifshe 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 thepost, and went on upon her usual way, helping Aunt Alviry, going toschool, and studying harder than ever. She missed Helen'scompanionship 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 thou
ght. Herstudies 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 byMiss Cramp, there was a special study which Ruth wished to excel in.Miss Cramp was old-fashioned enough to believe that spelling was thevery best training for the mind and the memory and that it was apositive crime for any child to grow up to be a slovenly speller. Fourtimes a year Miss Cramp held an old-fashioned "spelling-bee" at theschoolhouse, on designated Friday evenings; and now came the last ofthe four for this school year.
Ruth had never been an extra good speller, but because her kindteacher was so insistent upon the point, the girl from the Red Millput forth special efforts to please Miss Cramp in this particular. Shehad given much spare time to the study of