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"I'm sure I don't know where she is," answered Ruthie, with a pleasant smile; "nor Flyaway either. I have been living in peace for half an hour." Ruthie made you think of lemon candy; she was sweet and tart too. While Jennie, with the kind assistance of Prudy, was hunting for Dotty, Mrs. Parlin was in Judge Vance's parlor, talking with Jennie's step-mother. Mrs.
"When is your aunt coming, Nettie?" asked Ruth. "To see you graduate, my dear," replied the Southern girl, smiling. "And wait till she meets you, Ruthie Fielding! She'll near about love you to death!" "Oh, everybody loves Ruth. Why shouldn't they?" cried Belle. "But everybody doesn't give her a fortune, as Nettie's Aunt Rachel did," laughed Heavy.
"Yes, I do," said Flyaway, winking hard and breathing quick in the effort to recall the very dim and very distant past; "yes, I 'member." "Well, what do you 'member?" "O, once I was grindin' coffee out there in a yellow chair, and somebody she came and put me in the sink." "She does know doesn't she?" said Dotty. "That was Ruthie; come out in the kitchen and see her."
When Ruthie went that noon to feed the pig, she found the trough choked with a mop, a hoe, a shovel, and several clothes-pins. She did not stop to inquire into the matter, but took the articles out, one by one, saying to herself, with a smile, "Some of that baby's work. I couldn't think what had become of my mop; she's enough to try the patience of Job.
"Why should you think that would make me unhappy, when it is one of the dreams of my life to go abroad?" "That's just where the trouble comes, Ruthie," said her father tenderly. "I have thought it all over carefully, and I cannot make myself think that it would be right or wise to take you over there with me for the first year.
"Crickey! that's so, Ruthie," Tom Cameron interposed. "Of course he doesn't own it. If you want the poor thing, we'll take it along to Fred Larkin's place." "Say!" exclaimed the farmer. "What does this mean? I didn't sell ye the carcass of thet thar lamb; I only got damages " "You sold it. You know you did," Ruth declared, firmly. "I dare you to touch the poor little thing.
"Goodness, Ruthie!" exclaimed Helen, with sudden good sense. "Say no more about it. Of course we know you would not desert us if it could be helped. If Tom would only come while you are gone " "I may be able to communicate with him," Ruth said, turning her head quickly so that her chum should not see her expression of countenance. "And there is something you girls can do for me while I am gone."
"'Ann Hicks," quoth Ruth, softly. "I like it. I believe it sounds nice, too when you get used to it. 'Ann Hicks. Something dignified and fine about it just as though you had been named after some really great woman some leader." The others laughed; and yet they looked appreciation of Ruth Fielding's fantasy. "Bully for you, Ruthie!" cried Helen, hugging her. "If Ann Hicks agrees."
"Always," whispered Ruth, gratefully; and it was she who helped Betty serve the other girls with the excellent cold chicken, and bread, and butter, the jelly-filled tarts, and squares of molasses gingerbread, so that Annette's proposed "lesson" bid fair to be defeated. "What's the matter, Ruthie?" Betty found a chance to whisper, as they sat down together a little way from the larger group.
Craven did not keep any servants. The moment Ruth entered now her grandmother put her head out of the kitchen door. "Ruthie," she said, "the butcher has disappointed us to-day. Here is a shilling; go to the shop and bring in some sausages. Be as quick as you can, child, or your grandfather won't have his supper in time." Ruth took the money without a word.
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