"Now, Jabez!" remonstrated Aunt Alvirah.
But Ruth only laughed. "You"ve got it wrong, Uncle Jabez," she declared.
"There is another version of that old doggerel. It is:
""Whistling girls and blatting sheep Are the two best things a farmer can keep!""
Then she went straight to him and, as his irritated face came out of the huck towel, she put both arms around his neck and kissed him on his grizzled cheek.
This sort of treatment always closed her Uncle Jabez"s lips for a time.
There seemed no answer to be made to such an argument--and Ruth _did_ love the crusty old man and was grateful to him.
When the miller had retired to his own chamber to count and recount the profits of the day, as he always did every evening, Aunt Alvirah complained more than usual of the old man"s n.i.g.g.ardly ways.
"It"s gittin" awful, Ruthie, when you ain"t to home. He"s ashamed to have me set so mean a table when you air here. For he _does_ kinder care about what you think of him, my pretty, after all."
"Oh, Aunt Alvirah! I thought he was cured of _little_ "stingies.""
"No, he ain"t! no, he ain"t!" cried the old lady, sitting down with a groan. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones! I tell ye, my pretty, I have to steal out things a"tween meals to Ben sometimes, or that boy wouldn"t have half enough to eat. Jabez has had a new padlock put on the meat-house door, and I can"t git a slice of bacon without his knowin" on it."
"That is ridiculous!" exclaimed Ruth, who had less patience now than she once had for her great uncle"s penuriousness. She was positive that it was not necessary.
"Ree-dic"lous or not; it"s _so_," Aunt Alvirah a.s.serted. "Sometimes I feel like I was a burden on him myself."
"_You_ a burden, dear Aunt Alvirah!" cried Ruth, with tears in her eyes.
"You would be a blessing, not a burden, in anybody"s house. Uncle Jabez was very fortunate indeed to get you to come here to the Red Mill."
"I dunno--I dunno," groaned the old lady. "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!
I"m a poor, rheumaticky creeter--and n.o.body but Jabez would have taken me out o" the poorhouse an" done for me as he has."
"You mean, you have done for him!" cried Ruth, in some pa.s.sion. "You have kept his house for him, and mended for him, and made a home for him, for years. And I doubt if he has ever thanked you--not _once_!"
"But I have thanked him, deary," said Aunt Alvirah, sweetly. "And I do thank him, same as I do our Father in Heaven, ev"ry day of my life, for takin" me away from that poorfarm an" makin" an independent woman of me a"gin. Oh, Jabez ain"t all bad. Fur from it, my pretty--fur from it!
"Now that you ain"t no more beholden to him for your eddication, an" all, he is more pennyurious than ever--yes he is! For Jabez"s sake, I could almost wish you hadn"t got all that money you did, for gittin" back the lady"s necklace. Spendin" money breeds the itch for spendin" more. Since you wrote him that you was goin" to pay all your school bills, Jabez Potter is cured of the little itch of _that_ kind he ever had."
"Oh, Aunt Alvirah! Think of me--I am glad to be independent, too."
"I know--I know," admitted Aunt Alvirah. "But it"s hard on Jabez. He was givin" you the best eddication he could----"
"Grumblingly enough, I am sure!" interposed Ruth, with a pout. She could speak plainly to the little old woman, for Aunt Alvirah _knew_.
"Surely--surely," agreed the old lady. "But it did him good, jest the same. Even if he only spent money on ye for fear of what the neighbors would say. Opening his pocket for _your_ needs, my pretty, was makin" a new man of Jabez."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Ruth, thinking it rather hard. "You want me to be poor again, Aunt Alvirah."
"Only for your uncle"s sake--only for his sake," she reiterated.
"But he can do more for Mercy Curtis," said Ruth. "He has helped her quite a little. He likes Mercy--better than he does me, I think."
"But he don"t have to help Mercy no more," put in Aunt Alvirah, quickly.
"Haven"t you heard? Mercy"s mother has got a legacy from some distant relative and now there ain"t a soul on whom Jabez Potter thinks he"s _got_ to spend money. It"s a terrible thing for Jabez--Meed an" it is, my pretty.
"Changes--changes, all the time! We were going on quite smooth and pleasant for a fac". And _now_----Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" and thus groaningly Aunt Alvirah finished her quite unusual complaint, for with all her aches and pains she was naturally a cheerful body.
CHAPTER V
"THAT"S A PROMISE"
The family at the Red Mill were early risers When the red, red sun threw his first rays across the frosty waters of the Lumano, Ruth Fielding"s cas.e.m.e.nt was wide open and she was busily tripping about the kitchen where her Uncle Jabez had built the fire in the range before going to the mill.
Ben, the hired man, was out doing the ch.o.r.es and soon brought two br.i.m.m.i.n.g pails of milk into the milk-room.
"Aunt Alviry will miss ye, Ruthie, when ye air gone back to school," Ben said bashfully, when Ruth, with capable air, began to strain the milk and pour it into the pans.
"Poor Aunt Alvirah!" sighed Ruth. "I hope you help her all you can when I"m not here, Ben?"
"I jest _do_!" said the big fellow, heartily. "T"tell the truth, Ruthie, sometimes I kin scarce a-bear Jabe Potter. I wouldn"t work for him another month, I vow! if "twasn"t for the old woman--and--and _you_."
"Oh, thank you, Ben, for that compliment," cried Ruth, dimpling and running into the kitchen to set back the coffee-pot in which the coffee was threatening to boil over.
The breakfast dishes were not dried when the raucous "honk! honk! honk!"
of an automobile horn sounded without. The machine stopped at the gate of the Potter house.
"My mercy! who kin that be?" demanded Aunt Alvirah, jerkily, and then settled back into her chair again by the window with a murmured, "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"
"It can"t be Tom, can it?" gasped Ruth, running to the door. "So early--and to see Miss Gray?" for the thought that Tom Cameron was interested in the actress still stuck in Ruth"s mind.
"It doesn"t sound like Tom"s horn," she added, as she struggled with the outer door. "Oh, dear! I _do_ wish Uncle Jabez would fix this lock.
There!"
The door flew open, and swung out, its weight carrying Ruth with it plump into the arms of a big man in a big fur coat which he had thrown open as he ascended the steps of the porch.
Ruth was almost smothered in the coat. And she would have slipped and fallen had not the stranger held her up, finally setting her squarely on her feet at arm"s length, steadying her there and laughing the while.
"I declare, young lady," he said in a pleasant voice, "I did not expect to be met with such cordiality. Is this the way you always meet visitors at this beautiful, picturesque old place?"
"Oh, oh, oh! I--I--I----"
Ruth could only gasp at first, her cheeks ruddy with blushes, her eyes timid. Her tongue actually refused to speak two consecutive, sensible words.
"I must say, my dear," said the gentleman who, Ruth now saw, was a man as old as Mr. Cameron, "that you are as charming as the Red Mill itself. For, of course, this _is_ the Red Mill? I was directed here from Cheslow."
"Oh, yes!" stammered Ruth. "This is the Red Mill. Did--did you wish to see Uncle Jabez?"