"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 ent.i.tled "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