There was a flash following the explosion, and Uncle Jabez staggered
back from the doorway, his arm across his eyes, while the gun dropped
with a crash to the porch. The girls, as well as Aunt Alvirah, shrieked.
"I vum!" ejaculated the miller. "Who done that? What's happened to Old
Betsey?"
"Jabez Potter!" shrilled the little old woman, "didn't I tell you to git
rid o' that gun long ago? Be you shot?"
"No," said the miller grimly. "I'm only scare't. Old Betsey never kicked
like that afore."
Ruth was at his side patting his shoulder and looking at him anxiously.
"Shucks!" scoffed the miller. "I ain't dead yit. But what made that
gun----"
He stooped and picked it up. First he looked at the twisted hammer, then
he turned it around and looked into the muzzle.
"For the good land o' liberty!" he yelled. "What's the meanin' of this?
Who--who's gone and stuck up this here gun bar'l this a-way? I vum! It's
_ce_-ment--sure's I'm a foot high."
"What did you want to tetch that gun for, Jabez Potter?" demanded Aunt
Alvirah, easing herself into a low rocker. "Oh, my back! and oh, my
bones! I allus warned you 'twould do some harm some day. That's why I
plugged it up."
"You--you plugged it up?" gasped the miller. "Wha--what for I want to
know?"
"So, if 'twas loaded, no bullet would get out and hurt anybody,"
declared the little old woman promptly. "Now, you kin get mad and use
bad language, Jabez Potter, if you've a mind to. But I'd ruther go back
to the poorhouse to live than stay under this ruff with that gun all
ready to shoot with."
The miller was so thunderstruck for a moment that he could not reply.
Ruth feared he might fly into a temper, for he was not a patient man.
But, oddly enough, he never raged at the little old housekeeper.
"I vum!" he said at last. "Don't that beat all? An' ain't it like a
woman? Stickin' up the muzzle of the gun so's it couldn't shoot--but
_would_ explode. Shucks!" He suddenly flung up both hands. "Can you beat
'em? _You can't!_"
Now that it was all over, and the accident had not caused any fatality,
the two girls felt like laughing--a hysterical feeling perhaps. They got
Aunt Alvirah into the larger kitchen and left Uncle Jabez to nail up the
box that he was going to ship for Ruth to Red Cross headquarters.
The girl of the Red Mill had been gathering the knitted wear and comfort
kits from the neighbors around to send on to the Red Cross headquarters,
and, in the immediate vicinity of the Red Mill, she knew that the women
and girls were doing a better work for the cause than in Cheslow itself.
The mill and the rambling old house that adjoined and belonged to Uncle
Jabez Potter stood upon the bank of the Lumano River, and was as
beautiful a spot as one might find in that part of the state. Ruth
Fielding had always loved it since the first day her eyes had spied it,
when as a little girl she had come to live with her cross and crotchety
Uncle Jabez.
The miller was a miserly man, and, at first, Ruth had had no pleasant
time as a dependent on her uncle. Had it not been for Aunt Alvirah
Boggs, who was nobody's relative but everybody's aunt, and whom Uncle
Jabez had taken from the poorhouse to keep house for him, the lonely
little orphan girl would have been quite heartbroken.
With Aunt Alvirah's help and the consolation of her philosophy, as well
as with the aid of the friendship of Helen and Tom Cameron, who were
neighbors, Ruth Fielding began to be happy. And really unhappy
thereafter she never could be, for something was always happening to
her, and the active person is seldom if ever in the doldrums.
In the first volume of the series, "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
these and others of Ruth's friends were introduced, and the girl began
to develop that sturdy and independent character which has made her
loved by so many. With Helen she went to Briarwood Hall to boarding
school, and there her acquaintance rapidly widened. For some years her
course is traced through several volumes, at school and during vacations
at different places where exciting and most delightful adventures happen
to Ruth and her friends.
In following volumes we meet Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp, at Lighthouse
Point, at Silver Ranch, on Cliff Island, at Sunrise Farm, in a Gypsy
camp, in Moving Pictures, down in Dixie, and, finally, she graduates
from Briarwood Hall, and she and her chums enter Ardmore College. At the
beginning of this, the thirteenth volume of the series, Ruth and Helen
were quite grown up. Following their first year at Ardmore, Ruth had
gone West to write and develop a moving picture for the Alectrion Film
Corporation, in which she now owned an interest.
In "Ruth Fielding in the Saddle; or, College Girls in the Land of Gold,"
an account of this adventure is narrated, the trip occupying most of the
first summer following Ruth's freshman year. Ruth's success as a writer
of moving-picture scenarios of the better class had already become
established. "The Forty-Niners" had become one of the most successful of
the big scenarios shown during the winter just previous to the opening
of our present story.
Ruth had made much money. Together with what she had made in selling a
claim she had staked out at Freezeout, where the pictures were taken,
her bank accounts and investments now ran well into five figures. She
really did not want Uncle Jabez to know exactly how much she had made
and had saved. Mr. Cameron, Helen's father, had her finances in charge,
although the girl of the Red Mill was quite old enough, and quite wise
enough, to attend to her own affairs.
Interest in Red Cross work had smitten Ruth and Helen and many of their
associates at college. Not alone had the men's colleges become markedly
empty during that previous winter; but the girls' schools and colleges
were buzzing with excitement regarding the war and war work.
As soon as Congress declared a state of war with Germany, Ruth and Helen
had hurried home. Cheslow, the nearest town, was an insular community,
and many of the people in it were hard to awaken to the needs of the
hour. Because of the peaceful and satisfied life the people led they
could not understand what war really meant.
Cheslow and the vicinity of the Red Mill was not alone in this. Many,
many communities were yet to be awakened.
Ruth bore these facts very much on her heart. She was doing all that she
could to strike a note of alarm that should awaken Cheslow.
Despite Uncle Jabez Potter's patriotism, she would have been afraid to
tell him just how much she had personally subscribed for the work of the
Red Cross and for other war activities. And, likewise, in her heart was
another secret--a longing to be doing something of moment for the cause.
She wanted to really enlist for the war! She wished she might be "over
there" in body, as well as in spirit.
Not only were the drums calling to Tom Cameron and his friends, and
many, many other boys, but they were calling the girls to arms as well.
Never before has war so soon and so suddenly offered womankind a chance
to aid in an undying cause.
Yet Ruth did not neglect the small and seemingly unimportant duties
right at hand. She was no dreamer or dallier. Having got off this big
box of comforts for the boys at the front, the very next day she, with
Helen, took up the effort already begun of a house-to-house campaign
throughout Cheslow for Red Cross members, and to invite the feminine
part of the community to aid in a big drive for knitted goods.
The Ladies' Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was meeting
that day with Mrs. Curtis, the wife of the railroad station agent and
the mother of one of Ruth's friends at boarding school. Mercy Curtis,
having quite outgrown her childish ills, welcomed the friends when they
rang the bell.
"Do come in and help me bear the chatter of this flock of starlings,"
Mercy said. "Glad to see you, girlies!" and she kissed both Ruth and
Helen.
"But I am afraid I want to join the starlings, as you call them," Ruth
said demurely; "and even add to their chatter. I came here for just that
purpose."
"For just what purpose?" Mercy demanded.
"To talk to them. I knew the crowd would be here, and so I thought I
could kill two birds with one stone."
"Two birds, only?" sniffed Mercy. "Kill 'em all, for all I care! I'll
run and find you some stones."
"My ammunition are hard words only," laughed Ruth. "I want to tell them
that they are not doing their share for the Red Cross."
"Oh!" exclaimed Mercy. "Humph! Well, Ruthie, you have come at an
unseasonable time, I fear. Mrs. Mantel is here."
"Mrs. Mantel!" murmured Ruth.
"The woman in black!" exclaimed Helen. "Well, Mercy, what has she been
saying?"
"Enough, I think," the other girl replied. "At least, I have an idea
that most of the women in the Ladies' Aid believe that it is better to
go on with the usual sewing and foreign and domestic mission work, and
let the Red Cross strictly alone."