PREPARATIONS.
Aunt Emma was very pleasant company for some time, but when she went
upstairs to the sick-room, Ruby concluded that she would go over and
see Ruthy.
She felt quite important as she walked along, thinking of the great
news she had to tell. It did not take Ruby very long to forget about
her troubles and penitences, and if it had not been for the sight of
the blackened remains of the fire, and the pile of boards lying where
her father had thrown them when he pushed them down and carried Ruby
out, she might not have thought of last night's performance for some
time.
As it was, she stopped the happy little song that had been on her lips,
and walked along very quietly for a time, thinking how sorry she was
that she had made her mother worse, and that she was going to be sent
away from home because she could not be trusted.
While going to boarding-school might be a very great event, and an
event which was quite unheard-of in the lives of any of Ruby's friends,
yet she did not like to have to remember that it was partly as a
punishment that she was going.
Before she reached Ruthy's, however, she had banished all unpleasant
thoughts, and her one idea was to astonish Ruthy with the information
that she was going to boarding-school, and was to have a trunk to take
with her. She ran upon the porch calling,--
"Ruthy, Ruthy! Where are you?"
Mrs. Warren came to the door.
"Good-morning, Ruby," she said, looking gravely at the little girl.
"How is your mamma this morning after her anxiety last night about you?"
Ruby had not thought that Mrs. Warren knew anything about her plan of
playing Swiss Family Robinson, and her face grew very red, as she
looked away from Mrs. Warren, and twisted the corner of her apron into
a little point.
"How did you know?" she asked very faintly.
"Because your papa came over here looking for you, and then he drove
back after a while to let us know that you were found, and were safe.
I was very sorry to hear that you had frightened your mother so. How
is she this morning?"
"She is worse this morning," and Ruby began to cry. It was so hard to
have to tell Ruthy's mamma that she had made her own dear mother worse.
"I did n't mean to make my mamma worse; I truly did n't, Mrs. Warren.
I love my mamma just as much as Ruthy loves you, and maybe better, even
if I do do things I ought n't to do. I never thought she would know
about it, I truly didn't. If I had known that she would wake up and be
frightened, I never would have gone out one step, even if I did think
it would be fun."
Mrs. Warren led Ruby in and took her up in her lap.
"My dear little girl, if you would only stop and think before you get
into mischief, I do not believe you would do half so many naughty
things," she said. "I know you love your mother, but you think about
Ruby first and what she wants to do, and forget to think about your
mother until afterwards, and then it is too late to spare her anxiety
about you. It would make her very unhappy if she knew how many things
you do which, I am sure, you know she would not like."
"Indeed, I am going to try to be good," Ruby answered, wiping away her
tears. "And I have a great secret, Mrs. Warren. At least, it is n't a
secret exactly. It's somewhere that I am going, but I want to tell
Ruthy first of all, and then I will tell you about it; and oh, I do
hope you will let Ruthy go too. Will you?"
"I can't answer until I know where you are going," Mrs. Warren
answered. "Does your papa know where you are going, Ruby?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am," Ruby answered promptly, glad that for once there was
nothing wrong about her plan. "He told me about it this morning. It
is only that I want Ruthy to know it the very first of all that I don't
tell you about it this very minute, Mrs. Warren. You don't mind, do
you?"
"Oh, no," Mrs. Warren replied. "If your papa knows about it, I am
quite satisfied."
Ruby jumped down and went in search of Ruthy, who Mrs. Warren said was
probably playing out in the barn.
"Ruthy! Ruthy!" called Ruby as she ran down and peeped in through the
great doors. "Where are you, Ruthy?"
"Up in the hay loft," answered a smothered voice. "Come up here, Ruby."
So Ruby climbed up and found Ruthy curled up in a little nest of
fragrant hay, with one of her favorite story-books.
"Oh, Ruby, tell me about last night," began Ruthy eagerly. "I was so
frightened when it began to get dark, and I remembered that you were
going to stay out-doors all alone by yourself; and I felt so bad that I
almost cried. I could hardly go to sleep, I kept thinking about you so
much. Did you go? Was n't it dreadful?"
Ruby was glad that Ruthy did not know how her papa had come over to
find if Ruby was with Ruthy.
"Oh, yes," she answered. "I went out and stayed a long time, but it
was n't very nice. Anyway, let's don't talk about that, Ruthy. I have
got something to tell you that you could never, never guess, I don't
believe, if you tried for one hundred times. Now I will give you six
guesses, and you can see if you can guess right. I am going somewhere
in about two weeks. Can you guess where?"
"Going somewhere?" echoed Ruthy. "Why, I don't believe I could
possibly guess, Ruby. Let me think first."
She shut her eyes and tried to imagine where Ruby could be going, but
she found it pretty hard work. Neither of the little girls had ever
been away from home in their lives, farther than over to the grove
where the Fourth-of-July picnics were always held, so it was not very
strange that Ruthy could not think of any visit that Ruby would be
likely to make. Perhaps Ruby was going to visit the grandmother who
sometimes came to stay with Ruby's mamma for a few weeks, and who had
sent the little girls their wonder balls when they learned to knit.
"I guess first that you are going to visit your grandma," she said.
"No," answered Ruby, triumphantly. "I just knew you could n't possibly
guess right, but try again. I won't tell you until you have guessed
six times."
"I am afraid I won't ever know, then," sighed Ruthy. "I can't think of
six places to guess. Are you going to New York?"
"No," answered Ruby. "It is a great deal more important than going to
New York. You know folks don't stay long when they go to New York, and
they don't take a--" but she clapped her hands over her mouth to shut
out the next word. "Dear me, I most told you the very most important
part of the secret. I won't say another word for fear I will tell.
Now guess again."
"I might as well ask you if you are going to the moon," Ruthy said.
"I truly can't guess once more, Ruby, so you will have to tell me."
"I am going to boarding-school," announced Ruby, triumphantly.
Ruthy was just as surprised as Ruby had expected her to be. She sat
straight up in the hay, and let her book fall, while she looked at Ruby
with wide-open eyes.
"What!" she exclaimed, as if she could not believe her ears. "Did you
really say you were going to boarding-school, Ruby Harper?"
"Yes, I really am," Ruby responded, "but there 's more than that to
tell you. What do you suppose I am going to have to take with me?"
"I am sure I don't know," Ruthy answered.
"I am going to have a trunk of my very own," said Ruby, proudly. "It
will be like Maude Birkenbaum's, papa said it would be. It is to be
black, and have a beautiful row of gold nails all around the top, and
then at one end there will be 'M. D. B.' in letters made of the nails
all driven in rows. Won't that be beautiful?"
"Yes, indeed," answered Ruthy. "But what will 'M. D. B.' stand for,
Ruby?"
"Why, for my initials of course," Ruby answered. "Oh, no, I made a
mistake. It won't be 'M. D. B.,' but 'R. T. H.,' to stand for Ruby
Todd Harper. I forgot that my initials and Maude's were n't the same.
But just think of it, Ruthy. To have a trunk of one's own and a key to
it! I think that will be too lovely for anything."
"Are you glad you are going to boarding-school?" asked Ruthy, looking
at her rather soberly.
"Why, yes, of course I am," said Ruby, trying to forget that it meant
going away from home, too.
"How long will you stay, do you suppose?" asked Ruthy.
"Oh, I don't exactly know. Till mamma gets well again, papa said,"
Ruby replied. "I spose maybe about a year."
Ruby had rather vague ideas about the length of a year. She always
counted a year from one Christmas to the next, or from one Fourth of
July to the next, whichever happened to be nearest the time from which
she was calculating; and though it seemed a long time when she looked
back from one holiday to the last, yet she did not have a very good
idea how much time it took for twelve months to pass away. Ruby knew
her tables, and she could have told you in one minute, that it took
three hundred and sixty-five days to make a year, but she did not know
how long it took that procession of days to pass along and let the new
year come in.
"Oh, dear," and Ruthy buried her face in the hay, and began to cry.
"Why, what is the matter?" asked Ruby, in surprise.
"I shall miss you so dreadfully," sobbed Ruthy. "I shall not have any
one to play with, that is, any one like you, and I shall miss you all
the time."
"But I am going to ask your mamma to let you go with me," Ruby said
comfortingly. "I forgot to tell you, but I truly will. Do you suppose
I would go away off to boarding-school without you, Ruthy Warren? You
might know I would n't. Of course not. Come and let's go in now and
ask your mother if you can't go with me."
But Ruthy cried harder than ever.
"But I don't want to go to boarding-school," she sobbed. "I want to
stay with my mamma. I should just die if I went way off away from her.
I don't want you to go either, Ruby. I don't see what you think it is
nice to go to boarding-school for, anyway."
"Now, Ruthy, I thought you would go with me, even if you didn't think
it would be very nice at first," Ruby said, in rather reproving tones.
"Of course you think it would n't be nice, but it would be after you
got used to it, and you would have a trunk, too, maybe. Wouldn't that
be nice?"
But the trunk was no comfort to Ruthy. She could not understand how
Ruby could bear to think of leaving her mother. She was quite sure she
would never be willing to do it, and not Ruby's most eloquent
representations to her of how delightful going away with a trunk would
be, could induce her to want to accompany her.
"Oh, I wish you were not going, either," was all that Ruby could coax
from her, after she had talked until she was tired.