Part 2 (1/2)
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.”
CHAPTER III-THE WOMAN IN BLACK
”Do you mean to say,” demanded Helen Cameron, with some anger, ”that they have no interest in the war, or in our boys who will soon begin to go over there? Impossible!”
”I repeat that,” said Ruth. ”'Impossible,' indeed.”
”Oh, each may knit for her own kin or for other organizations,” Mercy said. ”I am repeating what I have just heard, that is all. Girls! I am just boiling!”
”I can imagine it,” Helen said. ”I am beginning to simmer myself.”
”Wait. Let us be calm,” urged Ruth, smiling as she laid off her things, preparatory to going into the large front room where Mrs. Curtis was entertaining the Ladies' Aid Society.
”Is it all because of that woman in black?” demanded Helen.
”Well, she has been pointing out that the Red Cross is a great money-making scheme, and that it really doesn't need our small contributions.”
”And she is a member herself!” snapped Helen.
”Well, she joined, of course, because she did not want anybody to think she wasn't patriotic,” scoffed Mercy. ”That is the way she puts it. But you ought to hear the stories she has been telling these poor, simple women.”
”Did you ever!” cried Helen angrily.
”It is well we came here,” Ruth said firmly. ”Let me into the lions'
den, Mercy.”
”I am afraid they are another breed of cats. There is little n.o.ble or lionlike about some of them.”