Part 10 (2/2)

”Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!” groaned Aunt Alvirah, sinking into her chair by the sunny window. ”No bad penny in your case, my pretty. Your returns air always like that of the bluebird's in the spring-and jest as much for happiness as they say the bluebird is. What would your Uncle Jabez and me do without you?”

”But it will be only for a few months. I might remain away as long if I returned to Ardmore for my junior year.”

”Ah, but that's not like going away over to France where there is so much danger and trouble,” the little old woman objected.

”Don't worry about me, dear,” urged Ruth, with great gentleness.

”We don't know what may happen,” continued Aunt Alvirah. ”A single month at my time o' life is longer'n a year at your age, my pretty.”

”Oh, I am sure to come back,” Ruth cried.

”We'll hope so. I shall pray for you, my pretty. But there'll be fear eatin' at our hearts every day that you are so far from us.”

Uncle Jabez likewise expressed himself as loath to have her go; yet his extreme patriotism inspired him to wish her G.o.dspeed cheerfully.

”I vum! I'd like to be goin' with you. Only with Old Betsey on my shoulder!” declared the miller. ”You don't want to take the old gun with you, do you, Niece Ruth?” he added, with twinkling eyes. ”I've had her fixed. And she ought to be able to shoot a Hun or two yet.”

”I am not going to shoot Germans,” said Ruth, shaking her head. ”I only hope to do what I can in saving our boys after the battles. I can't even nurse them-poor dears! My all that I do seems so little.”

”Ha!” grunted Uncle Jabez. ”I reckon you'll do full and plenty. If you don't it'll be the first time in your life that you fall down on a job.”

Which was remarkably warm commendation for the miller to give, and Ruth appreciated it deeply.

He drove her to town himself and put her on the train for New York.

”Don't you git into no more danger over there than you kin help, Niece Ruth,” he urged. ”Good-bye!”

She traveled alone to the metropolis, and that without hearing from or seeing any of her fellow-workers at the Red Cross rooms in Robinsburg.

She did wonder much, however, what the outcome of the fire had been.

What had become of Mrs. Rose Mantel, the woman in black? Had she been finally suspected by Mr. Mayo, and would she be refused further work with the organization because of the outcome of the fire? Ruth could not but believe that the conflagration had been caused to cover shortages in the Red Cross accounts.

At the Grand Central Terminal Ruth was met by a very lovely lady, a worker in the Red Cross, who took her home to her Madison Avenue residence, where Ruth was to remain for the few days she was to be in the city.

”It is all I can do,” said the woman smiling, when Ruth expressed her wonder that she should have turned her beautiful home into a clearing house for Red Cross workers. ”It is all I can do. I am quite alone now, and it cheers me and gives me new topics of interest to see and care for the splendid girls who are really going over there to help our soldiers.”

Later Ruth Fielding learned that this woman's two sons were both in France-one in a medical corps and the other in the trenches. She had already given her all, it seemed; but she could not do too much for the country.

The several girls the lady entertained at this time had little opportunity for amus.e.m.e.nt. The Red Cross s.h.i.+p was to sail within forty-eight hours.

Ruth was able to meet many of the members of her supply unit, and found them a most interesting group. They had come from many parts of the country and had brought with them varied ideas about the work and of what they were ”going up against.”

All, however, seemed to be deeply interested in the Red Cross and the burden the war had laid upon them. They were not going to France to play, but to serve in any way possible.

There was a single disturbing element in the bustling hurry of getting under way. At this late moment the woman who had been chosen as chief of the supply unit was deterred from sailing. Serious illness in her family forced her to resign her position and remain to nurse those at home. It was quite a blow to the unit and to the Commissioner himself.

The question, Who will take her place? became the most important thought in the minds of the members of the unit. Ruth fully understood that to find a person as capable as the woman already selected would not be an easy matter.

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