Ruth turned startled eyes upon the girl.
“Not alone?” she cried.
The girl nodded sadly.
“There is no one else since father died,” she said, and Ruth could see the quick tears spring to her eyes.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Ruth felt as though she had unwittingly put her finger upon a throbbing wound.
She was glad that they had reached the house and so temporarily put an end to conversation.
She found the other sister younger and more immature than the one who had so luckily encountered her in the woods. She was a thin and gangling girl, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old, and not, at first sight, so attractive as her sister. However, the younger sister had a sweet face, and, Ruth thought, gave promise of beauty later on.
The sisters led Ruth eagerly into the one main room of the cabin. Ruth was to learn later that there was a tiny sleeping apartment partitioned off from this kitchen, dining room and sitting room combined.
They seemed pitifully pleased at having a visitor and hovered over her with such eagerness to serve that Ruth was quite won by them.
The older girl brought her a drink of refreshingly cold well water at once, which Ruth drank gratefully.