"How did he happen to come here to look for me?"
"He wasn't looking for you, but you happened to come in his way while he was in the town on business. He says, though, that he never has failed to look for you everywhere he has been. Now, is that all? You will not want to get up in the morning."
Ruth nodded gravely and crept into bed again, her mind full of old memories and new thoughts.
[CHAPTER IX]
Uncle Sidney
THE next afternoon, Ruth and Billy had a long and earnest talk in the wood-shed. The visit of her uncle had been of enough importance for Ruth to be kept home from school and she was now in a very excited state of mind. She had waited with much impatience Billy's return from school, for there were many things which she must ask him, things which she felt she could not question Miss Hester about. She sat now upon a tall chest, her feet dangling dejectedly. There were marks of tears upon her face and she held her hands nervously clasped.
Billy sat upon an overturned box. From time to time, he flung a chip to Stray who, with head on one side, watched eagerly for the attention and, so soon as the chip was near enough, snatched at it, then grabbing it, played with it till it ceased to be a novelty. He then planted himself within Billy's range again looking inquiringly for the next chip. Neither Billy nor Ruth paid much attention to his antics.
"You see," Ruth was saying, "it is all for me to decide. Aunt Hester says she cannot do it, and says it must be as I say. My uncle talked and talked. He told me I should have music lessons and that I should be sent to a good school and all that. I am sure this school is good enough and I don't care a bit about the music lessons. I'd rather know how to draw pictures than to play the piano. You know, Billy, there is only one thing makes me think I ought to go, and that is Aunt Hester. You know what you said about another mouth to feed. I'm another mouth, you know, and if it makes Aunt Hester work so hard to feed me, maybe I ought not to stay."
Billy was silent for a moment and stopped throwing sticks to Stray. When he spoke, he said very thoughtfully, "I'm the one to go away, not you. I'm a boy and can make my own living."
"Oh, no, for you see you haven't any relations like my Uncle Sidney," returned Ruth. "And, besides, who would chop the wood and do the errands, Billy? Then if you went away, who would keep store and buy back the big house for Aunt Hester? It would be foolish for you to go when I have an uncle to take care of me."