"Why, Ruth," he said, "the boy is nearly as big as yourself; but you're an ambitious little party, and think you can do everything. I'll whisk him into the house before he can say Jack Robinson."
"But why should I say Jack Robinson?" inquired Ollie, laughing.
"Little boy," said Mr. Cloudesley, setting him gently on his feet in the hall, "your education has been dreadfully neglected! You are seven years old, and you never heard of Jack Robinson!"
"No, sir; is he in English history, or in Roman? No, he can't be in Roman history; I suppose I have not come to him yet."
"Let me know what you think of him when you do," said Mr. Cloudesley. "Now I must take the old cab back to the hospital; so good-bye, all of you. Mr. Trulock, don't let Ruth sit up late to-night. Indeed, I am not sure that I would not send her to bed, as well as Master Curlypate here."
Ollie was soon disposed of, Ruth contriving a comfortable bed for him by the help of sundry pillows and a big chair cushion. Then the question arose, where was a bed for poor Ruth herself?
However, Ralph bethought himself of kind Miss Jones, and never remembered, in his anxiety to make Ruth comfortable, that he was actually asking a favour of his neighbour! Miss Jones was delighted to be appealed to, and lent everything that was wanted. She begged Ralph to allow her to provide a nice meal for the two children that afternoon, that he might have nothing to do but to take care of Ruth. Ollie was soon fast asleep, and then it was that Ruth told her story. Ralph was rather unwilling to let her speak of it at all, but she declared she should feel better when she had told him.
"Poor Mrs. Cricklade!" she said; "you don't know what a kind-hearted woman she was. When we first came to Fairford, she took so much trouble about us, and let us live there rent-free. But when she found that you were helping us, she began to drink again; she had never quite left it off, but she only drank on Sunday, or quite late at night for some time; now she began to drink much more. She made me pay rent, and yet more than once she gave me back the shilling, and said, 'It's not me, Ruthie, it's the devil that has possession of me that makes me take your hard-earned shilling.' That was after she found out that you didn't pay the rent for me."
"But I never knew that you paid rent, Ruth."
"No," she said, colouring. "You did too much for us already. But though she gave me back the shilling, she generally came for it again at night, and was so noisy and angry that she frightened me very much. Then Ollie got ill, you know; and I pawned poor father's clothes to keep us until I could get work again."