"She had the kitchen stove to clean," Ruth said excusingly; "so it was really not her fault; and Frank upset a pail of water in the scullery, and that had to be mopped up. Barbara will be glad when the boys go back to school."
"Well, we shall all be back to school next week," put in Madge, not altogether regretfully; "all except you, Ruth."
"I wonder if father has given up all thoughts of sending Ruth to boarding-school, mother?" interrogated Violet. "Girls don't usually leave school at fifteen, do they?"
"No," Mrs. Wyndham replied, "but Ruth is too old to remain any longer at Miss Minter's, and I don't know how we can send her anywhere else. Your father is very short of money, at present."
"I shall stay at home and help you and Barbara, mother," Ruth said cheerfully, noting the look of distress on her mother's face; "I don't want to go to boarding-school. Perhaps by-and-by I shall be able to have lessons in drawing and painting at home—I don't show talent for anything but drawing and painting, Miss Minter says; I'm not like Violet, who's clever all the way round."
They all laughed at that, and Violet looked pleased. She really was a clever little girl, and industrious, too.
"I do not know what I should do without you at home, Ruth," said Mrs. Wyndham very seriously; "and you don't mind doing housework, do you, dear?"
"No," Ruth answered truthfully.
"Your father was saying to me only yesterday that he thought you would make a clever little housekeeper one of these days," Mrs. Wyndham continued, smiling at her eldest daughter; "he was so pleased with the way in which you cooked that steak for his supper the night Barbara was out. I could not have done it so well myself."
"I rather like cooking," responded Ruth, colouring with gratification.