"She said: 'Boy, I will report you to the railroad company for insolence.' She's a sweet girl, Cousin Luella!"
"But you were not really insolent?"
Thereupon Fred told the whole story, and his mother agreed with him that Miss Ferguson's conduct was very selfish and unladylike.
"What's more, mother, Miss Patton tells me that Cousin Ferguson has cheated her mother and herself out of ten thousand dollars. I'll tell you about it to-morrow. It is just striking twelve, and I can hardly keep my eyes open."
CHAPTER XIX. — RUTH PATTON CALLS ON MR. FERGUSON.
The next day Ruth Patton confided her story to Mrs. Fenton.
"My mother and I," she said, "in our grief for father's death, never dreamed that it would bring us destitution. Though he never furnished us particulars of his pecuniary condition, he gave us to understand that he would be comfortably provided for. Robert Ferguson we knew to have been a life-long friend, or perhaps I should rather say acquaintance, and we felt that as a trustee he would consider our interests. We were thunderstruck when a letter was received from him last week, stating that, in place of the ten thousand dollars on which we fully counted, a pitiful balance of seventy-five dollars alone remained to us."
"It was shameful!" said Mrs. Fenton indignantly.