rk on poor Ben," Ruth told him, decidedly.
"No, Aunt Alvirah must have another woman around, or a girl."

"Where ye goin' to find the gal?" snapped the miller. "Work gals don't
like to stay in the country."

"She's found, I believe," Ruth told him.

"Huh?"

"This Maggie we just got out of the river. She has no job, she says, and
she wants one. I believe she'll stay."

"Who's goin' to pay her wages?" demanded Uncle Jabez, getting back to
"first principles" again.

"I'll pay the girl's wages, Uncle Jabez," Ruth said seriously. "But you
must feed her. And she must be fed well, too. I can see that part of her
trouble is malnutrition."

"Huh? Has she got some ketchin' disease?" Uncle Jabez demanded.

"It isn't contagious," Ruth replied drily. "But unless she is well fed
she cannot be cured of it."

"Wal, there's plenty of milk and eggs," the miller said.

"But you must not hide the key of the meat-house, Uncle," and now Ruth
laughed outright at him. "Four people at table means a depletion of your
smoked meat and a dipping occasionally into the corned-beef barrel."

"Wal----"

"Now, if I pay the girl's wages, you must supply the food," his niece
said, firmly, "Otherwise, Aunt Alvirah will go without help, and then
she will break down, and _then_----"

"Huh!" grunted the miller. "I couldn't let her go back to the poorfarm,
I s'pose?"

He actually made it a question; but Ruth could not see his face, for he
had turned aside.

"No. She could not return to the poorhouse--after fifteen years!"
exclaimed the girl. "Do you know what _I_ should do?" and she asked the
question warmly.

"Somethin' fullish, I allow."

"I should take her to Ardmore with me, and find a tiny cottage for her,
and maybe she would keep house for Helen and me."

"That'd be jest like ye, Niece Ruth," he responded coolly. "You think
you have all the money in the world. That's because ye didn't aim what
ye got--it was give to ye."

The statement was in large part true, and for the moment Ruth's lips
were closed. Tears stood in her eyes, too. She realized that she could
not be independent of the old miller had not chance and kind-hearted and
grateful Mrs. Rachel Parsons given her the bulk of the amount now
deposited in her name in the bank.

Ruth Fielding's circumstances had been very different when she had first
come to Cheslow and the Red Mill. Then she was a little, homeless,
orphan girl who was "taken in out of charity" by Uncle Jabez