Babe Ruth

“ Ruth and Elizabeth both laughed at the comical procession, but the Babe's eyes were full of pity. "The poor things are coming up for water," she said sorrowfully. "Father always let them get water at our well--I'll go show them the way." And she ran out to meet the movers and show them the well at the back of the house, where they filled their water-jugs and quenched the thirst of the patient and unsatisfied donkey.
"I wish to goodness Father never had gone to Cuba," sighed Ruth, as she turned from the window to take up her button-holes, "it is so awfully lonesome without him." ”

“ Scanlon called out to Ruth to knock a homer, Thibbets sharpened his pencil. Scanlon yelled: "Atta-boy, Babe, whad' I tell yer!" when Ruth got a single.
FIFTH INNING: Mrs. Whitebait asked Mr. Whitebait how you marked a home-run on the score-card. Mr. Whitebait said: "Why do you have to know? No one has knocked a home-run." Mrs. Whitebait said that Babe Ruth ran home in [pg 067] the last inning. "Yes, I know," said Mr. Whitebait, "but it wasn't a home-run." Mrs. W. asked him with some asperity just why it wasn't a home-run, if a man ran home, especially if it was Babe Ruth. Mr. ”

“ Baseball's the thing that actually gets 'em. If Babe Ruth and Lloyd George both died tomorrow Ruth would just blanket him. And let me tell you, Neale, George is one of the great men of our day. I have a very warm personal feeling for him. I don't suppose you remember Delehanty."
Peter was just about to answer that he had seen him several times but he wasn't nearly quick enough.
"Ruth reminds me more of him than any other player I've seen in the game," continued Twice. "Killed, jumping off a railroad bridge on June third, 1902. I've always made it a business not to be wrong. Remember that, Pat. ”

“ Ruth's blue eyes were misty when she replied: "Oh, no, Bab! I was just going to wish that something would happen so that you and I need never be separated again. I love you just as though you were my sister, and I am so lonely at home without you and Mollie. Yet, as soon as our visit to Harriet is over, you must go back to school in Kingsbridge and I have to go home to Chicago. Who knows when we shall see each other again? I don't suppose that our motor trips can go on happening forever." ”

“ Her guns were going—one, two, three of them! Ruth could see the gossamer of their gases as they puffed forward and were swept backward; she could hear on the wind the resound of the quick firers. Steadily, rhythmically, relentlessly they rang, beating over the sea like great bells booming in vengeance for the Ribot's dead.
Ruth felt lifted up, glorified as by nothing she had ever known before. She turned to the man who had come up beside her; he was Gerry Hull and, as he looked over the sea at the destroyer, she saw the blood burning red, paling, and burning bright again in his face. ”

“ With the incidents of her plot gradually taking form in her mind and being jotted down on paper, Ruth's hours began to be very full. She was with Wonota as much as possible, and the Indian girl began to show an almost doglike devotion to the girl of the Red Mill.
"That is not to be wondered at, of course," Jennie Stone said, as she was about to return to her New York home. "Everybody falls for our Ruth. It's a wonder to me that she has not been elected to the presidency."
"Wait till we women get the vote," declared Helen. "Then we'll send Ruth to the chair." ”

“ A moment later he said, reining in his horse, “I say, if you think that suit means anything against your father, I’ll have it stopped.”
“No, no, Rupert; I am satisfied,” Ruth protested, with a smile.
“Because I can do it; Jack and Steve would do anything for me, and I would do anything for you. It was mainly on my account, anyhow, that they brought it, I believe,” he added. “They said I was a minor; but, you know, I’ll soon be of age—I’m seventeen now. I don’t know why boys have to be boys, anyhow! I don’t see why they can’t be men at once.” ”

“ The other girls were drowsy when Ruth kissed Mother Paisley good-night and entered the small shack. She was glad to escape any interrogation. By morning she had gained control of herself, but her eyes betrayed the fact that she had not slept.
“You certainly do not look as though you were enjoying yourself down here,” Tom Cameron said to her at breakfast time, and with suspicion. “Maybe we did come to the wrong place for our vacation after all. How about it, Ruth? Shall we start off in the cars again and seek pastures new?” ”

“ Ruth wanted the girls to come back with her to Knockout Point, for that night at least. But Mary refused, saying that they did not dare go so far from the cabin.
“I’m all right,” she assured them, one arm thrown about the trembling shoulders of her sister. “You’re not to worry, really. We’re all right! We are not ‘girl miners,’ as Eddie calls us, for nothing. We know how to face things and to fight.”
So Ruth and Boardman left them at last, [Pg 162] though reluctantly, when they saw that Mary could not be moved from her decision, and took the long trail homeward almost in silence. ”

“ Whether friend or foe, no one on the train could know. Cries reached Ruth from other compartments in the car. Everyone was seeing it as it dropped down now faster and faster, its head burning whiter; its streamer of smoke longer and broader before the stars. The line of roofs and chimneys off to the south, which had shown in glaring silhouette, sucked it from sight. It had crashed; and a shudder shocked through Ruth as she pictured the pilot. She wanted Gerry Hull beside her to know that he was safe; her hand groped in the dark, without her will. ”

“ Old Bill’s some hot under the collar himself—and he might well be. Last night’s circus cost him a pretty penny.”
“Did you ever see this man they say is crazy?” demanded Ruth.
“I told you I did oncet.”
“What sort of a looking man is he?”
“He ain’t no more’n a kid, Miss. That’s it; he’s jest a tenderfoot kid.”
“A boy, you mean?” queried Ruth, anxiously.
“Not much older than that yere whitehead ye brought with yuh,” said Ike, beginning to grin now that he had become a bit more familiar with the Eastern girl, and pointing at Bob Steele. “And he ain’t no bigger than him.” ”

“ But after he had exchanged a few words with each of them, it was to Ruth that he turned and with Ruth that he talked, even though he intentionally allowed the magic of his smile and the glamour of his glance [217] to shine for other admiring eyes. He could not stop long; that evening the team were to dine together and celebrate their victory. But he would be round the next day with a motor car—if Ruth would go to drive with him?
Katharine Vance had been watching David perhaps no less than she had been observing Lester. She had noticed that his eyes were turned most of the time toward Ruth. ”

“ Cameron’s automobile deposited Ruth at the Red Mill—her arrival so soon being quite unexpected to the bent old woman rocking and sewing in the cheerful window of the farmhouse kitchen.
When Ruth ran up the steps and in at the door, Aunt Alvirah was quite startled. She dropped her sewing and rose up creakingly, with a murmured, “Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!” but she reached her thin arms out to clasp her hands at the back of Ruth Fielding’s neck, and looked long and earnestly into the girl’s eyes.
“My pretty’s growing up—she’s growing up!” cried Aunt Alvirah. “She ain’t a child no more. ”

“ Only with Old Betsey on my shoulder!” declared the miller. “You don’t want to take the old gun with you, do you, Niece Ruth?” he added, with twinkling eyes. “I’ve had her fixed. And she ought to be able to shoot a Hun or two yet.”
“I am not going to shoot Germans,” said Ruth, shaking her head. “I only hope to do what I can in saving our boys after the battles. I can’t even nurse them—poor dears! My all that I do seems so little.”
“Ha!” grunted Uncle Jabez. “I reckon you’ll 83 do full and plenty. If you don’t it’ll be the first time in your life that you fall down on a job.” ”

“ Ruth was full of joy that she had dared to come; for she was, to this boy, his sister.
"Tell me—about—home," he begged her.
"I've brought all my letters," she said; and opening them with one hand—for he would not have her lose grasp of him—she read the home news until the nurse returned and, nodding, let Ruth know she must go. ”

“ As the travellers drove along they passed a small house, just off the road, hardly more than a double cabin, but it was set back amid fruit-trees, sheltered by one great oak, and there was an air of quietude and peace about it which went to Ruth’s soul. A lady in black, with a white cap on her gray hair, and a white kerchief on her shoulders, was sitting out on the little veranda, knitting, and Ruth was sure that as they drove by she bowed to them. ”

“ Come on, Ruth. Do come away!"
She kissed Aunt Alvirah once more, waved her hand to bashful Ben, who was Uncle Jabez's man-of-all-work, and ran down to the waiting car. In the seat beside the chauffeur was a bright-looking, black-haired boy in a military uniform of blue, who seized her lunch basket and handbag and put them both in a safe place. In the tonneau was a plainly dressed lady and a brilliantly pretty girl perhaps a year older than Ruth. This young lady received the girl from the Red Mill rapturously when she sprang into the tonneau, and hugged her tightly as the car started on. ”

“ The girls were sorry over the prospect of parting with their new-found friend. But Ruth was on fire to get back to Knockout Point, to tell Tom what she had heard about Bloomberg.
“It’s a long way back to the river front,” said Mary. “It would be a long tramp, even for some one who is used to walking——”
“Well, I’m that some one—” Ruth was beginning when Ellen interrupted.
“Look there!” she cried, pointing to a cloud of dust that appeared in the distance. “Dust means horsemen. Some one is coming this way——”
“And coming fast!” finished Ruth hopefully. ”

“ The lame girl was so very sharp.
However, Ruth was determined to keep her secret. Not a word had she said to Mary Cox. Indeed, she had not looked at her since she climbed out of the open pool behind the boulder and, well-nigh breathless, reached the rock after that perilous plunge. Tom she had sworn to silence, Nita she had warned to be still, and now Mercy's suspicions were to be routed.
"Poor, poor girl!" muttered Ruth, with more sorrow than anger. "If she is not sorry and afaid yet, how will she feel when she awakes in the night and remembers what might have been?" ”

“ Ruth went on. “Miss 61 Cameron’s car is outside in the road. Go to the hotel and change your clothes, Totantora, and I will take both you and Wonota back to the Red Mill. Until we get away for the North I shall not want you out of my sight.”
The Indian shook himself much as a dog might. A lighter expression flickered over his dark face.
“I shall not suffer cold from a wetting,” he said. “It is nothing. I have nothing at the hotel. We will go now.”
“Come on, then,” rejoined Ruth, promptly. “It is best that we get away before Bilby can learn that his plan to make Wonota a captive miscarried. ”

“ I guess Ruth has the right idea."
"We'll drag the sled and break a path for you girls," announced Tom. "All ready, now! Bring your snowshoes. If it stops snowing, we can get home on them to-night."
"Oh, dear, me! I hope so," cried Belle Tingley. "What will mother and father say if we're not home by dark?"
"They'll be pretty sure we wouldn't travel far in this storm. Preston and the other men will find us, anyway."
"I expect that is so," admitted Ruth, thoughtfully, "And they'll find Jerry's cave. ”

“ Ruth picked up the leather portfolio lying upon the dressing table; opening it, she faced four portrait photographs; an alert, able and kindly looking man of about fifty; a woman a few years younger, not very unlike Ruth’s own mother and with similarly sweet eyes and a similar abundance of beautiful hair. These photographs had been but recently taken. The third was several years old and was of a handsome, vigorous, defiant looking boy of twenty-one or two; the fourth was of a cunning, bold little youth of twelve in boy-scout uniform. Ruth had no doubt that these were Cynthia Gail’s family ”

“ The harp at Pearson's was so constantly in Ruth's mind that she one day improvised one for herself, merely placing a single, tightly-drawn thread at the window's base and raising the sash so slightly that it would not be noticed as not all the way down. The result was pleasing. A faint, weird sound filled her little room, and, as she watched the setting sun and listened to this sweet whispering of the passing breeze, she composed many a short song in her artless way and stored them in her memory. ”

“ And of wheat harvest - That is, she was to continue gleaning in the farm of Boaz to the end of the barley harvest; and then, when the wheat harvest began, to continue to its conclusion in the same way. In the interim, as well as each night, she lodged with her mother-in-law.
1. Ruth seems to have been a woman of a very amiable mind: she was modest, and she was industrious, and most probably a comely woman; and all these things served to attract the attention of Boaz, and to engage his affection. Her attachment also to her mother-in-law could not fail to secure his esteem. ”

“ Cameron, and I’ll sit in yere and drive. Won’t trust these gals alone no more.”
“I guess you could trust Ruth Fielding all right,” cried the loyal Tom. “She did the trick—and showed how plucky she is in the bargain. Did you ever see anything better done than the way she threw that pony?”
Jane Ann ran to the girl of the Red Mill and flung her arms around her neck.
“You’re just as brave as you can be, Ruthie!” she cried. “I don’t know of anybody who is braver. If you’d been brought up right out here in the mountains you couldn’t have done any better—could she, Jib?” ”