fried eggs with his best clothes on-- that's what I'd wish!"

And this is every word she would say to the visitor while Ruth
remained. But Mr. Curtis bade Ruth good-bye very kindly when he
hurried away to the station, and Mrs. Curtis urged her to come and see
them whenever she came to town after getting settled at the Red Mill.

It was a fresh and lovely morning, although to the weather-wise the
haze in the West foredoomed the end of the day to disaster. Ruth felt
more cheerful as she crossed the railroad tracks and struck into the
same street she had followed with the searching party the evening
before. She could not mistake Doctor Davison's house when she passed
it, and there was a fine big automobile standing before the gate where
the two green lanterns were. But there was nobody in the car, nor did
she see anybody about the doctor's house.

Beyond the doctor's abode the houses were far apart-- farther and
farther apart as she trudged on. Nobody noticed or spoke to the girl
as she went on with her small bag-- the bag that grew heavy, despite
its smallness, as she progressed. And so she traveled two miles, or
more, along the pleasant road. Then she heard the purring of an
automobile behind her-- the first vehicle that she had seen since
leaving town.

It was the big gray car that had been standing before Doctor Davison's
house when she had passed, and Ruth would have known the girl who sat
at the steering wheel and was driving the car alone, even had Reno,
the big mastiff, not sat in great dignity on the seat beside her. For
no girl could look so much like Tom Cameron without being Tom
Cameron's sister.