her, nobody had ever troubled him in all the years she had lived at
the Red Mill.

So it was not fear of marauders that kept Ruth so wakeful on this
first night under her uncle's roof. She thought of all the kind
friends she had left in Darrowtown, and her long journey here, and her
cold welcome to what she supposed would be her future home. Without
Helen, and without Aunt Alvirah, she knew she would have gotten up,
put on her clothing, packed her bag, and run away in the rain to some
other place. She could not have stood Uncle Jabez alone.

Jabez Potter was hoarding up something besides money, too. Ruth did
not understand this until it had already rained several days, and the
roaring of the waters fretting against the river banks and against the
dam, had become all but deafening in her ears.

Then, during a lull in the storm, and on the afternoon that Tom
Cameron was taken home from Dr. Davison's, the old doctor himself
stopped at the mill and shouted for Jabez to come out. The doctor
drove a very fast red and white mare and had difficulty in holding her
in, for she was eager to be moving.

Uncle Jabez came out and seemed to look upon the doctor in no very
friendly way. Ruth, standing at the open door of the kitchen, could
hear Dr. Davison's voice plainly.

"Jabez," he said, "do you know how the river is at Minturn?"

"No," returned the miller, briefly.