CHAPTER III.
LOOKING FOR RUBY.
People who are sick are very quick to hear when anything is wrong, andas soon as the doctor opened the door of the sick-room, Ruby's mammaasked anxiously,--
"Is anything wrong with Ruby? Where is she?"
Just then the only possible explanation of her absence occurred to thedoctor, and he answered,
"She is not in her bed, my dear, and I am afraid she has run away andgone over to Ruthy's to spend the night. You know she asked permissionto stay all night the last time she went over there for supper, and Isuppose she has made up her mind to go without permission. It is toobad in her to act this way and worry you. I will drive over after herright away, and bring her back in a few minutes."
"I don't believe she would go all the way up to Ruthy's after dark,"said her mother, in anxious tones. "I am afraid something has happenedto her, though I cannot imagine what it could be."
"Don't think about it till I bring her back safe and sound," said thedoctor as he hurried away.
But it was a great deal easier to give this advice than to follow it.Ruby's mamma could not help worrying about her little girl, and whilenaughty little Ruby was curled up in her blankets, sleeping as sweetlyas a little bird in its nest, her mamma was listening to the wheels ofthe doctor's buggy, rolling out of the yard, with a beating heart, andwondering what had happened to the little girl who had gone to bed nottwo hours ago.
It did not take very long to drive over to Ruthy's house, and thedoctor did not wait to hitch staid old Dobbin, but jumped out and ranup the steps to the house, anxious to know whether Ruby was reallythere. Although he was quite sure that she must be, yet he wasimpatient to satisfy himself.
"Is Ruby here?" were his first words, when Mr. Warren opened the door.
"Why, no," Mr. Warren answered. "I don't think she has been hereto-day."
"Oh, yes, she was here a little while this afternoon," said Mrs. Warrencoming to the door. "Why, what is the matter, doctor? Is n't Ruby athome?"
"No, she went to bed all right, but a little while ago when her auntcame and went to look for her, she was gone," said the doctor, feelingas if he did not know now where to turn to look for the little runaway;for where could she possibly be at that time of night, if she had notcome over to visit her little friend? "Where can the child be?"
"Is n't she in the house somewhere?" asked Mrs. Warren.
"No, we have looked through the house," the doctor answered. "I don'tknow what will become of her mother, if I have to go back without Ruby.No one could have come into the house and stolen her, that is certain,and yet I cannot conceive where she could have gone to at this hour inthe evening. This is dreadful."
Neither Mr. Warren nor his wife could suggest any place to look forRuby. It was certainly a very strange thing that she could havedisappeared from her bed after dark, without any one knowing anythingabout it. The doctor got into his buggy again and started towardshome, wondering what he should do when he had to tell Ruby's motherthat her little girl could not be found.
If Ruby could have known what a heartache her father had, as he droveslowly homeward, dreading to take such sad news back with him, I amquite sure the little girl would have tried to be good, and not makethose who loved her so anxious about her.
In the mean time, Ruby had stirred uneasily in her sleep, and at lastwhen the owl who lived in the tall elm-tree close by, gave a long,mournful hoot, she awakened, and sat up, wondering, as she rubbed hereyes open, where she was.
The cool evening breeze fanned her face, and the stars looked down uponher, and all at once Ruby remembered where she had gone to sleep. Inthe very depths of her heart she wished that she was back again in herown little bed, with her head on her pillow, and the white spread drawnover her. It seemed so very, very desolate to be down here at the endof the garden all alone, with a long, dark walk before her if sheshould go back to the house; and she began to think that the SwissFamily Robinson had a better time than Robinson Crusoe, since they wereall together, and poor Crusoe must often have been very lonely all byhimself, before his man Friday came to live with him.
If Ruthy had only been there, Ruby thought she would have made a verygood man Friday, but she was quite sure that nothing would havepersuaded Ruthy to stay out of doors at night.
"I am not a little 'fraid-cat like Ruthy," said Ruby to herself, tryingto pretend that she was not at all lonely nor frightened. "I wouldjust as lief stay out here every night. I wonder what time it is. Iguess it must be nearly morning. I was asleep just hours and hours, Ithink. I am dreadfully hungry, so it must be ever so long since I hadmy supper. I had better eat some provisions, maybe."
Ruby was not really very hungry, but she wanted to be as much like theSwiss Family Robinson as possible, so she sat up and sleepily nibbledat some cookies.
"I don't think these are very nice cookies," she said, as she tried tokeep up the pretence that she was very hungry. "I wish they werecocoanuts. They would be ever so much nicer."
"I wish this was a big, tall cocoanut-tree," Ruby went on. "And thatit was just full of cocoanuts, and that some monkeys had a nest in it,and would throw me down cocoanuts whenever I wanted one. It would hurtif they hit me on the head though. I guess I would have to live underanother tree, so as to be sure the cocoanuts would n't drop on me. Iwonder if monkeys live in nests. Of course they don't live inbird's-nests, but maybe they take sticks up into trees, and make littlenests, and--and--"
Ruby nodded so hard that she woke up again. She had nearly gone tosleep sitting straight up, she was so sleepy.
"I don't want to go to sleep just yet," she said. "I am going to stayawake, so. I might just as well be in bed as keep asleep out here allthe time. I guess I will make a fire, and then that will be just likea real castaway."
The sticks and matches were all ready, and Ruby struck a match andlighted the little fire. It was not a very large pile of sticks, andRuby had not thought that it would make much of a blaze, but theshavings underneath, and the light, dry sticks upon the top, were veryready to take fire and make as large a blaze as they could, so Ruby wasquite dismayed at the size of her fire.
She was a little frightened, too. She had made the fire in the frontof her little house, and she could not get past it to go out. Thefence made a strong back wall to the house, over which she could notclimb, and she could not possibly get away from the smoke and heatwithout going so near the fire that she was sure her night-gown wouldtake fire.
Suppose the boards that she used in making the house should take fire,what would become of her then. I do not wonder that Ruby wasfrightened when she looked at the little bonfire, crackling andsnapping away as cheerily as if a frightened child was not watching itwith tears in her eyes.
"Oh, I shall be all burned up," she cried. "And no one will ever knowwhat became of me. My mamma will cry and cry and wonder where Ruby is,but she will never think that I came down here and made a fire, andburned myself all entirely up. Oh, oh, I do wish I had n't. I do wishI had n't. I wonder if I screamed and screamed for papa, whether hewould come down and hear me and come down and get me out. Perhaps hecould n't. I don't see how anybody could get past that dreadful blaze.He would just have to see me all burning up and he could n't do onething to save me. Oh, how sorry he would be," and Ruby cried harderthan ever at the thought of her father's distress.
The smoke made her eyes smart and sting, and it choked her so that shecoughed and strangled, and I need not tell you that she would havegiven anything in the world to have been back in her own little bedagain.
Just then papa drove through the gate, and you can imagine how muchsurprised he was to see a fire under some boards down at the end of theyard. He jumped out of the buggy and went down there as quickly as hecould, to find out what it was.
He looked into the little house, and there beyond the fire, crying sohard that she did not see nor hear him, was the little girl he had beenlooking for.
"Why, Ruby
!" he exclaimed in amazement; and Ruby looked up, as muchsurprised at finding her father there, as he had been a second beforewhen he saw her.
"Oh, papa, papa, must I be all burned up?" she cried, but papa wasalready answering that question. He threw down the boards out of whichRuby had made her house, and striding past the fire, lifted her in hisarms, and started up to the house with her.
He was so glad that he had found her, and could take her back to hermother safe and unharmed, that he forgot everything else, and ofcourse, Ruby was happy at being in those strong arms, when she had beenso sure that she was going to be burned up; and all the way up to thehouse she resolved, as she had so many times before, that she wouldsurely, surely be good now, for whenever she was naughty, and didthings that she knew would not please her father and mother, she alwaysgot into trouble, and was not half as happy as she would have been ifshe had tried to please them. After all, papas and mammas did knowwhat was best for little girls.
Ruby at School Page 3
