Alice B Emerson

Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies Alice B Emerson

a-quiver in every board and beam. The air within was full of dust-dust of the grain, and fine, fine dust from the stones themselves. Uncle Jabez Potter, the miller, came to the door and looked across the grassy yard that separated the mill and the farmhouse attached from the highroad. Under a broad-spreading tree sat two girls, busy with their needles. One, a sharp-faced, light-haired girl, who somehow carried a look of endured pain in her eyes in spite of the smile she flung at the old man, cried: "Hello, Dusty Miller! come out and fly about a little. It will do you good." The grim face of the miller lightened perceptibly. "How do you reckon a man like me kin fly, Mercy child?" he croaked. "I'll lend you my aeroplanes, if you like," she returned, gaily, and held up the two ebony canes which had been hidden by the tall grass. They told the story of Mercy Curtis' look of pain, but once she had had to hobble on crutches and, as she pluckily declared, canes were "miles better than crutches." "I ain't got no time, gals, an' that's a fac'," said the miller, his face clouding suddenly.