"Good-bye," said she. Then she went out.
It was raining with a hard, steady drizzle. Ruth had no rubbers nor
water-proof--they were not yet invented. She sped along through the rain
and mist. She had to walk half a mile to the little house where she
taught the district school, and before she got there she felt calmer.
"I suppose I was silly to act so mad," she said to herself. "I know it
plagued mother."
It was early in the spring; the trees were turning green in the rain.
Over in the field she could see one peach-tree in blossom, showing pink
through the mist. "I suppose Mr. Wiggins couldn't work out to-day, and
that's how they happened to come. They could have the horse. But they
ought to have come earlier," reflected Ruth. "There are a good many of
'em for Mrs. Wiggins to get ready," mused Ruth. "There's old Mrs.
Wiggins and Johnny and Sammy and Mary and Mr. Wiggins."
By the time Ruth was seated at her table in the school-room, and the
scholars were wriggling and twisting before her on their wooden
benches, she saw the matter quite plainly from the Wiggins side. She
made up her mind that she would behave just as well as she knew how to
the Wigginses when she got home. She planned how she would swing little
Mary out in the barn and play with the boys, and how she would help her
mother get tea.
When school was done and Ruth started for home the rain had stopped and
the sun was shining.
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