So a festal array there was on the supper table that night, and Ruth enjoyed her meal more than any she had consumed in the house of her uncle.
The dishes were scarcely cleared away before Dr. Peaslee returned, bringing Squire Field with him. The squire drew Ruth to his knee.
"Little Ruth Brackenbury, tell us about this," he said, laying the receipt on the table.
And Ruth told him her story.
The squire turned to Miss Hester. "So, Hester," he said, "your father did pay off his debt to Simon Petty, fifteen thousand dollars in all. Tom Peaslee couldn't let me rest, but routed me from my supper table and said Simon might die before he acknowledged this, so he dragged me up there where we set matters right in a jiffy and this is yours. The old house goes back into your hands and we may thank this little lady for her sense in keeping that paper."
"But I was going to throw it away," declared Ruth in all honesty. "If I hadn't put it in the old pocket, it would be gone."
"Ah, yes, but you didn't throw it away; that's just the point," said the squire smiling.
He handed the paper to Miss Hester with others bearing the signature of Simon Petty.
Miss Hester took them with trembling hands. It seemed too good to be true. "Now," she said, "I can press the government claim. It only needed a little money to do that. Will you undertake it, squire?"
"Why didn't you say before this that you did not press it because you had no lawyer's fee?" asked the Squire sharply. "Didn't you know I would have taken the case on the chance of its coming out all right?"
"I didn't want my business done in that way," said Miss Hester proudly.
"Well, it will be put through now," returned the squire. "Get me the papers when you can and I'll do my best to strike while the iron is hot. You'll be living in your own home yet, Hester."
"And won't I, too?" asked Ruth. "Don't you know, Aunt Hester, I said I was only going to make a visit. Must I go back?"
"Not unless you want to," said Aunt Hester.
Then the squire and the doctor went away and the three left behind talked of the coming true of their old dream. The big house with the pillars would be Miss Hester's again. She would have enough to support herself and the children, and there would be no more buttonholes to make.
True to his promise, Martin came the next day but Miss Hester would not let Ruth go.
"I will write to Mr. Mayfield," she said.
She was not long in doing this, and as Mrs. Mayfield was by no means anxious that Ruth should make her home with her uncle, she persuaded him that it was best to leave Ruth with her adopted aunt. Mr. Mayfield came to Springdale to talk the matter over. He found Ruth so happy and so eager to remain where she was that he made no effort to take her away. He offered a certain sum to be paid yearly for her support, but Miss Hester refused proudly.
"She is my adopted daughter," she said. "She bears my name and I am able to do for her as I would for my own."
Therefore Mr. Mayfield went away determining that he would send Ruth a present once in a while and that he would not lose sight of her.
Lucia rushed over to welcome Ruth back and the girls at school listened eagerly to her tales of her French governess and of her life in the city.
"I don't see how you could give up all that," said some of them.
Although Miss Hester tried to keep the affair of the receipt a secret, it was generally known that Simon Petty had behaved very badly and had tried to cheat Miss Hester out of all her patrimony. Nora, knowing this, tried to keep out of Ruth's way, but, after her grandfather's death, the family left town.
It was one bright beautiful spring morning that the little brown house was deserted and Miss Hester set up her belongings again in the house across the street. Birds were singing in the tall trees on the lawn. Vines were in leaf and flowers blossomed in the borders.
"Isn't it a dear home?" said Ruth as she stood with Miss Hester on the porch looking around them. "It's yours forever now, isn't it, Aunt Hester?"
"Yes, dearie, and it will be yours, too, as long as you live."
"I think Hetty would like to go with me to see what Billy is doing," said Ruth going into the house and bringing out her doll. "Shouldn't you think she would feel very much at home, Aunt Hester, when she lived here so long ago? She told me last night that it did seem good to get back again. I wonder if she misses my dear Henrietta. Do you miss your Henrietta, your little sister, Aunt Hester?"
"I should miss her much more if I didn't have my little Ruth," returned Miss Hester. "You take her place, dear child, better than any one else could do."
Ruth smiled up at her. Then she walked down the broad path and around the house to where she heard Billy whistling cheerily.
"It's great, ain't it?" said Billy as she came up. "Aunt Hester says I can keep chickens and I'm makin' a coop for a hen I'm goin' to get from Fred Felton. I'm goin' to do some work for him to pay for it. He's no good doin' anything with tools and I told him I'd help him out and take my pay in stock. I'm goin' to try to get some eggs that way, too, and I'll set my hen and have some chickens, then I'll get other chickens. This is a fine place to keep them, there's so much room they can have a chicken yard and they won't get out to scratch up the flowers. Maybe if I am lucky with my chickens, I can save enough money to do somethin' worthwhile after a time."
Ruth sat down to watch the quick direct strokes of his hammer as he drove the nails into his coop.
"It will be too lovely to have chickens and flowers both," she said. "Shall you keep chickens or will you have a store when you grow up, Billy?"
"I can do both, maybe. I want to keep store more than ever."
"I don't think I want to make buttonholes," returned Ruth, laughingly. "Oh, Billy, did you see this tree? It has names all cut on it. Here's Thomas Peaslee and Hester Brackenbury and under it is Henrietta Brackenbury. Ruth Henrietta Brackenbury; Billy, I'd like to see that there, too."
"I'll cut it for you," said Billy viewing his copy with a satisfied air.
"And won't you cut Billy Beatty?"
Billy shook his head. "No, sir, I don't want my name in any such place. Where I want it is on a sign over a store door. William Beatty and Company in gold letters. I'll cut that name now. Where do you want it?"
"Right there under Henrietta's."
Billy began his work in a businesslike way, Ruth watching him admiringly. When he had finished and had walked away with his tools, she glanced around to see that no one was looking, and then she touched her lips softly to each name.
"That's for you, Dr. Peaslee, because you are so good. That's for you, Aunt Hester, because I love you so. That's for you, little Henrietta, because if you hadn't died, maybe I wouldn't be here."
She touched with her lips each letter of the name which Billy had just rudely carved upon the rough bark.
"That's for you, name," she continued, "because you are such a dear name."
She folded her hands after this ceremony and stood looking up at the soft blue sky across which fleecy clouds were drifting.
"You don't care, do you, mamma?" she whispered. "You would love Aunt Hester, too, because she loves me."