{"product_id":"2940013562271","title":"Ruth Fielding In the Red Cross OR DOING HER BEST FOR UNCLE SAM","description":"CHAPTER I—UNCLE JABEZ IS EXCITED\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh! Not _Tom_?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth Fielding looked up from the box she was packing for the local Red\u003cbr\u003eCross chapter, and, almost horrified, gazed into the black eyes of the\u003cbr\u003egirl who confronted her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen Cameron’s face was tragic in its expression. She had been crying.\u003cbr\u003eThe closely written sheets of the letter in her hand were shaken, as\u003cbr\u003ewere her shoulders, with the sobs she tried to suppress.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It—it’s written to father,” Helen said. “He gave it to me to read. I\u003cbr\u003ewish Tom had never gone to Harvard. Those boys there are completely\u003cbr\u003ecrazy! To think—at the end of his freshman year—to throw it all up and\u003cbr\u003ego to a training camp!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I guess Harvard isn’t to blame,” said Ruth practically. If she was\u003cbr\u003edeeply moved by what her chum had told her, she quickly recovered her\u003cbr\u003eself-control. “The boys are going from other colleges all over the land.\u003cbr\u003eIs Tom going to try for a commission?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Yes.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What does your father say?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Why,” cried the other girl as though that, too, had surprised and hurt\u003cbr\u003eher, “father cried ‘Bully for Tom!’ and then wiped his eyes on his\u003cbr\u003ehandkerchief. What can men be made of, Ruth? He knows Tom may be killed,\u003cbr\u003eand yet he cheers for him.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth Fielding smiled and suddenly hugged Helen. Ruth’s smile was\u003cbr\u003esomewhat tremulous, but her chum did not observe this fact.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I understand how your father feels, dear. Tom does not want to be\u003cbr\u003edrafted——”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He wouldn’t be drafted. He is not old enough. And even if they\u003cbr\u003eautomatically draft the boys as they become of age, it would be months\u003cbr\u003ebefore they reached Tom, and the war will be over by that time. But here\u003cbr\u003ehe is throwing himself away——”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, Helen! Not that!” cried Ruth. “Our soldiers will fight for us—for\u003cbr\u003etheir country—for honor. And a man’s life lost in such a cause is not\u003cbr\u003ethrown away.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“That’s the way I feel,” said Helen, more steadily. “Tom is my twin. You\u003cbr\u003edon’t know what it means to have a twin brother, Ruth Fielding.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“That is true,” sighed Ruth. “But I can imagine how you feel, dear. If\u003cbr\u003eyou have hopes of the war’s being over so quickly, then I should expect\u003cbr\u003eTom back from training camp safe and sound, and with no chance of ever\u003cbr\u003efacing the enemy. Has he really gone?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh, yes,” Helen told her despondently. “And lots of the boys who used\u003cbr\u003eto go to school with Tom at Seven Oaks. You know, all those jolly\u003cbr\u003efellows who were at Snow Camp with us, and at Lighthouse Point, and on\u003cbr\u003eCliff Island, and out West on Silver Ranch—and—and everywhere. Just to\u003cbr\u003ethink! We may never see them again.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Dear me, Helen,” Ruth urged, “don’t look upon the blackest side of the\u003cbr\u003ecloud. It’s a long time before they go over there.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“We don’t know how soon they will be in the trenches,” said her friend\u003cbr\u003ehopelessly. “These boys going to war——”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“And I wish I was young enough to go with ’em!” ejaculated a harsh\u003cbr\u003evoice, as the door of the back kitchen opened and the speaker stamped\u003cbr\u003einto the room. “Got that box ready to nail up, Niece Ruth? Ben’s\u003cbr\u003ehitching up the mules, and I want to get to Cheslow before dark.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Oh! Almost ready, Uncle Jabez,” cried the girl of the Red Mill, as the\u003cbr\u003egray old man approached.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was lean and wiry and the dust of his mill seemed to have been so\u003cbr\u003eground into his very skin that he was a regular “dusty miller.” His\u003cbr\u003efeatures were as harsh as his voice, and he was seldom as excited as he\u003cbr\u003eseemed to be now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Who’s going to war now?” he asked, turning to Helen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Poor—poor Tom!” burst out the black-eyed girl, and began to dabble her\u003cbr\u003eeyes again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What’s the matter o’ him?” demanded the old miller.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He’ll—he’ll be shot—I know he’ll be killed, and mangled horribly!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fiddle-de-dee!” grunted Uncle Jabez, but his tone of voice was not as\u003cbr\u003eharsh as his words sounded. “I never got shot, nor mangled none to speak\u003cbr\u003eof, and I was fightin’ and marchin’ three endurin’ years.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“_You_, Uncle Jabez?” cried Ruth.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079584006384,"sku":"2940013562271","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013562271_p0.jpg?v=1763593839","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013562271","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}