urned.
"You follow right behind me--so."

He turned, carrying the heavy figure of the miller in his arms as though
he weighed but a hundred pounds instead of nearer two, and set off
toward the shore along the ledge of rock by which he had come.

Ruth saw, now, that beyond where the boat had been wrecked, the rock
joined the shore, with only here and there a place where it was deep
under water.

She saw, too, that the boat was now sinking. It had not sailed ten yards
in the fierce current before its gunwales disappeared. It sank in a
deeper channel below--flour and all! Ruth realized that Uncle Jabez
would be sorely troubled over the loss of those bags of flour.

Ruth paddled to the shore behind the strong boy, but before they really
reached terra firma, she knew that Uncle Jabez was struggling back to
consciousness. The boy lowered the miller easily to the ground.

"He's coming 'round, Missy," he said. His smile was broad, and the
little gold rings twinkled in his ears.

Ruth, wet and bedrabbled as she was, did not think of her own
discomfort. She knelt beside Uncle Jabez and spoke to him. For some
seconds he was so dazed that he did not seem to recognize her. Then he
stammered:

"Ha--ha----I knowed we couldn't do it. No--no gal kin do a man's work.
Ha!"

This seemed rather hard on Ruth, after she had done her best, and it had
not been her fault that the boat was wrecked, but she was too excited
just then to trouble about the miller's grumbling.

"Oh, Uncle! you're not badly hurt, are you?"

"Ha--hum! I dunno," stuttered the miller, and sat up. He rubbed his
forehead and brought his hand, with a little blood upon it, back to the
level of his eyes. "I vum!" he ejaculated, with more interest than
before. "I must ha' cracked my head some. Why was it I didn't drown?"

"This little missy, here," said the black-eyed youth, quickly. "_She_
saved you, Mister. She held your head above water till I come."

"Why--why----Niece Ruth! you did _that_?"

"Oh, it was nothing, Uncle Jabez! I am so glad you are not hurt worse.
This boy really saved you. He brought you ashore."

"Who be ye, young man?" asked the miller. "I'm obleeged to ye--if what
my niece says is true."

"Oh, I am named Roberto. You need not to thank--no!" exclaimed the
stranger, suddenly getting up and looking all about.

"But it was very brave of him," declared Ruth, and she seized the boy's
hand. "I--I am so glad you were near."

"Here's Tim and