She had only heard her mother and other ladies talking together.

Ruthie answered all the purpose of a parrot hung up in a cage, for she caught and echoed everything that was said, not having much idea what it meant.
When aunt Madge heard Ruth laboring away at long sentences, with hard words in them, she thought of little Dotty, as she had seen her, that morning, trying to tug Percy's huge dog up stairs in her arms.
"It is too much for her," thought aunt Madge: "the dog got the upper-hand of Dotty, and I think the big words are more than a match for Ruth." But Ruth did not seem to know it, for she persevered.

She gravely asked aunt Madge if she approved of the "_Mancimation_ of _Proclapation_." Then she said she and her mamma were very much "_perplexed"_ when news came of the last defeat.

She would have said "_surprised_" only _surprised_ was an every-day word, and not up to standard of elegant English.
Ruth was not so very silly, after all.

It was only when she tried to talk of matters too old for her that she made herself ridiculous.