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diff --git a/44576.txt b/44576.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9e74a13..0000000 --- a/44576.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4591 +0,0 @@ - THE GIRLS OF SILVER SPUR RANCH - - - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: The Girls of Silver Spur Ranch -Author: Grace MacGowan Cooke and Anne McQueen -Release Date: January 03, 2014 [EBook #44576] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRLS OF SILVER SPUR RANCH -*** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - _THE GIRLS_ - _OF_ - _SILVER SPUR RANCH_ - - - BY - - GRACE MACGOWAN COOKE - - AND - - ANNE MCQUEEN - - - - THE GOLDSMITH PUBLISHING COMPANY - _Chicago_ - - - - - MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - - - - - *LIST OF CHAPTERS* - - - I. A Question of Names - II. Roy Rides to Silver Spur - III. A Package and a Leather-Brown Phaeton - IV. A Jewel of Great Price - V. The Silver Spur Bakery - VI. A Shiny Black Box - VII. The Wire Cutter - VIII. A Partner of the Sun - IX. The Rose by Another Name - - - - - _*THE GIRLS OF*_* - *_*SILVER SPUR RANCH*_ - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *A Question of Names* - - -The girls of Silver Spur ranch were all very busy helping Mary, the -eldest, with her wedding sewing. Silver Spur was rather a pretentious -name for John Spooner's little Texas cattle-farm, but Elizabeth, the -second daughter, who had an ear attuned to sweet sounds, had chosen it; -as a further confirmation of the fact she had covered an old spur with -silver-leaf and hung it over the doorway. The neighboring ranchers had -laughed, at first, and old Jonah Bean, the one cowboy left in charge of -the small Spooner herd, always sniffed scornfully when he had occasion -to mention the name of his ranch, declaring that The Tin Spoon would -suit it much better. However, in time everybody became used to it, and -Silver Spur the ranch remained--somehow Elizabeth always had her own -way. - -This young lady sat by the window in the little living-room where they -were all at work, and carefully embroidered a big and corpulent "B" on a -sofa-pillow for Mary, who was to marry, in a few days, a young man from -another state who owned the euphonious name of Bellamy--a name Elizabeth -openly envied him. - -"I do think Spooner is such a horrid, commonplace sort of name," she -declared with emphatic disapproval. "Aren't you glad you'll soon be rid -of it, Mary?" - -"Um-m," murmured Mary, paying scant heed to Elizabeth's query; she was -hemming a ruffle to trim the little muslin frock which was the last -unfinished garment of her trousseau, and she was too busy for argument. - -"As if," continued Elizabeth, "the name wasn't odious enough, father -must needs go and choose a _spoon_ for his brand! And he might so -easily have made it a _fleur-de-lys_--fairly rubbing it in, as if it was -something to be proud of!" - -Just then Mary, finding that the machine needle kept jabbing in one -place, looked about for a cause, and perceived Elizabeth tranquilly -rocking upon one of the unhemmed breadths of her ruffle. - -"I'll be much obliged if you'll take your chair off my ruffle, Saint -Elizabeth," she laughed, tugging at the crumpled cloth, "and just don't -worry over the name--try and live up to your looks." - -Elizabeth blushed a little as she stooped to disentangle the cloth from -her rocker; she was a very handsome girl, altogether unlike her sisters, -who were all rather short and dark, and plump looking, Cousin Hannah -Pratt declared, as much alike as biscuits cut out of the same batch of -dough. Elizabeth was about sixteen, tall and fair and slim, with large, -serious blue eyes and long, thick blond hair, which she wore plaited in -the form of a coronet or halo about her head--privately, she much -preferred the halo, as best befitting the character of her favorite -heroine, Saint Elizabeth, a canonized queen whom she desired to resemble -in looks and deportment. - -"One would have to be a saint to bear with the name of Spooner," she -said, rather crossly, as she tossed Mary her ruffle. - -Cousin Hannah Pratt, rocking in the biggest chair, which she filled to -overflowing, lifted her eyes from her work and regarded Elizabeth -meditatively. "How'd you like to swap it for Mudd, Libby?" she asked -tranquilly. - -Elizabeth shuddered--she hated to be called Libby, it was so -commonplace; and Cousin Hannah persisted in calling her that when she -knew how it annoyed her. Elizabeth was thankful that Cousin Hannah--who -kept a boarding-house in Emerald, the near-by village, and had kindly -come over to help with the wedding--was only kin-in-law, which was bad -enough; to have such an uncultured person for a blood relation would -have been worse. - -"Mudd! O, poor Elizabeth!" giggled Ruth, the third of the Spooner -sisters, a merry-hearted girl of fifteen, who looked on all the world -with mirthful eyes. "Cousin Hannah, what made you think of such an -_awful_ name?" - -"Don't be so noisy, Ruth," cautioned Mary, with what seemed unnecessary -severity. "Mother's neuralgia is bad to day. You can hear every sound -right through in her room. Cousin Hannah, won't you please make her a -cup of tea? I think it would do her good; you make such nice tea." - -"Sure and certain!" agreed Cousin Hannah, heartily. Rising ponderously -from her chair, she moved on heavy tiptoes out into the kitchen, the -thin boards creaking as she walked. - -"I might also remark that a person would have to be a saint to bear with -Cousin Hannah," said Elizabeth, "she doesn't intend it, maybe, but she -does rile me so!" - -"I don't see why anybody would want to be a saint; I'd heap rather be a -knight," spoke up little Harvie, nicknamed by her family "the Babe." -She lay curled up on a lounge in the corner, ostensibly pulling out -bastings, but really reading a worn old copy of Ivanhoe, which was the -book of her heart. There were no children living near the lonely little -ranch, and the Babe, who was only ten, solaced herself with the company -of heroes and heroines of romance--much preferring the heroes. - -"I'd rather be 'most anything than a 'mover'," declared Elizabeth, -emphatically. "And if you want to know the reason, just look out of the -window and watch this procession coming up from the road." - -Ruth and the Babe ran to the window; Mary, leaving her machine, slipped -quietly out of the room to see about her mother. Also Mary desired to -have a little private talk with Cousin Hannah. - -It was a pitifully ludicrous spectacle that the girls beheld. Up the -driveway leading to the house came a dreary procession of those -unfortunates known in western parlance as "movers," family tramps who -follow the harvests in hope of getting a little work in the fields; -always moving on when the crops are gathered, or planted, as the case -may be--movers never became dwellers in any local territory. - -These movers were, in appearance, even more wretched than usual. In a -little covered cart drawn by a diminutive donkey, sat a pale woman with -a baby in her arms, and two small and pallid children crouching beside -her. Behind the cart the father of the family pushed valiantly, in a -kindly endeavor to help along the donkey, while just ahead of that -overburdened animal walked a small boy, holding, as further inducement, -an alluring ear of corn just out of reach of the donkey's nose. -Certainly the family justified Elizabeth's declaration that 'most -anything was preferable to being a mover! - -Ruth and Elizabeth both laughed at the comical procession, but the -Babe's eyes were full of pity. "The poor things are coming up for -water," she said sorrowfully. "Father always let them get water at our -well--I'll go show them the way." And she ran out to meet the movers -and show them the well at the back of the house, where they filled their -water-jugs and quenched the thirst of the patient and unsatisfied -donkey. - -"I wish to goodness Father never had gone to Cuba," sighed Ruth, as she -turned from the window to take up her button-holes, "it is so awfully -lonesome without him." - -"I think it was splendid," said Elizabeth, with shining eyes, "to be -among the very first of the volunteers. And maybe he'll do some deed of -daring and be made an officer. Think how nice it will be to say, when -the war is over, that our father figures in history--maybe as one of the -foremost heroes of the Spanish-American war." - -"You're always dreaming of things that never happen, Elizabeth," scoffed -practical Ruth. "Of course he won't be made a big officer. If he comes -back just a plain Captain I'll be mighty glad." - -"O, well, the world's greatest men and women have always been dreamers," -asserted Elizabeth, cheerfully, "I can't help being born different from -the rest of you, can I?" - -"H'm, I reckon not--but you can start a fire in the stove. People must -eat, no matter how great they are. It's your time to get supper." - -"O, dear, it's bad to be born poor!" sighed Elizabeth, as she arose -reluctantly. "Especially when there's a longing within you to do -perfectly fine things, and not mere drudgery. I wish I were a -princess--it seems to me I was born to rule. I'm sure I would be a wise -and capable sovereign. Well, even queens stoop to minister to the lowly, -like Saint Elizabeth, so _I'll_ go get supper for the Spooners!" - -And with her head in the clouds, the throneless queen marched -majestically kitchenward, to engage in the humble occupation of cooking -supper for her family. - -Voices from her mother's closed door reached her ears as she passed. -Elizabeth would have scorned eavesdropping, but--the ranch being located -in the prairie region of Texas, where lumber is so scarce that just as -little as possible is used in building, and the walls being merely board -partitions, she could not help hearing Cousin Hannah's voice, always -strident, rising above her mother's and Mary's lower tones. - -"Fiddle-diddle! What's the use of mincin' matters anyway? She's bound -to know, sooner or later--ought to know without--tellin', if she had a -grain o' common sense. Ain't a single, solitary thing about her favors -the rest of you all." - -The words sounded very clearly in Elizabeth's startled ears, arousing a -train of troubled thoughts in her mind, as she moved mechanically about -the kitchen. She felt quite certain that they were talking about her, -and that Cousin Hannah wanted to tell her something that Mrs. Spooner -and Mary didn't want known. - -"I wonder what it can be," pondered Elizabeth, as she slowly stirred the -hominy pot. "Whether Cousin Hannah thinks so or not, I've always known -I wasn't like the rest." - -This was quite true; Elizabeth, though she dearly loved the parents and -sisters who had always, Cousin Hannah declared, spoiled her, yet could -not help feeling that she was, mentally and physically superior to them, -"made of finer clay," she would have put it. People often remarked on -this lack of resemblance to the others, and when they did so in Mrs. -Spooner's presence she always hastily changed the subject. Elizabeth -had often wondered why. Somehow there seemed always to have been a -mystery surrounding her--something that, if explained, would prove very -thrilling indeed. - -Occupied with these thoughts, she moved from cupboard to table, and from -table to fire, preparing the evening meal with deft skill, for anything -Elizabeth Spooner did she did a little better than other people. - -Outside the window stretched a vast brown-green plain, bounded by a -horizon line like a ring. There was monotony in the prospect, and yet a -curious sense of adventure and romance, as there is about the sea. -Elizabeth delighted in the mystic beauty of the prairie, yet to-day her -fine eyes studied the level unseeingly as she glanced through the -window, looking to see if Jonah Bean was in sight; the glories of sunset -that flooded the plain passed almost unnoticed. She was thinking too -earnestly on her own problem to observe the outside world. - -"If I were by chance adopted, I certainly have a right to know who I -am," Elizabeth pondered, as she set the table beautifully, with certain -artistic touches that the clumsier hands of the other girls somehow -could never manage. "It won't make any difference in my feelings for -father and mother and the girls if I should happen to be born in a -higher station of life than theirs--though I can easily see how poor -mother could think it might; I trust I'm above being snobbish--" -Elizabeth's eyes began to glow with a resolute purpose--"I'm going to -find out, that's what! I'll make Cousin Hannah tell me. She's so big -it's awful to sleep with her, and she snores like thunder. Mary knows -how bad it is, and how I hate it, that's the reason she made me sleep -with Ruth, when one of us had to give up our place. To-night I'll make -Mary take the Babe's place with Mother, who might need her in the night, -and I'll sleep with Cousin Hannah--and find out what she knows about -me!" - -Jonah Bean came stamping up the steps just then to wash up for supper at -the water-shelf just outside the kitchen door; informing anybody who -chose to listen that he was mighty tired--there was two men's work to do -on the Spooner ranch, anyhow, and he was gittin' old, same's other -folks. Glancing in at the open door he observed who was the cook. - -"Humph! So it's your night for gittin' supper? Well, I hope the -truck'll taste as fancy as that air table looks." - -"Sure, Jonah," answered Elizabeth, critically observing the effect of -her handiwork. "If you'll just step outside and get me a big bunch of -those yellow cactus-blooms to put in this brown pitcher it'll be -perfect, and I'll see that you get a big painted cup full of coffee." - -"Never could see no use in weeds--full o' stickers at that," grumbled -Jonah, as he turned to go out for the flowers that were growing on the -great cactus in the fence corner. "Hope that air coffee'll be strong -and hot, though." - -The coffee was strong and hot, and the hominy was white and well-cooked; -the bacon was brown and crisp and the biscuits light as feathers. -Elizabeth dished the supper in the flowered dishes kept for company, -because she could not bear the heavy earthenware they used every day. -She filled the squatty brown pitcher with the big bunch of golden blooms -old Jonah bore gingerly, careful of the thorns, and then lighted the -lamp with the red shade. Really they didn't need a lamp, but the glow -from the red shade was so pretty that she lighted it anyway--she so -loved beautiful things. - -She arranged her mother's tray daintily, laying a cactus-bloom, freed of -its thorns, beside the plate--somehow she felt as if she was preparing -for some extra occasion. - -"I declare Libby always cooks like she was fixin' for company," said -Cousin Hannah, admiringly, as she sat at the gracefully arranged table. -"Oughter keep boarders, and she wouldn't find no time for extra kinks." - -Elizabeth shuddered a little as she poured Jonah's coffee in the biggest -cup, with the painted motto on it--how she would hate to do such a -sordid thing as keep boarders! - -But she smiled very affably on Cousin Hannah, and asked if she wouldn't -tell her how to make spice cake--she always noticed that Cousin Hannah's -cake was so good. She wished to get the recipe to write in her -scrap-book. - -"Shore and certain," said Cousin Hannah, amiably, pleased at Elizabeth's -praise, "I'll be glad to write it off. You're 'bout as good a cook as -Ruth, though I always did say she was the born cook o' the family--you -seemin' to be a master hand at managin'." - -That she was indeed a master hand at the art, Elizabeth proved that -night, when with a few energetic commands, she sent Mary obediently to -her mother's room, to take the Babe's place, who in turn was put to -sleep with Ruth. - -"Why in the world don't you let Ruth sleep with Cousin Hannah?" argued -Mary, "you know how you hate to--and she doesn't mind." - -"Because it isn't fair that I shouldn't have my turn as well as the -others--it's disagreeable to all of us. Now you just let me have my -way, and say nothing else about it!" declared Elizabeth with authority, -and as usual, she was allowed to have her way. - -While Cousin Hannah undressed, moving ponderously about the little room, -Elizabeth sat on the side of the bed, brushing her long blond hair, -watching with critical admiration of the beautiful, the gleams of red -and gold the lamplight cast upon its glittering strands, and formulating -in her mind a plan to find out the secret of her birth--if secret there -was. - -She finally decided that plain speech was better than beating about the -bush, and spoke in a carefully suppressed tone. - -"Cousin Hannah," she said, with whispering decisiveness, "I want to know -what you, and Mother and Mary were talking about in her room." - -"Why, Libby!" exclaimed Cousin Hannah, plumping down upon the bed in her -astonishment, "did you go and listen to what we was sayin'?" - -"Indeed I didn't! But I couldn't help hearing you--and I think it's my -right to know, if you were talking about me." - -"But your Ma--but Jennie said she didn't _want_ you should know," argued -the bewildered Cousin Hannah, "land o' livin', girl, ain't you got a -home, and people to care for you? Why in tunket can't you be satisfied -with _that_?" - -Certainty made Elizabeth calmly triumphant. - -"I have felt, for a long time--ever since I can remember, that I was -different from the rest of my family, though you didn't give me credit -for having sense enough to see it. Of course, I love them all dearly -but I can't help feeling that it's my right to know the truth, whatever -it is. Cousin Hannah, is or is not my name Spooner?" - -"Well," Cousin Hannah evaded the question, "what would you get out of it -if your name wasn't Spooner?" - -Elizabeth leaped up softly, she held her hairbrush as though it were a -scepter; her long hair flowed and billowed about her as she walked with -majestic tread, up and down the tiny room--she was seeing visions! - -If her name was not Spooner! That would mean that her birth was, she -felt sure, indefinitely illustrious some way. Of course she would never -desert the people who loved her, and whom she would always love, -but--might not something come of it that would be grand for them all? - -"Libby," Cousin Hannah's eyes followed the moving figure with a -distressed look in them, "your ma--Jennie Spooner--your true ma, if love -and tenderness count for anything, never wanted you told. Mary knows, -and she don't want you should know. When I watch your uppity ways I tell -'em it's high time they explained the situation to you." - -"The situation--" Elizabeth hung breathlessly on her words with shining -eyes, and an eager tremble of her lips. - -"Yes, the situation," repeated Cousin Hannah heavily. "Jennie Spooner -had a tough time raisin' you--a troublesome young'un as ever I see. You -teethed so hard that it looked like she never knew what a night's rest -was till you got 'em through the gums. I used to come over here many a -time and help her; what with Ruth bein' so nigh the same age, she had -her hands full. It was kept from you for fear of hurtin' your feelin's, -if you must know." - -"How could it hurt my feelings?" questioned Elizabeth, a little puzzled. -"I love them all--but they should have told me. They ought to have known -they couldn't change--" a swan to a duckling had been on the tip of her -tongue, but she stopped in time, "me to a Spooner, even by their love -and kindness." - -"Change you to a Spooner?" slow wrath mounted to Cousin Hannah's face. -She caught Elizabeth's arm as the girl passed by. "I reckon they -couldn't make a Spooner out o' you, that's a fact. The Spooners, bein', -so far's known to me, respectable householders--" - -"But not what _my_ people were," suggested Elizabeth, her whole face -alight, her eyes shining with eagerness. "You must tell me who they -were--what my rightful name is." - -Cousin Hannah groaned. "Looks like I've let the cat out of the -bag--don't it? Well, what I've got to tell ain't nigh what you think -I've got to tell," she asserted doggedly. "You'll be sorry for askin'." - -Through Elizabeth's mind flashed visions of a wonderful ancestry; to do -her justice these dream parents did not in any way displace the father -and mother she really loved with all her young heart--they were only -that vision which comes to us all in some shape when we feel we are -misunderstood--different. - -Mary's step was heard approaching in the little corridor. She had -undoubtedly been disturbed by the sound of their voices, and was uneasy -for fear Cousin Hannah would be teased into making in judicious -revelations. - -"Tell me--tell me quick--" whispered Elizabeth, shaking her room-mate's -arm. "Tell me before Mary gets here." - -"Well, I will," gasped Cousin Hannah. "You ought to know it--but I warn -you it's not what you're expectin'!" - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *Roy Rides to Silver Spur* - - -When Mary stepped into the little bedroom Cousin Hannah Pratt had -already spoken. - -"Your pa and ma was movers that come here sixteen years ago--movers, -like the folks you seen to-day and made such fun of. The name was Mudd." - -These whispered words sounded in Elizabeth's ears, and the girl crumpled -up on the bed sobbing just as Mary opened the door. Mrs. Pratt pulled -the elder sister into the room. - -"I've told Libby--she ought to have been told long ago--with you -marryin' and goin' away and Ruth not havin' a bit of faculty and her -bein' the one to take your place I think she was obliged to know it." - -Mary came across the room with a rush, and took slim Elizabeth in loving -arms. - -"Go away, Cousin Hannah, please," she said. "You can sleep with Ruth -and I'll stay with Elizabeth." - -Mrs. Pratt, glad enough to be relieved from sight of the misery she had -caused, hurried away and the two sisters were alone together. Mary knew -very little of what Cousin Hannah had seen fit to reveal, a child -herself at the time, she had but vague remembrances of it, and indeed -Elizabeth asked no questions--she only needed to be comforted, and this -Mary did as best she could. - -The next day but one was the wedding day, Mr. Bellamy was expected in -the morning and they would probably have no other chance for private -talk, but Mary urged Elizabeth to go to their mother for comfort when -the wedding was over, and some time late in the night they both fell -asleep. - -In the days that followed the wedding, when everything was strange, and -they were settling slowly back into the usual routine Elizabeth found no -opportunity to speak with her mother of that trouble which had come now -to haunt every waking hour, and even pursued her into dreams. - -Mary and her euphoniously named Mr. Bellamy had gone on their way to -Oklahoma, where the bridegroom owned a ranch. Cousin Hannah Pratt, -having helped with the wedding sewing and the packing, had gone back to -Emerald and her own overflowing boarding-house. Mrs. Spooner, the three -girls, and old Jonah were left alone, face to face with the problem of -getting along. - -Everything had settled into the usual routine at the Silver Spur; Mrs. -Spooner, rather weak from her neuralgia and the strain of the wedding, -sat on the front porch in a big chair which Elizabeth had endeavored to -make comfortable with rugs and pillows. - -"Are you perfectly sure I can't do anything else for you, Mother?" she -asked anxiously. "Mary always waited on you so beautifully, while--it -seems to me I've never done one little thing for you, when you've done -so much for me!" - -A big tear slipped from the long lashes and splashed on Mrs. Spooner's -little hand, fluttering among the cushions. In a minute the mother-arms -had pulled the girl's head down to the mother-breast, the thin fingers -patting the blond braids and the mother-voice crooning comfort into the -crumpled little ear buried upon the maternal shoulder. - -"Don't cry, daughter, Mother loves you just the same! Haven't you been -our own since you were, O, such a _wee_ baby! It was cruel of Cousin -Hannah to tell you, but we won't let it make one bit of difference. -You're ours and we are yours. A thing like that can't matter to people -who love each other as we do." - -"It--it doesn't matter, Mother," gasped Elizabeth, as she mopped her -reddened eyes, "if I can just take Mary's place to you. I am going to -try, my very level best." - -"Then you'll be sure to succeed," said her mother, confidently. "You -always succeed in everything you undertake--hadn't you noticed that, -dear? Now, really, I'm just as comfortable as hands can make me, so you -run on down to the corral and help Ruth and the Babe with the ponies. -You ride with them to Emerald, and get the mail--it'll do you good. And -be sure you bring me a letter from father." - -Cheered by her mother's words, Elizabeth gave one more pat and pull to -the pillows, kissed her, and ran down to the corral, where the girls -were roping the ponies. She and Ruth could each rope a little, missing -about three out of five throws, but the Babe usually flourished so -reckless a loop that she entangled herself, and had to be helped out; in -spite of which old Jonah Bean insisted that she was the only one who -showed any signs of learning the art. - -Poor Elizabeth! Her castle of dreams had fallen, leaving her wide awake -to the fact that she was no princess of romance but the humble offspring -of miserable movers, such as had always been the objects of her -shuddering contempt. Even Cousin Hannah's heart was touched with pity, -and she tried with clumsy but hearty kindness to make amends for the -grief she had caused by her disclosure. Nothing had been said to Ruth -and the Babe, of course--they still believed her to be their born -sister. However, deep down in her heart, Elizabeth was walking in the -Valley of Humiliation amid the dust and ashes of dead hopes; and, as -most people know, when one enters the Valley it is very, very hard to -find the way out again! - -Mrs. Spooner, watching the girls ride down the road, sighed softly. -"Poor child," she murmured pityingly, "I can hardly forgive Cousin -Hannah. But in the end it may prove the best thing. I'm afraid we were -spoiling her. This may bring out the fine nature that I know she -possesses." - -Texas is a land of far horizons; Mrs. Spooner could see all the vast, -brown-green circling plain until it lost itself in the hazy distance. - -Away up the trail that led to her brother's distant ranch, twenty miles -further from Emerald, she noticed a moving cloud of dust which resolved -itself into an oscillating speck--two--a man on a pony, with a led -horse. - -For some reason which she could not have explained, Mrs. Spooner felt -that the approaching rider was going to turn in at the Silver Spur. -There was no pleasant feeling between herself and Harvey Grannis. John -Spooner had bought the Silver Spur ranch from his brother-in-law when he -came to this part of Texas, and there had been trouble over the -transaction, due, Mrs. Spooner felt, to Harvey's disposition to take too -much authority. He was a bachelor, and the rich man of the -community--excepting the English rancher, McGregor, who did not live so -far away. He would have liked to do a good deal for the family of his -only sister, but he wanted to do it in his own way, asserting that John -Spooner couldn't take care of them, and treating them, Elizabeth fireily -said like paupers. A hard man, with his good qualities, yet full of the -"rule or ruin" spirit, and liable to go to great lengths to make his -point. - -The approaching rider was now seen to be a young fellow, scarcely more -than a big boy. He came up the long bare drive, stopped at the porch -edge and took off his hat before he spoke to the woman in the -rocking-chair. She noted that the pony he rode stumbled with weariness, -while the led horse trotted briskly, unencumbered with saddle or rider. -She saw, too, that while the tired pony bore a brand unfamiliar to her, -the led one was marked with a G in a horse-shoe--Harvey Grannis's brand. - -"Good morning, ma'am," the newcomer greeted her. He was a handsome lad -of perhaps sixteen, but just now in a woeful plight, dusty, shaking, -haggard with weariness. "I stopped to ask if you'd like to buy a pony -at a big bargain." - -Mrs. Spooner leaned forward in her chair with a little gasp. She was -afraid of what was coming. - -"I don't know," she replied evasively. "Which one of them do you want to -sell?" - -"O, mine's played out," the boy returned never noticing the admission -his words contained. "I've ridden pretty hard, and besides I've got to -have her to carry me to Emerald, so I can take the train there. It's -the other one. He's a mighty fine pony, and I'll let him go for enough -to buy me a ticket back home." - -"Won't you come in and rest a minute?--you look tired," said Mrs. -Spooner, sympathetically. Somehow she could not bring herself to ask if -he was from her brother's ranch, though she felt quite sure something -was wrong about the pony that would go so cheap. - -"I am tired, but I've got to go on so as to catch the six o'clock -train," the boy smiled wanly. "I guess I can stop in for a drink, -anyhow." - -He dropped the lines, and the two ponies stood, cattle country fashion, -as though they had been tied. - -Mrs. Spooner got up from her chair, forgetting, in her excitement, any -weakness or weariness. - -"Just come right in and lie down on the lounge," she invited him. "It's -cool and shady. I'll make you a pitcher of lemonade in a minute. -You'll gain time by resting." - -She smiled that reassuring mother-smile of hers as she opened the door -of the quiet living-room. The boy followed in, his spurs clinking on -the boards, and dropped wearily down upon the lounge. When she came -back he was sitting with his head in his hands, but he drank the cool -lemonade thirstily, finally draining the pitcher. - -"It's awfully good," he sighed, his eyes speaking his gratitude. -"Mother always made us lemonade in the summer time at home. You--you -make me think of her, someway." - -As if the resemblance had been too much for him, he turned from her with -an inarticulate sound, and buried his face in the cushions. Mrs. -Spooner sat down beside him, and after awhile his groping hand caught -hers. She spoke to him in whispers, though there was nobody in the -house to hear. - -"I'm afraid you're in trouble, my poor boy," she said gently. "Don't -you want to tell me all about it? Maybe I can help you." - -After a time he found strength to face her, and tell the poor, pitiful -little story. - -His name was Roy Lambert. He was, indeed, one of Harvey Grannis's -cowboys, and had come west fascinated by the stories of frontier life. -He had made a contract with Grannis to work for him for one year. Then -came a letter, telling him that his mother was desperately ill, and he -must hurry to her. Grannis refused to advance him money or to annul the -contract. He treated the matter with contempt, pretending to believe -that the boy was simply homesick, and the letter a ruse to get away. At -last, frantic at the treatment he received, and determined to reach his -mother, Roy got up before daylight, took his own pony and one of -Grannis's which he hoped to sell for enough money to get home, and set -out for Emerald and the railroad. - -"I couldn't walk it, it would take too long to get to Emerald that way," -he said, "besides, Grannis owes me more than the chestnut's worth, if I -sold it for full value. I didn't expect to get only just enough to buy -my ticket." - -"Two wrongs won't make a right, Roy," said Mrs. Spooner, gravely. "Mr. -Grannis was wrong--very wrong, not to advance you the money, or let you -off your contract. But did you stop to think he could have you arrested -for horse-stealing when you took his pony?" - -"No!" blazed Roy, "I didn't steal it. If I had, I don't care. He's a -hard-hearted old skinflint. I'd like to wring his neck, but even Harvey -Grannis can't say I'm a horse thief. And I _must_ get home!" - -"Of course you must," soothed Mrs. Spooner, well aware as she looked at -his flushed face, that Roy himself disapproved of what he had done. "I -have a little money, and I will try and manage it, someway." - -"Would you?" cried the boy. "I'll pay you--I'll send you a check as -soon as I get home." - -"Jonah Bean, the only cowboy I keep now, can ride on with you to -Emerald, and bring your pony back. I'll try to sell it for enough to -repay myself, or I might keep it--I think we could use one more gentle -animal." - -"You're awfully good," choked the poor fellow. "If all the folks in the -world were like you--such a man as Grannis makes me distrust everybody. -Do you know him?" - -"Yes. I think you're a little mistaken," said gentle little Mrs. -Spooner. "Harvey Grannis isn't really a villain, he's just a -hard-headed, high-tempered man, that was spoiled by having his own way -when he was a boy." - -"You don't know--" Roy was beginning, when she interrupted him. - -"I think I do. Harvey Grannis is my only brother. My baby child is -named after him--little Harvie." - -"Your brother?" Roy Lambert leaped to his feet, looking about with -terrified eyes. - -Mrs. Spooner divined his thought at once. - -"I'm not going to give you up to Harvey," she said firmly. "But I'm -going to make you let me lend you the money, and leave Harvey's pony -here. The laws calls what you've done horse-stealing, and you can't -make laws for yourself. You lie down and try to get a little sleep, -now, my child. I'll wake you in an hour." - -He thanked her with trembling lips, turned on his side, and, secure in -his trust of her, fell at once asleep. When she saw that he really -slept, Mrs. Spooner once more took her seat on the porch, this time to -look for her brother, being quite certain that Harvey would follow -hot-foot on the trail of his stolen pony. - -She didn't have long to wait; in less than an hour a buckboard drawn by -a pair of good sized grade horses turned in at the gate; in it sat -Harvey Grannis and one of his men. They were tracking the lost pony. -She saw them long before they reached the house, recognize it, as it -grazed on the bit of sunburned pasture which Elizabeth hopefully called -a lawn. - -"Hello, Jennie," her brother called out, ignoring any coldness there had -been between them, as Mrs. Spooner walked rapidly out to meet him. -Grannis was a loud-spoken individual, and she did not care to have the -boy awakened. "I'm after the thief that stole this pony of mine. Is he -on your place?" - -"He's asleep in the house," said Mrs. Spooner, quietly, though her voice -was shaking a little. "He's very tired, and he's going to ride to -Emerald tonight. I don't want him disturbed." - -"You bet he's going to ride to Emerald!" blustered the ranchman. "I'll -have him in jail there before supper-time! Come on, Tom, we'll go in -and wake the young gentleman. Fetch your rope. Keep your gun handy. -You never know what a young, dime-novel-crazy idiot like that will do." - -He sprang from the buckboard, and both men were starting for the house -when Mrs. Spooner barred their way. - -"You can't go in there, Harvey," she told him. And now she was -trembling so that Tom, of the rope and gun, was sorry for her, and -heartily sick of his errand. No doubt Harvey Grannis was too, which -merely made him talk louder and more harshly. - -"Well, I'd like to know why I can't?" he demurred, pretending to laugh -at her a bit. "Who's going to stop me? Now see here, Jennie, you -always were a simple-hearted, soft-natured little goose. Anybody can -bamboozle you. Look at the way John Spooner--" - -"We won't go into that," warned Mrs. Spooner, with a flash in her eyes -that made Grannis's cowboy chuckle inwardly. - -"What's your reason for defending this boy?" Grannis argued. "He's a -thief." - -"I'm not defending Roy Lambert alone," said Mrs. Spooner. "I'm -defending my brother--a brother I used to be very fond of--from doing a -thing he'll be sorry for all the days of his life." - -Grannis flushed redly through the deep tan of his sunburned skin, while -Tom, standing by and listening, enjoyed himself thoroughly over his -employer's discomfiture. - -"These boys come west crazy for ranch life," Grannis said dogmatically. -"They soon get sick of honest work, and invent any kind of story to get -away. This boy's lying to you, and he's stolen a pony from me. Move -out of the way, Jennie, and let me handle him." - -The men had been standing with their backs to the trail. Mrs. Spooner -noted a little figure on a gaunt pony whose gaits were familiar to her -approaching from the direction of Emerald. Now small Harvey rose in her -stirrups and shouted, waving an envelope above her head. Mrs. Spooner -was sorry she had not got rid of her brother before the girls returned. -Grannis looked over his shoulder, and feeling unwilling that his beloved -namesake should see him doing anything unkind rushed the matter hastily. - -"Get out of the way, Jennie," he repeated. "Come on, Tom." - -A figure appeared in the ranch-house door, Roy Lambert, flushed and -trembling with the fever that Mrs. Spooner had been fearing for him. He -carried his belt in his hand, and was fumbling at the holster to get his -pistol. - -"I won't go back alive," he said. - -"Rope him, Tom," prompted Grannis in a low tone. "I don't want to shoot -the crazy kid." - -"Uncle Harvey--Uncle Harvey," came the Babe's thin, sweet pipe, "I'm -glad you're here, 'cause I've got a telegram for somebody out at your -ranch. Jonah was to take it on but now he won't have to." - -The child's eyes saw nothing amiss. The three men were warily watching -each other, Roy tugging desperately at the holster to get his weapon -which had caught, and Tom half sullenly loosening and coiling his rope. - -"It's for Mr. Roy Lambert," sang out the little girl, triumphant in her -ability to read even bad handwriting. - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - *A Package and a Leather-Brown Phaeton* - - -The men stood rigid at little Harvey's announcement. Mrs. Spooner took -the envelope from the child's hands, opened it and read aloud: - -"Mother died last night. Funeral over before you can get here. -Sister." - -The boy on the steps wheeled and ran into the house. Grannis turned -unwillingly. - -"Well--that looks genuine," he muttered with the obstinacy of a -high-tempered man. "I won't prosecute him for lifting my pony--But I -want you to understand that it's on your account Jennie. I tell you to -turn him out. He's a bad lot. If ever he sets foot on the Circle G -he'll have me to settle with. If you insist on having him around your -place I'll--I'll--" His eye fell on Harvie. "Take the halter there, -Tom and tie Baldy on behind. He leads all right." - -"Aren't you going to pay him the money you owe him," Mrs. Spooner asked -as she saw the men preparing to depart. - -Grannis would have paid the money if it had not been for the presence of -Tom. He could not let one of his cowboys see a loosening of discipline. - -"No, I'll not," he said bluntly and whipped his team around into the -drive. "He can't collect a cent off me, and I'm done making concessions -on your account." - -"Where are the girls?" Mrs. Spooner asked as she and the Babe stood -watching the Circle G rig depart. - -"They're coming," answered the Babe. "I rode ahead 'cause they were -carrying so many things and I could go faster. The man at the telegraph -office paid us for bringing the message out. Are you going to keep Roy -Lambert here, like Uncle Harvey said you ought not, mother?" - -Mrs. Spooner nodded as she went back into the living-room, leaving -little Harvie to start the fire in the stove. There she did her best to -comfort the poor fellow, facing his first big sorrow. - -"I won't go home now--there's no use," he declared, when he could speak. -"But I'll never go back to Grannis! If you let me I'll stay here and -work for you. And I'd do my best to do for you what a son would. -Outside of heaven, I've got no mother now." And once more his grief -overwhelmed him. - -"I'll be happy to treat a good boy like you as a son," said Mrs. -Spooner. "My husband is away with the troops, and we've had a pretty -hard time to get along without him. I'm sure my girls will be glad to -take you into our household as a brother. Maybe providence sent you to -us, to-day. Maybe we need you as much as you need us." - -With the relaxing of the terrible strain, and the exhaustion of his -grief, the boy seemed to become really ill. She sat beside him, trying -to soothe him with tenderly wise words, and bathing his hot forehead hi -cool water till at last he slept, and she stole softly out to warn old -Jonah, who came stumping in with a basket of cobs for the kitchen fire. - -"Make as little noise as you can, Jonah," she whispered. "We have a boy -in the house asleep--one of Harvey's cowboys--I'm afraid he has fever." - -"O Lord!" groaned Jonah, in a doleful whisper. "Trouble comes -double--never knowed it to fail yit! 'T ain't 'nough that you ain't -right peart, and the boss gone, and me with the rheumatiz a-ticklin' my -right foot ag'in, but we got to have a no-'count cowboy, sweater an' -shirk, of course, laid up on us. Poor gals, I feel for 'em!--an' you've -got nothin' but gals. Ef you'd 'a' had a right smart mess o' boys, -now-- They'll have all the work to do--like enough have to ride and -rope and brand, 'fore they are done, besides nussin' this here boy, and -me'n you throwed in for good measure. Whyn't Grannis tend to his own -sick cowboys? Plenty o' folks at his ranch." - -"He's not Harvey's cowboy any longer, Jonah--he's ours, if we need -him--and according to that, we do. Now don't say a word, just listen to -me--" as the old man opened his mouth to remonstrate very forcibly on -the utter folly of taking an unknown person into her home. Then, -speaking in subdued tones, she told him the story of the boy from the -Grannis ranch. - -At the end old Jonah Bean, being tender-hearted if cantankerous, took -out his bandanna and blew his nose with hushed vigor. - -"If I warn't in the presence of a lady what's his sister, Mis' Spooner," -he said with elaborate politeness, "I'd up an' say--_Dad rat_ Harvey -Grannis's hide! Manners an' behavior is all prevents me from usin' them -same cuss-words." - -"Thank you for _not_ saying them, Jonah," approved Mrs. Spooner, -gravely, but with twinkling eyes. "Now I'll go out and meet the -girls--I hear them coming, and they'll be sure to wake him with their -noise, if I don't warn them." - -The two girls were riding up the path, and both shouted: - -"A letter from _Cuba Libre_!" - -"A _fat_ letter--and we want to see what's in it so bad!" - -Of course the precious letter was immediately read--that came before -anything else; the girls, dismounting, the Babe running out, dish-towel -in hand, with Jonah hobbling in the rear, and all grouping around Mrs. -Spooner, to hear the news from Cuba. - -It was a bravely cheerful letter, containing the best of all news; their -father was well, the health of the army was good, there was no prospect -of a battle. Then followed long messages to each member of the family, -loving and jolly; advice to Jonah Bean about the ranch, winding up with -impressive charges to everybody to be "sure and take good care of -mother!" - -"Three cheers for _Cuba Libre_--she's taking good care of our boys!" -exulted Elizabeth, and Ruth declared fervently: "It's such good news -that it makes me right hungry! Let's make muffins for supper Elizabeth, -and celebrate." - -"Maybe there won't ever be a real truly sure-enough battle like Ivanhoe -and King Richard Sour-de-lion and Jonah Bean used to fight," suggested -the Babe, hopefully, and Jonah added, sagely: - -"I don't know nothin' 'bout them two folks you named over, honey, but I -lay you the war o' the sixties was some punkin's! I misdoubt this here -Cuban scrimmage is jest a play war." - -"Truly, I hope so, Jonah," said Mrs. Spooner. "Now listen, children, I -have some more news for you. We can't have father with us, but I -believe I have found a 'real, truly sure-enough' brother--a regular big -brother, like other girls have." - -"O, Mother," put in the Babe, excitedly, "I didn't know _that_! Is he -named after us, if he's going to be our own brother?" - -"No, his name is Roy Lambert--but we don't care what it is," she added, -hastily, remembering how poor Elizabeth had loved fine-sounding names, -"if he is only a good boy, and I think he is." - -Then she told them the story of poor Roy. - -"I do think Uncle Harvey is the meanest old--" began Ruth, indignantly, -but her mother's hand was laid lightly upon her lips, stopping further -outburst. - -"That's enough, daughter" she said, quietly, "they both did wrong, and I -think they're both sorry. It is all over now, and we must try and think -as kindly of Uncle Harvey and be as good to poor Roy as ever we can." - -"Yes, and I'll lend him my own pony, if his is too bad off for him to -ride," added the Babe generously--her own Rosinante being the joke of -the ranch. "Uncle Harvey didn't mean to be bad, Ruth--he looked just as -_sorry_ when you read the telegram--didn't he, Mother?" - -"I think he is sorry," agreed her mother, who wished her children to -think as well of their uncle as possible, but Jonah, with a scornful -snort, ejaculated: "Sorry--Harvey Grannis? O, Lord, that _is_ a joke!" -And muttering his opinion of Harvey Grannis pretty audibly, went -stumping away, to his work. - -Elizabeth said nothing, only she slipped her hand in that of her -foster-mother and whispered: "I think the Lord sent him to you, Mother, -because he was in trouble and needed you." - -"Well, I hope he'll be a nice boy, and I hope he won't be sick. I'll go -in and make up the muffin batter, Elizabeth, while you set the table. I -bet he didn't get any muffins at Uncle Harvey's ranch," said Ruth, who -believed in ministering to the sick by giving them good things to eat. - -They had a very good supper, and the muffins were really gems, but Roy -could not touch the dainty tray, saying that it looked awfully good, but -he was too tired to eat--he'd be all right in the morning. - -But next morning he was in a raging delirium, and Jonah Bean had to ride -to Emerald and fetch the doctor, who said the boy was in for a pretty -bad spell of fever. - -For two weeks the Spooner household nursed him, then came a day of -rejoicing when the patient was able to move shakily about, gaunt and -hollow-eyed, but cheerfully assuring them he felt dandy! Recovery was -swift after that, and it was not long before the boy from the Circle G, -the outcast horse-thief, was a valued and almost indispensable member of -the Silver Spur household. - -"I don't see how we ever got along without him," declared Ruth, -positively, as she poked the clothes that were beginning to bubble in -the big wash-kettle out in the back yard. - -"Particularly now that Jonah's laid up with the rheumatism," agreed -Elizabeth, rubbing the white clothes on the wash-board with rhythmic -strokes that, somehow, seemed to take a lot of the drudgery away from -the task. - -Ruth and Elizabeth were doing the week's washing; it wasn't a very hard -thing to do, when one went about it with the right spirit--the -determination to try, with cheerful energy, to get the clothes as clean -as possible in as little time as possible: - - "To sweep a room as for God's cause - Makes that and the action fine." - -The Spooner girls had never heard these words of the old poet, but they -practiced the spirit of them a good deal in their work. - -It was astonishing how much Roy had helped to lighten the work for them, -as well as for old Jonah Bean, who declared him to be nothing less than -a God-send. For instance, he had filled the kettles and tubs with -water, and fetched a big basket of cobs to make a fire under the -wash-kettle, all before he had gone to Emerald on what he declared to be -a very particular errand of his own. - -"I wonder what it is," mused Ruth, curiously, "last week he went--said -he had something very particular to do, you remember, and he came back -late. He never brought anything back, that I could see." - -"My private opinion is," said Elizabeth, confidentially, "that he is -fixing up some sort of a surprise for mother's birthday, He heard us say -we were looking for a package from father, and that we hoped it would -get here in time for her birthday. I noticed it was right after that he -went to town on business of his own." - -"It would be just like him--he's always trying to think up something to -do for us. Say, Elizabeth, I certainly appreciate this shelter he built -for us, don't you?" - -"I don't see how we ever got along without it: he's certainly a handy -boy," declared Elizabeth, gratefully. - -Heretofore the girls had washed with the glaring sun beating down upon -their unprotected heads, but now Roy had built a shelter for the tubs. -Timber was scarce, but he had managed to find enough for the posts and -cross-pieces, and there were plenty of tin shingles left from -re-shingling the house, so that he had managed to make a very neat job -of it, and one that added greatly to their comfort. - -"Have you all seen the Babe anywhere?" asked Mrs. Spooner, coming out of -the kitchen. "I want her to hunt some eggs for me; I think I'll make -some tea-cakes for supper." - -"She's down at Jonah's shack--I'll call her," offered Elizabeth, but -Mrs. Spooner demurred, saying she would rather go herself. - -"I haven't enquired about Jonah's foot, today, and he may think I'm -neglecting him," said the gentle mistress of the ranch, who never was -known to neglect a living thing upon it, and was particularly solicitous -about the welfare of her ancient cowboy. - -Jonah Bean was a veteran of the sixties, much given to narrating tales -of his own marvelous exploits; he was also a bachelor, who declared -himself independent of the whole female sex, inasmuch as he could, if -necessary, sew, cook, and "do for himself" generally. Though inclined -to be a grumbler, he was really devoted to all the Spooner family, -particularly little Harvie, whom he had been the first to nickname "the -Babe," and he always found her an eager listener to the tales of -adventure he delighted in telling. - -Mrs. Spooner found him sitting in the doorway of his shack, which was -near the corral, and had originally been intended for a bunk-house, when -John Spooner's hand was on the helm, and Silver Spur promised to be a -paying ranch. He was patching a pair of overalls and talking animatedly -to the Babe, who was, as usual, a rapt listener. "So Giner'l Jackson -sez, sez'e: 'Send me the pick o' your men from each company.' And, when -he looks us over, he p'ints at me. 'What's that runty, tallow-faced -little chap named? And what's he good for?' he asts the cap'n o' my -company. And the cap'n ups and 'lows: 'His name's Jonah Bean, Giner'l, -and he's a powerful hand at--" - -"O, Jonah!" interrupted the Babe, sorrowfully, "Ivanhoe never ran--nor -King Richard Sour-de-lion either. Nobody but caitiffs and paynims and -folks like that ought ever to run." - -"Why you see, honey," explained old Jonah patiently, "what the cap'n -meant was that I was like the Irishman's pig--'mighty little but mighty -lively', and could git over ground faster'n common." - -"O," said the Babe in a relieved tone, "I'm glad _you_ weren't a paynim -or a caitiff, Jonah." - -"No," hastily denied Jonah, "I warn't--I ain't no kin to none o' them -sort of folks; I'm a Tennesseean, me'n all my forefathers before me. -Well, the Giner'l calls me up, and sez, sez'e: 'Private Bean, your -country is dependin' on you to do some mighty tall runnin' to-day. Kin -I depend on you to run so fast the Yankees can't ketch you?' - -"I s'luted, and sez I'd do my levelest. Then, as I was a-sayin' he gimme -the papers and my orders. 'Twas a long way from the ferry, so's to save -time I swum the Jeems river--high water, and twenty-five mile acrost, -more or less, I disremember rightly, And then, man, sir! I everlastin' -burnt the wind! Minie-balls was a-rainin' like hail, and I jest -natchully had to kick the bombshells out'n my way. Right through the -enemy's lines till I fetched up at Giner'l Lee's headquarters, s'luted -and turned them papers over to him dry as powder--for I'd swum with 'em -under my hat." - -"King Richard would 'a' made you a knight!" breathed the Babe, in -ecstatic admiration. - -"They didn't have none o' them in our army, honey, or they mighter. I -shore'd 'a' been promoted to sergeant anyhow, if Giner'l Jackson hadn't -'a' been killed before he could send in my recommend." The Babe -murmured her regret over the General's untimely taking off. - -"Mornin', ma'am," Jonah greeted Mrs. Spooner, who just then came up. -"Me'n the Babe, here, was jest a-talkin' over old times. She was -a-tellin' me the news from Cuby and I was mentionin' of a few things -happened back yander in the sixties. I says this here Cubian war ain't -no thin' 'tall but jest chillun's play-war." - -"I hope and pray so, Jonah," said Mrs. Spooner, her voice trembling a -little. "But--war is war, I'm afraid." - -And to this, Jonah, scoffer though he was, could only agree. War, even -a play war, meant some danger. - -It was after dark when Roy returned from Emerald, and--as he had done -the last time, instead of riding up the front way and whistling a signal -from the road, he came in at the back, surprising the whole family, who -were all gathered in the kitchen. - -"Howdy-do, folks! Gee, that fried chicken smells good, Ruth! Mrs. -Pratt sent you a quarter of mutton, Mother Spooner--they had just killed -a sheep. I hung it up on the peg outside the back door to keep sweet." - -He smiled affectionately on the Babe, who was eyeing with much curiosity -a big package under his arm. "And this, I reckon, must be that birthday -bundle from Cuba; I found it at the express office." - -There was a shout of joy from the Babe, and a satisfied exclamation from -her sisters, who had about given up hope of the package's arriving on -time, the mails from Cuba being very uncertain. - -"Day after to-morrow is mother's birthday--just in the nick of time," -they exulted. "Don't you dare take one little, little peep till then. -Lock it up in your bureau-drawer, Ruth, so she won't have temptation -before her eyes," laughed Elizabeth, and Ruth bore off the package, in -spite of the Babe's protest that maybe father had sent a little present -to Jonah--and he wouldn't like to wait! - -"Maybe there's something in it for a little girl or so," laughed her -mother, "but I think we can wait. For I'll be forty years old, and it -needs pleasant things to make a fortieth birthday happy, I can tell -you." - -At this the Babe hugged herself in delight, to think there was still -another pleasant thing in store for her mother. For to-morrow Elizabeth -and Ruth had planned to make a wonderful cake, iced white like a real -Christmas cake, which, on the birthday they intended to light with forty -tiny pink candles, already bought and hidden away in Elizabeth's trunk. -To console herself, she fell to dreaming over the lovely things shut up -in the brown paper package--to think of anything real hard was nearly as -good as seeing it. - -"Mrs. Pratt's Maudie got back from her grandmother's last night," said -Roy, as they all sat at supper--except Jonah, who, because of his foot, -had had his supper carried to him by the Babe. - -"They're planning for a big celebration and a Harvest Home festival in -Emerald next week, and she wants the girls to go over and spend a few -days. Mrs. Pratt particularly said both, if you can spare them." - -"I wonder what Handle's grandmother gave her this time," said Ruth, -rather wistfully. "She always has so many pretty things when she comes -back from a visit out there. It must be lovely to have a grandmother -who is well-off." She sighed a little, thinking of the many-times -laundered cotton frocks that served Elizabeth and herself for all -dress-up occasions. Maudie, no doubt, would have a challis, or maybe -even a summer silk. - -Elizabeth said nothing, but at the mention of a well-to-do grandmother -she felt a blush of shame creeping over her face. It was such a little -while ago that she had indulged in beautiful dreams of unknown and -wealthy relations; stately grandmothers with high-piled white hair, gold -lorgnettes and rustling silks; and haughtily handsome grandfathers of -ancient lineage and great wealth, who would see that she was lavishly -supplied with means to buy the beautiful clothes necessary for a girl -who would move in the highest circles of society. Dreams that ended in -such a sordid awakening--O, poor Elizabeth! - -Mrs. Spooner's mother eyes saw what the girl tried so hard to conceal, -and she said with quiet emphasis: "I wouldn't give any one of my three -girls with their cotton frocks, for a dozen Maudies with a dozen silks -apiece!" - -It was next morning that Roy explained his mysterious trips to town. - -"You know your mother can't walk much," he said, "and she can't ride a -pony, like we do. So when I saw a second-hand phaeton for sale I made -up my mind to buy it for her birthday gift. Shasta works fine in -harness, so I rode her to town, hooked her up to the old phaeton, and, -last week, brought it home and hid it out in the corral shed, where I've -been putting in odd minutes painting it, while Jonah's cutting down the -harness to fit Shasta. It's just shreds and patches now, and a mile too -big. The phaeton's pretty rickety as to looks, so I went yesterday and -got some cloth and fringe for the top, and you girls must help me fix up -the curtains so's I'll get it done in time for her to take a drive on -her birthday." - -"I do think you are a wonder, Roy," admired Elizabeth, with sparkling -eyes. "The very thing she needed most--and had no idea she'd get till -father comes home." - -"A package from Cuba, and a cake and a _phantom_!" exulted the Babe, who -was present. "That's a _cossal_ thing, Roy." - -"She means colossal," explained Elizabeth, as Roy turned a bewildered -look on her. And Ruth added: "She gets them out of books, those long -words that she can't pronounce. I wish Mother could send her to -school--she reads too much." - -"People can't read too much, Ruth," said the Babe severely. "Some time, -when I go to school I'm going to learn to read well enough to read all -the books in the round world. Jonah says there ain't nothin' like -_eddication_!" - -"Sure--I agree with Jonah," laughed Roy. "Sorry I can't have a fine -'eddication,' I'd like it the best sort. But come on and let's have a -look at the _phantom_." - -It _was_ a pretty rickety phaeton--as to cover and cushions; Roy had -already made it spruce with a good many coats of leather-brown paint. -He showed the girls the fringe and the lining he had bought to renovate -the canopy-top. - -"We'll cover the cushions right away," said Ruth, viewing the -dilapidated affairs that had, in the distant past, been spick and spandy -leather cushions. - -"There, now--I knew I'd never recollect everything!" said Roy, ruefully. -"I just got enough brown stuff to line the top--I clean forgot the -cushions." - -Elizabeth, as usual, solved the difficulty. - -"Mother has an old brown broadcloth skirt she doesn't wear. It'll make -perfect cushion-covers, just the right shade. I'll take the measures -now and stitch up the covers in no time." - -"Elizabeth always did have a head on her shoulders!" admired Ruth. "I'm -willing enough, but I never could do anything but just cook. Anyway, -I'll make the birthday cake." - -"And I'll beat the eggs--I can beat eggs go nice and soap-suddy," -boasted the Babe. - -"That'll be a great help. We don't want any hit-or-miss cake. -Everything's got to be properly weighed and measured and beaten. Now -let's go see how Jonah's coming on with the harness." - -Jonah, with the harness in a big cotton-basket which could be hidden -from sight by throwing a horse-blanket over it if Mrs. Spooner happened -along, was seated indoors, busily snipping and stitching and patching -away at the rusty-looking leather. - -"Now don't you-all come a-frustratin' me till I git th'ough with my -job," fumed the old man, rather crossly, "'course, you'll 'low 'tain't -much to look at--which I ain't a-denyin'--but jest wait till me'n the -boy gits done--then jedge by ree-sults." - -Roy sighed a little bit wistfully. "I did want to get something better, -but my money barely held out for this." - -"Something better?" scolded the girls, "who wants anything better?" - -"A lovely, low-hung, leather-brown phaeton," added Elizabeth, -alliteratively, "is a thing of beauty. Add brown cushions, brown -harness and a perfectly-matching brown pony and it'll be too stylish for -anything." - -"That's sure 'seeing things', Elizabeth," laughed Roy. "Glad you -believe in us. I'll work at the phaeton and try to have it looking as -much as possible like your fancy picture by to-morrow. Jonah'll boss -the harness job, and you girls can transform the cushions." - -There were great preparations going on that day, right under Mrs. -Spooner's unsuspecting eyes. The girls had ironed the clothes the day -before, insisting that they required mending immediately, much to their -mother's surprise, for they didn't usually bother about the mending. - -There was indeed plenty of it to do, and, since Mr. Spooner's absence, -very little money to buy new clothes, so that the best the patient -mother could do was to mend and darn and patch, till, like the Cotter's -wife, she "made old clothes look almost as well as new." - -She sat on the front porch and darned and mended busily, while in the -kitchen Ruth and the Babe--who did beat the whites into most wonderful -soap-suds, made a marvelous silver-cake, which they iced thick and -white--a regular Christmas-cake. And Elizabeth ripped up the old brown -skirt, sponged and pressed the cloth, and made the cushions as neatly as -any upholsterer could have done. Roy and Jonah Bean, at the same time, -were transforming the harness and phaeton, to have it all done by the -next morning. Roy, having his own and Jonah's work to do, had to snatch -odd moments to rub down the paint and re-cover the ancient top. - -Mrs. Spooner was allowed to open her package from Cuba on her birthday -morning, with the three girls crowding round to see--the Babe quivering -with eager anticipation. - -Mrs. Spooner unwrapped from its folds of tissue-paper the gift they all -knew to be hers--a shawl or scarf of black, heavily-woven silk, -embroidered in most wonderfully natural pansies; a regular Cuban -mantilla, exquisitely made. - -The girls were so delighted, draping their mother in its soft folds, and -admiring the effect, that they quite forgot a smaller package which was -still unopened--all but the Babe, who continued to gaze upon it with -fascinated eyes. - -"O, Mother, _please_ open the little bundle," she begged at last. -"I'm--I'm just on _ten-pins_ to see what's in it!" - -"Now where'd she get _that_ word? What on earth does it mean?" laughed -Ruth, who was often puzzled over her little sister's expressions. - -"Tenterhooks," translated Elizabeth. "Only she got 'hooks' mixed up with -pins and needles. Do open it, mother, and relieve the 'ten-pins'!" - -"I'll let the Babe open it herself. I'm sure she can pick out her own -present," smiled the mother, as she gave the smaller package to the -child. - -With awed delight the Babe removed the tissue-paper slowly, as befitting -a solemn rite: three tantalizing little bundles were disclosed, tightly -wrapped. She opened the first; it contained a painted Spanish fan. - -"This must be for Elizabeth," concluded the Babe, with decision, and -handed over the fan to Elizabeth, who waved it with languid grace, -imagining herself to be a Spanish Senorita. - -The next parcel held a pretty handkerchief, with a wide border of -Mexican drawn-work; this the Babe promptly turned over to Ruth. "I -don't want that--I can borrow mother's," she said, with fine assurance. - -"O, but I do! I never had a real pretty handkerchief in my life. I -don't believe even Maudie Pratt has one as pretty as this," exclaimed -Ruth, happily. - -On this little ranch where things were hard to get at best, the thrifty -mother always cut up the flour sacks into neat squares, which she hemmed -on the machine; these when washed and ironed were piled neatly in each -girl's little handkerchief-box, for every-day use. For Sundays and -extra occasions there was a little square of muslin, hemstitched and -bordered with narrow lace. No Spooner ever dreamed of possessing a -better handkerchief. No wonder that Ruth exulted over her gift. - -The third was a little white box. When the Babe removed the lid she -hugged the box to her bosom and pranced joyously about the room. - -"My beads, my beads!" she crowed, ecstatically. "My own dear, beautiful -pink necklace!" she held out a string of coral before her family's -admiring eyes. "Put it on for me, Elizabeth, so I can run show it to -Roy and Jonah," she begged. "O, mother--" with a sudden look of -consternation, "suppose I didn't guess right?" - -"You guessed exactly right," reassured her mother, "but Elizabeth, -child, what are you pinning my hat on for?" - -"Just walk out in front and behold another birthday gift," said -Elizabeth, busily pinning on the hat. "There, now, you're all -ready--hat, shawl and everything." - -Wondering, her mother obeyed, and beheld drawn up at the door a spick -and spandy looking little low phaeton, painted a beautiful leather -brown; its fringed canopy-top fresh and neat, its cushions upholstered -in handsome brown broadcloth, and harnessed to a perfectly-matching -brown pony, in neatly fitting brown harness, already for taking a drive. - -"O, my dears!" there was consternation in Mrs. Spooner's voice. "Did -you go and buy a _phaeton_! How in the world did you manage? You know -we simply must not go in debt." - -A chorus of protest reassured her. The gift was none of theirs--they -had not gone in debt. Roy had bought it for her with his own money. - -"For just nothing at all, Mother Spooner," he hastened to assure her. -"It was just junk. We, Jonah, the girls and I, fixed it up for you, so -it's really a family gift. And you'll find Shasta gentle as a kitten. -Now you and the Babe get in, and and Jonah and I'll escort you in -style--we are going to take you over the ranch and come back in time for -the birthday dinner Ruth and Elizabeth are going to fix up." - -As the procession clattered down the driveway and out into the trail -along the prairie, the Babe nestled close to her mother and sighed -blissfully--she had in mind another surprise that was to help make the -fortieth birthday a pleasant one. A big, Christmassy cake, iced white -as snow and covered with forty tiny pink candles. - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - *A Jewel of Great Price* - - -Every single member of the Spooner family with the exception of Jonah -Bean, who declared he didn't have no time to waste a-pleasurin', were -going to Emerald, to spend the day with Cousin Hannah Pratt and take -part in the Harvest Home festival. - -Cousin Hannah, having heard of the new phaeton, declared that now Mrs. -Spooner didn't have an earthly thing to prevent her coming to town, and -she had sent such urgent entreaties by Roy, that at last the mistress of -the ranch was prevailed upon to accept the invitation. - -"But I can only spend the day," she declared, "we can't all be spared at -once; Jonah is just able to be about, we mustn't leave him too much work -to do. The Babe and I will come back in the afternoon, and the girls -can stay--and you, Roy?" - -There was a little note of interrogation in her voice as she laid her -hand affectionately upon the boy's shoulder. She was almost sure that -he wouldn't want to go to a party that his grief was too recent. - -Roy patted her hand, smiling a little sadly as he shook his head. "I -don't feel equal to parties yet," he said. - -"And as to both Ruth and me staying, that's out of the question," -decided Elizabeth. "There'll be a hundred and one things to do, and -you'll try to do them every one. Ruth's going to stay all night because -it's her turn--Mary and I went last year. So _that's_ settled, mother." - -After some argument, Ruth--who really did want to stay very much, -yielded. If Elizabeth wouldn't stay, why she would, and be glad to. - -"And you may carry my fan," said Elizabeth generously, "nobody--not even -Maudie, will have such a beautiful one. And you shall wear my pink -girdle, too, it's newer than your sash." - -The Babe sighed. She was having a mental struggle as to whether she -could practise self-denial enough to lend her sister the string of coral -beads that were the delight of her heart. The situation finally -resulted in a compromise. - -"And _I'll_ lend you my beads--after I've wore 'em all day. But you -mustn't forget to feel every now and then for the catch, to see if it's -fastened," she warned. - -"Thank you, Babe, I will," laughed Ruth, "and I'll take good care of -your fan, too, Elizabeth. Dear me, won't I be fine! Pink coral, and -pink girdle, a Spanish fan and my drawn-work handkerchief!" - -"I don't approve of girls borrowing things from each other," said Mrs. -Spooner, doubtfully. "I've known serious trouble to result from such -practices. There's always danger of losing or injuring the things, you -know. But, if you sisters want to lend, I won't object. Only be very -careful, because you couldn't replace them if they were lost." - -"I'll be careful as care, mother--don't you worry." And Ruth ran -happily away, to pack her suit-case and get together her simple finery. - -There were various attractions to be at the celebration. A brass band -from a big town would play in the public square, between speeches by -noted members of the State Grange. Pony-races by cowboys from the -neighboring ranches, the inevitable roping match, a big open-air dinner -for the public, and, to wind up with a dance at night in the town-hall, -where the various exhibits from the farms--the grain, fruits and -vegetables--were displayed. - -As the Spooners desired to see all these spectacles, they started out -bright and early; Mrs. Spooner, the Babe and Ruth's suitcase in the -phaeton, the girls and Roy riding their ponies. - -Cousin Hannah, whose husband--a mild little man, quite overshadowed by -his big, bustling wife--was a rancher without a ranch, spending most of -his time taking cattle to the fattening ranges above, or to market in -other states, lived in a big, flimsily built frame house in the little -prairie town of Emerald. Mrs. Pratt boarded the station-agent, the -telegraph operator, the school-teacher, and nearly all of what might be -termed the floating population of the town. - -Maudie, the Pratt's only child, was a girl about Elizabeth's age, rather -pretty and very much spoiled by her mother and her grandmother, who -lived in another state, and who often had Maudie come and visit her. - -Mr. Pratt, who happened to be at home for the festival, with his wife, -came out to meet their guests, welcoming them with much hospitality. - -"The sight of you's sure good for sore eyes, Jennie," exclaimed Cousin -Hannah, as she folded Mrs. Spooner in her ample embrace. "I'm tickled -to death to see you! And ain't that buggy a sight. It looks 'most as -good as new, I declare!" - -"It's not a buggy, Cousin Hannah--it's a _phantom_," said the Babe, with -dignity. - -Almost as good as new, indeed! Where were Cousin Hannah's eyes? Very -few phaetons looked so new and delightful, to the Babe's vision, anyway, -as this vehicle, in whose loving rejuvenation every one of them had been -allowed to have a hand. - -"A phantom, is it?" laughed Cousin Hannah. "Well, you come in here to -the dining-room and find out whether these cookies are phantoms. The -big girls want to go up to Maudie's room, I know. Run along, honies, -I'll take care of your ma and the Babe, and Mr. Pratt'll look after Roy. -Maudie ain't come out, yet; she's feelin' poorly, and wants to save up -her strength for to-night. Maudie's right delicate." - -"Come in!" called out Maudie, when Elizabeth and Ruth, with the -suit-case between them, rapped at her door. - -The young lady sat at her dresser, attired in a much trimmed and -flowered kimona, leisurely "doing" her nails with a silver-handled -polisher from an elaborate dressing-case spread open before her. - -"Hello! If it ain't Elizabeth and Ruth!" she greeted, with somewhat -condescending cordiality. "You all come in to see the country jays -celebrate? Emerald's such a pokey little hole folks are glad to see -most anything, for a change." - -"If you think Emerald's dull, Maudie, what would you do out on our -ranch?" asked Elizabeth, laughingly. - -Maudie shuddered. "Horrors! Don't mention it--such a fate would be too -unspeakable!" - -"Yet Elizabeth and I manage to stand it--and I reckon we're as happy as -most girls," protested Ruth, stoutly. - -"O, that's because you don't know any better. You've never enjoyed the -advantages of city life, as I have," said Maudie superiorly. - -"I suppose your grandmother gave you a heap of pretty things, as usual," -said Elizabeth, anxious to change the subject. - -"O yes, a good many," carelessly replied Maudie. "How do you like this -diamond ring? She gave me this on my birthday." - -She held out her hand, which was adorned with several rings, one of them -a small but showily set diamond. - -Elizabeth and Ruth viewed the jewel with admiring amazement. Neither -one of them had ever seen a diamond before, and to their untutored eyes -it represented splendor indeed. - -"Try it on," said Maudie affably, pleased with their exclamations of -delighted wonder. It was much too large for Elizabeth's slender finger, -but it fitted Ruth's plumper one pretty well. - -Maudie replaced the ring on her own finger, and lifted out the tray of -her trunk. "What are you girls going to wear to-night?" she asked -carelessly. - -"I'm not going to stay, but Ruth will wear her white dress," said -Elizabeth. Somehow Ruth felt as if she couldn't speak of her poor -little frock among all Maudie's radiant treasures. - -"Oh," Maudie's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Let me show you what I'm going -to wear." And she unfolded and shook out the shimmering breadths of a -pale blue summer silk, lavishly trimmed with lace and ribbon. - -"O-o-o!" breathed Ruth, rapturously, "I never saw such a perfectly -beautiful dress, Maudie!" - -And Elizabeth echoed, warmly, "A beautiful dress--and just the color I'd -like, if I ever had a party dress." - -"It is rather pretty, I think," acknowledged Maudie, with the air of a -person to whom silks are a matter of course. She took out more dresses, -dazzling the eyes of her country cousins with the sight of so much -magnificence, and making poor Ruth feel very shabby indeed. - -"My pink challis or blue mull would fit you exactly, Elizabeth--you're -tall as I am. Stay all night and I'll lend you either one of them you -want. I'd like to have you stay, too--the girls here are so common." - -Elizabeth's cheeks flushed redly. Evidently Cousin Hannah had made no -further disclosures. To Maudie, Elizabeth was still her cousin, and a -Spooner--the name that had once seemed so commonplace and now so -beautiful compared to that of the despised movers. - -"O, but really I can't stay, Maudie; it's good of you to want me, and to -offer to lend me your beautiful clothes, but mother can't spare us both -very well, and Mary and I came last year, you know!" - -"O, well, if you won't you won't. But I should think you'd jump at the -chance of going to a party," said Maudie, who did not bother over -consideration for her own mother. - -Just then Cousin Hannah poked her head in at the door. "Maudie, honey," -she asked, conciliatingly, "can't you just run in and set the table when -dinner's ready, so's I can stay up town with your Cousin Jennie and the -girls? And if the telegraph operator comes in give him his dinner? You -know he has to have it early." - -"Why on earth can't the cook give him his dinner?" frowned Maudie, -petulantly. "I hate that old operator, anyway. Isn't the cook hired to -set the table? I ain't feeling well, and I don't want to overdo so's I -can't go to the hall to-night." - -"O, well," said her mother, resignedly, "I reckon I'll hurry back and -'tend to it myself, if you ain't feelin' well." - -But Ruth spoke up eagerly: "Let me do it, Cousin Hannah. I don't care -about going up town--and I'd love to do it for you." - -"Bless your heart--you're a reg'lar little help-all!" beamed Cousin -Hannah, gratefully, and with Mrs. Spooner and Elizabeth, went on her way -in great content, knowing that everything would go on well at home. - -Maudie stayed in her room and spent her time deciding on her party -finery, while busy Ruth swept and dusted the big dining room, that was -always in a state of more or less disorder, laid the table carefully and -had the operator's dinner ready punctually. - -"Have a good time, little daughter," Mrs. Spooner said to Ruth, when at -the close of a long day of sightseeing she and the Babe were once more -seated in the phaeton. And Ruth replied happily that she would--she was -certain of having a perfectly beautiful time. - -That night she wiped the supper dishes for the cook, and, after she had -dressed, helped to button Cousin Hannah into her own tight and -unaccustomed dress-up clothes. - -Maudie, who declared that she never liked to be among the first because -it was more genteel to be late, took a long time to dress but really -looked quite pretty in her pale blue frock; Ruth, with heartily sincere -appreciation, told her so. - -"Thank you," acknowledged Maudie, languidly, eyeing Ruth's laundered -white dress and pink girdle with tolerant pity. Then her eyes falling on -Elizabeth's fan her expression changed to eager covetousness. - -"Where in the world did you get that fan?" she asked. "Do you--do you -really think it matches your dress? It seems to me a fan like that is -out of place with a wash dress. I haven't one. I lost mine when I was -at grandmother's." - -"This is Elizabeth's; father sent it from Cuba." - -Ruth spoke rather hesitatingly; she would have offered to lend the -ornament at once, if it had been her own, for she was a generous little -soul, but she did not feel like risking Elizabeth's property. - -"I say," spoke Maudie abruptly, "lend me the fan, Ruth, and I'll let you -wear my diamond ring." - -"O, Maudie!" gasped Ruth, hesitation in her heart but delight in her -eyes, "I couldn't--I oughtn't to wear your ring. Something might -happen." - -"Not a thing'll happen," declared Maudie impatiently. "Here, let me put -it on your finger. No it isn't too loose, either; my finger's just as -small as yours. I wish this fan was mine. It would have cost a lot -over here, but in Cuba it's different--or of course your father couldn't -have afforded it." - -She had coolly appropriated Elizabeth's fan, waving it to and fro with -complacent admiration. All Emerald had seen the diamond, but the fan -was entirely new, and she realized that it would be greatly admired. - -Poor little Ruth, dazzled by the flashing ring, forgot her mother's -disapproval of borrowing, and went to the hall with a light heart. - -The Spooner girls had gone to school in Emerald when their father was at -home, and they could be spared from the ranch, so she knew all the boys -and girls who were present, and was soon having a very jolly and -sociable time, while Maudie, as befitting a person accustomed to city -life, was moving about among the crowd with a rather bored air, -displaying her finery to the admiring eyes of her neighbors, and waving -Elizabeth's fan languidly. - -Still, for all her indifferent air, Maudie felt aggrieved that Ruth, in -her shabby white lawn, should receive so much attention, while she in -her blue silk was comparatively neglected. - -As she sat beside her mother and watched Ruth dancing merrily to the -music of the band, Maudie felt a growing rancor towards her unoffending -cousin, finally deciding that she would put an end to the enjoyment she -could not take part in. - -"I want to go home, I'm tired of it all--it is so stupid," she -complained to her mother. "Besides, I don't feel very well. Call Ruth -and let's go right away." - -"No use disturbing Ruth, she seems to be enjoying herself, if you -ain't," remarked Mr. Pratt, mildly. "Any of the young folks'll see her -home safe." - -But Maudie flatly refused to go without Ruth, who was hastily summoned -from her dance by Cousin Hannah, and hustled unceremoniously away from -the hall. - -"O, I _did_ have such a good time!" said Ruth, radiantly. "I'm so sorry -we had to come away so soon, Maudie." - -"It takes mighty little to give some folks a good time," said Maudie, -tartly. "I thought the crowd was awfully coarse and common, even for -Emerald. I hope you took good care of my ring," she continued, sharply, -for Ruth uttering an exclamation, of fear, had stopped and was groping -wildly about in the sand at her feet. - -"O, Maudie!" Ruth's voice quavered with fear, "O, Maudie--I've _lost_ -it!" - -"Lost my diamond ring!" Maudie shrilled wrathfully, "O, why was I such a -goose as to lend it to you!" - -"What's that? Your diamond ring that Grandma Pratt gave you? O, my me! -Was Ruth wearing it? How'd that come? Whatever made you go and lose it, -Ruth?" groaned Cousin Hannah, not waiting for a reply to any of her -questions. - -"It--it was too large," faltered Ruth, "it must have slipped off my -finger. We'll find it in a minute. I know I had it on when we left the -hail; I kept feeling of it because it didn't fit me very well." - -"Then you'd no business to borrow it," scolded Cousin Hannah. "What -made you wear it, if it was too loose?" - -"Maudie wanted Elizabeth's fan," explained Ruth, miserably. "And--and -she lent me the ring in place of it. I told her then it was too large." - -"Yes, blame it all on me!" reproached Maudie, bitterly. "Here--take -your old fan! I reckon it didn't cost more than a few cents, but at -least I took care of it!" - -"Think where you had it last, Ruth--think _hard_!" implored Cousin -Hannah, distractedly, "I'd hate so for that expensive ring to be -lost--just throwed away, you might say. I don't know what we could say -to Grandma Pratt." - -"I had it in the hall, I'm certain," said Ruth, dull with woe. "Of -course I don't remember where or when it came off my finger." - -"Then we'll go right back to the hall and search for it," decided Mr. -Pratt. "Come along. No use in making so much fuss, Maudie. Wait till -you're plumb certain it's gone for good." - -Back to the still crowded hall they went, and poor Ruth, in bitter -mortification, had to listen to Maudie's shrill announcement to all and -sundry of the fact that Ruth had borrowed her diamond, and then lost it. -Which came, she explained loudly, of lending things to people who -weren't used to them, and couldn't understand their value. - -"O," thought poor Ruth, in her despairing heart, "if I'd only listened -to mother I never would have been in all this trouble--if I'd only -listened to mother!" - -Mr. Pratt, going to the young men who had charge of the hall, made known -to them the loss, and there was much searching, but all without -result--Maudie's ring was indeed gone! - -Downheartedly the party trailed along home; Maudie in tears, sobbing -wrathfully that she would never, never lend her things again--no matter -if people did beg and pray her to do it. No indeed, she had learned a -lesson! - -And Cousin Hannah, with torturing insistence, kept asking over and over -again if Ruth couldn't remember where she had lost the ring. She ought -to try and remember, seeing that it was her own fault. She oughtn't to -have worn a ring she knew was too loose for her finger. - -To these questions Ruth could only answer, over and again, that she -didn't know--she didn't know! Indeed she was fast becoming hysterical -with fright and worry. - -Then mild little Mr. Pratt astonished them all by speaking with -authority that commanded attention. - -"That's quite enough, Hannah," he said sharply. "Maudie, don't let's -have any more noise from _you_! If your ring's gone it's gone, that's -all there is to it. I told mother, when she asked me about it, that it -was foolish to give you a diamond when you was so young. I don't know -if I ain't glad it's lost, if you want my opinion. Now understand, I -want an end to all this talk. No use in badgerin' poor Ruth to death, -either, Hannah." - -"For pity's sake, Jim!" exclaimed Cousin Hannah, "I didn't aim to badger -the child. There, honey, don't cry over it--accidents will happen. I -didn't aim to hurt your feelin's, no mor'n _you_ aimed to lose the ring. -I was jest sorter flustered-like." And she patted Ruth's hand -soothingly. - -Maudie, though sniffing dolefully, said no more at the moment, being -warned by a certain unaccustomed note in her father's voice that his -commands must be obeyed. But in the privacy of their room that night she -turned the thumbscrews on poor Ruth with savage pressure. - -"Of course people who are just a little above paupers can lose other -people's property without worrying much about it," she remarked -sarcastically. - -And Ruth, in a burst of indignation at such aspersions on her family, -answered spiritedly: "No such thing, Maudie Pratt! I intend to pay you -for your ring, of course." - -"Pay me?" Maudie jeered, scornfully. "O yes, it's likely you'll ever be -able to pay me a hundred dollars for my diamond!" - -Ruth gasped--the amount was so far above her calculation. But her -fighting blood was up, for the honor of her family was at stake. - -"I haven't the money on hand, but I'll certainly pay you by next -Thanksgiving," she said, with proud resolution. - -And the green cardboard box at home, containing all the money she -possessed in the world, held just thirty-five cents! - - - - - *CHAPTER V* - - *The Silver Spur Bakery* - - -"Elizabeth," whispered Ruth, tragically, "I have done something too -awful to tell--and I've got to tell it." - -"I just knew you were dreadfully worried," whispered back Elizabeth, -sympathetically. "I knew it as soon as you came back this morning. -Mother thought you were just plain tired, but I felt in my bones that -there was worse. What is it?" - -The two girls were in their room getting ready for bed, tiptoeing and -whispering to avoid waking Mrs. Spooner, who was sleeping in the next -room. - -"It's this, Elizabeth--" Ruth's whisper was a wail of despair--"I've -lost Maudie Pratt's--diamond--ring: And I've promised to pay her for it -by Thanksgiving! Elizabeth, it cost--a hundred--dollars! And you know -I've got just thirty-five cents in all the world!" - -Then, Elizabeth remaining dumb from astonishment, she went on to tell -the whole story. - -"And, O, Elizabeth, how _will_ I ever get the money?" she ended, -despairingly. - -"You mustn't tell mother, Ruth," warned Elizabeth, with that sweet, -elder-sister air that had grown on her since Mary went away; "she's got -worries enough already with father away, and everybody afraid it's going -to be a dry year. I can't think just now of any way to earn a hundred -dollars quick. I'll sleep on it--maybe I'll dream of a way. One -thing's certain; you've got to keep your word, for the credit of the -family." - -"I was just sure you'd feel that way about it, Elizabeth. What on earth -would we do without you!" sighed Ruth, gratefully. - -Secure in Elizabeth's ability to find a way, she nestled down among her -pillows and went peacefully to sleep. And indeed she needed it sorely, -after the miserably wakeful night she had spent with Maudie Pratt. - -Elizabeth did not dream at all. She lay awake so long trying to think -up some miraculous way by which Ruth and she might earn a hundred -dollars, that when she did fall asleep her slumber was entirely too deep -for dreams to enter--so deep indeed that it took the warning rattle of -the alarm-clock to wake her in time to get the early breakfast necessary -for Roy and Jonah. - -"Did you think of anything, Elizabeth?" asked Ruth anxiously, as she, -too, sprang out of bed at the alarm-clock's warning. And Elizabeth was -obliged to confess that she hadn't yet. - -"But don't you worry," she soothed, "I'll think of a way. Let's ask -Roy, as soon as we get a chance; somehow I feel sure he could help." - -It was evening before they found an opportunity to take Roy into their -confidence, down at the milk-pen. Milking had been one of the girls' -recognized duties before he came, since then he had forbidden them to -interfere with the chores, declaring them to be men's work. - -Roy set the foaming pails on the fence, turned out the little bunch of -milk-pen calves kept to lure home the cows from the open range, and -regarded the girls with a grave face. - -"I should call that a tough proposition," he said thoughtfully, "but not -impossible. In fact it seems that 'most anything's possible if you work -hard enough for it. How about cooking, Ruth? You're a dandy on 'pie'n -things'. Every ranch round here would buy your truck if it was properly -advertised." - -"That's just it!" jubilated Elizabeth, "advertise! Ruth, we'll put up a -sign-board at the road gate: 'Bread, Doughnuts and Pies for Sale.' -Every cowboy that passes will see it, and every single one will buy. I -never saw a boy or man that wasn't hungry." - -"Elizabeth has a great head," nodded Roy, approvingly, "that's the -ticket, Ruth. I'll paint the sign-board to-night and to-morrow you begin -baking--money!" - -Ruth breathed a sigh of relief. "I just can't thank you enough, Roy," -she declared gratefully. "I'll bake day and night if I can just pay -Maudie Pratt for that hateful ring!" - -Mrs. Spooner was rather bewildered when her young folks--the Babe -excepted, begged earnestly for permission to make some money by going -into the bakery business. - -"We can't tell you just now what it's for, mother," explained Ruth. -"Only that it's for something important. You'll know all about it when -the right time comes." - -"It seems to me that every one of you does as much work as possible, -now," doubted Mrs. Spooner. "But as Ruth's heart seems to be set upon -this extra labor, I promise not to interfere. And I won't ask any -questions about it until you see fit to tell me of your own accord." - -The Babe, who had listened carefully to this conversation, beamed -hopefully upon them, seeing in the plan certain possibilities. - -"_I'll_ help you, Ruth," she volunteered magnanimously. "And maybe if -you make a whole heap of money, you _might_ have enough left over to buy -a new Ivanhoe. Mine's got seven leaves lost out, right at the most -exciting part." - -"Done!" agreed Roy heartily, "I promise that you shall have a new -Ivanhoe if you help. The bargain's between you and me, Baby. We'll -leave the girls out of it." - -"Except to see that you earn your book," laughed Elizabeth. - -That night when they were all gathered around the evening lamp, Roy -painted the sign on a smooth white board, with some of the brown paint -left over from the phaeton. Bread, he declared, was Ruth's "long suit," -but as cowboys would scarcely like dry bread, it was cut out of the -list. Pies, however, were always acceptable. Custard being objected to -as too "squshy," they decided on mince and apple as being best for cooks -and customers. Doughnuts, of course, because everybody liked the little -fried cakes, and they could be conveniently handled. Completed, the -sign read: - - "HOME-MADE DOUGHNUTS. - APPLE PIES. - MINCE PIES. - FOR SALE AT - SILVER SPUR RANCH." - - -"Now," decided Roy, after all the family had duly admired his handiwork, -"I'm going to Emerald early in the morning, and I'll fetch back all your -necessary supplies, down to the paper bags to hold 'em, by noon. The -McGregor ranch is shipping cattle--they'll pass here Thursday, one of -their punchers told me; that'll be day after to-morrow. You can spend -the afternoon baking and be ready for them, for I'm certain they'll buy -you out. Their range-cook's quit, and Chunky Bill's cooking for the -outfit, so they're about starved for something good to eat." - -"We'll be obliged to have the first groceries charged to you, mother," -apologized Ruth, "but we promise to pay for them ourselves." - -"Very well--only don't buy too much at a time," warned Mrs. Spooner, who -was doubtful of the success of the enterprise, "until you are sure of -making sales." - -"We'll succeed all right, never you fear, mumsy," asserted Roy, with -cheerful confidence. "I'll drum up trade, and Ruth's good cooking'll do -the rest." - -Fuel in that woodless country was quite an item; Roy, realizing this, -brought home the next day a load of coke along with the other supplies, -all, it was agreed, to be paid for out of the proceeds of the sales. - -Also he brought good news from Emerald, where he had met one of the -cowboys from the McGregor ranch, who not only confirmed the report of -the cattle passing next day, but told him that the ranch cook had quit -out there, as well as the man hired to go with the shipping outfit. He -offered to get Ruth the job of baking for the ranch until a new cook -could be procured. - -"Of course I said Ruth would take the job, so he's to bring along the -order in the morning. How's that for a beginning for The Silver Spur -Bakery?" - -"I see land ahead!" exulted Elizabeth, joyfully waving her big -cook-apron. "Allow me to invest you with your uniform, Mademoiselle -Chef: You will now proceed to mix the magic potions, while the Babe -kindles the fire on the Altar of Cookery known to mere mortals as the -kitchen range, and I complete the rites by rolling out the crust and -filling the tins. Know all men by these greetings, the Silver Spur -Bakery is ready for business, and Roy may go tack up the sign." - -Inspired by the hope of reward, they made a frolic of the baking working -with such zeal and enthusiasm that when evening came and the chief cook -doffed her floury apron with a sigh of weary content, there were shelves -full of pies and pans full of doughnuts as a result of their labors. -Delicate pies, with crisply melting covers and toothsome "inwards," and -doughnuts that were deliciously tender and flavory. - -"Just for this once we'll let everybody have a treat," decided Ruth, -generously. "We'll just make a big pot of coffee and have doughnuts and -pie for supper. I want Roy and Jonah to have a taste; they'll relish -sweets for a change." - -"And I think we'd better let them fix the price, too," suggested -Elizabeth. "Men always know more about such things than we do." - -Roy and Jonah were most appreciative judges, declaring that twenty-five -cents apiece was dirt-cheap for the apple, and--mincemeat costing so -much more than dried apples--fifty cents for the mince pies. The -doughnuts, being superlatively excellent, were valued at five cents -apiece, or fifty cents a dozen. - -The Babe could not be kept off the porch next morning, hovering there to -watch for the McGregor outfit. Soon, like Bluebeard's sister-in-law, -she reported a cloud of dust rising--the customers were coming! - -Far ahead of the herd rode a single horseman who turned in at the gate -and came galloping up to the house. The futile chuck-wagon, with its -incompetent cook, slid past unnoticed while the message from Mrs. -McGregor was delivered. She had sent a tin bread-box of ample size, and -she wanted it filled with so much bread, cake and pie, that the Silver -Spur Bakery was rather startled. She thought the amount she specified -might last them for half the week, the messenger said, and at the end of -that time she would return the empty tin box to be refilled. And the -Spooner girls were to put their own prices on their wares. - -While these things were being settled two other riders from the shipping -herd came up for sample orders, and hurried into the kitchen with the -Babe and Mrs. Spooner, eager to buy something to satisfy the pangs of -hunger to which Chunky Bill's cooking had delivered them. - -The stocky little Englishman who had brought Mrs. McGregor's note, and -said he would be back from Emerald on his return trip next morning for -the box, if they would have it ready for him, paused at the edge of the -porch and negotiated a more personal errand. - -"And I've a little order of my own, Miss," grinned he cowboy genially. -"You see, I'm from the old country, myself, and I'm fairly longing for a -taste of plum-pudding once more. Think you're equal to making one? I'm -willing to pay your own price." - -There was a note of wistful eagerness in his voice that touched Ruth's -sympathies, but a plum-pudding was, she feared, beyond her powers. -Elizabeth, seeing her hesitation, spoke promptly. "Certainly, we'll be -pleased to fill your order," she said, with business like briskness. -"And if it isn't as good as any you ever ate in England you needn't pay -for it." - -"I'm sure it'll be rippin' good pudding, if you make it, miss," politely -assured the cowboy, and, with a sweeping bow, he mounted his pony and -galloped away to join the approaching herd. - -As the hundreds of cattle tramped slowly by, one after another of the -attending punchers turned in at the Spooner's gate, a purchaser to the -full extent of his pocketbook. - -Doughnuts and pies fairly melted away; Mrs. Spooner and the Babe filling -the bags in the kitchen while Ruth and Elizabeth delivered the goods and -received the money. - -And, when they counted up the receipts that night, they found that, -deducting all expenses, there would be five dollars profit! - -"_And_ the McGregor ranch to bake for!" crowed Elizabeth, joyously. -"Ruth, I plainly see land ahead!" - -"I'm so relieved!" sighed Ruth, "But Elizabeth, are you sure you can -manage the pudding?" - -"'In the bright lexicon of youth there's no such word as fail', little -sister," laughed Elizabeth. "_Of course_ I can bake--or boil--or steam -a pudding as well as a born Britisher! In fact, being an American -citizen, I don't see why I can't make even a better one. Let me take a -look at that old cook-book of mother's." - -All the next day they baked for the McGregor ranch, besides boiling the -pudding for the Englishman. Elizabeth declared she wanted him to try it -before he paid for it, but after one glance and a hearty sniff, he -decided to pay in advance the two dollars and fifty cents which -Elizabeth had figured out as a fair price. - -That it was satisfactory was fully proven when he returned for the next -baking, with orders for half-dozen more. - -"I poured brandy over it and set it afire, like they do in England," he -said. "And every bloomin' puncher that tasted it is wild for more! -They call it 'The Perishin' Martyr Pie.' O, it's made a hit, all -right." - -After that there was quite a run on puddings, and hardly a day passed -that the girls did not make a "Perishin' Martyr Pie"--a name that -tickled them immensely. Even the Babe learned to mix the batter, and Roy -declared he was quite an expert at boiling martyrs. - -Money flowed into the little green pasteboard box, so that now there was -plenty of company for the lonely thirty-five cents it had originally -contained, when Ruth rashly decided she would pay Maudie Pratt for the -lost diamond ring. It must be admitted that as the money tide rose -Ruth's spirits fell. - -"O, it would be so lovely if we were earning it for ourselves," she -lamented. "Think of the things we could buy: If we could only give it -to mother to help with the living I should be perfectly satisfied--but -to go and hand it over to Maudie Pratt for a ring she just made me put -on--" - -"Now, Ruth," Elizabeth interrupted, laying a loving arm across her -junior's shoulder, "we're all getting lots of fun out of the work. I -think the whole family is finding that it is really play to earn money. -Maybe we'll get into the habit and keep it up after Maudie's ring's paid -for. Don't you worry. If we do the best we can, and do it every day, we -are going to arrive at delectable places." - -Ruth looked at her sister fondly. What would they do without -Elizabeth's strong heart and capable head for planning? It was -Elizabeth who hunted up a Mexican boy sufficiently reliable to be -trusted with a lard-can full of the 'pies 'n things' which found a good -market at the round-ups. This was not the season for them, but there is -always something of the sort taking place in the cattle country, and -Juan was willing to drive an absurd number of miles for a modest share -in their profits. Never a cowboy passed the Spooners' attractive sign -without galloping up for a purchase, and the early receipts from the -bakery were astonishingly good. - -But after awhile the McGregors secured a cook, and there were no more -round-ups in reach; the cowboys had all become surfeited with a rich -excess of "Perishin' Martyrs," so that orders declined and finally fell -off altogether on that commodity. The grocer was paid, there was nearly -a barrel of flour on hand, and part of a large tin of lard, but there -was only seventy-nine dollars earned. Thanksgiving was approaching, and -the hearts of the girls began to sink, thinking of its nearness and of -the insufficient money in the green box. - -And then, the very day before Thanksgiving, the unexpected happened, -when Mrs. McGregor rode over, bright and early, from her ranch with a -most unusual and imperative order for pumpkin-pies! - -It seemed that a lot of unexpected guests had arrived from the east to -spend Thanksgiving at the ranch, and, to celebrate the occasion -properly, the McGregors had decided to join forces with a neighboring -ranch and have a big barbecue and picnic-dinner in the open, to which -all the neighbors were invited. The other ranch was to furnish all the -meat for the feast--fat mutton and beef and shotes, to be barbecued -deliciously over pits of glowing coals, while Mrs. McGregor was to -provide the bread, pies and vegetables. - -"Of course you should have been notified days ago," said the pleasant -little lady, with deprecating hands outspread, "only I didn't know -myself 'till last night! Now my cook can manage the bread and -vegetables, and you, my dears, must furnish the pumpkin-pies or I'm a -forsworn woman: I've calculated and re-calculated, and I find that, -allowing five pieces to a pie, it will take a hundred and six pies to -give everybody plenty--you know how men eat! Now dears--" she put a -persuasive arm around each girl--"_can_ you bake them?" - -Ruth gasped. "How in the world can we--in one day? Of course we have -plenty of pumpkins--Jonah raised a big patch of them for cow-feed, and -there's a barrel of flour and plenty of lard and sugar and things. But -in _one_ day--" - -"We'll do it, Mrs. McGregor," interrupted Elizabeth, smilingly. "We'll -fill your order, and thank you very much. Jonah Bean shall deliver them -early in the morning." - -"My dear girl, you've simply saved my life--I can never thank you -enough!" Mrs. McGregor rose, fumbling in her pretty silver wrist-bag. -"Twenty-six dollars and fifty cents, I believe. Here's your money--and -thank you very, very much: And don't you forget that every single member -of your family is expected at our Thanksgiving dinner." - -"Why did you take her order, Elizabeth?" wondered Ruth, when their guest -was gone, "it will work us to death!" - -"Not a bit of it, dear child. Listen, Ruth Spooner, there's just -seventy-nine dollars in your green box. Twenty-six added makes a -hundred and five. Five dollars is a great plenty for expenses, seeing -that we have the pumpkins already. The odd fifty cents will buy a -little present for the Babe, and leave you your full hundred to pay -Maudie Pratt for her ring. 'Rah, 'rah, 'rah for the girls of the Silver -Spur! Our debt's paid!" - -"Glory!" Ruth's shouts suddenly wavered, the apron she waved aloft was -thrown over her face as she burst into tears. - -"O, Elizabeth--shut the door--I don't want anybody else to see me cry. -I'm a wretch--and you're a genius--but--but--I can't help thinking about -us all working so hard and Maudie Pratt getting all our money!" - -"I know, honey," said Elizabeth, understandingly, "if I stop to think I -feel that way myself. Let's not stop to think." - -Ruth choked down her tears, bathed her eyes and turned a resolute face -from the washstand. - -"I'm all right," she said in a determinedly cheerful voice. - -Elizabeth threw open the bedroom door and ran out among their helpers. - -"Kindle a fire, Babe, while we get the pumpkins. Isn't it a mercy that -Roy and Jonah are off the range to-day and can stay. Everybody'll have -to get to work cutting up pumpkins--even mother." - -All day they baked. The stove in the house, the brick oven in the yard -which had scarcely been allowed to get cold since Ruth began her -enterprise, were both kept filled. The baked pies were lifted out of -their tins as soon as cool enough and dropped into paper plates. But -even so they could not get enough tins to keep the baking up to the -volume required for getting out the hundred pies in that length of time. -At last Ruth announced in tones of dismay: - -"There isn't a single tin left. What shall we do?" - -"H'm, let me work my giant brain a moment," pondered Elizabeth. "How -about tin shingles? There're a lot of new ones, you know, nice and -clean. And plenty of lard-cans. Roy can cut rings from the cans, and -lay them on the shingles. They'll be extra large pies, but they'll hold -the dough all right." - -It was a good idea, and it worked out very well, with a little care in -handling the bulky "tins," so that there was no more time lost in -waiting for cooling pies. - -Jonah, who kept the fires going, became cheerfully loquacious under the -influence of the strong coffee Mrs. Spooner insisted on making, to keep -the workers awake at their tasks. He regaled them with thrilling -stories of the war, and Munchausen deeds of bravery performed by himself -while in service. Tales which served the twofold purpose of inspiring -Jonah and amusing his hearers. - -The girls insisted upon their mother and the Babe going to bed, so as to -be rested for the barbecue, which they determined to attend, as the -ranch lay only a little way beyond Emerald. But they, with Roy and -Jonah as able assistants, kept on baking till the last pie of the -hundred and six was cooling on the shelf, and the voice of the oldest -and most experienced rooster warned them of the coming dawn. - -However, every Spooner was up and dressed in time next morning, with the -pies safely packed in the wagon, which Jonah was to drive, Roy and the -girls acting as Mrs. Spooner's escort. - -When they started Ruth rode ahead. Nobody but Elizabeth knew what was -behind her resolutely smiling face. Pinned in the pocket of her jacket -there was a roll of bills--a hundred dollars. The thought of Maudie's -exultation over its receipt pinched Elizabeth almost as much as giving -up the money. She lagged behind a little and talked of it with Roy. -They agreed that the money-earning fever had got into their blood, and -that nothing less than a new enterprise to companion this old one, which -they agreed must be carried forward, would satisfy either of them. - -They had reached Emerald when Ruth, trotting briskly along its one -street, suddenly felt her pony go lame, and quickly dismounted to -examine its hoof for a possible pebble or ball of clay. - -Suddenly, with a curious little choking cry, she sprang into the saddle -and raced ahead, the pony now going quite easily. - -Roy and Elizabeth exchanged indignant glances. Evidently Ruth was -overcome because she had to give up her precious money so soon. - -"I guess it's got on her nerves," whispered Elizabeth. "I feel pretty -much like crying, myself." - -"Ruth must be going ahead to let Cousin Hannah know we are coming," -remarked her mother, placidly. "I hope it'll be so that they can all -go. I haven't seen any of them since the Harvest Home festival." - -But Ruth had stopped a little way ahead, waving impatiently for her -family to catch up, and hastening on they all arrived at the Pratt home -together. - -Mr. Pratt and his wife came out, Maudie, very much dressed up, followed -languidly. - -"Have you got my money, Ruth?" she called in her high, shrill voice. "I -bet anything you haven't--and I was depending on it to go to Chicago and -study music." - -"No," answered Ruth, with emphatic clearness, "I'm never going to pay -you for that ring. I want to keep the money for myself, and mother and -Elizabeth, and the Babe. O, what _lovely_ things we'll have out of a -whole--hundred--dollars!" - -The Pratts stared, mystified by this mad speech. Elizabeth gasped--it -did sound shocking. Mrs. Spooner was so little informed that she -supposed there was a joke on hand, and laughed with motherly -complaisance. Only Roy, pulling back close to Elizabeth's shoulder, -muttered in an undertone. - -"Ruth's got something up her sleeve. Hold on, don't make up your mind -too quick about it." - -"What in time was Ruthie goin' to pay you a hundred dollars for?" Cousin -Hannah demanded, at last. - -"For my diamond ring," cried Maudie, "my lovely diamond ring that -Grandma gave me, and that I wouldn't have lost for a thousand dollars." - -"It never cost to exceed twenty-five," snorted Mr. Pratt. "Ruthie's -just right not to pay you more'n that--or half as much. It was partly -your fault for lending the ring." - -"I'm not going to pay her a cent," repeated Ruth, with dancing eyes. -"I've got the money--a hundred dollars--see here," and she flourished a -sheaf of bills that made them gasp again. - -"I guess I can _make_ you pay," stormed Maudie, "you _promised_, and -you've got to keep your word." - -"Well, you _did_ lose Maudie's diamond, you know. Ain't you goin' to -replace it, Ruth?" asked Cousin Hannah, a little wistfully. - -"You must do the right thing, daughter," cautioned Mrs. Spooner, taking -a part in the conversation for the first time. - -"I will, mother," said Ruth, suddenly sobered; and she went toward -Maudie Pratt with the sheaf of greenbacks in one hand, and something -which nobody could see clasped tightly in the other. - - - - - *CHAPTER VI* - - *The Shiny Black Box* - - -The thing was like a scene in a play, almost. Maudie stood, half -abashed, half eager, and wholly frightened. Ruth came forward with a -confident, buoyant step that reassured her mother. A girl who was going -to do something impudently wrong would never act that way. - -"There," said the plump, smiling Spooner girl, dropping into Maudie's -outstretched palm a little lump of adobe clay that looked considerably -like a rough pebble. "I picked that out of my pony's hoof, right in the -path where I'd lost your ring." - -"Wha--what is it?" faltered Maudie, afraid to look. - -"Turn it over," prompted Elizabeth impatiently. - -"O, Maudie's almost a paynim, or a caitiff," breathed the Babe, hiding a -too sympathetic countenance against her mother's knee. - -The Pratt girl turned the little lump of clay in trembling fingers. -Something glittered on one side of it; the clay parted and a circlet -with a wee, shining setting lay in her palm. - -"My diamond ring!" she gasped. - -Then before them all she flung it from her, so that it tinkled and -skipped on the porch floor. This done she sat down on the step and -burst into a tempest of wrathful tears. - -"I always hated it," she sobbed. "It's such a miserable little diamond. -I wanted that hundred dollars to go to Chicago and study music. How in -the world am I going to go if you don't--" - -"Hush, Maudie," Mrs. Pratt cautioned, and her father seconded the -admonition rather more sternly. - -The Spooner young folks had closed in around Mrs. Spooner's vehicle and -were helping her out and explaining all about the earning of that -hundred dollars. While they did so the Pratts managed to get Maudie -straightened up with the assurance that she should be permitted somehow -to go to Chicago; and by the time the two groups came together they were -ready to drop the subject, Maudie looking self-conscious if not -hang-dog, whenever anything remotely concerning a ring was mentioned. - -They went on harmoniously enough to the Thanksgiving dinner at the -McGregor ranch. Coming home after they had passed Emerald and the Pratt -house, the matter was again brought up by the Spooners. The sky was all -a delightful lavender, with the big, white stars of the plains country -beginning to blossom in it, and there was still light enough to travel -very comfortably over the winding, level road. - -"I'm proud of the enterprise and persistance you all showed in earning -that hundred dollars," said Mrs. Spooner fondly. "But it hurts me to -think you could keep a secret from mother as long as that; and such a -hard secret, too. I'd have been so glad to help you, dears." - -"It was my fault," Elizabeth said, "that part of it. I wouldn't let -Ruth bother you because I felt that you had worries enough. Of course if -I'd dreamed for a minute that Maudie Pratt would tell a story about the -value of her ring, and that twenty-five dollars was the real price of -it, I should have let Ruth tell you; but a hundred dollars--why, Mother, -until we tried, I wouldn't have believed it was possible for us to come -anywhere near earning a hundred dollars. Would you?" - -"No," said Mrs. Spooner. "That's why I say I'm proud of you. It's an -achievement any three young persons of your age may well be proud -of--and none of you neglected your other duties for it." - -"It was _lovely_," sighed Elizabeth, reminiscently. "I think making -money is almost more fun than spending it. Ruth can always earn with -her cooking. I wish I had a special gift. What do you think I can do -best, mother?" - -"You do almost anything you do a little better than other people," -declared Mrs. Spooner. "But there's one thing you can excel at, and -that nobody else around here attempts, and that's photography. Why not -try to make a profession of it." - -Elizabeth thought it over. - -"I suppose I'd have to go to some big town and study," she ruminated. - -"Ruth didn't go to a big town to take cooking lessons," prompted Mrs. -Spooner, smilingly. "And you were just admiring the fact that it was -her good cooking that made the earning of the hundred dollars possible." - -"Wise little mother," said Elizabeth, touching her heel to her pony and -riding ahead, blowing back a kiss as she passed, and cantering on for -some distance. - -"I think that's a splendid idea," said Roy eagerly. "I knew a boy who -worked his way through college almost entirely by camera work. And he -was just an amateur photographer, too." - -"I'd help her all I could," put in Ruth, loyally. "She helped me--you -all did. I didn't near earn that hundred dollars alone." - -Here Elizabeth came dashing back to announce to the family that there -was an insuperable obstacle. If she went into the simplest kind of -photography she would have a new camera--and oh, quite a lot of things. - -"A camera is easy," said Mrs. Spooner, "since you've all agreed to give -me the keeping of the hundred dollars, I intend to put it in the bank as -a reserve fund to draw on in case of an emergency. I'll consider this -case of yours as one, and buy you a camera with some of it." - -"And I'll fix up a dark-room all right, Elizabeth," promised Roy, who -was always intensely interested in all the Spooners' affairs. "I can do -it easily; just board up an end of the back porch, fix a red lantern in -it for a light, with some shelves and a sink, same as the kitchen. I -can make it. It won't cost much, and you can do your own developing. -Say, Elizabeth, that's easy!" - -So it came about that, after some persuasion, Elizabeth finally accepted -the camera--a small one, with chemicals, films and everything necessary -for a start, all of them to be paid for out of the hundred dollars in -the bank. Roy fixed up the darkroom with all the needed apparatus, and, -thus equipped, Elizabeth declared herself ready for business, and let -the public know it by adding to the sign down at the road gate another -line, in smaller letters, which read: - - "Photographs made to order. - Horseback pictures and views of places a - specialty." - - -Ruth still kept up her baking in a small way. She no longer undertook -such strenuous jobs as baking for ranches or festivals, but people -passing by usually dropped in for a bag of doughnuts or a pie, knowing -that they were always kept on hand. Some of these customers patronized -Elizabeth's "studio," as she named the little boarded-up corner of the -porch, and had their pictures taken. More often she was asked to go and -make a card-picture of somebody's home, or she tried snap-shots of -cattle handling which sold well to the boys who could identify -themselves or their friends in a chance group. - -Elizabeth made her charges in accordance with her work, which, being an -amateur, could not command professional rates. She studied hard her -manual of photography, and finally after considerable debate, took a -correspondence course in the art. Still, living on a ranch, she could -barely make enough to pay for her materials, and indeed was doing well -to accomplish this much. - -"When I get so I can earn, and have enough money to buy a bigger camera, -I might try a place in town, or maybe I'll put up my prices," she said. -But she resisted all suggestions that a finer camera be purchased from -the reserve fund. "If anything happens we'll need that to live on," was -her wise conclusion. - -Let nobody think that there were not days of discouragement, when -Elizabeth spoiled her films or the simple drudgery of the work weighed -on her. Nothing worth having is got without effort. Whatever this -girl's ancestry, she had inherited pluck and persistance, and after a -failure she always went back to work with renewed energy. - -"I _will_ do it!" she would say to Ruth and Roy. "I am going to try to -make myself the very best photographer I can,--and then maybe the next -higher profession will come along and invite me in." - -The Babe, being the only idle inmate of the Silver Spur, continued to -devour unchecked her books of romance, until an incident occurred that -made Mrs. Spooner decide that the time had come for her reading to be a -little more varied. It happened one day in the following summer, when -old Jonah, with a worried look on his face, sought her for a little -private conversation. - -"It's about the Babe, ma'am. Have you noticed anything pertickler wrong -with her lately?" he asked anxiously. - -"Why no, Jonah; what makes you think there's anything wrong? What has -she been doing?" asked Mrs. Spooner in alarm. She arose from her seat -hastily. "I must go and find her--where is she?" - -"Jest down at the corral, unsaddlin' of her pony," soothed Jonah. "No -need to be skeered--at the present. You set down, Mis' Spooner, and -I'll tell ye. A while ago I come acrost her out on the range, -a-gallopin' along on that little rat-tailed cayuse o' her'n, and I'm -blest if she didn't have a broom-handle over her shoulder, and a old -fire-shovel helt out right straight in front! She looked out'n her eyes -like--well, like she was _seein'_ things. I calls to her: 'Babe, whar -ye gwine?' But law, she looks at me pine-black like I was a stranger, -hits Queen Beren-jerry, as she calls that reedic'lous cayuse, and -hollers back over her shoulder: 'Avaunt thee, villain!' and a heap o' -other lingo I couldn't make sense outer." - -Mrs. Spooner's face relaxed, she dropped back in her rocking-chair and -began to laugh. The old man seemed to resent her mirth. - -"Now Mis' Spooner, you may take it that-a-way, but 'tain't like the Babe -to be miscallin' nobody, let alone me what's raised her. My opinion is -the child's comin' down with fever, or got a tetch o' the sun, and you -better go to dosin' her mighty quick!" - -"No, Jonah," laughed Mrs. Spooner, much relieved, "it's just Ivanhoe -gone to her head--not the sun. She reads too much, and is too much -alone, I'm afraid. She was only playing she was a knight--a person out -of that book she's always reading. But thank you for telling me, all the -same." - -"I'd be glad to think it was no wuss; but--" Jonah shook his head -doubtfully, "a-misscallin' me a villian don't seem natchul. I'll go -send her in to you, so's you can look at her tongue. My notion is she -needs doctor's truck." - -As he hobbled out in quest of the Babe, Mrs. Spooner sighed a little, -feeling that she had a problem to cope with. The lonely child was -living too much in a world of dreams. "I'll speak to Elizabeth," the -mother mused, thankful that she had Elizabeth's wise young head and -Ruth's willing hands to rely upon. The older pair must take little -Harvie more into their hearts. "What on earth would I do without my -girls to help me!" - -Both girls were spending the day in Emerald, with Cousin Hannah Pratt, -who--now that Maudie was away in Chicago, studying music, and Mr. Pratt -up in Wyoming with a herd of fattening cattle--was very lonely, and -begged earnestly for some of the Spooners to come in whenever it was -possible, and keep her company. - -When the affair of the ring occurred, Mrs. Pratt for once found it in -her heart to give her adored daughter some much needed plain speech, -declaring that she was thoroughly ashamed of the way Maudie had treated -her cousin, and insisting upon taking the girl out to the Silver Spur, -to apologize to Ruth--a deed that was very ungraciously done. - -Mr. Pratt went even farther, for he took the ring into his own keeping, -depositing it in the bank with his papers, and declaring that it should -stay there until Maudie learned to value the truth more than diamonds. - -Still, from that very day Cousin Hannah began to put by a little money -every week, with the view in end of gratifying Maudie's wish to study -music. Grandma Pratt added to this fund till at last there was enough, -and with high hopes Maudie had gone to Chicago, quite sure of becoming a -world-famous musician. - -Elizabeth and Ruth returned rather late, as they had waited for the last -mail, which came in the afternoon. Mrs. Spooner heard their merry young -voices down at the corral as she moved about the kitchen, getting the -early supper ready. Soon they came hurrying in at the back door, their -arms laden with bundles, followed by the Babe, now wide-eyed and alert; -knights and paynims had faded away before the present-day delights of a -box of candy the girls had brought her--an extravagance for which their -mother could not find it in her heart to scold them, knowing that, next -to her books, the Babe loved sweets. - -"I declare you've gone and got supper ready--you bad mammy!" scolded -Ruth, "didn't you know your big daughters would be back in time to save -you from such extra work?" - -"Yes, and you must stop right now and go out on the porch, where there's -still light from the afterglow, and read your letters--two of 'em, and -from the folks you love best--father and Mary." Elizabeth fished the -letters from the mail-pouch at her side. "And we've got a heap of -mail-magazines, and a letter from home for Roy, that pamphlet on -photography that I sent for, and the new films and developer. Ruth had -a letter from father, too. He's all right, but make haste and let us -hear from Mary." - -"And here's a candied fig for you to eat while you're readin' your -letters, mother," added the Babe, generously, as she held out the -particular dainty her heart loved best. "Now I'll go find Jonah and -Roy--I want to give them some of my candy, too." - -Mrs. Spooner looked rather grave when she returned from reading her -letters in the afterglow of the summer twilight. "Father's well, and -sends love, and wants letters more than anything in the world, he says -he hopes we'll all remember. But Mary--the letter's from John--is not -so well--." Mrs. Spooner's voice trembled a little--"he sends me a -check, and begs that I'll go out and spend a few weeks with her. But -how in the world can I leave you all?" - -"Mary not well?" Elizabeth's tones were filled with anxiety--"O, -Mother, you must go; we'll get on somehow. If Mr. Bellamy sent a check -for you to pay your way, there's nothing at all to prevent." - -"We can go in and stay with Cousin Hannah," put in Ruth, "she needs us, -really--she hasn't got a cook, and there are so many boarders that we'd -be a great help, I know. - -"Yes, you would--and I think it would do you both good, being in the -village a little while. But what about the Babe?" asked Mrs. Spooner. -"You and Elizabeth could help, but she would only be in the way. Jonah -was just telling me about seeing her out on the range, galloping along -pretending she was Ivanhoe, or somebody else out of her books. I'm -afraid the poor little thing needs company." - -"Take her with you," suggested Elizabeth promptly. "A change would do -you both a lot of good. Just take enough money from that reserve fund -in the bank to pay her fare, and both of you hustle off just as quick as -possible. We can get you ready by day after to-morrow, easily." - -This plan, after a little consultation with Roy and Jonah, was adopted, -and Mrs. Spooner and the delighted Babe set off for Oklahoma, while -Elizabeth and Ruth, much to Cousin Hannah's delight, went in to stay -with her. Jonah and Roy--who declared that he was just pining to get a -taste of Jonah's boasted cookery, were left alone on the ranch. - -Cousin Hannah, who was naturally a very loquacious person, had become -decidedly reticent on the subject of Maudie and her musical studies, -though in the beginning the boarders had found the repeated and detailed -information about the matter rather wearisome. Even to Elizabeth and -Ruth she said little, though more than once, they surprised her wiping -away tears as she went about her work. - -"I don't believe that ungrateful Maudie Pratt writes to her mother!" -said Ruth, indignantly. "I found Cousin Hannah crying in the parlor -just now; she said it was _toothache_--when I know she has a full set of -'uppers and unders,' as she calls them. You see, she'd forgotten. I -believe she was crying about Maudie." - -"Ruth," said Elizabeth in reply--they had been at the Pratts three days, -"do you remember that a week from to-morrow is Cousin Hannah's -birthday?" - -"Why, so it is," said Ruth, "and she hasn't said a word about it. She -always used to have a big dinner, didn't she? I know what the trouble -is--it's Maudie. She can't bear to have a big birthday dinner because -Maudie won't be here. Maybe that's what made her cry." - -"Yes, because Maudie isn't here, and because she hasn't heard from her -in two weeks and is frightened to death about her--I just chanced to -find that out. Let's make Cousin Hannah get up a big dinner, and -telegraph an invitation to Maudie. The telegraph operator'll send it for -nothing. He always gives as much as ten dollars for a birthday present -for Cousin Hannah." - -"A birthday present," repeated Ruth. "I know what she'd like--she told -me yesterday. Say, Elizabeth, I believe we could get one for her, too. -The Revingtons are going away, and they'd sell theirs cheap, rather than -ship it east." - -"What on earth are you talking about?" demanded Elizabeth. - -"Big secrets!" exclaimed the younger sister exultantly. "Come on and -let's run down town to Meeker's store and see if Roy's in from the -ranch, I want to talk to him about it. Pretty nearly everybody in -town'll join us. Hurry up!" - -The two girls ran down the street, stopping in at the insurance office -to speak to little Miss Thorpe, a new boarder of Cousin Hannah's, a -stenographer who had recently come to Emerald. They went on, cheered by -this interview, and consulted the station agent, who agreed that Mrs. -Pratt, who had made him comfortable for many years, must be given a -birthday which would raise her drooping spirits. - -"I'd sure do anything that would bring Maudie home, and _keep_ her -home," he said, rather grimly, "because I know that's what her ma -wants--though I'm not so certain that it'll make her or any of the rest -of us any happier. If we're all to throw in together, for one present -you can count on me to double the ten dollars if it has to come." - -Roy had joined them by this time, and was taking down what he called -"subscriptions" with pencil and paper. As the three young folks went -out the door Mr. Rouse called after them: - -"But you must give us a mighty good dinner, Miss Elizabeth. A good -dinner always goes with a celebration of any kind, and to my notion it's -the best part of one. So you and Ruth put on your studyin' caps, and get -out your cook-books." - -"We'll promise to give you a good dinner, Mr. Rouse," agreed Ruth, -heartily, and Elizabeth added: "If you'll all tell us what particular -dishes you like best, we'll try to have them, just as a little token of -our appreciation." - -This was a happy thought, and it pleased the boarders immensely to have -such consideration shown them. Ruth got her own pencil and note-book, -and gravely made entries of each boarder's favorite dish. It was a -funny bill-of-fare that she made out: Chicken-pie and turnip-greens, -potato-pone and apple-dumplings, cold-slaw and Waldorf salad, and other -equally incongruous dishes, all of which were faithfully and -painstakingly prepared by the conscientious little cooks, with certain -additions of their own, making a very palatable "company dinner." - -Elizabeth sent word to Jonah by Roy; he was to come over bright and -early on the morning of the birthday, bringing along the wagon to fetch -home the gift for Cousin Hannah. - -Many hands, we know, make work easy. The week went by swift-footed. If -Cousin Hannah had heard from Maudie she did not mention it, and if the -girls had any reply to their telegram they were equally reticent. The -difference was that Mrs. Pratt, in spite of the birthday preparations -became more and more doleful, while the girls went out on errands that -involved that subscription paper of Roy's, and beamed with joyous -anticipation. - -The great day came. Ruth and Elizabeth helped till the dinner was all -on and cooking beautifully, the table set, ready to dish up the dinner -when the time came, then they both disappeared in a very mysterious -manner, leaving Cousin Hannah bustling about her kitchen all alone. - -Everything went smoothly till the kettle became dry, and she found there -was no water in the pipes. Calling Elizabeth and Ruth repeatedly and -finding that they were both out, Cousin Hannah decided that she would go -herself and see what was the matter with the wind-mill, as there was -nobody else at hand. - -"I know in my mind it's caught," she muttered, "and only needs a tap -with a hammer to start it a-goin' again. Well, I just _got_ to have -water, so I reckon I might's well go try to skin up that ladder." - -Taking a hammer to loosen the refractory sails, she climbed slowly and -cautiously up the creaking ladder, and soon had the water flowing again, -as the sails began to work; they had needed only a slight jar to loosen -them. - -On top of the ladder she paused, and looked wonderingly over the vast -plains that surrounded Emerald. - -"My me! I ain't had such a good look at the country since I used to -live in the foothills," she exclaimed. "I feel like I was standin' on -top of one of 'em now, viewin' the scenery. O, pity on me--_what_ is -that!" - -With a gasp of horror she clung to the ladder, her eyes fixed on the -object that had attracted her startled attention. It was a wagon driven -by a man whom she recognized as Jonah Bean, and containing something -long, and black and shiny--a box-like object that made her heart grow -cold to look upon. She got a mere glimpse since a horse-blanket had been -thrown over it, evidently for the purpose of concealment--as if -_anything_ could hide that awful shiny black box: - -The wagon was coming slowly--very slowly, up the road toward her house, -and walking beside and around it was a group of young people whom she -knew for her own household--Elizabeth and Ruth, and some of the younger -of her boarders, with Roy and one or two other boys from the -neighborhood. They seemed excited, and had apparently one stranger with -them, since she could see an unfamiliar dress of vivid plaid on the -other side of the wagon. - -"O me! O my!" moaned the poor woman, as she started hurriedly to -descend from her high perch. "I ain't heard one blessed word from her -in a month! And I thought she was just too careless to write to me: My -poor, poor girl!" - -Near the bottom, one of the rungs broke under the weight of her foot, -and she barely saved herself from a dangerous fall by clinging with both -hands and drawing up her foot to the rung above. - -Sitting thus she waited for them to come; her eyes shut because she did -not want to see, drawing her breath in heavy, muffled sobs, praying for -strength to bear the blow that was coming, trying to find courage to -look upon that grewsome, shiny black box when the time arrived. - -The wagon drew up in front of the house, but Roy and Elizabeth came -creeping softly round to the kitchen. Cousin Hannah could hear them -whispering: - -"Let's find out exactly where she is, so's we can get it in without her -knowing--it might frighten her." How heartless the best of young people -were! - -"Children," quavered poor Cousin Hannah from the ladder, "come and help -me down--I know what you're bringing--I saw it away off--and I knew -right away--how could I help knowing!" - -"O, _did_ you!" exclaimed Roy and Elizabeth, dejectedly. They stopped -below and stared up. "That's too bad. We're _so_ sorry, Cousin Hannah. -We tried our best to get it in before you saw what it was." - -"What difference does that make?" moaned Cousin Hannah--Roy and -Elizabeth thought she must have sprained her foot, and the pain made her -groan--"take me to her--my poor, poor child! You shan't call her _it_!" - -Roy and Elizabeth laughed rather sheepishly, and Mrs. Pratt glared at -them. Had they no feelings! - -"How on earth did you find out?" asked the mystified young people, as -they helped her down and supported her between them into the house. - -They steered her straight for the parlor, where a crowd stood around the -black box. - -"Am I to break the news?" asked Mr. Rouse. But instead of the serious -mien proper to such an occasion he was smiling broadly. - - - - - *CHAPTER VII* - - *The Wire Clipper* - - -The conclusion of that matter at Cousin Hannah Pratt's, left a very warm -feeling between the two families, for when Mr. Rouse moved aside from -the black box it was discovered to be an old-fashioned square piano, now -set proudly on its legs, and seated at the stool in front of it, her -lips parted ready to burst into song--was Maudie Pratt. - -Her mother's astonishment and rapture pretty nearly scared the donors of -the piano to death, for they had cherished no intentions of giving -Cousin Hannah a fright with their mysterious preparations. Maudie had -simply been ill, homesick, and afraid to come back until she got the -telegram the girls sent. Putting her at the piano was an afterthought, -and one which some of them regretted, since she sang all afternoon, and -had to be dragged away for the birthday dinner. However, that being an -example of Ruth's very best skill, helped out by Elizabeth, they had an -extremely jolly time, and went home with promises of friendship that -were astonishing. - -"If you ever need anything from me, remember my heart and my home are -open to you," Cousin Hannah kept repeating as she waved to them from the -steps. - -They had little idea how soon they should be in bitter trouble when they -needed assistance from anybody that would offer it. Of course it was a -dry year--Jonah Bean declared that it was, taking it by and large, the -worst all-round year he had ever witnessed in the state of Texas--and he -had seen a main of 'em! - -Mrs. Spooner and the Babe after spending a month in Oklahoma were back -again, and all that was left of the Spooner family at home once more. -The Babe had greatly enjoyed this, her first railroad trip, and she was -kept busy for weeks relating her experiences. Mary was well again, and -had promised to come in the winter and make a long visit when, they all -hoped and prayed, their father would be at home with them. - -It was a thing they hardly dared own, even to themselves, but everybody -was beginning to feel worried about Mr. Spooner's safety, for there had -come news of a battle fought in Cuba, and though all the papers were -filled with the details, no letter had been received from him. Day -after day some one rode to the village to bring back the mail, and day -after day the poor little mother, watching and waiting at home, was -doomed to be disappointed when no letter came. - -For the children's sakes she bore up bravely, always saying with forced -cheerfulness that probably Father had been sent into the interior, where -there was no means of mailing a letter--it would be sure to come after -awhile. But in her own heart she entertained a great fear which she -never breathed to the others--a fear that he might be among the -"missing" after the battle! The nameless missing. - -Then there came the day when Harvey Grannis, riding over from his -distant ranch, let his sister know pretty plainly that the public shared -her fear. - -"No use mincing matters, Jennie," he said, speaking kindly--though he -could not keep an eager note out of his voice. "We're mighty afraid -that poor John won't come back! He never would take my advice, or he'd -not have been crazy enough to volunteer." - -Mrs. Spooner sank down on the lounge and covered her face, moaning -softly. - -"Now don't take on, Jennie," her brother said, patting her awkwardly on -the shoulder. "Just you listen to this proposition I've come to make to -you: I've got a big ranch, and a big house, and you are all welcome to -come and live with me. Your girls are growing up wild, anyway, without -a man to overlook 'em. Of course you know, good and well, that I hold a -mortgage on this ranch of yours, and the interest money ain't been paid -for some time, either. But that's neither here nor there. The question -is, now that John's gone, will you all come over and let me take care of -you?" - -A shiver went over the little woman on the lounge, but she dropped her -hands from before her eyes, and faced the situation bravely. - -"You're good to offer us a home, Harvey," she said, when she could -command her voice; "but I can't bear to think of moving till--till I -feel sure John's not coming back! I'm hoping every day to have news -from him; I'm certain that the children wouldn't want to leave the home. -Thank you, Harvey, but we'll stay right where we are, for the present, -anyhow." - -Then the storm burst--so angrily loud that Elizabeth and Ruth sitting in -the back room heard every word. - -"Don't you think for one minute," blustered Harvey, "that you can depend -on me to support you on this ranch: You needn't keep an old fool like -Jonah Bean and a young horse-thief like Roy Lambert hanging round, and -expect a man who knows his business to spend one cent for you. Such -fellows as that are good for nothing but to run you and your ranch to -rack and ruin. No, ma'am! You've got to come to my house, or you -needn't expect me to take care of you." - -"I never asked you to take care of us, Harvey," returned Mrs. Spooner -with spirit, "I never thought of such a thing!" - -Elizabeth, in the back room, looked at Ruth. "I just can't stand it any -longer!" she whispered indignantly, "let's go to mother." And they -marched into the room, hand in hand. - -"Well, I hope you've come to persuade your mother to listen to reason," -grunted their uncle, as the two girls entered the little parlor. - -"We've come to tell her that we'll take care of her, Uncle Harvey. And -you've no right to suppose that father won't come back!" burst out Ruth -impetuously. - -Elizabeth added in a milder tone: "We don't need any help, really, Uncle -Harvey--we're quite able to take care of mother. We thank you for -offering us a home, but we don't need it. We've got one--and we mean to -keep it, and support ourselves." - -Harvey Grannis gave the newcomers a long look. Elizabeth said he tried -to "stare them down." - -"Support yourselves, hey?" he grunted. "Well--I wash my hands of the -whole bunch!" - -He got as far as the door, marching very slowly, and expecting to be -called back, when Mrs. Spooner hurried after him, her hands held out. -The girls were wrathful and disappointed, but their mother's first words -brought them comfort. - -"Good-bye then, Harvey," said Mrs. Spooner kindly. "But we won't part -in anger. The girls didn't mean to offend you. I'm sure we'll get -along all right." - -"Didn't _mean_ to offend?" snorted the now enraged ranchman. "Well they -done so, mighty easy! If they get along half as well making a living as -they do at being impudent to their elders they'll have no need of help." - -"Now, now," soothed Mrs. Spooner, as she took her brother's hand and -raised her small, tired face for his good-bye kiss. "My girls are just -high-spirited, Harvey--and you ought to be the last to complain of -that!" - -Harvey Grannis kissed his sister grudgingly--and then was angrier than -ever because he had done this apparently gracious act. The girls, -nodded to them as a gentle hint, made no effort towards bidding him -farewell. - -"Let them alone," complained Harvey, "they're fixing it up that I'm an -old brute and they're persecuted angels. Let 'em have their way. We'll -see what comes of it--you needn't expect me to care what happens after -this!" - -The very explosiveness of his protest showed how much he did care. In -point of fact his sister and her family were all he had, and at heart he -was very fond of them--not the least of Elizabeth. Mrs. Spooner always -looked to hear him make some allusion to her alien birth, but he never -did. He had longed to have these bright, brave young creatures and his -only sister in his home, to feel that they belonged to him, that they -were dependent on him. It might not have been a very pleasant life for -them, but it was what he longed for, and what he gave up with anger and -reluctance. - -Down at the road gate he met the Babe, riding on her pony, Queen -Berengaria. - -"O, Uncle Harvey, I'm so glad you've come!" chirped the child, joyously. -"Ain't you going to spend the day? It's been the longest time since -you've come, and we all want to see you so bad." - -Harvey Grannis's eyes softened; in his own rough way he loved the child -very much; she was named for him, and, unlike the other girls, she was -not the least bit afraid of him. How he would have loved to have his -little namesake niece to ride about with him over his own ranch! - -"Glad to see your old uncle, are you Harvie? Well, I can't say the rest -of 'em felt that way about it! You're a fine little girl, and I'd like -to have you where I could keep an eye on you." He sighed regretfully. -"No, I ain't going to spend the day this time--maybe some other day. -And say, Harvie, don't you let 'em talk you into hating your old uncle," -earnestly. - -"Why, no Uncle Harvey, 'course not," agreed the Babe, wonderingly. "But -there don't anybody at our house hate you. Please come on back, and -Ruth'll make a cake for dinner." - -Harvey Grannis declined to accept this hospitable invitation, knowing -better than the child that he had made himself unwelcome. - -"I've got to go now, honey," he said. "You can give a message to your -mother for me." He looked at his namesake a long time. "Harvie," he -wheedled, and nobody would have guessed that his voice could be so soft -and pleading, "wouldn't you like to come over to the Circle G and live?" - -Little Harvie looked doubtful. - -"Do mother and the girls want to go? What'll father think of it when he -gets home?" - -Grannis had not the heart say to her, as he had said freely to the -others, that they must give up hope of John Spooner's return. Instead -he offered a bait which he thought would take her mind from the two -questions she had asked. - -"I'd give you the prettiest little cutting-pony you ever looked at, a -pinto with blue eyes. That old skate you're on isn't fit for you to -ride." - -The Babe's own blue eyes filled with tears. - -"Queen Berengaria isn't _very_ beautiful," she admitted, "but she's -_awful_ good!" - -Grannis, with that lack of sympathy which his type of man shows for the -tender sensibilities of a child, burst out laughing. - -"You just say that because she's the best you can get," he surmised, -smilingly. "If I had you over at the Circle G to be my little girl, -we'd shoot this old bag of bones and give you something that could go." - -Old bag of bones! _Shoot_ Queen Berengaria! Harvey Grannis never knew -that then and there he settled the question as to his namesake's ever -agreeing, so long as she could fight the question, to set foot on the -Circle G as a home. - -"Did you say you wanted me to take a message to mother?" she asked -quietly, after a somewhat lengthy pause. - -"Yes," said the ranchman. "You just tell 'em I said that the big -spring's liable to give out--and _then_ she'll maybe think different -about some things." - -Small Harvie repeated the message, her clear eyes fixed on her uncle's -face. - -"Now I can say it just like you did," and solemnly she parroted the big -man's words, giving quite unconsciously his intonation, and the threat -that was in his voice. It appeared that he did not relish this, for he -put in hastily: - -"Don't say it cross--just _say_ it." - -"But, Uncle Harvey, even if the spring does give out we always water at -the big water-hole. Nobody ever did know it to give out, did they?" - -"No," said Harvey Grannis, "that's why I bought the land it's on." - -"And you'd always let us water at the big tank," concluded the Babe, -comfortably. - -"I would if 'twas only you, honey," he told her, and his eyes glittered. - -He had said that he bought the land for that water-tank, and he might -have added: "That's why I wouldn't sell it to your father when he wanted -to buy it with Silver Spur." He might have said this, for the Silver -Spur joined his big pastures, had once, in fact, been part of his -holding, and when John Spooner bought from his brother-in-law, Grannis -retained the pasture containing the tank, saying that he wanted to use -it for convenience in watering herds when he drove them down to the -railroad for shipping, and that the Spooners could always use it anyhow. -This was a mere verbal arrangement, it did not stand in the deed, and -when the Babe arrived with her little speech and repeated it at the -dinner-table there was consternation. - -"What on earth can Uncle Harvey mean?" asked Ruth indignantly. "Do you -suppose he thinks the use of that tank could be taken away from us?" - -"I don't think he could really be as mean as that, Ruth," reassured -Elizabeth. "He's just trying to worry us because of the way we spoke. -The tank is on his own land, you know." - -But that the threat was real was proven later, when Roy announced that -Grannis had come with a wagon and men from his ranch, and was busy -running a wire-fence around the water-hole. They were putting up a -locked gate, so that only by permission could anybody have access to it. - -"And the big spring's just mud," said Roy, gloomily. "I think Harvey -Grannis is the meanest man in Texas!" - -Mrs. Spooner, pale and worn from anxiety about her husband, received the -news calmly. "I don't think there's anything to worry over," she -soothed the girls; "Harvey maybe has some good reason. Remember it's a -dry year, and other people may have been annoying him. Anyway, I'm sure -he'll not forbid us to water our cattle there. Please put Shasta to the -phaeton, Roy, the Babe and I'll drive down and see about it." - -The fence was indeed going rapidly up when Mrs. Spooner arrived; Grannis -himself was busily directing his men, urging haste in his usual stormy -manner. - -"Well," he greeted his sister, "have you come to your senses yet--you -and those unbroken colts you've got for daughters? You see there's no -more water-hole for you to depend on. Cattle'll die, of course. Only -thing you can do is to drive 'em over to my ranch and pack up and come -along yourselves. If ever a set of young ones need discipline, those two -girls do!" - -His eyes snapped fiercely--discipline with Harvey Grannis meant -punishment. - -"Harvey," asked his sister, quietly ignoring his attack on her girls, -"aren't you going to give us a key to that gate?" - -"Give you a key to the gate? Yes, when you send me word that you're -packing to move over to my ranch. I'm doing this for your good. I -think you know it, and those stiff-necked young'uns could see it for -themselves if you'd brought 'em up right. That's my last word, and I -mean it." - -Turning on his heel he walked rapidly away, leaving Mrs. Spooner to -return to her waiting children. - -"Never mind, mother," soothed the Babe, as they drove slowly homeward. -"Uncle Harvey's not a bad man--he didn't mean sure-enough that our -cattle couldn't drink at the water-hole." - -But her mother knew otherwise. Harvey Grannis intended to force them to -live with him, for, as has been said, he was really fond of his sister -and her children. Since he had come to believe John Spooner dead, the -thought that now he would have them all to himself, in his big, -comfortable house, grew very pleasant, so that he had determined, in his -usual violent fashion, to use force if necessary to accomplish his -purpose. - -"I'm sure, children, I don't know what we're to do," Mrs. Spooner -sighed, as she related the ill success of her errand to the family. "I -didn't dream that Harvey could be so hard." - -They soothed her with words of cheer, and Elizabeth sat beside her as -she lay upon the lounge, and bathed her mother's aching temples with -cool water. - -"Never mind, mother," she whispered, "I promise to take care of -you--always!" - -Soothed by the magnetic touch of the firm young hands, Mrs. Spooner soon -dropped asleep, and Elizabeth looking on the pitifully frail little -form, beheld through tear-blurred eyes a picture of the past--a vision -of the young mother, delicate and burdened with many cares, unselfishly -adopting into her home and heart the abandoned offspring of -strangers--the child of sordid birth and ignoble poverty! A wave of -passionate gratitude swept over the girl as she looked, and again she -breathed a vow to always take care of her foster-mother. - -Next day Jonah Bean came galloping up to tell them that the wire of the -dividing fence had been cut in the night, and the Spooner cattle had, as -usual, satisfied their thirst at the water-hole! Grannis's cowboys had -rounded them up and driven them out at dawn, and Grannis himself had -ordered Jonah to come and mend the break, declaring he had made it. - -"I ain't cut that fence, neither a-mendin' it," announced Jonah -oracularly. "Stands to reason the cattle got to drink. Providence done -it, 'cordin' to my way o' thinkin'." - -"Grannis yelled something over at me, but I'm not worrying over it," -declared Roy, "it's the meanest thing I ever knew of. I'm certainly not -going to prevent the cattle drinking when somebody else cut the wires." - -The cutting of a wire-fence is in all cattle-countries a grave -misdemeanor, punishable by law. Harvey Grannis, when his "spite-fence" -had been cut, was of course in a towering rage, threatening to prosecute -the clipper, when caught, and vowing no less punishment than the -penitentiary if the offence was repeated. - -But the next night they were again clipped, and the Spooner herd once -more rejoiced in abundance of water. Harvey Grannis had trusted to the -wire-cutter being frightened away by his loud threats, and had not set a -guard over the fence. Now indeed did he swear vengeance against the -offender--"male or female," he declared fiercely and to further protect -the fence drove a bunch of his own cattle down and camped in the -pasture--he would see that no more water was furnished the Spooner -cattle, or jail the clipper! - -It cannot be said that this move increased his popularity with his -neighbors when they came to know its meaning. Indeed his own cowboys -muttered indignantly as they moved about, pitching their tents and -making ready for camp, that it was a sin and shame, and the boss too -pizen mean to live! At the same time they could not help admitting that -it would be much wiser for the Spooner family to move over into his -comfortable house and be taken care of by the wealthy ranchman, than to -try and struggle along combatting poverty and drouth. This knowledge -served to keep them from open revolt, though the means he had taken to -accomplish his purpose moved them to scornful wrath. Brow-beating women -and children didn't agree with the cowboy sense of honor. - -With the coming of Grannis's camp to the water-hole pasture the -Spooner's case became desperate. The well at the house had a small -basin which filled slowly, and the little water it furnished must be -saved for drinking and household purposes. Jonah and Roy reluctantly -watered their ponies from it, but the big spring their cattle had -depended on was now only a dry mud-hole. Roy went privately to Grannis -and asked the privilege of hauling water from the big tank. He received -for his pains an accusation of having cut the fence-wires. This in -addition of Grannis's usual name for him of horse thief proved so -unpleasant that he was sorry he went. - -"Looks to me like we was at our row's end," remarked Jonah Bean with -gloomy philosophy. "If they's a turnin' p'int I hain't seed it. -Might's well sell out, Mis' Spooner, if you kin find a buyer for the -bunch." - -"No, no, Jonah," objected Elizabeth eagerly. "We'll find a way. Can't -you think of something, Roy?" she asked. - -Roy's face was sober; he and Jonah had discussed the question, and -neither one could see any other way than to sell the herd before they -perished of drouth. - -"Nothing except sell," he said, shaking his head soberly. - -"Then _I'll_ find a way!" declared Elizabeth, passionately. "They -shan't be sold--and they shan't starve, either. You and Jonah round up -the bunch and Ruth and I will haul water from Munson's pond--it never -dries up, and I know Mr. Munson won't care." - -"O, that will be the very thing! Mother, please let us," begged Ruth, -eager to help. - -Really there seemed nothing else to do. Elizabeth's plan though it meant -hard work, was at least feasible--for a time, at least; in the meantime -something unforseen might turn up. - -So, with a big hogshead in the ranch wagon they drove five miles to get -water, which their neighbor Mr. Munson kindly let them have. - -"I always knew Harvey was a cross-grained old sinner," frankly declared -Mr. Munson. "Wants to starve you out, I hear, so's he c'n make you all -live with him. Well, I don't think much of his plan. But you're plumb -welcome to water--long's you hold out to haul it." - -For three days they hauled water, staying but not satisfying the -famishing cattle's thirst; and on one pretext or another Grannis kept -his men in the water-hole pasture. The morning of the third day Ruth -came upon Elizabeth with the wire clippers in her hand and a very queer -look upon her face--a look that caused an awful thought to flash into -the younger sister's mind. Could she--could Elizabeth be the -wire-clipper that Harvey Grannis was waiting to catch--and jail? The -thing was impossible, she argued fiercely; Elizabeth simply couldn't do -such a thing! - -Yet somehow all day she felt an uneasy sense that more trouble was -brewing, and that night after their early supper when she could not find -Elizabeth anywhere, terror seized her, and without letting anybody know, -she ran wildly across the pastures by the short cut, to search for her. - -It was a wonderful velvet-black summer night, the skies star-sprinkled -and the enemy's camp lighted by a great central cook-fire that could be -seen far in that flat, plains-country. Flickering lanterns moved about -it. Ruth ran on, seeking Elizabeth where the former cuttings had been, -and praying that she would not find her there. - -Halfway across she met Roy coming back from a secret survey of Grannis's -camp. With panting breath she gasped out her story. Somebody must find -Elizabeth! - -"I will," said Roy quietly, "I think I know where she is. You go back -to the house, Ruth--I'll find her." - -He turned back in the direction of the camp and Ruth walked slowly to -the house, meeting her mother and Jonah, who were driving down the -avenue in the phaeton. - -"O, mother!" whispered Ruth anxiously. "Where are you going in the dark? -Who are you looking for?" - -"Hush!" warned her mother. "I'm not looking for any one. Why do you -ask? I'm going to your Uncle Harvey's camp. I thought you were all in -your rooms--I didn't want Elizabeth to know, and I just can't stand this -any longer. I think, if he's made to see things right, that he'll give -us a key to that gate, as he ought to, and leave us in peace. You run -in the house and go to bed--and don't let Elizabeth know." - -"O, goodness gracious! Whatever shall I do?" moaned poor Ruth, as she -watched her mother and Jonah drive away. "Maybe Roy won't be in time, -and while Mother's right there, begging Uncle Harvey to go home they'll -catch Elizabeth and bring her before them all! It would just about kill -mother. I can't stay here--I just can't!" - -Forgetful of the Babe left alone in the dark, Ruth darted away on the -trail of Roy and Elizabeth. - -Supper was over at the camp when Mrs. Spooner and Jonah reached it. The -cowboys scattered about on the grass, smoked, or played cards or read -old newspapers by the light of the cook-fire. Harvey Grannis sat on a -camp stool before his tent and smoked a pipe which was anything but a -pipe of peace. He was angry with his cowboys who took no pains to -conceal their disapproval of his high-handed proceedings with the -Spooners because they would not yield, but most important of all, he was -angry with himself, because he knew in his heart he was behaving in a -most contemptible way. - -The gate towards the road was not locked, nor even shut. Jonah drove -through it and was in the middle of the camp before Grannis noticed his -arrival. - -"Can I speak to you privately, Harvey?" asked his sister, as he arose -and came forward to greet her. - -"No, ma'am," he answered with emphatic loudness. "Say your -say--Everybody's welcome to hear it. I've done nothing I'm ashamed of." - -The indignant blood rushed to Mrs. Spooner's pale face. She had no wish -to make a scene. She pushed aside the rug and stepped quietly from her -phaeton. Jonah held the lines over Shasta, looking straight ahead of -him. The circle of cowboys drew closer, listening curiously, eagerly, -most of them with angry distaste, yet hopeful that the little woman -would speak up to their boss. - -And she did. She told him pretty plainly what she thought of his -behavior. She began with the sale of the ranch to John Spooner and the -verbal agreement concerning the use of this tank or water-hole which had -never in the memory of man gone dry. Her voice faltered when she spoke -of her husband's absence and danger, the doubt which Harvey had -expressed of his brother-in-law's ever returning to his family. She -mentioned the conduct of her daughters as highly creditable to them. - -At this point Harvey, enraged by being reproved when he fully expected -entreaties, broke in. - -"Well, those same high-spirited girls of yours have been cutting wires, -ma'am--and wire-cutting is a penitentiary offense. Jake over there, saw -a girl snooping along the fence and bending over working at it, and when -he got down there three wires were clipped in two, and swinging. That's -the way your girls show their high-spirit!" - -"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Mrs. Spooner indignantly. "Neither Ruth -nor Elizabeth would do such a thing. They fully understand that it's a -crime before the law--though surely what you are doing, Harvey, is a -crime before Heaven. Maybe you think I cut the wires?" - -"No, no, Jennie," began Harvey, somewhat abashed, yet still thoroughly -angry. "You hold on and I'll catch the minx in the act--we've got three -men hidden down by the fence now--Here they come!" - -There was a stir off in the darkness where the fence cutting had been. -Mrs. Spooner put her hand to her heart and gasped, praying silently that -neither of her girls had been driven into reckless reprisals. She had -talked to them about it, again and again as she did to Roy, begging them -to remember that two wrongs never made a right. Then she turned away -and hid her eyes against the phaeton edge. - -"Sufferin' Moses!" groaned Jonah Bean. - -For Elizabeth Spooner, Ruth Spooner and Roy Lambert were being hustled -into the circle of light by two eager cowboys. - -"We caught your wire-clipper, boss," they sniggered jeeringly. "Caught -'er in the act! We'll all stand by you when you fix to send her off to -jail!" - -"Elizabeth--my child! How could you?" wailed Mrs. Spooner. - -"You see--I told you!" broke in Grannis, speaking loud to cover his -dismay. - -"O, I didn't cut the wires," said Elizabeth composedly, adding in her -clear tones, "I didn't--neither did Ruth or Roy. But we got there just -as they caught the wire-clipper, and we came along to see how Uncle -Harvey likes his work. Look, Uncle Harvey!" - -And she drew aside to reveal the clipper. - - - - - *CHAPTER VIII* - - *A Partner of the Sun* - - -It took Harvey Grannis a long time to live down that scene by the camp -fire; for when Elizabeth drew aside there stood revealed, clinging to -her skirts, a pair of wire-clippers clutched in her free hand--the Babe. -Harvey Grannis stared incredulously for a full minute, and everybody -stared at him. Then he turned away with an inarticulate exclamation that -was like a groan. - -"O, Uncle Harvey!" cried the Babe, rushing forward at the sound of his -voice, clasping his knees, bumping him with the wire-clippers, looking -up at him, her face streaming with tears. - -"It wasn't this child," he declared fiercely, catching her up in his -arms and glaring across her head at the others. "The rest of you are -puttin' it on her--of if her poor little hands done the work, you all -egged her on and made her do it." - -"No, they didn't," declared the child, squirming free and getting to her -feet, her real courage coming to her aid and sweeping away the nervous -fright that had possessed her. "I cut the wire that first night--and -then I cut it the next night, because the cows were thirsty, and I knew -you wouldn't be mad after all--you were just making believe, weren't -you, Uncle Harvey?" - -She turned confidentially to him, and the big man looked exceedingly -foolish. The tension of the scene slackened a bit, and one or two of -the cowboys snickered. But Mrs. Spooner's face was stern as she came -forward and took her little girl by the hand. - -"You see, Harvey, why I don't want to come and live in your house," she -said clearly and distinctly. "Perhaps you understand now why I'm not -willing that you should have a chance to discipline my girls. Look what -you drive people into!" - -Her glance went fleetingly to Roy, and everybody in the cow-camp -remembered how Grannis's ideas of discipline had made a sort of horse -thief out of a very honest lad. - -"This child's a minor," began Grannis, sulkily. "She's not to blame. -If you have a mind to let her come and live with me--even part of the -time--I'll give her the key to the gate. What do you say?" - -Mrs. Spooner looked at her little girl's face and read the terror and -distaste in it. - -"Please, O, _please_ don't, mother!" came the imploring whisper. The -Babe had visions of Queen Berengaria slain and herself set to careering -about on a strange pinto that she could never love--and yet expected to -be thankful for the change! - -"I say that you've proved yourself as hard as usual, Harvey," Mrs. -Spooner returned quietly. "I couldn't spare my baby--even if she were -willing to go. Why can't you be contented with the children loving and -respecting you--and staying independently in their own home?" - -The defeat was too public. Grannis would not accept it. - -"All right," he growled. "That gate's locked from this on--and you can -get along the best way you know how for all of me. It's lucky it wasn't -one of your older girls that played this trick--or one of the men you -employ. You've got off easy." - -The Spooner party went home in despair. The Babe showed unexpected -spirit and demanded that, as she had cut the wires, the cattle be -allowed to go in and water that night. They were. Nobody interfered -with Ruth and Elizabeth when they hauled three hogsheads of water the -next morning while Grannis's force was breaking camp and before they had -mended the fence. - -But that was the end of everything. There was no news from Cuba, and -Mrs. Spooner began to look about her for some way to dispose of the -cattle. It was the next week, in the midst of her perplexities, that -Harvey Grannis rode up to the ranch to warn them that he intended to -foreclose his mortgage on the place at once. - -"I'm doing it for your own good, Jennie," he argued. "I'll still hold -to my offer to give you all a home. Common sense ought to tell you it -will be a sight better to live at the Circle G and have a man to look -after you than to stay here and starve, depending on a jail-bird, an old -fool and a couple of feather-headed girls. When do you think you'll be -ready to move?" - -"I must consult my girls first, Harvey," said Mrs. Spooner quietly. -"They are down at the corral--I'll call them at once. I have a dreadful -headache this morning, and when I've explained the situation to them -I'll go and lie down. They can answer your questions as well as I." - -Her brother fumed a good deal at this, vowing that he wouldn't be -surprised if she felt called upon to consult old Jonah and the -jail-bird! - -"I certainly do intend to consult them," replied his sister mildly. -"Only just now they are out hauling water from Munson's pond. But the -girls'll be here in a minute--I will do as we all think best." - -Elizabeth and Ruth felt their hearts sink at sight of their uncle, -certain that his coming meant some new disaster. "He couldn't bring -anything else!" they thought indignantly. - -Mrs. Spooner, warning Grannis to silence, explained his proposition to -the girls very clearly and calmly; she wished them to see it as -favorably as possible, for in her heart she could think of nothing -better--there seemed to be no other alternative; it seemed they must -live with Harvey, hard as it would be. When she had finished she went to -lie down. - -Ruth looked at Elizabeth for counsel as her mother left the room. If -there was any other way, she was sure that Elizabeth would find it. - -"We'll agree to give up the ranch at once," began Elizabeth. - -"You'll have to," interrupted Harvey Grannis. "Those are the terms of -the mortgage. I _could_ put you out to-day, but I'll give you time to -pack." - -"With the privilege of making our payment when father comes home. Are -you willing to do that, Uncle Harvey?" Elizabeth finished. - -Grannis agreed promptly to this, certain now that he would have his own -way with the family. - -"Then we'll move next week," decided Elizabeth. - -"I'll send my teams over for your things--Monday, say?" asked Grannis, -in high satisfaction. - -"O, no," Elizabeth demurred, "there'll be no need to bother you. Jonah -and Roy can move us without any help. Thank you, just the same." - -"Jonah and Roy, is it?" snorted Grannis. "Well, I told your mother, and -I tell you, that I won't have that young horse-thief on my place. The -teams will be here Monday. See that you're ready when they come." - -"But we aren't going to the Circle G, Uncle Harvey," said Elizabeth, -mildly. - -Grannis was in the doorway, he turned, his look of surprise and dismay -was almost comical. - -"Where are you going, then? Straight to destruction, I suppose. And -dragging your poor sick mother with you. I want a word with Jennie -about this." - -"Mother has allowed me to speak for her," Elizabeth said. "Ruth and I -are going to take care of her. We can--you know we can." - -She spoke with assurance, but she had as little idea how the thing was -to be accomplished as Ruth had when she offered to pay Maudie Pratt a -hundred dollars--with only thirty-five cents at home in her pasteboard -box! Perhaps the memory of the triumphant conclusion that matter worked -up to, put confidence in Elizabeth's voice. Anyway, Harvey Grannis went -storming away, informing nobody in particular that his sister's family -were an ungrateful lot, declaring that he had washed his hands of -them--all except little Harvie. - -That night when the chores were over and supper ended, the Silver Spur -household gathered on the porch and resolved itself into a committee of -ways and means, with Elizabeth holding the floor. - -"I've been thinking of a plan," she said cheerfully. "As Ruth claims, -I've a head on my shoulders--whether there's anything in the head, or -the plan, is for the rest of you to decide." - -"I have a great deal of confidence in your ability and common-sense, -daughter," said Mrs. Spooner faintly from her rocker. Her head was -better, but it left her spent and white. - -"Your scheme'll be a good one--I'll back it," Roy followed. - -"Of course--we'll all back what Elizabeth says," agreed Ruth. - -"'Cause Elizabeth _knows_," chimed in the Babe, loyally. - -"Well, she ain't so foolish--for a gal," old Jonah put in last. - -Elizabeth was fairly overwhelmed by their trust in her. "You see we -can't stay here, and we _won't_ go to the Circle G," she began, flushed -with her family's praise, "of course we may hear from father any day, -but we'd have had to get rid of the cattle--anyhow that bunch Uncle -Harvey shut out from the tank. It seems to me the best thing we can do -is to go into Emerald to live. There isn't a sign of a photographer in -the place; everybody says my work is worth paying for, and Ruth would -have a chance of earning something. Besides, there'd be school for the -Babe, and we'd be near Cousin Hannah." - -"Say, don't think you're the only worker in this family hive!" protested -Roy, "I haven't a profession, but I _can_ get a job any day. Mr. Pell's -son Joe has gone away to school, and he needs a clerk in the grocery the -worst kind. I reckon I'll earn money enough to pay rent, and a little -bit over." - -"They's jobs a-waitin' for young folks to pick up, but 'tain't easy when -you're gettin' on in years," sighed Jonah, dolefully. "Nothin' _I_ kin -do in town, I reckon. Maybe the Old Soldiers' Home'll take keer o' me." - -There was a chorus of indignant protests from the whole family. Jonah -knew they couldn't get along without him! Wherever they went he should -go to--that was settled. The tender-hearted Babe, with her arms around -the old man's neck, cheered him further by adding: "Me'n you'll help -mother, Jonah--she'll need us." - -"Bless your heart, honey, if that ain't the gospel truth!" agreed Jonah, -now quite cheerful. "They's a gyarden to make, an' a cow to milk--we -can't get along without one, and wood to chop. Maybe the ole man _will_ -earn his salt, after all." - -Early the next morning after this decision Elizabeth and Ruth rode into -town to see about getting a house. The only vacant one in the place was -an old adobe, rather dilapidated, but with plenty of room, and enough -ground fenced in to keep a cow, besides having the garden and small -patches they would be obliged to plant for vegetables and cow-feed. It -belonged to Mr. Rouse, the station agent who boarded with Cousin Hannah, -and he was so glad of the chance of getting it occupied that he told the -girls if they would agree to make the necessary repairs, he would let -them have it rent-free for the first six months. - -This was joyfully agreed to, and the very next day Jonah and Roy went to -town to see about making the repairs--mending the roof, putting in -window panes, and whitewashing the interior, so that at last it was -converted into a very respectable and comfortable habitation--really -more comfortable than the ranch-house, for the adobe walls were thick, -and would keep out the cold in winter and the heat in summer as well. - -During the days that the men worked on the adobe Ruth and Elizabeth were -busy packing up, while the Babe and her mother drove about in the -phaeton, making arrangements for the keeping of the cattle and ponies, -for Mrs. Spooner determined that she would not sell them--it would be -like admitting her husband was dead. - -Mr. Munson, a man with a big ranch and a big heart, readily agreed to -graze the cattle, scoffing at the idea of taking a third of the increase -for his share, until Mrs. Spooner declared that, unless he did, she -could not allow him to be burdened with them. - -"Then I hope for your sake it won't be long, ma'am," said the rancher -heartily. "No news is good news, I've always heard say, and there's no -tellin' when John may come." - -Another neighbor agreed to graze the ponies, and the Babe earnestly -begged that he would be very, very kind to Queen Berengaria, who was a -good pony, if she wasn't so very pretty! - -With everybody working like beavers, it was only a few days before the -Spooners closed the doors of the lonely little ranch-house, striving -bravely to think that it would only be for a little while, and took up -their abode in the old adobe in Emerald. - -If there had been, just at this time, a voting contest for the most -unpopular man in the district, Harvey Grannis would undoubtedly have won -the prize by a big majority. Everybody was so indignant at his -treatment of the Spooners that they vied with each other in showing -their sympathy and friendship for the family, sending them such loads of -vegetables from their gardens and choice cuts of fresh meat when a beef -was killed, that it was a long time before they had need of anything -else; while Cousin Hannah came over on the first day, laden with trays -of good things for the first meal. - -Everybody tried to be very cheerful as they gathered around the -brightly-lighted supper table that evening, eating the good things -Cousin Hannah had provided with, it must be confessed, scant appetite; -their hearts were full, but each tried bravely to see only the bright -side, and, because they tried so hard, at last became really cheerful, -discussing their plans for the future with some enthusiasm. Only the -Babe wiped away tears, as she thought of Queen Berengaria out in strange -pastures without a soul to think of taking her lumps of sugar at -feeding-time! - -"I'll plow up the land and sew it down in rye for cow-feed," said Jonah, -"before I git ready to go to gyardenin'. I got to hustle, too, for -time's a-flyin'." - -"I won't set into work at the store till next week," said Roy, "for I -want to fix up that shack out in the yard for a studio--with _two_ -display windows, if you please, one for cakes and one for 'takes'. A -skylight in the roof, and a little curtained-off dark room, and there -you are, all ready for business, Misses Spooner!" - -"O, Roy, that _will_ be lovely--I simply couldn't get along without -you--none of us could, in fact. And I'm expecting my enlarging camera -any day. I reckon I'll spoil some pictures before I get used to it; -anyway, I can experiment on the family first." - -"I'm so glad we've got a good cook-stove," said Ruth, contentedly. "I -expect to make money on bread. Cousin Hannah says she'll get me all the -orders I can fill." - -"And what are me'n you going to do, mother?" enquired the Babe, with -interest. - -"Well, I'm going down town to the store tomorrow and buy some pretty -gingham for cutting out into school dresses which you're to stitch up on -the machine, if you'll try to run the seams straight. Then, as soon as -they're made, we'll get some school-books, and a little girl about your -size will put on one of the new dresses, take the new books in her new -book-bag, and go right straight to school--where she'll be a credit to -us all, I'm sure." - -"I'll learn to read so good that I'll be able to read all the books in -the whole round world!" sighed the Babe, happy in the promised -fulfillment of her highest earthly desire. - -By the time the new studio was finished Elizabeth had quite a display of -photographs, having 'taken' the family and all the neighbors who were -handy, finding Maudie Pratt a willing and excellent subject, while Ruth -in her own show-window set forth a tempting array of tarts and pies and -doughnuts, in token that the bakery was in operation. - -Mrs. Pell, the wife of Roy's employer, was their first customer, -bringing her twin boys of seven to be photographed. - -"Their pa says if anybody can make 'em stand still long enough to get a -picture, they'll sure deserve a prize," declared the twins' mother -frankly, as she arranged Wilfred's big, smothering collar, and tied anew -the huge red bow under Wilmot's chin. "I taken 'em to the finest -picture-taker in Houston, last summer, and the best he could do was a -proof that had three heads apiece on it!" - -"I think I can manage them, Mrs. Pell," said Elizabeth, confidently, -seeing more orders ahead if she could succeed where the city -photographer had failed. "They are such cute little fellows. Now, -boys, if you'll be real quiet I'll give you a doughnut apiece, in just -one minute," she promised the squirming twins, who brightened amazingly, -keeping expectant eyes upon the doughnuts which Elizabeth had placed at -just the proper elevation. - -They were muffled and choked in stiff white pique suits, not a bit -comfortable, and their mother insisted that they should be posed in a -very stiff position, with their arms about each other. However, in the -end Elizabeth secured a very good negative, "at least it has only one -head apiece," she laughed. "But send them over when they have on their -everyday clothes, and let me take a picture for my window, if you don't -mind." - -Mrs. Pell didn't mind--indeed she was highly gratified, and she sent -Wilfred and Wilmot over promptly, as soon as they had changed to their -old collarless and tieless play overalls. Then, while the Babe told -them a fairy story to excite the proper amount of interest in their -faces, and Elizabeth bade them eat doughnuts at will, to promote -happiness that "showed through," she snapped her camera on a most -excellent likeness--so good, in fact, that their proud father ordered a -bromide enlargement to be made, and advised all his customers to go by -the studio and see that cute picture in the window--the cutest thing in -the shape of a photograph he'd ever seen took. - -Trade increased, and both girls soon had all they could do--indeed Mrs. -Spooner, in her heart, often sighed to think of the free young souls -doomed to have so much work and so little play in their busy lives. - -It was plain from the first that the Spooner girls and Roy Lambert could -maintain the family, though it took every bit of strength and every -ounce of energy the three young people could bring to bear on it. Mrs. -Spooner drew a breath of relief when one day she saw her brother Harvey -turn in at the gate and calmly walk across to the studio as though he -were an ordinary customer, coming on an ordinary errand. - -"Be nice to him, dear," she cautioned Elizabeth, when she informed her -of the unexpected customer in the studio. "I'm proud of your -independence, but it breaks my heart to have you girls working so hard, -and getting none of the pleasure nor the education that you ought to -have." - -"I think we're getting lots of education, if you ask me," laughed -Elizabeth, as she put on her business apron and prepared to go out. "As -for pleasure--I never was so happy in my life--except for worrying a -little bit about father--and he may come home any day of course, and -stop _that_." - -She ran across the yard to the little building, where she found her -uncle gravely inspecting the photographs in the window, having come to a -decision as to the style he preferred for a dozen cabinet portraits of -himself, which he announced to be the errand that had brought him to -Emerald. - -It was to Elizabeth like a little play to keep up her business manner -with Uncle Harvey all through the sitting. She was urbane and -impressive. She told about it gleefully at the supper table that -evening. - -"How much? And when can I have 'em?" the customer had asked as he arose -from his sitting. Elizabeth got his tone exactly in telling of it. - -"One dollar down, five dollars when they are finished, a week from -to-day, I'm pretty well rushed with orders, and can't promise them any -sooner!" reported the photographer to her family. - -"Then he took up his hat, and stood twirling it 'round and 'round, as if -he intended to say something else. I suppose he changed his mind, for -he went away without another word. I was glad; I wonder what he really -wanted. Something more than pictures, I'll bet. Anyway, I think I got -a good picture." - -On the day appointed Harvey Grannis put in an appearance at the little -studio at nine o'clock in the morning. He took the filled envelope -Elizabeth handed him without a word, paid his money and lingered a -moment, never looking at the pictures. - -"Hadn't you better see whether you like them?" asked Elizabeth. "We all -think them very good. I took the liberty of giving mother one, because -she liked it so much." - -"O, er--by the way, how is Jennie?" asked Grannis, uneasily. - -"I'll call her if you'd like to see her," returned Elizabeth promptly, -and there was a mischievous light in her eyes. - -"No, no--not at all," stammered the ranchman. "That is, I have a little -matter to talk over later--never mind now." - -They were crossing the side yard between the house and the studio. -Without waiting for further Instructions Elizabeth called blithely: - -"Mumsy--Uncle Harvey wants to see you!" - -She was sure that Mrs. Spooner was just inside by the window, anxiously -waiting for what her brother might see fit to say or do. The call was -responded to with unexpected, and so far as Grannis was concerned, -unwelcome promptness. Mrs. Spooner came out on the front porch and -walked down the steps to greet her brother. The Babe, always eager for -peace, though still shy of the man who had thought of shooting Queen -Berengaria, followed. Ruth advanced from her bakery as the two left the -studio. Old Jonah came around the house, wheeling a barrow, and to -complete the family picture Roy just then drove up in a grocer's -delivery wagon and stopped at the curb. - -"Well, we all seem to be here," remarked Harvey Grannis, rather feebly. - -A bicycle-mounted boy wheeled up perilously close between the -delivery-wagon and the gate, Roy turned with a little annoyance, then he -saw that the messenger held a yellow envelope in his hand, and was -approaching Mrs. Spooner. - -The little woman's breath came in gasps, since the ceasing of her Cuban -letters she was always afraid of the sight of a telegram. - -"Don't let her have it--I want to say something first," Grannis -protested, getting between the messenger and his sister. - -"I'll open it for her--she would want me to," declared Elizabeth, -snatching the envelope from the messenger's hand. - -"Why, it isn't addressed to mother--it's addressed to--to--_father_!" -And she let the yellow envelope flutter to the ground, where the -messenger regarded it with lack-luster eyes, then picked it up and -prepared to depart with it. - -"Party ain't living here?" he asked, snapping together his receipt book, -which he had opened for signature. - -"This here lady's his late wife," asserted Jonah, lugubriously, getting -things rather mixed in his excitement to see what the telegram -contained. "Give it to her--she's the proper person to open it." - -Once more Grannis put himself between the messenger and his sister, -protesting again that he had something to say before she read the -message. And, at this second protest, there came an unexpected -interruption. - - - - - *CHAPTER IX* - - *A Rose by Another Name* - - -In at the gate walked a tall, bronzed soldier in khaki, who reached -forward an authoritative hand, saying calmly to the messenger, "Give it -to me--it's mine." - -Everything about them seemed suddenly unreal. Mrs. Spooner, catching -sight of the newcomer, quietly crumpled down in a dead faint at his -feet! - -Elizabeth found herself running into the house for a glass of -water--moving like a person in a dream, making a desperate amount of -effort without advancing an inch. Then, all at once, she was back to -find her father kneeling on the gravel beside his wife, resisting Harvey -Grannis's efforts to raise her. - -"Keep her head low, Harve--never raise a fainting person's head," he -cautioned. - -The Babe was crying and snuggling in under her father's elbow, Roy had -rushed into the house and brought back the afghan from the couch. - -"She's all right," said Captain Spooner, confidently. "She's coming -round now. What made her faint, do you suppose?" - -"O, Father! Because you came back so suddenly," said Ruth. - -"We hadn't heard from you in months, you know," Elizabeth added in a low -tone. "We've been horribly uneasy, daddy." - -The captain turned and kissed his tall girl, then he slipped a careful -arm under his wife's shoulders. Ruth and the Babe, pushing for their -share of attention, had to be cautioned. - -"Quiet, girls!" he warned. "We'll lift mother in to the couch, and then -I'll count you chickens and see how you look. Help me, Harve." - -Harvey Grannis had been edging away with a very curious expression on -his face; now he had no other course left open but to come forward, lift -his sister's limp form and assist in carrying her into the house. On the -way she regained consciousness enough to protest lovingly, assuring them -that she was all right, and ashamed of being so silly as to faint. - -"O, Father, why didn't you telegraph, so it wouldn't have scared -mother?" the Babe voiced the general wonder. - -"I did," said Captain Spooner. "But Mr. Rouse was away on his vacation, -and the new man they had in the office sent the telegram out to the -ranch, because it was addressed to Silver Spur. You see, I'd got no -letters, and didn't know of your moving. The boy had it along with one -from Harve to me, re-sent from Havana. I'll read it now." And he tore -open the yellow envelope. - -"O, Daddy," begged the Babe, frantically trying to smother him. "Don't -you ever, ever go to war again--no matter if that's a telegram from the -president for you to go back--don't you do it: And _what_ did you bring -us from Cuba?" - -"Wait and see, you little rascal," laughed her father, lifting her in -his arms, and forgetting, for the moment, his telegram. "My! What a big -girl you are, to be sure! And how well you are all looking--except -mother. We must try and get some roses to grow in her cheeks. Jonah, -you old sinner--shake! We'll swap war stories to beat the band, winter -evenings out at the ranch. And Harve," slapping Grannis jovially on the -shoulder, "glad to see you, too. I'll read your telegram now. Why in -the world didn't you let the folks know long ago?" - -"I--I was a little delayed," said Harvey nervously. "In fact, I just -came over to-day to tell 'em." - -"And the interest money? I suppose you got that all right? O, yes--you -say so in this telegram. Got it right on the dot. No chance to act the -hard-hearted landlord and turn 'em out, hey?" and he laughed genially. -The world seemed bigger and warmer and sweeter to the children, now that -their father was at home; in the fullness of their joy they had no -thought of Harvey Grannis and the wrongs he had caused them to suffer. - -Their uncle had been nervously turning his hat in his hand, going to the -door and coming back during the greetings between the re-united family. -It spoke well for his courage that he had not made his escape unnoticed. - -"I--I just wanted a chance to speak about that, John," he began, -clearing his throat nervously. "Your check was all right, of course, -but I haven't banked it yet. In fact, I just came over this morning to -tell the folks, as I said." - -Elizabeth realized in a flash that Harvey's telegram announcing Captain -Spooner's approaching arrival had come just before he came to order the -photographs. He was trying them for some decent way of explaining his -conduct. She remembered his peculiar manner, and parted her lips to -speak when some impulse of kindness made her close them again. Harvey -Grannis had done them all an injury, this was an opportunity for her to -forgive an enemy. The next moment she had reason to be glad. - -"Then you did get the interest money all right?" the captain persisted. - -The red blood flamed in Grannis's tanned and bearded face. His -confusion was painful. - -"O, yes--O, yes, I got that," he admitted with an entreating glance -toward his sister. "I--there was something connected with that that I -had intended explaining to Jennie. In fact--if you'll let me, I'd like -to make you a deed to the ranch." - -"Let you?" echoed Captain Spooner, his keen blue eyes on his -brother-in-law's face. "Make a deed to the ranch? Why, I only sent you -the interest money. The last payment remains to be met." - -"Yes, I know," Grannis hurried to say, "but Jennie's my only sister, and -we had a little misunderstanding--she'll tell you all about it later, no -doubt. I feel myself to blame--that is, I was mistaken. I'd like to -make it up to--of course, I know there's some of your family that'll -never forgive me." - -Then Elizabeth did a beautiful thing, and one which endeared her to all -of them. She marched across the room to Grannis, put out a slim hand and -said: - -"I hope you don't mean me, Uncle Harvey,"--with a very distinct -emphasis--"for if I have anything to forgive--it's forgotten." - -Harvey took the girl's hand with a fervor that was pathetic. - -"We mustn't talk about disagreeable things when John's just got back," -said Mrs. Spooner decidedly. "Harvey, you'll stay to dinner. Somebody -ought to go for Roy--he went right away, without giving John a chance to -meet him--he wanted us to be uninterrupted at our first meeting. I'm -sure Mr. Pell will let him off for the rest of the day, if we ask him." - -"I'll go for him," offered Harvey, hastily, and before the eyes of the -astonished Spooners, he put his hat on his head and walked away in -search of Roy--the boy he had insisted upon regarding as a horse-thief! - -While he was gone Captain Spooner was put in possession of all the -facts. He was inclined to be indignant over his brother-in-law's -conduct, but the girls joined their mother in excusing Grannis's -behavior, insisting that it came from an excess of zeal for their -welfare. When Harvey and Roy returned together, apparently on the best -of terms, Captain Spooner was ready to let by-gones be by-gones with his -brother-in-law, and to welcome Roy to the family circle with heart-felt -cordiality. - -"I've heard all about you from mother," he said as he gripped the lad's -hand. "Only she says that he never can make me know just what you've -been to them all, and how very proud she is of her adopted son." - -Roy blushed--praise was sweet, but embarrassing. "I bet they didn't -tell you a word about their goodness to me, sir," he returned, "I never -could make that up, no matter what I do." - -Everything was satisfactorily explained over a good dinner. When you -come to think of it, a good dinner makes many things seem more -satisfactory. Ruth and Elizabeth cooked this one, the Babe set the -table, and all three girls kept jumping up from their places to run -around and hug the tall soldier father, to be sure that he was real, and -not just a beautiful dream. Mrs. Spooner sat at the head of the table, -with a color and radiance in her face that had long been absent. Harvey -Grannis talked more than anybody had ever heard him. He made good his -promise of the blue-eyed pinto pony to little Harvie--though he offered -no further suggestion as to the shooting of Queen Berengaria. - -"Pinto's half Arab," he urged, "I broke him myself--wouldn't let the -broncho-buster touch him--he's as gentle as a dog." - -All the elders at the table knew that Harvey Grannis was an excellent -horseman, and kind to animals, whatever he might be to his fellow-men. -They regarded the gift as highly as the Babe was certain to do when she -had fully made the acquaintance of the spotted pony. - -"I'm awfully obliged to you, Uncle Harvey," she said at last. "If you -don't mind I'll change his name to Prince--as though he was Queen -Berengaria's son, you know. I expect I'll be mighty glad to have him, -because he'll be able to carry me to school. I couldn't go when we were -at the ranch before, because it was 'most too far for Queen Berengaria -to come every day, and she's so slow I'd have been sure to be tardy--I -don't like tardy-marks." - -When Harvey Grannis said good-bye, it was plain they were entering on a -new era of friendship with the lonely man. Apparently he would be -willing to benefit his sister's family in the way that pleased them--not -insisting that it should be exclusively a way that pleased him. - -When Grannis was gone Roy returned to his work at the grocery and the -Babe finally quieted down to her lessons. Mrs. Spooner asked Ruth if -she would not help her younger sister with them, leaving Elizabeth to -have a little talk with her father. The tall eldest girl followed her -mother into the other room, and soon found herself seated between the -two people who were so dear to her, the only parents she had ever known. -Thus she listened to a strange story told Captain Spooner by a soldier -of his own regiment--and who had died in Cuba. - -"I don't remember him much on the way out, or in camp, except that he -was a very tall man, well set up and good-looking--a fine type of -Englishman," the Captain said. "He kept himself to himself, the other -men said, and although I remembered afterward that he had looked at me -curiously once or twice, I couldn't be sure that I'd ever seen him -before until he spoke to me one day. You'd sent me a lot of little -snap-shots, Elizabeth, and I was showing them to some of the officers -and mentioned your name. I saw him turn, and after awhile he came and -asked to look at the pictures. I noticed then that he didn't pay much -attention to any of them but yours, and when he handed them back he said -hastily that he wanted to have a talk with me. He had the reserved -English way, but I could see that he was much upset. The next day we -had a pretty hot little skirmish, getting some of us for good, and -wounding a good many. After the fight was over they sent for me to go -to the field hospital, and there he was, wounded badly--knowing he had -to die!" - -Elizabeth was strangely shaken during this story, and she held fast to -her mother's hand, as though to make sure they were not giving her up. -Instinct told her of whom Captain Spooner was speaking, and when he went -on she needed no further explanation. - -"He was an Englishman, sure enough, Elizabeth, of good family, but a -younger son, of course, and without any money. It seems he married the -daughter of the rector of his parish, and she hadn't anything either. -They came over to America--to Texas--thinking to make a fortune, but -found hard times and bad luck instead. His young wife died while they -were on their way to California, traveling in a wagon, and he was so -broken-hearted and helpless that he left his baby girl with--well, he -left her with a mighty good woman, and I guess he knew it!" - -Captain Spooner glanced at his wife; Elizabeth dropped her head on her -mother's slender shoulder and cried softly. - -"It makes me feel so sorry," she whispered. "Yet I'm glad too--glad I -belong to you, even if my father did desert me!" - -"He didn't, Elizabeth. That is, not knowingly," Captain Spooner -explained gently. "When he went away from here he had promised to send -money for your keep, and he said he would come back for you. He did -send some money, then all at once it ceased, and we never heard from him -again. It seems he got word that you were dead. Some movers coming -through told him of a baby that had died, and they mixed it up some way. -He was sick and down on his luck at the time, and failed to write to us, -but he never would have done it if he'd known his daughter was living. -Philip Maude wasn't that kind of a man. He was a gentleman, born and -bred, and a brave man always." - -"O, Father--I love to hear you say that!" said Elizabeth. "I'll always -be glad to think of him as brave and kind. But I thought--Cousin Hannah -said--wasn't the name _Mudd_?" - -"Mudd? No, indeed. His name was Maude--M-a-u-d-e. A very good name, -too. What on earth made you think it was Mudd?" - -"Cousin Hannah told me so," sobbed Elizabeth. "And O, now I can tell -you when it's all over--I've been so bitterly ashamed and miserable to -know that I, who used to really fool myself into thinking I was better -than other people, was just a miserable mover's child--and that my name -was Mudd!" - -"Cousin Hannah always did pronounce it that way," said Mrs. Spooner, -"she may have thought it was spelled so--it's too bad to think how you -suffered for her mistake." The motherly eyes overflowed, realizing how -sensitive Elizabeth, who adored pretty names, must have felt at being -saddled with such a grotesquely ugly one. - -"So Philip Maude thought his daughter was dead till I showed those -pictures. He told me that when he saw the little photograph it was like -looking at a picture of his dead wife. He saw how much I loved you, and -how proud I was of you, and he had a struggle in his mind to know -whether he ought to claim you after all these years; but he had decided -that he must give you up when the fight came on, and the decision was -taken out of his bands. The reason he sent for me at the last was that -he had, a few weeks before he enlisted, got notice of a small -inheritance that had fallen to him in England. It won't be more than -twenty-five thousand dollars--five thousand pounds, he called it--but he -made his will, and gave me his papers so that you might prove your right -to it, and he said that you might want to go home to your own people in -England. He sent you this ring, and this broken watch chain--the watch -itself was shattered by the bullet that gave him his death wound." - -Elizabeth took the ring and chain he handed her and wept over them. -They seemed to bring the father she had never consciously seen very -close to her. It was not as though he took this father's place, but -rather as if he were some one among her ancestors, far back, almost in -another life. - -"I hope I may go there some time," she said at last. "But you and -mother are the only father and mother I can ever have--and my home must -be here with you." - - * * * * * - -The Spooners stayed on in the old adobe through the winter. There was -little to do at the ranch, and they were really more comfortable where -they were. The first installment of Elizabeth's income arrived from -England about holiday time, and made things most wonderfully joyous in -the Spooner family. It was comical to see how the new state of affairs -impressed Maudie Pratt. Grandmother's diamond ring became a small -matter indeed compared to the small packet of really excellent old -jewelry that was forwarded to Elizabeth. The fact that she added Maude -to her name, simply calling herself Elizabeth Maude Spooner, was rather -a disappointment. Maudie Pratt, under similar circumstances, would have -promptly dropped the Spooner altogether. - -The wise little mother looked on and breathed many a sigh of -thankfulness that Elizabeth's good fortune had not come to her before -she was tried and proven. When she saw her daughter choose wisely, and -behave modestly, and carry her new honors with simple graciousness, she -was aware that the year of discipline which had preceded the reward, had -made it a reward indeed. - -When they all went out again to the ranch, Elizabeth insisted on -investing some of her money in making the home beautiful and comfortable -for them all. Harvey Grannis admired her greatly for doing so, yet he -was in some sense jealous, and being a man of means he attempted, with a -simplicity that sometimes made them all laugh, to match any act of -generosity on Elizabeth's part with one of his own. There was soon a -commodious, well-built house, a beautiful and properly irrigated lawn, -with beds of brilliant flowers where once only the cactus could be -coaxed to bloom. These out-door luxuries were made possible by that -almost unattainable thing in such a country--plenty of water, for Harvey -Grannis made his namesake a deed to the pasture containing the big -water-hole. More land was bought and added to the ranch, as Captain -Spooner prospered, and with the luck of 'him that hath,' money came in -until the Spooner brand was perhaps the best in the country, and of such -fine quality that it was the pride of old Jonah's heart. - -The question of education was one of the first things to come up in the -affairs of these young people, and Elizabeth declared that her income -was to be used for schooling the whole bunch--and in the bunch she -included Roy Lambert. That independent young man, however, preferred to -work his way, as many an independent American boy has done before him. -He chose an agricultural college, for he believed that the cattle -business would gradually diminish, and that all of the ranches would be -forced into more or less farming as the years went on. His ideas have -proved correct, and as he is a skilled and educated farmer, and a -natural manager, Captain Spooner has never seen the time when he was -willing to give up the claim they had on him at the time that Mrs. -Spooner called him her adopted son. - -Most laughable of all, Harvey Grannis takes a great pride and personal -satisfaction in Roy's success. To hear him talk about it one would -think he had brought the boy west and placed him in his sister's -home--as indeed he did, though quite unwittingly. With the lapse of -years Harvey has become gentler in his dealings with people, and more -amenable. If he ever quarrels--and being Harvey Grannis, of course he -does sometimes--the Babe immediately acts as peacemaker, and he declares -that his nieces are the finest girls in the state of Texas, and that the -Babe is to inherit every acre and hoof of his possessions! - -These greater advantages came to the Babe earlier than to the other -girls, and she was the only one of the three who cared to go to an -eastern college and take a degree. She was preparing herself for her -chosen career as a writer of stories for children, finding in that work -free vent for her exuberant fancy. - -The year Ruth was nineteen she visited Mary in Oklahoma, and came back -engaged to her brother-in-law's brother, a young ranchman of good looks -and qualities, and fairly prosperous. She now lives on a ranch of her -own, and, with Mary, makes frequent visits to the home folks, where the -circle is still unbroken, even old Jonah still being spry and happy, and -delighting in relating his wonderful war stories as of old. - -When Elizabeth finally left for England, partly to see her people--who -consisted of somewhat distant relatives, and partly for a course of -study, Roy felt that he would not be honorable in asking her to consent -to an engagement. He told her that he was sure she would find her -ideals changing very much when she was among her own people, in such -surroundings as were really befitting to her. - -But she came back to Silver Spur, a well-trained and popular painter of -miniatures, having chosen this for her profession. She came back to -Roy, and to the dear parents who were, after all, more her own people -than those she had left behind her in England. - -And it turned out that Elizabeth's real profession is not art but -home-making. She and Roy are married and live still at Silver Spur, -perfectly happy with each other, and radiating happiness about them by -the love and forethought of beautiful, unselfish natures. - - - - (THE END.) - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRLS OF SILVER SPUR RANCH -*** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44576 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. 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