The Girls of Silver Spur Ranch

tion o

nds, 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, a

embroidered a big and corpulent "B" on a sofa-pillow for Mary, who was to marry, in a few days, a you

ort of name," she declared with emphatic disapprova

hemming a ruffle to trim the little muslin frock which was the last u

eds go and choose a spoon for his brand! And he might so easily have made it

one place, looked about for a cause, and perceived Elizabeth tra

aint Elizabeth," she laughed, tugging at the crumpled cloth, "an

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

th the name of Spooner," she said, rathe

verflowing, lifted her eyes from her work and regarded Elizabeth meditat

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

rs, a merry-hearted girl of fifteen, who looked on all the world with m

neuralgia is bad to day. You can hear every sound right through in her room. Cousin Hannah,

ponderously from her chair, she moved on heavy tiptoes ou

saint to bear with Cousin Hannah," said Elizabeth, "

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 li

, emphatically. "And if you want to know the reason, just look ou

, slipped quietly out of the room to see about her mother. Als

unfortunates known in western parlance as "movers," family tramps who follow the harvests in hope of getting a little work in the fie

rouching 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, holdi

" 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 s

ghed Ruth, as she turned from the window to take up he

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

" scoffed practical Ruth. "Of course he won't be made a big off

been dreamers," asserted Elizabeth, cheerfully, "I can'

in the stove. People must eat, no matter how

erfectly 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 a

n marched majestically kitchenward, to engage in the

ted 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 mer

, sooner or later--ought to know without--tellin', if she had a grain o' comm

er mind, as she moved mechanically about the kitchen. She felt quite certain that they were talking abo

owly stirred the hominy pot. "Whether Cousin Hannah thin

ally 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 h

rom table to fire, preparing the evening meal with deft skill, for an

s 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 t

pen 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, an

oor; informing anybody who chose to listen that he was mighty tired--there was two men's work to do on the Spooner

' supper? Well, I hope the truck'll t

u'll just step outside and get me a big bunch of those yellow cactus-blooms to put in this

, as he turned to go out for the flowers that were growing on the great cac

t 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

-bloom, freed of its thorns, beside the plate--somehow s

ousin Hannah, admiringly, as she sat at the gracefully arranged table.

e in the biggest cup, with the painted motto on it--how

ell her how to make spice cake--she always noticed that Cousin Hannah's c

l be glad to write it off. You're 'bout as good a cook as Ruth, though I always did s

when with a few energetic commands, she sent Mary obediently to her mothe

with Cousin Hannah?" argued Mary, "you kn

agreeable to all of us. Now you just let me have my way, and say nothing else about

her long blond hair, watching with critical admiration of the beautiful, the gleams of red and gold the lamplight cast u

as better than beating about the bush,

cisiveness, "I want to know what you, and Mot

ing down upon the bed in her astonishment, "

hearing you--and I think it's my right

bewildered Cousin Hannah, "land o' livin', girl, ain't you got a home, an

Elizabeth cal

gh you didn't give me credit for having sense enough to see it. Of course, I love them all dearly but I can't h

uestion, "what would you get out o

a scepter; her long hair flowed and billowed about her as she walked

y illustrious some way. Of course she would never desert the people who loved her, and whom

r--your true ma, if love and tenderness count for anything, never wanted you told. Mary knows, and she don't wan

thlessly on her words with shining ey

d 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 hel

should have told me. They ought to have known they couldn't change--" a swan to a duckling had been

zabeth's arm as the girl passed by. "I reckon they couldn't make a Spooner out o' you

whole face alight, her eyes shining with eagerness. "Y

-don't it? Well, what I've got to tell ain't nigh what you think I'

ts did not in any way displace the father and mother she really loved with all her young heart--they

btedly been disturbed by the sound of their voices, and was uneasy for

Elizabeth, shaking her room-mate's

. "You ought to know it--but I warn