The Girls of Silver Spur Ranch

s to Sil

little bedroom Cousin Hanna

en years ago--movers, like the folks you seen t

girl crumpled up on the bed sobbing just as Mary opened t

rryin' and goin' away and Ruth not havin' a bit of faculty and her

with a rush, and took slim

she said. "You can sleep with Ru

gether. Mary knew very little of what Cousin Hannah had seen fit to reveal, a child herself at the time, she had but vague rem

d probably have no other chance for private talk, but Mary urged Elizabeth to go to their mothe

lowly back into the usual routine Elizabeth found no opportunity to speak with her mother of

Hannah Pratt, having helped with the wedding sewing and the packing, had gone back to Emerald and her own overflowing bo

er weak from her neuralgia and the strain of the wedding, sat on the front porch in

anxiously. "Mary always waited on you so beautifully, while--it seems to me

. In a minute the mother-arms had pulled the girl's head down to the mother-breast, the thin fingers patting the

a wee baby! It was cruel of Cousin Hannah to tell you, but we won't let it make one bit of difference

she mopped her reddened eyes, "if I can just take Mary

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

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 e

in 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 thei

pityingly, "I can hardly forgive Cousin Hannah. But in the end it may prove the best thing. I

could see all the vast, brown-green circling p

further from Emerald, she noticed a moving cloud of dust which resolved

exas, 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 fa

at 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 wi

rhaps sixteen, but just now in a woeful plight, dusty, shaking, haggard with

her chair with a little gasp. S

d evasively. "Which one of

pretty hard, and besides I've got to have her to carry me to Emerald, so I can take the train there. I

cally. Somehow she could not bring herself to ask if he was from her brother's ranch,

tch the six o'clock train," the boy smiled wan

ponies stood, cattle country fas

air, forgetting, in her excitem

vited him. "It's cool and shady. I'll make you a pitche

owed in, his spurs clinking on the boards, and dropped wearily down upon the lounge. When she came back he wa

ratitude. "Mother always made us lemonade in the summer

and buried his face in the cushions. Mrs. Spooner sat down beside him, and after awhile his grop

y," she said gently. "Don't you want to t

th to face her, and tell the

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.

said, "besides, Grannis owes me more than the chestnut's worth, if I sold

ng--very wrong, not to advance you the money, or let you off your contract. But did yo

a hard-hearted old skinflint. I'd like to wring his neck, but eve

d at his flushed face, that Roy himself disapproved of what he had

I'll pay you--I'll send you a

d, and bring your pony back. I'll try to sell it for enough to repay my

l the folks in the world were like you--such a man as

. "Harvey Grannis isn't really a villain, he's just a hard-headed, high-

y was beginning, when

my only brother. My baby child is

leaped to his feet, lookin

divined his t

e money, and leave Harvey's pony here. The laws calls what you've done horse-stealing, and you can't mak

eep. When she saw that he really slept, Mrs. Spooner once more took her seat on the porch, this time to l

the gate; in it sat Harvey Grannis and one of his men. They were tracking the lost pony. She saw them long before the

Spooner walked rapidly out to meet him. Grannis was a loud-spoken individual, and she did not care

h her voice was shaking a little. "He's very tired, and he's

before supper-time! Come on, Tom, we'll go in and wake the young gentleman. Fetch your rope.

oth men were starting for the house

Tom, of the rope and gun, was sorry for her, and heartily sick of his errand. No

. "Who's going to stop me? Now see here, Jennie, you always were a simple-hearted,

pooner, with a flash in her eyes that

efending this boy?" Grann

defending my brother--a brother I used to be very fond of--fr

urned skin, while Tom, standing by and listening, enjo

sick of honest work, and invent any kind of story to get away. This boy's lying to yo

ction 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 befo

, Jennie," he repea

ling with the fever that Mrs. Spooner had been fearing for him. He carrie

back alive

nnis in a low tone. "I don't

I'm glad you're here, 'cause I've got a telegram for somebody out

each other, Roy tugging desperately at the holster to get his weapon

the little girl, triumphant in her