he seemed to have been thrown with some force.

Ralph, unnoticed in the interest of our talk with Mr. Wilson, had been
amusing himself in his own way. His way had been to overturn the empty
bushel basket and put it over Guard, who was lying by the doorstep.
Guard had submitted to imprisonment with placid indifference until it
came to Ralph's thrusting the new cat in with him; this he instantly
resented, so, to insure the dog's staying within, Ralph had climbed
upon the basket. Whereupon Guard sprang up, overturning both jail and
jailor. The liberated cat fled with all speed, and Guard walked off in
disgust.

"What on earth are you trying to do?" I demanded.

Ralph raised his violet eyes soberly to my face as he replied: "Us
was havin' a round-up; now us all 'tampeded," and the violet eyes were
drenched with raindrops, as the little cattleman threw himself on the
ground, sobbing.

"Never mind, darling, your herd will all come home," I said,
consolingly.

"Me don't want 'em to tum back; me's so mad!" was the uncompromising
reply.

CHAPTER XIX

MR. HORTON MAKES US A VISIT

Late that same evening Mr. Wilson called again. He was on his way
home, and stopped to tell us--with evident chagrin--that his mission
had been a failure.

"You'll have to take the trail in the morning, Leslie, and see what
you can do," he said, as he went away.

The cows broke out of the corral that night, and it took so long to
hunt them up, get them back into the corral, and milk them, that it
was quite the middle of the day when I was ready to start out on my
unwelcome business. Try as I might to convince myself to the contrary,
the effort to borrow money seemed to me, somehow, akin to beggary. In
my heart I had a cowardly wish that Joe had been on hand to take my
place, but I kept all such reflections to myself. I had changed my
print dress for the worn old riding habit of green serge, and was
about starting for the barn to get Frank, when Jessie remarked:

"While you are hunting for a chance to borrow money, I'll be
earning some. If I can finish this work to-day--it's Annie Ellis'
wrapper--I'll have two dollars to add to the fund. Why, Leslie, I'd
pretty nearly sell the dress off my back to raise money to-day!"

"Well, I know I'd do that, with half the reason for it that we have
now. Dresses are a bother, anyway"--my habit was too short and too
tight, not having kept pace with my growth--"but, all the same, I hate
to see yo