pearance with the one that she had just laid away.

"What are you looking in the dictionary for?" I asked, as she laid the
book on the broad window ledge that made such a convenient
reading-desk.

"I want to know exactly what 'fundamental' means," she replied. "I
know pretty well, or I think I do, but I want to know exactly."

Finding the word, she presently read aloud:

"'Fundamental--pertaining to the foundation; hence, essential,
elementary; a leading or primary principle; an essential.'"

"Well, that's plain enough," she said, closing the book; "but I think
we have looked out for fundamental clauses pretty faithfully. I wish
that Joe was at home; we must get an early start to-morrow. It is
foolish to feel so, when we know just how matters stand; but, somehow,
Mr. Horton's threats have made me uneasy."

"No wonder! The very sight of him is enough to make one shudder. But I
don't see that there is anything that we can do, more than we are
doing, Jessie."

"You might ride over, since you are going out anyway, and tell Mr.
Wilson what Mr. Horton has been saying. If you call on Mr. Drummond,
who is our main hope for raising the money, you'll pass Wilson's,
anyway."

"Oh, yes! I'll see him, sure; and now I must be going."

I went out accordingly, observing in an absent way, as I left the
room, that, since no fundamental clause required Jessie to replace the
dictionary on its shelf, it was still lying on the window-ledge.

I rode immediately over to Mr. Wilson's, and was fortunate in finding
him at home. He promised to "turn the thing over in his mind," and, if
there seemed to him, as a result of this process, anything, any new
move, called for on our part, to ride over during the day and let us
know.

Then I went on to the two or three places that we had in mind as most
promising, if one desired to raise money, and failed distinctly, in
every case. It was, as one of the ranchmen feelingly explained, "a dry
time; between hay and grass. Too late for the spring round-up and too
early for the fall harvest." Every one was, accordingly, lacking in
ready cash.

I returned home, not greatly dejected by my failure, since, thanks to
Mr. Wilson, I had so well understood the existing conditions before
starting out that I would have been surprised if I had succeeded.

Joe being still absent, I was obliged to care for Frank myself. When,
in the dusky twilight, I at length entered the house, it was to find
little Ralph