th a suitable present.

"Now they'll leave me in peace while I finish it," she thought with a
sigh of relief.

But it was not altogether peace that Sarah enjoyed, for the other
girls took it into their heads to fashion something for Blue Bonnet
with their own hands, and sought Sarah's room as the one spot secure
from the eyes of the curious.

"What are you going to give Blue Bonnet?" Debby asked Alec one day.

He laughed mysteriously. "I'm aiming to surprise everybody as well as
Blue Bonnet. It isn't much of a present, and the surprise is the only
thing about it worth while."

Blue Bonnet was obligingly blind and deaf, in these days. Letters
flying back and forth, packages by mail or express, she ignored
religiously.

"It's a real midsummer Christmas," she said to her grandmother one
day, when all the other girls had shut themselves up in Sarah's room.
"I thought there never could be anything so exciting and thrilly as
getting ready for Christmas in Woodford, but this is running it
close!"

"The mistress of the Blue Bonnet ranch is a very important personage
these days," said Grandmother.

"She always has been made to feel important here. That's why it was so
hard at first when I came to you and Aunt Lucinda." Blue Bonnet drew a
low hassock beside her grandmother, and leaned cosily against her in
the way they both loved. "You see, having my own way ever since I was
old enough to have a way, didn't make it very easy to obey orders. My
wishes didn't seem to count much with Aunt Lucinda."

"But they do count, dear. Your aunt is very fond of you, Blue Bonnet,
and would grant any reasonable wish if she had it in her power."

"Oh, I understand her better now. It didn't take me very long to
realize that she was running that ranch--that's a figure of speech,
Grandmother,--and it was my turn _to be run_."

Mrs. Clyde stroked the brown head lovingly. "I saw the struggle, dear,
and I know it was not easy. The things that are worth while don't come
without effort."

Blue Bonnet smiled understanding into her grandmother's eyes. "I know.
And I'm so glad I wasn't what Uncle Cliff calls a 'quitter.' Sticking
it out was pretty hard, but it's made me feel more--worthy, somehow,
to be sixteen!"

Mystery reached its highest point the next day when Kitty, who had
been absorbed in a bulky letter from home, suddenly gave a shrill
scream of excitement, and summoning the other three girls, fled to
Sarah's room. The high-pitche