of them lounged about the living-room,
three on the broad couch and the rest distributed impartially between
the floor and the window-seat. Such complete informality had never
seemed permissible in the sedate Clyde mansion; but somehow these
surroundings seemed to invite one to be as comfortable and
unconventional as possible.

Suddenly Blue Bonnet's eyes danced. "Doesn't this remind you of my
first tea-party?" she asked demurely.

"Well, I should say not!" Kitty exclaimed. "We all sat around your
grandmother's drawing-room with manners as stiff as our dresses,
waiting for our hostess--"

"And wondering what you would be like--" added Sarah.

"Were you prepared to see the wild Indian I proved to be?"

"Fishing!" sang Kitty.

Susy looked from Blue Bonnet to Kitty and laughed. "My, this sounds
like old times!"

"Stop talking about old times, please," begged Ruth, "and tell us
about the new ones. I want to be told all about the round-up, and I
want to see the 'vast herds' and the cowboys,--and the blue bonnets!"

Blue Bonnet's laugh rang out. "Blue bonnets in August! Come in March
and I'll show you a sea of them,--and a round-up, too. The cattle and
the cowboys you shall see to-morrow,--and some steer-roping that will
make your hair stand on end."

Ruth ran her hand through her boyish, close-cut locks and made them
stand literally on end. "It isn't much of a trick to do that!" she
said with a grimace.

"Never mind, maybe it will come in curly," said Sarah the comforter.

"You can trust Sarah not to see the thorns for the roses," said Blue
Bonnet, sending the comforter an approving glance.

"What turtle doves you all are," laughed Susy.

"Oh, it's Sarah and Blue Bonnet who do all the cooing. The rest of us
are still just geese." Kitty's voice had a tinge of envy that did not
escape the notice of the rest.

"Go play us something, Blue Bonnet," suggested Ruth tactfully, "--that
cowboy piece we all like."

"Invalids must be humored," remarked Blue Bonnet as she went to the
piano.

In a minute the little rollicking air that she had played at her first
tea-party, had set them all to dancing and humming as on that historic
occasion.

"Aren't Kitty and Blue Bonnet as chummy as they used to be?" Ruth
asked Amanda under cover of the music.

"Yes, by spells. They had one tiff--the second since they've known
each other,--and ever since we've lived in dread of the third, haven't
we, Sarah?"

"You have," Sara