I--you see there isn't much time left. I must decide
soon. It's not going to be easy, Uncle Cliff."

"No,--not for either of us, Honey."

"And there's Grandmother, too,--and Aunt Lucinda. Other people seem to
have a lot to say about one's life, don't they?"

"They have a lot to say, Blue Bonnet, but the person who has the final
'say' is yourself. You're old enough now to decide what you want to do
with your life. Sixteen to-morrow!"

"I know what I want to do with my life, Uncle, but I don't know yet
just how to do it."

"Don't you think you could manage to do it on the ranch? We know now
where to get a first-class tutor, and--"

"Oh, as far as 'book-learnin''--as Uncle Joe calls it,--goes, I reckon
I could get that all right, here on the ranch with a tutor. But books,
I've found out, aren't more than half of an education. You know,
life's mighty simple on the ranch, and I've grown used to doing things
the easiest way. But that isn't the big way. Aunt Lucinda says every
woman should have a vocation."

Uncle Cliff squirmed. Blue Bonnet seemed to have assimilated a rather
big dose of Aunt Lucinda. "But, Honey," he protested, "a girl with
plenty of money doesn't need a vocation."

"Oh, she didn't mean that kind of a vocation. It's a sort of glorified
way of doing your duty by your neighbor. And you know it isn't very
easy to do your duty by your neighbor when the nearest neighbor is
miles away! Now, Aunt Lucinda is the most all-round useful person.
She's helping to keep up a home for cripples in Boston, and is
secretary of the Church Aid Society, runs Grandmother's house and--"

"Everybody in it!" added Uncle Cliff.

Blue Bonnet slipped her hand into his with a sympathetic pressure.

"I reckon I caught it from you,--liking to paddle my own canoe, I
mean. But, though I don't love discipline, I've learned to appreciate
what it can do. Now, look at Solomon--"

"--in all his glory!" laughed Uncle Cliff.

At that moment the subject of the conversation was occupied in gnawing
a very dirty bone on the forbidden territory of the veranda.

"Oh, he has his lapses," Blue Bonnet confessed, "--his forgettery is
as active as mine. But he's hardly more than a puppy yet, and it's
surprising how well he minds. He's getting pretty wild out here. The
ranch has that effect I've observed. And that's why--"

"Say, Honey," Uncle Cliff interrupted, "let's allow the subject of
going back to rest right where it is until after to-