"

Ruth laughed. "You are the same old Sarah! I was beginning to believe
that the Blue Bonnet ranch had bewitched you."

"Don't say 'bewitched,'" Blue Bonnet interrupted, "locoed is the word
we use in Texas."

The birthday dinner, served early as was the custom at the ranch, was
the most animated of feasts, of which the birthday-cake with its
sixteen blazing candles was the grand climax. It was fat Lisa herself
who waddled in and deposited her masterpiece in front of the Senorita,
and then lingered to see how it looked after cutting.

"It's divine, Lisa,--a complete success!" Blue Bonnet cried, and the
cook grinned delightedly. As Lisa turned to leave the room, Blue
Bonnet detained her to whisper--"Why is Benita waiting on table
alone?--where's Juanita?"

"Who knows?" returned Lisa with a shrug of her massive shoulders.
"That _nina_ is run off and Gertrudis means to thrash her."

"Oh, Lisa, she mustn't!" Blue Bonnet said in genuine distress. "Tell
Gertrudis I'll come out and see her after dinner."

She found Gertrudis slamming about the dishes in a most reckless
fashion and muttering to herself angrily. To Blue Bonnet's plea in
behalf of the absent Juanita she returned only stormy answers.

"No, Senorita, she is spoiled for lack of thrashing. Run off on the
Senorita's birthday! With a horde to wait on! And enough work for
fifty lazy things like herself!"

No, Juanita should be thrashed if ever she could lay hands on her.
Blue Bonnet could not sway her from her purpose, and finally gave up
arguing and left the kitchen, vowing mentally to prevent the angry old
woman from carrying out her threat. But in the excitement of the
evening's festivities, she forgot all about it.

What an evening it was! Not one of the boys and girls lucky enough to
be there would ever forget the scene. The broad verandas on which half
the furniture of the house had been brought to form cosy-corners and
lounging places; the soft gleam of Chinese lanterns strung among the
trees; the music of Shady's violin, augmented by a flute and cello
from Jonah, to which they danced on the croquet-ground; and everywhere
the We are Sevens, stately in trains and hair dressed high, tripping
and laughing and flirting their fans in the manner fondly believed to
be that of high-born Spanish dames.

Susy and Ruth had obligingly crammed their trunks with the attic
treasures of the various Woodford families, and the costumes, while
not strictly Spanish, we