ng on every blessed minute of the day?
It's a pity it wasn't Sarah who was conditioned. She
actually likes to study and if it came to a choice
between a horseback ride and doing ten pages of
grammar, she'd jump at the grammar. Sometimes I think
Sarah isn't made like other girls. Not quite normal,
you know.

"Now that I've seen Blue Bonnet at home, I realize
what a hard time she must have had in Woodford, at
first especially. She's treated like a perfect _queen_
here, and doesn't have to mind a soul except
Senora--that's what we call Mrs. Clyde. Fancy having
run the ranch all your life and then at fifteen having
to start in and obey Miss Clyde, and Mr. Hunt, and the
rest of those mighty ones! I think she's a brick to
have done it at all, and I take back every criticism I
ever made of her. She must be terribly rich, but
doesn't put on any airs at all.

"How is little old Woodford getting along without us?
I'm almost ashamed to write Mother and Father, for I
can't say I'm homesick and parents always expect you
to be. Debby wants to finish my page, so no more now
from

"Your loving AMANDA."

"DEAR SUSY AND RUTH: There's only room for me to say
hello, and how are you? I wish I were a grand
descriptive genius like Robert Louis Stevenson so that
I could describe this wonderful Texas. But description
isn't my strong point--you know how I just scraped
through Eng. Comp. so I'll not try any flights.

"It isn't half as _wild_ as we used to imagine it. The
cowboys don't go shooting up towns and hanging
horse-thieves to all the trees the way they do in most
of the Western stories. Even the cattle are tame, but
Blue Bonnet says that is because they are fenced
nowadays, and most of them de-horned. All the cowboys
except two are Mexicans, and they are so picturesque
and--different. Mr. Ashe says Texas is filling up with
negroes but he won't have any on the ranch,--he sticks
to the Mexicans, and I'm mighty glad, for they seem
just to suit the atmosphere. Juanita, who waits on the
table, is a beauty, with the most coquettish airs.
Miguel is in love with her, and w