wishes may share my bower."

"Then I'll be off," said Alec. "Any commissions for me in Jonah?" He
stood like an orderly at attention, with the mail-bag slung over one
shoulder and his whole bearing expressive of the importance of his
mission. The sun and the wind of the prairie had already tanned his
smooth skin to the ruddy hue of health, but Mrs. Clyde, observing him
closely, could not fail to note how very slim and frail the erect
young figure was.

"Isn't twenty miles a rather long ride on a hot day?" she asked
tactfully, fearing to wound the sensitive lad.

"We shall reach Kooch's ranch by noon, and we are to rest there until
it is cool again," he replied, flushing a little under her solicitous
glance.

"Well, keep an eye on Shady!" said Blue Bonnet, waving him good-bye as
she went to do her practising.

Fifteen minutes later each member of the ranch party was busily
engaged in doing "just as she liked." Mrs. Clyde, deep in a book, sat
under the fragrant magnolia; Kitty reclined on a Navajo blanket near
her, lazily watching the gay-plumaged birds that made the tree a
rendezvous. From the open windows of the living-room came a
conscientious rendering of a "Czerny" exercise, enlivened now and then
by a bar or two of a rollicking dance, with which Blue Bonnet
sugar-coated her pill. In the kitchen Debby and Amanda were deep in
the mysteries of "pinoche" under the tutelage of Lisa and Gertrudis;
while Sarah, safe inside her own little sanctum, sat and drew threads
rapturously, and later, coached by the delighted Benita, wove them
into endless spider-webs.

CHAPTER V

THE SWIMMING HOLE

THEY sat up late that evening waiting for Alec to come with the mail.
Mrs. Clyde and Blue Bonnet were somewhat uneasy, for they knew he had
intended to be back in time for their late supper; and when ten
o'clock came and no Alec or Shady appeared, they grew openly anxious.

Uncle Cliff refused to share their worry. "Shady's no tenderfoot," he
scoffed, "and holding up the mail has gone out of fashion in these
parts."

Blue Bonnet had no fear of hold-ups and did not care to express her
suspicion that the ride had proved too much for Alec. She found reason
to reproach herself: a forty-mile ride for a delicate boy like him was
a foolish undertaking and she should have realized it. She had ridden
that distance herself innumerable times; but she had practically been
reared in the saddle and had lived all her life in this l