:

"Flossie?"

Up came the other's head, her face flushed and wet and her brow a-scowl.

"What do _you_ want?" she demanded, quickly.

"Nothing. Unless I can help you. And if so, _that_ is what I want," said
the ranch girl, softly.

"Goodness me! _You_ can't help me with algebra. What do I want to know
higher mathematics for? I'll never have use for such knowledge."

"I don't suppose we can ever learn _too_ much," said Helen, quietly.

"Huh! Lots you know about it. You never were driven to school against your
will."

"No. Whenever I got a chance to go I was glad."

"Maybe I'd be glad, too, if I lived on a ranch," returned Flossie,
scornfully.

Helen came nearer to the desk and sat down beside her.

"You don't look a bit pretty with your eyes all red and hot. Crying isn't
going to help," she said, smiling.

"I suppose not," grumbled Flossie, ungrateful of tone.

"Come, let me get some water and cologne and bathe your face." Helen
jumped up and went to the tiny bathroom. "Now, I'll play maid for you,
Flossie."

"Oh, all right," said the younger girl. "I suppose, as you say, crying
isn't going to help."

"Not at all. No amount of tears will solve a problem in algebra. And you
let me see the questions. You see," added Helen, slowly, beginning to
bathe her cousin's forehead and swollen eyes, "we once had a very fine
school-teacher at the ranch. He was a college professor. But he had weak
lungs and he came out there to Montana to rest."

"That's good!" murmured Flossie, meaning bathing process, for she was not
listening much to Helen's remarks.

"I knew it would make you feel better. But now, let me see these algebra
problems. I took it up a little when--when Professor Payton was at the
ranch."

"You didn't!" cried Flossie, in wonder.

"Let me see them," pursued her cousin, nodding.

She had told the truth--as far as she went. After Professor Payton had
left the ranch and Helen had gone to Denver to school, she had showed a
marked taste for mathematics and had been allowed to go far ahead of her
fellow-pupils in that study.

Now, at a glance, she saw what was the matter with Flossie's attempts to
solve the problems. She slipped into a seat beside the younger girl again
and, in a few minutes, showed Flossie just how to solve them.

"Why, Helen! I didn't suppose you knew so much," said Flossie, in
surprise.

"You see, _that_ is something I had a chance to learn between times--when
I wasn't roping