e embarrassed. She would have been glad to withdraw
from the party. But then she saw the looks exchanged between Belle and
Hortense, and they fathered a wicked desire in the Western girl's heart to
give her proud cousins just what they were looking for.

She began, almost unconsciously, to stretch her legs out in a mannish
style, and drop into the drawl of the range.

"Coyote running is about as good fun as we have," she told Miss Van
Ramsden in answer to a question. "Yes, they're cowardly critters; but they
can run like a streak o' greased lightning--yes-sir-ree-bob!" Then she
began to laugh a little. "I remember once when I was a kid, that I got
fooled about coyotes."

"I'd like to know what you are now," drawled Hortense, trying to draw
attention from her cousin, who was becoming altogether too popular. "And
you should know that children are better seen than heard."

"Let's see," said Helen, quickly, "our birthdays are in the same month;
aren't they, 'Tense? I believe mother used to tell me so."

"Oh, never mind your birthdays," urged Miss Van Ramsden, while some of the
other girls smiled at the repartee. "Let's hear about your adventure with
the coyote, Miss Morrell."

"Why, ye see," said Helen, "it wasn't much. I was just a kid, as I
say--mebbe ten year old. Dad had given me a light rifle--just a
twenty-two, you know--to learn to shoot with. And Big Hen Billings----"

"Doesn't that sound just like those dear Western plays?" gasped one young
lady. "You know--'The Squaw Man of the Golden West,' or 'Missouri,'
or----"

"Hold on! You're getting your titles mixed, Lettie," cried Miss Van
Ramsden. "Do let Miss Morrell tell it."

"To give that child the center of the stage!" snapped Hortense, to Belle.

"I could shake Flossie for bringing her in here," returned the oldest
Starkweather girl, quite as angrily.

"Tell us about your friend, Big Hen Billings," drawled another visitor.
"He _does_ sound so romantic!"

Helen almost giggled. To consider the giant foreman of Sunset Ranch a
romantic type was certainly "going some." She had the wicked thought that
she would have given a large sum of money, right then and there, to have
had Big Hen announced by Gregson and ushered into the presence of this
group of city girls.

"Well," continued Helen, thus urged, "father had given me a little rifle
and Big Hen gave me a maverick----"

"What's that?" demanded Flossie.

"Well, in this case," explained Helen, "it was a