mself. "Thank the Lord, the worried look is beginning
to leave Uncle Jim's face, though. How could any of us get along without
Uncle Jim?"

"What little seed to be worth so much, but it's the beginning of
conquest," Leigh said as Thaine took the bills from her hand. "And it's a
much more hopeful business to reclaim from booms and weeds than from this
lonely old prairie as it was when Uncle Jim and your father first came
here."

"It's just the same old pioneer spirit, though, and you are fighting a
mortgage just like they fought loneliness, and besides, Asher Aydelot had
Virginia Thaine to help him to keep his courage up."

A sudden flush deepened on his ruddy cheeks and he continued:

"Of course you are going to the picnic? You'll have to start early. It's a
goodish way to 'The Cottonwoods.' The Sunflower Ranch needs my talents, so
I can't go with the crowd, but I may draggle in about high noon. I'll
drive over in the buggy, and I'll try to snake some pretty girl off the
wagons to ride home with me when it's all over."

"Maybe the pretty girls will all be preempted before you get there," Leigh
replied.

"I know one that I hope won't be," Thaine said.

Leigh was bending over her drawing board and did not look up for a long
minute. It was her gift to make comfort about her while she followed her
own will unflinchingly. The breeze had blown the golden edges of her hair
into fluffy ripples about her forehead and the deep blue of August skies
was reflected in her blue eyes shaded by their long brown lashes. Thaine
sat watching her every motion, as he always did when he was with her.

"Well?" Leigh looked up with the query. "And what's to hinder your getting
the pretty girl you want if she understands and you are swift enough to
cut off the enemy from a flank movement?"

"The girl herself," Thaine replied.

"Serious! Tragical! Won't you give me that chrome-yellow tube by your
elbow there?" Leigh reached for the paint and their hands met.

"Say, little Sketcher of Things, will you be missing me when I go to
school next month? Or will your art and your ranch take all your
thoughts?"

"I wish they would, but they won't," Leigh said. "They will help to fill
up the time, though."

"Leigh, may I bring you home tomorrow night? I'm going away the next day,
and I won't see you any more for a long time."

"No, you may not," Leigh replied, looking up, and her sunny face framed by
her golden brown hair was winsomely plea