clung to him. "See here, Jim, you can't go so soon. You haven't
said hello to Cousin Ruth or showed her the tree. You know you want to
see her. She has had a bad cold ever since the night we found Olive and
it is only polite that you should tell her you are glad she is well."
Jack's tones were perfectly serious and her expression as innocent as a
baby's.

Jim flushed a little angrily. "No. I don't want to see her, at least not
particularly. Why should I?" Jim demanded awkwardly. "That is,--"

Ruth was standing at the living-room door with her arms full of
mysterious packages. She laughed and came into the room, glad that Jim
looked as awkward as she felt on the day of her first horseback ride
with him.

When Ruth was putting down her packages Jack winked solemnly at Jim, and
in return for his irritated glance at her, she slipped quietly out of
the room.

All the way down the hall Jack was smiling to herself. "Wouldn't it be
too funny if old Jim should fall in love with Cousin Ruth?" she
thought. "Goodness knows why he is so touchy about her! She has been
awfully nice to him, since he taught her to ride horseback, but the
friendlier she is, the queerer he behaves.

'Oh, young Lochinvar has come out of the west,
Of all the wide world, his steed is the best,'"

Jack quoted, apropos of nothing, as she joined the other girls in Ruth's
bedroom.

Olive, Jean and Frieda were working industriously. Over in the corner
there was a little mound that looked like a pile of snow but was only
the strings of popcorn for the Christmas tree. Jean was fashioning an
immense silver star. Olive and Frieda were filling boxes of white paper,
decorated with the initials, "R. G.," with homemade taffy candy and
chocolate fudge. The ranch girls had not invited their neighbors to
their Christmas eve party, but the cowboys who worked on their ranch
were coming up to the Lodge to wish them good luck.

Jack dropped down on the floor and deliberately began devouring the
fudge from a big China dish. "Don't work too hard, Olive," Jack
insisted, reaching up to pop a piece of candy into Olive's mouth.
"Remember you are not very strong yet."

Olive only laughed. She was a little paler than when she first came to
the ranch in the early autumn, but her eyes were serene and untroubled
and she looked far less timid and shy. Since finding her mother's
picture in the possession of old Laska, Olive felt that she was more
like the o