"My horse--is--he rinned away wi' me!" screamed Mary Hope, her
pigtails snapping as Rab slowed up and stopped.

"He rinned away wi' you? When? You musta been purty young for riding
when _that_ horse rinned away!" Lance came toward her, grinning and
slapping his hat against his fringed chaps before he set it upon his
head; an uncommonly handsome head, by the way, with the Lorrigan's
dark eyes and hair and his mother's provocative mouth. "Well, seeing
your horse ain't going to rin no further, you might as well git down
and stay awhile."

"I will not. I didna come to visit, if you please."

Mary Hope's cheeks were hot but confusion could not break her Scotch
spirit.

"Want to borrow something?" Lance stood looking at her with much
enjoyment. A girl in short skirts was fair game for any one's teasing,
especially when she blushed as easily as did Mary Hope. "Want to
borrow a horse that will rin away wi' you."

"Lance, you devil, get out and leave the girl alone. I'm ashamed of
you! Haven't you got any manners at all?--after all the willows and
the good powder I've wasted on you! Get back to that pasture fence
before I take a club to you for such acting!"

Before Belle's wrath Lance retreated, and Mary Hope found the courage
to wrinkle her nose at him when he glanced her way. "He rinned away to
save himself a whupping," she commented, and made sure that he heard
it, and hoped that he would realize that she spoke "Scotchy" just for
his special benefit.

"All right for you, Belle Lorrigan!" Lance called back, retaliating
for Mary Hope's grimace by a kiss thrown brazenly in the expectation
of seeing her face grow redder; which it did immediately. "Careful of
that horse--he might rinned away again!"

"That'll do for you, young man!" Whereupon Belle picked up a small
stone and threw it with such accurate aim that Lance's hat went off.
"Good thing for you that I haven't got a gun on me, or I'd dust your
heels for you!" Then she turned to Mary Hope, who was listening with
titillating horror to the painted Jezebel's unorthodox method of
reproving her offspring. "Get right down, honey, and come in and rest.
And don't mind Lance; he's an awful tease, especially when he likes a
person. Tie your horse to the fence--or turn him in the corral, if
he'll let you catch him again."

"I--I don't believe I could stop. I--I only came by because I--my
horse--" Mary Hope stammered and blushed so red that her freckles were
invisible. Aft