n to him."

Tad found the ranch owner to be a man of refinement and kindly nature,
yet whose keen, quizzical eyes seemed to take the lad in from head to
foot in one comprehensive glance.

"So you are learning the business, eh? That's right, my lad. That's the
way to go about it, and there's no place like a drive to learn it, for
that's where a man meets about every experience that comes in the life
of a cowman."

Tad explained about the Pony Riders, and that their trip was in the
nature of a pleasure jaunt, they being accompanied by Walter Perkins's
instructor and that they were with the outfit for a brief trip only.

Mr. McClure became interested at once.

"I should like to hear more about your experiences," he said. "Won't you
come up to the house with me, while your man talks horse with my
foreman?"

Tad flushed slightly as he glanced down over his own rough, dust-covered
clothes.

"I--I am afraid I am not fit, sir."

"Tut, tut. We ranchers learn to take a man for what he is worth, not for
what he has on. You have been riding. Naturally you would not be
expected to appear in broadcloth. No more do we expect you to. Had I a
son, I should feel far better satisfied to see him as you stand before
me now, than in the finest of clothes. Come, I want you to meet my
family."

Tad, somewhat reluctantly, followed the rancher to his house. Much to
the lad's discomfiture, he was ushered into the drawing-room of the
first southern home he had ever entered.

"Be seated, sir. I will call my daughters. We have so few guests here
that the girls seldom see anyone during the time they are home from
school."

Mr. McClure left the room, and Tad, after choosing a chair that he
considered least liable to be soiled by his dusty clothes, sat down,
gazing about him curiously. He found himself in a room that was by far
the handsomest he had ever seen, while from the walls a long line of
family ancestors looked down at him from their gilt frames.

Tad had found time for only a brief glance about him, when the sound of
voices attracted his attention. At first he was unable to decide whence
the voices came. They seemed to be in the room with him, yet there was
no one there save himself.

Turning about he discovered that a curtained doorway led directly into
another room, and that it was from the adjoining room that the sound had
come.

"You say Ruth is bad again to-day, Margaret?"

"No, mother, I would not say that exactly. Y