reached camp.

After they had gone, Polly and Eleanor wandered around at a loss for
something to do. Being Sunday, their sports were limited to a quiet
time. So they decided to visit the corrals and see Noddy and Choko, as
the burros had been neglected by their riders during the past few days
of the excitement over gold.

They were passing the wagon-house, when Polly caught hold of Eleanor's
arm for silence. Both girls listened and distinctly heard a man
speaking in dramatic tones. The voice was not recognizable, although
Polly had not heard of any new hand having been hired.

"Ef Ah wasn't shore we-all'd be happy, Ah never would be h'ar askin' fur
yor hand an' heart." Then there was a pause.

A low mumbling followed, and then the voice again cried:

"Ef you-all w'arn't my match, Ah'd go away and nary trouble this ranch
agin. But folkses kin see we-all w'ar made fer each other. Even John
says so!" Then sounded another jumble of incoherent words.

"Who under the sun is it? A couple who are in love with each other?"
wondered Eleanor, aloud, as she turned to Polly.

"Whoever it is, they are behind the wagon-shed. Let's creep up to the
harness loft and see who it is. There isn't another woman on the farm
beside Sary, and I'm sure I saw her in the house, when we left there."

Polly led the way up the ladder to the loft, and then they crept
carefully across the floor until she reached the wide loft-window. This
she opened quietly and tilted the slats so they could look down in the
yard behind the barn.

There sat Jeb with a few loose pages from a pamphlet in his hands. He
was memorizing the words, and as he did so he mumbled them.

Every time he had mastered a certain paragraph, he would stand up,
strike a pose, and declaim in an unnatural voice, to the pig-sty that
was not more than twenty feet away from the sheds.

Suddenly Polly clapped a hand over her mouth and rocked back and forth.
Instantly Eleanor wanted to know what the joke was.

"Oh, oh! I know now where Jeb got that paper book. It was advertised in
our Farm Journal as being the most complete education on how to propose
gracefully to a woman that man ever could find. I just bet Jeb sent for
it, one day, when he asked me to address an envelope for him. He must be
practicing to ask some Oak Creek girl to marry him."

Both girls now smothered their laughter, for the idea of simple little
Jeb in love with some one was too funny for words. He seemed terrib