ulations and rode
on to the depot. He followed disapprovingly afoot; and, when she brought
her horse to a stand, he helped her from the saddle, and took the bridle
reins with an air of weary tolerance.

"When you get ready to go home, you can come to the store," he said
bluntly. "Huckleberry wouldn't stand here if you hog-tied him. Just
remember that if you ever ride up here alone--it might save you a walk
back. And say," he added, with a return of his good-natured grin, "it
looks like you and Good Injun didn't get acquainted yesterday. I thought
I saw mum give him an introduction to you--but I guess I made a mistake.
When you come to the store, don't let me forget, and I'll do it myself."

"Oh, thank you, Jack--but it isn't necessary," chirped Evadna, and left
him with the smile which he had come to regard with vague suspicion of
what it might hide of her real feelings.

Two squaws sat cross-legged on the ground in the shade of the little
red depot; and them she passed by hastily, her eyes upon them watchfully
until she was well upon the platform and was being greeted joyfully
by Miss Georgie Howard, then in one of her daily periods of intense
boredom.

"My, my, but you're an angel of deliverance--and by rights you should
have a pair of gauze wings, just to complete the picture," she cried,
leading her inside and pushing her into a beribboned wicker rocker. "I
was just getting desperate enough to haul in those squaws out there
and see if I couldn't teach 'em whist or something." She sat down
and fingered her pompadour absently. "And that sure would have been
interesting," she added musingly.

"Don't let me interrupt you," Evadna began primly. "I only came for a
money order--Aunt Phoebe's sending for--"

"Never mind what you came for," Miss Georgie cut in decisively, and
laughed. "The express agent is out. You can't get your order till we've
had a good talk and got each other tagged mentally--only I've tagged you
long ago."

"I thought you were the express agent. Aunt Phoebe said--"

"Nice, truthful Aunt Phoebe! I am, but I'm out--officially. I'm several
things, my dear; but, for the sake of my own dignity and self-respect,
I refuse to be more than one of them at a time. When I sell a ticket
to Shoshone, I'm the ticket agent, and nothing else. Telegrams, I'm the
operator. At certain times I'm the express agent. I admit it. But this
isn't one of the times."

She stopped and regarded her visitor with whimsical