mor in a mouth that lifted upward at the corners.

"Halloa, kindergarten!" he called in a jovial tenor. "Who's your little
old sister?"

"She isn't our sister," denied Francis with dignified mien. "She's a young
lady."

"Honest?" he asked in amused tone, looking down at the girl whose eyes
were hidden by long-lashed, down-turned lids. "How young now?"

Then his dancing eyes grew suddenly quiet and amazed, as her lashes
lifted. He read a warning in her glance.

"Jo," she said gravely and meaningly, "I am _Penelope Lamont_, and I am a
young lady--out of my teens."

"'Scuse," he answered seriously, "but you don't dress it."

"She's got on Doris's clothes," explained Betty, "'cause she didn't bring
any of her own, and she's our Aunty Penny."

"No," he said solemnly. "No, she ain't! You've got it wrong side to. Her
name is Penny Ante."

"It isn't either!" cried Betty angrily, with a stamp of her little foot.

"Uncle Kurt brought her here. She's his company, so you'd better look out,
Jo Gary!" warned Billy.

Jo made a mock gesture of alarm and shielded his face with his arm as if
from an imaginary blow.

"Now, why didn't you say so in the first place! My, ain't it the luck for
me that he won't be sheriff when he comes back! He might have had me put
in the lock-up."

"I am not Mr. Walters' company--not now," explained Pen. "I came up here
with him, to be sure, but Mrs. Kingdon has asked me to be her company
until I am well. I have been ill."

"Double 'scuse. And this is the best place in the world to get well. Some
little old ranch, and Kurt Walters is some foreman."

"Aren't you foreman now?"

"When Kurt is here, I'm nothing but a cow-hand; when he is away, I'm only
acting foreman. I'll never be anything but just acting-something, I
guess."

"Kurt Walters was only acting sheriff."

"That's so. We seem to be mostly actingers or actorines," he allowed.
"Say!" turning ferociously to Francis, "what business has a boy looking
like an owl? Loosen up, and have some pep!"

The boy's fair face flushed.

"It's none of your business how I look, Jo Gary!"

"Wow! Now you're talking. We can't fight before a lady, though."

"Cook says you look like a wishbone, Jo," taunted Billy, coming to his
brother's defense.

"She did, did she? Well, the cook can hang me over her door, and
then--I'll kiss her."

"I'll tell her, and she won't dance with you to-night."

"If you do," threatened Jo, "I won't tell you where t