CHAPTER XIX

ON A CATTLE RANCH NEAR THE COSUMNE RIVER--"NAME BILLY"--INDIAN GRUB
FEAST.

We left the Fort and grandma's house far behind, and still rode on and
on. The day was warm, the wild flowers were gone, and the plain was
yellow with ripening oats which rustled noisily as we passed through,
crowding and bumping their neighborly heads together. Yet it was not a
lonesome way, for we passed elk, antelope, and deer feeding, with
pretty little fawns standing close to their mothers' sides. There were
also sleek fat cattle resting under the shade of live oak trees, and
great birds that soared around overhead casting their shadows on the
ground. As we neared the river, smaller birds of brighter colors could
be heard and seen in the trees along the banks where the water flowed
between, clear and cold.

All these things my sister pointed out to me as we passed onward. It
was almost dark before we came in sight of the adobe ranch house. We
were met on the road by a pack of Indian dogs, whose fierce looks and
savage yelping made me tremble, until I got into the house where they
could not follow.

The first weeks of my stay on the ranch passed quickly. Elitha and I
were together most of the time. She made my new dress and a doll
which, was perfection in my eyes, though its face was crooked, and its
pencilled hair was more like pothooks than curls. I did not see much of
her husband, because in the mornings he rode away early to direct his
Indian cattle-herders at the _rodeos_, or to oversee other ranch work,
and I was often asleep when he returned nights.

The pinto colt he had promised me was, as Leanna had said, "big enough
to kick, but too small to ride," and I at once realized that my
anticipated visits could not be made as planned.

Occasionally, men came on horseback to stay a day or two, and before
the summer was over, a young couple with a small baby moved into one
part of our house. We called them Mr. and Mrs. Packwood and Baby
Packwood. The mother and child were company for my sister, while the
husbands talked continually of ranches, cattle, hides, and tallow, so I
was free to roam around by myself.

In one of my wanderings I met a sprightly little Indian lad, whose face
was almost as white as my own. He was clad in a blue and white shirt
that reached below his knees. Several strings of beads were around his
neck, and a small bow and arrow in his hand. We stopped and looked at
each other; were pleased,