and nursed her as tenderly as if the Indian had been a sister of her
blood.

Ted had stayed the herd until Singing Bird should be well enough to get
up. The pasturage was fine, and after their arduous drive Ted thought
that it would do the cattle no harm to have a long rest.

He was undecided what to do with the Indian girl. It was not altogether
practicable to take her with them, and it did not seem to be the humane
thing to leave her behind to again fall into the hands of her brutal
Indian husband.

At last one morning Stella announced that Singing Bird was almost well.
On account of her health and generally fine physical condition she had
made rapid progress toward recovery.

"What are we going to do with her?" asked Ted, when Stella announced
that Singing Bird was well enough to travel.

"I don't know what she wants to do," said Stella. "One thing I am sure
of, I am not going to see her come to any harm. I have grown very fond
of her, for she is a sweet, good girl."

"Let us ask her what she wants to do. I suppose we shall have to abide
by her decision, for we cannot turn her adrift."

Singing Bird was sitting in front of her tent in the sun, watching the
cowboys sitting around their camp, weaving horsehair bridles, cleaning
their guns, mending their clothes, and doing other things that fall to
the leisure of a cow camp.

"Singing Bird, you are well now, and able to travel," said Stella,
sitting down on the grass.

The girl looked at her and then at Ted with an expression of alarm in
her face. They both saw that she feared what was coming.

"What do you want to do, Singing Bird? We must be on the trail again,
for we have a long way to go to the big pasture to the north," Stella
continued.

"I want to stay with you, sister," said the Indian girl simply. "I will
die if you send me away. I will slave for you if you will only let me
stay near you. I have no one else on earth. My husband has cast me out;
my father will not have me back; the white man does not want the Indian.
I am alone in the world. You have saved my life. I am your slave."

"That settles it," said Stella, with the hint of tears in her eyes. "You
shall stay with me, dear. Ted, get ready to move the herd whenever you
are ready. Singing Bird goes with me."

"All right," said Ted, glad that the matter was so easily disposed of.
"You can do whatever you want to with this outfit. If you say she goes,
why, she goes."

He went out to where t