dst of so much merriment. It does one good to let down the bars
and loosen up the reins occasionally. I've almost made up my mind to
turn the ranch over to Uncle Joe next winter and take a house in Boston.
Would you like that, Blue Bonnet? Or, if you are still in school, I
might manage to exist in a hotel until you finish. I know that you can't
desert Grandmother for the ranch again."

Mrs. Clyde cast a grateful glance in Mr. Ashe's direction.

"I feel it is a great deal to ask," she said, "but--it would be very
hard to give Blue Bonnet up--now."

Blue Bonnet was out of her chair instantly and on her uncle's knee.

"Uncle Cliff!" she gasped, "do you really truly mean it? A home in
Boston?"

"I really truly mean it, Honey. Life's too short for these long
separations."

Round his neck, in a close embrace, went Blue Bonnet's arms, and her
face glowed with joy.

"But we're not going to give up the ranch altogether, Uncle Cliff? We
couldn't, you know!"

"No, not altogether, Honey. I reckon the summers will find us there
pretty regularly; and there's Gabriel now, remember. We can't desert
the little fellow when he needs us so."

"We wouldn't desert the Blue Bonnet ranch anyway--under any
circumstances. We'll just be commuters, and sort of vibrate between our
old home and the new--then we'll all be happy."

CHAPTER XX

THE JUNIOR SPREAD

Blue Bonnet, after her week at Woodford, found it difficult to accustom
herself to the strict discipline, the regular hours, the stated duties
that awaited her at school.

"I feel as if I'd been sailing in an airship and had just got back to
earth," she said to Annabel Jackson who was diligently pursuing a French
lesson. "How _can_ you dig in that way, Annabel, after all the exciting
times you had at home? I can't! I'd like to drop this old geometry into
the Red Sea."

"I've _got_ to dig," Annabel replied complacently. "It isn't such an
easy thing to graduate from Miss North's as some people think. I've
earned every inch of the little sheepskin I'll carry home next June, I
can tell you--if I'm lucky enough to get it."

Blue Bonnet stifled a yawn.

"Oh, you'll get it, Annabel. You're a shark at lessons. What are you
going to do next year?"

Annabel looked out of the window dreamily.

"I don't know yet. Mother has given me the choice between a year's
travel and a college course. Father wants me to come home and renew my
acquaintance with the family. I think--perh