w to run the ranch."

She sighed heavily.

"I fancy Uncle Cliff will stand back of you for some time yet, dear."

Blue Bonnet nodded confidently.

"Yes, and there's Alec. Pretty soon he'll know how to manage everything
on the ranch, too. Uncle Cliff's getting awfully fond of him. Maybe when
Alec is through school he'll make him manager of the whole place.
Wouldn't that be fine? I think Alec will always be better out in the
open. He can't stand city life, it's too cramped for him."

"It certainly would be fine for Alec."

"Yes, and for Uncle Cliff, too. He gets mighty tired of the
grind--that's what he calls it sometimes. Why, his little trips East are
about the only pleasure he has; and yet--I don't believe you could drive
him off the Blue Bonnet Ranch. He loves everything about it, from the
smallest yearling to each blade of grass. He says my father did too, and
_his_ father. It's a kind of a family trait."

She laughed softly.

"And you have inherited the feeling?" Grandmother asked.

"Oh, I love it," the girl answered. "Of course I love it--but I'm not
crazy to winter and summer on it."

Mrs. Clyde seemed satisfied. It would be easier to transplant Uncle
Cliff sometime in the future, she thought, than to sacrifice Blue Bonnet
to the Texas wilderness. The bond between herself and the child was
riveting so close that the thought of a possible separation often
appalled her. Yet she did not wish to be selfish; Blue Bonnet's
allegiance was to her uncle--there could be no doubt of that.

"By the way, Grandmother, did I tell you that the General has a new
picture of Alec? It's just fine. I'll run over and get it."

She was back in the shortest possible time, excited and breathless.

"There he is," she said, thrusting the picture in her grandmother's
hands. "Did you ever see anybody change so in your life? That shows what
Texas air will do for people. Why, he's fat, positively fat, for him,
isn't he?"

"He certainly seems to have grown stouter," Mrs. Clyde admitted.

"And those corduroys--don't they look good--and the sombrero?"

Blue Bonnet's face glowed.

"I don't think you like it," she said, after a moment, taking the
picture in her own hands and regarding it jealously.

"Why, yes, I do, dear. Only it seems a bit strange to see Alec in that
garb. It is cowboy style, is it not?"

"Yes, but it's cowboy dress, and cowboy life, and cowboy freedom that
has given Alec health. He'd never have got it here