read the banns the next Sunday, and when
the law allowed they was man and wife and taking what life had for them
the way it came, and together. All this philanderin' that young folks do
nowadays is just pure nonsense, and waste of time."

"Sure!" laughed Linda. "When my brave comes along with his blanket I'll
just step under, and then if anybody tries to take my man I'll have the
right to go on the warpath and have a scalping party that would be some
satisfaction to the soul."

Then they served the dinner, and when the guests had left the dining
room, Katy closed the doors, and brought on the delicacies she had
hidden for Linda and patted and cajoled her while she ate like any
healthy, hungry young creature.

CHAPTER II. Cotyledon of Multiflores Canyon

"'Ave, atque vale!' Cotyledon!"

Linda slid down the side of the canyon with the deftness of the expert.
At the first available crevice she thrust in her Alpine stick, and
bracing herself, gained a footing. Then she turned and by use of her
fingers and toes worked her way back to the plan, she had passed. She
was familiar with many members of she family, but such a fine specimen
she seldom had found and she could not recall having seen it in all of
her botanies. Opposite the plant she worked out a footing, drove her
stick deep at the base of a rock to brace herself, and from the knapsack
on her back took a sketchbook and pencil and began rapidly copying the
thick fleshy leaves of the flattened rosette, sitting securely at the
edge of a rock. She worked swiftly and with breathless interest. When
she had finished the flower she began sketching in the moss-covered face
of the boulder against which it grew, and other bits of vegetation near.

"I think, Coty," she said, "it is very probable that I can come a few
simoleons with you. You are becoming better looking ever minute."

For a touch of color she margined one side of her drawing with a little
spray of Pentstemon whose bright tubular flower the canyon knew as
"hummingbird's dinner horn." That gave, her the idea of introducing
a touch of living interest, so bearing down upon the flowers from
the upper right-hand corner of her drawing she deftly sketched in a
ruby-throated hummingbird, and across the bottom of the sheet the lace
of a few leaves of fern. Then she returned the drawing and pencil to her
knapsack, and making sure of her footing, worked her way forward. With
her long slender fingers she began teasin