d not tell her she learned from Judge
Halloran and other old cronies who came in to pay their garrulous
compliments.

Tom was mortgaged to the hilt, his royalties were pledged; a crow could
not pick a living out of his insurance business.

Such a condition was enough to dismay any girl who had never seriously
considered money matters and who had returned home to take up a life of
comparative ease and superlative enjoyment where she had left it off,
but "Bob" said nothing to her father. She knew every one of his
shortcomings, and they endeared him to her, quite as a son's faults and
failures deepen a mother's love, but she knew, too, that he was
cantankerous and required careful handling. Tom's toes were tender, and
he forever exposed them where they were easily trodden upon, therefore
the girl stepped cautiously and never even referred to his sacrifices,
which would have cruelly embarrassed both of them.

But something had to be done, and quickly; a new hand needed to mend
the family fortunes. Barbara determined to lend that hand.

A great change had come over the town and the whole country round
about, a change which the girl believed afforded her an opportunity to
prove that she was not a mere daughter, not an ornament and a drag, but
a real son-daughter such as Tom considered her. Wichita Falls was
overcrowded with oil men, drawn thither by the town-site strike at
Burkburnett, a few miles northwest, and excitement was mounting as new
wells continued to come in. Central north Texas was nearing an
epoch-making petroleum boom, for Ranger, away to the south, had set the
oil world by the ears, and now this new sand at "Burk" lent color to
the wild assertion that these north counties were completely underlaid
with the precious fluid. At any rate, the price of thirsty ranch lands
was somersaulting and prosperity was apparent in the homes of all
Barbara's girl friends. Her admirers of the opposite sex could talk of
little except leases and bonuses and "production"; they were almost too
busy making money to call upon her.

Barbara knew something about oil, for she had watched the drilling of
every one of those shallow wells that had kept her in college, and what
is more, she knew most of the property owners in this part of the
state. In that advantage she believed lay her chance of accomplishment.

After a fortnight of careful consideration she decided to enter the oil
business and deal in leases.

"Good idea," Tom de