t, and at Crabtree
he took a train for points a hundred miles east, where he hired a team
and driver to take him around among the ranches all through that
section. He spent a week inspecting cattle, buying them and having them
shipped down to the ranch.

Finally, in order to make up the order that he wanted, he had to drive
back to the railroad and go further eastward; so he was gone about ten
days. He paid for the cattle with checks on the bank at Crabtree, but in
some instances the cattlemen rode down to Crabtree to see whether or not
the checks were good before they would ship the cattle.

When Fred returned to the ranch he found the two girl visitors still
with Evelyn, and learned from them that they were willing to stay out
there just as long as Evelyn wished them to.

"You haven't gotten tired of the ranch yet?" he asked.

"No, indeed. We never enjoyed ourselves better away from home in our
lives. Mr. Olcott and Evelyn are undoubtedly the finest musicians we
ever heard. That piano is a grand instrument, and every evening, when
the weather is fine, the cowboys dance in the yard to their playing;
and, Mr. Fearnot, I really believe that every horse and cow and pig and
chicken on the ranch is in love with Evelyn Olcott, while she has such
influence over the cowboys that I believe she could make them do murder
at her command."

Fred laughed and said:

"Yes, she has that same influence over me, too."

The girls looked at Evelyn and laughed, and she remarked:

"Didn't I tell you that every sort of animal is susceptible to
kindness?"

"Why, do you mean to call Mr. Fearnot an animal?"

"Certainly. Every man and woman is just as much an animal as a horse or
cow is."

Both the girls opened their eyes wide and Evelyn and Fred and Terry
laughed heartily at them.

"Why, didn't you know that man is an animal?" Fred inquired.

"No, indeed. Never heard of such a thing before in my life," and then
both Fred and Terry fell to explaining the matter to them. The younger
of the two sisters said they made her feel "cheap" by proving to her
that she was a mere animal.

"Oh, be careful with your words. Neither of us have said that you were a
mere animal," said Terry. "Man belongs to the animal kingdom just as any
four-footed beast does. Generally the things that will kill any brute
will also kill a man. Both have flesh and blood, eat and drink; but man
is, of course, the highest grade of the animal kingdom. They are divi