them."

"Well, I want to go in there and see the stock," so she went over with
the boys, and Terry introduced her to the storekeeper as his sister. He
was a single man, so he stared at her in open-eyed wonder, as she was
perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. She found
that there was a little of almost everything that was kept in a country
store. There was very little fancy goods, however, to be had there.

While they were in the store a two-horse wagon drove up and stopped in
front of the store. The wagon was driven by an old farmer, who had with
him his wife and two daughters. Fred and Terry ran out of the store to
help the ladies out of the wagon.

"Mrs. Jones." said Terry, "I am really glad that you have come. My
sister arrived to-day, and you are the first neighbor that she will
meet."

"Oh, my! Is she going to live here on the ranch?"

"Yes, until she gets tired of it. Then she will run up and stop at the
hotel at Crabtree for a change. But she is of a domestic turn, and as we
intend to have everything that can be raised on a ranch, we think that
she will be satisfied to stay."

He was well acquainted with Mrs. Jones and her husband as well as the
two daughters, so he led the women into the store, where he introduced
them to Evelyn by name.

The girls were about fifteen and eighteen rears of age, respectively,
and as Evelyn shook hands with them and welcomed them, they stared at
her as though she were a royal personage.

"Girls," said she, addressing the two daughters, "this is the first time
I was ever on this ranch. Brother and Mr. Fearnot owned a ranch up in
Colorado, and there was no other ranch like it in all that state. I am
very fond of domestic life. They have a big flock of chickens, ducks and
geese and a splendid dairy-house, where they make fine butter and give
the buttermilk to the pigs. I have just been over the place to see them,
and I am as happy as the youngest pig on the place," and she laughed so
merrily that the girls forgot that she was a stranger and laughed
heartily with her, but her dress was so much better than that which they
wore that they actually felt awed as they looked her over.

"Mrs. Jones," she said, turning to the mother, "how far is it from this
place to your home?"

"Oh, it's fully ten miles. We are running a farm, not a ranch; but I
don't know what to make of your brother and Mr. Fearnot raising pigs and
chickens and making butter for sale o