icturesque, they compared favorably with the
men she had known in the East. Did they lack the subtleties, they made
up for this by their unfailing deference. And they were never rude;
their very bashfulness prevented that.

Through them she came to know much of many things. They contrived to
acquaint her with the secretive peculiarities of the prairie dog,
and--when she would listen with more than ordinary attention--they
would loose their wonderful imaginations in the hope of continuing the
conversation. Then it was that the subject under discussion would
receive exhaustive, and altogether unnecessary, elucidation. The
habits of the prairie-dog were not alone betrayed to the ears of the
young lady. The sage-fowl's inherent weaknesses were paraded before
her; the hoot of the owl was imitated with ludicrous solemnity; other
fowl were described with wonderful attention to detail; and the
inevitable rattlesnake was pointed out to her as a serpent whose chief
occupation in life was that of posing in the shadow of the sage-brush
as a target for the revolver of the cowpuncher.

The quaintness of the cowboy speech, his incomparable bashfulness,
amused her, while she was strangely affected by his earnestness. She
attended to the chickens and immediately her visitors became interested
in them and fell to discussing them as though they had done nothing all
their days but build hen-houses and runways. But she had them on
botany. The flower beds were deep, unfathomable mysteries to them, and
they stood afar while she cultivated the more difficult plants and
encouraged the hardier to increased beauty.

But she had not been content to view this land of mystery from her
brother's cabin. The dignity of nature had cast its thrall upon her.
She was impressed with the sublimity of the climate, the wonderful
sunshine, the crystal light of the days and the quiet peace and beauty
of the nights. The lure of the plains had taken her upon long rides,
and the cottonwood, filling a goodly portion of the flat, was the scene
of many of her explorations.

The pony with which her brother had provided her was--Ben Radford
declared--a shining example of sterling horse-honesty. She did not
know that Ben knew horses quite as well as he knew men or she would not
have allowed him to see the skeptical glance she had thrown over the
drowsy-eyed beast that he saddled for her. But she was overjoyed at
finding the pony all that her brother had