The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold

  CHAPTER V

  MEETING WITH NEW PEOPLE

  "Jean Bruce, if you add one more item to that everlasting old list ofyours, we will have to give up our trip," Jack Ralston remarked crossly."Even if Jim has given us a few precious dollars to invest in ourgoing-away outfits, we can't buy the entire town of Laramie and cart itacross the state to the Yellowstone Park." Jack was standing in front ofher mirror trying to fasten down her shirtwaist in the back, and as apin had just pricked her finger, she was irritable.

  "What was that funny thing you advised our buying last night, Olive?"Jean called into the next room, ignoring her cousin's protest in theserenest possible manner. Miss Bruce was dressed for a journey of somesort in a pretty, dark blue suit and a cream straw hat with a pair ofjaunty blue wings atop of it. Her expression was one of demure readinessfor any great event, yet she was seated quietly at a table with ahalf-filled memorandum book before her and a much-used pencil in herhand.

  Olive flitted in from the adjoining chamber with her new frock halfbuttoned. "Oh, never mind, if we can't afford the thing I suggested,"she said soothingly. "I am afraid it will cost an awful lot, but I readthat every traveler across a desert ought to have a sleeping bag to takealong. We can wrap up in our old blankets and comforts, but I thought itwould be fine to get a bag for Ruth if we could, for you know she issuch a chilly person, and if she isn't comfortable at night she will lieawake and listen to the strange sounds of the desert that we love andshe fears."

  Jack looked instantly penitent. She was never impatient with Olive, asshe sometimes was with Jean; and, besides, she had about finisheddressing and the reflection in the glass was gratifying. The ranch girlshad new spring suits sent from the East. Jack's was brown, and herlittle straw toque had in it a curling feather that matched the bronzetones in her hair.

  "We will have the sleeping bag if we have to go without shoes," sheanswered amiably. "But, Jean, dear, why do you have to have a bottle ofviolet perfume to take with you across the plains when you have livedfor some sixteen years without one?"

  "That's just the reason, Jack Ralston," Jean returned uncompromisingly."I wonder when you'll learn that we are not tomboys any longer and oughtto have the things other girls have. You know you are as vain of yourappearance in that suit Cousin Ruth made you get, as you can be. I mustsay you do look rather well in it."

  Jack kissed Jean quickly. "I am an interfering old thing," she confessedmeekly. "But please don't talk about our being nearly grown up, for itfrightens me; I am not going to be grown for years and years. Promise meyou won't say a word about my remembering that I am a girl and a fairlyelderly one the whole time we are on our caravan trip and I'll agree todo whatever _you_ wish while we are in Laramie."

  "All right. Here comes Frieda and Cousin Ruth, so it must be almost timefor us to start," Jean consented, stuffing her paper and pencil into hershiny new traveling bag.

  Jean, Jack and Olive were about to leave for the city of Laramie topurchase the supplies for their caravan trip to the Yellowstone Park.

  Several weeks had passed since Jean originated her wonderful idea, andmost of the arrangements for the journey had been completed. The Harmonshad signed the contract to rent Rainbow Lodge for the summer, and FrankKent had gone to Colorado, after a short visit at the ranch, threateningto meet the girls again in some out-of-the-way place before theirholiday was over.

  The girls were trying not to appear perturbed, though they were reallyin a great state of excitement. For the first time in their lives theywere to spend two nights alone in a hotel. Jim could not leave theranch, on account of some special business; Ruth could not accompanythem, because she would not leave Frieda, who had a bad cold and was notwell enough to go. However, Mrs. Peterson, the proprietress of aboarding place where the girls were to stay, was an acquaintance ofJim's and had promised to act as their chaperon.

  Frieda tumbled into the room at this instant, with her big blue eyesmore aggrieved than usual and her small nose distinctly pink around theedges. It was her first experience in being left at home and she wasnot happy over it. She flung her arms about her sister, and Jack leanedover to whisper pleadingly, "Promise you won't cry when we go, baby, andwe'll bring you and Ruth the funniest surprise presents in town."

  While Ruth was rearranging Jean's hat, which had slipped to one side inthe flurry of departure, and straightening Olive's long coat, therattling of the horses' harness and Jim's voice telling the girls tohurry could be distinctly heard.

  "Don't forget my list of medicines, Jean, and don't forget the newtoothbrushes," Ruth advised hastily. "And, Jack, please, for goodness'sake, don't fail to keep your appointment with the Harmons at theirhotel to-morrow afternoon. As they have been good enough to wait in townan extra week for us to give up the Lodge to them after their long tripfrom New York, you ought to be willing to meet them if they wish it."

  "Well, I'm not willing, Ruth," Jack demurred; "though we promise to keepour words like ladies. I confess I am horribly embarrassed at having tocall on entire strangers with no one even to introduce us. I do devoutlyhope the men of the family won't think they have to appear, because Iam afraid enough of the mother and daughter. I suppose it is this poorElizabeth Harmon who is curious to see what we are like, so I presume wewill have to give her the pleasure. Imagine us, Ruth, at five to-morrowafternoon making our bows to the rich New Yorkers. It is silly of me,but I have taken a dislike to the entire Harmon family simply becausethey are going to live in our home for a while, I suppose, though I amanxious enough for their money for our holiday."

  During Jack's monologue the girls had gone into the yard, and a fewminutes later Ruth and Frieda were almost overpowered by the fervor oftheir farewell embraces. The last glimpse they had of the travelers,Jack was standing up in their wagon, with Jean and Olive clutching ather skirts and entirely unmindful of the grandeur of her new attire,waving both hands and giving the familiar, long-drawn-out call of thecowboys of the Rainbow Ranch.

  The trip to Laramie was uneventful, and though the ranch girls sleptthree in a bed, and talked till almost morning that they might enjoy tothe full the novelty of the experience, their first night at Mrs.Peterson's boarding house was equally without excitement.

  By eight o'clock the following morning the girls set out on their firstregular shopping expedition, and by four in the afternoon Jean sankdejectedly down on a stool in a grocery store. "Girls," she declaredwearily, "we have shopped all day and shopped all night and shoppedagain until broad daylight. At least, I feel as if we had, and if youdon't take me somewhere to rest I shall surely die." But the girls hadscrimped and saved pennies all day in order to buy the sleeping bags forRuth and Freida, and would not give up until they were purchased.

  Poor Jean was forcibly dragged from her resting place by Olive and Jack,and the three girls set out down the street again, gazing in all theshop windows. "For mercy's sake, what kind of a store would keep asleeping bag, Olive?" Jean inquired mournfully, leaning heavily uponJack, who walked next her. "I have seen a punching bag in Jim's room atthe rancho, and I have heard somewhere of carpet-bags, but I have nomore idea of what a sleeping bag is like than the old man in the moon."

  "Well, I don't know exactly either, Jean," Olive confessed, walking alittle in advance of her friends, with her eyes on the ground. Herfrightened "Oh!" and stumble against Jack brought the entire party to astandstill. A young man had been marching along the street toward themin an entirely abstracted state of mind and had run into Olive.

  "I beg your pardon," he stammered apologetically. "I am not a native ofthis place and----"

  Jack's eyes flashed with indignation and Olive flushed, with the softcolor that was peculiar to her rising in delicate waves from her throatto her forehead, but mischievous Jean giggled. "Is it the custom to bumpinto people in the place you do come from?" she inquired innocently."Because, crude as we are, it isn't the custom here."

  Jack frowned at Jean's frivolity, indicating very plainly that MissBruce was not to enter into a conversa
tion with a stranger, but she neednot have worried, because the young man was not paying the leastattention either to her or Jean. He was staring at Olive, not rudely,but with a curious, questioning gaze that made her drop her dark eyesuntil her long, straight lashes touched her cheeks.

  "I hope I didn't hurt you," the young fellow protested awkwardly. Oliveshook her head without glancing up, but the other two girls got a goodlook at him. He was almost as dark as Olive herself, although he hadnone of her foreign appearance, and was big and broad-shouldered, andseemed to be an eastern college fellow, twenty or twenty-one years old.

  Jack engineered her party into a near-by department store, leaving theyoung man still staring after them with his hat in his hand.

  "Great Scott, what a boor I was!" he exclaimed to himself a secondlater. "But I never had anything strike me so all of a heap as thatgirl's face in my life." And he strode away looking tremendouslypuzzled.

  Fortunately the brown woolen sleeping bag for Ruth was discovered inthis first shop, but by the time a smaller one was bought for Frieda, itoccurred to Jack to ask the time, as no one of them possessed a watch,and Jean and Olive had wandered off to make new investments in motorveils. "Ten minutes to five o'clock," the shopkeeper announced, andJack's heart sank to zero. All day she had been wishing that she had notpromised Ruth to keep the appointment with the Harmons, but what wouldJean and Olive do when they found they had no time to dress before theirengagement?

  "Girls," a sepulchral voice whispered suddenly in Jean's ear, "we havejust ten minutes to get to the hotel to call on those dreadful Harmons,if we rush off this minute."

  Jean caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror which happened to be justbefore her on the counter. Her stylish appearance of the morning haddisappeared; her hat was on one side and a smudge decorated the tip ofher piquant nose. Then she gazed disapprovingly at Jack, who was almostas much wilted and whose hair was anything but neat. Olive's appearancewas the best, but she was unusually pale, with violet shadows under hereyes and a soft droop to her whole body.

  "Behold the Three Graces!" Jean remarked disdainfully. "Jack Ralston,I'll not go a step to call on those people until we have had a chance tofix ourselves up. I know they will talk all summer about how dreadful weare if they see us first looking such frights."

  "But, Jean," Jack argued, as much depressed as her cousin, "if we goback to our boarding place and dress before we make our call we shall beso horribly late that Mrs. Harmon probably won't see us and she may beso offended that she will refuse to come to the Lodge this summer. Thengood-by to our caravan trip."

  Jean's rebellious attitude slowly altered. "But what shall I do aboutthe smut on my nose, Jack?" she objected faintly.

  "Rub it off with your handkerchief," Jack replied cruelly, as the threegirls made a hurried rush for a car.

  "But we may meet the son of the family, and I think Donald Harmon is adream of a name," Jean continued mournfully, "and I did hope that one ofus would be able to make an impression on him."

  Olive laughed and gave Jack's hand a conciliatory squeeze, for Jack'sface had flushed as it usually did when Jean made any such teasingsuggestion. The truth of the matter was that Jack hated to think therewas any real difference between friendship with a boy or a girl, andJean, though she only joked about the subject at present, cherished avery different idea.

  "It is much more important that we make ourselves agreeable to Mrs.Harmon and her daughter," Jack answered, with her nose in the air, asshe sat down in the car, but Jean merely lifted her pretty shouldersand gave a sly glance at Olive. "Oh, I beg your pardon, Miss Ralston,"she apologized. "I forgot you were a man-hater, unless one leaves FrankKent out of the question." This was a hateful speech of Jean's and shedeserved the speedy punishment she received.

  The three ranch girls found the hotel they sought and were given thenumber of Mrs. Harmon's sitting room. They hesitated for a minuteoutside her door. "I don't know why I feel so nervous about going in,just as though something dreadful was going to happen," Jack whisperedsoftly. "I don't even like to knock."

  "I know what is troubling you, Jack," Olive murmured gently. "None of ushas confessed it to the other, but I believe we are nervous aboutmeeting Elizabeth Harmon. We don't know how ill she is or whether she iseven able to walk, and we are afraid we may do or say the wrong thing."

  "I am sure you won't, Olive," Jack returned, as she summoned courage toknock at the closed door. The girls thought they heard a faint responsefrom the inside, and walked slowly into the room, hesitating for amoment because of the sudden change from daylight to almost completedarkness. The blinds at the windows were drawn closely down, and therewas no light except that which shone from two rose-colored candles thatburned on the tall mantel-piece. No one seemed to be in the room as Jeanstarted blindly forward. Olive put out her hand to stop her, but she wasnot in time, for at the same instant Jean plunged blindly into a smalltable loaded with teacups, and the quiet room echoed with the noise ofcrashing china and embarrassed exclamations from poor Jean.

  The next moment Jack and Olive saw a fragile figure rise up from animmense leather chair and swing herself toward them on a single crutch.She was so thin and delicate and dressed in such an exquisite clingingwhite gown that she looked like the ghost of a girl, the only colorabout whom was the mass of shining red-gold hair that hung in a loosecloud over her shoulders.

  "Oh, I am so sorry and ashamed!" Jean murmured miserably, her brown eyesfilling with tears, as she surveyed the havoc she had wrought.

  "Please don't mind; it was all my fault." Elizabeth Harmon put out asmall, hot hand and touched Jean's fingers shyly. "I know I ought notto have had the room so dark when you came in, but I have a fancy formeeting people for the first time in the soft candle light."

  Elizabeth spoke the last words gently and Jack tried to conceal it, buther hostess knew that the girl with the sympathetic warm gray eyesunderstood why she preferred to meet strangers in a semi-darkness.

  Elizabeth was not a pretty girl. Her eyes were too pale a blue and shelooked too ill for beauty; besides, her face had a wilful and unhappyexpression, and yet, in spite of these defects, she had a curious kindof grace and charm.

  Jean and Olive were trying vainly to pick up the shattered teacups, soit was Jack who first saw Elizabeth Harmon's dilemma. She had walkedacross the room toward them, but she was not strong enough to get backto her chair alone and she was too sensitive to ask for help. Jack puther arm about her hostess, without waiting for her permission, and ledher to a chair, then she sat down on a little spindle-legged stool nearher, feeling shy and confused.

  "You shouldn't have helped me; I hate to have people do things for me,"Elizabeth remarked rudely. "I could have walked back to my chairperfectly well by myself. Please do sit down, everybody; you make mefeel dreadfully nervous. Mother would join us if she knew you werehere."

  The ranch girls were embarrassed by their hostess' ungracious manner,but they could not be really angry with her. Jean and Olive wondered whyshe didn't let her mother know of their arrival. Again Jack guessed thetruth. Elizabeth could not get across the room to the bell and would notask one of them to ring it for her. After a few moments of uncomfortablesilence, Elizabeth bent over toward Jack, whispering softly: "Forgive mybeing so hateful, and thank you for helping me. I have wanted dreadfullyto know you girls, but I'm afraid you'll think I am so spoiled you won'thave anything to do with me. Will you please ring the bell?"

  Jack moved quietly across the room, but before she reached the bell thedoor flew open, admitting a big fellow with flashing white teeth. Hestopped in amazement at the sight of the three visitors. Jean and Jackrecognized him at once as the young man who had stared at Olive socuriously after running into her on the street.