Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party
CHAPTER XXII
HASTA LA VISTA
THE We are Sevens were packing. An open trunk blocked each aislebetween the six beds in the nursery; in Sarah's room two more werestanding, half-filled, one reflecting the neatness and order of itsowner, the other bearing silent witness to the fact that it belongedto Blue Bonnet Ashe.
"What are you doing with that old stick, Blue Bonnet?" asked Sarah, asshe carefully folded her riding-skirt and laid tissue paper betweenthe folds.
"Old stick, indeed! That's the alpenstock Knight cut for me and Sandycarved,--I've sawed off about six inches of it, though it broke myheart to do it. It's one of my dearest treasures and I'm going to takeit to Woodford if I have to carry it all the way!" Blue Bonnetdeclared vigorously.
"I don't see anything so wonderful about it," Sarah returned. "Thereare plenty of old sticks just like it to be had around Woodford."
Blue Bonnet lifted indignant eyes. "As if any old Woodford stick couldmean as much as this one. Why, this has the initials of every one inboth camps carved on it, and every inch of it represents a good time.You've no sentiment, Sarah."
"I certainly haven't enough sentiment to make me rumple my best whitedress with a clumsy old stick," Sarah replied.
"I reckon it ought to have gone in with my shoes, but it's too latenow. How you do fuss over that riding-skirt, Sarah!"
"Well, if you want to know it, I've a lot of sentiment about thatskirt. I wish I could take Comanche along, too."
Here Blue Bonnet amazed Sarah by jumping up and giving her a hug. "Oh,Sarah, I do love you for saying that! If you had been reconciled toriding that same old poke you had last year I'd have beenso--disgusted. Won't the livery-man in Woodford open his eyes whenMiss Blake demands a 'horse with some go in him'--! The inhabitants ofthe town will get a few thrills too, I reckon."
"Do you think it will be proper for us to ride there the way we ridehere?" Sarah asked eagerly.
"Astride? We'll make it proper! It's the only humane way, Unclesays--a side-saddle is a downright cruelty. And I don't see why aparson's daughter shouldn't set the fashion."
"Then Ruth will get a chance to wear her riding-skirt after all--herheart will be stronger after a while. I've hated to ride when shecouldn't, but she has insisted upon our going."
"That's just like you, you unselfish old dear! But Ruth told me thatit was the next best thing to riding herself, to see you on Comanche."
"Did she?" asked Sarah; and then hid her face in the trunk so thatBlue Bonnet should not see how pleased she was.
They were to leave in the morning, and trunks were to be sent to thestation this very afternoon. Already Uncle Joe was hovering about,rope in hand, waiting to give the final touch to the baggage. He hadfound it necessary to keep very busy these last few days.
"We might have seen this coming," he said disconsolately to Mr. Ashe,as the latter sat smoking a solitary pipe on the front veranda. "Letyoung folks get runnin' with young folks, and they're never againcontented alone."
"It isn't _young_ folks that's taking Blue Bonnet this time, Joe." Mr.Ashe glanced in to where a silver head showed just inside the window."_Her_ girl never went back to her from Texas, and I reckon it's onlyright she should have her share of Elizabeth's daughter."
Uncle Joe looked sober. "You're right, Cliff." Then, as if determinedto look on the bright side of things, "We'll have the boy forcompany."
"Yes, and there'll be more letters. She'll tell him things shewouldn't be likely to write to two old fellows." And with this crumbof comfort the "two old fellows" were forced to content themselves.
Blue Bonnet was up at daybreak next morning, and, sitting on the toprail of the pasture fence, watched the sun rise out of the prairie.Don and Solomon eyed her expectantly.
"Our last sunrise on the ranch, Solomon, for ever and ever solong,--we're off to Massachusetts this very morning. And it's aPullman for me and a baggage-car for you--no private car this time!But I'll come and see you at every station and see that you haveexercise. Poor dog, I wonder how you'll like the 'resumption ofdiscipline'--as Alec calls it? We're going back to Aunt Lucinda, youknow, Solomon, and Aunt Lucinda's strong for discipline."
Her eyes wandered off toward the distant hills and then away acrossthe wind-swept, rolling prairie. How would it seem to be back againamong houses, tall houses with trim door-yards and clippedhedges,--houses so close one couldn't throw a stone without "breakinga window or a tradition"--?
Some one was whistling "All the Blue Bonnets are over the Border." Shelooked up as Alec came towards her.
"Do I intrude upon a solemn hour?" he asked.
"The solemn hour has ticked its last second. I've said good-bye toeverything and everybody,--except Texas and Massachusetts. Come withme to see those infants."
Hardly infants any longer, however. Long-tailed, with erect silky earsand coats that stood out shaggily from their fattening sides, thecoyotes were fast growing into big, clumsy dogs.
"You'll look after them, won't you, Alec?" Blue Bonnet askedanxiously.
"That I will," he promised.
"And you'll write me often about--everything? And see that Uncle Cliffdoesn't smoke too much, and that Uncle Joe takes his rheumatismmedicine--"
"Trust me!" Alec knew better than to smile at such a moment. "And inturn, Blue Bonnet, you'll give an eye to Grandfather, won't you?"
They shook hands on it solemnly, and went in to breakfast.
Kitty, her face restored to its usual milky-whiteness, and lookingvery pretty in her jaunty travelling-suit, met them at the door.Peering over her shoulder stood Ruth--a sunburned Ruth with brighteyes and a rounder curve to her cheek than it had worn two weeksbefore.
"We were afraid you had decided to run off and hide at the lastminute," said Kitty, slipping her arm around Blue Bonnet as ifdetermined not to risk losing her a second time.
"I was only--saying good-bye," said Blue Bonnet soberly.
"Blue Bonnet is like more than one famous prima donna," said Alec,"she has made half a dozen 'positively last' farewell tours!"
They were off at last. Distributed equally between the buckboard andone of the farm-wagons, the We are Sevens, Grandmother Clyde, GeneralTrent and Uncle Joe went ahead. Blue Bonnet, Alec, and Uncle Clifffollowed on horseback.
As they neared the bridge Blue Bonnet drew rein, and, turning in thesaddle, glanced back for a last look at the weather-stained oldranch-house. The cowboys and most of the Mexicans, who had gathered tosay good-bye to the Senorita and her "amigos" from Massachusetts, werealready scattering about the work of the day. But in the doorway thefaithful Benita still stood, waving her apron.
Blue Bonnet's eyes filled.
"Good-bye, old house, good-bye, Benita," she said, and then addedsoftly: "_Hasta la vista!_"
=THE END.=
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