"DEAR SUSY AND RUTH: There's only room for me to say hello, and how are you? I wish I were a grand descriptive genius like Robert Louis Stevenson so that I could describe this wonderful Texas. But description isn't my strong point--you know how I just scraped through Eng. Comp. so I'll not try any flights.
"It isn't half as _wild_ as we used to imagine it. The cowboys don't go shooting up towns and hanging horse-thieves to all the trees the way they do in most of the Western stories. Even the cattle are tame, but Blue Bonnet says that is because they are fenced nowadays, and most of them de-horned. All the cowboys except two are Mexicans, and they are so picturesque and--different. Mr. Ashe says Texas is filling up with negroes but he won't have any on the ranch,--he sticks to the Mexicans, and I'm mighty glad, for they seem just to suit the atmosphere. Juanita, who waits on the table, is a beauty, with the most coquettish airs. Miguel is in love with her, and we all hope she won't keep him waiting too long, for if they are really going to be married, we want a grand wedding while we are here. Wouldn't that be thrilling?
"I've just room to sign my name,
"Yours, with love, "DEBBY."
"TO THE ABSENT TWO-SEVENTHS OF THE 'WE-ARE-ITS'--Greeting! Please don't imagine that I forced my way into this Round Robin affair. My masculine chirography probably looks out of place in this epistolary triumph--ahem!--but you can thank Kitty Clark for it. I don't know whether or not this is intended as a letter of condolence, but it surely ought to be,--anybody who has to miss this summer-session on the Blue Bonnet ranch deserves flowers and slow music.
"This letter will be postmarked 'Jonah'--but don't be alarmed; they say it's a harmless one. I'm going to ride over with the mail. Just a little matter of twenty miles, a trifle out here! Kitty says she doesn't see how we can expect any letters to reach a place with such a name, but I've faith in the collection of relatives left behind in Woodford.
"Now I advise you both, the next time you go into the vicinity of anything catching, cross your fingers and say 'King's Ex.' for you're missing the time of your young lives. As a place of residence, Texas certainly has my vote. A fellow can breathe his lungs full here without robbing the next fellow of oxygen.
"With unbounded sympathy, "Yours, "ALEC TRENT."
Blue Bonnet collected the literary installments from each of thedifferent authors and put them in a big envelope.
"This 'round-robin' is as plump as a partridge," she remarked. "I hopeSusy and Ruth won't strain their eyes devouring it."
"The Woodford postman in our part of town will have an unusually warmgreeting, I fancy," said Mrs. Clyde, gathering up all the otherletters and placing them with the round-robin in the roomy mail-bag.
"I think Father had better have a social at the church for theWe-are-Seven relatives and ask them to bring our letters. Reading andpassing them around would make a very interesting evening'sentertainment," said Sarah.
Blue Bonnet paused long enough to shake her. "Don't you dare suggestsuch a horrible thing to your father, Sarah! My letter wasn't intendedfor--public consumption."
"Nor mine!" exclaimed Kitty. "Father and mother know what ascatter-brain I am, but it's a family skeleton which they don't careto have aired."
"Is the mail all in?" asked Alec in an official tone.
"All in, postmaster," replied Mrs. Clyde, fastening the bag andhanding it to him with a smile. "You're not going alone, are you?"
"No, Shady is going along this trip, Senora," he replied.
"Why don't we all go?" asked Blue Bonnet; "it isn't much of a ride."
Sarah looked up in alarm, but met Mrs. Clyde's reassuring glance. "Notthis time, dear," she returned to Blue Bonnet. "So far you have hadall play and no work. The piano hasn't been touched since wearrived."
Blue Bonnet said nothing, but into her eyes there sprang a suddenrebellion. Out there by the stables Don and Solomon were frolicking,ready at a moment's notice to dash away at Firefly's heels. Away infront of the house stretched the road and the prairie, callingirresistibly to her restless, roving spirit. And vacation had been solong in coming! If grandmother were going to be like Aunt Lucinda--Again there flashed into her mind the wish so often voiced inWoodford: that there might be two of her, so that one might stay athome and be taught things while the other went wandering about as sheliked. All at once she remembered Alec's suggestion--that she adoptSarah as her "alter ego." A smile drove the cloud from her eyes."Can't Sarah do my practising while I do her riding?" she askedcoaxingly.
Her grandmother hid a smile as she said: "I was under the impressionthat my coming to the ranch was to see that Blue Bonnet Ashe did herpractising, mending, and had coffee only on Sundays."
Blue Bonnet colored. She had uttered those very words, and nobodyshould say that an Ashe was not sincere. Straightening up she met thequestioning looks of the other girls with a resolute glance."Grandmother is right, as she always is, girls. I'll go and practise,and you--what will you do?"
"I'm sure all the girls will be glad of a little time to themselves,"said the Senora. "Let us all do as we like until dinner-time. I'vebeen longing to sit in the shade of the big magnolia ever since Icame. I shall take a book and spend my two hours out there, and anyone who wishes may share my bower."
"Then I'll be off," said Alec. "Any commissions for me in Jonah?" Hestood like an orderly at attention, with the mail-bag slung over oneshoulder and his whole bearing expressive of the importance of hismission. The sun and the wind of the prairie had already tanned hissmooth skin to the ruddy hue of health, but Mrs. Clyde, observing himclosely, could not fail to note how very slim and frail the erectyoung figure was.
"Isn't twenty miles a rather long ride on a hot day?" she askedtactfully, fearing to wound the sensitive lad.
"We shall reach Kooch's ranch by noon, and we are to rest there untilit is cool again," he replied, flushing a little under her solicitousglance.
"Well, keep an eye on Shady!" said Blue Bonnet, waving him good-bye asshe went to do her practising.
Fifteen minutes later each member of the ranch party was busilyengaged in doing "just as she liked." Mrs. Clyde, deep in a book, satunder the fragrant magnolia; Kitty reclined on a Navajo blanket nearher, lazily watching the gay-plumaged birds that made the tree arendezvous. From the open windows of the living-room came aconscientious rendering of a "Czerny" exercise, enlivened now and thenby a bar or two of a rollicking dance, with which Blue Bonnetsugar-coated her pill. In the kitchen Debby and Amanda were deep inthe mysteries of "pinoche" under the tutelage of Lisa and Gertrudis;while Sarah, safe inside her own little sanctum, sat and drew threadsrapturously, and later, coached by the delighted Benita, wove theminto endless spider-webs.