The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

until several days after the others. So it happened that the same morning on which she slipped across the hall i

desert to Camelback Mountain. The horse dropped into a plodding walk as the wheels began pulling heavily through the sand, and the postman yawned. This stretch of road through the cactu

OND GLANCE TO TEL

ed Mexican hat hid the face of the wearer, but it needed no second glance to tell him who she was. Every line of the sturdy little figure, from the uplifted arms brandis

Whatever it is, it will be flatter than

m that made this fourteen-year-old girl a never-failing source of amusement to the easy-going postman. Now as he came within

fear and unfamiliarity in the handling of horses. She was a new boarder at Lee's ranch. Evidently they had been out on some errand for

st rattlesnakes he had ever seen lay stretched out there, and Mary, having dropped her club, was proceeding to drag it

ad before you give it a seat

sgust toward the blue-ve

ome. He gave it to me to take to Norman for his collection. But Miss Scudder is so scared of it that she makes me get out every half-mile to pound a few more inches off its neck.

cudder, so fervently that the

us?" Mary ca

tter for your sister," he

's uneasy hands. "Even if you can't drive, Bogus could take you to the ranch all right by himself. Lots of times when Hazel Lee and I are out driving, we wrap the reins around the whipholder and let him

as a grab-bag, since my two brothers went away. Holland is in the navy," she added, proudly, "and my oldest

er, but so diverting, with her fund of unexpected information and family history and her cheerful outlook on life, that Mr

and with a deathly horror of snakes, gave a sigh of relief when they came in sight of the white tents clustered around the brown adobe ranch house on the edge of the

sition in the mines ever since we came out West. It will be the making of him, everybody says. And Joyce's one dream in life has been to save enough money to go East to take lessons in designing. Her bee

dinarily she would have lingered at the ranch until the occupant of every tent had strolled out to admire her trophy, and afterward might have accepted Hazel Lee's invitation to stay to dinner. I

ut her curiosity was too strong to allow her to wait. She must find out what was in that letter to Joyce. If it were from Jack, there would be something in it about their plans for the summer; maybe a

ll to picturing its contents so blissfully that she forgot the heat of the sun-baked road over which she was going. Her face was beaded with perspiration and her eyes squinted nearly shut under the broad brim of the Mexican sombrero, but, revelling in the picture her mind called u

ike a roof, sat Joyce and her mother. The heap of muslin goods piled up around them showed that they had spent a busy morning sewing. But they were idle now. One glance showed Mary that the letter, whosever it was, had brought unusual news. Jo

wasn't. It's a pity she can't be hearing good news all the time. When her eyes shine like that, she's almost beautiful. Now me, all the

handkerchief, and not finding it in either, caught up the

e hammock swung under the umbrella-tree. "I've almost walked myself into a sunstr

d of the rope which Mary still held. Seeing that it was only a snake, something which Mary and

for the month of June, and Eugenia is to be married there instead of in New York. Think what a wedding it

produced. Mary's face was glowing with unse

d roses. Eugenia got the material in Paris when she ordered her wed

Mary's face w

month of June. He is to be best man, you k

by itself would be good enough, but to be there at a house-party, and have Phil there

ompted Mrs. Ware, gently. "Don't

lso. You are invited to go with me to the house-party at The Locusts! And you'll see the wedding, for Mr. Sherman is going to send tickets for both of us, and mamma and I have made all t

hot little face as Mary listene

"I don't see how it can be. But Joyce wouldn't

n her toes and squeal one delighted little squeal after another, as she usually did when particularly happy. She did not know w

p inflexible. Sometimes I thought it would nearly k-kill me! But we did it! We

the letter into Mary's lap and rose to follow her mother out to the hives. There were several matters of business to arrange with him, and Mary knew it would be some time before they could resume the exciting conversation he had interrupted. She read the letter through, hardly believing the magni

to tell Hazel that she was wholly unconscious of the fact that she was still holding tightly to the rope tied