d of the resources of the household.

"That's all right. I'll get in the Reposa boys to help San Soo and
Ming."

"Victorino, too?" asked his daughter, curiously.

"Yes," declared the Captain, stoutly. "He's sorry he mixed up with Ratty
M'Gill. Vic isn't a bad boy. Well, that's help enough, and San Soo can
outdo himself on his dinner."

"That part of it will be all right--and the service, too, for Jose and
Victorino are handy boys," admitted Frances.

"We'll have out the best tableware we own. That silver stuff that came
from Don Morales will knock their eyes out----"

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Frances, going off into a gale of laughter. "You
picked up that expression from Tom Gallup."

"That's the slangy boy--yes," admitted the old ranchman, with a broad
smile. "But some of his slang just hits things off right. Some of those
girls think you're 'country,' I know. We'll show them!"

Frances sighed. She knew it meant that she must dress the part of a
barbarian princess to please her father. But she made no objection. If
she tried to show him that the jewels and ornaments were not fit for her
to wear, he would be hurt.

"Yes!" exclaimed Captain Rugley, evidently much pleased with the idea of
a social time that he had evolved with Mrs. Edwards' help, "we'll have
as nice a dinner as San Soo can make. After dinner we'll have dancing,
I'll get the string band from Jackleg. Jackleg's getting to be quite a
social centre, Mrs. Edwards says."

Frances laughed again. "I expect," she said, "that Mrs. Edwards is eager
to have a dance, and the Jackleg string band _is_ a whole lot
better than Bob Jones' accordion and Perry's old fiddle."

"Oh, well! Of course, an accordion and fiddle are all right for a cowboy
dance, but this is going to be the real thing!" declared her father.

"Aren't you going to invite the boys as usual?" asked Frances, quickly.

"Not to the dinner!" gasped her father. "But that's all right. To the
dance, afterward. Some of them are mighty good dancers, and there aren't
boys enough in Mrs. Edwards' crowd to go round. It's quite the thing at
a dinner dance, she says, to invite extra people to come in after the
dinner is over."

"All right," said Frances, suppressing another sigh.

"And I'm going to send off for half a carload of potted palms, and other
plants. We'll decorate like the Town Hall. You'll see!" exclaimed the
old ranchman, as eager as a boy about it all.

Frances hadn't the heart to make any o