alked, I have been thinking. We did hate the
idea of one and I am afraid I do still. But since our visit to Aunt
Sallie," Jack's beautiful straightforward face colored hotly, "Jean and
I believe we ought to have an older woman to live with us. You see it is
this way, Jim; we don't want to do things that even look wrong, just
because we don't know any better; and then we don't want to grow up
into perfect dunces. Jean and I don't seem to study at all with no one
to teach us, and Olive and Frieda are so anxious to learn that they make
us ashamed." Jack sighed. "What's the use of telling you all this? Of
course we can't think of sending for a chaperon now when we do not know
how long we will have a home to live in ourselves."

Jack had been crying a little, but now she threw her head back with a
familiar gesture and winked bravely. "Let's don't talk about our
troubles any more, Jim. Mr. Norton hasn't taken possession of Rainbow
Ranch yet by any means. Who knows what may happen in two months?"

"Shall I go to Laramie to-morrow and order out a chaperon, Miss
Ralston?" Jim queried calmly. "Suppose I put an ad in the paper.
'Wanted: a long-suffering lady, who knows everything, to chaperon and
instruct four young ladies who know nothing, but have difficult and
unmanageable tempers, particularly the eldest.' Sounds an attractive
advertisement. Ought to get a lot of answers."

Jack gazed inquiringly at their devoted friend and counsellor.

"You mean, Jim, that you think we had better go on and have a chaperon,
just as we planned, as though there was no danger of our losing the
ranch?"

Jim nodded silently. He placed a cautious finger on his lips. He was
leaning forward in his saddle, intent on something ahead.

Jack did not notice. "We don't want to have any one to live with us whom
we know nothing about," she went on, "so I expect we had better send for
mother's cousin, Ruth Drew. She is a fussy New England old maid, and
terribly prim, but she wrote she would come out to us, and if she can
stand for us, why,--what was that, Jim?" Jack finished breathlessly.

"Shsh!" Jim whispered softly. "Keep perfectly still until we know."

CHAPTER XII.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DIVIDE.

JIM COLTER and Jack had ridden to the lower end of Rainbow Creek, where
it widened into a kind of natural reservoir. Some yards beyond it, a
line of upright rails divided the Ralston ranch from that of the
Nortons. The earth dipped slightly