ight be Mr.
Colter. Evidently he was not. He stared at her curiously for a few
seconds, then searched anxiously along every other exit of the train.

Cousin Ruth could discover no one else. The madcap girl, who had run her
wild race with the train, was a little distance off. She was holding
three ponies by their bridles, and as one of them was dancing with
nervousness on account of the noise of the engine, the girl had her
hands full.

Ruth Drew's heart sank to ten degrees below zero. Had she traveled
across the continent to a wild Western town to find no one to meet her?
The ranch girls could not be so rude; and Ruth determined to ask the
good-looking man with the worried expression, what she ought to do.

[Illustration: "CAN I DO ANYTHING FOR YOU, MA'AM?"]

Jim was gazing sadly after the departing coaches. You see he was looking
for a white-haired woman of about fifty, and supposed that the old lady
hadn't known enough to get off the train at the right station, and had
gone on to the next stop. How in the world would he be able to connect
with her?

Jim saw the young woman on the platform, but she wasn't as large and
didn't seem to him to be much older than Jack. He supposed she had come
to visit some of their ranch neighbors, yet she looked unhappy, as
though she wanted to cry. Jim's heart was touched.

He took off his broad Mexican hat, and Ruth thought with a sudden gasp
that she had never seen such blue eyes and such black hair before.

"Can I do anything for you, ma'am?" Jim inquired politely. "It 'pears
like your folks haven't come to meet you."

Ruth shook her head. She was too full of tears to trust herself to speak
for a moment. "I am afraid not," she answered finally. "Will you be good
enough to tell me how I can get over to the Rainbow Ranch? I have come
to live with the Ralston girls. I am their cousin--"

"Not Ruth?" Jim exclaimed, forgetting his shyness in his surprise. "You
can't be Cousin Ruth, because the girls told me she was an old maid."
Jim stopped abruptly, conscious that he had put his foot in it with his
first remark to their new visitor.

Cousin Ruth drew herself up a little stiffly. She did not like to be
called "an old maid," perhaps because she knew she often acted and
looked like one, but she was too tired to care much about anything at
present. She only longed with all her heart to be driven home to Rainbow
Lodge.

"I am Cousin Ruth just the same," she answered feebly, trying