Miss Kit. When I saw you I thought you had
come straight from the 18th Century, and here you are quite modern and
thrilling."

The Colonel led the way again into the drawing room, placed a chair for
Kit and in a few moments her embarrassment was gone and she was talking
to him about her home in Arizona as if she had always known him. He
seemed interested in every detail of her life in the mountains and
would exclaim with pleasure over some of the commonplace things that
she related, just as Bet and her chums had done.

The three girls had left her alone with Colonel Baxter while they went
to help Auntie Gibbs, for the Manor was not over supplied with
servants. Auntie Gibbs found it hard to get along with anyone and
preferred to do most of the work herself, having extra help come in as
needed.

At dinner Kit would have felt out of place if Bet's father had not kept
her talking about her life in Arizona. Kit's home had been one of
makeshifts and to be seated at a table where the stateliness and
formality of the old Colonial days was being retained, made her uneasy
and anxious for fear she might make some blunder.

But Bet and her father took her attention away from such details.

"Are there any Indians left in your part of the country, Miss Kit?" the
Colonel asked graciously.

"Not very many. They have died out pretty fast in the last fifty
years. They are mostly on reservations."

"What is the tribe called?" questioned Bet.

"The Apaches live up in the hills and then down nearer the towns there
are Papagos. The latter have always been peaceful Indians and lived by
farming."

"Ugh! I'd be frightened of an Indian. Aren't you, Kit?" asked Joy.

"No, not a bit. They are perfectly friendly. Most of them are too
easy-going to do any harm."

"But I thought all Apaches were cruel."

"Indeed they're not!" exclaimed Kit indignantly. "My father has had
old Apache Joe working for him ever since I can remember. He and his
squaw, Mary, pretty nearly brought me up. I love them both, and Indian
Mary is the kindest old thing in the world. Why Pa and Ma couldn't get
along without them!"

"Are there any other Indians near them?" asked Shirley.

"No. They have company from the Reservation sometimes, but they seem
perfectly happy with us."

Kit could not help but notice how different this dinner was from her
hastily-eaten meals in Arizona. Here there was no hurry, the dessert
had been finished for some t