heir feet and stared. They saw a little, blue-ginghamed woman under a
huge peanut-straw hat, who sat in her own front doorway beside a
substantial trustee and tatted while her interested eyes scanned her
chosen country. Spying the four wayside spectators and doubtless mistaking
them for members of her future flock, she smiled from behind a pair of
gold-bowed spectacles, and waved a welcoming tatting-shuttle.

"She thinks I'm one of the children," said the former Bear Canyon
school-mistress. "She doesn't recognize me as a professional friend. But
I'm going to call upon her to-morrow if it's the last thing I do while I'm
in Wyoming. Maybe, since I know the Bear Canyon school, I'll even dare
give her some suggestions. I'm so anxious she should understand Allan."

But Mary's call was never made, for an hour later Mr. Benjamin Jarvis rode
in to announce with an air of mystery a barn-warming in his new building
for that very evening.

"It's short notice," he explained to those who had met his invitation with
instantaneous and delighted acceptance, "it's short notice, but, when you
come to think of it, there ain't much time left. You ladies go back East
in less than a week, and the threshers may come any day, so I says to
Allan this mornin' that seein' the floor was laid we hadn't better wait to
get the windows in nor any finishin' touches. It will be a farewell party
from Bear Canyon to you, Miss Mary, and a welcomin' one to the new
teacher. I just rode past the school-house to see how she felt about
to-night before invitin' the others. She's all set up an' settled in the
pine grove next the school, ain't tired a mite, and says there's nothing
like a neighborhood party to get a person acquainted."

Mary repeated her appreciation as the second trustee, having announced the
time of assembling and probable other guests, turned his horse's head
homeward. Nor were the others slow to voice their own. Virginia was
radiant. A real Wyoming barn-warming, she told Mr. Jarvis, seemed the
final joy in their collection of summer treasures, and she could not be
grateful enough for his hospitality toward her guests.

Everybody for miles around would be there, she announced that evening as
they hurried from supper to dress. All the people in the Canyon and the
Valley, and even the forest rangers from Sagebrush Point and Cinnamon
Creek. It would not be much like a Gordon dance or one at St. Helen's, but
she knew they would enjoy it. Yes, sh