camp on the nearby hillside, and
stayed for the celebration.

The two guests of honor were escorted to seats on the center platform,
expressly built for Mr. Samuel Wilson's phonograph, which by elevation, it
was believed, would furnish sufficient volume for dancing. In the few
intervals between the quickly succeeding introductions, Bear Canyon's two
school-mistresses began their acquaintanceship, and Mary found herself
strangely fascinated by plain Miss Martha Bumps. A critical analysis
failed to warrant the fascination. Certainly Miss Bumps' appearance was
not engrossing. To her, clothes were an economical and a social necessity.
She wore her traveling gown of faded blue gingham, which of itself was
inconspicuous, had it not been for two pockets of newer material on either
side of the front. These proofs of unheeded Scriptural warning, being far
different in size, gave the entire garment a sinister, cross-eyed effect,
which did not fail to catch the eye of the most casual observer. After a
surreptitious examination of the aforesaid pockets, Mary discovered that
one was occupied by Miss Bumps' ample handkerchief, and the other by her
tatting.

Nor was there anything extraordinary in the features of her successor.
Ordinary gray hair was parted most punctiliously upon a most ordinary
forehead. Her eyes were the usual blue, and her nose a trifle better
shaped than the average. In vain Mary searched for the hiding-place of the
fascination which years afterward she was to understand--that fascination
which is born of noblest enthusiasm and a passion for service, and which
can transform all the Valleys of Baca in the wide world.

Priscilla stood with Virginia and Donald, and with eyes full of eagerness
watched the gathering of Mr. Benjamin Jarvis' guests. She longed for Miss
King and Miss Wallace and Dorothy and the Blackmore Twins--yes, she even
longed for her mother, in spite of her apprehension lest her Bostonian
mother might not strictly appreciate this Wyoming barn-warming and the
cosmopolitan society attendant thereupon. She wanted them all to feel as
six weeks ago she had felt that indescribable _first_ thrill at the sight
of chaps and lariats and fully-equipped cowboys. She wanted them all to
realize that here in Mr. Benjamin Jarvis' new barn was a true democracy of
comradeship--a comradeship freed from the obnoxious fetters of ball-room
etiquette.

It was the interest sparkling in her brown eyes which made the Ci