house," agreed Susie, trying
to decide whether to put on her shoes and stockings and suffer from the
heat in that manner, or to go bare-footed and burn her tender soles on
the hot sands.

"Le's do down to the river to-day," lisped Janie, lifting eager eyes to
scan the dark face bending over, as Tabitha patiently brushed the
tangled curls into smooth ringlets.

"Oh, let's!" seconded the twins.

"You know we had to stay at home yesterday when the rest of you went,"
wheedled Inez.

"And 'twould have been awful lonesome," began Irene, "if it hadn't been
for that----"

"Ice-cream," hastily interposed Susie, giving the little blunderbus a
warning glance. "Can't we go, Tabitha? It would be so much cooler
there."

"I don't see how we can manage it," answered the flushed housekeeper,
glancing longingly out of the window down the yellow ribbon of a road
which wound its way in and out among the rocks and yuccas on its way to
the muddy Colorado, seven miles away. "The assayer will be wanting his
horses to-day and it's too far to walk."

"Can't we hire a team from the stables?" proposed Inez.

"And pay ten dollars a day for it?" scoffed Mercedes. "Where are you
going to get your money to foot the bill?"

"Then let's catch enough burros to lug us all," suggested the
resourceful Susie. "No one would care. They run loose on the desert
all the time."

Tabitha shook her head slowly, although her eyes gleamed appreciatively
at the plan. If only Rosslyn and Janie were older! How she would
enjoy such a frolic as Susie's suggestion would mean.

Only Gloriana remained discreetly silent.

She shuddered whenever she recalled her first and only ride on one of
the wicked little beasts,--that wild New Years Even when she and
Tabitha had tried to keep Mr. McKittrick's claims from being
jumped,--and she drew an audible sigh of relief at Tabitha's decision.
But the next instant her heart sank within her, for with a scurry of
feet in the narrow hallway, the door of the room was unceremoniously
flung open, and two eager, boyish faces peered in.

"I say, Tab," began Billiard, so excited he could hardly refrain from
shouting his news, "your Uncle Decker is out here----"

"And he's brung a whole--flock--of burros," broke in Toady, so anxious
to tell part of the good news that he could not stop for choice of
words.

"Saddled," Billiard hurried on, trying to beat Toady to the climax.

"For us!" cried the smaller boy.

"To rid