most of his time and
thought was the purchase and refitting of a roomy old ranch-house in a
charming location, not more than three miles from Ashland, on the road
to the camp.

It had been vacant for a couple of years past, the owner having gone
abroad permanently and the place having been offered for sale. Margaret
had often admired it in her trips to and from the camp, and Gardley
thought of it at once when it became possible for him to think of
purchasing a home in the West.

There was a great stone fireplace, and the beams of the ceilings and
pillars of the porch and wide, hospitable rooms were of tree-trunks with
the bark on them. With a little work it could be made roughly but
artistically habitable. Gardley had it cleaned up, not disturbing the
tangle of vines and shrubbery that had had their way since the last
owner had left them and which had made a perfect screen from the road
for the house.

Behind this screen the men worked--most of them the men from the
bunk-house, whom Gardley took into his confidence.

The floors were carefully scrubbed under the direction of Mom Wallis,
and the windows made shining. Then the men spent a day bringing great
loads of tree-boughs and filling the place with green fragrance, until
the big living-room looked like a woodland bower. Gardley made a raid
upon some Indian friends of his and came back with several fine Navajo
rugs and blankets, which he spread about the room luxuriously on the
floor and over the rude benches which the men had constructed. They
piled the fireplace with big logs, and Gardley took over some of his own
personal possessions that he had brought back from the East with him to
give the place a livable look. Then he stood back satisfied. The place
was fit to bring his bride and her friends to. Not that it was as it
should be. That would be for Margaret to do, but it would serve as a
temporary stopping-place if there came need. If no need came, why, the
place was there, anyway, hers and his. A tender light grew in his eyes
as he looked it over in the dying light of the afternoon. Then he went
out and rode swiftly to the telegraph-office and found these two
telegrams, according to the request in his own letter to Mr. Earle.

Gardley's telegram read:

Congratulations. Will come as you desire. We await your advice.
Have written.--FATHER.

He saddled his horse and hurried to Margaret with hers, and together
they read:

Dear child! So glad