have been through, we need a good full night's
rest," replied Anne.

"Chances are Nolla and I won't close an eye! What, with gold mines, and
John, and the Latimer boys, and Ken Evans coming to town--and
claim-jumpers, and everything!" laughed Polly.

"You mean that young stranger we met at Oak Creek?" asked Barbara,
frigidly.

"Yes,--the one who looked so pleasant but forlorn," said Eleanor,
sympathetically.

"His name was Kenneth Evans, you know, Bob," explained Polly,
innocently.

Eleanor and Anne exchanged glances and smiled, for they understood that
Barbara meant to be condemnatory in her manner; but Polly, in her very
guilelessness, countered the city girl's disparagement.

"It's too bad we couldn't have had him come home with us," added
Eleanor, teasingly, to Barbara.

"Dear me, Nolla! By the time I get you back to Chicago you will need a
complete training in social behavior again!" declared Barbara, frowning
at her younger sister.

But her remark merely called forth a merry laugh from the light-hearted
girl. Mrs. Brewster then started the usual preparations for bed, and the
group followed her example.

For the benefit of any one who has not been fortunate enough to become
acquainted with our western friends, in the first book of this series,
we will introduce you while the girls are soundly sleeping.

Polly Brewster, a girl just past fourteen, was a true type of the
honest, ambitious ranchers of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Her home,
the extensive farm in the crater of an extinct volcano, was called
Pebbly Pit because of the giant cliffs of colored stones guarding the
entrance trail. This ranch was about eleven miles from Oak Creek, the
mining settlement and railroad station for about a thousand inhabitants,
where all shopping had to be done. The town was much like other rough,
half-civilized western settlements, consisting of a post office, a bank,
the sheriff's office, and several saloons. A general store was
maintained in connection with the post office, and here one must buy
anything needed for house or farm. The Brewsters, being affluent
ranchers, ordered their clothing, house-furnishings, and many tools or
luxuries by mail, from illustrated catalogues. But the rough road from
the ranch to the town post office, being hard going in a heavy
ranch-wagon, often caused the Brewsters to forego a mail order on
cosmopolitan stores rather than drive in and cart the goods home from
Oak Creek.

Pol