ired, and overdressed beauty; but, little
by little, her interest flagged, and when a six-year-old girlie loses
interest in a brand-new doll something serious must be the matter.

Something decidedly serious was the matter now. The train that came up
from Denver had brought this little maiden and her father,--a handsome,
sturdy-looking ranchman of about thirty years of age,--and they had been
welcomed with jubilant cordiality by two or three stalwart men in
broad-brimmed slouch hats and frontier garb. They had picked her up in
their brawny arms and carried her to the waiting-room, and seated her
there in state and fed her with fruit and dainties, and made much of
her. Then her father had come in and placed in her arms this wonderful
new doll, and while she was still hugging it in her delight, he laid a
heavy satchel on the seat beside her and said,--

"And now, baby, papa has to go up-town a ways. He has lots of things to
get to take home with us, and some new horses to try. He may be gone a
whole hour, but will you stay right here--you and dolly--and take good
care of the satchel?"

She looked up a little wistfully. She did not quite like to be left
behind, but she felt sure papa could not well take her,--he was always
so loving and kind,--and then, there was dolly; and there were other
children with their mothers in the room. So she nodded, and put up her
little face for his kiss. He took her in his arms a minute and hugged
her tight.

"That's my own little Jessie!" he said. "She's as brave as her mother
was, fellows, and it's saying a heap."

With that he set her down upon the bench, and they put dolly in her
arms again and a package of apples within her reach; and then the jolly
party started off.

They waved their hands to her through the window and she smiled shyly at
them, and one of them called to a baggage-man and told him to have an
eye on little Jessie in there. "She is Farron's kid."

For a while matters did not go so very badly. Other children, who came
to look at that marvellous doll and to make timid advances, kept her
interested. But presently the east-bound train was signalled and they
were all whisked away.

Then came a space of over an hour, during which little Jessie sat there
all alone in the big, bare room, playing contentedly with her new toy
and chattering in low-toned, murmurous "baby talk" to her, and pointing
out the wonderful sunbeams that came slanting in through the dust of the
we