hought that had often come to Belle,
and the pointed application that she made was to focus her college
studies on a business training. Bookkeeping, shorthand, and exact
methods were selected for specialization; and when at the age of twenty
Belle was graduated and went home to Cedar Mountain, she had, in
addition to her native common sense, a disciplined attention that made
her at once a power in the circle of the church. It was her own idea to
take a business position at once. Her mother was absolutely opposed to
it. "Why should her child be sent to work? Were they not able to keep
her at home? What was the good of parents giving years to toil if not to
keep their children at home with them?" Mr. Boyd was more inclined to
see things Belle's way, and at length a compromise was reached by which
Belle became her father's bookkeeper and secretary, and for a time all
went well.

Then a new factor entered the case, one for which the reformer has not
yet found a good answer. The daily routine of the desk was assumed as a
matter of course; and Belle quickly got used to that and found abundant
mental diversion in other things and in hours of freedom. But her body
had less strength than her mind, and the close confinement of the office
began to tell. Her hands got thin, her cheeks lost their colour, her
eyes grew brighter. Mrs. Boyd began to worry, and sent secretly to
Illinois for bottles of various elixirs of life, guaranteed to put
health, strength, youth, and brains into anything. She also made foolish
and elaborate efforts to trick the daughter into eating more at meals,
or between meals, without avail. At this juncture a very capable person
took matters in hand. Dr. Peter Carson, family physician and devoted
friend, was consulted; his views were clear and convincing: Belle must
give up the office for a year at least; she needed fresh air and sun;
the more the better. Every girl in the Black Hills rides as a matter of
course, and Belle was at home on a broncho; but now it must be, not an
occasional run, but a daily ride in the hills--off for miles, till the
vital forces had renewed their strength.

For a month or more Belle rode and browned in the sun. The colour came
again to her cheeks, and zest to her life; and there also came a strong
desire to be in a business of her own. But it must be something out of
doors; it must be something of little capital; and something a woman
could do. Belle studied her problem with great