g,
leaving Hippy here to protect the camp, Elfreda. You may take your rope
along and practice on me, if you wish," smiled Grace.

"You will be perfectly safe," murmured Emma.

Immediately after breakfast the two girls mounted and rode out along the
trail they had been following, now bordered on one side by a field of
rustling corn. Reaching the end of the cornfield they discovered, just
ahead, a cabin located in an open space of several acres of rugged
mountain land.

"That must be the place. We will ride up and find out," announced Grace,
clucking to her pony.

As they approached the cabin a slovenly looking woman, accompanied by
three children, one a girl that the Overlanders judged to be about
fourteen years of age, the other two girls being much younger, one a
mere toddler, came out and, shading her eyes with a hand, eyed the
newcomers suspiciously.

"Is this Mr. Thompson's home?" asked Grace, smiling down at the
children.

"Ah reckon it be. Who be you?"

"I am Mrs. Grace Gray. My companion is Miss Briggs. We are riding
through the mountains for pleasure and business combined, and are camped
with our party on the other side of the cornfield. What I wished to ask,
if you are Mrs. Thompson, is, may we be permitted to remain there for a
few days?"

"Ah reckon ye kin if ye wants to if mah husband ain't objectin'."

"Is he here?" interjected Elfreda.

The woman shook her head.

"Mah other daughter is out pickin' berries. Mebby she'll come down an'
look ye over bymeby. Kin I sell ye anything!"

"Yes, if you have milk we should be glad to have some every morning and
night while here. We have a man friend and a colored boy with us. One of
them will call for the milk early this evening. Thank you so much. Are
the children quite well?"

"Tol'bly, tol'bly, Ah reckon."

"I think we have a little candy left. I will send it over to them
later," said Grace smilingly, as she wheeled her pony and trotted back
towards camp.

"What a sight! Think of living as those people do," reflected Elfreda.

"Perhaps they are just as happy as we are. But those poor puny children!
I am sorry for them, and when I think of my daughter, Yvonne, and that
healthy young animal, Lindy, your adopted daughter, I feel like crying."

"Don't! Your eyes do not look nice when, they are red. By the way, those
two kiddies, despite what the mother says, do not look at all well. Did
you observe how red their faces were and how listless they a