ld. Next day
we came on here to Newfork, where we are resting our teams before we
start across the desert, which begins just across the creek we are
camped on.

We have added two to our party. I know you will be interested to know
how it happened, and I can picture the astonishment of our neighbors
when we reach home, for our newcomers are to be members of Mrs.
O'Shaughnessy's family. We had all been sorry we could not visit
Elizabeth or "Danyul" and his mother. We felt almost as if we were
sneaking past them, but we consoled ourselves with promises to see the
Burneys and Grandma Mortimer. Yesterday the children and I were riding
with Mrs. O'Shaughnessy in the buckboard. We were trotting merrily
along the lane that leads to Newfork, thankful in our hearts to be out
of the snow,--for there is no snow here. Just ahead of us two little
boys were riding along on their ponies. There was a wire fence on both
sides of the lane, and almost at the end of the lane an old cow had
her head between the wires and was nibbling the tall dead grass. The
larger of the two boys said, "That's old Pendry's cow, and she shan't
eat a blade of grass off Dad's meadow."

He rode up to the cow and began beating her with his quirt. That
frightened the cow, and as she jerked her head up, the top wire caught
her across the top of her neck; she jerked and lunged to free herself,
and was cruelly cut by the barbs on the wire. Then he began beating
his pony.

The small boy said, "You're a coward an' a fool, Billy Polk. The cow
wasn't hurtin' nothin', an' you're just tryin' to show off, beatin'
that pony."

Said the other boy, "Shut up, you beggar, or I'll beat you; an' I'll
take them breeches you got on off you, an' you can go without
any--they're mine. My ma give 'em to you."

The little fellow's face was scarlet--as much of it as we could see
for the freckles--and his eyes were blazing as he replied, "You ain't
man enough. I dare you to strike me or to tech my clothes."

Both boys were riding bareback. The small boy slid off his pony's
back; the other rode up to him and raised his quirt, but the little
one seized him by the leg, and in a jiffy they were in the road
fighting like cats. I asked Mrs. O'Shaughnessy to drive on, but she
said, "If you are in a hurry you can try walkin'; I'm goin' to referee
this scrap."

It looked for a minute as if the small boy would get a severe beating,
but by some trick he hurled the other headlong into the g