lear gratis, take it or leave
it, ary one. Fact. The 'Boss's' lady is an A 1 singer if she is a--I
mean, a poor show at a rifle."

The songs went on till the Gray Lady dared sing no more. Like all
trained singers she was careful of her throat and unused, as yet, to the
air of this region at night. But when she laughingly declared:

"No more this time; not if I'm to sing again," there was a murmur of
dissatisfaction from the group of men about the fountain; and old
Captain Lem begged, in their name:

"Just one more, lady, to sleep on. That kind o' music makes a feller
hungry for more and sort-of-kind-of sets him thinkin' 'bout things back
home."

But Mr. Ford interposed:

"No, Captain, not to-night! I want to have a lot of just such concerts
so we mustn't put the _prima donna_ out of condition. But I've a little
girl here with a fiddle and I tell you she can just make it talk! Come
farther forward, Dolly dear, and stand close to me. Then 'rosin your
bow' and get to work. Show these cowboys what a little girl-tenderfoot
can do. Maybe, too, who knows? Maybe our Jim will hear it wherever he
is and hurry back. At it, child, and call him!"

Lady Gray feared this was a trifle unkind to the girl, who she wished
might wholly forget the boy, but the master felt it not so. He knew that
nothing would more thoroughly inspire her than this possibility.

"Oh! do you think so? Then I'll play as I never did before--I will, I
will!"

She stepped out from the veranda upon the broad walk before it, and with
the moonlight pouring down upon her white-clad little figure, her face
uplifted to the sky, and her precious violin beneath her chin, she
played, indeed, "as she had never done before."

On and on she played; one ranchman after another softly suggesting some
desired melody, and her eager little fingers rendering it upon the
instant. The men ceased sprawling and sat up. If they had found the Gray
Lady's voice a marvel, here was a greater. That any child--a despised
"female" child--could evoke such music seemed past belief; and when, at
length, Mr. Ford bade her render the beloved "Home, Sweet Home" as a
finale, there was a reluctant rising of the audience to its feet,
ordered to it by the Captain who, in rather husky tones, stated:

"Ladies and gentlemen, and mostly the little gal, I give the sentiments
o' my regiment, to a man, when I say all you tenderfoots is welcome to
S' Leon. We wasn't very tickled before, thinkin' all