ts of ranchmen left. Oh! we'll be all right!" said Dorothy.
"But the Captain has walked off with 'Netty'--forgotten all about her, I
guess."

"Well, I must go to poor Milly. She never can keep her head when
anything happens suddenly, like this. She has complained, incessantly,
that she could hardly breathe up here and I'm glad she has the chance to
go now. But I can fancy my dear mother's face, when Milly walks into the
Towers without me!" said Helena, hurrying away.

A half-hour of activity followed, the girls taking Lady Gray's simple
packing out of her hands, although that much-travelled _prima donna_ was
never disturbed by sudden changes from place to place. Indeed, she was
happy over this coming trip, under her husband's escort, and to meet her
dearly loved Aunt Rachel.

Jedediah had his master's suit-case ready in even shorter time and it
was only Miss Milliken who delayed matters by her fussiness.

However, the buckboard came around, Silent Pete holding the reins over
the four-in-hand, and Captain Lem rather jealously regarding him; until
his eye fell upon his "awkward squad" and he remembered the greater
responsibility placed upon himself. Then he was reconciled to see
another man drive his horses, reflecting:

"Well, I needn't grumble, I'm the one Boss trusted most. Seven
youngsters in hand and one in the bush--land knows where!--is a bigger
job 'n just drivin' a four-footed team. I ain't no call to feel lonesome
but just to feel sot up. Funny, ain't it, Lem! You a regular,
dyed-in-the-wool old bach to find yourself suddenly playin' daddy to
seven strappin' boys an' gals! Seven an' there'd ought to be eight.
Ought to be--_must be_--that's what it spells to Captain Lemuel Hunt.
For if--if--as I reasonably suspicion--that there Jim Barlow, poor
writer, has fell into the hands of a passel of Injuns, his cake's dough,
lessen I can rake it out their oven into mine."

The departure of the buckboard, with solemn Silent Pete in charge, had a
depressing effect upon the group left watching it. Everything would go
on just as usual, of course. Why should there be any difference?
But--how lonesome it was! How they would miss Lady Gray's sweet voice
and presence, and the "Boss's" jokes and laughter!

The thought was too much for tender-hearted Alfy, and after a
spluttering, and sniffling to stem her own grief, she burst into an
audible boo-hoo, that promptly started Molly's tears, though she shed
them silently. All,