ulder showed that he had been up and at work for several hours.
"Sure," he agreed heartily. "I'd like nothing better than to loaf a
while in this part of the country. I've got some harness to mend and a
lot of odd jobs to do, and this is sure the prettiest spot we've seen."

The wagon and horses were a little distance from the ranch girls' tent,
but still in plain view. The tent was at the head of a silver stream
that ran like a ribbon through a green oasis of "gramma" grass. In the
distance rocks that looked like battlements rose on either side of a
deep gorge, and dimly seen farther on were hoary old mountain tops with
their peaked caps of snow.

Ruth laughed. "An honest confession is good for the soul, isn't it? I
should have told you that my real reason for not wishing to move on
to-day is that I simply have got to do some housekeeping. My New
England soul is racked by the way our pots and pans are looking, and
Jean says if she doesn't have a chance to wash the sand out of her hair
she will have to cut it off and wear a wig. If you'll make up the fire
for me, I'll get breakfast in a minute; the girls already are starving."

"Then why don't one of them come out and help you cook?" Jim demanded
autocratically. "I'm plumb afraid they are putting too much of the work
on you."

"Injustice, thy name is Jim Colter!" Jack exclaimed at this minute,
appearing before the fire with a sleepy look in her gray eyes, and a
coffeepot in her hand. "I told Ruth I'd get breakfast this morning, so
run away, Ruthie, and help Frieda find her clothes; she is in the depth
of despair about one of her shoes. And tell Jean and Olive they must set
the table."

Jim swung his fish before Jack's delighted eyes. "I'll cook these,
Missie," he said calmly. "I don't believe I care to trust you."

"All right. I'll fry the bacon to go with them," Jack returned in her
most professional cook manner. "I like the odor of bacon these mornings
in camp better than any flower that blooms. Isn't it great that we have
had a whole week of perfect sunshiny weather?"

The camp breakfast did not take much more than half an hour to get,
though it was a pretty substantial meal. Coffee and chunks of toasted
bread, fish, bacon, marmalade and jam, and this morning fresh water from
the near-by spring, formed the menu. It took quite as long to eat,
however, as the most elaborate repast served by a fashionable New York
hotel. Jim moved over a little nearer the fire to