ttier
than mine; and for once I won't be jealous." Instead of two long braids
Jack, in honor of her ride with Mr. Drummond, had twisted her hair into
a coronet. Slowly Elizabeth began to unwind it.
"Of course my hair isn't prettier than yours," Jack protested. "It is
not so lovely and shiny. Nobody thinks it is even half so nice as
Frieda's or Jean's or Olive's, and I don't care a bit, neither do you,
you goose."
Elizabeth sighed. "Yes, I do, Jack," she confessed honestly. "You don't
care because you have so much, but I have so little I am awfully jealous
and envious."
Jack's frank face clouded. She did not know exactly what to say to so
queer a girl as Elizabeth Harmon. The ranch girls never preached, and
Jack was not inclined to be critical, always preferring action to
speech, so that now she found herself in deep water.
"Look here, Elizabeth," she said a moment later, with a wisdom greater
than she dreamed, "I believe you make yourself sicker by thinking so
much about your illness and worrying about the things you _can't_ do. I
know it is awfully hard, but if you'll promise me while you are out west
to try every day to see if you can walk a little farther and eat more
and not be cross, why, I'll do most anything in the world for you."
"Will you come and stay with me at Rainbow Lodge and let the others go
on with their holiday?" Elizabeth begged.
Jack laughed and shook her head. "I couldn't do that, dear. I should
feel too queer and homesick to be visiting in my own home."
"Then you'll come to New York next winter to stay with me?" Elizabeth
demanded. "That will be best of all. It seems so funny to me that you've
never been in a theater or to a big restaurant or to any large city!"
"I'd love to come, Elizabeth," Jack agreed, "but you mustn't expect me,
for you know we ranch girls haven't any money except just enough to live
on, and I couldn't possibly take more than my share for such a trip."
Elizabeth pouted. "You don't know what it means not to be rich,
Elizabeth," Jack explained. "Here come the others, thank goodness! I am
nearly starved."
When Frieda, Carlos and Olive appeared, their hands were filled with
every variety of lovely wild flower. They had been searching the woods
and hills for them, while Jean and Donald hung over the boiling pool
with their kettle swung in the water by a long string. Olive and the two
children flung their flowers in a heap in Ruth's lap. "Give us a botany
lesson
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