Jack demurred; "though we promise to keep
our words like ladies. I confess I am horribly embarrassed at having to
call on entire strangers with no one even to introduce us. I do devoutly
hope the men of the family won't think they have to appear, because I
am afraid enough of the mother and daughter. I suppose it is this poor
Elizabeth Harmon who is curious to see what we are like, so I presume we
will have to give her the pleasure. Imagine us, Ruth, at five to-morrow
afternoon making our bows to the rich New Yorkers. It is silly of me,
but I have taken a dislike to the entire Harmon family simply because
they are going to live in our home for a while, I suppose, though I am
anxious enough for their money for our holiday."

During Jack's monologue the girls had gone into the yard, and a few
minutes later Ruth and Frieda were almost overpowered by the fervor of
their farewell embraces. The last glimpse they had of the travelers,
Jack was standing up in their wagon, with Jean and Olive clutching at
her skirts and entirely unmindful of the grandeur of her new attire,
waving both hands and giving the familiar, long-drawn-out call of the
cowboys of the Rainbow Ranch.

The trip to Laramie was uneventful, and though the ranch girls slept
three in a bed, and talked till almost morning that they might enjoy to
the full the novelty of the experience, their first night at Mrs.
Peterson's boarding house was equally without excitement.

By eight o'clock the following morning the girls set out on their first
regular shopping expedition, and by four in the afternoon Jean sank
dejectedly down on a stool in a grocery store. "Girls," she declared
wearily, "we have shopped all day and shopped all night and shopped
again until broad daylight. At least, I feel as if we had, and if you
don't take me somewhere to rest I shall surely die." But the girls had
scrimped and saved pennies all day in order to buy the sleeping bags for
Ruth and Freida, and would not give up until they were purchased.

Poor Jean was forcibly dragged from her resting place by Olive and Jack,
and the three girls set out down the street again, gazing in all the
shop windows. "For mercy's sake, what kind of a store would keep a
sleeping bag, Olive?" Jean inquired mournfully, leaning heavily upon
Jack, who walked next her. "I have seen a punching bag in Jim's room at
the rancho, and I have heard somewhere of carpet-bags, but I have no
more idea of what a sleeping bag i