was a brown and silver silk brocade with thread lace chemisette and
under sleeves. And my next best was apple green and pink changeable,
trimmed in yards and yards of narrow black velvet ribbon all sewed on by
hand."

"How I should love to have seen them!" Alice smiled wistfully. "You know
I didn't have any of my mother's things."

"Come on, girls, it's getting late, let's help Alice put her treasures
away. They couldn't be nicer, Alice, and I think you are going to be a
very happy woman to make up for that desolate girlhood of yours."

Marian was already folding the garments. They were soon laid away snugly
in trunk and closet and drawers, and the whole family packed off to bed
to be ready for the early farm breakfast on the morrow.

CHAPTER VI

A HUNTING PARTY

The day following the arrival of the guests was spent in resting and
seeing the ranch. Katy and Gertie had never been on a large farm before,
and the thousand acres of field and prairie and woodland, seemed as
marvellous as the tales they had read of the big English estates. Alice
and Dick were also fascinated by all this space and freedom, but they
saw deeper than the little girls.

"It's a wonderful place," said Dick, "and I don't wonder the Doctor is
proud of it. But he is too well along in years to handle such a big
undertaking. I doubt if the ranch pays for ten years to come, and it
means hard work and a lonely life for all of them. It's all right for
Frank and Marian, but I'm sorry for the rest of the family."

"Mrs. Morton is growing old fast with all this unaccustomed drudgery,
and she is worried about the children's education, I can see," replied
Alice.

"Yes, there are two sides to it. I guess we'll stick to the law and
little old Centerville; we may not die rich, but we'll be a lot more
comfortable as we go along."

Sherm took to the farm like the proverbial duck to the pond. He donned
overalls that first morning and was off with Frank and Ernest to the
fields before the little girls were out of bed. After breakfast Jane
took Katie and Gertie to see the sights of the ranch. First to the
spring under the old oak where the cold, clear water gushed from the
rocks into a little basin, and then tumbled down a rocky channel under
the springhouse and on for some hundred of yards farther before it
widened out into the pond.

"We can go swimming in the pond but there is a nicer place in the creek
above the ford."

"Oh, I'd love to lea