and visited several pioneer families--"nesters" in the
language of the cowpunchers and stockmen--who welcomed the Eastern girls
with vast curiosity.

"And how some of these folks can live in such Wild places, and in such
perfectly barren cabins, I do not see," groaned Helen Cameron after a
visit to one settler's family near a wild canyon to the west of Benbow
Camp. "That woman and those girls! Not a decent garment to their backs,
and the men so rough and uncouth. I would not stay there on a bet--not
for the best man who ever breathed."

"That woman's husband isn't the best man who ever breathed," said
Jennie, grimly. "But perhaps he is the best man she ever knew. And,
anyway, having as the boys say 'got stuck on him,' now she is plainly
'stuck with him.' In other words she has made her own bed and must lie
in it."

"Why should people be punished for their ignorance?" complained Helen.

"Nature's way," said Ruth confidently. "Civilization is slowly changing
that--or trying to. But nature's law is, after all, rather harsh to us."

"If I was one of those girls we saw back there," Helen continued, "I
would run away."

"Run where?" asked Ruth slyly. "With a movie company? Or a Wild West
Show?"

"Either. Anything would be better than that hut and the savagery of
their present lives."

"They don't mind it so much," admitted Jennie. "I asked one of them. She
was looking forward to a dance next week. She said they had three of
four through the year--and they seemed to be reckoned as great treats,
but all a girl could expect."

"And think how much we demand," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Welladay! Maybe
we have too much--too much of the good things of the earth."

"Bah!" exclaimed Helen, with disgust. "One can't get too much of the
good things. No, ma'am! Take all you can----"

"And give nothing?" suggested Ruth, shaking her head.

"Nobody can say with truth that you are selfish, Ruthie Fielding," put
in Jennie. "In fact, you are always giving, and never taking."

Ruth laughed at this. "You are wrong," she said. "The more you give the
more you get. At least, I find it so. And we are getting right now, on
this trip to the great Northwest, much more than we are giving. I feel
as though I would be condemned if I did not do something for these
hard-working people who are doing their part in developing this
country--the settlers, and even the timbermen."

"You want to be a lady Santa Claus to that bunch of roughnecks at B