miled her sister-in-law. "Fond and proud as Mr.
Hartley very plainly was of his daughter, it did not take Mrs. Kennedy
long to see that he was very much disturbed at the sort of life she was
living at the ranch. That is, he felt that the time had come now when
she needed something that only school, young girl friends, and
gently-bred women could give her; yet he could not bear the thought of
sending her off alone to an ordinary boarding school. Then is when Mrs.
Kennedy arose to the occasion; and very quickly it was settled that
Genevieve should come here to her in Sunbridge for school this last
winter--which she did, and Mrs. Kennedy has been a veritable mother to
her ever since. She calls her 'Aunt Julia.'"

"Hm-m; very fine, I'm sure," murmured Miss Sophronia, a little shortly.
"And now she's asked these girls home with her--the whole lot of them!"

"Yes; and they're crazy over it--as you'd know they would be."

Miss Sophronia sniffed audibly.

"Humph! It's the parents that are crazy, I'm thinking," she corrected.
"Imagine it--six scatter-brained children, and all the way to Texas!
Mary!"

"Oh, but the father is in the East here, on business and he goes back
with them," conciliated Mrs. Wilson, hastily. "Besides, Mrs. Kennedy is
going, too."

Miss Sophronia raised her eyebrows.

"Well, I can't say I envy her the thing she's undertaken. Imagine _my_
attempting to chaperon six crazy girls all the way from New Hampshire to
Texas--and then on a ranch for nobody knows how long after that!"

"I can't imagine--_your_ doing it, Sophronia," rejoined the minister's
wife, demurely. And at the meaning emphasis and the twinkle in her eye,
Miss Sophronia sniffed again audibly.

"When do they go?" she asked in her stiffest manner.

"The first day of July."

"Indeed! Very fine, I'm sure. Still--I've been thinking of the expense.
Of course, for a minister--"

Mrs. Wilson bit her lip. After a moment she filled the pause that her
sister-in-law had left.

"I understand, of course, what you mean, Sophronia," she acknowledged.
"And ministers' families don't have much money for Texas trips, I'll
own. As it happens, however, the trip will cost the young people
nothing. Mr. Hartley very kindly bears all the expenses."

"He does?"

"Yes. He declares he shall be in the girls' debt even then. You see,
last winter Genevieve sprained her ankle, and was shut up for weeks in
the house. It was a very bad sprain, and naturally it