led Genevieve,
"else you'd be homesick for New Hampshire!"

"The mean annual temperature of the country near--" began Tilly,
mischievously; but Genevieve put her hands to her ears and fled.

* * * * *

The fourteenth of August was to be a gala occasion at the Six Star
Ranch, for there was to be a supper and dance to entertain the friends
from the East.

"But where'll you get your guests?" demanded Tilly, when she first heard
of the plan. "Whom can you have, 'way off here like this?--all will
please take notice that I said '_whom_'!"

Genevieve laughed and tossed her head a little.

"Well, we'll have the boys here on the ranch, of course, and Susie
Billings, and some of the other Bolo girls. We can't have Quentina, of
course--Poor thing! Isn't it a shame about that whooping cough?--and
Ned's got it, too, now, you know!--but I think the Boyntons will come.
Their ranch is only thirty-five miles away, and they could stay all
night, of course."

"Only thirty-five miles away," repeated Tilly, airily. "Of course
nobody'd mind a little thing like that, for a party!"

"No, they wouldn't--in Texas," retorted Genevieve. "There's the
Wetherbys, too. They live five miles out from Bolo on the other side.
Maybe they'll come. We'll ask them, anyhow. Oh, we'll have a
party--never you fear!"

When the night of the fourteenth arrived, things looked, indeed, very
like "a party." Everywhere were confusion and excitement, even to the
saddle room and blacksmith's shop, and to the two big tents that were
being put up for extra sleeping quarters. Everywhere, too (Mrs. Kennedy
declared), were dishes heaped with chocolate candies. Mr. Edwards, who
had left the ranch only the day before, had sent back by Carlos
twenty-five pounds of the best candy Bolo could supply; and the girls
had been lavish in its disposal.

Five Wetherbys and six Boyntons had arrived together with a dozen
cowboys on horseback. Susie Billings, minus her khaki and cartridges,
looked the picture of demureness in white muslin and baby-blue ribbons.
There were other pretty girls, too, from Bolo, in white, and in pale
pink and yellow. And everywhere were the Happy Hexagons, wildly excited,
and delighted with it all.

The big hall and the living-room had been cleared for dancing. The
galleries and the long covered way leading to the dining room had been
decorated with flowers and lanterns. The long table in the dining-room
was decorated