157

XIII. THE PRAIRIE--AND MOONLIGHT 171

XIV. A MAN AND A MYSTERY 185

XV. THE ALAMO 201

XVI. TILLY CROSSES BRIDGES 215

XVII. "BERTHA'S ACCIDENT" 225

XVIII. THE GOLDEN HOURS 235

XIX. HERMIT JOE 248

XX. THE NEW BOY 260

XXI. GENEVIEVE LEARNS SOMETHING NOT IN BOOKS 278

XXII. A TEXAS "MISSIONARY" 296

XXIII. GENEVIEVE GOES TO BOSTON 307

XXIV. A BROWN DRESS FOR ELSIE 324

XXV. "WHEN SUNBRIDGE WENT TO TEXAS" 339

XXVI. A GOOD-BY PARTY 349

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"REDDY WAS RIGHT THERE EVERY TIME" (_See page 113_) _Frontispiece_

"A TALL, SLENDER GIRL ... APPEARED AT A CAR DOOR" 30

"'FOLLOW ME--QUICK!' HE ORDERED" 181

"'THERE, NOW--LOOK!' SHE ADDED" 207

"'HOW DO YOU DO, MR. OLIVER HOLMES,' SHE BEGAN" 265

"IT WOULD BE SOMETHING OF A WALK, THE WOMAN SAID, AS
SHE GAVE DIRECTIONS" 320

The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch

CHAPTER I

AUNT SOPHRONIA

The Reverend Thomas Wilson's sister, Miss Sophronia, had come to
Sunbridge on a Tuesday evening late in June to make her brother's family
a long-promised visit. But it was not until the next morning that she
heard something that sent her to her sister-in-law in a burst of
astonishment almost too great for words.

"For pity's sake, Mary, what is this I hear?" she demanded. "Edith
insists that her cousin, Cordelia, is going to Texas next week--to
Texas!--_Cordelia!_"

"Yes, she is, Sophronia," replied the minister's wife, trying to make
her answer sound as cheerful and commonplace as she could, and as if
Texas were in the next room. (It was something of a trial to Mrs.
Thomas Wilson that her husband's sister could not seem to understand
that she, a minister's wife for eighteen years and the mother of five
children, ought to know what was proper and right for her orphaned