.

"Why? 'Cause Reddy said to," he answered. "Reddy said we'd better ease
up on the shock it would be to you--here, after all you'd been used to
back East--fine clothes, fine feed, and fine doin's all around, to say
nothin' of books and learnin' in between times; so we--we tried to break
ye in easy. That's all," he finished, a little lamely.

"And then these clothes mean--that?" demanded the girl.

Long John nodded dumbly.

Genevieve gave a ringing laugh, but her eyes grew soft as she extended
her hand to each man in turn.

"What old dears you are--every one of you!" she exclaimed. "Now go home
quick, and get comfortable." She would have said more, but some one
called her and she turned abruptly. Cordelia Wilson, looking half
frightened, half exultant, but wholly excited, was pulling at her
sleeve.

"Genevieve, Genevieve, quick," she was panting; "is that a cowboy--that,
over there--talking to your father?"

Genevieve turned with a wondering frown. The next moment she burst into
a merry laugh.

"Oh, Cordelia, Cordelia, you will be the death of me, yet! No, that
isn't a cowboy. It's Susie Billings. She lives on a ranch near here."

"A girl--dressed like that--and carrying a revolver! Just a common
'Susie!'" gasped Cordelia.

"Yes--just a common 'Susie,'" twinkled Genevieve.

"But I thought she was a--a cowboy," quavered Cordelia. "You _said_
they'd be here in--in all their war paint!"

From behind them sounded a muffled snort and a low-voiced:

"Boys, she thinks that's a cowboy! Come on--say we show 'em! Eh?"

Genevieve laughed softly at what Cordelia had said, and at the
disappointment in her voice.

"Cowboys? Well, they _are_ here," she acknowledged with twitching lips,
"and in their war paint, too--of a kind! They're right here--Why,
they're _gone_," she broke off. "Never mind," she laughed, as she
caught sight of a silk hat and a black coat hurrying toward a group of
saddled ponies. "I reckon you'll see all the cowboys you want to before
you go back East again. Now come up and meet Susie--and she hasn't,
really, any revolver there, Cordelia, in spite of that cartridge belt
and holster. She's always rigging up that way. She likes it!"

Susie proved to be "a girl just like us," as Cordelia amazedly expressed
it to Alma Lane. She was certainly a very pleasant one, they all
decided. But even Susie could not keep their eyes from wandering to the
unfamiliar scene around them.

It was a bare little sta