tion set in the midst of a bare little prairie
town, and quite unlike anything the Easterners had ever seen before.
Broad, dusty streets led seemingly nowhere. Low, straggling houses
stretched out lazy lengths of untidiness, except where a group of
taller, more pretentious buildings indicated the stores, a hotel or two,
several boarding houses, and numerous saloons and dance halls.

From the station doorway, a blanketed Indian looked out with stolid,
unsmiling face. Leaning against a post a dreamy-eyed Mexican in tight
trousers, red sash, and tall peaked hat, smoked a cigarette. Halfway
down the platform a tired-looking man in heavy cowhide boots and rough
clothes, watched beside a huge canvas-topped wagon beyond which could
be seen the switching tails of six great oxen.

"There's Fred's 'boat,'" remarked Bertha, laughingly, to Cordelia.

"Where? What?" Cordelia had been trying to look in all directions at
once.

"That prairie schooner down there."

"Now that looks like the pictures," asserted Cordelia. "I wonder if the
cowboys will."

"I declare, the whole thing is worse than a three-ring circus," declared
Tilly, aggrievedly, to Genevieve. "I simply can't see everything!"

"All aboard for the ranch," called Mr. Hartley, leading the way around
to the other side of the station; and like a flock of prairie chickens,
as Genevieve put it, they all trooped after him.

"Why, what funny horses!" cried Tilly, as Mr. Hartley stopped before a
large, old-fashioned three-seated carriage drawn up to the platform.

At Genevieve's chuckling laugh, Tilly threw a sharper glance toward the
two gray creatures attached to the carriage.

"Why, they aren't horses at all--yes, they are--no, they aren't,
either!"

"I always heard young ladies were a bit changeable," grinned Tim Nolan,
mischievously; "but do they always change their minds as often as that,
Miss?"

"Yes, they do--when the occasion demands it," retorted Tilly, with a
merry glance; and Tim Nolan laughed appreciatively.

"Well, they aren't horses," smiled Mr. Hartley, as he gave his hand to
help Mrs. Kennedy into the carriage. "They happen to be mules. Now, Miss
Tilly, if you'll come in here with Mrs. Kennedy, we'll put two other
young ladies and myself in the other two seats, and leave Genevieve to
do the honors in one of the ranch wagons with the rest of you. The
baggage, the boys are already putting in the other wagon, I see," he
added, looking back to where two