d determined to
have Athol join him. Athol was quite as eager to do so, the one fly in
his ointment of pure joy being the thought of the separation from
Beverly, though boy-like, he kept this fact deep buried in his heart.
Nevertheless, it made him feel queer when the possibility of going upon
divided ways to different schools became a very definite one indeed. The
boy and girl were like a pair of horses which has been driven together
fifteen years and suddenly separated. True, the separation was not as yet
a fact, but human beings can suffer more in anticipation than the brute
creation can in reality. The great question at present was which of many
schools to select. Admiral Seldon had written to several for circulars
and information, and had been nearly swamped with replies in every
conceivable form. At length he had weeded the mass down to three,
entering into more definite correspondence with these, and the replies to
his last letters were now being eagerly awaited by Beverly, Athol and
Archie. The school now under most favorable consideration for Beverly was
about thirty-five miles from Sprucy Branch, the town nearest Four Corners
and Woodbine.

It was the coming of these letters which had caused the excitement at
Woodbine as the boys and girl were about to go for the morning mail,
Athol upon his little thoroughbred, Royal, Archie mounted upon his own
handsome hunter, Snowdrift, and Beverly on a wiry little broncho which
had been sent to her by an old friend of the Admiral's who had become the
owner of a ranche in Arizona. The friend had assured Admiral Seldon that
"Apache" had been "thoroughly gentled," and Beverly, who had never known
the meaning of fear from the hour she could bestride a horse, had
welcomed him with delight. Whether the old Admiral had done likewise is
open to doubt, but Mrs. Ashby frankly protested. As a girl _she_ had
ridden every ridable thing upon the place but it was literally a horse of
another color when it came to the point of Beverly doing as she had done.
So Apache had been tolerated, not welcomed, by Mrs. Ashby, and having
been an eye-witness to some of the little beast's astonishing
performances when he first came two years before, she has exacted from
Beverly a promise to be very cautious when riding him. Until his arrival
Beverly had ridden Jewel, her fourteen-hand pony, and been quite content,
but Jewel's luster was dimmed by Apache's brilliant "shines," as old
Uncle Abel called h