Ranch girl

“ They call themselves the 'Happy Hexagons.' There are six of them."
"Humph!" commented Miss Sophronia. "Who are they—besides Cordelia?" [4]
"Bertha Brown, Tilly Mack, Alma Lane, Elsie Martin, and Genevieve Hartley."
"And who?" frowned Miss Sophronia at the last name.
"Genevieve Hartley. She is the little Texas girl. It is to her ranch they are going."
"Her ranch!"
"Well—her father's."
"But who is she? What's she doing here?"
"She's been going to school this winter. She's at the Kennedys'."
"A Texas ranch-girl at the Kennedys'! Why, they're nice people!" ”

“ Mother has received a legacy from a great uncle that she had almost forgotten she had."
"Money?" queried Grace, interested.
"No, that's the best part of it," said Betty. "Oh, girls, it's a ranch, a great big beautiful ranch in the really, truly west!"
"Honest-to-goodness, wild and woolly?" queried Mollie, beaming. [10]
"Better than that," answered Betty with the same lilt to her voice that the girls had heard over the telephone. "I shouldn't wonder if we should find the real old-fashioned, movie kind of cowboys there—sombreros, fur leggings, bandannas, and all." ”

“ They were indeed frightened—the ranch girl as well as Ruth herself. The fact that this immense herd, crowding and bellowing together, might at any moment break into a mad stampede, was only too plain.
Caught in the mass of maddened cattle, the 144 girls might easily be unseated and trampled to death. Ruth knew this as well as did the Western girl. But if the sound of the human voice would help to keep the creatures within bounds, the girl from the Red Mill determined to sing on and ride closer in line with the milling herd. ”

“ One so often feels this in remembering what other people have forgotten.
The four girls were daughters of Jim Colter of the Rainbow Ranch. His first wife had died, and he had married Jacqueline Ralston Kent, a former Ranch Girl much younger than himself, and was returning to the ranch with his bride after the honeymoon. The oldest of the girls was about fifteen years of age, the next fourteen, then twelve and eight.
"We have pursued a strange road. We seem to have descended into the heart of the world. Yet we were scarcely stifled at the ranch!" ”

“ Long ago when I was a young fellow I learned that when human [Pg 10] beings are hurt they follow the instincts of the homing birds who seek the nest. You have always loved the old ranch better than any place in the world, more than the other girls ever loved it, so with the news of your husband's death I knew you would return from England and bring your son with you, Lady Kent, once Jacqueline Ralston of the Rainbow ranch. Somehow I never have learned to think of you, Jack, by your title of Lady Kent."
"No, Jim, and why should you?" the girl answered. ”

“ Girls so entirely unlike in temperament and ideals, as Jack, Jean, Olive and Frieda, cannot fail to lead lives that will develop in interest. In the second volume in the Ranch Girls Series, which will be entitled, "The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold," they have even more unusual experiences and adventures and are brought into closer contact with the real life of the West. It isn't possible to tell exactly what the Ranch Girls will do in this second book, but it is safe to promise that it will be something even more original and full of delightful opportunity, than running a ranch. ”

“ With mother’s permission we will start south as soon as I can get into my riding togs.”
It was still early morning when the four riders departed from the group of white ranch buildings, the girls having bidden the kind Mrs. Wilson an affectionate farewell, promising that, as soon as Tom had been found, they would return and spend a week on the sheep ranch.
The good woman looked with especial interest at the petite Barbara. “Poor little lamb,” she was thinking with sudden tears in her eyes. “Such a mite of a girl to be all alone in the world without a mother and her poor brother lost. ”

“ All the scouts had put on simple summer dresses, and yet as they saw the only other two girls of the ranch in riding breeches and flannel shirts, they experienced that uncomfortable feeling which comes to a woman when she realizes that she is not appropriately clothed. As they approached the porch Bob Hilton came out of the cabin to introduce them to the others. ”

“ THE MILLION DOLLAR RANCH GIRL One summer day a beautiful Mexican girl was sitting motionless on horseback gazing across the ranch of which her adopted father was the owner, when a young man, tall, of good appearance, and pleasant address, came up and respectfully raised his cap. ”

“ Just think, we have not seen Olive since our return from England! Won't it be splendid for you to have her with you again, Jack dear? Frieda and I are so dreadfully spoiled and lazy, we never do anything to help you about the ranch and only complain if things go wrong and we haven't more money to spend. I do wish somebody would show me how to be useful. I haven't even the beds to make now we have another girl to help Aunt Ellen. ”

“ In another group were Jacqueline and Frieda Ralston, Olive in an Indian costume, taken soon after her discovery by the Ranch Girls and her arrival at the ranch, Jean, who was their cousin and adopted sister. ”

“ Even if one had missed school and college, even if one had been side-tracked all of her life on an Alberta ranch, even if a girl’s solitary associates and friends, over all the days of her life, had been merely the rough types peculiar to the cattle country, he had said that a world might be discovered right within the pages of a book. ”

“ She loved to be with people who were contented.
“Is horseback-riding really so wonderful?” asked Doris, who was still a little doubtful about the pleasures of a whole summer on the ranch. She had been eager to be with the girls once more during the vacation, but, had she been consulted, she would have chosen some more civilized resort.
“It isn’t entirely the exercise!” laughed Maud. “Irene has other reasons for being so crazy about the place.”
“Maud!” said her older sister, reprovingly.
“Oh, do tell us the rest!” cried Alice. “It isn’t fair to stop in the middle of something interesting.” ”

“ Caste exists not in a ranching country like Alberta, save among a few rare and exclusive souls, and a hired girl on a ranch has her own social standing in the community, especially if she is that rarity, a pretty girl. So Nettie's plight was of as supreme an interest to the ranch and farm wives as if instead of a poor servant girl she had been any prosperous farmer's daughter. Hired girls are potential wives for the best of the ranchmen, and many a farmer's wife has begun her career on a cook car. ”

“ Frequently a fellow traveler reveals more of his character and history to some stranger whom he may meet in crossing than ever he has confided to a life-long friend.
Until the present time the four Ranch girls and their chaperon, Ruth Drew, had lived singularly sheltered lives. First brought up almost like boys under the care of their overseer, Jim Colter, three of the girls had known only the few neighbors scattered within riding distance of their thousand-acre ranch. While Olive's acquaintance, owing to her curious childhood, had been even [45] smaller and more primitive. ”

“ Boys, what are we a-goin' to do with an old lady—even though she ain't so awful old—and five tom-fool girls on the Six Star Ranch?"
"Ees not the Señorita a gurrl, also?" laughed a dark-eyed Mexican from his perch on the gallery railing. "Eh, Reddy?"
"Sure, Pedro," retorted the sandy-haired man, testily. (Pedro was the only Mexican cowboy at the ranch, and even he was barely tolerated.) "But the little mistress ain't no tenderfoot girl. She don't howl at a rattlesnake nor jump at a prairie dog; and she knows how to ride, and which end of a gun goes off!" ”

“ To the people not afflicted with timidity, most fears are ridiculous, and yet no single weakness is harder to overcome. Of the four ranch girls, Olive was the only timid one, but before one criticizes her, remember her childhood. Now with her heart pounding and her breath coming in short gasps, she quickened her pace into a run, recalling at the same time their chaperon’s forgotten instruction that she must no longer expect the happy freedom of their western lands. ”

“ At that moment a pretty young girl in khaki and a cowboy hat made her appearance astride a frisky little mustang. She wore a cartridge belt about her waist—though there was no revolver in her holster.
"Is Genevieve coming to-day, sure?" she called out joyfully. "I heard she was, and I've come to meet her."
"There, boys," bantered the ranch foreman, "now here's a young lady who knows how to welcome [66] the mistress of the Six Star Ranch!" Then, to the girl: "Sure, Miss Susie, we do expect Genevieve, and we're here to welcome her, as you see," he finished with a sweep of his broad-brimmed hat. ”

“ They started early, the girls in high good spirits at the prospect of reaching the ranch without encountering the dangers of the steep descent of the trail they had just climbed. They all talked and laughed so much that Marjorie and Daisy wished they might accompany them to the place where they were to get the automobile; but Tom persuaded them that this would be foolish, that they would tire themselves169 so that they would not be fit for the afternoon’s ride. ”

“ The Ranch Girls undertake the management of a large ranch in a western state, and after many difficulties make it pay and give them a good living. They are jolly, healthy, attractive girls, who have the best kind of a time, and the young readers will enjoy the book as much as any of them. ”

“ While the registry of cattle brands in the local western newspaper always includes among its symbols some three-ply hook or decimal fraction or swastika design that stands for the ranch of an enterprising and successful woman, there is always a suggested possibility to the mind of the young girl that lends fervor to her efforts. It is not forbidden that she should excel and even have a ranch of her own. [Pg 111]
The author knows of an efficient woman who owned and ran for twenty-five years a ranch of fifty thousand acres in the midst of the southern Rockies. ”

“ I can trust Jib.”
As the rest of the party was so enthusiastic, and all determined to spend a night at Number Two Camp on the Rolling River Range, Mary Cox elected to go likewise. She declared she did not wish to remain at the ranch-house in the sole care of a “fat and greasy Mexican squaw,” as she called the cook.
“Ouch! I bet that stings Maria when she knows how you feel about her,” chuckled Heavy. “Why let carking care disturb your serenity, Mary? Come on and enjoy yourself like the rest of us.”
“I don’t expect to enjoy myself in any party that’s just run by one girl,” snapped Mary. ”

“ Camping at night with nothing but the blue canopy of heaven for a covering, they reached the ranch at last. Then an unlooked-for thing occurred. The young runaway laid siege to the serving-maid’s heart, and was determined to marry her. In her precarious state of health, however, the mother, not approving of the match, refused, and said she needed the girl to take care of her. After a stay of some three weeks with her son at the ranch (where the runaways were ostensibly raising horses) , the mother and her party returned to Golden, finding the journey down stream comparatively easy. ”

“ He says there isn't a chance in a thousand that there is real gold anywhere near that ranch——"
"Stop, woman, stop!" cried Mollie, with her most tragic scowl. "Wouldst put an end to all our dreams in one fell swoop——"
"Probably that is all we shall do—just dream," said Betty, insisting upon being practical. "It's [15] an idea of mother's, that's all. But she is really determined to see the ranch, at least, before she makes up her mind whether to sell or not. In fact," she hesitated, colored a little, then went on bravely, "dad has decided to send Allen out there to look up the title. ”

“ Suppose Frieda and that Johnson child should not be around, for I can’t find Mollie either. I wonder if they have gone off anywhere with that long-legged grasshopper of a boy?”
“You take Frieda too seriously, Jean,” Olive murmured, “she is sure to be in the parlor and will say good-night with the rest of us. You see, we are so used to thinking of her as a baby that we can’t get used to her independence.”
But the two ranch girls could not continue indefinitely to talk of family matters with strangers waiting near them. ”

“ Tom and Bob breakfasted with the punchers, 45 but after the regular meal at the ranch-house the two boys hastened to join their girl friends. First they must all go to the corral and pick out their riding ponies. Helen, Madge and The Fox could ride fairly well; but Jane Ann had warned them that Eastern riding would not do on the ranch. Such a thing as a side-saddle was unknown, so the girls had all supplied themselves with divided skirts so that they could ride astride like the Western girl. Besides, a cow pony would not stand for the long skirt of a riding habit flapping along his flank. ”

“ When Jim turned and smiled down on Miss Drew, she was no longer the superior person he had just left.
"You'll learn to like it better in Wyoming, once you can ride," he answered kindly. "Why, when the spring comes, our barren prairies blossom like a rose and the birds are about everywhere. The ranch girls want you to get fond of it out here. There ain't any feeling much worse than being homesick for the things you left behind you. Now run along and rig yourself up in some kind of a riding habit of the girls. I will have the pony waiting by the time you are ready." ”