Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party

by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

  CHAPTER XXI

  BLUE BONNET DECIDES

  "ALEC SURVEYED HER PROUD LITTLE PROFILE."]

  "I SAY, Blue Bonnet, wait for a fellow, won't you?"

  Blue Bonnet waited, none too eagerly, while Alec caught up with her,and then, whistling to Don and Solomon, turned to resume her walkalong the grassy bank of San Franciscito.

  Alec surveyed her proud little profile for a few minutes in a sort ofpuzzled wonder, and finally as she kept on in the same unsociablemanner, he began with determined friendliness:

  "We've never yet taken the walk we planned, along the _rio_. Feelequal to it this morning?"

  "There isn't time to go far. I told Grandmother I'd not be gone long,"she returned carelessly.

  "Another tea-party on?" This time he succeeded in bringing the oldsparkle of laughter to her eyes.

  "Not this time," she answered.

  "Your parties have been a sort of continuous performance this summer,haven't they?" he persisted, hoping to win her to a moreconversational mood.

  "And the summer is almost over,--did you ever know such a shortvacation?"

  "It's been the jolliest one I've ever had. And it is going to mean alot to me all my life, Blue Bonnet."

  They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Then Alec asked--"Do youremember the morning we first spoke of following this stream?"

  "Yes,--and do you remember how we wondered what we would talk about onour next jaunt by the Woodford brook?"

  He nodded. "I remember everything; that was the first day I told you Iwasn't likely to be in Woodford next spring. It was only a day-dreamthen,--isn't it funny how things have come out?"

  "Funny? Alec, you are the queerest boy. You've taken to talking inriddles lately, and I--I reckon I'm pretty slow at guessing riddles.We may as well have it out right now. I've been wanting to have a talkwith you."

  "Same here," returned Alec. "What's the matter, anyway? You've notbeen a bit like yourself the last few days."

  "Don't you really know, Alec?" Blue Bonnet met his puzzled eyes verysoberly.

  "I honestly don't, Blue Bonnet."

  "And haven't you felt the least little bit guilty about letting mewrite that letter to your grandfather?"

  "Guilty?" Alec's tone expressed unaffected amazement. "Do you mean Iought to have written it myself? I'd have done it if you had hintedthat you'd rather have me. Why didn't you say so?"

  "You seemed so anxious to have me do it."

  "And so I was. It seemed only right and proper that you should be thefirst to suggest the proposition. You're the owner of the Blue Bonnetranch."

  "What has that to do with it?"

  "Well, I should think it had everything to do with it. I couldn't verywell invite myself, could I?"

  "Invite yourself? Oh, dear, now you're talking in riddles again."

  "Well, Blue Bonnet, after you had invited me to spend two months onthe ranch, it certainly took more courage than I possessed to suggestextending my visit for a year or two. You can see how much better itwas for the suggestion to come from you. Grandfather has fallen rightin with it and is making all arrangements with Mr. Ashe right now."

  Blue Bonnet's eyes grew round with astonishment. "Do you mean to tellme that you are going to stay on the ranch a year or two?"

  "If you and Mr. Ashe will stand for it. I want to stay till I outgrowbeing a weakling and grow into a real man. Till I'm as broad as afellow my age should be and have a muscle bigger than a girl's. Thetwo months here have already shown what two years is likely to do forme." Alec squared his shoulders and drew himself up as if already theexample of brawn he longed to be.

  "And do you mean to tell me that when you said you might not go backto Woodford, and that there was no college in store for Alec Trent youonly meant--"

  "Till I had the strength to go through with it, yes. I've had enoughbreakdowns. Why, what--"

  "I wish you were a girl so that I could shake you!" Blue Bonnet's lookwas a queer mixture of relief and indignation. "Why couldn't you sayso in the first place? When you kept making all those mysterioushints, I was wasting good, honest pity on you because I thought youwere preparing for an early grave!"

  Alec's peal of laughter showed how far from pitiable his state was."Oh, Blue Bonnet, I wish I could tell that to Knight!"

  "But didn't you hint?" she demanded.

  "Of course I did. I was fishing for an invitation to make a good longvisit to the Blue Bonnet ranch. Hardly likely, was it, that I wasgoing to demand it boldly as a right?"

  "Well, it would have saved me a heap of worry if you had. Why, Alec!"Blue Bonnet sank down on the bank to think it over. "What are yougoing to do on the ranch all winter?"

  He threw himself on the grass beside her.

  "I'm going to live, as far as possible, like Pinto Pete and Shady. I'mgoing to ride the range, go on the round-up this fall and nextspring,--spend about fifteen hours a day in the open. And if I'm notas husky as a Texas cowboy by next summer, it won't be my fault. Youknow it's been my one wish, Blue Bonnet, and this, I'm convinced isthe way to get it."

  "And college?"

  "College can wait. I'd rather have biceps like Knight's than be awalking encyclopaedia!"

  "Think of all the sympathy I've wasted!" Blue Bonnet laughed atherself.

  "Oh, I don't know that it's all been wasted. I've deserved a gooddeal. I've been afraid Grandfather would be against the scheme--he'snever been willing to admit that I wasn't as strong as I ought to be.I've only just begun myself to realize how good-for-nothing I used tofeel most of the time. There's nothing like feeling able to shake yourfist at all out-doors!"

  Blue Bonnet smiled. "Then I needn't regret my letter?"

  "Regret?--well, I should say not! You builded better than you knew.Getting Grandfather worried was just the right thing, though it soundsrather heartless to say it. Being worried, he came and saw and--Iconquered!"

  "Now I won't have to ask for an explanation of a very rude speech ofyours."

  "Was I rude--to you?" Alec looked up hastily.

  "It sounded--rather queer, for you to rejoice over my not going backto Woodford," she answered.

  "Meant purely as a compliment," he assured her. "It would be mightyjolly to have you here, Blue Bonnet."

  She rose hurriedly. "Let's not go into that, please. Every time I getpretty near a decision, some new argument bobs up on the other side.I'm dreadfully worried, Alec. But, thank goodness, you're off mymind!"

  "I'll try to stay off, Blue Bonnet," he laughed as he followed heralong the narrow path. "If you go back you'll write often, won't you?I shall depend on you--"

  She made a movement of impatience. "I'm not going to cross bridges,Alec, till I come to them."

  "I beg your pardon. I forgot that bridges are a touchy subject withyou!"

  They found Uncle Cliff and the General still absorbed in what appearedto be an interminable conversation. The General rose withold-fashioned courtesy as Blue Bonnet came up the veranda steps.

  "What do you think of your new cowboy?" he asked, laying his handaffectionately on Alec's shoulder.

  "We've just been exchanging opinions with each other," she said, witha sidelong glance at Alec.

  "I'm going to miss the boy," General Trent continued. "The old housewill be very dull and empty,--unless you make up your mind to beparticularly neighborly, Miss Blue Bonnet."

  Blue Bonnet colored and looked way. "I--I'll do my best if--"

  "Will you walk down to the stable with me, Grandfather?" Alec askedquickly. "I've not shown you the little coyotes yet."

  As the General walked away with his hand still on Alec's shoulder,Blue Bonnet turned to her uncle.

  "Read this, will you please, Uncle? It came to-day."

  He took Aunt Lucinda's letter, an odd expression growing around hismouth. But he opened it without speaking. Blue Bonnet sank into thehammock and watched him narrowly,--much as Grandmother had watched heras she read the same pages. She saw his lower teeth close on hismustache when he came to
the significant part.

  He lifted his eyes at last. "Well, Honey?"

  "Well, Uncle?"

  He sighed deeply. "Are you putting this up to me?"

  She raised her shoulders in an expressive shrug. "I reckon you oughtto have the deciding vote. I'm on the fence."

  "Do you want to be a musician, Blue Bonnet?"

  "I'd love to--if it weren't for all the practising!"

  "Seems to me you play mighty well now."

  "I'm very careless in my methods, Aunt Lucinda says."

  Uncle Cliff winced. "None of the girls play as well as you do, Honey."

  "I--I don't believe they do. But maybe, Uncle Cliff, that is a verygood reason why I should go on with it. Maybe I really have talent."

  "Wouldn't it be very lonesome off there in Boston? And won't it bemostly work and very little play?"

  "I'm afraid it will. But, somehow, it's chiefly because it will be somuch easier to stay on the ranch and be--desultory, as Aunt Lucindasays,--that I think I ought to go."

  "I see, Honey. You _are_ developing a New England conscience!"

  "I wonder?" she pondered.

  "I don't want you to do anything just because it's easier, BlueBonnet," Uncle Cliff continued. "That wasn't your father's way."

  "Nor your way, Uncle Cliff."

  "I hope not, Blue Bonnet. That's why I'm going to stop arguing righthere. It's my natural inclination to say 'stay with me, Honey, I needyou.' But I know I don't,--I just want you. But what I want more isto have you do the thing that's best for Blue Bonnet Ashe,--the thingthat will make you say in the end, 'I'm glad I did it!'" More movedthan he cared to show, Clifford Ashe rose, and running down theveranda steps, strode off in the direction of the stable.

  "Oh, dear!" thought Blue Bonnet, gazing after him. "In the language ofthe cowboys,--it's certainly up to me!"

  When she went into her grandmother's room that night--the room thathad been her mother's--Blue Bonnet found Benita acting as lady's maid,brushing Mrs. Clyde's long hair. The old nurse enjoyed nothing so muchas waiting on the little Senora's mother,--unless it was babying thelittle Senora's daughter. As she stood in the doorway silentlywatching the two, the sight of the rippling gray locks, fast whiteninginto snow, did more to sway Blue Bonnet than all the other array ofarguments. Uncle Cliff wanted her; it was Grandmother who reallyneeded her.

  She tiptoed up back of Benita, but her grandmother had caught sight ofher in the mirror and turned at her approach. Something in theexpression of Blue Bonnet's eyes as she bent for the good-night kissmade Mrs. Clyde say hastily--

  "What is it, dear?"

  And Blue Bonnet, her tone reflecting the happiness her words gave,replied: "It isn't _manana_ yet, but I can't wait to tell you--I'mgoing when you go, Grandmother."

  When they looked up, Benita stood with her apron thrown over herface.