Page:Caroline Lockhart--The Fighting Shepherdess.djvu/49

 " Here, Hughie, why don't you take this in? "

'You'll go, won't you? " the lad asked eagerly after reading it.

" We never mingle socially with the natives." As Mrs. Toomey shook her head her smile and tone expressed ineffable exclusiveness. Seeing that the boy's face fell in disappointment she urged, " But you go, Hughie."

" If I knew some one to ask "

"There's Maggie Taylor," Mrs. Toomey suggested.

"And Mormon Joe's Kate," Toomey added, laughing.

" Who's she ? " the boy asked curiously.

" Do you remember the day when you were here before that we met those people driving a band of sheep a man and a barefooted girl in overalls? "Hughie's eyes sparkled:

"They stopped here, then? " Toomey scowled.

" Yes, confound them! I've had more than one "run in' with them since over range and water. But," he urged, "don't let that hinder you. They live with their sheep back there in the foothills like a couple of white savages, and she's some greener than alfalfa. Go and ask her. You'll get some fun out of it. I dare you I I'll bet you a saddle blanket against anything you like that you haven't got the sand to take her."

" Done ! " Hughie Disston's eyes were dancing. " If my nerve fails me when I see her, you are in a new Navajo."

It was a great lark to Disston, now a tall boy of nineteen, handsome, attractive, with the soft drawl of his southern speech and the easy manners of those who have associated much with women-folk. He was in high spirits as, one morning early, he and Teeters turned off