Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/82

72 go over so that you folks from Down East kin see what a re'l Montany jamboree is like. The gals is fixin' up for it now, I reckon."

"I want to see Sally," said Ruth, smiling.

"Huh!" grunted Bill, with a glance at the big box of candy the Eastern girl held so carefully before her. "You kin see her all right. That red head of hers shines like a beacon in the night. And I'll speak to Lem."

Ruth rode her pony close to one of the open windows of the little schoolhouse. She could see that the benches and desks had been all moved out—probably stacked in a lean-to at the end of the house. The floor had been swept and mopped up and the girls were helping Sally trim the walls and certain pictures which hung thereon with festoons of colored paper. One girl was polishing the lamp chimneys, and another was filling and trimming the lamps themselves.

"Oh, hullo!" said the storekeeper's daughter, seeing Ruth at the window, and leaving her work to come across the room. "You're one of those young ladies stopping at Silver Ranch, aren't you?"

"No," said Ruth, smiling. "I'm one of the girls visiting Jane Ann. I hope you are going to invite us to your party here. We shall enjoy coming, I am sure."

"Guess you won't think much of our ball," re-