Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/89

Rh we see around here wouldn't be afraid of a giant," she concluded.

"Huh!" snapped The Fox, who usually found something sharp to say in comment upon Ruth's speeches, "I guess these cowboys aren't any better than the usual run of men. I think they're rather coarse and ugly. Look at this half Indian ahead of us."

"What do you mean—him?" exclaimed Tom Cameron, who was pretty well disgusted with The Fox and her sly and sneering ways. "Why, he's got a better education than most of the men you meet. He stood high at Carlisle, in his books as well as athletics. You wouldn't scoff at any other college-bred fellow—why at Jib?"

"Indian," said Mary Cox, with her nose in the air.

"His folks owned the country—the whole continent!" cried the excited Tom, "until white men drove them out. You'd consider an Englishman, or a German, or a Belgian, with his education, the equal of any American. And Jib's a true American at that."

"Well, I can't say that I ever could admire a savage," sniffed The Fox, tossing her head.

For the most part, however, the girls and their drivers had a very jolly time, and naturally there could not be much "bickering" even in the leading buckboard where The Fox rode, for Ruth was