Elitha could not persuade Leanna or Georgia to go with her, nor was I inclined to do so when she and grandma first urged me.  But I began to yield as the former told me she was lonesome; wanted at least one little sister to live with her, and that if I would be that one, I should have a new dress and a doll with a face.  Then my new brother settled the matter by saying:  “Listen to me.  If you’ll go, you shall have the pinto colt that I told you about, a little side saddle of your own, and whenever you feel like it, you can get on it and ride down to see all the folks.”  The prospects were so alluring that I went at once with Leanna, who was to get me ready for the journey.

Leanna did not share my enthusiasm.  She said I was a foolish little thing, and declared I would get lonesome on such a big place so far away; that the colt would kick me if I tried to go near it, and that no one ever made saddles for colts.  She was not so gentle as usual when she combed my hair and gave my face a right hard scrubbing with a cloth and whey, which grandma bade her use, “because it makes the skin so nice and soft.”

Notwithstanding these discouragements, I took my clothes, which were tied up in a colored handkerchief, kissed them all good-bye, and rode away sitting behind my new brother on the spotted horse, really believing that I should be back in a few days on a visit.

CHAPTER XIX

ON A CATTLE RANCH NEAR THE COSUMNE RIVER—­“NAME BILLY”—­INDIAN GRUB FEAST.

We left the Fort and grandma’s house far behind, and still rode on and on.  The day was warm, the wild flowers were gone, and the plain was yellow with ripening oats which rustled noisily as we passed through, crowding and bumping their neighborly heads together.  Yet it was not a lonesome way, for we passed elk, antelope, and deer feeding, with pretty little fawns standing close to their mothers’ sides.  There were also sleek fat cattle resting under the shade of live oak trees, and great birds that soared around overhead casting their shadows on the ground.  As we neared the river, smaller birds of brighter colors could be heard and seen in the trees along the banks where the water flowed between, clear and cold.

All these things my sister pointed out to me as we passed onward.  It was almost dark before we came in sight of the adobe ranch house.  We were met on the road by a pack of Indian dogs, whose fierce looks and savage yelping made me tremble, until I got into the house where they could not follow.

The first weeks of my stay on the ranch passed quickly.  Elitha and I were together most of the time.  She made my new dress and a doll which, was perfection in my eyes, though its face was crooked, and its pencilled hair was more like pothooks than curls.  I did not see much of her husband, because in the mornings he rode away early to direct his Indian cattle-herders at the rodeos, or to oversee other ranch work, and I was often asleep when he returned nights.