Blue Bonnets Ranch Party | Page 6

going to dig for it."
Sarah tactfully changed the subject. "Your house is a good way from
the gate, Blue Bonnet," she remarked.
"Nearly two miles," Blue Bonnet smiled.
"There's nothing like owning all outdoors!" commented Kitty.

"Grandfather used to own nearly all outdoors," returned Blue Bonnet.
"When father was a little boy nobody had fences and the cattle ranged
through two or three counties. But now we keep a lot of fence-riders,
who don't do a thing but mend fences, day after day. There's the
bridge,--now as soon as we cross the river you can see the
ranch-house."
"Is this what you call the 'river?'" Sarah asked, as they rattled over the
pretty little stream.
"We call it a 'rio' in Texas, and you'd better not insult us by calling it a
creek, Señorita Blake," Blue Bonnet warned her.
"I won't--'rio' is such a pretty name," said Sarah, making a mental note
of it for future use.
"There!" cried Blue Bonnet, "behold the 'casa' of the Blue Bonnet
ranch!"
What they saw was a long, low, rambling house, with wide, hospitable
verandas embowered in half-tropical vines. It had evidently started out
as a one-roomed, Spanish 'adobe,' and, as the needs of the family
demanded it, an ell had been added here, a room there, like cells in a
bee-hive, until now it covered a good deal of territory, still keeping its
one-storied, Mission-like character.
"Oh, Blue Bonnet--it's just what I wanted it to be," exclaimed Kitty. "It
looks as if a fat, Spanish monk might come out of that door this very
minute."
"Instead of which there is my dear old Benita, and Pancho and his wife
and the children and--oh, everybody!" Blue Bonnet was bouncing up
and down now with excitement.
Alec and the other two riders came up in a cloud of dust just as Miguel
raced the mustangs up to the veranda steps, where all the ranch hands
were gathered to greet the young Señorita.

"Señorita mia!" cried Benita, and Blue Bonnet leaped from the wheel
straight into her old nurse's arms.
"And this is Grandmother, Benita," said Blue Bonnet, helping Mrs.
Clyde from her place.
"The little Señora's mother--God bless you!" cried Benita in Spanish.
Then, in spite of her stiff joints, she made a deep, old-fashioned curtsy.
Tears sprang to the eyes of the Eastern woman. "Thank you, Benita,"
she said. "My daughter always wrote lovingly of you."
"Blessed Señora!" breathed Benita fervently.
"This is my grandmother, everybody," said Blue Bonnet, presenting
Mrs. Clyde to the entire circle, "and these are my friends--'amigos' from
Massachusetts."
"Pleased to know ye!" said Pinto Pete and Shady, the only American
cowboys on the ranch; while the Mexicans, as one voice, gave a hearty
chorus of greeting.
The six "amigos" from Massachusetts were thrilled to the core,
although at the same time a trifle embarrassed as to the correct way of
responding to this vociferous welcome. Blue Bonnet set them all an
example: she had a smile and a word for every man, woman and child,
and finally sent them all off with a--"Come back when my trunks
arrive!" And the hint brought a fresh gleam to already beaming faces.
Later, after a bountiful supper, they all gathered once more on the
broad veranda while Blue Bonnet distributed her gifts. That those days
in New York had been profitably spent was fully attested now when the
contents of the many trunks were displayed. There were ribbons, scarfs
and gay beads for the women, toys and sweets for the children, and
wonderful pocket-knives, pipes and tobacco pouches for the men.
The Blue Bonnet ranch had been part of an original Spanish land-grant
in the days when Texas was still part of Mexico, and had descended

from father to son until it came into the hands of Blue Bonnet's
grandfather. Many of the Mexican ranch-hands had been born on the
place and looked on the Ashe family as their natural guardians and
protectors. As yet they had not acquired a Yankee sense of
independence, nor had they lost the soft Southern courtesy inherent in
their race. They came up one at a time to Blue Bonnet as she stood at
the top of the steps, her gifts in a great heap beside her; and each one,
as he received his gift from her hand, called down a blessing on the
head of the young Señorita. Then, laughing, chatting, and comparing
gifts like a crowd of children, they trooped away, the single men to the
"bunk-house" by the big corral, the married couples and their children
to little cabins scattered over the place.
"It's just like some old Spanish tale," declared Alec. "Blue Bonnet is a
princess just returned to her castle, and all the serfs are come to pay her
homage."
"I suppose