said, with a toss of her pretty head. "That's why they're so quiet! They
probably don't have girls in the country."

"Don't they, just!" said Eleanor, laughing back at her. "Wait until you
see them, Dolly. They'll put your nose out of joint, the girls around
here. If you think you're going to have it all your own way with the
boys out here, the way you do so much at home, you're mistaken."

Dolly tossed her head again. She looked at the confused, blushing boys
on the wagons, who could hardly be expected to understand that Dolly was
only teasing them, and wanted nothing better than a perfectly harmless
flirtation.

"They're welcome to boys like those," she said airily. "I'll wait until
I get home, Miss Eleanor."

Then she turned away, and Eleanor, her face serious for a moment, turned
to Bessie.

"She'll wait until she's grown up, too, if I've got anything to say
about it," she said. "Bessie, when Zara comes back, of course you'll be
with her mostly. But I wish you'd make a friend of Dolly Ransom,--a real
friend. Her mother's dead, and she has no sisters."

"I hope I can," said Bessie, simply. "I like her ever so much."




CHAPTER VIII