"Ah reckon that's it, Poll! Love works wonders if we'd only _let_ it.
And you love everything in a way that everything loves you back again.
It beats me, how the beavers, and foxes, and even the bears treat you
as if you were one of them, instead of running to cover. As for the
chicks and colts and lambs on the ranch--why, they'd follow you to Oak
Creek, if they could!"

Polly smiled happily as she looked away over the distant mountain-sides
where Nature's creatures roamed unrestrained. And then her eyes rested
upon the pastures nearer home, where the farm pets grazed. Every one of
them, wild or tame, were her friends.

"Reckon Ah'll go now, Poll. What shall Maw do about the dinner?"

"Tell her not to bother about me. I'll wash the dishes' when I get
back, Daddy."

So Mr. Brewster started for the house and Polly settled herself in a
more comfortable position while crooning to little Noddy. As she sat
holding the little burro's head, her thoughts wandered back to the time
when Noddy was but three days old. The mother had died and left the
tiny bundle of brown wool to be brought up on a nursing bottle. To keep
the baby burro warm it had been wrapped in an old blanket and placed
back of the kitchen stove. Thus Noddy first learned to walk in the
large kitchen of the log ranch-house, and later it felt quite like a
member of the family.

Being such a sleepy little colt, the name of Noddy was considered very
appropriate but, as the burro grew older, it showed such intelligence
and energy that its name was a dreadful misnomer.