Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/girlofplainscoun00macg A GIRL OF THE PLAINS COUNTRY by ALICE MACGOWAN Author of “Judith of the Cumberlands,” etc. New York Frederick A. Stokes Company MCMXXIV Copyright, 1924, by Frederick A. Stokes Company All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS I The Arrival II An Affair of the Heart III The Firing Squad IV The Doll V Poor Charley VI A Child’s World VII The Norther VIII A Christmas Valentine IX Stockings and Shoes X The Carriage XI The Roping Match XII The Fugitive XIII The-Boy-on-the-Train XIV Some One Rides Away XV No Questions Asked XVI “Twen-ty-Sev-en-Hun-dred-Cat-tle!” XVII With the Trail-Herd XVIII Sunday Comes Back XIX Hilda and the Flying M’s XX Hilda and the Blue Roan XXI Another Chance XXII Young Wings XXIII At the Alamositas XXIV “Invitation to the Dance” XXV The Dance at Grainger’s XXVI As Maybelle Saw It XXVII Old Man Hipp’s Steer XXVIII The Closing of a Door XXIX The Resurrection Plant XXX The Return XXXI A Telegram XXXII An Arrival A GIRL OF THE PLAINS COUNTRY CHAPTER I THE ARRIVAL The little girl on the back seat of the stage clung to one of the uprights of the vehicle as though she feared that when it stopped she would, in her enthusiasm, hurl herself bodily from it, and into this strange, interesting, dusty life of the plains country. Hank Pearsall, manager of the Three Sorrows Ranch, who had driven the sixty miles in to Mesquite to meet the new owners coming all the way from New York, looked at her small face with its pointed chin, great black eyes under the thatch of dark curls, the repressed vitality with which she sat there giving more of an impression of urgency than most people could have given by running and jumping, and thought to himself that here was one who would all her life be a little happier, or a little more miserable, than the average.