[Illustration: _A Prairie Infanta.--Frontispiece_ "THE DOCTOR SCOWLED OVER HIS GLASSES AS HE LISTENED." _See p. 79_] A Prairie Infanta By Eva Wilder Brodhead Illustrated PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY HENRY ALTEMUS The pictures in this book have been reproduced by the courtesy of "The Youth's Companion" CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER ONE THE POWER OF CONSOLATION 13 CHAPTER TWO A SACRED CHARGE 37 CHAPTER THREE A TRUE BENEFACTRESS 61 CHAPTER FOUR WISE IMPULSES 85 CHAPTER FIVE DESTINY PRESSES 109 CHAPTER SIX BEWILDERING SATISFACTION 133 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "The doctor scowled over his glasses as he listened" _Frontispiece_ "'I will not go with you!'" 29 "'He is Tesuque, the rain-god'" 55 "'I hoped you'd be able to lend me a hand'" 101 "'Do not make the thread short, Lolita'" 123 "'_Tia_, you are a lady of fortune'" 153 THE POWER OF CONSOLATION A PRAIRIE INFANTA CHAPTER ONE THE POWER OF CONSOLATION At the first glance there appeared to be nothing unusual in the scene confronting Miss Jane Combs as she stood, broad and heavy, in her doorway that May morning, looking up and down the single street of the little Colorado mining-town. Jane's house was broad and heavy also--a rough, paintless "shack," which she had built after her own ideals on a treeless "forty" just beyond the limits of Aguilar. It was like herself in having nothing about it calculated to win the eye. Jane, with her rugged, middle-aged face, baggy blouse, hob-nailed shoes and man's hat, was so unfeminine a figure as she plowed and planted her little vega, that some village wag had once referred to her as "Annie Laurie." Because of its happy absurdity the name long clung to Jane; but despite such small jests every one respected her sterling traits,--every one, that is, except Señora Vigil, who lived hard by in a mud house like a bird's nest, and who cherished a grudge against her neighbor. For, years before, when Jane's "forty" was measured off by the surveyor, it had been developed that the Vigil homestead was out of bounds, and that a small strip of its back yard belonged in the Combs tract. Jane would have waived her right, but the surveyor said that the land office could not "muddle up" the records in any such way; she must take her land. And Jane had taken it, knowing, however, that thereafter even the youngest Vigil, aged about ten months, would regard her as an enemy.