"Now maybe we can have another nice talk," she said, sinking down beside Blue Bonnet in the hammock on the side veranda. "We've had only snatches, so far. And it will be so long before I see you again." "What makes you think so?" Blue Bonnet asked rather abruptly. "Why,--you will be leaving in two weeks, the girls said." "Oh, they did." Blue Bonnet was thoughtful for a moment, then burst out--"Carita, what would you do, if you were in my place,--about going back East again?" "What would I do?" Carita repeated wonderingly. "Why, Blue Bonnet, do you mean that you're not sure about going?" "I do mean--just that. The girls have taken it for granted all along that I was going back with them, but somehow I can't make up my mind. Every day the ranch grows dearer. And being shut up in a stuffy schoolroom, and having to get up and go to bed by the clock, and having a place for everything and everything in its place--Carita, it goes against the grain!" Carita gave a comical little sigh. "It's queer how things seem to be--cut on the bias, isn't it? Now to go to school, and see and know lots of people, and have libraries and hear music--why, I seem sometimes to _ache_ for it all." "It's a pity you're not Aunt Lucinda's niece. You'd do her credit. Now the only person I seem to suit through and through, is Uncle Cliff. He's been father and mother both to me, and I think that I owe him something in return. I can't bear to leave him all alone again." "I know. I should feel just that way about Mother. She needs me, but, if we could afford it, she'd be the first to send me away to school. If I could get enough education to teach, I could help her more in the end." "I reckon it's the end that makes everything endurable. It was the thought of getting back to the ranch that got me through last year. But I haven't let myself think what the end of this summer would bring. Every day on the ranch is complete in itself." "But think how it will seem after this--when the girls are all gone, and your grandmother--" "It's Grandmother who counts more than any one, except Uncle Cliff. I reckon I'll just have to be blindfolded and then choose!" "There come Knight and Alec," said Carita. "I shouldn't wonder if they'd been having the same sort of a conversation. They'd like to change places with each other. Knight is wild to go East to college, and Alec would give anything for--" "Knight's health and strength,--I know," Blue Bonnet interrupted. "It's another case of the mixed-upness of things. I'm disappointed in Alec." Carita opened her eyes wide. "Disappointed? Why, I should think you, of all people, feeling as you do, would sympathize with him." "I do sympathize with him, and always have. That's why I was so glad Uncle Cliff asked him out here. I was sure it would do him the world of good--" "And so it has," said Carita. "It has done wonders for him, Knight says, and that's why--"