"Oh, Uncle,"--Blue Bonnet was struck with a sudden fear,--"do you suppose they will all be ready to go? We're two whole days earlier than we said we'd be--" "They'll be ready, don't you worry. Your grandmother is not one of the unprepared sort, and the girls don't need much of a wardrobe for the ranch. Besides, I wired them explicit directions--to meet The Wanderer and be ready to come aboard immediately. We shall have only a few minutes in Woodford." Blue Bonnet settled back in her red velvet reclining chair and shut her eyes. Slowly a smile wreathed her lips. "What's the joke, Honey?" Blue Bonnet looked up with dancing eyes. "Benita!" she laughed. "Won't she be just--petrified, when she sees seven girls instead of one? And can't you imagine the boys--" "Benita had better not get petrified this summer," interrupted Uncle Cliff. "She has to do some tall hustling. I've wired Uncle Joe to get extra help while the ranch party is in session. If they can get old Gertrudis from the Lone Star Ranch--she's the finest cook in the state of Texas. And her granddaughter might wait on table." "Oh, I do think a ranch party is the grandest thing in the world," cried Blue Bonnet. "I've read of house parties, but they must be downright tame compared with this kind of a party. And it's not to last just over a week-end either, but _two whole months_! Why, Uncle Cliff, any ordinary man would be scared to pieces at the prospect." "But I'm not an ordinary man, eh?" Mr. Ashe looked pleased as a boy as he put the question. "Well, I reckon not! You're a fairy godfather. You grant my wishes before they're fairly out of my mouth. And I seem to have plenty of wishes. Just think, Uncle, how many things I've wished for since my last birthday!" "First," said Uncle Cliff, "you wished to go away from the ranch." Blue Bonnet nodded assent. "Because I was--afraid--to ride. Doesn't it seem ridiculous, now I'm over that silliness? But oh, how I did wish I could get over being afraid! That was about the only wish you couldn't grant, Uncle Cliff." "That wish was never expressed, Honey--don't forget that. Maybe I could have helped even there," Mr. Ashe suggested gently. "I know, it was my own fault. But I was--ashamed, Uncle Cliff. You don't suppose--" Blue Bonnet's face clouded, "you don't think, do you, that the fear will come again when I get back where I saw Jose--dragged?" She shut her eyes and shuddered. "Nonsense, Honey. That fear died and was buried the day you rode Alec's horse, Victor. A good canter on Firefly over the Blue Bonnet country will make you wonder that such a feeling was ever born." "Dear old Firefly! Won't I make it up to him though! Isn't it queer how many of my wishes have come true? It makes me feel almost--breathless. I no sooner got through wishing I could leave the ranch and go East and be with Grandmother--than I woke up in Woodford. And I wanted--thought I wanted--to be called Elizabeth. Blue Bonnet became Elizabeth!"