"Grandmother will be 'Senora'--doesn't it just suit her, girls?" asked Blue Bonnet. "Mrs. Clyde, may we call you 'Senora,' too?" asked Debby, "--just while we're on the ranch?" "Debby believes in the eternal fitness of things," put in Kitty. "Certainly, you may call me Senora," said Mrs. Clyde. "When you're in Texas do as the Texans do," she paraphrased. "I intend to learn all the Spanish I can while I'm here," remarked Sarah. "I brought a grammar and a dictionary--" A chorus of indignation went up from the other girls. "This isn't a 'General Culture Club,' Sarah Blake," scolded Kitty. "We didn't come to the Blue Bonnet ranch for mutual improvement--but for _fun_!" "We'll make a bonfire of those books," warned Blue Bonnet. "All the Spanish that I can absorb through my--pores, is welcome to stick," said Debby, "but I'm not going to dig for it." Sarah tactfully changed the subject. "Your house is a good way from the gate, Blue Bonnet," she remarked. "Nearly two miles," Blue Bonnet smiled. "There's nothing like owning all outdoors!" commented Kitty. "Grandfather used to own nearly all outdoors," returned Blue Bonnet. "When father was a little boy nobody had fences and the cattle ranged through two or three counties. But now we keep a lot of fence-riders, who don't do a thing but mend fences, day after day. There's the bridge,--now as soon as we cross the river you can see the ranch-house." "Is this what you call the 'river?'" Sarah asked, as they rattled over the pretty little stream. "We call it a 'rio' in Texas, and you'd better not insult us by calling it a creek, Senorita Blake," Blue Bonnet warned her. "I won't--'rio' is such a pretty name," said Sarah, making a mental note of it for future use. "There!" cried Blue Bonnet, "behold the 'casa' of the Blue Bonnet ranch!" What they saw was a long, low, rambling house, with wide, hospitable verandas embowered in half-tropical vines. It had evidently started out as a one-roomed, Spanish 'adobe,' and, as the needs of the family demanded it, an ell had been added here, a room there, like cells in a bee-hive, until now it covered a good deal of territory, still keeping its one-storied, Mission-like character. "Oh, Blue Bonnet--it's just what I wanted it to be," exclaimed Kitty. "It looks as if a fat, Spanish monk might come out of that door this very minute." "Instead of which there is my dear old Benita, and Pancho and his wife and the children and--oh, everybody!" Blue Bonnet was bouncing up and down now with excitement. Alec and the other two riders came up in a cloud of dust just as Miguel raced the mustangs up to the veranda steps, where all the ranch hands were gathered to greet the young Senorita. "Senorita mia!" cried Benita, and Blue Bonnet leaped from the wheel straight into her old nurse's arms. "And this is Grandmother, Benita," said Blue Bonnet, helping Mrs. Clyde from her place.