"A little is enough for me," said the girl, smiling. "Don't call me _Miss_, please. It doesn't seem just right--_here_. Call me Hope. It will make me feel more at home, you know. You're _Mary_, aren't you? _You_ haven't been to supper, have you?" "Mother said you were to eat alone," answered the breed girl. "Oh, no, surely I may eat with you girls! I'd much prefer it. You know it would be lonely all by myself, don't you think so?" "We ain't going to eat just yet, not till after the boys get theirs," said the Harris girl a trifle less timidly. "Then I will wait, too," Hope decided. "Come in, Mary, and stay till I unpack some of these things. Just a few waists and extra riding skirts. I suppose I am to hang them up here on these nails, am I not?" When she had finished unpacking she turned to the breed girl, who had become quite friendly and was watching her interestedly, and explained: "Just a few things that I thought would be suitable to wear up here, for teaching; but, do you know, I'd feel lots better if I had a dress like yours--a calico one. But I have this--this old buck-skin one. See, it has bead-work on it. Isn't it pretty?" "Oh!" exclaimed the girl, as Hope held it up for inspection. "_Isn't_ it lovely!" "Very old and dingy-looking, but I'll put it on and wear it," she decided. A few minutes later, when they had arranged the small, barren room somewhat more comfortably, Hope Hathaway, attired in her dress of Indian make, joined the Harris girls at their frugal meal. Her dark hair was parted in the center and hung in two long braids down her back. That, combined with the beaded dress, fringed properly, her black eyes, and quiet expressionless face, made a very picturesque representation of an Indian girl. Truly she was one of them. The breed girls must have thought something of the same, for they became at their ease, talking very much as girls talk the world over. There were three of them between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, and Hope soon found herself well entertained and almost contented. The loneliness soon wore away, and before realizing it she began to feel at home--almost one of them, true to her spirit of adaptability. But yet for her supper she ate only two hard boiled eggs. After the meal the breed girls walked with her down to the spring-house where the milk and butter was kept. From underneath the small log building a large spring crept lazily out, spreading itself as it went into a miniature lake which lay between the house buildings and the stables. It was the only thing on the ranch worthy of notice, and, in a country barren of water excepting in the form of narrow winding creeks, it was pleasing to the eye. The men and boys had disappeared, the younger children were with their mother, and even the pigs had drowsily gone to their sleeping quarters. The place seemed strangely quiet after its recent noise and commotion.