"SEVERAL TIMES SHE STOPPED JACK IN PASSING TO ASK HIM A QUESTION" 118 "'DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER SAW THIS?'" 167 "GAZING INTO THE SWEET FACE THAT SEEMED TO SMILE HELPFULLY BACK AT HER" 240 "'IT WAS AS IF WE HAD REACHED THAT LAND THAT WE USED TO SING ABOUT'" 310 PART I MARY WARE'S PROMISED LAND PART I CHAPTER I A SEEKER OF NEW TRAILS When the Ware family boarded the train in San Antonio that September morning for their long journey back to Lone-Rock, every passenger on the Pullman straightened up with an appearance of interest. Somehow their arrival had the effect of a breath of fresh air blowing through the stuffy car. Even before their entrance some curiosity had been awakened by remarks which floated in from the rear platform, where they were bidding farewell to some friends who had come to see them off. "Do write and tell us what your next adventures are, Mary," exclaimed one clear voice. "Your family ought to be named Gulliver instead of Ware, for you are always travelling around to such queer, out-of-the-way places. I suppose you haven't the faintest idea where you'll be six months from now." "No, nor where I'll be in even six weeks," came the answer, in a laughing girlish treble. "As I told the Mallory twins when we left Bauer, I'm like 'Gray Brother' now, snuffing at the dawn wind and asking where shall we lair to-day. From now I follow new trails. And, girls, I wish you could have heard Brud's mournful little voice piping after me down the track, as the train pulled out, 'Good hunting, Miss Mayry! Good hunting!'" "Oh, you'll have that, no matter where you go," was the confident answer. "And don't forget to write and tell us about it." A chorus of good-byes and farewell injunctions followed this seeker of new trails into the car, and the passengers glanced up to find that she was a bright, happy-looking girl in her teens. She carried a sheaf of roses on one arm, and some new magazines under the other. One noticed first the alertness of the face under the stylish hat with its bronze quills, and then the girlish simplicity of dress and manner which showed at a glance that she was a thorough little gentlewoman. Her mother, who followed, gave the same impression; gray-gowned, gray-gloved, bearing a parting gift of sweet violets, all that she could carry, in both hands.