Gerald came bounding toward them, dressed still in his fringed cowboy suit. "Say, kids," he shouted inelegantly, then looked rather sheepishly at Julie, as though he expected one of her grandmotherly rebukes, but hearing none, he blurted on: "We're going to have a corn and potato roast for supper tonight. Won't that be high jinks, though? Mr. Packard has a barbecue pit on the other side of the little lake. Oh. boy!" he continued, rubbing the spot where the feast would eventually be. "You bet you I'll be there with bells!" Then, catching Julie by the hand, he raced with her to the corral, where they liked to look over the log fence at the horses and colts in the enclosure. Dan smiled down at his companion. "Let us wait until morning and start at sunrise, shall we?" he suggested. "If we go this afternoon, our host might think that we do not appreciate his plans for our entertainment." Meg agreed willingly, little dreaming that so slight an incident was to make a vital change in her hitherto uneventful life. CHAPTER XXIX. THE BARBEQUE Julie and Gerald were hilariously excited as the hour of the roast approached. Mr. Packard had selected them as his aides, had made them a committee on arrangement. They took wood to the pit and then went with the ever-beaming Chinese gardener to the field where the corn grew, and they carried back between them a heavily laden basket. Then the long table near the lake that was sheltered by cottonwood trees was set with the plate and dishes found on every cattle ranch in reserve for round-ups and similar occasions when many are to be fed. In the center Julie placed a huge bouquet of scarlet salvia and golden glow to make the table "extra-pretty," and she put Meg's name nearest the flowers, but, with the innocence of childhood, she put Dan's name at the place directly opposite. When the guests were finally summoned, Julie's big brother protested that he didn't want to sit directly behind that huge bouquet because he couldn't "see anything." Julie looked perplexed. "Why, yes, you can so! You can see the foothills, and just lots of things." Then Gerald blurted out, "Silly, he can't see Meg Heger, can he, when you've put her right across from the bouquet?" How they all laughed, even Meg, and Mrs. Starr, glancing at the mountain girl, marveled at her beauty, and thought it quite natural that any lad would rather look at her than at a scarlet and gold bouquet. Mr. Packard settled the matter by removing the huge centerpiece to a side table. "There, that's heaps better!" Jean said as he smiled across at Marion. "Now I also have a better view of the foothills," he added mischievously.