When Sing Pete hammered the iron triangle announcing supper Parker and the cowboys had returned, the hides from the dead steers had been unloaded and the men were ready for the meal. As Carolyn June and Ophelia went into the kitchen they exchanged a look of understanding. Skinny lagged behind Old Heck. He dreaded the shock of the white shirt on the other cowboys. When he stepped into the room his face flamed scarlet and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He expected merciless, sarcastic chiding--thinly veiled but cruel. He was disappointed. The cowboys looked at him for a moment, exchanged winks, then sat silently and solemnly down to the table. The presence of the women had saved, for the time being, the suffering Skinny. Carolyn June distributed tender words and velvety looks impartially among the younger cowboys, while Ophelia alternated sweet nothings between Parker and Old Heck, with an occasional sidelong glance at Charley that brought a heightened color to his sun-browned cheeks. Chuck sighed dolefully. "Why so sad?" Carolyn June asked gently, looking with melting sympathy at the pensive cowboy. "I--I--was just thinking of a--a--funeral I saw once!" he answered, gazing steadily and with pretended awe at Skinny's white shirt. "Some colors always remind me of funerals or--or--weddings!" he explained. A suppressed snicker circled the table. "Don't be down-hearted," Carolyn June laughed, "it may not go that far. "Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful surprise for you and the boys." Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation. "We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on. "A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when--" "To-night--in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big dance--just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records--Skinny and I were playing them this afternoon--and every blessed cowboy on the Quarter Circle KT must be there!" A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "We'll be there!" greeted her. "In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room and have it ready--don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an afterthought. "Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the bunk-house. "Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave." "So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their sleeping quarters. "Me, too," laughed Bert. "Gee, didn't Skinny shine in that shirt?" as they disappeared inside the building and there was a rush to hunt out razors, brushes and other toilet necessities or clean handkerchiefs and ties.