The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure — John Shaqi
The Ranch Girls and Their Great AdventureVandercook, Margaret
General
The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure
Vandercook, Margaret
Family -- Fiction; Friendship -- Juvenile fiction; Love stories; Sisters -- Juvenile fiction
Out in the garden Jack and Olive and Frieda played all morning with
Jack's two babies. Jimmie was a little fair haired, blue eyed, rose
cheeked English boy. Vive was a different kind of baby; she had light
yellow hair, and dark eyes unlike either Jack's or Frank's. Perhaps she
was going to resemble the lovely old time portrait in the library.
Frieda spent several hours with Vive in her arms, although she never had
been particularly interested in any baby before.
When lunch was over, Jack said unexpectedly:
"I hope you'll forgive me, Frieda, if I leave you and Olive for a little
while. I promised a friend, Captain MacDonnell, to ride with him this
afternoon before I dreamed you were coming, and I have forgotten to let
him know. Besides," Jack added, since never even in small matters could
she be dishonest, "I really want the ride. Captain MacDonnell is the
one person who likes to ride as hard as I do. Oh, of course, English
women ride marvelously well--far better than I, and there is nothing
they won't attempt in hunting. But what I like now and then is just a
straight cross country ride--as near like the old rides across the
prairies as I can manage, though I must say this country does not look
much like the prairies," Jack ended, as she glanced smiling out the
window at her own beautiful, well kept English lawn. "Wait, Frieda, and
meet Bryan won't you? he is one of Frank's and my dearest friends."
So Olive and Frieda were standing together on the veranda at the side of
Kent House when Jack and Captain MacDonnell finally rode off,
accompanied by a groom.
"I declare Jack looks better on horseback than any one in the world,"
Frieda announced admiringly. "Her costume is more stylish than the old
khaki or corduroy things she used to wear at the ranch, but I don't
think Jack herself is very much changed, except that she is more
attractive."
At this instant Jack turned to wave her riding whip back at her sister
and friend. She had on a perfect fitting tan cloth habit with a long
English coat and short trousers and high riding boots. Her yellow brown
hair was braided low on her neck and she wore a small derby.
"Captain MacDonnell is handsome too, isn't he?" Frieda remarked
reflectively, before moving to go indoors. "I wonder if he and Jack are
very intimate and if Frank minds her riding with him like this? I
suppose not, or Jack wouldn't," she acknowledged.
Then she turned to Olive. "Don't look so cross, for goodness sake,
Olive. I am not criticizing Jack. I don't suppose you imagine she is any
more perfect than I do, only I was just thinking how you and the entire
family will probably blame me for doing pretty much the same kind of
thing that Jack is doing. Of course, I don't think there is anything
wrong in it. It is absurd and horrid of people to believe there is."
Olive was about to reply, but before she could speak, Frieda interrupted
her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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