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
There were not many horses left in the stables, as most of them were
being used by the army. But when Jack and Frank went into the kennels,
which adjoined the stables, a dozen great dogs began leaping over them
at once.
Frank drew a little aside to watch his wife.
Jack stood in their midst laughing and protesting a little when one big
hound stuck its great head, with wide open jaws and lolling tongue, too
near her face. Yet she managed to make them all happy and quiet again by
patting and stroking each one, or by calling each dog by name.
"You are not afraid of anything in the world, are you, Jack?" Frank
remarked admiringly, as they again got safely away from the kennels,
Jack finding it necessary at the last moment to remove two large paws
from her shoulders in order to settle a dispute between two of the other
dogs.
Jack laughed. "Goodness, Frank, what an extraordinary opinion you and a
few other people have of me! I am one of the biggest cowards in the
world about the things I am afraid of. I simply don't happen to be
afraid of animals, as so many women are. And that is not a virtue, but
because I was brought up with them."
"I should like to know what you do fear, then?" Frank demanded.
Instead of answering at once Jack slipped her arm inside her husband's.
"I am dreadfully afraid of the people I care about being angry with me,
though you and the rest of my family may not believe it, as I am
supposed to have once been a wilful person," she returned unexpectedly.
"Sometimes I wonder, Frank, just how much of a coward I would be, if I
had either to give up what I thought was right or else to have some one
seriously angry with me. I have not the courage of my convictions like
Frieda."
In response Frank uttered a half growl, which was not very complimentary
to Frieda or her convictions. However, Jack went on almost without
pausing.
"I wonder, Frank, if it is fair to Frieda not to let her know what has
happened to Professor Russell? Sometimes I have thought she has worried
more over his silence than we imagine."
Frank shook his head.
"Frieda deserves whatever may come to her. It is an old-fashioned
axiom, dear, but all the more true for that reason: Frieda has made her
bed; now let her lie upon it."
"But Frieda is hardly more than a child," Jack protested. "Besides, that
is a pretty hard rule to apply to people. I don't think you and I would
like to have it applied to us if we were ever in any difficulty."
As it struck Frank as utterly impossible that he and Jack ever could
have a disagreement, which could not be settled amiably in a few hours,
he paid no attention to her last statement. Nevertheless he added:
"After all, Jack, it is not for us to decide anything concerning Frieda
and her husband. That is for them. We are simply doing what Professor
Russell has requested of us."
"Yes, but Frieda," Jack expostulated more weakly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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