The Ranch Girls at Rainbow LodgeVandercook, Margaret
General
The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge
Vandercook, Margaret
Ranch life -- Juvenile fiction; Western stories; Young women -- Juvenile fiction
Over in the corner of a big empty room sat a strange little girl. She
was sewing on some small doll clothes and humming softly to herself. Two
braids like plaited silk of the corn hung over her face. Olilie did not
recall ever having seen her before and had not the faintest idea how she
happened to be in this wonderful place, instead of the dirty hut of
Laska the Indian woman and her son Josef.
Some one else tiptoed softly into the chamber. Olilie half closed her
eyes. She remembered this other face faintly, but where and when had she
seen it?
"Hasn't she spoken yet?" a voice asked in a disappointed tone. "I am so
sorry, but I simply have to ride over the range with Jim this morning.
Some of the cattle keep disappearing. If our patient wants to talk,
please don't let her tell you everything before I get back. She must be
kept pretty quiet."
Just for a second, Olilie felt that a face bent over hers. But she gave
no sign of being awake, although she now knew where she was and how she
happened to be there. It had flashed across her memory--her flight, her
hiding and the meeting with the ranch girls. She understood that she had
been ill but was going to get well again. The hot, uncomfortable feeling
had left her head, she had no pain, only she was very weak and she did
not think that she could bear to go away from this beautiful place. If
only she could have been ill a little longer!
Olilie's wistful, black eyes were wide open, when the bedroom door
unclosed the second time. She caught a glimpse of a tall, dark figure
and a wave of terror swept over her. Already had Laska come to take her
home?
But the woman walked quietly up to the bed, took one of Olilie's thin
hands and gazed at it earnestly, turning it over in her own brown palm.
She shook her head, smoothed up the covers and nodded to Olilie not to
try to talk.
"This girl has been brought up among white people, hasn't she, Frieda?"
Aunt Ellen inquired softly.
The blonde plaits moved slightly.
"I am sure I don't know," came a faint voice from between them. "We know
nothing about her, except what Jack told you. She did not talk like an
Indian, so I suppose she has been to school. Her mother, from whom she
was running away, was a full-blooded Indian but she don't look a bit
like her." Frieda lowered her voice still further. "Has the Indian woman
been here to inquire for her daughter? Jack was afraid she would find
out who we were and come over here."
Aunt Ellen gave her head a warning shake and said something to Frieda
that the sick girl on the bed could not hear. But Frieda jumped up and
her bits of doll dresses scattered about on the floor. "When will Jack
and Jim come back?" she demanded quickly. "If we had only known before
they went away!"
"Known what?" Olilie asked, as naturally as though she had been taking
part in the conversation all the time. "I am quite well now, thank you.
If you don't mind, I should like to get out of bed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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