A Prairie Infanta

By Eva Wilder Brodhead
Illustrated
PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
Copyright, 1904, by Henry Altemus
The pictures in this book have been reproduced by the courtesy of The Youth's Companion



At the first glance there appeared to be nothing unusual in the scene confronting Miss Jane Combs as she stood, broad and heavy, in her doorway that May morning, looking up and down the single street of the little Colorado mining-town.
Jane's house was broad and heavy also—a rough, paintless shack, which she had built after her own ideals on a treeless forty just beyond the limits of Aguilar. It was like herself in having nothing about it calculated to win the eye.
Jane, with her rugged, middle-aged face, baggy blouse, hob-nailed shoes and man's hat, was so unfeminine a figure as she plowed and planted her little vega, that some village wag had once referred to her as Annie Laurie. Because of its happy absurdity the name long clung to Jane; but despite such small jests every one respected her sterling traits,—every one, that is, except Señora Vigil, who lived hard by in a mud house like a bird's nest, and who cherished a grudge against her neighbor.