“I don’t believe Mr. Hicks could have kept him on the ranch to-night,” replied Ruth, smiling. “He has promised to dance with me at least once. Ike is an awfully nice man, I think—and so kind! He’s taught us all to ride and is never out of sorts, or too busy to help us out. We ‘tenderfoots’ are always getting ‘bogged,’ you know. And Ike is right there to help us. We all like him immensely.”
Sally looked at her suspiciously. “Humph!” said she. “I never expected to hear that Bashful Ike was so popular.”
“Oh, I assure you he is,” rejoined Ruth, calmly. “He is developing into quite a lady’s man.”
Miss Dickson snorted. Nothing else could explain her method of emphatically expressing her disbelief. But Ruth was determined that the haughty little schoolmistress should have her eyes opened regarding Bashful Ike before the evening was over, and she proceeded to put into execution a plan she had already conceived on the way over from Silver Ranch.
CHAPTER XIV—BASHFUL IKE COMES OUT STRONG
Ruth first of all took Jane Ann into her confidence. The ranchman’s niece had been going about the room renewing her acquaintance with the “neighbors,” some of whom lived forty miles from Silver Ranch. The Western girl was proud of the friends she had made “Down East,” too, and she was introducing them all, right and left. But Ruth pinched her arm and signified that she wished to see her alone for a moment.
“Now, Nita,” the girl from the Red Mill whispered, “we want to see that Mr. Stedman has a good time to-night. You know, he’s been awfully good to us all.”
“Bashful Ike?” exclaimed Jane Ann.
“Yes. And we must give him so good a time that he will forget to be bashful.”
“He’s a right good feller—yes,” admitted Jane Ann, somewhat puzzled. “But what can we do for him?”