“Oh, but you won’t be buried in the wilderness all the time,” laughed the girl from the Red Mill. “I am sure of that.”
“Huh!” ejaculated the Western girl, startled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we’ve been talking to Uncle Bill,” laughed Ruth.
“Oh! you ain’t got it fixed for me?” gasped the ranchman’s neice. “Will he send me to school?”
“Surest thing you know, Nita!”
“Not to that boarding school you girls all go to?”
“Unless he backs down—and you know Mr. Bill Hicks isn’t one of the backing-down kind.”
“Oh, bully for you!” gasped Jane Ann. “I know it’s your doing. I can see it all. Uncle Bill thinks the sun just about rises and sets with you.”
“Helen and Heavy did their share. So did Madge—and even Heavy’s aunt, Miss Kate, before we started West. You will go to Briarwood with us next half, Nita. You’ll have a private teacher for a while so that you can catch up with our classes. It’s going to be up to you to make good, young lady—that’s all.”
Jane Ann Hicks was too pleased at that moment to say a word—and she had to wink mighty hard to keep the tears back. Weeping was as much against her character as it would have been against a boy’s. And she was silent thereafter for most of the way to the camp.