CHAPTER XXX
HEADED WEST
Just at this time Helen Morrell wasn’t thinking at all about wreaking vengeance upon those who might have ill-treated her when she was alone in the great city. Instead, her heart was made very tender by the delightful things that were being done for her by those who loved and admired the sturdy little girl from Sunset Ranch.
In the first place, Jess and Dud Stone, and their cousins, gave Helen every chance possible to see the pleasanter side of city life. She had gone shopping with the girls and bought frocks and hats galore. Indeed, she had had to telegraph to Big Hen for more money. She got the money; but likewise she received the following letter:
“Dear Snuggy:—
“We lets colts get inter the alfalfa an’ kick up their heels for a while; but they got to steady down and come home some time. Ain’t you kicked up your heels sufficient in that lonesome city? And it looks like somebody was getting money away from you—or have you learnt to spend it down East there? Come on home, Snuggy! The hull endurin’ ranch is jest a-honin’ for you. Sing’s that despondint I expects to see him cut off his pigtail. Jo-Rab has gone back on his rice-and-curry rations, the Greasers don’t plunk their mandolins no more, and the punchers are as sorry lookin’ as winter-kept steers. Come back, Snuggy, and liven up the old place, is the sincere wish of, yours warmly,
“Henry Billings.”
Helen only waited to see some few matters cleared up before she left for the West. As it happened, Dud Stone obtained a chance to represent a big corporation for some months, in Elberon and Helena. His smattering of legal knowledge was sufficient to enable him to accept the job. It was a good chance for Jess to go out, too, and try the climate and the life, over both of which her brother was so enthusiastic.
But she would go to Sunset Ranch to remain for some time if Helen went West with them and—of course—Helen was only too glad to agree to such a proposition.
Meanwhile the Western girl was taken to museums, and parks, and theaters, and all kinds of show places, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. May Van Ramsden and others of those who had attended Mary Boyle’s tea party in the attic of the Starkweather house hunted Helen out, too, in the home of her friends on Riverside Drive, and the last few weeks of Helen’s stay were as wonderful and exciting as the first few weeks had been lonely and sad.