With a little squeal of delight Jack danced down the steps only to be called back. "Here, here," cried her mother, "you can't go looking like that." And Jack returned crestfallen, to be led away while her mother administered a few words of counsel, brushed her disordered locks and freshened her up generally.
Ten minutes later Jack appeared radiant, and in an ecstasy of delight went whizzing off by Carter's side, watched by the envious eyes of a little boy skulking around the corner. Here he was lying in wait for a belligerent little girl when she should appear. Completely foiled by circumstances, he slowly walked away muttering: "Little old wild-cat, jumping on a feller 'fore he can turn 'round. I'll fix her."
CHAPTER VIII
THE HOME OF RAMONA
Carter Barnwell proved to be a pleasant addition to the little circle. He was a bright, cheery lad, always ready to do a service, unselfish, courteous, and grateful for the open hospitality shown him.
"I tell you," he said, "it's mighty different when you meet some of these cold unresponsive people who can only invite you to their houses when there is a special dinner on, and who nearly die if any one happens in to a meal unawares. Give me the kind of friends such as we have in old Virginia, who don't care for frills, and are glad to have you take pot-luck with them. It sends a chill down my spine when I get into some of these stiff inhospitable houses one happens on, sometimes not a thousand miles from home. You all are just my sort, Mrs. Corner."
"Of course we are," she replied, "because you are just our sort. We have always been used to sharing with our friends whatever we have, and we know when they come they are glad to accept a simple meal in the spirit it is offered while they are just as ready to do the same by us. I must confess there is less of all that than there used to be, but I hate to see friendliness and open handed hospitality passing away before the modern formalities."
"It does me good to hear you talk so," returned Carter, "though I must say that here on the coast one meets with plenty of generous treatment. I suppose one doesn't really need to get the blues, but when a fellow doesn't feel quite up to his best he rather shrinks from strangers and wants his own. That's the way it was with me when I first came."
Mrs. Corner looked at the young man with motherly concern; he certainly looked better and brighter these last few days.
"I make every excuse to come over here," he went on laughing, "but to-day I have a good one. I want to know if we are to take that trip to the Camulos ranch. Will the girls all go? I suppose the twinnies will feel out of it if they don't. I have the chance of getting a big motor car and can take the whole bunch—I beg your pardon, I mean the entire crowd."