"I am sure you are a stranger here," she said. "And I am a member of the Welcoming Committee. I am Laura Polk. And you—?"
"I am Rhoda Hammond," said the demure girl quietly.
"What!" almost shouted the startled Laura. "You're never! You can't be! Not Rollicking Rhoda from Rustlers' Roost, the wild Western adventuress we've heard so much about?"
"No," said the girl in brown, still placidly. "I am Rhoda Hammond from Rose Ranch."
CHAPTER II
INTRODUCTIONS
"Oh, my auntie!" murmured Amelia Boggs, using most uncommendable slang. "Stung!"
But Laura Polk, if inclined to be boisterous and rather rude in her jokes, was by no means petty. She burst into such a good-natured and disarming laugh that the girl in brown was forced to join her.
"There, Laura," said Bess Harley, "the biter for once is the bitten. I hope you are properly overcome."
Nan Sherwood likewise hastened to offer the new girl her hand.