"Well, you're a wonder for a girl!" exclaimed Grace's brother.
"Humph!" said Rhoda in return, "I don't consider that a compliment—if you meant it as such. Look out, or that black horse will step on you."
"She was just as cool as a cucumber," Walter told Nan and his sister afterward. "Why! I never saw such a girl."
"I guess," Nan Sherwood said shrewdly, "that we don't know much about girls who are born and brought up in the far West. Rhoda Hammond is a friend to be proud of. She has such good sense."
"And pluck to beat the band!" cried Walter. "I'd like to see that country she comes from."
"And me, too," agreed Bess Harley, who overheard this statement.
"'Rose Ranch,'" murmured Grace. "Such a pretty name! After all, she has said just enough about it to be very tantalizing," and the smaller girl smiled.
"Maybe she does that purposely," Bess remarked. "Perhaps she thinks we have so many things she hasn't obtained yet, that she wants to make us jealous a bit."
"I really don't think that Rhoda worries about what she doesn't have," Nan put in. "Perhaps she doesn't even see that she lacks anything that we have."
"Well, she never will go in for athletics," Bess declared.