"Uncle Josiah," she added suddenly, "Ophelia and I have a wonderful surprise for you and the boys."
Old Heck looked at her without replying while he awaited an explanation.
"We are going to give a dance!" Carolyn June went on.
"A dance?" he repeated incredulously, "when—"
"To-night—in the front room," she hastened to explain, "not a big dance—just a little one for you and the boys. The graphophone will furnish music, there are some good one-step and waltz records—Skinny and I were playing them this afternoon—and every blessed cowboy on the Quarter Circle KT must be there!"
A short silence followed her words, then a chorus of "We'll be there!" greeted her.
"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room and have it ready—don't any one bother to 'dress up,'" she added as an afterthought.
"Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the bunk-house.
"Yes," Charley answered. "I'm going to shave."
"So am I," said Chuck, as they hurried in the direction of their sleeping quarters.