"I think Mr. Edwards is a very nice man," observed Cordelia, with emphasis, "and I wish he could have stayed for the party."
"Why, of course he's a nice man," chimed in the other girls, eyeing her earnest face a little curiously.
"Who said he wasn't?" laughed Tilly. "My! but it is hot, isn't it?" she added, dropping into one of the big wicker chairs near her.
"Oh, of course we have to have some warm weather," bridled Genevieve, "else you'd be homesick for New Hampshire!"
"The mean annual temperature of the country near—" began Tilly, mischievously; but Genevieve put her hands to her ears and fled.
The fourteenth of August was to be a gala occasion at the Six Star Ranch, for there was to be a supper and dance to entertain the friends from the East.
"But where'll you get your guests?" demanded Tilly, when she first heard of the plan. "Whom can you have, 'way off here like this?—all will please take notice that I said 'whom'!"
Genevieve laughed and tossed her head a little.
"Well, we'll have the boys here on the ranch, of course, and Susie Billings, and some of the other Bolo girls. We can't have Quentina, of course—Poor thing! Isn't it a shame about that whooping cough?—and Ned's got it, too, now, you know!—but I think the Boyntons will come. Their ranch is only thirty-five miles away, and they could stay all night, of course."