As the little fellow rode up, he reached under his red saddle blanket and drew forth a long white envelope. This he handed to Virginia with a slip of brown wrapping paper on which Winona had written:
“Dear White Lily:
“Mrs. Wells sent this. Your cow-boy dropped it at the station. Your friend, Winona.”
“Oh thank you, Red Feather!” Virginia exclaimed, when she had read the message. “Tell Winona to come soon again and pay us a real visit.”
The little Indian lad showed his white teeth in a wide smile but whether he understood or not the girls could not tell.
When he was gone, Virginia dragged Margaret into the living-room and whirled her about merrily. Then they sank down on the window seat and Virginia tore open the long white envelope.
CHAPTER XXXIV—TWO LETTERS FROM TOM.
“A letter from an outlaw,” Margaret laughingly exclaimed as the two girls curled up on the window seat, one to read and the other to listen to their very first letter from Tom.
“Virginia, isn’t this the strangest thing you ever heard of?” Margaret added. “What would my primly and properly brought up friends in Vine Haven Seminary think if they knew that we were corresponding with a young man labeled an outlaw whose last name we do not even know?”
Virginia laughed. “I suppose your Miss Pickle would be frigid with horror, but luckily she knows nothing of your present misdemeanors and cannot make you go without dessert for a week for breaking a rule. Now for the letter: