Megsy noticed that her adopted sister did not read aloud her letter from the brother of Barbara, and she believed that she knew why. It was not hard for even a casual observer to notice how sincerely the lad admired Virginia.
“Well, then that’s settled,” the hostess smiled lovingly at Babs. “Now we may keep with us a certain little girl whom we all love.”
“Why Barbara,” Margaret then exclaimed as she noted a look of real concern on the pretty face, “what has Benjy written to make you seem so troubled? Has he found his mother worse?”
“He didn’t know when he wrote this. It’s just a few lines that he scribbled at the station in Red Riverton. You know he expected his brother Harry Wilson to meet him, and he wasn’t there but his own horse had been sent for him. Benj is just ever so sure that means his mother is not so well. I do hope she will live. I never knew two boys to care more for a mother than they do.”
“She is such a lovable, motherly woman,” Virginia said earnestly. “Everyone who knows her, loves her. She always reminds me of a hen with a brood and even when the chickens are away, she is sort of spreading her wings with a welcome for any one in trouble who needs their comforting shelter, but it’s nearly a year now that she has not been well.”
“It’s too bad that Harry doesn’t seem to care to marry. If only Mrs. Wilson had a nice daughter to take the responsibility of home-making for a time, she could get a real rest.”
Virginia astonished the others by saying, “Girls, surely you know that Harry does care for someone, but I’m afraid his mother would never willingly accept that someone for a daughter.”
Margaret said. “I, too, have felt sure that Harry cares for our wonderful Winona, as who, knowing her well, does not. She is one of the noblest characters I have ever met, and I know you think so too, Virg.”
“Indeed I do,” was the emphatic reply, “but one can understand how a mother might feel that a member of the Papago tribe would not be a suitable wife for her idolized son, but Winona would. They are more nearly kin, mentally and—and what shall I say, in their love for the wide spaces of the desert, than any two I ever knew. You know Harry likes nothing better than to ride far away into the mountains studying the rocks and trying to read the messages of the ages in the different formations. Had he been able to leave home, he would have studied along those lines. Of course he is, even now, and what is more, our Winona is the very first girl who has ever appealed to him as a companion.”
“Isn’t it about time Winona finished that course of practical nursing that she was taking when she left us at boarding school?” It was Barbara who asked the question.