"No, sir; I came to teach school. Your name is among those of the gentlemen who engaged me."
"The ——! Are you the new school-marm? Then you're Miss——"
"Hetty Dunlap is my name."
He held out both hands. "A happy New-Year to ye, Hetty Dunlap—and happy it'll be for all of us, I'm thinking; for a gal that's got so much pluck as you is sure to know something about teachin' school. Here, Johnny, how d'ye like your teacher?"
Now, Johnny had drawn back with some slight manifestation of disfavor when Hetty's true character came to light. But she laid her hand on his shoulder in her shy yet frank manner, and said quickly:
"I had already selected Johnny as a sort of assistant disciplinarian. I am so little that I shall want some one who is tall and strong to give me countenance;" which at once restored the harmony between them. They went in to breakfast together, during which meal it was decided by Father Sutton that Hetty was to live in his family, though "the Price's" was the place where, until now, the teachers had made their home, being nearest to the school.
"But then," said the old man, "if the Rancho Yedral can't afford a mustang for such a brave little rider every day of the year, then I'll give it up;" and he slapped his hat on and left the house.
"Yes," Frank commented rather timidly, "you are brave—a perfect heroine. And yet you are so very small." She was standing in just the spot where he had brushed the hair out of her face last night, and perhaps his words were an apology.
"True," she assented, "I am small; not much taller than my sister's oldest girl, and she is only twelve."
"You have a sister?"