"No, he told me. He asked me if I'd ever been 'hooked up,' as he called it."
"Alice DeVere!"
"Well, I couldn't help it. He meant all right. He's old enough to be our father. Do you think daddy is quite well?" she asked, perhaps to change the subject.
"Yes, I think the pure air out here is doing him good. His throat seems much improved. Are those my slippers?" she asked, quickly, as Alice thrust her pink feet into a pair of worsted "tootsies."
"Indeed they are not. I just took these out of my trunk. There are yours under your bed."
"Oh, excuse me. I don't believe I shall need anyone to sing me to sleep to-night," and she yawned comfortably.
There were to be busy times at Rocky Ranch next day, for some cattle were to be branded, or marked with the hot iron to establish their ownership, and Mr. Pertell had decided to have some scenes of this, with his own players worked in as part of the action.
This had already been planned, and after breakfast there was a short rehearsal of the players, while the cowboys were getting ready for the branding.
"Now we're ready for you," announced Pete Batso, who was in charge of the cowboys. "Get your players in position. They're going to rope the first critter now."
The proper action for the scene was gone through by Ruth, Alice, Paul and Mr. Sneed, and then one of the cowboys "cut out," or separated from the rest, a young steer that had not yet been branded.