"How sweet of you," drawled Grace. "Especially since the ranch belongs to her!"
The other girls chuckled and Mollie looked rather sheepish.
"Oh, well," she admitted, "I guess it would be a case of her taking us along."
"And I don't envy her the job," said gentle Amy unexpectedly, while the girls gazed their reproach.
"Betty," said Mollie, "there is one very important thing that I would like to know."
"Well, I'm the original little information bureau," Betty assured her. "What will you have?"
"Does your dad really want to sell the ranch? Or is your mother likely to win out?"
"Oh, mother always gets her way," said Betty confidently, adding: "Besides, the ranch was left to mother, you know, and not to dad. So really she has the say about it."
"Yes, but she might change her mind," said Grace pessimistically. "Fifteen thousand dollars is a lot of money, you know. She might decide to sell the ranch, after all."
"Well," said Betty, with an air of importance that the girls were quick to notice, "there is another reason why mother will probably hold on to the property, for a little while at least."