But afterward, when she and Dorothy were together, the latter spoke seriously to her chum.
“You must have a care, my dear. Aunt Winnie would be horrified if she knew you were in the least flirtatious with these men——”
“What men?” demanded Tavia, with some anger.
“Lance Petterby, we’ll say. If he comes here with his mother, you behave.”
“Oh, you’re a regular Grandmother Grunt. And I’ll fix Nat for saying that to his mother, see if I don’t.”
Tavia was, indeed, quite vexed, and they were several miles from the ranch house that forenoon before she became her jolly irresponsible self.
Before noon the exploring party had seen much of the range and pasturage. Hank Ledger said even after this drouth the pasture could well support ten thousand steers.
“But we ain’t had that many critters on the ranch for ten year. Cattle ain’t what they was—no sir! We’ve got a couple of thousand, and that’s full and plenty. I reckon, Miz White, you won’t want to increase the number much?”
“We shall talk about that later,” said the lady. “At present I want to see about this water privilege.”
“All right, Ma’am. I’ll take you right up there, and we can eat our snack beside Lost River.”