The birthday celebration really began on the day before the birthday. Uncle Cliff had driven to the railway station early in the day, and long before it was time for him to be back, five pairs of eyes began searching the road for a sight of the returning buckboard. The We are Sevens, observing Blue Bonnet to be as expectant as they, became apprehensive lest their great secret should have leaked out. For her part, Blue Bonnet had become so used to seeing the girls impatient for the arrival of the mail, that their frequent running to the veranda to peer down the road, occasioned her only amusement.

How little they suspected what a valuable package that buckboard would contain!

This was the twentieth of August. Every time Blue Bonnet thought of the great surprise in store for Alec, she grew first excited, then afraid. How would he take his grandfather's arrival? One minute she was sure he would be overwhelmingly glad, for Alec had a deep affection for the "grand old man." The next, she was afraid he would think she had shirked her bargain by throwing on him the burden of telling the General his own bad news. Well, this time she had truly done her best, let the results be what they might.

"Do what is right let the consequence follow!" she sagely remarked to Solomon, and he put up his paw as if to say: "Shake on that!"

She was in her garden picking flowers for the table. Indoors was a delightful flurry of preparation: from the kitchen came a clatter of pans, and a variety of appetizing odors; above the cackle of Lisa and Gertrudis rang the merry laugh of Juanita as she waited on the busy cooks; while Miguel could be seen haunting the region of the back door.

Out on the long-disused croquet-ground, which Uncle Joe had levelled and tamped for Blue Bonnet years before, Alec and several of the cowboys were working, converting it into a dancing ground, and hanging Chinese lanterns on long wires strung between the surrounding trees.

"It's certainly worth while having a birthday on the ranch," Blue Bonnet thought happily. All this bustle of preparation to celebrate the birthday of a Texas Blue Bonnet!

Hark! Wasn't that the rattle of wheels? Yes,—there came the buckboard at last. Blue Bonnet sprang up excitedly. Had Alec heard? She shot a look in the direction of the croquet-ground.

Alec had heard; had glanced at the cloud of dust that marked the approaching team, and then—had gone calmly on with his work. He was looking for travellers on horseback, and the buckboard's arrival won only slight notice from him. He would let the girls spring their surprise on Blue Bonnet and have the hubbub over before he intruded.

"Alec!" called Blue Bonnet in a fever of excitement; but he merely waved to her indulgently and went on fitting a candle into a socket with exasperating slowness.

With her arms full of flaming poppies, Blue Bonnet flew to the house and reached the veranda just as the other girls poured from the door, and the buckboard came to a standstill. There was the General, and beside him—Blue Bonnet gasped as she saw—was a boyish figure with close-cropped hair.

The poppies fell to the ground in a brilliant heap, and the moment that Susy and Ruth alighted Blue Bonnet gathered them both in an ecstatic hug. But not for long was she permitted a monopoly. These newly arrived two-sevenths were passed from hand to hand, or, more literally, from arm to arm, and caressed and exclaimed over until Mrs. Clyde came to the rescue of the tired girls.

The General's arrival had become of quite secondary importance. He stood talking to the SeÑora until Blue Bonnet at last turned to him apologetically.

"I'm very glad to see you!" she said.

General Trent took her outstretched hand and smiled down into the eager flushed face. "You are very good to say so. A mere man is decidedly de trop on such an occasion!"

"No, you're not! Only I was expecting you and I wasn't expecting Susy and Ruth,—so I rather lost my head. How did you happen to bring the girls?"

"I didn't bring them, really. Dr. Clark wanted them to have a change of air, and when Mrs. Doyle heard I was coming here she asked if I would mind playing escort to her girls,—a change of air spelt only Texas to them, it seems. My delight may better be imagined than described, and—here we are. Ah, Miss Kitty, you see me at last!" He paused to shake hands with the young lady, and then the others came shyly up with greetings.

"You didn't know I had a surprise up my sleeve, did you?" Blue Bonnet challenged the girls.

"You must wear long sleeves!" laughed Kitty, tilting her chin to look up at the tall military figure.

The General laughed with the rest but Blue Bonnet could see him looking about with some impatience. "Where's Alec?" he asked finally.

"We'll go find him. Take everybody indoors, will you, Grandmother? I'll be back in a minute." Looking particularly small and slight, Blue Bonnet moved off with her tall companion towards the croquet-ground, where Alec, all unconscious of their approach, stood on a step-ladder adjusting one of the paper lanterns.

"How is the boy by this time?" General Trent asked.

"I—I don't know," Blue Bonnet stammered. It was quite true; she had given up trying to guess the state of Alec's health.

The horizontal line between the General's eyes grew deeper: it was plain that the girl shrank from telling him the worst.

Alec had started to descend the ladder when he caught sight of the approaching pair. For a second he stood transfixed with surprise; then with a real cowboy "whoop" of joy, took a flying leap from his perch, cleared various obstacles with a bound, and literally fell upon his grandfather.

"How splendid of you to come, sir!" was all he could exclaim for some minutes.

Finally the General took him by the shoulders and held him off, looking him over from head to foot. Blue Bonnet saw a look of incredulous wonder grow in his eyes, as he took in the increased breadth of the boy, the erect carriage and the red that glowed through the sunburn of his rounded cheeks.

"Why, boy, how you've grown!"

"Have I?" asked Alec eagerly. "Never felt so well before in all my life!"

Well? Blue Bonnet felt her face grow hot. How could Alec say that when he had let her—even urged her—to write that letter to his grandfather? If it was a joke, it struck her that Alec must have developed rather poor taste in jokes. She could feel the General's eyes upon her, questioning mutely. She could not meet his glance yet, and said with elaborate carelessness:

"I reckon you two would like to have a little talk, and the girls are waiting for me." She sped back to the house, and soon forgot her indignation in the joy of the We are Sevens' reunion.

"It seems too good to be true!" she exclaimed, gazing happily from one girl to another, as the seven of them lounged about the living-room, three on the broad couch and the rest distributed impartially between the floor and the window-seat. Such complete informality had never seemed permissible in the sedate Clyde mansion; but somehow these surroundings seemed to invite one to be as comfortable and unconventional as possible.

Suddenly Blue Bonnet's eyes danced. "Doesn't this remind you of my first tea-party?" she asked demurely.

"Well, I should say not!" Kitty exclaimed. "We all sat around your grandmother's drawing-room with manners as stiff as our dresses, waiting for our hostess—"

"And wondering what you would be like—" added Sarah.

"Were you prepared to see the wild Indian I proved to be?"

"Fishing!" sang Kitty.

Susy looked from Blue Bonnet to Kitty and laughed. "My, this sounds like old times!"

"Stop talking about old times, please," begged Ruth, "and tell us about the new ones. I want to be told all about the round-up, and I want to see the 'vast herds' and the cowboys,—and the blue bonnets!"

Blue Bonnet's laugh rang out. "Blue bonnets in August! Come in March and I'll show you a sea of them,—and a round-up, too. The cattle and the cowboys you shall see to-morrow,—and some steer-roping that will make your hair stand on end."

Ruth ran her hand through her boyish, close-cut locks and made them stand literally on end. "It isn't much of a trick to do that!" she said with a grimace.

"Never mind, maybe it will come in curly," said Sarah the comforter.

"You can trust Sarah not to see the thorns for the roses," said Blue Bonnet, sending the comforter an approving glance.

"What turtle doves you all are," laughed Susy.

"Oh, it's Sarah and Blue Bonnet who do all the cooing. The rest of us are still just geese." Kitty's voice had a tinge of envy that did not escape the notice of the rest.

"Go play us something, Blue Bonnet," suggested Ruth tactfully, "—that cowboy piece we all like."

"Invalids must be humored," remarked Blue Bonnet as she went to the piano.

In a minute the little rollicking air that she had played at her first tea-party, had set them all to dancing and humming as on that historic occasion.

"Aren't Kitty and Blue Bonnet as chummy as they used to be?" Ruth asked Amanda under cover of the music.

"Yes, by spells. They had one tiff—the second since they've known each other,—and ever since we've lived in dread of the third, haven't we, Sarah?"

"You have," Sarah returned. "And I have too, in fact, though I try not to be superstitious. Besides they've had the third—and it's all over now."

"They have? When?" Amanda sat up in surprise.

"While we were camping. Kitty told me about it and said it was all her fault. The last one wasn't, you know. First it's one and then the other that's to blame."

"Kitty and Blue Bonnet aren't going to stop at three tiffs, you may depend on it," Ruth said wisely. "They're going to have three times three and then some. Because Kitty is Kitty, and Blue Bonnet is—Blue Bonnet!"

As the gay music ceased Grandmother Clyde looked in at the door. "It is time for the travellers to rest. They must be fresh for the great occasion to-morrow," she said, nodding to Susy and Ruth.

Blue Bonnet glanced over to the couch where Ruth reclined among the pillows. Her face, with its crown of short dark hair, looked very thin and white.

"I reckon the girls had better go to your room, Grandmother,—it's about the only place where they can be quiet. Benita is putting two cots in the nursery, but it's never quiet in there till we're all asleep."

Ruth rose regretfully, "I'll go rest if I must. But I hate to miss anything that's going on. If you only knew how deadly dull it has been in Woodford! I think the inhabitants have learned to appreciate the We are Sevens, for the place has seemed empty without them. And everybody wants to know when the Texas Blue Bonnet is coming back."

They all looked towards Blue Bonnet. "I—why—there's Uncle Cliff looking for me," she said, and left the room precipitately.

"Blue Bonnet's usual way of avoiding an answer," thought Kitty.

"When does the Fall term of school begin?" asked Sarah.

"The tenth of September,—and that means we must leave here about the third," said Susy. "Only two weeks of this for us, girls!"

"We'll see that they are two busy weeks," Kitty promised.

Blue Bonnet drew Uncle Cliff into a secluded spot on the side veranda. "You just saved my life, Uncle Cliff."

"Were you being talked to death, Honey?"

"No,—but I just escaped a pitfall. People do ask the most—uncomfortable questions."

"Suppose you tell me what sort?"

"Well, Ruth says people want to know when the Texas Blue Bonnet is going back to Woodford."

"So that's come up again, eh?" Uncle Cliff knitted his brow. "I reckon you're doing some thinking along that line, Blue Bonnet?" He watched her face anxiously.

She nodded. "Yes, I—you see there isn't much time left. I must decide soon. It's not going to be easy, Uncle Cliff."

"No,—not for either of us, Honey."

"And there's Grandmother, too,—and Aunt Lucinda. Other people seem to have a lot to say about one's life, don't they?"

"They have a lot to say, Blue Bonnet, but the person who has the final 'say' is yourself. You're old enough now to decide what you want to do with your life. Sixteen to-morrow!"

"I know what I want to do with my life, Uncle, but I don't know yet just how to do it."

"Don't you think you could manage to do it on the ranch? We know now where to get a first-class tutor, and—"

"Oh, as far as 'book-learnin''—as Uncle Joe calls it,—goes, I reckon I could get that all right, here on the ranch with a tutor. But books, I've found out, aren't more than half of an education. You know, life's mighty simple on the ranch, and I've grown used to doing things the easiest way. But that isn't the big way. Aunt Lucinda says every woman should have a vocation."

Uncle Cliff squirmed. Blue Bonnet seemed to have assimilated a rather big dose of Aunt Lucinda. "But, Honey," he protested, "a girl with plenty of money doesn't need a vocation."

"Oh, she didn't mean that kind of a vocation. It's a sort of glorified way of doing your duty by your neighbor. And you know it isn't very easy to do your duty by your neighbor when the nearest neighbor is miles away! Now, Aunt Lucinda is the most all-round useful person. She's helping to keep up a home for cripples in Boston, and is secretary of the Church Aid Society, runs Grandmother's house and—"

"Everybody in it!" added Uncle Cliff.

Blue Bonnet slipped her hand into his with a sympathetic pressure.

"I reckon I caught it from you,—liking to paddle my own canoe, I mean. But, though I don't love discipline, I've learned to appreciate what it can do. Now, look at Solomon—"

"—in all his glory!" laughed Uncle Cliff.

At that moment the subject of the conversation was occupied in gnawing a very dirty bone on the forbidden territory of the veranda.

"Oh, he has his lapses," Blue Bonnet confessed, "—his forgettery is as active as mine. But he's hardly more than a puppy yet, and it's surprising how well he minds. He's getting pretty wild out here. The ranch has that effect I've observed. And that's why—"

"Say, Honey," Uncle Cliff interrupted, "let's allow the subject of going back to rest right where it is until after to-morrow, will you? I want to enjoy my ward's birthday, and I'd rather have a clear sky without any clouds on my horizon."

"That suits me, Uncle Cliff."

"And while we're on the subject of the birthday, there's something I want to tell you, Blue Bonnet. I know it's usual to keep one's gift a secret, but—"

"Oh, I hope it's just some simple thing, Uncle. Grandmother's been looking pretty serious lately over what she thinks is our extravagant way of living. The Woodford girls have to be very careful about expenses, you know, and she thinks it makes it harder for them to be satisfied when they see me have so much."

"Don't you worry, young lady. I'm only taking a leaf out of your book, and instead of giving pleasure to just one person—i. e. Blue Bonnet Ashe,—I'm going to distribute it over quite a crowd. The trouble is it won't keep till to-morrow. It's about due now. Jump on Firefly, will you, and ride with me to meet it?"

"Yes, everybody is resting, or supposed to be. Just wait till I slip on my riding-skirt and I'll be with you."

A few minutes later Blue Bonnet and her uncle, after the fashion of the old days, cantered down the road together.

Hardly had they disappeared when Kitty, also attired in riding-costume, stole quietly to the stable, and having found one of the Mexicans to saddle Rowdy, rode briskly out of the corral and off to the woods across San Franciscito.

At the gate Uncle Cliff drew rein. "We'd better form a reception committee right here. I think I hear your birthday present coming."

Blue Bonnet looked down the road expectantly. What could it be?

Then, as they waited, there came the rhythmic pound of hoofs, a cloud of dust, and suddenly there swept into sight a company of riders with Knight and Carita in the lead.

"Oh, Uncle Cliff, what a splendid birthday present!" And Blue Bonnet, with a glad "Ho ye, ho ho!" of welcome, galloped to meet the procession.

Sandy and the three "props of the world"—Smith, Brown and Jones, with two of the younger boys from camp—made, as Uncle Cliff had promised, a "boy apiece" for the We are Sevens and Carita; and the entire party, dusty though they were from the long ride, were incorrigibly cheerful and apparently not at all tired by the trip.

"Oh, I'm so happy!" cried Carita, as Blue Bonnet fell in beside her and led the way to the ranch. "I never dreamed I could come. But Mr. Ashe had made all arrangements, and Mother said she could get along without me for the three days,—she's going to stay at the Camp. Just think, if we hadn't gone up there again, I couldn't have known about it in time!"

"How lucky! Carita, I think you are the nicest birthday present that was ever thought of."

Carita looked up in surprise.

"Having you and Knight and the boys here is my birthday gift from Uncle," Blue Bonnet explained. "Wasn't it downright grand of him to plan it?"

"It's sweet of you to want us," Carita returned. "And your uncle looks as if he loved to do nice things. He has the kindest eyes I've ever seen."

"Except your father's," Blue Bonnet added. "I think they must both have been cut out by the same pattern."

Alec, who was in the secret, had assembled everybody on the veranda awaiting the arrivals, and the hubbub that ensued as the cavalcade dismounted and everybody exchanged greetings, convinced Susy, Ruth and the General that life in Texas was quite as exciting as it had been painted.

Mrs. Clyde, having been prepared by Uncle Cliff for this invasion, tried to view the proceedings as a matter of course, and was her usual cordial self.

"Where are we going to put them all?" Blue Bonnet asked in an undertone.

"Shady and Uncle Joe put up a tent as soon as you rode off," her grandmother explained. "The boys are used to camping out and there are only two nights to plan for. Carita can share Sarah's room. Lisa has enlarged the dining-room table, and we shall have room for all. I hope we can make our guests comfortable."

"Don't you worry, Grandmother. These guests will make the best of everything. People out here don't expect things to be—orderly, as they are in Woodford."

"Evidently not!" was Grandmother's unspoken thought.

"Where's Kitty?" asked Blue Bonnet presently, missing one saucy face from the group on the side veranda where they had all gathered.

"Didn't she go with you? We haven't seen her for an hour or more," replied Sarah.

"Here she comes now." Alec rose and went to assist Kitty from her horse. "Hello, Miss Unsociable," he said. "Fancy riding all by your lones! Been keeping a tryst?"

"Nothing so romantic," she confessed. "I've been gathering these lovely wild vines to decorate the table with. See how pretty they are!" She tossed the big armful of glossy green stuff down to him. To her surprise and indignation Alec dodged her offering and let the vines fall in a heap on the ground. Kitty paused in the act of dismounting and stared at him, speechless with surprise at this act from well-bred Alec.

"I beg your pardon, Kitty," he laughed. "I didn't mean to be rude, but I'm deadly afraid of that stuff."

"Stuff!" echoed Kitty. She was off her horse in a minute, and giving the reins to Miguel who had come up for Rowdy, she bent to pick up her insulted treasure.

Alec prevented her. "I wouldn't, Kitty,—though I don't suppose it matters now. The mischief's done, I'm afraid,—that's poison ivy."

"Poison ivy!" Kitty sprang back as if the vine were about to sting her. "I never saw any before,—and I wanted to surprise Blue Bonnet—it looked so pretty. Oh, Alec, are you sure?"

"Sure?—positive. Dr. Judson pointed out lots of it around Camp, and we learned to give it a wide berth. But say, every one isn't susceptible, Kitty. Maybe you're immune."

"Oh, dear!" wailed Kitty. "What shall I do? Can't I be vaccinated or something to ward it off?"

"What's the trouble?" asked Uncle Joe, coming up in time to hear Kitty's despairing cry.

"Poison ivy," said Alec, pointing to the vines.

"Now that's bad." Uncle Joe kicked the innocent looking heap of greens off to one side. "I'll send up one of the boys to rake that up and get rid of it. Nasty stuff to have around,—'specially for folks with your—coloring." He eyed Kitty's milk-white freckled face apprehensively.

"If I get it and have to miss the party I'll never get over it!" Kitty declared.

"Oh, yes, you will—it only lasts a few days, generally," said Uncle Joe.

Kitty dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief.

"Here—don't do that!" Alec exclaimed hastily. "That might play the mischief with your eyes. Go bathe your face and hands with witch hazel, that may help. And hurry out again, Kitty—your friend Sandy is on the side veranda."

Kitty for the first time glanced towards the house and saw the latest arrivals. "Carita, too! Have they come to the party? Oh, what fun! That's what Mr. Ashe meant when he promised us a boy apiece for the dance. But oh, Alec—what if—?" Kitty could not finish.

"Please don't get it, Kitty,—it would spoil the day for Sandy!"