The Polly Page Ranch Club

Sue Warner ran down the flight of stone steps that led from the side entrance at Calvert Hall to the garden, her face full of perplexity. Waiting for her were three of the girls...

Back went the snowy linen towel, and there lay disclosed to view one of Aunty Welcome’s famous three-layer shortcakes, all ready for the “fillin’s,” as Stoney would say. It was...

“No, Polly, don’t coax me. Not a bite to eat. I’ve just been riding along the river. And girls, that reminds me.” The Admiral sank into one of the deep-seated garden chairs, and...

For a minute or two there was silence in the quiet old room. Jean Murray drew the shell pins from her hair deliberately, and shook out its thick, curly waves. Then she went to t...

On Saturday mornings, Polly had two important duties to perform, dusting the Admiral’s study and her own room. Then came an hour’s practice on the piano, and after that she was...

The next letter that Jean sent home contained a full description of the dinner that evening. There were four very large rooms that took up the ground floor of the old mansion at...

“This will be a universal birthday party, everybody’s birthday party. We will have very good refreshments to start with. Crullers always says the success of anything depends on...

The days passed too slowly, it seemed to the girls, eager as they were to get started westward. What had seemed only one of Polly’s balloons, as Ruth called them, had developed...

When the 8:35 local for Washington left Queen’s Ferry, the morning of the tenth of July, it carried Miss Murray and her five girl charges, westward bound. The Admiral went down...

The crying of the baby across the aisle awakened Polly at dawn the next morning. At first she could hardly think where she was, with the motion of the train still lulling her, a...

“We reach Deercroft at four forty-five,” Jean had said; but long before the scheduled time, suit-cases were strapped and waiting, and hats pinned in place, while the girls watch...

“That’s mother—there’s mother now,” cried Jean, and she sent out a long, clear call of happy greeting that was answered by the lamp, raised and lowered as a welcoming signal.

Polly jumped up from her cot, and looked out. A flock of speckled guinea hens fluttered away from a waving apron, and vanished behind the old blacksmith shop. It was early morni...

The trail led upward from the valley over the buttes, winding in and out between rocks that formed natural buttresses and fortifications. Only the scrub pines and low spruces fo...

That first day at the ranch seemed the longest of the stay, when the girls looked back to it afterwards. There were so many things to see and talk about, so much ground to cover.

The long night’s quiet rest left the girls refreshed and bright. When Peggie and Jean came over to the lodge at five, they were up and dressed, ready for the run down to the cre...

He was very tall, this stranger who seemed to have risen out of the gulch as if by magic. He was broad of shoulder, and his curly gray hair grew fully three inches long. So did...

“The best rainbow trout we get around here are in Lost Chance Gulch,” remarked Mrs. Murray, the following morning at the breakfast table, and she looked up in surprise as a ripp...

“Better rest up a wee bit, or you’ll be tired out before you’ve played,” she told them. “Jeanie had better get out the tent, and see if it needs any mending, if you’re going cam...

“They’re going to open up the old Beaver Creek schoolhouse Sunday for services,” said Don, that night at supper. “Jimmie Peters went over, and cleaned it up, and the Bishop will...

The next day they rode over again to the Alameda ranch to see the Chief’s horses of which he was so proud. By this time, as Ted said, they were so accustomed to riding horseback...

Polly did not tell the girls that she had learned what the secret trouble was between the two sisters. Someway, she could not. It seemed such a personal, tender secret that, aft...

It had been arranged with the Chief that the girls were to wait at the Crossbar until they heard from him, and not attempt making the trip over to the gulch unless they were sur...

As Ruth was fond of quoting, “The quicker ’tis done, the better ’tis done.” Polly watched for a good opportunity when Jean was alone, and broached the subject without waiting.

“Let’s call this Camp Expectancy,” said Polly, the next morning, when they were ready to move on. “It is our first base of action in a way, and we ought to name every camp so as...