"Great cats!" ejaculated the ranchman, "I thought I was doin' the square thing by Jane Ann"
"And giving her a name like that, too!" broke in Mercy. "How dared you?"
"Why—why" stammered Mr. Hicks. "It was my grandmother's name—and she was as spry a woman as ever I see."
"Your grandmother's name!" gasped Mercy. "Then, what right had you to give it to your niece? And when she was a helpless baby, too! Wasn't she good enough to have a name of her own—and one a little more modern?"
"Miss, you stump me—you sure do!" declared Mr. Hicks, with a sigh. "I never thought a gal cared so much for them sort o' things. They're surprisin' different from boys; ain't they?"
"Hope you haven't found it out too late, Mister Wild and Woolly," said Mercy, biting her speech off in her sharp way. "You had better take a fashion magazine and buy Nita—or whatever she wants to call herself—clothes and hats like other girls wear. Maybe you'll be able to keep her on a ranch, then."
"Wal, Miss! I'm bound to believe you've got the rights of it. I ain't never had much knowledge of women-folks, and that's a fact"
He was interrupted by the maid coming to the
