was a buzz of conversation and laughter in the big room. The men folk hung about the door as yet, or looked in at the open windows.
"Did that big gump, Ike Stedman, come over with you-all, Miss Fielding? " Sally Dickson asked Ruth, aside. "Or did he know enough to stay away?"
"I don't believe Mr. Hicks could have kept him on the ranch to-night," replied Ruth, smiling. "He has promised to dance with me at least once. Ike is an awfully nice man, I think—and so kind! He's taught us all to ride and is never out of sorts, or too busy to help us out. We 'tenderfoots' are always getting 'bogged,' you know. And Ike is right there to help us. We all like him immensely."
Sally looked at her suspiciously. "Humph!" said she. "I never expected to hear that Bashful Ike was so popular."
"Oh, I assure you he is," rejoined Ruth, calmly. "He is developing into quite a lady's man."
Miss Dickson snorted. Nothing else could explain her method of emphatically expressing her disbelief. But Ruth was determined that the haughty little school-mistress should have her eyes opened regarding Bashful Ike before the evening was over, and she proceeded to put into execution a plan she had already conceived on the way over from Silver Ranch.
