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VIRGINIA OF ELK CREEK VALLEY
by
MARY ELLEN CHASE
Author of
"The Girl from the Big Horn Country," etc.
[Illustration: "DONALD PULLED IN MACDUFF, AND YELLED TO CARVER TO JUMP"]
A. L. Burt Company
Publishers
New York
Published by arrangement with The Page Company
Printed in U. S. A.
Copyright, 1917
by The Page Company
All rights reserved
Made in U. S. A.
TO
MY MOTHER
A REAL ONE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Joy of Anticipation 1
II. The Arrival 11
III. The Getting-Acquainted Trip 23
IV. The Bear Canyon Bear 33
V. Jean Macdonald--Homesteader 49
VI. Miss Green Again 68
VII. The Vigilantes Homestead 88
VIII. Aunt Deborah Hunter--Pioneer 109
IX. Mr. Crusoe of Cripple Creek 126
X. A Letter from Dorothy 146
XI. "Ever Vigilant" 161
XII. The Roman Emperor 180
XIII. On the Mesa 198
XIV. The New School-teacher in Bear Canyon 202
XV. Mr. Benjamin Jarvis Entertains 216
XVI. The Cinnamon Creek Forest Ranger 237
XVII. The Winthrop Coat-of-Arms 251
XVIII. A Good Sport 262
XIX. Carver Standish III Fits In 277
XX. Comrades 286
VIRGINIA
OF
ELK CREEK VALLEY
CHAPTER I
THE JOY OF ANTICIPATION
Elk Creek Valley was a blue and golden place that mid-summer morning in
the Big Horn Country. It seemed like a joyous secret tucked away among the
mountains, whose hazy, far-away summits were as blue as the sky above
them. The lower ranges, too, were blue from purple haze and gray-green
sagebrush, while the bare, brown foot-hills tumbling about their feet were
golden in the sunlight. Blue lupines and great spikes of mountain larkspur
made of the Valley itself a garden which sloped gently to the creek, and
lost itself in a maze of quaking-asps and cottonwoods. As for the creek
waters, they ceased their tumultuous haste upon nearing the garden, and
were content to move slowly so that they might catch and hold the sunlight
in their amber depths. Beyond the creek, and through a gap in the
foot-hills, the prairie stretched for miles--blue and green with oats and
wheat and alfalfa. Now and then a mountain bluebird was lost to sight
among the larkspur, and always a cloud of tiny blue butterflies circled
above the creek.
Two pair of delighted eyes--one gray and the other blue--gazed upon the
loveliness of everything as their owners watered a team of big bay horses
at the ford. The gray eyes belonged to a girl of seventeen--a girl with
golden-brown hair and cheeks glowing red through the tan of her eager,
thoughtful face. She was radiant with happiness. It beamed from her eyes
and lurked about the corners of her mouth. She seemed too excited to sit
still. Now her gray eyes swept the prairie stretches, now scanned the
mountains, now peered up the creek beneath the over-hanging trees. She was
talking in short, eager sentences to her companion--the owner of the blue
eyes. He was a tall, clean, robust lad--a year older than she.
"Oh, Don," she cried, "isn't it wonderful? Just think! Our dream is really
coming true! I used to say at school that even if it didn't come true,
we'd have the joy of dreaming it anyway. But it's coming--this very day!
And, oh, Don, isn't this morning perfect? When I found in June they were
really coming, I said I'd never be selfish enough to expect a _perfect_
day, because it seemed as though I'd had enough already! But now it's
come, I just know it's"--her voice softened--"it's a real gift from God.
Don't you think so, too?"
"Yes, Virginia," said the boy.
Then he gathered up the reins and drove his horses through the creek, and
on toward the Gap and the open prairie.
"Don," cried the girl, suddenly clutching his arm with one hand and
pointing with the other, "there's some wild bergamot just opening! I never
knew it to be as early as this! And see! There's a sunflower on the edge
of the wheat field! There'll be thousands of them soon! They're like
Priscilla! She has such big, brown eyes, and is always so merry and
sunny. I know you'll like her, Don. And Mary? I think Mary's like the
larkspur in the Valley, don't you? So independent, and sort of--of
_self-resourceful_, as Miss Wallace says, and true. I wonder what Vivian's
like? Oh, I know! The bluebells back there by the creek. They always must
have a shady spot away from the hot sun. That's like Vivian, but she's
dear just the same, and some day I really believe she'll be able to stand
hard things as well as the rest of us. Tell me, Don, are you just as
excited inside as I am?"
Donald Keith laughed.
"Of course, I am," he said, "only, you see, Virginia, I don't get so
excited on the outside as you do. Fellows don't, I guess."
"I guess not," returned Virginia thoughtfully. "Father says I need you for
a balance-wheel. He says he doesn't know what would happen if we both
talked as much and got as excited as I do. You see, I'm seventeen now, and
I think he wants me to begin to be a little more--more level-headed, and
dignified. But I don't know how to begin. Things just spring up inside of
me, and they have to come out!"
"Don't try," said the boy bluntly. "I like you best just as you are,
Virginia."
She sighed--a happy, little sigh.
"I'm glad," she said. "I don't know what I'd do if you didn't, Don. Think
of all the good times we'd miss!"
They passed a little stream, hurrying on toward Elk Creek. Some
quaking-asps made a shady spot where ferns grew.
"Just the spot for gentians in August," cried Virginia. "The girls will
love them so! I'm going to try to send some to Miss Wallace. She'll be in
Chicago, so maybe they'll go safely that distance. She's always told me so
much about that wonderful blue color in the old Italian pictures. She says
that no one has been able to make exactly that shade since. I told her I
just knew our mountain gentians were that blue, and I'd send her some. My!
I wish she were coming, too! She's so lovely! I hope, when I grow to be
her age, I'll be at least just a tiny bit like her. You'd like her, Don."
"I'd like her anyway for being such a peach to you," said Donald.
"I'll never forget it," Virginia told him, a little break in her voice.
"And especially when--when Jim went--Somewhere Else. Oh, Don, she was so
good to me at that time! And she seemed to understand everything! I'll
always love her for it!"
Her gray eyes filled with tears. The boy beside her placed his hand on
hers in quick sympathy.
"I know," he said. "We don't find a friend like that every day, Virginia.
I wish she were coming, too! I'd like to thank her myself."
Virginia swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled again.
"I wish so, too, but she can't, so we must make the best of it. Aunt Nan
is next best. She'll love everything! I know she will. She's such a good
sport, too! She'll learn to ride and shoot, I'm sure. I hope she'll want
to go everywhere with us, and that we won't seem too young for her."
"I think Malcolm may go along some--at least before threshing starts. He
said he would. Isn't he about your Aunt Nan's age? He's most thirty."
"Yes," said Virginia. "I never thought of it before, but I guess he is.
Aunt Nan's thirty, I know, because I remember she told me she'd always
sort of dreaded being thirty, but now she'd reached there she found it the
most comfortable age in the world. I hope Malcolm will go along. He's
splendid!"
"He's all right," returned Donald loyally.
"Every one's been so dear at home about getting ready," Virginia went on.
"William put the finishing touches on the flower garden yesterday. It
looks lovely, and Aunt Nan's marigolds are all in bloom. William planted
some to make her think of home. And Alec and Joe and Dick insisted on
riding three of the horses so they'd be ready for the girls to ride
to-morrow. Hannah's baked everything I like best, and Father bought two
bran-new tents, because the girls want to sleep out with me. Do Jack and
Carver ride, do you suppose?"
"Jack does a little. Of course, I don't know about Carver Standish. You
think he'll fit in all right, don't you, Virginia? Eastern fellows don't
sometimes, you know."
"Oh, I'm sure he will," Virginia assured him. "I wish you could have seen
how pleased he was when Father asked him to come. And his grandfather, the
old Colonel, nearly burst with pride! Of course Carver's different. I
think his father and mother are very--well, _New Englandy!_ You know what
I mean. But I'm sure he'll love it out here. It's lovely of you to have
him at your house, Don. He could stay with us as well as not, of course,
but he'll be happier over there with you and Jack and the boys."
"That's all right," said Donald carelessly. "There's always room for one
more at the Keith ranch. Father says there always will be. Are all the
girls Vigilantes, Virginia--Mary and Priscilla and Vivian?"
Virginia explained. Mary wasn't really a member, and yet she really was,
being the advisor of the society, and general assistant whenever called
upon to help.
"It certainly was a clever scheme," said Donald. "No one but you would
ever have thought of such a thing, Virginia."
Virginia discredited his praise.
"Oh, yes," she told him. "Priscilla would have done it every bit as well,
only she'd never heard of the Vigilantes. You see, no one in New England
knows about them--even Miss Wallace who knows almost everything--and when
I told Priscilla the things they stood for years ago, and the work they
did against evil-doers out here in the pioneer days, we both thought it
would be just the thing to name our society after them. You see, Don, we
had to do something! 'Twas necessary with Imogene influencing Dorothy and
Vivian the way she did, and I've discovered that when a thing just _has_
to be done, there's always some one to do it. Oh, Don, see the wind
blowing over the grain! It looks almost like the real sea from Priscilla's
house--all blue-green and wavy--only I love the prairie sea better. Won't
they all just love it? It's such a big country! I'm getting excited again.
That queer feeling inside has come back, and it's a whole hour before we
get there, and before the train comes in."
"What do you suppose they're doing now?" asked Donald, excited in his
turn.
"I suppose," began Virginia--"oh, Don, there's another bergamot!--I
suppose they're all out on the observation platform, looking at everything
they can see. Mary isn't saying much--she's just looking, and Vivian is
surprised at all the new sights--I can just see how round and blue her
eyes are!--and Aunt Nan is pointing out things, so as to be sure no one
will miss one of them. Somehow I can't exactly picture Jack and Carver,
but I _know_ what Priscilla is doing. I don't even have to imagine or
suppose. I know she's just wild--outside and in! I can just see her
jumping from one side of the platform to the other, and exclaiming at
everything. Her hair is all blown about her face--she has such unruly hair
anyway--and her eyes are almost black, she's so excited over being so
near. You see, I know Priscilla. She's a lot like me. She just can't keep
still when she's happy! I know she's got the same queer feeling inside
that I have. Oh, drive faster, Don! I just don't believe I _can_ wait to
see them all!"