THE YOUNGER SET
The front yard of the Rainbow lodge appeared an extremely small
playground for a boy accustomed to covering many miles of the broad
ranch and the adjoining country in the course of each day. Yet as Jim
Colter's word was law on the Rainbow ranch Jimmie Kent had no thought of
breaking parole.
He glanced up at the double rows of tall cottonwood trees which led from
the lodge to the gate. Almost impossibly difficult trees to climb
because of their tall, smooth trunks and the branches so high overhead!
A warm September day and Rainbow creek not half a mile away! Jimmie
taxed his imagination until he could well-nigh feel himself swimming
about in the cool freshness of the little stream, deeper than usual at
the present time because of the abundant September rains. When one's
swim ended, not far away were his mother, his Aunt Jean and her husband
Ralph Merritt, a clever mining engineer. The family was to meet this
afternoon to discuss the possibility of sinking a new shaft into the old
Rainbow mine with the hope of striking a new lode.
Moreover, Jim Colter (and Jimmie and the big man were so intimate as to
use each other's first names) was attending to the branding of a herd of
calves at one of the ranch houses. Any one, or all, of these
entertainments might have been his, except for an unfortunate impulse to
investigate the Rainbow ranch alone a few afternoons before.
A week of the front yard of the lodge appeared an interminable time to
Jimmie Kent, yet even a week would pass in time. And one had better be
half a prisoner at the old ranch than free in any other part of the
world.
Six weeks before having arrived at the ranch after a long journey from
England, at present this was Jimmie Kent's earnest conviction. Was there
anywhere else in the world such a wide sweep of country, such plains and
prairies and desert sands covered with sage brush and cacti? In the
prairies there were wolves and deer and bear. Since his arrival at the
ranch Jimmie believed he had heard one night the call of a wolf, the
leader of the pack, and coyotes he had seen with his own eyes, sniffing
about the edge of the woods not far from Rainbow creek. Jim Colter had
suggested that the buffalo were not all destroyed, but might be found
roaming in certain western portions of the state, now inhabited only by
wandering Indian tribes. He had hinted at mountain lions as not wholly a
figment of a boy's dreams, but as realities, creatures Jim Colter had
beheld with his own eyes long years before, when the west was the west
indeed.
Yet here he was, Jimmie Kent, late of Kent House, Kent county, England,
suddenly transformed into an American boy, but shut up within an acre of
ground for a week and, moreover, face to face with the tragic
possibility that within a month or more he might be forced to return to
England. He had nothing against England except that it was too small for
a boy's energies and hopelessly devoid of wild animals outside the
London Zoo.
India of course was a possession of the British Empire, and South
Africa, but Jimmie felt that probably for a number of years he might not
be permitted to explore these regions. So why the present discussion?
If he and his mother both desired to remain at the Rainbow ranch at
least for a number of years, they ought to be able to decide for
themselves. Nevertheless his mother had explained that she must continue
to think the situation over and to ask the advice of her family.
To-night the grown-up members of the family were even to dine together
for this purpose.
Discovering a cottonwood tree not far from the gate, Jimmie now climbed
up and seated himself upon one of the lower branches. Here he was
enabled to have a wide outlook.
Behind him was the Rainbow lodge where he and his mother were living at
the present time. So often Jimmie Kent had been told its history! Here
his mother with her sister, Frieda Ralston, and her cousin Jean Bruce,
had lived when the three of them were little girls and under the
guardianship of Jim Colter, the manager of their father's ranch after
his death. Later the fourth ranch girl had found refuge with them,
escaping from an Indian woman in whose charge she had been for so many
years that her early childhood was enshrouded in mystery.
From his present viewpoint Jimmie Kent was able to observe two figures
not at a great distance away. They were Captain MacDonnell and his wife,
who had been Olive to the other ranch girls until the discovery of her
parentage.
Captain MacDonnell, injured in the great war, later had developed his
talent as an artist. Jimmie possessed the ordinary small boy's attitude
toward pictures, nevertheless he had something to say in favor of
Captain MacDonnell's, since _his_ reputation had been acquired through
his painting of western scenes.
At the present moment he was sketching a mustang pony, which one of the
ranch boys was leading back and forth in an effort to persuade the pony
to remain within the range of the artist's vision. Jimmie would have
enjoyed changing places with the other boy. In spite of Captain Bryan
MacDonnell's lameness he had an especial understanding and love of the
outdoors, to such an extent that he and his wife were spending a year or
more at the Rainbow ranch, living in a tent, regardless of the fact that
at the great house built after the discovery of the Rainbow mine there
was room for any number of guests.
Jimmie now glanced over toward the splendid mansion which had been
christened "Rainbow Castle" by Frieda Ralston years before. His Aunt
Frieda and her distinguished if eccentric husband, Professor Henry
Tilford Russell and their one little girl were at present visitors at
Rainbow Castle, having arrived only a day or so before.
Jimmie was no more interested in relatives as relatives than most small
boys. Yet had his preference been asked he would have said freely that
he liked best his Aunt Jean and his uncle Ralph Merritt, possibly
because a famous engineer who had been not only the engineer of the
Rainbow mine but of several other mines would appeal to any masculine
imagination. Then possessing no sons of her own and greatly desiring
one, his Aunt Jean was particularly kind to him.
At this moment Jimmie became especially grateful to fate for his exalted
position in the tree top. Advancing toward him he beheld his seven girl
cousins.
"Eight cousins!" Some one was always muttering this tiresome
exclamation, as if there was any special point in it. Personally Jimmie
considered the one drawback to his residence in the United States was
the possession of such an affliction. Not that he disliked the seven
girls; two or three of them were fairly agreeable. One could not dislike
the little girl, who was scarcely more than a baby, and whose name was
Peace, she was so pretty and so gentle. She had been called Peace though
named for her mother, because no one wished to repeat the name Frieda
during the war.
The seven cousins and two nurses were now entering the yard of the
Rainbow lodge and Jimmie Kent wondered if he preferred not to be
discovered. He guessed their errand: they intended gathering violets
from the violet beds on either side of the house, planted years before
by Frieda Ralston in an effort to increase the family fortunes, and now
famous throughout the neighborhood.
In advance were the four daughters of Jim Colter, whom he described as
the four new Rainbow Ranch girls and whose names were also Jacqueline,
Jean, Olive, and Frieda, although called Lina, Jeannette, Olivia, and
Eda, to distinguish them from the original "Ranch Girls of the Rainbow
Lodge." The three visitors with the maids were following.
An instant Jimmie considered whether it might not be a good idea to
allow Jeannette Colter to observe his present elevation. She was the one
of the seven girls he most disliked. A few months his elder, she boasted
that she could ride and run and climb equally well with the new English
boy visitor. She could learn to shoot equally well if her father offered
her an equal opportunity.
The truth was that if Jimmie considered he disliked Jeannette, she
cordially hated him. Before Jimmie's coming she had been her father's
constant companion, riding with him about the ranch as Jacqueline
Ralston had done in the years past. But three times of late had her
father left her at home with her sisters, saying that he wanted to ride
alone with Jimmie in order better to make his acquaintance.
Now Jimmie felt a reasonable pride in the fact that Jeannette would not
be able to occupy such a position as his present one without assistance.
"Hello," he called down. The other girls waved and returned his
greeting, but Jeannette Colter laughed.
"Up a tree, aren't you, in more ways than one, Jimmie Kent! I am sorry
you cannot leave the front yard for a week," which was not kind or
truthful in Jeannette, who was especially pleased by Jimmie's captivity
since it restored her to her father's uninterrupted companionship.
At the close of the day, having finished his solitary dinner--his mother
was dining at the big house--Jimmie came out on the veranda of the lodge
and went to bed in the big porch hammock where he often spent the night.
Several hours later, half awakened by the return of his mother and Jim
Colter from the family dinner party, but too drowsy to speak,
nevertheless Jimmie overheard his mother announce in a tone of relief:
"Well, Jim, thank goodness I have been able to make up my mind at last!
Indecision, you know, always has annoyed me more than anything else in
the world. So it is to be the Rainbow ranch and my own country for as
many years as I can arrange it. And may they be as many years as you
need me, Jim."
His friend's reply made Jimmie Kent smile and settle himself more
comfortably in his hammock bed. The reply gave one a pleasant sense of
permanency.
"Then if you never leave the United States until I cease to need you,
Jack, you won't go away until I am removed to broader fields than the
Rainbow ranch. But do you think you will be happy, that is the main
thing? What will you do with yourself? These are restless days for most
women and you have more energy than any woman I have ever known. Want a
career, Jacqueline Ralston Kent? Are you staying in your own country
because you wish to be a famous woman some day and the United States
offers the best opportunity?"
"Suppose we sit down a while, Jim," Jack answered. "You are not sleepy,
are you? It is too lovely a night!"
Walking over to the hammock, Jack pulled up a warm covering over her son
and as he smiled up at her, whispered,
"We won't disturb you, will we, Jimmie?" and Jimmie only shook his head,
not wishing to speak, yet enjoying the distant sound of the two voices
he loved best.
A moment later Jim Colter and Jack were sitting together upon one of the
front steps of the Rainbow lodge as they had sat together so many times
in years past, always preferring to be in some spot where there were no
walls closed about them but where there was a wide view of sky and
land.
"Don't laugh, Jim, but I don't know, yet laugh a little if you like, as
it may be good for me. Yes, I have sometimes thought since Frank's death
that I should like a career of my own, besides just being Jimmie's
mother, proud as I am of that honor. Inside the secret corners of my
mind the thought has influenced me a little in my desire to remain at
home."
"But what is the great career to be?" Jim Colter answered smiling, and
yet with a sufficient interest in his tone to take away any lack of
sympathy that might have been conveyed by his amusement. "You aren't
going to turn poet, or painter, or actress, Jack, after displaying no
fondness for the arts in all these years?"
"No, Jim Colter, and no talents either," Jack returned. "I appreciate
your veiled sarcasm. No, the good fairies who bestow the artistic gifts
were not present at my birthday. What do you think I might be able to
do, Jim? Tell me."
There was a short silence and then the man answered:
"Help me manage the Rainbow ranch, Jack, or a larger ranch if you like."
Jack shook her head.
"No, Jim, you have managed the ranch successfully without me and though
I may bore you by interfering now and then, to help you when you do not
need help will not be the thing I am after. Would you hate it if I
should take an interest in politics? It is an exciting world these days
and after all Wyoming was the first state to give the vote to women! I
wonder if I am still an American citizen. In marrying an Englishman I
know I became a British subject while my husband was alive, but now he
is dead and I have returned to my own country, the point is, what am I,
Jim? A woman without a country?"
"Jack, I don't know. However, I should dislike your entering political
life, but suppose you are old enough to decide for yourself." Jim Colter
laughed. "You always did decide for yourself in the end, Jack, even when
you were pretty young. But you will marry again some day! Suppose we ask
an old friend of yours, Peter Stevens, whether at present you are an
American citizen or a British subject? Stevens has become one of the
distinguished young lawyers in the state, or in the west for that
matter. But look out for him, Jack, he is an old bachelor and a woman
hater. Now it must be nearly midnight. Good-night."