"I believe your brother Tom said you were going to Yale?" continued Eleanor.

"We will, if we pa.s.s the tests. I'm sure Ken will, but I'm not so sure of myself."

"Now--don't belittle yourself. You know you will pa.s.s," added Kenneth.

"I'm sorry you both will be away from home, because Polly and I expect to attend school in New York this Winter," remarked Eleanor.

"Me? School in New York?" cried Polly, astonished.

"Why, yes, of course! Didn't you know what was in my mind when I decided I would like to go to New York with Anne Stewart?"

"But that doesn't mean _I'm_ going there!" exclaimed Polly.

"Of course you are. I don't want to go without you, so I shall scheme to win your folks over to my way of thinking."

"Well, all I can say, is this: If you win them over to see how important it is for me to go to school in New York, you are a wizard--that's all!"

declared Polly, laughingly.

"Your laugh sounds dubious, but I'll show you, pretty soon."

"Now, if you two girls should find yourselves in New York, we will have our folks meet you and pilot you through the wilderness. It's worse than out here on the mountains, you know," laughed Jim.

"In case I don't pa.s.s for college, I won't mind so much, as long as you girls will be in the city to console me," added Kenneth, gallantly.

They laughed. "We won't waste much time consoling any one, I can tell you," added Polly.

"No; Polly and I are going to study some profession, you know, and begin business as soon as we complete our education."

"What?" exclaimed Jim, surprised to hear such young girls plan for a business life.

"Yep! Polly is just daffy over interior decorating, and since she showed me all her magazines and other books on it, I am crazy about it, too."

"But you don't have to study _that_!" declared Kenneth.

"That shows how little a man knows about it. Why, not only must a decorator--a real one, we mean--know all about periods in architecture and furnishings of all kinds, but she must know at a glance, whether an object is genuine antique or a counterfeit," explained Eleanor, glad to impress her male friends with her understanding of what is essentially a woman's profession.

"Besides that," added Polly, "a good interior decorator must know the name of a painter of pictures,--whether an old master or a modern artist. Not an engraving or etching shown but the good decorator ought to be able to say who did it, and name its date.

"There are lots of counterfeit antique china sold to-day, but a good decorator can tell instantly whether it is real antique or not.

"Besides china and pictures, one must be able to name a rug--its qualities and value, at a glance. As for draperies and wall-hangings, well! It all has to be thoroughly learned," said Polly.

"I always thought a man took up interior decorating just because he happened to have been an upholsterer or fresco painter. I never knew there was any studying to be done, first," said Jim.

"You didn't, eh! Well then, let me tell you this much; Polly and I intend to use our money from the mine, to put us both through school in New York. Any other city would do, I suppose, only Anne Stewart will be there, and I never can study under any one else! So I have to attend cla.s.s in New York," Eleanor spoke with the greatest a.s.surance that all she said had already been agreed to by Polly's family.

"Then when Polly and I have had a year or two with Anne, we will take a special course in some one of the best schools on the subject. This course finished, we propose going to Europe to study Italian, French, Spanish, and English periods and styles. If we have an extra year or so, to spare, we might go to j.a.pan and Egypt, as I just adore those two lands."

"W-h-y! Eleanor! You never mentioned a word of this to me before! Who told you we could go?" gasped Polly.

Eleanor laughed merrily. "You big innocent! Why, _I_ just told you _myself_--that we were going abroad."

"If I ever manage to break away from Pebbly Pit after the awful speech I made recently, I'll be lucky, and let New York or Europe alone!" laughed Polly.

"You never would have had gumption to speak as you did, Polly, if it hadn't been for my training you. This is what I have done to you--you are growing to be more independent of others."

Eleanor smiled self-complacently at Polly, but the latter retorted: "I owe you nothing on an exchange, Nolla, because you must admit that I have filled you up with ideas you never dreamed of before you came to the ranch!"

"Shake, old girl!" laughed Eleanor, holding out her hand.

"But about New York--girls. It would be great if you can fix it. Ken and I will be home every holiday, and perhaps we can run down from New Haven, now and then, over Sundays," remarked Jim, eagerly.

Eleanor held up an a.s.suring hand, as she nodded her wise little head knowingly and said: "Leave it to Nolla, boys!"

They laughed and agreed that there was no one else that could arrange affairs any better!

Polly sat mute, for she wondered if it ever would come true--what Eleanor had planned about Europe. In her wildest fancies she had never dared allow her thought to outline _such_ possibilities. But here was a harum-scarum friend who seemed to get everything she wanted by merely saying, "We must have it, you know!"

"I guess we'd better be starting back to camp," suggested Kenneth, looking up at the sun.

"Yes, it will take us fully an hour, riding down," agreed Jim.

So they helped the girls into their saddles, and soon all four were having a good time going back to Buffalo Park.

CHAPTER XI

A WILD-WEST COUNTY FAIR

That same night while at supper, Mrs. Carew asked her guests if they had ever visited one of the western celebrations.

"Polly says she has, but we have never seen one," replied Anne, eagerly.

"Well, Oak Creek is going to have its annual fair, or celebration, two weeks from Monday. It generally lasts for three days, and they have all sorts of stunts there. You-all must be _sure_ to go."

"The Boss says we can have a day off and go, too!" declared Jim.

"I wish it would happen to come on the day you girls go," added Kenneth, anxiously.

"We'll try and plan it that way. Maybe we will go to each day's show,"

quickly said Eleanor.

"Maybe you can find out from Mrs. Carew what day her husband thinks we can have," ventured Jim, in a whisper.

Eleanor nodded; then she turned to John and told him what they wanted to know from Mrs. Carew.