Virginia of V. M. Ranch
He removed his gayly adorned peaked hat and took from it a letter, which he handed to Virginia.
Club,” “Virginia’s Ranch Neighbors,”“Virginia’s Romance.”
Publishers New York
Printed in U. S. A.
TO SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE
VIRGINIA AT VINE HAVEN
VIRGINIA’S ADVENTURE CLUB
VIRGINIA’S RANCH NEIGHBORS
VIRGINIA’S ROMANCE
By A. L. BURT COMPANY
VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH
Made in “U. S. A.”
Margaret Selover
Barbara Blair Wente
who like adventure and the desert.
CHAPTER I—VIRGINIA OF V. M. RANCH.
Down a winding mountain trail, a girl of sixteenwas riding on Comrade, her wiry red-brownpony.
It was a glorious morning. The sky above wasa gleaming cloudless blue, the desert, below, stretchingto the far horizon, shimmered white in the sunlight,while some bird in a canon near was carolinga tipsy song of joy, but these things Virginia Davisdid not see or hear, for her eyes were gazing at therugged trail and her thoughts were puzzling overthe contents of a letter which her brother Malcolmhad brought to her that morning when he had returnedfrom the town of Douglas which was twentymiles away.
Her father’s best friend had died the year before,and had left a motherless girl all alone in the world.When Mr. Selover realized that he had not long tolive he had written Mr. Davis asking him to becomethe guardian of his daughter, Margaret, whowas then in a select boarding school in the East.
In some unaccountable manner, the letter had beendelayed for many months, and during that time, Mr.Davis had also died, leaving Virginia and Malcolmas sole owners of the vast cattle ranch which wasknown as “The V. M.”
This morning Virginia had ridden to the top ofthe trail where she often went when she wanted tobe alone with her thoughts, for the long delayedletter had indeed brought a new problem to thesetwo young people.
This unknown Margaret Selover, it seemed, wastheir father’s ward. Ought they not to assume theresponsibility which he would so gladly have takenhad he lived? And yet, what if the girl shouldprove to be very unlike themselves? She might notcare to make her home on their wonderful desert,and, if she did not, would it be right for them totake her from an environment in which she washappy and content? But how