Dude Ranch Read Free Page B

for many years. They had a lot of friends in common. Now, Colonel Devine was retired, but he still wanted to know about his old friends.
    After dinner, the girls helped clear the table and then stumbled across the yard to their bunkhouse. The four girls were being housed in a small building with two rooms. Kate pointed out the bedroom with two sets of bunk beds. “That’s why we call it a bunkhouse,” Kate told them. There was also a small sitting room and a bathroom. And they had their own little porch, complete with rocking chairs.
    “This is neat!” Lisa announced as she peered around the place.
    “Neat enough that I’ve earned my present?” Kate asked, reminding the girls of their promise to her.
    “You earned your present a long time ago,” Carole assured her. “I think it’s time for a Saddle Club meeting—pajama-party style.”
    The girls all donned their pajamas and gathered on the porch of their bunkhouse. They put their chairs ina circle. The night air was cool and fresh. Beyond the roof of the porch, a sky full of stars glimmered in the velvet black night, and a three-quarter moon cast a pale light on the ranch. Crickets chirped in the grass. The girls heard the comforting sound of a horse’s whinny in a nearby corral.
    Lisa and Stevie looked to Carole to do the talking. “Miss Kate Devine,” she began ceremoniously. “It is my great honor to invite you to join The Saddle Club—to have all the privileges of membership in our great organization.”
    In the moonlight, the girls could see that Kate was smiling. “Oh, how wonderful!” she said. “I accept, of course!”
    “We knew you would,” Stevie said. “So we even brought you a horse head pin.”
    Lisa took a package out of her bathrobe pocket and handed it to Kate. Kate opened the tissue and looked at her pin. It was identical to the ones Lisa and Stevie and Carole wore.
    “It’s beautiful,” Kate said. “It looks just like a horse I once rode in a show. Her name was Crescent because of a marking on her flank.”
    “Did you take a ribbon with her?” Lisa asked.
    “A blue,” Kate said, remembering. “I took a lot of blue ribbons when I was riding in shows, actually. They’re all in a cabinet in my room. But this meansmore to me.” She looked at her pin. “It’s not going in any cabinet. I’m going to wear it!”
    “Here’s to The Saddle Club,” Carole announced, putting her hand up in the air. Her friends joined her, clapping hands together.
    “Now the next Saddle Club activity is going to be a good night’s sleep,” Lisa said sensibly. “Is breakfast
really
at six-thirty?” she asked Kate.
    Kate nodded. “Really,” she said.

“R ISE AND SHINE !” Kate Devine’s voice broke through the hazy mist of Stevie’s dream. “Sun’s up—time for you to be up too! Breakfast will be served in five minutes. Lisa, it’s almost time to ring the bell!”
    “You
must
be kidding!” Stevie groaned. “Are you actually standing there being
cheerful
at six-thirty in the morning?”
    “Bingo! You win the prize,” Kate said. “And besides, I’m
always
cheerful at six-thirty.”
    “So am I,” Carole said, sitting up in her upper bunk. “But that’s because I’m always sound asleep then, too.”
    There was a loud thump as Lisa’s bare feet hit the floor of the bunkhouse. She was up, and from the surprised look on her face, very much awake.
    “Somebody lead me to my toothbrush,” Stevie groaned.
    In the end, it only took the girls a few minutes to don their shirts, jeans, and boots and emerge from their bunkhouse, ready for breakfast.
    The sun was up, though still low on the eastern horizon. There was a cool freshness in the air. Morning dew sparkled on the grass, and birds chirped in the trees that gave shade to the ranch house.
    “I’m glad we’re up so early,” Carole said.
    “All this fresh air and sunshine has gone to your head, huh?” Stevie asked.
    “I just can’t wait to start riding. What’s on for