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Blue Bonnet was forced to explain; which she did with as much credit to Chula as possible. "Do you mean to say that Chula ran away with you?" Miss Clyde had asked. "She was only playing, Aunt Lucinda." Blue Bonnet carefully guarded the fact of her fall. "She felt so good after the long winter at pasture. She didn't mean a bit of harm. I'm sure she didn't."

I'm sorry." Blue Bonnet, still trying to smooth out the mark on Chula's shoulder, answered not a word. There was an awkward silence for a moment, and then she suggested that the party move on. "Will you lend me your hand, Knight?" she said. "I don't believe I can mount alone this time." There was a protest from all the young people. "Blue Bonnet! You're surely not going to ride Chula again to-day!

"Look at Señora Jonas, the mother! Well may she weep tears of pride! She is a great lady Señora Jonas. Just now she have condescended to say to me, ''Ow-de-do? and me, I bow low. 'A los pics de V. señora! I say. Ay Dios! if I but had a child with yellow hair, like the Señorita Edith May! Que chula!" "Sh!" breathed Jane. "There's my Lola on the platform!" Lola had grown tall in the past year.

"Better let me give her a run," Alec insisted, but Blue Bonnet refused. After the first five miles Chula began to lose the restlessness that had taken possession of her. Some one in the party suggested that the horses be let out a bit, and they were off in a bunch, Chula well in the lead. "I don't like the way that mare is acting," Alec said to Knight.

He lifted her into the saddle and she took up the reins firmly. For the second time she had conquered an abiding fear. The remainder of the ride was a sad failure. Blue Bonnet felt it as she tried to entertain Knight, who kept close to her side. Alec rode with Kitty; but his eyes scarcely left Chula, who was behaving quite decently now that her frolic was over.

There is a queer song and dance, topical and rather broad, the chula, the somewhat monotonous refrain of which is to be heard everywhere and at all hours, and from all manners of lips. The washerwomen kneeling by the brook bang the unfortunate clothes on the flat stones in rhythm with the tune, and beguile the time with the interminable song.

Around they went once so carefully; Blue Bonnet leading Chula, and Knight holding the child in the saddle. When they came back to the place where they had started, Gabriel put his arms round Knight's neck and the tired body sank into the strong arms willingly. Knight carried him to the chair and Gabriel snuggled into the pillows exhausted.

Chula Vista, on the afternoon when our party entered it, duly chaperoned by the aged Mendoza, presented an everyday appearance. The Chula Vista Trading Company was doing its usual business, and, as this was before the days of prohibition, several saloons were doing what they could to relieve a universal thirst.

Alec's face was white with anxiety and anger, and his jaw set with determination that boded no good for Chula. Blue Bonnet stirred presently; opened her eyes. The sight of Alec and Knight bending over her in the road bewildered her. Then she remembered, and a look of horror came into her eyes. She sat up frantically. "Chula!" she cried, scanning the road eagerly. "Where is she? Alec, catch her!

"It's a good thing Aunt Lucinda didn't hear that, Chula. She'd be horrified. What I mean is, I sha'n't let it creep in. If I do it will make me miserable, and I can't afford to be miserable with Uncle Cliff coming."