Virginia of V. M. Ranch
9781465667960
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Down a winding mountain trail, a girl of sixteen was riding on Comrade, her wiry red-brown pony. It was a glorious morning. The sky above was a gleaming cloudless blue, the desert, below, stretching to the far horizon, shimmered white in the sunlight, while some bird in a canon near was caroling a tipsy song of joy, but these things Virginia Davis did not see or hear, for her eyes were gazing at the rugged trail and her thoughts were puzzling over the contents of a letter which her brother Malcolm had brought to her that morning when he had returned from the town of Douglas which was twenty miles 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 to live he had written Mr. Davis asking him to become the guardian of his daughter, Margaret, who was then in a select boarding school in the East. In some unaccountable manner, the letter had been delayed for many months, and during that time, Mr. Davis had also died, leaving Virginia and Malcolm as sole owners of the vast cattle ranch which was known as “The V. M.” This morning Virginia had ridden to the top of the trail where she often went when she wanted to be alone with her thoughts, for the long delayed letter had indeed brought a new problem to these two young people. This unknown Margaret Selover, it seemed, was their father’s ward. Ought they not to assume the responsibility which he would so gladly have taken had he lived? And yet, what if the girl should prove to be very unlike themselves? She might not care to make her home on their wonderful desert, and, if she did not, would it be right for them to take her from an environment in which she was happy and content? But how could they tell, since they did not know her? Comrade had carefully wended his way down the mountain trail and had carried his young mistress, who was deeply absorbed in thought, across the dry creek, under a clump of cottonwood trees and up the steep farther bank before the girl looked about her with eyes that saw. Her brother was galloping toward her. “Ho, Virginia!” he hailed as he waved his wide sombrero. “Did your Inspiration Peak help you to solve our problem? What are we to do with our ward?” The girl flashed a smile at the lad, whose frank, bronzed face resembled her own, for, though he was two years her senior, twins could not have been more alike or dearer to each other.
