"If it isn't Lilian!" cried Stella, rushing toward the child with
wide-open arms and folding her within them.

"I wouldn't have known you, honey," said Stella. "What have you boys
been doing to her? She's improved so much. Where did you get all these
clothes, and who takes care of her?"

"Isn't she a little beauty?" asked Ted Strong proudly, patting the head
of the blushing little girl.

"But how did you do it?" persisted Stella.

"Oh, I went over and saw Mrs. Bingham, the major's wife, at the fort,
and asked her to come and advise us what to do. She came and was
delighted with Lilian, and promised to oversee her wardrobe. She was
going down to Omaha, and when she returned she had a trunk full of
things for Lil. She also brought a colored woman to look after her, and
Mirandy has proved a blessing and a treasure."

"But the clothes didn't make themselves."

"No, and none of us made them, either, although Bud said he could sew,
and insisted upon trying. He cut up several yards of cloth, and at the
end of the week, when we saw the product of his needle, he narrowly
escaped lynching. If Lilian had not interceded for Uncle Bud, of whom
she is very fond, I'm afraid we'd have no little Buddy now. No, we sent
down to Omaha for a dressmaker and boarded her in town until she had Lil
all fixed up, as becomes the heiress of the La Garita Mines."

"Whose idea is this way of making the things?" demanded Stella, who was