Whatever she happened to be doing was done with a zeal and a vim that made this fourteen-year-old girl a never-failing source of amusement to the easy-going postman.

Now as he came within speaking distance, he saw a surrey drawn up to the side of the road, and recognized the horse as old Bogus from Lee's ranch.
[Illustration: "IT NEEDED NO SECOND GLANCE TO TELL HIM WHO SHE WAS"] A thin, tall woman, swathed in a blue veil, sat stiffly on the back seat, reaching forward to hold the reins in a grasp that showed both fear and unfamiliarity in the handling of horses.

She was a new boarder at Lee's ranch.

Evidently they had been out on some errand for Mrs.Lee, and were returning from one of the neighboring orange-groves, for the back of the surrey was filled with oranges and grapefruit.
The postman's glance turned from the surrey to the object in the road with an exclamation of surprise.

One of the largest rattlesnakes he had ever seen lay stretched out there, and Mary, having dropped her club, was proceeding to drag it toward the surrey by a short lasso made of a piece of the hitching-rope.