The Outdoor Girls in the Saddle | Page 5

"dad has decided to send Allen out there to look up the title.
There is some trouble about that, I think----"
"Oh, now we know why she is so anxious to be a little cow girl," teased
Grace, while the others regarded Betty's pretty color gleefully.
"Oh, Betty, Betty!" cried Mollie, shaking her head dolefully, "you are
altogether hopeless!"
For Allen Washburn, of whom Betty had spoken in connection with the
ranch, was a very promising young lawyer. Also this promising young
lawyer was very fond of Betty Nelson. And while the girls are shaking
their heads over this fact a little time will be taken to describe the

Outdoor Girls to those readers who have not already met them and to
review briefly the many and varied adventures they had had up to this
time.
Betty Nelson, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and rosy-cheeked, was the
natural leader of the four Outdoor Girls, a fact which had led to her
being dubbed "Little Captain" by the adoring girls. Betty's father,
Charles Nelson, had made a good deal of money in his manufacture of
carpets, and Betty's mother was a very sweet lady whom the name of
Rose fitted exactly.
Next came Mollie Billette, dark-haired and with snapping black eyes,
who was almost as French in her manner as her very French mother.
Readers of the present volume must already feel very well acquainted
with Grace Ford. Grace was the Gibson type, tall and slender and
fair-haired and very pretty, with a decided liking for looking in mirrors.
Last of the quartette came Amy Blackford. Amy was the ward of John
and Sarah Stonington, and for a long time she had thought her own
name was Stonington. The mystery of her past had been cleared up,
however, and Amy had come into her own. Shy, gentle, sweet, she was
beloved and protected by the more hardy and active Betty and Mollie.
And Amy, as shy girls sometimes will, had begun to think very much
of Grace Ford's attractive brother, Will--which is a reminder that it is
time to introduce "the boys."
Allen Washburn and his open fondness for Betty have already been
spoken of. Allen was tall, nearly six feet. Sunburned and handsome of
face and quick of action, Allen attracted every one wherever he went.
And, truly, Betty was no exception to this rule! Allen had been one of
the first to volunteer his services to the good old army of the U. S. A.,
and while he had gone over only a buck private, he had come back a
lieutenant.
There was Will Ford, Grace's brother, whom Grace and Amy both
adored. Will had been in the secret service when our country entered
the war, and because of this he had been the victim of considerable

misunderstanding. Afterward he had joined the army with the other
boys. This was after some skillful secret service work that won the
praise of the government, as well as the fervent admiration of the boys
and girls.
The other two boys were Frank Haley and Roy Anderson who had
come into the little group because of their friendship for Will and Allen.
They were fine, clean-cut, likable boys, who had come through the war
with colors flying.
The young folks had lived all their lives in Deepdale, a thriving little
city with a population of about fifteen thousand people and situated in
the heart of New York State. Deepdale was situated on the Argono
River, a beautiful and romantic stream where pleasure craft of all sorts
disported themselves. A branch line of the railroad connected with the
main line directly to what the four Outdoor Girls believed to be the
most wonderful of all cities, New York.
The name of "Outdoor Girls" had come to the quartette from the fact
that they invariably spent their summer vacations, and winter holidays
also, in some sort of outdoor sport. They could ride, swim, play tennis,
drive, and, in fact, do everything that is expected of the athletic young
girl of to-day.
They would never forget that first tramping tour when they had
tramped for miles over the country, meeting with a great many unusual
adventures on the way, as related in the first volume of this series,
entitled, "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale." Nor those other times at
Rainbow Lake, in Florida, at Ocean View, and later at Pine Island,
where they had come across that marvelous, mysterious gypsy cave.
Then had come the war with the boys on the other side, and the girls
doing their "bit" at a Hostess House. And a little later what black
distress overwhelmed them, when Will Ford was reported wounded and
Allen's name was among the missing! This all happened while they
were at Bluff Point taking a much-needed vacation from their