"Can't you come over to the ranch for a little while?" asked Betty, eager to do some little thing toward cheering the girl. But Meggy shook her head.
"I can't leave father--even for a little while," she said sadly. "He ain't feeling well, and I'm afraid if his luck doesn't change pretty soon I--I--won't have any dad----" she choked and turned away. Betty was beside her in a moment, her arm about the girl's shoulders.
"We're awfully sorry, honey," she said compassionately. "We didn't know that your father was feeling bad. Is he--is he really sick?"
"Sick of life, I guess," said Meggy, conquering her emotion and instantly ashamed of it. "I've heered of people dyin' of a broken heart, an' that's what dad's doin', I guess. Bad luck can kill you if it keeps up long enough."
The girls rode home saddened by this brief encounter. It seemed almost wrong for them to be happy when Dan Higgins was "dyin' of a broken heart" and Meggy, brave, splendid girl that she was, had almost lost hope.
"If only everybody in the world could be happy," said Grace plaintively. "It just spoils all your fun when you know that other people are miserable."
"The worst of it is," said Betty soberly, "that with all this luck coming our way we can't pass on a single little bit of it to that poor girl and her dad. If only they weren't so proud----" The sentence trailed off into a sigh, and she gazed pensively out over the plain.
"Well, there's no use of crying over it," said Mollie briskly. "We may find a way of being useful to Meggy yet, and until then, as my mother says, 'let's be canty with thinking about it.' Oh, look, girls, here comes Allen. I wonder what kind of news he has."
They galloped gayly to meet him, and Allen thought they made a very pretty picture as they swept up to him.
"Well," he said as they surrounded him, "everything is settled and they are to begin work to-morrow morning. Our news has aroused great excitement in town, and there's a rush to establish claims near that end of our ranch. Better give your friend, Dan Higgins, a hint, so that he can get in first. So long. I'm on to the house for the map, and then I'm going to join Mr. Nelson again in town."
So he dashed off in the direction of the ranch and the girls wheeled and galloped back in the direction they had come--back toward Dan Higgins' mine to warn him to stake a new claim before others reached the spot.