"That's so, Mrs. Benson," exclaimed Jean; "and they won't see that it's all a part of the. eternal programme. Evolution IS the order of nature, and one generation of human beings is a very small fraction of the race at large."
"Haven't you gossiped long enough, mamma?" asked Mrs. • McAlpin, petulantly. "Your supper is ready and waiting. What has detained you so long?"
"I was listening to the chat of the Ranger family. They are an uncommon lot; very clever and original."
"Yes, mamma; they talk like oracles. A little brusque and unpolished, but that will be outgrown in time. You're looking splendid, mamma! The society of your neighbors is a tonic. You must take it often."
"I wish we might all stop here. Daphne."
"We 've no more right to these lands of the Indians than we have to—"
"Oregon," interrupted her mother. "Oregon was Indian territory originally."
Jean approached with a plate of hot cakes, saying: " I fell to thinking so deeply over the problems we had been talking about that I forgot what I was doing, and baked too many cakes. They're sweet and light, and we hope you'll like them."
"Thanic you ever so much. Miss Jean!" said Mrs. McAlpin. "I congratulate you with all my heart upon the way you cheer your mother, my dear. You are a jewel of the first water!"
"We all try to keep mother in good spirits," replied Jean. "Dear soul! she's weak and nervous; and what seem trifles to us often appear like mountains to her. Never can I forget, to my dying day, the look of terror that came into her gentle eyes when we were crossing the Platte that day in the quicksands. The raised wagonbed had tilted, for some cause. I suppose the weight of so many of us was not evenly distributed; and we should all have been pitched into the water if it had not been that
