CHAPTER PAGE I.  In San Antonio 1 II.  In Search of a Home 25 III.  The Little Town of Bauer 51 IV.  Mary Finds Gay 71 V.  At Fort Sam Houston 93 VI.  On the Creek-bank 116 VII.  Christmas 139 VIII.  "Die Kleinen Teufel" 171 IX.  At the Barnaby Ranch 198 X.  In Joyce's Studio 230 XI.  Phil Goes to Warwick Hall        259 XII.  In "Blue-bonnet" Time 284 XIII.  Jack 308 XIV.  San Jacinto Day 329 XV.  New Trails 353

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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MARY WARE IN TEXAS

CHAPTER I

The musicians were tuning their instruments somewhere behind the palms in the hotel courtyard. It was one of the older hotels of San Antonio, much sought by Northern tourists on account of that same inner garden, around which the big building stretched itself. The rooms opening on to it had vine-covered balconies, and, looking down from them into the tropical growth of palms and banana trees and roses, one felt that it was summer time, no matter what the calendar said.

It was on one of the second floor balconies at the close of a November day that Mary Ware stood looking around her with eager eyes. Queen's wreath and moon-vines made such a thick screen that no one could see her,