152 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



work, or else get along as best we can with 

 Mexican girls. You have probably been too 

 kind to your help shown them too much 

 consideration. 



'Well,' I replied apologetically, 'they were 

 a long way from home and friends, and 

 it is dull for help on a ranch, and they 

 were always complaining about their health, 

 and 



' Oh, never mind about that !' interrupted 

 my acquaintance, smiling. ' What you did 

 would in any case have made little or no 

 difference ; it would have been all the same 

 in the end. As for me, white help belongs 

 to my ' tenderfoot ' days. Now I do my own 

 work. My household gods have vanished ; 

 I have scarcely anything left me by the 

 destroyers except peace of mind ; but at 

 least I have that.' 



One day I started out with the hope of 

 inducing two or three friends to aid me in an 

 effort I was making for a certain philanthropic 

 society in the East. Help being so hard to 

 procure, and so incompetent in our section, 

 the idea was that almost any housekeeper 

 would be thankful to take a white woman to 



