Rose and Daisy did not find the household tasks that were assigned them very difficult.

Cousin Harriet secretly did not like boys, however.

She tried to treat Claude justly, but the boy sadly missed the mother-love to which he had been accustomed all his life.

He was expected to help the hired men on the ranch, and they made him work rather hard, especially since they had been fixing the "alkali patch." The alkali patch was in the southwest corner of Cousin Harriet's ranch.

On several acres, nothing would grow, on account of the alkali in the soil.