A beam of sunlight peeped through the curtain in Colleen's room landing on Colleen's sleeping face.

"Colleen! Breakfast!" Dr. Mike called from downstairs.

Colleen got up, brushed her long, pretty, hair, got dressed, and came down stairs.

"Morning Ma." Colleen spoke as she met Dr. Mike at the end of the stairs.

"Good Morning Colleen."

"Hi Colleen!" Brian spoke. "Can you come to my school today? I have to write a report about my family. Sully has stuff planned for today. Ma is going to be busy at the clinic, and Matthew said something about starting to build a home for himself." Brian spoke.

"Well, why do you want me to go to your school?" asked Colleen, as she sat down across the table from Brian.

"Because, we have to read our reports out loud to the whole class. A couple of my friends said their parents were gonna come to hear them read their report. Ma said that she would try to make it, but she has a lot of appointments today." Brian answered.

"Okay, I'll be there." Colleen answered as Dr. Mike set a plate in front of her.

"All done!" Katie said as she picked her plate up showing it to her Ma.

"Good girl Katie! You ate it all! You wanna go play before it's time to go to work?" Dr. Mike asked her sweet, little girl.

"Where's Bunny?" asked Katie.

"I think he's by the fireplace Katie." Brian said as he inhaled the last bit of his breakfast.

"Bye Ma, Katie, see you later Colleen!" Brian said as he gathered his books and ran out the door.

"He seems to be in a rush this morning." said Colleen as she looked over at little Katie sitting on the floor playing with her bunny.

"Yes, he's quite excited about his report. He's been working on it for about a week now." answered Dr. Mike as she picked up Brian's plate to be washed.

"Where's Sully at? Has he already left?"

"He said that he had some things to do today. He didn't say what though." Dr. Mike answered.

"Matthew's building a new house?"

"Yes. He left early this morning. He said that he wanted to be at Mr. Bray's when he opened, so he'll have all day to work."

"Why isn't he gonna keep on building the house that he started before?

"Well, mainly because he was building that house for Ingrid." answered Dr. Mike as she turned around and looked at Katie as she was playing with her bunny.

"Oh Katie! Look at your hair! I had it looking nice and you've messed it up. Let's go up stairs and fix it again."

Katie went upstairs dragging her stuffed bunny behind her all the way.

"I'll be back in a minute Colleen."said Dr. Mike as she headed for the stairs.

By the time Colleen finished her breakfast and brushed her teeth, Dr. Mike and Katie were ready to go to town. The three of them went outside and got into the wagon, and were off to town.

(In town) "Hiya Matthew. You're up early this morning." said Loren as he greeted Matthew.

"Hey Loren, I need to buy some lumber from you. I'm ready to start building my own house."

"Well, I have some lumber here, but you're going to have to wait until I get a new shipment in. But I should have enough to get you started." answered Loren.

"Thanks Loren. I'll pull my wagon around front."

As Loren and Matthew were loading up the wagon, Matthew saw Dr. Mike, Colleen, and Katie pull up to the clinic. Dr. Mike jumped down from the wagon, Colleen handed Katie to her, then came down herself. Dr. Mike and Katie went into the clinic as Colleen went to Brian's school.

At the school, students one by one got up and read their reports. As the boy next to Brian stood up to read his report, Brian looked to see if Colleen was there yet. As soon as he turned around Colleen opened the door.

A few minutes later the boy finished his report and it was Brian's turn. Brian stood up, turned and looked at Colleen, then walked to the front of the classroom. He cleared his throat and started reading.

Brian's report lasted about fifteen minutes. He spoke of how his real Ma got sick and died, and how his Pa was never around. He also spoke of how Dr. Mike was kind enough to take, him, his sister, and their older brother into her home. And then Dr. Mike met a man, they fell in love, got married, and adopted him and his sister. He also talked about how Dr. Mike teaches him how to cook different things, and how Sully teaches him about the woods, and how to survive in the wilderness. Also in his report he talked about his brother becoming Sheriff, and his sister wanting to become a doctor.

By the time Brian was finished, Colleen was in tears. Her little brother told so much about their life history, good and bad in such a short time. He did so good on his report, she was so proud of him.

Back at Loren's store, Loren finished helping Matthew load his wagon. Matthew was able to pay Loren some and he put the rest on his account. Before Matthew left town he stopped by the clinic to see Dr. Mike and Katie.

Matthew was telling Dr. Mike about the house he was planning on building when Colleen came walking into the clinic. By the look in her eyes you could tell that she had been crying.

"Colleen! What's wrong?" Dr. Mike asked in concern.

"Oh Ma, Brian did so well on his report. I was so proud of him." Colleen answered.

"I was hoping I could go hear his report, but I've been really busy."

"Don't worry Ma, Brian said that he'll read it tonight after supper to you, Sully, and Matthew, since you weren't able to come." Colleen answered.

"Well, I wanna start working now. I'll see you at supper. Bye Dr. Mike, see you later Colleen." said Matthew as he gave Colleen a kiss on the cheek.

"Bye Matthew." Colleen answered as she went walking to Dr. Mike's desk to see who had appointments for the day.

"See you at supper." Dr. Mike said as she started getting ready for her next patient, for the appointment was in just a few minutes.

Matthew walked out the door and jumped into his wagon, and left town.

"Have you seen Andrew today?" Asked Colleen.

"Yes, I have. He stopped by here while you were at the school. He returned the book I let him borrow." answered Dr. Mike as she finished folding bandages.

"He said that he was still planning on coming over for supper, if nothing changes." continued Dr. Mike.

Just then someone knocked on the door.

"That must be Mrs. Roberts, her appointment is in five minutes. Colleen, can you show her in while I go check on Katie?" asked Dr. Mike as she quickly left the room.

"Good morning." the lady greeted. "I am Mrs. Roberts, I have an appointment with Dr. Quinn."

"Yes, she's expecting you. Come on in." Colleen said as she held the door open.

Just then Dr. Mike came walking back into the room.

"Ma, I'm going to go out for a little bit, I'll be back after while." Colleen told Dr. Mike.

"Ok, see you later." Dr. Mike said as Colleen walked out the door.

"Hi Mrs. Grace!" Colleen greeted.

"Oh, hi Colleen."

"Beautiful morning isn't it?" asked Colleen.

"Yes, it is." Grace commented. "Wish I felt like enjoying it."

"What's wrong Mrs. Grace?" Colleen asked in concern.

"I don't know Colleen, I feel so bad."

"Well, Ma is with a patient right now, but she'll be done soon."

"Thank you Colleen. I'll just wait outside on the bench." Grace said as she sat down on the bench.

"I hope you start feeling better." replied Colleen.

"Thank you Colleen, I hope so too."

"Oh, hi Andrew!" said Colleen as Andrew suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Hi Colleen. Going out for a walk?"

"Sort of. Ma had a patient, so I came out for a little bit. I'm glad I bumped into you. Ma said that you're still planning on coming over for supper tonight." Colleen commented.

"Yes I'm still coming. I wouldn't miss it, and disappoint you." Andrew answered as he took Colleen's hand in his own.

"You still want to tell them tonight?" Colleen asked, as she stopped walking, and turned and faced Andrew.

"Of course, don't you want to tell your family?" Andrew asked as he looked into Colleen's pretty eyes.

"Yes, I do. I'm just excited and nervous, that's all." answered Colleen as they started walking again.

"Me too, Colleen, me too." Andrew answered as he smiled at Colleen.

As Colleen and Andrew went for a walk, they saw Dorothy running to the Telegraph Office.

"Oh, hi Dorothy!" Horace greeted. "this letter just came for you!"

"Thank you Horace." Dorothy squealed as she tore the envelope open. "Horace! He liked my writing! He liked it!" Dorothy yelled in excitement.

"That great Dorothy!" Horace replied with a smile on his face. The smile soon turned into a confused look. "Umm, Dorothy?"

"Yes Horace!"

"Who liked your writing?"

"Oh Horace, I'm sorry. This letter is from Mr. Bell in Denver! I sent him a copy of gazette, and liked my writing, and is interested in publishing a book of mine, if I ever write one."

"That's good news Dorothy!"

"All I need to do is think of something to write about."

"Well, just remember what happened last time you wrote a book." reminded Horace.

"Oh Horace, I promise not to do that again." Dorothy responded as she went walking out the door thinking about what she should write about.

After Dr. Mike was finished with Mrs. Roberts, she walked her patient to the door, to find Grace sitting on the bench waiting to be seen. "Grace? Is everything ok?"

Dr. Mike, I feel so bad.

"Come on inside and I'll examine you."

After examining Grace, Dr. Mike came to the conclusion that Grace had the flu. Dr. Mike gave Grace some medicine and told her to go home and rest.

"If you don't start feeling better within the next few days, send Robert E. to come get me, ok?"

"Ok, thank you Dr. Mike" answered Grace as she stepped onto the dusty road.

As Dr. Mike watched Grace leave, she heard Katie giggling behind her. She turned to see Katie standing there still holding onto her bunny.

Dr. Mike was able to take a break long enough to play with Katie and her bunny. As Dr. Mike and Katie were outside playing, Katie looked up and saw Colleen and Andrew. Katie jumped up and went running over to Colleen for a big hug. Colleen picked her up and Andrew started tickling her. When Colleen made it to the clinic, she put Katie down. Katie went running back into the clinic, still holding onto her bunny.

"Well, I'll see you tonight." Andrew said as he went to leave, for he was late going to work.

Matthew was so excited about building his new house. He was so busy building that he didn't even stop to eat lunch. In fact, Matthew worked on the house until the sun set. Since it was getting hard to see, Matthew decided to stop for the day. He got on his horse and went home to clean up for supper.

When Matthew got home, he found Katie sitting in the middle of the floor playing with her Mr. Bunny. Dr. Mike was almost done with cooking supper, and Brian was setting the table.

Matthew got a change of clean clothes and took a shower. Right when Matthew came back into the kitchen, someone knocked on the door. It was Andrew. "Hi Andrew, come on in." Matthew greeted.

"Hi everyone!" Andrew said as he closed the door behind him.

"Hi Andrew!" Colleen said as she walked over to Andrew to find that he brought flowers.

"Andrew! They're beautiful" Colleen said as she sniffed them.

"Not as beautiful as you" Andrew whispered in Colleen's ear, making her blush.

"Table is set." Brian announced as Dr. Mike set the last bowl on the table.

"Well, ok, let's eat. Everyone sit down." Dr. Mike said as she picked Katie up to put her in her high chair. Colleen and Andrew of course sat beside each other.

Everyone ate supper, and was completely full. Colleen and Andrew were so nervous that they hardly ate. Dr. Mike realized that Colleen didn't eat as much as she normally does.

After supper, Sully, Matthew, and Andrew were sitting around talking about different things, while Dr. Mike, Colleen, and Brian washed the dishes. Brian wanted to hurry up and get the dishes washed so he could read his report to everyone.

After the dishes were washed everyone sat down in the living room, while Brian stood up to read his report like he had done at school.

After he finished reading his report, Dr. Mike was in tears. She had to stand up and go hug Brian. Sully had a little tear run down his cheek but he wiped it away before anyone saw it.

After everyone sat around talking about Brian's report, Andrew stood up, and announced that he had an announcement to make.

"Ever since I laid eyes on Colleen, I thought that she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. As you know, we've been courting for quite some time now." Andrew stopped to take a deep breath. Then Colleen got up and stood beside Andrew. Andrew then looked back at Dr. Mike and Sully, and said that he asked Colleen to marry him, and that she accepted. Dr. Mike and Sully were very happy for the both of them. Colleen was about to burst for she couldn't have kept it a secret much longer. Everyone was giving their congratulations, and were talking. Then someone asked about a ring. Colleen looked over at Andrew, because they never discussed a ring before. Andrew smiled and reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a little black box. He walked over to Colleen, got down on one knee and opened the box and said the following: "Colleen Cooper, I love you, I have always loved you, ever since I laid eyes on you. I will do everything in my power to keep you happy. I will be a good husband to you, will you marry me?"

Colleen smiled from ear to ear, and squealed "YES!!" By this time the ring was on Colleen's finger. Andrew and Colleen hugged each other, then kissed each other, then everyone wanted to see the engagement ring. It was a pretty gold band, with a diamond on the top.

After Colleen was able to wash away the tears out of her eyes she took another look at the ring. "Oh Andrew! It's so pretty!" Colleen and Andrew were grinning from ear to ear. They were so excited because their life with each other was about to begin.

About an hour later, Andrew left to go home, and everyone else went to bed. Colleen went to bed, laying on her pillow starring at her engagement ring. She fell asleep with a very big smile on her face, and a head full of dreams.