Part 15 (1/2)
Meanwhile the girls had bathed away the stains of their adventure, and after a hearty meal cooked by an over solicitous ”Miz cummins” and served by a frankly envious and inquisitive Lizzie, they felt considerably more like their old self-confident selves
However, they begged not to have to go to bed, as Mrs Nelson anxiously suggested, until the boys had returned with their horses
”I'et dreadfully worried,” Betty confessed after an interval of staring out into the darkness They were on the biggest of theeagerly for the first sound that would announce the return of Andy and the others with their horses
”I'd never get over it if anything happened to Old Nick,” said Mollie, taking up Betty's theme ”Maybe we'd better borrow some other horses fro of the kind,” said Mr Nelson, his voice sounding unusually stern there in the darkness ”I a to keep my eye on you for the rest of to-day, at least!”
And so they contented the and finally were rewarded by the regular beat of galloping horses in the distance
”They're co to her feet, then turned to her father pleadingly: ”You won't o down to meet them, will you, Dad?” she asked ”They are our chums, you know--the horses, I irls sprang, racing out toever nearer A fewthe nervous anione with the and crying over the na syreen with envy
”Some anymiles do have all the luck,” said one of theirls and their horses were almost inseparable If left to thes Even ”Old Nick,” who had been the most difficult to understand and win, noas devoted to Mollie She was the only one who could quiet hih there were some who did not care to ride hientle and docile with her
As the days passed the girls beca to give her one good time, in spite of her pride, becaed so hard that the girl finally consented to take a holiday and go out with they surrendered reluctantly, in spite of the fact that this invitation of the girls had been like a gli one day without me, specially as the hermit can do part of my work Pa's broke hiot no farther, for Betty threw her ared her happily
”I' with eyes that sparkled: ”I tell you what I'll do I'll let you ride nigger There's a darling little brown colt over at the ranch that I've been just dying to try out”
Sudden tears sprang to Meggy's eyes, and with the disgust of all mountain folk for the expression of sentin of weakness But Betty had glimpsed the tears and she was satisfied
The day was all that even Meggy Higgins' starved ihter was so beatifically happy that the girls found a new andthrill in her enjoyins had wanted a horse, a beautiful, sleek ani coat like the one that she was riding now--Betty's nigger Many have desired a fortune, soy merely desired a horse And even this had been denied her because her father had been dazzled by the lure of gold, a fortune always just before his eyes, but never to be grasped
The girls were sorry for old Dan Higgins and his thwarted hopes But they were infinitely irl of his to whoolden vision to be indulged in only by girls whose fathers did not oorthless claim
”Sometimes,” spoke up Mollie, as she reined Old Nick into a walk, ”I wish I had the courage to rob soold in yours It doesn't see for it”
The girl srim philosophy far beyond her years Then she added, with a quick loyalty that irls' hearts waruess if he thought I was gettin' discouraged he'd jest pluittin' old, he is, an' he ain't that spry like he used to be All he has is his hope in that ht as well kill him”
After a while they stopped in the shade of soy's popping eyes that the delicacies they drew forth from Miz cummins' lunch basket had never been dreaue sandwiches, buttered corn-bread, fried chicken that you were at perfect liberty to take up in your fingers and nibble to your heart's content, jelly and olives and hot cocoa in the thermos bottle with rich cream already in it--truly a feast even worthy of the Outdoor Girls!
After lunch the girls strolled around a bit, leaving their s, the adventures they had had, the curious people they had y listened to it all, drinking it in thirstily
”To think of all the things you've seen,” she breathed at last ”An'