Part 16 (2/2)

The full breeches and long coat and leggings gave her every freedom of action, and she had put on a wide-brimmed hat. Meanwhile Walter had brought forth from one of his bags a pair of leather riding leggings and buckled on small spurs. He had been forewarned of this ride by Rhoda before they left Chicago.

They mounted the two ponies, and the driver of the buckboard lifted his reins. Then he pulled the eager ponies to a stop again and turned toward Rhoda, answering her second question.

”Yes, ma'am, your mother's fine. She's fine,” he announced.

”Don't that beat all!” exclaimed Walter, exploding with laughter as he cantered by Rhoda's side. ”That is why we call him 'Hesitation, '” Rhoda said.

”Somebody taught him to count more than ten before speaking, didn't they?” commented Walter.

The trail was not wide enough for the pony riders to keep their mounts beside the buckboard; besides, the dust would have smothered Rhoda and Walter. The light breeze carried the dust off the trail, however; so the two riders could keep within shouting distance of the others.

In two hours or a little more they were out of the barren lands completely. Swerving down an arroyo, all green and lush at the bottom, they cantered up into the mouth of a broad gulch, the walls of which later became so steep that it might well be called a canyon.

The ponies never walked--up grade, or down. They cantered or galloped. Hesitation Kane never spoke to them; but they seemed to know just what he wanted them to do by the way he used the reins--and they did it.

”I don't see how he does it,” said Walter to Rhoda. ”It doesn't seem really possible that one could make a horse understand without speech.”

”Oh, he can speak to them if it is necessary. But he says it isn't often necessary to speak to a horse. The less you talk to them the better trained they are. And Hess is daddy's boss wrangler.”

”'Wrangler'?”

”Horse wrangler. Horse trainer, that means.”

”But, my goodness!” chuckled Walter, ”'to wrangle' certainly means quarreling in speech. I should think it was almost like a Quaker meeting when this Mr. Kane trains a pony.”

”It is a fact,” laughed Rhoda, ”that the ponies make much more noise than Hesitation does.”

As they entered this deeper gulch, the girls cried out in delight.

The trail was narrow and gra.s.sy. Growing right up to the path--so that they could stretch out their hands and pick them--were acres and acres of wild roses. They scented the air and charmed the eye for miles and miles along the trail.

They rode on and on. Finally the little cavalcade wound out of the gap, down a slope, crossed a tumbling river that was yards broad but not very deep, and the ponies quickened their pace as they mounted again to a higher plain.

”There it is!” shouted Rhoda, and, waving her hat, she spurred her pony ahead and pa.s.sed the buckboard at full speed.

On a knoll the others saw a low-roofed, but wide-spreading, bungalow sort of structure, with corrals and sheds beyond. The latter were bare and ugly enough; but the ranch house was almost covered to the eaves with climbing roses in luxurious bloom.

CHAPTER XIII

OPEN s.p.a.cES

”On, Nan!” cried Bess, squeezing her chum's arm, ”what do you think of it?”

”It is more beautiful than I had any idea of! And Rhoda had to come away from all this just to go to school,” answered the equally excited Nan.

Here Grace Mason's usual timidity showed itself, as she said:

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