"I say! Let"s run to the Cliffs and watch for the first glimpse of Daddy," suggested Eleanor.
"And I"ll take some doughnuts to eat in case we get hungry," added Polly.
Fortified with a bag of these delectable b.a.l.l.s, the two girls hastened away. Barbara was all sweetness and generosity, now that she was sure of going to join her mother in a fashionable camp. And many fine bits of underwear, or dresses fell Sary"s way, when Barbara went through her wardrobe, and discarded the things she felt would be too ordinary-looking in such an exclusive "set" as she was about to join.
Sary refused nothing, carrying everything thrown to her, in her arms as carefully as if she were holding a new-born babe. On the first trip she made through the kitchen in order to reach her private domain, she stopped before Mrs. Brewster and held out the lace-trimmed underwear.
"Mis Brewster, Ah never did think Ah would have sech fine troosos fer my marritch. When Ah married Bill Ah diden have nawthin" but a new cambric dress and a sun-bunnet. But this marritch will be the reel thing, what with all the stuff I"m k"lectin, already."
"You are fortunate, Sary, to be on hand just as Miss Bob"s trunks are cleared out," remarked her mistress.
"Yeh, and d"ye know what?" Sary leaned over to whisper confidentially.
"Yeh see Ah"m not lettin" anythin" she gives me lay around one minute, "cause she may change her mind. And ef she once saw _what_ a heap she is throwin" away, she might think Ah was gettin" too much!"
Mrs. Brewster laughed at Sary"s wily ways, and replied: "Well, I"ll spare you from all the work as long as you are gathering plums from Bob"s orchard. I hope you can fill a whole trunk, Sary."
But an unforeseen outgrowth of all these donations was sure to happen.
Once Sary had watched the trunks hoisted up in the ranch wagon, and realized that there would be no more "pickin"s" for her, she ran to her room and began sorting and gloating over the ma.s.s of cast-off clothing.
And so mesmerized was she with pictures of herself adorned in the dresses that were made for the form half her girth that Mrs. Brewster found it impossible to coax her back to the kitchen.
Having the Sat.u.r.day"s baking to do, as well as to prepare the dinner for extra ones that night, she went to the door to ask Polly and Eleanor to come in and help her. But the two girls were not in sight.
There was but one hope left! She must do as clever generals did in battle, when the fight seems to go against them--strategy.
She hurried to Sary"s door which was closed and locked.
"Oh Sary! I remembered something that I wished to ask you about several times this past week. Did Jeb give you the engagement ring yet?"
Not a sound came from within for a few moments, then the key turned and Sary"s amazed face appeared in the doorway. The floor and bed were covered with finery, each piece spread out full length.
"Ah clean fergot all about it. Is Miss Anne got her"n?"
"Oh, yes! John went to Denver with her to choose the stone."
"Kin Jeb git a ring in Oak Crick, d"ye s"pose?"
"Mercy no! Oak Creek hasn"t any jewelry shop, you know."
Sary was lost in thought for a time, and this was Mrs. Brewster"s opportunity. "I"ve been wondering how it would do to hint to Jeb that it would make a lovely trip if he were to accompany you to Denver for a day, and let you select your own ring."
"Oh!"
The one word breathed in a scarcely audible sound plainly expressed Sary"s ecstasy. Her great hands were loosely clasped before her as her eyes turned ceiling-ward.
"Of course with the house full of company for a few days it will be impossible to think of such a thing, but Bob is going away the first of the week, and then John and Tom leave; next Miss Anne goes back to Denver to see about sending her stuff to New York, or selling what she really won"t need, and then you will have time to take such a trip. I will see that Jeb realizes that it is his privilege to do this for you."
"Oh, Mis Brewster, what kin Ah ever do fer you?"
"Well, you can begin to repay me for my kindness by coming out to help me with Sat.u.r.day"s work. And while we are doing that I will plan with you what had best be said and done."
Sary felt that there was a cunning here that she was not able to cope with, but she could not resist the temptation to talk and plan about an engagement ring for herself, so she bravely turned her back on the array of finery, and stoically followed her mistress.
Meantime Polly and Eleanor climbed the cliffs and sat where they could see the Bear Fork"s trail in the distance. Polly was sure they would see the great ranch-wagon the moment it came around the bend.
They had not been seated there more than twenty minutes before Eleanor craned her neck and gazed earnestly at two dots that seemed to be crawling along the trail. Polly turned and gazed also.
"Why, it"s two hors.e.m.e.n! I wonder if Jim and Ken can be thinking of visiting us over Sunday,--because Mr. Latimer is coming, you know,"
exclaimed Eleanor, joyfully surprised.
"They wouldn"t be arriving Sat.u.r.day afternoon, as they wouldn"t be able to leave camp until Sunday," added Polly.
Both girls shaded their eyes with their hands but neither could make out the forms of the riders. They were mere specks on the white trail. But the girls held their breath when the hors.e.m.e.n turned from Bear Forks trail and rode in under the precipice that overhung the entrance to Pebbly Pit.
"Whoever it is, they are coming here," said Polly.
"I wonder if it could be Mr. Latimer and Dr. Evans--they may have arrived in Oak Creek sooner than they expected," ventured Eleanor.
"We can watch better from this point than anywhere else, and when they pa.s.s the Rainbow Cliffs, we can see who they are," now said Polly.
So they watched impatiently until the riders came from under the hanging walls of rock, and rode again along the top of the shale that covered a wide area between the ravines and the Cliffs.
This great stretch of shale was very treacherous going, as on the both sides were deep gulches, or erosions, made by floods from thaws and storms. An abandoned trail ran quite close to one of these ravines but the land-slides of shale had compelled the people at Pebbly Pit to break out a new and safer trail through the middle of the field. To strange eyes, the old trail on the edge of the gulch, was the harder and easier going, but every one coming to the ranch knew the center-trail to be the one always used. Strangers seldom visited Pebbly Pit, and never without a member of the ranch family, or a neighbor to escort them.
When the two hors.e.m.e.n reached the branching of the trails, they halted, and the girls saw them ponder. One man motioned with a hand at the rough trail running over the top of the shale in the middle of the area, but the other seemed to argue that the edge-trail was the best one to take.
"Oh dear! I hope they won"t take that slippery one!" cried Polly, in tense nervousness.
"I wish we could yell and warn them!" exclaimed Eleanor, half-rising from her seat.
"They"ll never hear us at this distance, but we might run along the top-trail and beckon them to climb up there."
"But, Polly, by the time we reach the shale they will be almost at the Rainbow Cliffs," objected Eleanor.
"Yes, I know, but it seems awful to sit here and watch them ride over that dangerous road."
"To relieve our minds, we can go down as far as possible and meet them when they ride out at Rainbow Cliffs," suggested Eleanor.
So the two girls scrambled down from their high point of observation, and started along the rock-ribbed road that led past the Cliffs. They had not gone far along this trail, however, before Polly saw Jeb riding down from the corrals.
"If I could only get Jeb"s attention, he could ride fast and warn those men of their danger," Polly said, thinking aloud.
"Let"s both scream at the top of our lungs and see if he can hear us."
So the two girls stood out on the edge of a huge bowlder and, making megaphones of their hands, shouted again and again. The depression made by the crater that lay between the Cliffs and the corral, acted as a hollow tube, so Jeb finally wheeled around and tried to locate the call.
When he saw the girls, he immediately started to meet them as no one on the ranch would shout that way for fun.
It took ten minutes for Jeb to cover the circuitous path and join the girls, and when they had hastily explained the cause of their concern, he replied: "Gosh! Ah was told to hang a sign on that flat cliff to warn folks offen the bad trail!"
"Well, you didn"t, so now race down the good trail and try to make the men hear you," demanded Polly.