“You needn’t mind, sir. I can find my way around a bit yet,” laughed Ruth.
“All ready, now!” exclaimed Bob, importantly, from the high seat. “Can’t keep these horses standing much longer.”
“All right, little boy,” said his sister, marshaling the girls down the steps of the hotel. “Don’t you be impatient.”
“It’s the horses,” he complained. “See that nigh leader beginning to dance?”
“Tangoing, I suppose?—or is it the hesitation?” laughed Lluella Fairfax. “May anybody sit up there beside you, Mr. Bob?”
“I’m afraid not. But there’s room on top of the coach for all of you, if you’ll crowd a bit.”
“Me behind with the horn!” cried Tom, swinging himself up into the little seat over the luggage rack.
“Now, girls, there are some steep places on the road,” said Madge. “If any of you feel nervous, I advise you to come inside with me.”
“Ha!” ejaculated Heavy. “It’s not my nerves that keep me from climbing up on that thing—don’t think it. But I’ll willingly join you, Madge,” and the springs creaked, while the girls laughed, as Heavy entered the coach.
They were all quickly seated—the boys of course riding on the roof. Ruth, Helen, Lluella and Belle occupied the seat directly behind the driver. Jane Ann Hicks, who had been spending the intervening week since school closed with Heavy, and would return to Montana after their sojourn at Sunrise Farm, was the only other girl who ventured to ride a-top the coach.