CHAPTER XII
JO POKER
"Mary Lee! Mary Lee! Where are you?" came the calls from one and another as the riders arrived at the spot where they had left the little girl.
At the same moment she appeared running along the path which led into the deeper woods. "Here I am all right," she assured them.
"We were so scared when we didn't see anything of you," said Nan. "Were you very lonely, Mary Lee? Did the time seem long?"
"Lonely? I should think not. I have had the loveliest time you can imagine. I have seen a Douglas squirrel and a water ousel and I don't know what all."
"Why, Mary Lee!" Miss Helen and Nan both looked astonished. "You have done more than we," said Miss Helen.
"It's like the old adage that says he who stays at home sees more than he who goes to Rome," said Nan. "We had an awful ride. Such precipices, such narrow, narrow paths! I didn't dare to look down and in some places I felt just as if I couldn't stand it. I wanted to scream but all I could do was to shut my eyes and trust to my burro to get me back all right. I don't want to do it again."
"Do tell us how you came to see the Douglas squirrel and the water ousel," said Miss Helen. "Perhaps we can find them in the same place."
"Well," said Mary Lee, "I heard somebody chopping and I went to see who it was, for I was getting tired of sitting still, and there was a man. He was very kind and took me to see the dearest little waterfall where there was that darling bird. He showed me the squirrel, too, and told me the names of lots of trees and things, he was such a nice man. I wish he had stayed till you all came back, but he wouldn't."