“And what is the program for this afternoon?” asked Kirk, as he lighted his pipe after dinner.
“Swimming and washing for those who want to,” answered Mr. Hilton. “We men will give the girls first chance at the swimming hole; then after they are through, we will take ours. How does that suit everybody?”
“Fine!” exclaimed Marjorie, who had decided that morning to wash her extra things.
All the girls decided to take advantage of this opportunity, and even Doris found a great deal of pleasure in swimming about in the cool delightful water. It was early in the afternoon that they went in, and the sun was still hot, so that they found the exercise refreshing. Fortunately, the temperature was not so low as that of the stream on the ranch.
“I wonder if bears can swim!” remarked Doris, who could not get away from her fears. “If they can’t, we could jump into the water if one of them attacked us.”
“I don’t know—I think they can,” said Marjorie. “But I do wish you would stop worrying about it so much.”
“Yes,” said Alice, a little sharply, for she never could sympathize with a person of Doris’s nature; “if you had some real worry like Daisy has, perhaps you’d have some reason to complain. But look how self-controlled she is!”
The words which sounded harsh were really just what Doris needed, for she had been thinking entirely too much about herself. Alice was right: Daisy Gravers was certainly a girl to be admired. She bore her trouble bravely; she had never even mentioned it to anyone but Marjorie since that first day at the ranch.
“You are right, Alice,” Doris admitted, accepting the rebuke meekly. “I guess I am a baby.”
“Oh, I have no need to preach,” replied Alice, repenting of her harshness. “But we all have to acknowledge that Daisy is a wonder. Even Kirk Smith treats her differently from the other girls.”