“You won’t be the boss!” returned Arthur. “You see, on this trip we don’t do our own cooking; we stop at regular organized camps for our food and beds.”
“But if the bears are so tame, I should think it would be a good place to ride,” she said.
“Lots of people do take horseback trips through the Park,” said Kirk, “but it requires from about twenty to twenty-five days, and it’s hardly worth while for anyone who has only two months to spend in the West. Now if you were like me, with a year or so before you——”
“Kirk!” cried Daisy. “Are you going to stay here next winter?”
“I have a job, haven’t I, Mr. Hilton?” answered the young man. “I’m hired to take Bob’s and Art’s places, while they go to college.”
“You must think you’re good—taking the place of two men!” retorted Alice, always glad of an opportunity to get in a little dig at Kirk.
But Marjorie was thinking of his decision, and wondering at it. How could he, with such an unhappy memory to haunt him, wish to live so comparatively alone, so far away from civilization? Surely he had abandoned all hope!
Everyone at the ranch was delighted with John Hadley’s decision to stay and join the party. Kirk Smith’s satisfaction was as evident as that of anyone else, so that John finally forgot whatever jealousy he might have entertained at the beginning of his visit, and believed Marjorie implicitly.
Early the next morning they started out with their simple luggage, in Ford cars, to drive to the entrance of the Park where they would change into the larger sight-seeing conveyances at the convenience of the public. To the girls, and to John Hadley, who had never been over this part of the country before, every detail was interesting. They watched for buffalo trails, for Indian graves, for extinct volcanoes, and for the queer little prairie-dog towns—barren wastes with tiny mounds every few feet apart, into which the small animals disappeared when the machine approached. They passed huge ranches; saw lofty mountains in the distance, whose summits were streaked with snow. Once it seemed to be raining on a distant hill, but overhead the sky was bright and clear.
The girls talked little during this ride, so interested were they in the strangeness of the scenery. Mr. Hilton noticed this, and smiled to himself; if they found this country fascinating, what would they think of the Yellowstone?