But as they filed away Dorothy had another inspiration and, acting upon it, sent the delighted cowboys marching to the lively air of “Yankee, Doodle, Doodle Doo.”
“And now to bed!” advised the hostess. So within a very few moments all were in their rooms, tired and happy despite the worries of the day, and sure that all would come right at last.
The four girls shared two rooms, facing one another and with two dainty beds in each. Milliken’s chamber was at the end of the long passage beyond theirs, and those of the rest of the household across a wide hall which cut this wing of the house in two. In structure the building was very like El Paraiso, which the Gray Lady had admired and where the happiness of reunion had come to her; and it seemed to those who had wintered in the old adobe that they had but stepped into another home.
Of course, sleep did not come at once. Four girls, even if together all day long, find much to chatter about at night, and this had been a day of “happenings” indeed.
Dolly and Alfy came across to sit on Helena’s bed and watch her dainty, slow preparations for retiring. Molly was already perched in the middle of her own white bed, hugging her knees and proclaiming for the twentieth time, at least:
“Oh! I am such a thankful girl! After I fired that rifle and saw that purple mass of stuff lying on the ground I thought I was a murderer! I did so. Yet I was mad, too, to think Wun Sing had been such an idiot as to go between me and the target.”
“Herbert claims the safest place for others, when a girl shoots, is right behind the target. But it wasn’t when Alfy hit the bull’s-eye. How did you do it, child? It was wonderful and at that distance—which Captain Lemuel fixed for himself!” said Helena, brushing out her hair preparatory to loosely braiding it.
“Oh! Nell, you’re lovely that way! In that soft nightie—you do have such lovely, lacey things. I wish Aunt Betty would buy me some like them, but she won’t. She’s too sensible, and oh! dear! I wish I had my arms around her neck this minute!”
“Put them around mine, Dolly Doodles, and quit wishin’ for things you can’t get. Do you s’pose I’ll ever do it again?” asked Alfaretta, drawing one of Dorothy’s arms about her own shoulder.
“Do what again, child?”