“Ssh! Sonny, you mustn’t be telling that around, or folks will think you’re a bit queer. Little boys don’t go to Yale, and you’ll have to study powerfully hard and be extra smart to ever get there, won’t he, Miss Virginia?”
“I believe he’ll make it.” The girl had placed a loving hand on the hair that was sunburnt, for the boy’s expression had been suddenly crestfallen. “Keep it always as your goal, Peter, and before many years you’ll be writing me a letter telling me that you’re on your way to that great Eastern college.” Then to the mother, “Now, please begin at the beginning and tell me what has happened? Did the water give out?”
It was Mr. Wallace who replied as he advanced with a hand outstretched. “Indeed it did not and it’s the water that has brought us our wonderful good luck, or rather, the instrument, I suppose.”
Virginia’s expressive face encouraged the speaker to continue, which he did. “You recall that fine lad who camped down at the entrance to the canon, the one who came up here with you?”
“Yes, indeed, the Traylors. I have been hoping we’d hear more about both of them. Have you seen them again?”
“Well, not exactly seen them, but Mr. Traylor sent a legal representative to see me. He said that, because of his son’s glowing descriptions of my invention, he wanted to back me financially in having it patented. He also offered me a splendid position in connection with his smelting founderies in Douglas and Bisbee. It seems that for some time he has been trying to perfect some labor-saving devices and he believes, and so do I, that it can be done.”
“And it isn’t something we’re taking on chance either,” Mrs. Wallace hastened to explain. “Dad, of course, is pretty much of a dreamer but this is a sure income for five years with a signed contract backing it.”
At this point, Peter, who had evidently been watching from a peak higher up, flew down to the group crying excitedly, “It’s coming, Ma! Mr. Slater’s truck that’s to take us to town.”
“Well, I don’t know when I have heard more wonderful news,” the visiting girl declared. “I won’t say goodbye, for, after all, you are still to remain one of my neighbors. Douglas, being only twenty miles away, with a good road between it and V. M., is almost nearer via our auto, then it is to Hog Canon on horseback.”
Then she shook hands with the grown-ups, kissed the children, who clung to her, left a bundle with Sari and another with Jane, telling Peter that his would come later, and rode away.