Though Jo Ann’s reply was made in broken Spanish, it was straight from her heart. “Gracias. You are most kind. We have hunger after the long ride. And chocolaté—I love it.” She raised the cup to her lips and drank a little of the rich, frothy liquid. “This is very delicious.”
Peggy and Miss Prudence nodded a smiling approval to the woman, and her black eyes glowed with happiness at the praise, both spoken and unspoken.
A few minutes after they had finished eating, Mr. Eldridge and the two boys rode up.
On going outside Jo Ann saw that there were three other horses saddled and waiting for them. She noticed, too, that José, Pepito’s father, was standing near by, his arms caressingly about Carlitos, whom he loved almost as dearly as he did his own son. Carlitos’s face was aglow with happiness at being reunited with his Mexican friends.
After she and Peggy had mounted, they watched with curious eyes to see how Miss Prudence manipulated that queer skirt. When they saw her unbutton the front panel and fold it back and refasten it on another set of buttons, they saw that it was a divided skirt after all.
Peggy leaned over from her horse to murmur to Jo Ann, “It looks like a pair of floppy-legged pajamas now.”
Jo Ann nodded, then added, grinning, “I prefer to sleep in pajamas and ride in trousers. It’s so much more modest.”
Peggy suppressed a giggle with difficulty at the thought of the proper Miss Prudence’s ever wearing anything but the most correct clothes.
Notwithstanding the queer skirt, they found that Miss Prudence rode unusually well, handling her horse with the ease of an experienced horsewoman.
Up the steep mountain trail they began climbing in single file, José in the lead. The sheer precipice at the edge looked so dangerous to Jo Ann that she tried to keep from looking over. One good thing, they had an excellent guide in José. He had led her and Florence over worse places than this.