Mrs. Sandy opened her arms, and took the stately figure close to her heart, sobbing happily.
“Let’s get the horses,” said Ted in an inspired moment, and deftly she diverted attention from the main group, leading the way over to the stable with the Doctor, the girls all following.
The Doctor looked like a boy who had achieved some long-cherished ambition. He kept taking off his traveling cap, and smiling around from face to face, then putting the cap on again and adjusting his eyeglasses.
“God bless my heart, but this is a glorious reunion, isn’t it, girls?” he said.
“Wait until you see the skeleton, the—the bones, the fossil remains,” said Polly.
“Polly, I think that was all hatched up by you, as a wise and clever scheme to drag me into this part of Wyoming,” he replied.
“But I sent you a specimen—”
“I’ll wait until I see where you took the specimen from.”
“Wasn’t it a good specimen?”
“Fine, undoubtedly. So was the surrounding rock.” The Doctor laughed heartily at the puzzled expression on Polly’s face. “If it is exactly as represented, we’ll give you a degree, Polly, an honorary degree, if we have to invent one to fit the occasion. We can’t call you a Fellow Geologist, can we? This will necessitate Congress striking off a special bronze medal for a new sisterhood of geologists. How would that do?”