Every one of the girls gave a gasp of admiration and quick surprise, as the creek came in sight, winding, twisting here and there among the rocks. Before they knew what was coming, they were deep into it, up to the hubs, and more too.
“Oh, this is nothing,” laughed Jean, as they all called out, and held tightly to the seats. “We’ve been through here when the water surged up through the floor of the wagon, haven’t we, father?”
“Don’t be boasting that way, lass,” Mr. Murray called back to her, his gray eyes full of mirth. “Or I’ll be telling of the night when Neil and I left the wagon behind, and swam with the pony to the other side.”
“Father never likes to have me tell a bigger story than he can,” Jean exclaimed, merrily. They came up out of the water, the ponies with dripping flanks, and swung away again on the home road. This led more through the valleys, and was easier to travel. Once in a while they made a turn that brought out new vistas of beauty, quick glimpses into gullies, and deep, low stretches that were, as Jean said, almost like Scottish moorland. The sun vanished behind a distant range of mountains, lying like heaped up clouds against the western sky, and as the twilight deepened, the girls stopped their talk back and forth, for they began to feel the fatigue of the long journey.
“If Crullers were here now, she would fall sound asleep,” Sue said, sleepy herself.
“You will all feel sleepy until you get used to the air here,” Jean told her. “We are at a very high altitude, and the air is dry and clear. It will make you feel drowsy for a while.”
“It doesn’t make me feel that way, Miss Murray,” protested Polly, quickly. “It just makes me want to get out and run, and run. I love it all so.”
Peggie glanced at her with her quick, sideways smile of sympathy, over her shoulder.
“I love it too,” she said. “Do you like animals?”
“Dearly,” Polly answered. “You should see my dog, old Tan, and the cats. That is all I have, but I love them.”