"How long must you stay in America, Doris?" asked one of the Tibetan girls very sadly.
"If I study hard every day," answered Doris, "I can come back in ten years."
"That's not so bad," said another of the girls, "because, you see, if you will study night and day, you can get through and come back in five years."
"We must go," said Dorothy. "Father and Mother have gone on a half-hour ago."
There were tears in all eyes as Doris and Dorothy sprang into their saddles.
"Good-by! Good-by!" they called as the mules started forward.
Since they were babies, Doris and Dorothy Shelton had lived in Tibet, the land that is called "the roof of the world," because it is higher than any other country in the world. They had taken many trips, clinging to the backs of their mules as they went almost straight up on the rough mountain roads, but the journey on which they were starting now, as the sun rose from behind the snow-capped mountains, was to be the most thrilling of all.
The Shelton Family Crossing the Mountains of Tibet
Mrs. Shelton and the girls are in the chairs carried by barefoot coolies.