"And we will take everything that comes with it!" declared Eleanor, eagerly.
"Well, all right, but for the love of goodness, don't let's camp in the wilderness all night!" cried Barbara.
They sat down after that discussion and ate the sandwiches and fruit, but Polly wanted a piece of the chocolate cake she thought Sary had packed for them.
"I couldn't find any! We looked through and found only sandwiches in the papers," said Anne.
"Oh, pshaw! I was sure there was cake!" grumbled Polly.
"It may possibly be in the bottom of the other pannier, as we didn't unpack everything, you know," suggested Barbara.
"If it is, we'll eat it to-night for supper. At least we know Sary packed something good for us," added Anne.
Once more on the trail, the adventurers rode through forests where the notes of unseen birds blending with the murmur of pines sounded like weird music to the city girls.
"Just like the sea's roar in a conch-shell, isn't it?" whispered Anne, as she listened rapturously.
They passed tumbling, hurrying mountain streams where the burnished trout flashed swiftly back and forth in the clear water. They came to an upland park where the soft whistle of quail caused Polly to lift her rifle, but the whir of wings told of a flight. From jagged rents in the cliffs, through which the horses passed, their hoofs ringing echoes from the iron-veined rock, they came to sleepy hollows where the Quaker Aspens stood ghostlike as sentinels on guard before their beautiful Eden.