By ten o'clock when the other girls were ready for a rest and something to eat, Joy was down to the bottom of the bag.
"Never mind, Joy, you can have half of mine. Mother always puts up enough for an army."
"Aren't we ever going to get there?" complained Joy, as she squatted in the scant shade of a mesquite tree and ate some fudge.
"Five miles more!" Kit announced.
"I'll never be able to do it! If they only had a change of scenery, I wouldn't be so bored. And those tall, smokestack cactus make me sick."
"Smokestack cactus!" snapped Kit with contempt. "If you'd only take enough interest to learn the names of the trees and things you see, you wouldn't be so bored."
"Well, what are they called?"
"Sahuara. And if that word is too big for you to remember, call them
Giant Cactus."
Suddenly Bet shook Joy by the arm. "Keep quiet and watch that road runner. Isn't he a beauty?"
The bird had risen and poised above the mesa, then with fluttering wings darted downward. There was a rattling brr, and the girls knew what was happening. The road runner was attacking a rattlesnake.