Had the fish in question been less greedy, he would have assuredly made his escape. Priscilla knew nothing of the rules of angling. She only knew that she should never recover from chagrin and shame if that fish eluded her. She dropped the rod, grasped the line tightly in both hands, slid down 100 the bank, stood in the creek to her boot-tops, and pulled with all her might. The trout, hindered by surprise as well as greediness, surrendered, and Priscilla with trembling hands and glowing eyes drew him to shore.
It never occurred to her to take him from the hook. Her one thought was to notify the Vigilantes of her success. Holding the line in one hand, just above the flapping, defeated trout, and grasping the rod in the other, she ran with all her might to the cabin, burst in the door, and exhibited her fish and her dripping, triumphant self to the Vigilantes. Fears of unlocked doors had fled! It was still light, and she was a conqueror!
Supper that night, in spite of Hannah’s fears, was an unqualified success. Memory and the cook-book had sufficed to make very creditable biscuits, the trout, rather demolished by vigorous cleaning, lay, brown and sizzling, in a nest of fresh lettuce leaves, and the potatoes were perfect.
“Isn’t it fun?” cried Virginia, as they ate the last crumb. “It’s better even than I thought.”
“It’s lovely,” said Vivian, “only I feel just the 101 same way that I did about staying all alone as Jean does. Look outside, Virginia. It’s getting dark already!”
“Yes,” answered Virginia, going to the window, “it does in August, though the twilights stay like this a long time. See, there’s a star! Doesn’t it twinkle? You can actually see the points! Let’s wish on it. I wish—let me see—I wish for the loveliest year at St. Helen’s we could possibly have—a year we’ll remember all our lives!”
“I wish,” said Mary, “that college may be just as lovely, and that I’ll make as good new friends as you all are.”
“I wish,” said Priscilla thoughtfully, “I wish I may be just as good a Senior Monitor as you were, Mary.”
“I’m not going to tell my wish,” said Vivian softly. “It’s—it’s too much about me.”
Dishes were washed and dogs and chickens fed. Then they came out-of-doors in the ever-deepening stillness to watch the moon rise over the blue shadowy mountains, and look down upon the mesa, upon the horses feeding some rods away among the 102 sagebrush, and upon them as they stood together a little distance from the cabin.