“What was that?” Louise whispered, holding back.
“Only a horse gnawing corn!” Penny chuckled. “Mrs. Lear must keep a steed of her own.”
It was dark in the barn even with the doors left wide open. Groping their way to empty stalls, the girls unsaddled and tied the horses up for the night. Mrs. Lear’s animal, they noted, was a high-spirited animal, evidently a thoroughbred.
“A riding horse too,” Penny remarked. “Wonder how she can afford to keep it?”
Finding corn in the bin, the girls fed Bones and White Foot, and forked them an ample supply of hay.
“Now to feed ourselves,” Penny sighed as they left the barn. “My stomach feels as empty as the Grand Canyon!”
The girls had visions of a bountiful supper cooked over the camp fire. However, Mrs. Lear was putting out the glowing coals with a bucket of water.
“Come into the house,” she urged. “It won’t take me long to git a meal knocked up. That is, if you ain’t too particular.”
“Anything suits us,” Louise assured her.
“And the more of it, the better,” Penny muttered, though under her breath.