“Yes, and how great and desolate it is! Except for this little garden of Eden below, it is two miles to grass and water—yet I love it and hate to leave it, but——”
She paused and looked curiously at the scout.
“But what?” he asked.
“I want your advice,” she told him.
“I’ll give you the best I have in stock,” he said.
“I have had a glimpse of my own people and a dream of the great world beyond where I can see. They have told me of the wonders of the cities and the great schools of girls, where they learn so much that I yearn to know.
“I love this place and Mrs. Sherley is contented, but I feel as if there were something more in the world for us. I long for companionship of my own age—sweet girls who would put their soft arms around me and love me.
“Oh! Mr. Cody, when I think of these things it seems I cannot wait. And yet, where should I go and what should I do? Neither Mrs. Sherley nor I have a relative in the world of whom we know or can ever expect to find. What shall I do?”
The girl had worked her feelings up to the point of tears, when the scout interposed to give her opportunity to control herself.
“If you had means to go direct to some Eastern school, with Mrs. Sherley to accompany you and remain with you, it would be well enough for you to start out for an education; but the pitfalls of civilization, before a young lady of your beauty, are far more numerous and dangerous than those of the Bad Lands, because of the attractiveness of one and the repulsiveness of the other.”