They ushered Carley into a big living room and up to a fire of blazing logs, where they helped divest her of the wet wraps. And all the time they talked in the solicitous way natural to women who were kind and unused to many visitors. Then Mrs. Hutter bustled off to make a cup of hot coffee while Flo talked.
“We’ll shore give you the nicest room—with a sleeping porch right under the cliff where the water falls. It’ll sing you to sleep. Of course you needn’t use the bed outdoors until it’s warmer. Spring is late here, you know, and we’ll have nasty weather yet. You really happened on Oak Creek at its least attractive season. But then it’s always—well, just Oak Creek. You’ll come to know.”
“I dare say I’ll remember my first sight of it and the ride down that cliff road,” said Carley, with a wan smile.
“Oh, that’s nothing to what you’ll see and do,” returned Flo, knowingly. “We’ve had Eastern tenderfeet here before. And never was there a one of them who didn’t come to love Arizona.”
“Tenderfoot! It hadn’t occurred to me. But of course—” murmured Carley.
Then Mrs. Hutter returned, carrying a tray, which she set upon a chair, and drew to Carley’s side. “Eat an’ drink,” she said, as if these actions were the cardinally important ones of life. “Flo, you carry her bags up to that west room we always give to some particular person we want to love Lolomi.” Next she threw sticks of wood upon the fire, making it crackle and blaze, then seated herself near Carley and beamed upon her.
“You’ll not mind if we call you Carley?” she asked, eagerly.
“Oh, indeed no! I—I’d like it,” returned Carley, made to feel friendly and at home in spite of herself.
“You see it’s not as if you were just a stranger,” went on Mrs. Hutter. “Tom—that’s Flo’s father—took a likin’ to Glenn Kilbourne when he first came to Oak Creek over a year ago. I wonder if you all know how sick that soldier boy was.... Well, he lay on his back for two solid weeks—in the room we’re givin’ you. An’ I for one didn’t think he’d ever get up. But he did. An’ he got better. An’ after a while he went to work for Tom. Then six months an’ more ago he invested in the sheep business with Tom. He lived with us until he built his cabin up West Fork. He an’ Flo have run together a good deal, an’ naturally he told her about you. So you see you’re not a stranger. An’ we want you to feel you’re with friends.”
“I thank you, Mrs. Hutter,” replied Carley, feelingly. “I never could thank you enough for being good to Glenn. I did not know he was so—so sick. At first he wrote but seldom.”