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Updated: June 5, 2025
When the snow had melted and the water was boiling hot, Dallas added pepper and salt. Then she spread a cloth and turned the wheat and corn sacks out upon it. She got a handful of flour. With this she thickened the water. Three cups were setting upon the floor. She took the coffee-pail over, poured into two, and handed them to her father and Marylyn. "Don't spill a drop," she cautioned.
"How you, Clark?" she inquired a minute later as she slipped nimbly over the side of the car. "Mighty fine, Sally Carrol." "Where we go swimmin'?" "Out to Walley's Pool. Told Marylyn we'd call by an' get her an' Joe Ewing." Clark was dark and lean, and when on foot was rather inclined to stoop.
And she felt a strange hurt, a vague hurt that seemed to have no cause. Marylyn raised herself on an elbow. "He liked me once," she said. "He showed it, just as plain. It was right here, that day the cattle went by." Dallas got up. She had begun to tremble visibly; her breath was coming short, as if she had been running. But the younger girl did not notice. "He stayed away so long," she went on.
More than once, as they pressed on, the old, red-painted section-house rose before them, a very haven. Behind, the squat shack was gradually lessening in size. A jutting corner had already shut from view its crippled sentry. There was little conversation. Marylyn, for a time, could not dismiss the subject that had confronted her at the start.
As he slipped the reins over his horse's head, Marylyn remembered the meal she had abandoned and started homeward. The storekeeper, leading his mount, strode away beside her. Dallas clucked to the mules. "Ain't you comin'?" called her father. "W'y, my gal, you worked 'nough this mornin'." "I'll keep at it just a little longer," she answered.
But the way ahead was still long, the brown blotch at the ridge-top was still only a blotch. And the team was fast tiring. When Murphy's Throat was reached, Dallas drove out to the left, watered the thirsty pair at a slough, and ate with Marylyn the long-deferred breakfast. After that they went at a better pace for a time. Soon, however, the road became steeper, and Betty slacked up.
Morning was stealing up the dun east, yet overhead the stars were shining. And their near radiance, reflected upon the snow, coupled with the light of the slowly growing dawn, made it possible for the girls to follow the travellers' straight course for miles. But long after Marylyn left the window, the elder girl remained outside. The dun of the east was painted out with uprushing waves of pink.
"Thank goodness for that!" There was the sound of a faint cheer outside; then someone went rushing up the plank walk before the house. The captain closed the windows. "We shall give thanks for many things to-day," he said significantly. Fraser started, and his eyelids fluttered what his face strove to control. "What's all that outside?" It was Marylyn, innocently.
"My! my!" whispered Marylyn, her voice quavering with sorrow and awe. She found her clothes and, keeping in line with the door, began to dress. "Looks pretty bad," said Dallas, soberly. The silencing of the guns augured well, however; and she added thankfully, "It could be a lot worse, though." "I'll put on my shoes, and we can go down a ways, so's to see close. Shall I, Dal " "Sh!"
So was Marylyn, who, helpless with fright, half knelt, half lay, against her sister. What he could see was from the south window the gaudy Navajo blankets forming two partitions of Lancaster's bedroom, and, nearer, two partly filled sacks, some harnesses and the seat of a wagon. The other window afforded a better view. "Looks mighty comfortable," he said as he contemplated it.
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