wdly.

Being an impulsive young person who acted first and did her thinking
afterwards, Mary V did exactly what she should not have done. She decided
forthwith that she would take a long moonlight ride.

CHAPTER NINE

A MIDNIGHT RIDE

"Mary V, what are you doing in the kitchen? Remember, I told you you
shouldn't make any more fudge for a week. I don't want any more sessions
with Bedelia like I had last time you left the kitchen all messed up with
your candy. What are you _doing_?"

Mary V licked a dab of loganberry jelly from her left thumb and answered
with her face turned toward the open window nearest the porch where her
mother sat rocking peacefully.

"Oh, for gracious _sake_, mom! I'm only putting up a little lunch before
I go to bed. I'm going to take my rides earlier, after this, and it
wouldn't be kind for me to wake the whole house up at daybreak, getting
my lunch ready--"

"If you're going at daybreak, why do you need a lunch? If you think I'll
permit you to stay out in the heat all day without any breakfast--"

"Well, mom! I can't take pictures at daybreak, can I? I've _got_ to stay
out till the light is strong enough. And there's a special place I want,
and if I go early, I can get back early; before lunch, at the very
latest. Do you _want_ me to go without anything to eat?"

"Seems to me you're running them 'Desert Glimpses' into the ground," her
mother grumbled comfortably. "You've got a stack higher than your head,
now. And some of these days you'll get bit with a snake or a centipede
or--"

"Centipedes don't bite. They grab with their toes. My goodness, mom!
A person's got to do _something_! I don't see what harm there is in
my riding horseback in the early morning. It's a healthful form of
exercise--"

"It's a darn fad, and you'll go back to school looking like a squaw--and
serve you right. It's getting along towards the time when snakes go
blind. You want to be careful, Mary V--"

"Oh, piffle! I've lived here all my life, just about, and I never _saw_ a
person bitten with a snake. And neither did you, mom, and you know it.
But, of course, if you insist on making me sit in the house day in and
day out--" Mary V cut two more slices of bread and began spreading them
liberally with butter. She looked very grieved, and very determined.

"Oh, nobody ever made you sit in the house yet. They'd have to tie you
hand and foot to do it," came the placid retort. "Don't you go helping
yourse