I've come of age.'

"They halted their horses and held a consultation. The boss came to the
conclusion that since they had all seen it, there was nothing to do but
continue the investigation and send the details to the 'Society for
Psychical Research,' when he got down from his horse and walked towards
the door of the house. At his approach, as if to rebuke his wanton
curiosity, a great blast of snow blew out of the window and got him full
in the face. He howled--the snow was scalding hot.

"Then they remembered the rice."

"Is that all?" demanded the man who had wanted to talk about rustling.

"Isn't it enough?" said Peter, who could afford to be magnanimous, now
that he had accomplished his point.

"When I first heard that story, 'bout ten years ago, it ended with the
Britishers riding like hell over to the Wolcott ranch to borrow umbrellas
to keep off the hot rice while they got into the house," said the man,
still sulky.

"That's the way they tell it to tenderfeet," and Peter turned on his heel.
The story-telling for the evening was over, the boys got their blankets
and set about making their beds for the night.

XIII

Mary's First Day In Camp

The first day spent as governess to the family of Yellett reminded Mary
Carmichael of those days mentioned in the opening chapter of Genesis, days
wherein whole geological ages developed and decayed. Any era, geological
or otherwise, she felt might have had its rise, decline, and fall during
that first day spent in a sheep camp.

She awoke to the sound of faint tinklings, and accepted the towering peaks
of the Wind River mountains, with their snowy mantles all shadowy in the
whitening dawn, and the warmer grays of huddling foot-hills, as one
receives, without question, the fantastic visions of sleep. The faint
tinkling grew nearer, mingled with a light pitter patter and a far off
baa-ing and bleating; then, as shadowy as the sheep in dreams, a great
flock came winding round the hill; in and out through the sage-brush they
went and came, elusive as the early morning shadows they moved among. The
air was crystalline and sparkling; creation's first morning could not have
promised more. It would have been inconsistent in such a place to waken in
a house; the desert, that seemed a lifeless sea, the sheep moving like
gray shadows, were all parts of a big, new world that had no need of
houses built by hands.

Ben, oldest of the Brobd