"Carley, the day is far spent," he said, gayly. "We want to roll up your
bedding. Will you get out of it?"
"Hello, Glenn! What time is it?" she replied.
"It's nearly six."
"What!... Do you expect me to get up at that ungodly hour?"
"We're all up. Flo's eating breakfast. It's going to be a bad day, I'm
afraid. And we want to get packed and moving before it starts to rain."
"Why do girls leave home?" she asked, tragically.
"To make poor devils happy, of course," he replied, smiling down upon
her.
That smile made up to Carley for all the clamoring sensations of stiff,
sore muscles. It made her ashamed that she could not fling herself into
this adventure with all her heart. Carley essayed to sit up. "Oh, I'm
afraid my anatomy has become disconnected!... Glenn, do I look a sight?"
She never would have asked him that if she had not known she could bear
inspection at such an inopportune moment.
"You look great," he asserted, heartily. "You've got color. And as for
your hair--I like to see it mussed that way. You were always one to have
it dressed--just so.... Come, Carley, rustle now."
Thus adjured, Carley did her best under adverse circumstances. And she
was gritting her teeth and complimenting herself when she arrived at the
task of pulling on her boots. They were damp and her feet appeared
to have swollen. Moreover, her ankles were sore. But she accomplished
getting into them at the expense of much pain and sundry utterances
more forcible than elegant. Glenn brought her warm water, a mitigating
circumstance. The morning was cold and thought of that biting desert
water had been trying.
"Shore you're doing fine," was Flo's greeting. "Come and get it before
we throw it out."
Carley made haste to comply with the Western mandate, and was once again
confronted with the singular fact that appetite did not wait upon the
troubles of a tenderfoot. Glenn remarked that at least she would not
starve to death on the trip.
"Come, climb the ridge with me," he invited. "I want you to take a look
to the north and east."
He led her off through the cedars, up a slow red-earth slope, away from
the lake. A green moundlike eminence topped with flat red rock appeared
near at hand and not at all a hard climb. Nevertheless, her eyes
deceived her, as she found to the cost of her breath. It was both far
away and high.