you do anything sensibler than 'whip' cream? As if it was bad.
You make me laugh, though I don't know what you mean."

Helena soon showed her, even with a two-tined steel fork beating the
rich cream into a heaped-up, foamy mass, which Mattie declared was the
"wonderfulest thing" she had ever seen. They were still discussing the
matter, and each sampling the delicacy with relish, when Mrs. Ford's
excited voice was heard, calling:

"They're coming! Oh! they're coming at last! Away down the road! I can
hear them--beyond the turn of the road. Only it seems that they come
slowly. Is it so? Or is it my own impatience?"

Only Alfaretta stopped to push the pans and pots to the cool, safe end
of the great stove, now glowing red in front from the hot fire they had
made. The other girls rushed outward to see for themselves, and Alfy
reached the piazza just in time to hear Mattie remark:

"Yes, they do travel powerful slow. They ain't in no hurry to get here.
Somethin's happened. You can just believe me--somethin's happened!"

CHAPTER V

THE CALL OF THE MOUNTAINS

As the approaching company came around the bend of the road into sight
of the inn, a "calico" pony detached itself from the group of riders and
before those watching on the porch could hear her words, Molly was
shouting to them:

"We're all right! Everybody is all right--except the one that isn't! And
he--Wait, I'm coming!"

The three girls ran down the road to meet her, and even Lady Gray walked
swiftly after, and in a moment more they had encircled the truant with
their loving arms, forgetting that she had given them a needless
anxiety.

"They weren't Indians at all. They were just our own folks, but Leslie
and I were frightened half to death! I don't know what would have become
of us except the pony told our story. And he's only smashed up a little
some way. They had to hold him on the horse--"

"What! Leslie, my Leslie, my boy!" gasped Mrs. Ford.

"Leslie? No, indeed! Nothing the matter with him only riding the
rack-o'-bones. The 'Tenderfoot' man, and the cowboys say it served him
right. Only he got off too easy with just a broken collar bone, and a
sprained ankle, and some teeth gone--and a few other trifles like that.
He--"

"You can get off Chiquita now, Molly. I want to rub her down. Ain't she
the best ever?" said Mattie, calmly lifting the rider down from the
saddle.

"Indeed she is! And how strong you are, to lift a big girl like me!"