ience. "California is full
of girls; but this is the finest Cotyledon of this family I have ever
seen. Don't mistake this for any common stonecrop. It looks to me like
an Echeveria. I know what I mean to do with the picture I have made of
her, and I know exactly where she is going to grow from this day on."

"Is there any way we can help you?" inquired the elder of the two men.

For the first time Linda glanced at him, and her impression was that he
was decidedly attractive.

"No, thank you!" she answered briskly. "I am going to climb back up to
the boulder and collect the belongings I spilled on the way down. Then
I am going to carry Coty to the car line in a kind of triumphal march,
because she is the rarest find that I have ever made. I hope you have
no dark designs on Coty, because this is 'what the owner had to do to
redeem her.'"

Linda indicated her trail down the canyon side, brushed soil and twigs
from her trousers, turned her straight young back, carefully set down
her specimen, and by the aid of her recovered stick began expertly
making her way up the canyon side. "Here, let me do that," offered the
younger man. "You rest until I collect your belongings." Linda glanced
back over her shoulder. "Thanks," she said. "I have a mental inventory
of all the pencils and knives and trowels I must find. You might
overlook the most important part of my paraphernalia; and really I am
not damaged. I'm merely hurt. Good-bye!"

Linda started back up the side of the canyon, leaving the young men to
enter their car and drive away. For a minute both of them stood watching
her.

"What will girls be wearing and doing next?" asked the elder of the two
as he started his car.

"What would you have a girl wear when she is occupied with coasting down
canyons?" said his friend. "And as for what she is doing, it's probable
that every high-school girl in Los Angeles has a botanical collection to
make before she graduates."

"I see!" said the man driving. "She is only a high-school kid, but
did you notice that she is going to make an extremely attractive young
woman?"

"Yes, I noticed just that; I noticed it very particularly," answered
the younger man. "And I noticed also that she either doesn't know it, or
doesn't give a flip."

Linda collected her belongings, straightened her hair and
clothing, and, with her knapsack in place, and leaning rather on heavily
on her walking stick, made her way down the road to the abutment