harry was beginning to think that she had lost her way, when suddenly, as she topped a rise in the road, she saw the robinson ranch lying below her beside the mouth of a coulee. barns, sheds, corrals, pens, haystacks, and ranch house lay scattered along the fence near the road. the buildings, which were of unpainted boards, weathered to the gray of the desert, reminded her of the houses she had seen from the train; but the path from the gate to the door of the ranch house was bordered with flowers, and the yard, which was separated from the farm fields by a fence, was neatly planted with vegetables and fruit trees.
a chorus of loud barks announced harry's arrival. at once the door of the house was opened a crack and several children, with yellow, tousled heads, peered out. as harry approached, the children promptly shut the door, but at her knock a young woman with a fat, smiling baby on her arm, opened it.
"how do? come in, won't you?" said the woman.
"is this mrs. robinson?" asked harry, on the threshold. "i'm miss holliday."
"glad to make your acquaintance. set down. you look tired. norma, let the lady set in that chair." she drew a small girl from a plush rocking-chair and dragged it forward.
"thank you, i can't stop. my brother has been hurt terribly. a sheep herder attacked him and beat him almost to death. he must have a doctor at once. can you send to town for me?"
harry spoke rapidly. she was spent with weariness and heartache, and the mention of rob brought a strangling sob to her throat.
"how about! mr. holliday hurt!" mrs. robinson set the baby on the floor, and putting her hands on her hips, stared in mingled curiosity and sympathy at her visitor, and poured out questions and exclamations.
wiping her forehead nervously with her handkerchief, harry had turned abruptly away. she shrank from the eager interest of a stranger, and had to force herself to answer the woman's questions. "it's an imposition, i know, to ask you to send to town for the doctor," she said, "but i can't leave my brother alone long enough to go, and i don't know how to ride very well, anyway."
"sakes alive, girlie! nobody don't have to ride to git him. you kin just phone over. there's the phone right there. p'r'aps i better ring him up for you. like's not he's at the hotel gassin', 'stead of in his office."
harry was only too glad not to have to repeat her troubles to the doctor; she sat limply in the rocking-chair and fanned herself with her hat, while mrs. robinson hunted vocally among the front stoops in town for "doc" bundy.
"if a body was to wait for him to come to his office,"[pg 60] declared mrs. robinson, "we could all die of old age before ever seein' him. i got him, though. he's to the drug store gittin' him some sody. hello, that you, doc? yep, mrs. robinson. 'tain't for us. listen while i tell you, so's you can come on."
when she had finished a lengthy description of rob, his ranch, the quarrel, and rob's injuries, and had adjured the doctor to hurry and to bring the sheriff with him, mrs. robinson dropped into her chair and prepared to enjoy her visitor's call; but when she looked at harry's face, she exclaimed:
"you pore thing! you're all beat out, 'ain't you? you're as white as curdled milk. see here! you catch hold of the young one and i'll hook up the rig and carry you back home. vashti can look out for the others and get her dad's supper. i'll call her now."
mrs. robinson left the room followed by three or four tow-headed youngsters, who were clamoring for bread and jam. harry, with the baby on her knee, leaned back in the plush rocking-chair and looked vaguely about her. evidently this was the room where the family lived, for besides the big cookstove and the table covered with oilcloth, there were a plush-covered lounge, a phonograph, and a very new, shiny bureau with an immense plate-glass mirror. the robinsons had money to spend if not good taste in spending it, she decided; at the same time she noticed the unpapered board walls, which were decorated with gaudy calendars and advertising posters, and the china, which had[pg 61] evidently been recruited from "prize package" cereal boxes.
although mrs. robinson might be ignorant and crude, harry gratefully admitted that she was kind-hearted to drive her home at that time of day. hearing the rumble of wheels and the voice of her hostess giving swift and numerous orders, she went to the door and looked out. the "rig," as mrs. robinson had called it, was a light, mud-spattered mountain wagon, drawn by a team of half-broken ponies that laid their ears back and showed the whites of their eyes alarmingly. mrs. robinson sat in the front seat, with one foot on the brake.
"oughtn't the baby to have something more on?" asked harry, glancing at the child's bare feet and gingham slip.
"how about! vashti," mrs. robinson called to the big-boned girl of twelve who watched them from the doorstep, "you fetch ma's shawl off the bed. and remember now, the beans is all cooked; there's pie, and your dad likes plenty of lard in his hot bread. and be sure to get them young ones to bed early, or i'll warm their jackets for 'em when i get back."
as they drove out of the gate, mrs. robinson left an ever louder stream of directions flowing behind her, until a drop in the road hid the house from sight. then she sighed abruptly and became silent.
"it's very kind of you to drive me home," began harry. "i appreciate it immensely; but what will your husband think?"
[pg 62]
"oh, he won't care. he can do for hisself as good as any woman. men folks in this country most always learn to housekeep when they're bachin' it. why, we were married when i was fifteen, and came out here from nebrasky, and there wasn't another woman in twenty miles to turn to for help. but robinson, he could show me hisself!"
"at fifteen!" exclaimed harry. "why, you were just a child! weren't you lonely?"
"i guess not! there was too much to do. i was likely to be called on any day to finish seedin', or hayin', or help butcher, or what not, so be he was short-handed."
"but now, with all your little children to take care of," harry began, but she stopped short.
she had been watching the little cayuse ponies, divided between fear of their suddenly running away and admiration of the cool steadiness with which mrs. robinson held them in check; but as they went down the bank of a creek that had been dug out deep by the spring freshet, the woman's foot slipped from the brake and the wagon rolled upon the ponies' heels. mrs. robinson pulled up hard on the reins, but the ponies plunged, clattered across the shallow ford, and, with their ears back, dashed up the opposite bank.
"now, you ornery varmints! quit it! quit it! yes, you will, too! whoa, you! if i don't beat the buttons off you for that!"
pouring a vivid flood of language upon the ponies, mrs. robinson threw the brake and sawed sharply at their mouths. suddenly there was a jerk and a[pg 63] snap; the cheek strap of the off horse's bridle swung loose.
harry saw the leather strap fly back, and saw the pony shake its head and shy; involuntarily she pressed the baby close to her. but mrs. robinson was too quick for the cayuse. pulling the ponies square across the road, she faced them toward the boulders that marked the edge of the "bench"; then, whipping the lines round the brake, she stepped over the dashboard and out along the pole, and swung herself down at the horses' heads.
"now, if that ain't the meanest team you ever saw, tell me!" she drawled, as she wiped her face with her apron and looked contemptuously at the ponies. "to bust up the harness when there ain't a thing handy for me to mend it with! i suppose there ain't an inch of balin' wire in the wagon. you couldn't look, could you, girlie? i don't want to leave this fool pony."
"here's something! i don't know whether it's baling wire," harry said, after making a careful survey of the wagon box, "but there's a piece of wire round the whip socket."
"sure thing, i'd forgot that. lay the young one down and get it for me, will you?"
harry obeyed, and mrs. robinson, cool and unconcerned, mended the bridle. then she climbed into the wagon, started the horses, and took up the conversation as if it had never been broken off.
ashamed to reveal her fear, harry forced herself to listen and to talk; but when they drew near the ranch her thoughts rushed forward, and she could think only[pg 64] of rob. the moment they stopped at the corral she was out of the wagon, and with an apology to mrs. robinson for leaving her to unharness alone, she hurried across the slope. her brother lay as she had left him, with one arm up, shielding his face from the flies that swarmed in the hot, sunny tent. he was awake, but feverish and in pain. bringing a basin of water, harry began to change the bandages. while she was busy, mrs. robinson appeared, with the baby in her arms.
"how about feedin' the critters?" she asked, as she declared her sympathy. "the pigs ain't been slopped nor the chickens fed, i expect. i don't see the cow nowheres. like's not she's feedin' up in one of them draws along the hills. 'slong's you ain't milkin' her it don't matter. she'll get back when she's thirsty. now, don't you move," she added, as rob tried to rise. "i'll see to the whole outfit."
"i'd forgotten all about the critters!" muttered rob. he tried to lift himself, and then, sinking back with a gasp of pain, closed his eyes. "i certainly feel mean."
"you mustn't think of moving," protested harry. "mrs. robinson is here. she's looking after everything. she's been awfully kind; telephoned to the doctor, drove me home, and everything."
a look of relief crossed rob's face. he smiled, and murmured, "that's great!" and suddenly harry realized that under their neighbor's matter-of-fact manner there had been more genuine kindness and a greater willingness to help than she had appreciated.
harry longed to drop down beside rob and sleep;[pg 65] never had she been so weary. but she realized that mrs. robinson must be hungry, for it was almost eight o'clock. harry had built the fire and was moving stiffly about, trying to think what she could prepare from her meager supply of groceries, when mrs. robinson returned.
"say now," the woman exclaimed, "you let me get supper! you're wore to a feather edge. i'll knock up a pan of hot bread and fry a little fat meat, and that'll do us, bein' as there's no men to cook for."
after supper, harry and mrs. robinson washed the dishes. the doctor had not yet come, and the girl was worried.
"well," said mrs. robinson, "it's a twenty-mile drive out here, and it was close on to six when i called him. there, now! hear that? i guess that's him this minute."
both women hurried outside. the silhouette of a horseman showed against the sky, and a voice called, "this holliday's?"
"that's right," replied mrs. robinson. "we're waitin' for you, doc."
the next moment the doctor, a sallow-faced kentuckian, swung from his saddle and clumped into the tent; he had turned up a wrong trail, he said, in apology for being late.
harry held the lamp for him while he cleansed the wound and took a few stitches in it. he gave harry directions for caring for it, and left lint and antiseptics. there was, he said, nothing more that he could do; [pg 66]fortunately all danger of concussion from the blow at the base of the skull had passed, and the other injuries were only flesh wounds. all rob needed was to keep quiet for a few days. the sheriff, he explained, had not been able to come, because he had gone to scalp creek to investigate a shooting affair. while the doctor was getting ready to leave, mrs. robinson wrapped the baby in her shawl.
"if it's all the same to you, doc," she said, "seein' as it's on your road, i'd be mighty obliged if you'd drive me over. the ponies are that mean to-night! you can hitch yours on behind the wagon."
harry went down to the corral with them and stood in the moonlight holding the sleeping baby while mrs. robinson caught and harnessed the horses. harry felt a generous impulse of admiration for the self-reliant, fearless ranchwoman, and when she said good night asked her cordially to come again.
"if she were only a little more civilized and congenial!" thought harry regretfully, looking after them until they had vanished amid the moonlit ghosts of sagebrush, and the rattle of wheels had died away.
"i guess it would be better, though, if i were more like her," she suddenly confessed to herself. "everything she does counts, while i just rush round and waste my breath. of course she's learned how, while i have been learning civilized things; but if i'm to stay out here i'd better learn how to live here."
she took up her work the next morning with a fresh incentive and in a happy spirit. caring for the animals was not such a bore as she thought it would be. she went first to the chickens and pigs; next she attended to the horses and heifers in the corral. the cow was nowhere in sight.
"i wonder when jones will get back?" she thought. "now that he might really be of some use, of course he's not here."
she finished her work, made rob comfortable, and then went to walk over the ranch to see in which of the grassy coulees the cow had stayed to feed.
the hundred and sixty acres that the fence inclosed afforded plenty of range and good pasture, and there was no apparent reason why the cow should break out; but although harry searched every gully and behind every rock ledge, she could not find her.
