It was unthinkable that
real live Indians should be permitted to come and go upon the
ranch without giving Evadna Ramsey, straight from New Jersey, the
scare of her life.
The three bucks, grunting monosyllabic greetings' climbed, in all
the dignity of their blankets, to the top rail of the corral, and
roosted there to watch the horse-breaking; and for the present
Clark held his peace.
The squaws hovered there for a moment longer, peeping through the
rails. Then Hagar--she of much flesh and more temper--grunted a
word or two, and they turned and plodded on to where the house
stood hidden away in its nest of cool green. For a space they
stood outside the fence, peering warily into the shade,
instinctively cautious in their manner of approaching a strange
place, and detained also by the Indian etiquette which demands
that one wait until invited to enter a strange camp.
After a period of waiting which seemed to old Hagar sufficient,
she pulled her blanket tight across her broad hips, waddled to
the gate, pulled it open with self-conscious assurance, and led
the way soft-footedly around the house to where certain faint
sounds betrayed the presence of Phoebe Hart in her stone milk-
house.
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