Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/181

Rh be scattered to guard America from a real and terrible foe?

Then, for some reason his mind swept back to the other subject upon which he had been  thinking so deeply, to the camping trip for  which he should, even now, be making plans. At this very moment Otto Bradford would probably be coming out of his cabin to take  the horses down to water, the sun would be  bright, the thin air very cold, and the mountains all scarlet and yellow and brown in the  strange colors that only the Rocky Mountains  can show. Perhaps it would be so clear that you could see the Highlands, that circle of tremendous peaks beyond the rough brown buttes  that hemmed the valley in, the high sky line  that often was not visible for weeks together  but, on a brilliant day like this, would spring  suddenly into being, a vast wall of glittering  white, with jagged summits that seemed to  touch the very sky. The wind would blow down from the snow fields sharp and chill, it  would lift the manes of the horses as they  snorted, kicked up their heels and went galloping off down the trail. It would be good to see it all again but—