Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/300

 *stood, and disappeared from view. She was passionately fond of animals and particularly of horses. Reuben often declared, "Dat chile aint afraid of nuffin on fo' legs." She certainly understood and loved them and was an accomplished horsewoman; but this morning her visit to the barn was a short one and, turning a sharp angle in the path, her blue dress fluttered in and out among the bushes as she wandered away upward.

Unseen by her, from a projecting rock above, a pair of eyes as blue as her dress was watching her, as she sprang from rock to rock, every motion perfect grace. Pausing, she glanced upward and saw Hernando.

"Well," she laughed, "what brings you out so early?"

"'Great minds run in the same channel,' doubtless I am hunting for the same thing you are."

"A bath in the morning dew?"

"You certainly do not need one, and I am looking for a very prosaic article, known as an 'appetite.'"