The Valley of the Giants | Page 8

visiting here with my aunt and uncle. We're
staying at the hotel, and there's nobody to play with. My uncle's name
is Pennington. So's my aunt's. He's out here buying timber, and we live
in Michigan. Do you know the capital of Michigan?"
"Of course I do," he answered. "The capital of Michigan is Chicago."
"Oh, you big stupid! It isn't. It's Detroit."
"'Tain't neither. It's Chicago."
"I live there--so I guess I ought to know. So there!"
Bryce was vanquished, and an acute sense of his imperfections in
matters geographical inclined him to end the argument. "Well, maybe
you're right," he admitted grudgingly. "Anyhow, what difference does
it make?"
She did not answer. Evidently she was desirous of avoiding an
argument if possible. Her gaze wandered past Bryce to where his
Indian pony stood with her head out the window of her box-stall
contemplating her master.
"Oh, what a dear little horse!" Shirley Sumner exclaimed. "Whose is
he?"
"'Tain't a he. It's a she. And she belongs to me."
"Do you ride her?"
"Not very often now. I'm getting too heavy for her, so Dad's bought me
a horse that weighs nine hundred pounds. Midget only weighs five
hundred." He considered her a moment while she gazed in awe upon
this man with two horses. "Can you ride a pony?" he asked, for no
reason that he was aware of.
She sighed, shaking her head resignedly. "We haven't any room to keep
a pony at our house in Detroit," she explained, and added hopefully:
"But I'd love to ride on Midget. I suppose I could learn to ride if

somebody taught me how."
He looked at her again. At that period of his existence he was inclined
to regard girls as a necessary evil. For some immutable reason they
existed, and perforce must be borne with, and it was his hope that he
would get through life and see as little as possible of the exasperating
sex. Nevertheless, as Bryce surveyed this winsome miss through the
palings, he was sensible of a sneaking desire to find favour in her
eyes--also equally sensible of the fact that the path to that desirable end
lay between himself and Midget. He swelled with the importance of
one who knows he controls a delicate situation. "Well, I suppose if you
want a ride I'll have to give it to you," he grumbled, "although I'm
mighty busy this morning."
"Oh, I think you're so nice," she declared.
A thrill shot through him that was akin to pain; with difficulty did he
restrain an impulse to dash wildly into the stable and saddle Midget in
furious haste. Instead he walked to the barn slowly and with extreme
dignity. When he reappeared, he was leading Midget, a little silverpoint
runt of a Klamath Indian pony, and Moses, a sturdy pinto cayuse from
the cattle ranges over in Trinity County. "I'll have to ride with you," he
announced. "Can't let a tenderfoot like you go out alone on Midget."
All aflutter with delightful anticipation, the young lady climbed up on
the gate and scrambled into the saddle when Bryce swung the pony
broadside to the gate. Then he adjusted the stirrups to fit her, passed a
hair rope from Midget's little hackamore to the pommel of Moses'
saddle, mounted the pinto, and proceeded with his first adventure as a
riding-master. Two hours of his valuable time did he give that morning
before the call of duty brought him back to the house and his neglected
crop of carrots. When he suggested tactfully, however, that it was now
necessary that his guest and Midget separate, a difficulty arose. Shirley
Sumner refused point blank to leave the premises. She liked Bryce for
his hair and because he had been so kind to her; she was a stranger in
Sequoia, and now that she had found an agreeable companion, it was
far from her intention to desert him.

So Miss Sumner stayed and helped Bryce weed his carrots, and since as
a voluntary labourer she was at least worth her board, at noon Bryce
brought her in to Mrs. Tully with a request for luncheon. When he went
to the mill to carry in the kindling for the cook, the young lady returned
rather sorrowfully to the Hotel Sequoia, with a fervent promise to see
him the next day. She did, and Bryce took her for a long ride up into
the Valley of the Giants and showed her his mother's grave. The gray
squirrels were there, and Bryce gave Shirley a bag of pine-nuts to feed
them. Then they put some flowers on the grave, and when they returned
to town and Bryce was unsaddling the ponies, Shirley drew Midget's
nose down to her and kissed it. Then she commenced to