After half an hour they were safely at the base of the rock; they skirted it, went down to the creek, found the horse tied where he had left it.

With her seated sideways behind him and holding on by an arm half round his waist, they made a merry but not very speedy advance toward the river, keeping as nearly due south as the breaks in the hills permitted.

After a while he asked: "Do you ever think of the stage ?" "I've never seen a real stage play," said she.

"But I want to--and I will, the first chance I get." "I meant, did you ever think of going on the stage ?" "No." So daring a flight would have been impossible for a baby imagination in the cage of the respectable-family-in-a-small-town.
"It's one of my dreams to write plays," he went on.

"Wouldn't it be queer if some day I wrote plays for you to act in ?" When one's fancy is as free as was Susan's then, it takes any direction chance may suggest.