Dan realized that the younger members of their family thought he had merely been for a horseback ride, and so he made no further explanation, replying gayly: "Indeed I do! But I think you would better take your first lesson on the level. Wait until we go down to the Packard ranch. You remember that good friend of ours told us that he had forty horses and many of them were broken to the saddle." Julie clapped her hands as she hopped up and down gleefully. "Me, too!" she cried ungrammatically. "Mr. Packard said he had a little spotted horse, just the right size for me. When are we going down there, Dan?" The older lad glanced at his sister. "Did you say that we are to go next Sunday?" The girl nodded, but the boy looked perplexed. "But how?" he queried. "If we went to Redfords by the stage, how are we to get to the Packard ranch? And we couldn't possibly return on the same day." Jane thought for a moment, then she looked up brightly. "I recall now. Jean Sawyer said that we would hear from Mr. Packard during the week." Then she smilingly confessed: "I was so pleased to find the foreman different--I mean--one of our own class--that----" Gerald, noting the blushes, pointed a chubby finger at his sister as he sing-songed: "Jane likes Jean Sawyer extra-special." It was Julie, knowing that her sister did not like to be teased, who came to the rescue by saying emphatically: "So do I like Jean Sawyer extra-special; and I know what girl you like best, Gerald Abbott. It's Meg Heger; so now." The small boy grinned his agreement. "Bet you I do," he confessed. Dan said nothing, but by the warm glow in his heart at the mention of the mountain girl's name, he knew that he also liked Meg Heger extra-special. CHAPTER XXIII. JANE HUMILIATED The next morning Jane arose early with the determination to walk up the mountain road and meet Meg Heger on her way to the Redfords school. And so, directly after breakfast, she started away alone. She asked Dan to detain the children in the kitchen that they might not see her go and perhaps wish to accompany her. The older lad, recalling the incident of the mountain lion, wondered if he ought to permit her to go alone, but the trapper had assured him that the occurrence had been a most unusual one, that the lions, and other wild creatures usually remained far from the haunts of man, and that in the ten years that Meg had ridden up and down that mountain road to the Redfords school, she had never encountered a dangerous animal of any kind. The sun, even at that early hour, was so warm Jane was glad that most of the mile she was to climb was in the shadow. She found herself scanning the roadside with great interest, stopping to watch a scaly lizard that was lying on a rock gazing at her intently with small black eyes, believing himself to be unseen because his coat was the color of his surroundings. He had not stirred, even when she started away.