And a good riddance of bad rubbidge."
In reply the girl dived into the underwood beside the trail, picked a
wild berry or two, stripped a wand of young hazel she had broken off,
and switching it at her side, skipped along on the outskirts of the
wood and ambled after the wagon. Seen in the full, merciless glare of a
Californian sky, she justified her father's description; thin and bony,
her lank frame outstripped the body of her ragged calico dress, which
was only kept on her shoulders by straps,--possibly her father's
cast-off braces. A boy's soft felt hat covered her head, and shadowed
her only notable feature, a pair of large dark eyes, looking larger for
the hollow temples which narrowed the frame in which they were set.
So long as the wagon crawled up the ascent the girl knew she could
easily keep up with it, or even distance the tired horses. She made one
or two incursions into the wood, returning like an animal from quest of
food, with something in her mouth, which she was tentatively chewing,
and once only with some inedible mandrono berries, plucked solely for
their brilliant coloring.
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