_Plains City_
Pete and Jed were asleep in the wagon. Completely enchanted by the
night, Alec and Cindy sat outside.
A big round moon hung so low in the sky that it seemed to roll like a
wagon wheel right across the tops of the hillocks. There couldn't
possibly be such a moon anywhere except in Oklahoma. It shed so much
light that Cindy thought she could count every hair on the picketed
horses and mules. She could see the grass plainly, and had she had a
book, she would have been able to read it.
But, though it was almost as light as day, it was wholly different. The
moon's was a ghost light, and it was easy to imagine that witches and
elves were abroad in it. Cindy shivered and hugged her knees.
"Do you know what I'd do if we weren't going to Plains City tomorrow?"
she asked Alec.
"What would you do?"
"I'd go on a ghost hunt!" Cindy exclaimed.
"It would be fun," Alec agreed, "but we are going, and we'd better get
some sleep."
"I couldn't possibly sleep!"
But she slept the instant she drew the blanket around her, and when she
woke the sun was shining and Pete was cooking breakfast. Plains City was
only two miles away, it would take just a short time to record the
claims, and there was no need to get up before daylight. Cindy jumped
out of the wagon, and Alec grinned at her.
"Thought you couldn't sleep?"
"Pooh!" Cindy made a face at her brother. "How do you know I did?"
"Maybe that was someone else snoring?"
"I _don't_ snore!"
"Better get some breakfast into you," Pete said.
Everyone else had finished breakfast. While Cindy ate, Pete and Jed
staked the work horses and mules in fresh grass and saddled Sunshine and
the roan ponies. Alec started washing the dishes, and as soon as she
was finished, Cindy handed him her plate.
"Hey!" he protested. "You might at least wash your own!"
"I have to pack a lunch."
"Not today," said her father, who had come back and overheard.
"Everyone's been working hard, and everyone deserves a rest. We'll eat
in a restaurant."
[Illustration]
When everything was ready, Pete mounted his roan pony and Jed swung up
on Sunshine. After an argument, which Cindy won, about who was going to
sit the saddle and hold the reins, Alec and Cindy rode double on
Sparkle. The mules and horses had also worked hard, and they needed a
rest.
They rode at a walk across the grasslands. Everywhere, in what only a
short time ago had been such a lonely place, were sod houses and
gardens. Not all the homesteads had men on them, but nearly all had
grazing horses, mules, or oxen, and there were a few cattle. Then they
mounted a hillock, looked down on Plains City, and halted in
astonishment.
"Ooh!" squealed Cindy.