We were now on terms of simple trust and confidence. We played. We bet
each other great sums of money as to whether or not the rain-scud coming
up in the west would pass over us, or miss us, or whether or not the
shadow of a certain cloud would pass to the right or the left. People
with horse teams who were all the time passing us often heard us
laughing, and looked at us and smiled, waving their hands, as Virginia
would cry out, "I won that time!" or "You drove slow, just to beat me!"
or "Well, I lost, but you owe me twenty-five thousand dollars yet!"
Once an outfit with roan horses and a light wagon stopped and hailed us.
The woman, sitting by her husband, had been pointing at us and
talking to him.
"Right purty day," he said.
"Most of the time," I answered; for it had just sloshed a few barrels of
water from one of those flying clouds and forced us to cover
ourselves up.
"Where's your folks?" he asked.
"We ain't too old to travel alone," I replied; "but we'll catch up with
the young folks at Waterloo!"
He laughed and whipped up his team.
"Go it while you're young!" he shouted as he went out of hearing.
We were rather an unusual couple, as any one could see; though most
people doubtless supposed that there were others of our party riding
back under the cover. Virginia had not mentioned Buckner Gowdy since we
camped in the Grove of Destiny; and not once had she looked with her old
look of terror at an approaching or overtaking team, or scuttled back
into the load to keep from being seen.
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