Therefore they were not surprised to hear a clear, high imitation of the
Moon Valley yell one morning while they were all sitting at the
breakfast table.

They did not need to be told that Stella Fosdick had come, and without
ado they sprang from the table, overturning chairs in their haste to get
out of the house to greet her and her aunt.

"Hello, boys!" she called from the carriage, in which she and Mrs.
Graham had driven over from Soldier Butte. "You're a gallant lot of
young fellows not to meet us at the station, particularly when I wrote
you that I was coming this morning. I'm real mad." But her smiling face
belied the statement.

"You didn't say when you were coming," said big Ben, who was the first
to reach the carriage step and was helping Mrs. Graham to descend. "If
we had taken your general statement that you were coming, to meet you at
the station we would have camped right there forever. Never can tell
about your movements, young lady."

"But I did write that I was coming this morning, and to meet us and
take breakfast with us in the Butte."

"We didn't get that letter. When did you write?"

"Last night."

"That's good. Always take time by the fetlock. We'll get that letter
some time to-morrow. Why didn't you wait and write us to meet you after
you got here?"