"We don't mind
such little matters out West. We try to accustom ourselves to wild beasts,
and make friends of them."
"John, don't talk such nonsense," cried his wife, quite angrily. "Mrs.
Watson, you mustn't believe a word the doctor says. I've lived in Colorado
nine years; and I've never once seen a mountain lion, or a bear either,
except the stuffed ones in the shops. Don't let the doctor frighten you."
But Dr. Hope's wicked work was done. Mrs. Watson, quite unconvinced by
these well-meant assurances, sat pale and awe-struck, repeating under her
breath,--
"Dreadful! What _will_ Ellen say? Bears and lions! Oh, dear me!"
"Look, look!" cried Clover, who had not listened to a word of this
conversation; "did you ever see anything so lovely?" She referred to what
she was looking at,--a small point of pale straw-colored rock some
hundreds of feet in height, which a turn in the road had just revealed,
soaring above the tops of the trees.
"I don't see that it's lovely at all," said Mrs. Watson, testily. "It's
unnatural, if that's what you mean. Rocks ought not to be that color.
They never are at the East. It looks to me exactly like an enormous unripe
banana standing on end."
This simile nearly "finished" the party. "It's big enough to disagree with
all the Sunday-schools in creation at once," remarked the doctor, between
his shouts, while even Clover shook with laughter.
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