As Jed predicted, Jenny learned the ropes —as in tossing a diamond hitch —fast. The family that he had envied for being so happy, was delighted that Jed had brought his "cousin" along to pack them out of Meadow Creek camp. They assumed that she, too, had been "born" in the saddle. It amused Jed to hear Jenny handling questions with answers she had just discovered herself.

The father filled the last roll of vacation time photographic memories with poses of Jenny holding Big's long black tail crosswise under her nose as if she was sporting a colossal "Frito Bandito" moustache. The children enjoyed her antic of mounting Big Enough with the wrong foot so that Jenny ended up, sitting, facing the wrong end of her horse.

Was it only a week ago that Jed had felt such an outsider looking in? Thanks to Jenny he felt part of —what was it?— this feeling of being alive. With this thought in mind, Jed even tried his dad's joyful little hop as he walked.

Another day brought a troop of Girl Scouts for a day's outing. Jed had cut his standard price in half, which meant twice the work. He was grateful for Jenny's help. She surprised him by sliding a blanket down a horse's back (to keep the hair from bunching up) and positioning a saddle as fast as he could follow behind, reach under for the cinch, and loop the latigo leather into a secure, neat tie.

She displayed other talents that also knocked Jed for a loop. One was Jenny's mechanical ability. Since the establishment of the Wilderness Area, the only access allowed to the pack station was by foot —rubber soled, or iron shod. Jed liked the fact that visitors, other than paying customers who were met at the trailhead, had to walk in if they wanted to waste his time. But, for the occasional quick trip to town for supplies himself, Jed kept a beat-up four-wheel-drive Dodge Power Wagon stashed a short way down his own off the record "road." Having built a garage of logs covered with sod, there wasn't any problem hiding his rig from the Forest Service. Starting the beast was something else.

"Just a faulty ballast resistor, Jed," Jenny shouted above the noisy engine coughing to life. "I just bypassed the system, like this."

"Well I'll be a long-haired chipmunk, don't that beat all. Say, Button," he asked, wiping an oil smudge off Jenny's forehead, "what say you and I slip into Cascade City and celebrate this here event with a shot or two of red-eye?"

"Thought you'd never ask, pard. I'm damn near out of chewing tobacco."

"Yeah, well pal, how about I fix us both up with a couple of heifers I know with udder sized cow bells that go ding, dong, when they mosey along?"