`` Then you 'll have to stay here , '' said Kate decidedly . `` There 's nothing to hurt you , Phil . Sit in the wagon and keep dry . Eat something if you get hungry . I may not be very long . '' I realized that there was nothing else to do ; and , rather ashamed of my panic , I resigned myself to the inevitable and saw Kate off with a smile of encouragement . Then I waited . I was tired and frightened -- horribly frightened . I sat there and imagined scores of gruesome possibilities . It was no use telling myself to be brave . I could n't be brave . I never was in such a blue funk before or since . Suppose Kate got lost -- suppose she could n't find me again -- suppose something happened to her -- suppose she could n't get help -- suppose it came on night and I there all alone -- suppose Indians -- not gentlemanly Stoneys or even Peter Crows , but genuine , old-fashioned Indians -- should come along -- suppose it began to pour rain ! It did begin to rain , the only one of my suppositions which came true . I hoisted an umbrella and sat there grimly , in that horseless wagon in the mud-hole . * * * * * Many a time since have I laughed over the memory of the appearance I must have presented sitting in that mud-hole , but there was nothing in the least funny about it at the time . The worst feature of it all was the uncertainty . I could have waited patiently enough and conquered my fears if I had known that Kate would find help and return within a reasonable time -- at least before dark . But everything was doubtful . I was not composed of the stuff out of which heroines are fashioned and I devoutly wished we had never left Arrow Creek .
Shouts -- calls -- laughter -- Kate 's dear voice XXXXX an encouraging cry from the hill behind me !
at in of on over since that to with within