noon
Upon these rides she met no one . It was as if human beings had entirely forsaken the world and left it to the prairie dogs , the coyotes , and the lazily coiled rattle-snakes that lay basking upon the rocks in the hot glare of the sun . Even the occasional bunches of range cattle did not eye her with their accustomed interest , but lay in straggling groups close beside the cold waters of tiny streams . And it was upon one of these hot days , long past the noon hour , that Patty dismounted in a narrow valley near the head of a cold mountain stream and , affixing the hobbles to her horse 's legs , threw off the saddle and bridle , and spread the sweat-dampened blanket to dry in the sun . Freed of his accouterments , the horse shook himself , shuffled to the stream , and burying his muzzle to the eyes , sucked up great gulps of the cold water , and playfully thrashing his head , sent volleys of silver drops flying from side to side , as he churned the tiny pool into a veritable mud wallow . Tiring of that , he rolled luxuriously , the crisping buffalo grass scratching the irking saddle-feel from his back and sides : and as the girl spread her luncheon upon a clean white napkin in the shade of a stunted cottonwood , fell to grazing contentedly . As Patty chipped at the shell of a hard-boiled egg she glanced toward the horse , which had stopped grazing and stood facing down stream with ears nervously alert .