midday
She had taken two wonderful trips down into the desert -- one trip to Chiricahua , and from there across the waste of sand and rock and alkali and cactus to the Mexican borderline ; and the other through the Aravaipa Valley , with its deep , red-walled canyons and wild fastnesses . This breaking-in , this training into Western ways , though she had been a so-called outdoor girl , had required great effort and severe pain ; but the education , now past its grades , had become a labor of love . She had perfect health , abounding spirits . She was so active hat she had to train herself into taking the midday siesta , a custom of the country and imperative during the hot summer months . Sometimes she looked in her mirror and laughed with sheer joy at sight of the lithe , audacious , brown-faced , flashing-eyed creature reflected there . It was not so much joy in her beauty as sheer joy of life . Eastern critics had been wont to call her beautiful in those days when she had been pale and slender and proud and cold .