here
she put up the horse and waited till the men had eaten their luncheon.
The drivers slept and had breakfast and supper at the Billings house, a
mile down river, but for several years Mrs. Wiley had furnished the noon
meal, sending it down piping hot on the stroke of twelve. The boys
always said that up or down the whole length of the Saco there was no
such cooking as the Wileys', and much of this praise was earned by
Rose's serving. It was the old grandmother who burnished the tin plates
and dippers till they looked like silver; for crotchety and
sharp-tongued as she was--she never allowed Rose to spoil her hands with
soft soap and sand: but it was Rose who planned and packed, Rose who
hemmed squares of old white tablecloths and sheets to line the baskets
and keep things daintily separate, Rose, also, whose tarts and cakes
were the pride and admiration of church sociables and sewing societies.

Where could such smoking pots of beans be found? A murmur of ecstatic
approval ran through the crowd when the covers were removed. Pieces of
sweet home-fed pork glistened like varnished mahogany on the top of the
beans, and underneath were such deeps of fragrant juice as come only
from slow fires and long, quiet hours in brick ovens. Who else could
steam and bake such mealy leaves of brown bread, brown as plum-pudding,
yet with no suspicion of sogginess? Who such soda-biscuits, big,
feathery, tasting of cream, and hardly needing butter? And green-apple
pies! Could such candied lower crusts be found elsewhere, or more
delectable filling? Or such rich, nutty doughnuts?--doughnuts that had
spurned the hot fat which is the ruin of so many, and risen from its
waves like golden-brown Venuses.

"By the great seleckmen!" ejaculated Jed Towle, as he swallowed his
fourth, "I'd like to hev a wife, two daughters, and four sisters like
them Wileys, and jest set still on the river-bank an' hev 'em cook
victuals for me. I'd hev nothin' to wish for then but a mouth as big as
the Saco's."

"And I wish this custard pie was the size o' Bonnie Eagle Pond," said
Ike Billings. "I'd like to fall into the middle of it and eat my way
out!"

"Look at that bunch o' Chiny asters tied on t' the bail o' that
biscuit-pail!" said Ivory Dunn. "That's the girl's doin's, you bet
women-folks don't seem to make no bo'quets after they git married. Let's
divide 'em up an' wear 'em drivin' this afternoon; mebbe they'll ketch
the eye so't our rags won't show so