she said seriously.

"Oh, I 've got a plenty to eat right there in my wagon. Pie is good
enough for anybody. I 've got a real Northern pie."

He made a trip to the wagon and came back with the pie. He placed the
pie in the middle of the repast and arranged knife and fork on their
respective sides of it. Having it properly disposed and everything in
readiness he invited her to join him. Janet, because she had had
supper, was inclined to refuse. But there is something cordial about a
pie's countenance, especially if it be a pie of one's own country, and
still more especially if one has been living regularly on _frijole_
beans. She cut her regrets short and accepted. It seemed to her,
though, that all human companionship was being rather strictly confined
to the process of eating.

Plainly he considered her the guest; he took her cup and poured the
coffee himself.

"It is a beautiful evening, is n't it," remarked Janet.

"I was just going to say it was a nice night. Quite a flock of stars
out."

"A flock, did you say?"

"Well, sort of. I don't usually speak of them that way. Only on
special occasions. Hasn't Steve got any sweetenin'?"

He had just rattled the spoon in the sugar bowl and found it empty.
Janet was sorry to say that she had poured out the last grain of it
that very evening. She explained to him how the lamb had stepped into
a bowlful and thus contributed to the present shortage.

"Ain't Steve got a jug of molasses? He ought to have some sweetenin'
somewheres."

"Why, I did see a jug of something under the bed. I don't know what is
in it, though."

He went to investigate, getting down on the door-sill and entering the
shack on his knees. Presently he reappeared, smelling the cork.

"It ain't anything more or less than molasses," he reported.

As he sat down, the off wheeler of the team, which had been drawn up a
short distance from the fire, dropped on his paunch with a great
rattling of chain and began placidly chewing his cud. Following his
example, an ox in the middle of the string got down on his knees and
began chewing. At the same moment the lamb, which had fallen out of
bed and found his way out of the shack, announced himself with a bleat
and went toddling off toward the darkness. Janet jumped up at once and
went after him. Having captured him, she brought him back and stowed
him comfortably in her lap, drawing the edge of her skirt up over him.

"I suppose you've