d the man drew up chairs.

He had seldom beheld a more cheerful scene. In a great fireplace ten
feet wide big logs roared and crackled. Corn cakes, vegetables, and
two kinds of meat were cooking over the coals and a great pot of coffee
boiled and bubbled. No candles had been lighted, but they were not
needed. The flames gave sufficient illumination.

"Set, young man," said Leffingwell heartily, "an' see who's teeth are
sharper, yourn or mine."

Dick sat down gladly, and they fell to. The woman alternately waited on
them and ate with them. For a time the two masculine human beings
ate and drank with so much vigor that there was no time for talk.
Leffingwell was the first to break silence.

"I kin see you growin'," he said.

"Growing?"

"Yes, growin', you're eatin' so much, you're enjoyin' it so much, an'
you're digestin' it so fast. You are already taller than you was when
you set, an' you're broader 'cross the chest. No, 'tain't wuth while to
'pologize. You've got a right to be hungry, an' you mustn't forget Ma's
cookin' either. She's never had her beat in all these mountains."

"Shut up, Seth," said Mrs. Leffingwell, genially, "you'll make the young
stranger think you're plum' foolish, which won't be wide of the mark
either."

"I'm grateful," said Dick falling into the spirit of it, "but what pains
me, Mrs. Leffingwell, is the fact that Mr. Leffingwell will only nibble
at your food. I don't understand it, as he looks like a healthy man."

"'Twouldn't do for me to be too hearty," said Leffingwell, "or I'd keep
Mandy here cookin' all the time."

They seemed pleasant people to Dick, good, honest mountain types, and he
was glad that he had found their house. The room in which they sat
was large, apparently used for all purposes, kitchen, dining-room,
sitting-room, and bedroom. An old-fashioned squirrel rifle lay on hooks
projecting from the wall, but there was no other sign of a weapon. There
was a bed at one end of the room and another at the other, which could
be hidden by a rough woolen curtain running on a cord. Dick surmised
that this bed would be assigned to him.

Their appetites grew lax and finally ceased. Then Leffingwell yawned and
stretched his arms.

"Stranger," he said, "we rise early an' go to bed early in these parts.
Thar ain't nothin' to keep us up in the evenin's, an' as you've had a
hard, long ride I guess you're just achin' fur sleep."

Dick, although he had been unwilling to say so, was