up until their
faces shone again with grease and gladness.

"That'll do now," said Larry in a decided tone, as he rose and stretched
himself, preparatory to filling his beloved pipe--"not a dhrop nor a
bite more on any account."

"Is you stuffed full?" asked Bunco.

"Pretty nigh," replied Larry, glancing at his friend with an inquiring
look; "seems to me that _you_ have overdone it."

"Me is pretty tight," said Bunco languidly.

"Come, come," cried the trapper, "don't shirk your victuals. There's
one more course, and then you can rest if you have a mind to."

So saying, the indefatigable man took up the intestines of the buffalo,
which had been properly prepared for the purpose, turned them inside
out, and proceeded to stuff them with strips of tender loin well salted
and peppered. The long sausage thus hastily made was hung in festoons
before the fire, and roasted until it was thoroughly browned. Portions
were then cut off and set down before the company. When each thought of
beginning he felt as though the swallowing of a single bite were utterly
impossible, but when each had actually begun he could not stop, but
continued eating until all was finished, and then wished for more, while
Benjamin Hicks chuckled heartily to witness the success of his cookery
and the extent of his friends' powers.

Ah, it is all very well, reader, for you to say "Humph! nonsense," but
go you and wander for a year or two among the Rocky Mountains, acquire
the muscles of a trapper and the digestion of an ostrich, then starve
yourself for a few days, and get the chance of a "feed" such as we have
feebly described, and see whether you won't come home (if you ever come
home) saying, "Well, after all, truth _is_ strange, stranger than
fiction!"

It need scarcely be said that the solace of the pipe was sought
immediately after the meal was concluded by Will, Larry, and Bunco; but
Big Ben did not join them. He had starved longer than they, and
intended, as he said, to eat all night!

"Well," observed Larry, as he extended himself at full length before the
blaze, and resting his right elbow on the ground and his head on his
hand, smoked in calm felicity; "I've often found that there's nothin'
like tiredness to make a man enjoy rest, but, faix, it's this night I've
larned, as I niver did before, that there's nothin' like starvation to
mak wan enjoy his victuals."

"Eight, Larry," said Will Osten with a laugh; "upon my word I think i