. I suppose she was worth it to him. I have forgotten to say
that she was handsome in a large California-fruit style. They made a
good-looking pair of animals. But it was in the presence of Tommy that
Master Lin shone more energetically than ever, and under such shining
Tommy was transparently restless. He tried, and failed, to bring
the conversation his way, and took to rearranging the mail and the
furniture.

"Supper's ready," he said, at length. "Come right in, Miss Peck; right
in here. This is your seat--this one, please. Now you can see my fields
out of the window."

"You sit here," said the biscuit-shooter to Lin; and thus she was
between them. "Them's elegant!" she presently exclaimed to Tommy. "Did
you cook 'em?"

I explained that the apricots were of my preparation.

"Indeed!" said she, and returned to Tommy, who had been telling her of
his ranch, his potatoes, his horses. "And do you punch cattle, too?" she
inquired of him.

"Me?" said Tommy, slightingly; "gave it up years ago; too empty a
life for me. I leave that to such as like it. When a man owns his own
property"--Tommy swept his hand at the whole landscape--"he takes to
more intellectual work."

"Lickin' postage-stamps," Mr. McLean suggested, sourly.

"You lick them and I cancel them," answered the postmaster; and it does
not seem a powerful rejoinder. But Miss Peck uttered her laugh.

"That's one on you," she told Lin. And throughout this meal it was Tommy
who had her favor. She partook of his generous supplies; she listened to
his romantic inventions, the trails he had discovered, the bears he had
slain; and after supper it was with Tommy, and not with Lin, that she
went for a little walk.

"Katie was ever a tease," said Mrs. Taylor of her childhood friend, and
Mr. Taylor observed that there was always safety in numbers. "She'll get
used to the ways of this country quicker than our little school-marm,"
said he.

Mr. McLean said very little, but read the new-arrived papers. It was
only when bedtime dispersed us, the ladies in the cabin and the men
choosing various spots outside, that he became talkative again for a
while. We lay in the blank--we had spread on some soft, dry sand in
preference to the stable, where Taylor and Tommy had gone. Under the
contemplative influence of the stars, Lin fell into generalization.

"Ever notice," said he, "how whiskey and lyin' act the same on a man?"

I did not feel sure that I had.

"Just the same w