k filled and the wheels began
to go round. Speech was called for, and the vigorously protesting
Red forced to the front by his former friends, Demilt and Lettis.
Thus betrayed by those he trusted, Red made the best of it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens!" said he. "The mill is now
open to all comers. We hope to make this thing a success; we hope
to see every horny-handed, hump-backed farmer in the country rosin
the soles of his moccasins, and shove his plough through twice as
much ground as he ever did before, and if he comes here with his
plunder, we'll give him a square shake. We'll pay him as much as
we dast, and not let him in on the ground floor, so he can crawl
out through the coal-hole, as is sometimes done. Now, everybody
run away and have a good time, for I don't like to talk this yappi
any more than you like to hear it. Kola geus! By-bye!"

It was a very successful picnic. They spent the afternoon in
wandering around in the usual picnic fashion, developing appetites,
until it occurred to Red to liven the performance by showing them
the art of roping, as practiced upon an old cow found in the woods.
As a spectacle it was a failure. The combined efforts of all the
hooting small boys could not make that cow run; she even stretched
her neck toward Red, as though saying, "Hurry up with your
foolishness. I have a cud to chew and can't stand here idle all
day." So Red galloped by and threw the noose over her head as an
exhibition of how the thing was done, rather than how it ought to
be done. Nevertheless, picnic parties are not hypercritical in the
matter of amusement, and the feat received three encores. The last
time he missed his cast through overconfidence. Whereat the old
cow tossed her head and tail in the air, and tore off at an
elephantine gallop, with a bawl that sounded to Red mightily like
derision.

"Durned if she ain't laughing at me!" he cried. But as a matter of
fact, it was a hornet and its unmistakable sting that injected this
activity into her system.

It was all very pleasant to Miss Mattie, as one's first picnic in
many years should be. She enjoyed the crisp green sod, the great
trees standing around, park-like, with the sunlight falling between
their shade like brilliant tatters of cloth-of-gold; while from the
near distance came the tiny shouting of cool waters. They had a
camp-fire at night, making the moonlight still more mysterious and
remote by contrast. The