y," they
brought a dozen, and for "one likely shoat," they made ready two. Nor,
when they were upbraided for wastefulness, were they a whit abashed,
but John demanded, with unfilial directness:

"Why, mother, what's got your common sense? Tisn't only our own folks
you're cookin' for, but fifty others, more or less. Do you s'pose
Cassius Trent would skimp victuals on such a day as this? My advice
to you is: Put on all the pork and bacon you've got, to bile; and
roast the lamb that was butchered for our mess; and set to bakin'
biscuit by the cartload, and----"

"John Benton, hold your tongue, or I'll----"

"No, you won't, mother! I've outgrown spankin' though I'd be most
willin' to submit if 'twould be any relief to your feelin's, or mine
either. I tell you this here's the greatest day ever shone on Sobrante
Ranch, not barrin' even the one when the 'captain' came home with the
title in her hand."

"You misguided boy, don't I know it? Ain't I clean druv out my wits
a-thinkin' ever'thing over, and where in the name of natur' am I goin'
to do it all, with them horrid gasoline stoves no bigger'n an old
maid's thimble, and Pasqually gone off s'archin' with the rest, and
no'count the heft of the time and my sins!"

"Had to take breath, or bust, hadn't you?" cried her disrespectful
son, catching the portly matron about the spot where her waist should
have been and hilariously whirling her about in a waltz which his own
lameness rendered the more grotesque. "And where can you cook 'em?
Why, right square in them old ovens at the mission. Full now of
saddles and truck, but Samson and me'll clear 'em out lively. I'll
make you a fire in 'em, and they'll see cookin' like they haven't
since the padres put out their own last fires. They weren't any fools,
them fellers. They knew a good thing when they saw it, and if they
tackled a job they did it square. The ovens they built, just out of
baked mud and a few stones, are as tight to-day as they were a hundred
years ago; and, whew! won't old Pedro, that found her, relish his meat
cooked in 'em?"

Nor was Benton to be outdone in suggestion on the matter of providing.
Some of the searchers had brought back a quantity of game, with which
the country teemed, and which it had delayed them but little to shoot.
This was levied upon without ado, and in the preparation of the great
feast Aunt Sally's helpers forgot their fatigue, and were as deftly
efficient as women would have been.

Ind