."

It was agreed. We rode until we were very hungry, which was eleven
o'clock. Then we rode some more. By and by we came to a log cabin in
a wide fair lawn below a high mountain with a ducal coronet on its top,
and around that cabin was a fence, and inside the fence a man chopping
wood. Him we hailed. He came to the fence and grinned at us from the
elevation of high-heeled boots. By this token we knew him for a
cow-puncher.

"How are you?" said we.

"Howdy, boys," he roared. Roared is the accurate expression. He was
not a large man, and his hair was sandy, and his eye mild blue. But
undoubtedly his kinsmen were dumb and he had as birthright the voice
for the entire family. It had been subsequently developed in the
shouting after the wild cattle of the hills. Now his ordinary
conversational tone was that of the announcer at a circus. But his
heart was good.

"Can we camp here?" we inquired.

"Sure thing," he bellowed. "Turn your horses into the meadow. Camp
right here."

But with the vision of a rounded wooded knoll a few hundred yards
distant we said we'd just get out of his way a little. We crossed a
creek, mounted an easy slope to the top of the knoll, and were
delighted to observe just below its summit the peculiar fresh green
hump which indicates a spring. The Tenderfoot, however, knew nothing
of springs, for shortly he trudged a weary way back to the creek, and
so returned bearing kettles of water. This performance hugely
astonished the cowboy, who subsequently wanted to know if a "critter
had died in the spring."

Wes departed to borrow a big Dutch oven of the man and to invite him to
come across when we raised the long yell. Then we began operations.

Now camp cooks are of two sorts. Anybody can with a little practice
fry bacon, steak, or flapjacks, and boil coffee. The reduction of the
raw material to its most obvious cooked result is within the reach of
all but the most hopeless tenderfoot who never knows the salt-sack from
the sugar-sack. But your true artist at the business is he who can
from six ingredients, by permutation, combination, and the genius that
is in him turn out a full score of dishes. For simple example: GIVEN,
rice, oatmeal, and raisins. Your expert accomplishes the following:

ITEM--Boiled rice.

ITEM--Boiled oatmeal.

ITEM--Rice boiled until soft, then stiffened by the addition of quarter
as much oatmeal.

ITEM--Oatmeal in which is boiled almost to t