ged, Mr. Appel declared that he wished he would not fry the
ham to chips and boil the "daylights" out of the coffee. Mr. Hicks bowed
servilely and replied that he would try to remember in future. Mrs.
Stott took occasion to remark that his vegetables would be better for
less seasoning and more cooking, and Miss Gaskett thought his dried
fruit would be improved by soaking over night and additional sweetening.

Mr. Hicks received these criticisms in a humility that was pathetic when
compared with his former arrogance. He looked crushed as he stood with
bowed head and drooping shoulders as if his proud, untrammelled spirit
had been suddenly broken.

Miss Eyester felt sorry for him and asserted that she could not recall
when she had enjoyed food so much and eaten so heartily. Indeed, she had
been such a gourmand that she had gained a pound and six ounces, if the
scales upon which she had been weighed in Prouty were accurate.

Mr. Stott, however, who was in one of his waggish moods, undid all that
she might have accomplished in the way of soothing Hicks' injured
feelings, by inquiring facetiously if he would mind rolling him out a
couple of pie-crusts to be tanned and made into bedroom slippers.

Mr. Hicks laughed heartily along with the others, and only Wallie
caught the murderous glitter through his downcast lashes.

It developed that the Yellowstone Park was a place with which Hicks was
thoroughly familiar from having made several trips around the Circle. He
was not only acquainted with points of interest off the beaten track
passed unseen by the average tourist, but he suggested many original and
diverting sports--like sliding down a snowbank in a frying-pan--which
would not have occurred to any of them.

By the time the party had reached the Lake Hotel they were consulting
him like a Baedeker, and he answered every question, however foolish,
with a patience and an affability that were most praiseworthy. Their
manner toward him was a kind of patronizing camaraderie, while Mrs.
Stott treated him with the gracious tolerance of a great lady unbending.

A disbelief in the ability of the leopard to change its spots made
Wallie sceptical regarding Hicks' altered disposition, yet he did his
best to convince himself that he was wrong when Hicks went out and
caught a trout from the Yellowstone Lake expressly for Mrs. Stott's
supper.

It was a beautiful fish as it lay on the platter, brown, crisp, and
ornamented with lemon