and by seven o'clock the
breakfast call had sounded to gather them around the long table. It was
good to see Wang Kum, tin horn in hand, emerge from his improvised
kitchen, and blow the deep blast which should summon his flock to the
meal; it was good to see Janey follow in his wake, armed with the great
coffee-pot and a pile of light hoe-cakes, and then rush up and down
behind the chairs, trying to serve them all at once, while she
struggled in vain to repress an inclination to prance, and never failed
to give a vigorous tweak to Wang Kum's pigtail, as she passed him. The
relation between the two servants was unique, and, at times, somewhat
strained. Although Wang Kum, left to himself, would have been the most
peaceable of mortals, Janey persisted in treating him as an embodied
joke, and lost no opportunity to tease and torment him, until he came to
regard her with a strange mingling of hatred and fear.

"Wang tell Mis' Pen'plok'," he would mutter, with a threatening glance
from his beady eyes.

"Ol' mis' won' believe you," Janey would make answer. "She knows dat
you's a heathen, an' won' go to church. Cut off your great long plat, ef
you don' wan' me to pull it no mo'. I cyarn' help it, ef it gits in my
way, all de time." And then she would slyly lift the tip of the
offending member and lay it across the table, before setting her heavy
iron dish pan upon it. "Don' you year ol' mis' calling you?" she would
ask then. "Take care! Don' upset all my dish tub!" And the war would
begin again.

The weather left nothing to be desired, and, the party usually
scattered soon after breakfast. The older men went on long hunting
expeditions, in pursuit of the game which generally proved to be just
over the divide; or explored the creek in search of trout,--great,
rich-flavored fellows, which put to shame the tiny products of our
Eastern streams. The boys, in the mean time, made friends with the
engineers, and spent whole days in the field. Howard and Ned attached
themselves to the transitman, and took turns as head and rear chain,
while Grant superintended the levelling, and Charlie trudged along in
the rear with the young topographer, who had taken a sudden fancy to the
boy, and gave him frequent lectures on the theory and practice of
surveying, until his pupil longed for the time when he too could wear on
his watch-chain the tiny blue shield, with its golden date and initials.

Then there were long rides up and down the valle