uced to grow, but that was not
without other extravagances, since it represented to Uncle Sam an
aggregate sum that could be best computed at a shilling a shingle.
Stannard, hearing footsteps on the sandy soil, glanced up from the
columns of an _Alta California_, ten days old, and growled through the
adjacent blinds "They're coming now," whereat there was sound of
rustling skirt within, and between the slats there came a glimpse of
shining, big blue eyes, alive with womanly interest, and parted lips
disclosing two opposing rows of almost perfect teeth, all the whiter by
contrast with the sunburned, "sonsy" face that framed them. Together,
yet separated, this Darby and Joan of the far frontier sat and watched
the coming pair. "Isn't it good to see the real uniform again?" said
she. "Isn't it absurd to think of trying a dinner here?" said he. Then
both subsided as the two young officers stepped upon the resounding
boards of the next veranda to the south, knocked at the commander's
open door and were promptly welcomed.

"Now, Luce, they're going to have a very _nice_ dinner," protested
Mrs. Stannard. "I was in there helping over an hour, and Mrs. Archer's
a wonder! Even if the dinner didn't amount to much, there would be
Lilian."

"They can't eat _her_," persisted, grimly, the man.

"She looks sweet enough to eat," responded the woman. "You ought to see
her. After a six hours' ride she looks fresh as a daisy, all creamy
white with--but you wouldn't understand----"

"What on earth kept them out so long?"

"Didn't I tell you? Why, they went away to Bennett's ranch. Couldn't
find a vestige of vegetables nearer. Mrs. Bennett has a little patch
where she raises lettuce and radishes. The orderly carried a basket
full of truck, and leaves and flowers, poppies and cactus, you know,
and you've no idea how pretty they've made the table look."

Stannard sniffed. "Take their Sauterne hot or lukewarm?" he asked.
"Fancy a dinner without ice, fruit or cream!"

"Of course they haven't white wine here, Luce! But there's claret--famous
claret, too, and the water in the big _olla's_ even cooler than the
spring. They'll have French dressing for the salad. They have tomato
soup even _you_ couldn't growl at, and roast chicken, with real potatoes,
and _petits pois_, and corn, and olives; then salad cool as the spring;
then there's to be such an _omelette soufflee_--and coffee!--but it's
the way the table _looks_, Luce!"

"Men don't car