you are on the lid of the wine cooler. Let Doyle
get at it a moment."

The general was not the nimblest-witted man in the service, but long
experience had taught him the wisdom of prompt observance of any
suggestion that came from his wife. Dropping his napkin, and the thread
of his tale, he rose to his feet. Blushing furiously, Doyle bent, and
with vigorous effort pried off a circular, perforated top, revealing a
dark, cylindrical space beneath, from the depths of which he lifted a
dripping bucket of galvanized iron, and sped, thus laden, away to the
kitchen, to the music of Mrs. Archer's merry laughter and a guffaw of
joy from the general's lips.

"How came you to put it there, sir?" demanded he, a moment later, as
Doyle circumnavigated the table, filling, as ordered, the five little
glasses with fragrant Amontillado. "I must tell you, gentlemen, this is
one of the pleasant surprises that most admirable woman yonder is
forever putting up on me. Life would be a desert without such."

"Indeed it wasn't mine!" expostulated madam, "though I'm deeply
indebted to somebody. Who was it, Doyle?"

"Docther Bentley, ma'am. He said I was to keep it dark, ma'am--'an' in
the coolest place I could find----"

But here the peals of laughter silenced the words and rang the glad
tidings to listening, waiting ears in the kitchen that all was well.
Mrs. Stannard scurried away to explain to her Luce, and the dinner went
blithely on.

"You did right, Doyle! you did right!" shouted the general, "and we'll
drink the doctor's health. Keep it dark, indeed! Haw, haw, haw!" And
then nothing would do but he must tell the story of this precious and
particular chair. Furniture, even such as he bought at San Francisco,
and would live to a green old age along the Pacific, came speedily to
pieces in the hot, dry atmosphere of Arizona. Little enough there was
of cabinet ware, to be sure, because of the cost of transportation; but
such as there was, unless riveted in every seam and joint, fell apart
at most inopportune moments. Bureaus and washstands, tables, sofas and
chairs, were forever shedding some more or less important section, and
the only reliable table was that built by the post carpenter, the
quartermaster.

And so these pioneers of our civilization, the men and women of the
army, had had no little experience in cabinetmaking and upholstering.
While the emigrants and settlers, secure under its wing, could turn
swords into ploughshares