arton on the steps of the guillotine. He spoke
aloud those great last words:

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a
far, far better rest that I go to--"

A whiskered head on the end of a long, corrugated red neck protruded
from the smokehouse door.

"What say?" it inquired, huskily.

"Nun-nothing!" stammered William.

Eyes above whiskers became fierce. "You take your feet off that
milk-bucket. Say! This here's a sanitary farm. 'Ain't you got any more
sense 'n to go an'--"

But William had abruptly removed his foot and departed.

He found the party noisily established in the farm-house at two long
tables piled with bucolic viands already being violently depleted.
Johnnie Watson had kept a chair beside himself vacant for William.
Johnnie was in no frame of mind to sit beside any "chattering girl,"
and he had protected himself by Joe Bullitt upon his right and the empty
seat upon his left. William took it, and gazed upon the nearer foods
with a slight renewal of animation.

He began to eat; he continued to eat; in fact, he did well. So did his
two comrades. Not that the melancholy of these three was dispersed--far
from it! With ineffaceable gloom they ate chicken, both white meat and
dark, drumsticks, wishbones, and livers; they ate corn-on-the-cob, many
ears, and fried potatoes and green peas and string-beans; they ate peach
preserves and apricot preserves and preserved pears; they ate biscuits
with grape jelly and biscuits with crabapple jelly; they ate apple sauce
and apple butter and apple pie. They ate pickles, both cucumber pickles
and pickles made of watermelon rind; they ate pickled tomatoes, pickled
peppers, also pickled onions. They ate lemon pie.

At that, they were no rivals to George Crooper, who was a real eater.
Love had not made his appetite ethereal to-day, and even the attending
Swedish lady named Anna felt some apprehension when it came to George
and the gravy, though she was accustomed to the prodigies performed in
this line by the robust hands on the farm. George laid waste his section
of the table, and from the beginning he allowed himself scarce time
to say, "I dunno why it is." The pretty companion at his side at first
gazed dumfounded; then, with growing enthusiasm for what promised to be
a really magnificent performance, she began to utter little ejaculations
of wonder and admiration. With this music in his ears, George outdid
himself. He could not res