e safe--it wasn't locked--and ran
for it. It was legitimate, wasn't it? I gave Sam one big red apple, for
I knew he would rather have it, to give to his Nora, the waiter girl,
than the best horse and saddle on the range. The rest--behold them!
Tell me, do you know how to make a pie?"

"Ned," said Battersleigh, looking at him with an injured air, "do you
suppose I've campaigned all me life and not learned the simplest form of
cookin'? Pie? Why, man, I'll lay you a half section of land to a saddle
blanket I'll make ye the best pie that ever ye set eye upon in all your
life. Pie, indeed, is it?"

"Well," said Franklin, "you take some risks, but we'll chance it. Go
ahead. We'll just save out two or three apples for immediate
consumption, and not put all our eggs in one basket."

"Wisely spoken, me boy," said Battersleigh. "Ye're a thrue conservative.
But now, just ye watch Batty while he goes to work."

Battersleigh busied himself about the little box which made his cupboard,
and soon had out what he called his "ingraydeyints."

"Of course, ye've to take a little flour," he said, "that's for the
osseous structure, so to speak. Ye've to add a little grease of some
sort, lard or butter, an' we've nayther; the bacon fat'll do, methinks.
Of course, there's the bakin' powder. Fer I've always noticed that when
ye take flour ye take also bakin' powder. Salt? No, I'm sure there's no
salt goes in at all; that's against reason, an' ye'll notice that the
principles of philosophy go into all the ways of life. And, lastly,
makin', as I may say, the roundin' out of the muscular and adipose tissue
of the crayture, as the sowl of the pie we must have the apples. It's a
sin to waste 'em peelin'; but I think they used to peel 'em, too. And
ye've to put in sugar, at laste a couple o' spoons full. Now observe. I
roll out this dough--it's odd-actin' stuff, but it's mere idiosyncrashy
on its part--I roll this out with a bottle, flat and fine; and I put into
this pan, here, ye'll see. Then in goes the intayrior contints, cut in
pieces, ye'll see. Now, thin, over the top of the whole I sprid this
thin blanket of dough, thus. And see me thrim off the edges about the
tin with me knife. And now I dint in the shircumference with me thumb,
the same as July Trelawney did in the Ould Tinth. And there ye are,
done, me pie, an' may God have mercy on your sowl!--Ned, build up the
fire."

They sat at the side of the little stove