hopper stew and snakes, and
you never saw people so interested.

"But the real joy of that feast was that Miss Sterling. Just a little
trick she was, not bigger than two bits' worth of chewing plug; but
she had a way about her that seemed to say she was the people, and you
believed it. And yet, she never put on any airs, and she smiled at me
the same as if I was a millionaire while I was telling about a Creek
dog feast and listened like it was news from home.

"By and by, after we had eat oysters and some watery soup and truck
that never was in my repertory, a Methodist preacher brings in a kind
of camp stove arrangement, all silver, on long legs, with a lamp under
it.

"Miss Sterling lights up and begins to do some cooking right on the
supper table. I wondered why old man Sterling didn't hire a cook, with
all the money he had. Pretty soon she dished out some cheesy tasting
truck that she said was rabbit, but I swear there had never been a
Molly cotton tail in a mile of it.

"The last thing on the programme was lemonade. It was brought around
in little flat glass bowls and set by your plate. I was pretty
thirsty, and I picked up mine and took a big swig of it. Right there
was where the little lady had made a mistake. She had put in the lemon
all right, but she'd forgot the sugar. The best housekeepers slip up
sometimes. I thought maybe Miss Sterling was just learning to keep
house and cook--that rabbit would surely make you think so--and I says
to myself, 'Little lady, sugar or no sugar I'll stand by you,' and I
raises up my bowl again and drinks the last drop of the lemonade. And
then all the balance of 'em picks up their bowls and does the same.
And then I gives Miss Sterling the laugh proper, just to carry it off
like a joke, so she wouldn't feel bad about the mistake.

"After we all went into the sitting room she sat down and talked to me
quite awhile.

"'It was so kind of you, Mr. Kingsbury,' says she, 'to bring my
blunder off so nicely. It was so stupid of me to forget the sugar.'

"'Never you mind,' says I, 'some lucky man will throw his rope over a
mighty elegant little housekeeper some day, not far from here.'

"'If you mean me, Mr. Kingsbury,' says she, laughing out loud, 'I hope
he will be as lenient with my poor housekeeping as you have been.'

"'Don't mention it,' says I. 'Anything to oblige the ladies.'"

Bud ceased his reminiscences. And then some one asked him what he
considered the most stri