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Wallie shoved his Christmas dinner in the oven and slammed the door upon it, stoked the fire lavishly, then fell upon the washboard and rubbed furiously that he ht be done the sooner At intervals he dashed to the , half afraid to look lest the rider had changed his , and there was so in the way he sat his horse which made him think it was Pinkey

And Pinkey it was, brilliant as a rainbow in orange chaps, red flannel shirt, and a buckskin waistcoat His coat tied behind the cantle suggested that he either had become overheated or at only twelve below zero had not yet felt the need of it His horse was snorting steam like a locomotive and icicles of frozen breath were pendent from its nostrils

Wallie stood in the door, suds to the elbow and his hands steareeted hilad to see anybody in my life, Pinkey"

"This is onct I know you ain't lyin' Got anything to eat? I' special," Wallie replied, mysteriously "Tie your horse to the haystack I'll hurry things up a little"

Pinkey returned shortly and sniffed as he entered: "It s homelike about onions What you cookin'?"

"It's a secret, but you'll like 'em I made 'em out of the cook book"

Pinkey threw his coat on the table and the thud sounded as if it had a brick rolled in it

"Here's soel food or soood of her!" Wallie exclairatefully

"I can't tell till I taste it I wouldn't call her enerally" He prodded the cake as he unrolled it and commented: "Gosh, it's hard! I turned my thumb-nail back on it"

"It's frozen--that's what's the matter," Wallie defended, promptly

"I think it's a bum cake," declared Pinkey, callously

"I think you don't knohat you're talking about until you try it," Wallie retorted with asperity

Pinkey looked at hied the subject

"I see you're playin' a tune on the washboard"

Wallie replied stiffly: "Yes, I' a little laundry" Pinkey's criticism of the cake still rankled

"You ain't washin' that blue shirt a'ready?" Pinkey deivin'"

"The front of it bent like rubber-glass and I couldn't stand it any longer" He added reminiscently: "There was a time when I wore a fresh shirt daily"