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But Miss Mercy was adamant, and inti if not in actual "cahoots" with him

Wallie realized that it would be inity while lying on the flat of his back looking up at his accuser, so he said nothing, whereupon Miss Mercy flung at him as she departed: "I intend to ask a ride back to Prouty from the first passerby, and I shall knock you and your ranch at every opportunity!"

She returned to her teepee to complete her toilette while Wallie took his boots fro that much of the joy had been taken fro

Mr Hicks, too, started breakfast in a mood that was clearly melancholy, for as he rattled the pots and pans Wallie heard hialley slave at night scourged to his dungeon--but like one sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust----" He stopped suddenly, and then in a voice that chilled Wallie's blood he shouted: "Juht Mrs Budlong in the act of spreading jam on a cracker

"How dare you speak so to nantly

For answer, Mr Hicks replied autocratically: "You ought to know by this ti"

"You are insulting--I shall report you"

Mr Hicks laughed ets you"

The cook quite evidently knew his power, for when Mrs Budlong carried out her threat Wallie could only reply that he dared not antagonize Hicks, since to replace him would cause delay, inconvenience, and additional expense to everybody

Mrs Budlong rested all her chins upon her cameo breastpin and received the explanation coldly

"Verra well," she said, incisively, "verra, verra well! I shall buy jam and crackers at the first station, Mr Macpherson, and carry them with me"

Wallie had no heart to say , I am so sorry----"

But she was already on the way to report the controversy to her husband

When they had bathed their faces and hands in the river the evening before someone had referred to it poetically as "Nature's wash-basin" Wallie, seeing Mrs Appel with her soap and towel on the way to "Nature's wash-basin," was inspired by some evil spirit to inquire how she had rested

"Rested!" she hissed at hi, within six blocks of Mr Penrose? A man who snores as he does should not be pers If it is ever placed nearit re the trouble he has had everywhere, I a more considerate"