"
The stable was a good one, better than usual in that country. Dick saw
stalls for four horses, but no horses. They put his own horse in one
of the stalls, and gave him corn and hay. Then they walked back to the
house, and entered a large room, where a stalwart woman of middle age
had just finished cooking supper.
"Whew, but the night's goin' to be cold," said Leffingwell, as he shut
the door behind them, and cut off an icy blast. "It'll make the fire
an' supper all the better. We're just plain mountain people, but you're
welcome to the best we have. Ma, this is Mr. Mason, who has been on
lan' business in the mountains, an' is back on his way to his home at
Pendleton."
Leffingwell's wife, a powerful woman, as large as her husband, and with
a pleasant face, gave Dick a large hand and a friendly grasp.
"It's a good night to be indoors," she said. "Supper's ready, Seth.
Will you an' the stranger set?"
She had placed the pine table in the middle of the room, and Dick
noticed that it was large enough for five or six persons. He put his
saddle bags and blankets in a corner and he and the man drew up chairs.
He had seldom beheld a more cheerful scene. In a great fireplace ten
feet wide big logs roared and crackled. Corn cakes, vegetables, and
two kinds of meat were cooking over the coals and a great pot of coffee
boiled and bubbled. No candles had been lighted, but they were not
needed. The flames gave sufficient illumination.
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