“Oh, yes, first rate,” answered Jim.
“Well, that great boulder lies right there yet in the same spot and jest looks as natural as life. I lit my pipe and took a seat upon it, as we used to do, you remember, and thought of old times, and wondered what had become of my old pardners, Jim, Buckeye and Kentuck. I found the old cabin that we built, or what is left of it, but it has been fixed up, and two or three chaps are livin’ in it, who are at work for the man who owns the ranch. I took a walk up towards the old cabin and see two of them chaps grinding an axe out in front of it. Do you remember, Jim, the time that I went over to Georgetown and bought that Dutch oven?”
“Yes, indeed, I do, and old Buckeye called it a donkey baker, because there was a big cross upon the inside of the cover, and I remember, Yank, how you bragged that you was jest a-goin to show the boys what good bread was when it come your cook week agin. Ha! Ha! and I remember that first loaf you baked, too, and how we had to drill and blast it into small pieces before we could eat it.”
“But don’t you remember the next loaf I baked was so infernal hard, Jim, that you broke the drill tryin’ to put in a blast?”
“Yes, you bet I do, Yank.”
“Well, you’ve got an awful good memory, Jim; and you remember I threw that loaf of bread out among the ashes in front of the house, Yank?”
“Well, now, listen. I see them chaps at work up there in front of the cabin grindin’ an axe, and I could hear one of ’em growlin’ and cussin’ about somethin’, so I walked up that way to have a talk with them. They told me that they had been to work mor’n two hours tryin’ to grind the axe on that grindstone, but ’twasn’t worth a cuss. I asked them where the stone came from, and one of them said that he found it among that old pile of ashes and tried three or four days to git a hole through it so they could use it.
“‘Out of the ash heap,’ said I, ‘that’s queer.’ I stepped up close to get a good look at it, and what do you suppose I see, Jim? Why, on the side of the stone was a big cross, and I’ll be dolgerned if they wasn’t using that loaf of bread for a grindstone that I throw’d out there nearly forty years ago, just as sure as you live. Well, I asked the chap how they got a hole through it. He said they tried every way they could think of, but ’twas no use.
“‘One day there was a thunder shower comin’ over, and the Boss, he fastened a wire to it and then run the ’tother end of the wire ’way up to the top of a hop-pole. Well, the lightnin’ struck it right square in the center, and it jest tore the lightnin’ all to pieces, but didn’t hurt the stone a bit.’