There was anxiety in the cave in the valley as well as at Red Deer Lodge about this same hour. But it must be confessed that the children who had taken refuge in the cave were mostly anxious about that rabbit stew!
Was there going to be enough to go around? And had Rowdy made the dumplings all right and seasoned the stew so that it would be palatable?
“The housekeeping arrangements of the cave were primitive.”
“Why, you’re all sitting around here and sniffing at that stew every time I lift the pot cover like hungry dogs,” declared Rowdy. “I guess if it doesn’t turn out right, you’ll eat me.”
“Oh, no,” said Dot. “We wouldn’t like to do that, for we aren’t cannon balls.”
“You aren’t what?” cried the boy, amazed.
“Oh, dear, Dot! Why will you get so mixed up in your words?” Tess wailed. “She doesn’t mean ‘cannon balls,’ Rowdy; she means cannibals. And we aren’t. It is bad enough to have to eat rabbit when it looks so much like a cat.”
This very much amused Rowdy and Sammy Pinkney; but Rafe, the grouchy brother, would not be even friendly enough to laugh at the smallest Corner House girl.