The officers of the post, having taken a deep interest in him and his business, had tried hard to make his sojourn with them an occasion long to be remembered; and to give up his familiar intercourse with them for the society of this uncongenial man was by no means a pleasant thing to do.
The prospect before him was gloomy enough, Oscar thought; but, fortunately, things did not turn out as badly as he anticipated.
The guide misunderstood him, just as Oscar misunderstood the guide and the mule. They were both better than they seemed to be. It needed trouble to bring out their good qualities; and that came soon enough.
Shortly after noon, by Oscar’s watch, the guide halted on the banks of a small stream; and, after removing the saddle and bridle from his pony, turned the animal loose to graze.
He said nothing to Oscar; and the boy, who now began to feel provoked at his studied neglect, said nothing to him.
“I can hold my tongue as long as he can hold his,” was Oscar’s mental reflection. “If I must depend upon myself for companionship I can do it; but he’ll attend to all the camp-work, I tell you, because that was what he was hired for.”
Stopping the wagon near the place where the guide was starting a fire, Oscar unhitched the mule, turned him loose without removing any part of the harness except the bridle, and throwing himself down between the roots of a convenient tree, watched the motions of his guide, who now began preparations for dinner.
He filled the frying-pan with bacon for Oscar, the slices he intended for himself being impaled upon a stick, which was thrust into the ground in such a way that the meat hung over the flames.
Then he placed the coffee-pot on the coals, and brought from the wagon tin cups and a tin plate, on which he had deposited a few hard crackers.
When the bacon was cooked to his satisfaction he placed the frying-pan on the ground in front of his employer, and set a cup filled with coffee beside it, after which he seized a handful of crackers and sat down on the other side of the fire to eat his bacon, using as a fork the stick on which it had been roasted.