"Then if it ain't too much trouble for you, we'll let it go."
"No trouble at all, Will—it will be a regular picnic."
"Boys, you'll eat with me this day," said Red.
They spread the board table beneath an old apple tree, and cleaned up for the repast in the kitchen storm-shed with an apologetic, "Sorry to trouble you, Miss Saunders," or such a matter as each went in.
Just as Miss Mattie was withdrawing the meat from the oven, there came a knock at the door.
"Goodness, gracious!" she exclaimed. "Who can that be now? Will, will you see who that is? I can't go."
"Sure!" said Red, and went to the door. There stood two women of that indefinite period between forty and sixty, very decently dressed and with some agitation visible in the way they fussily adjusted various parts of their attire.
They started at the sudden spectacle of the huge man who said pleasantly, "Howderdo, ladies!"
"Why, how do you do?" replied the taller instantly, and in a voice she had never heard before. "I hope you're well, sir?" A remark which filled her with surprise.
"Thanks—I'm able to assume the perpendicular, as you can see," responded Red with a handsome smile of welcome. "How do you find yourself?"