"Just look out there once! All at it! Ain't it fun?"
It was fun to Vinnie, indeed.
CHAPTER XIX.
LINK'S WOOD-PILE.
The dinner, though late that day, was unusually sumptuous, and Betterson and his boys brought to it keen appetites from their work. Vinnie's cooking received merited praise, and the most cordial good-will prevailed. Even little Chokie, soiling face and fingers with a "drum-stick" he was gnawing, lisped out his commendation of the repast.
"I wish Aunt Vinnie would be here forever, and div us dood victuals."
"I second the motion!" cried Link, sucking a "wish-bone," and then setting it astride his nose,—"to dry," as he said.
"One would think we never had anything fit to eat before," said Mrs. Betterson; while my lord looked flushed and frowning over his frayed stock.
"You know, mother," said Lill, "I never could cook prairie chickens. And you haven't been well enough to, since the boys began to shoot them."