The girls laughed merrily, and Nora turned a beaming face on her husband.
"Hippy, my darlin', you've met your match this time," she said.
"I met you first, didn't I?" retorted Hippy, then returned to his absorbing occupation and shortly afterwards passed his plate for another helping.
"My land!" exclaimed Joe. "Ye do beat the bears for eatin'. Never seen one that could stow it away the way ye do."
"You should see him when he is hungry," advised Emma. "Why, when we were riding in the Kentucky Mountains last year we—"
"Well?" demanded the guide.
Emma had abruptly ceased speaking as she felt something rubbing against her foot. At first she thought it was Hindenburg who had slipped into the house and crawled under the table to salvage the crumbs. Now something surely was nosing at her knee.
Emma Dean's face contracted ever so little when a cold something brushed the back of the hand that hung at her side.
"Hi—Hippy, where's the pup?" she questioned weakly.
"Tied to a tree out yonder. Why?"