“So I have observed,” agreed Emma, and Stacy subsided.
Grace changed the subject by asking Hippy to tell them what had occurred at the tethering place. Hippy said that the ponies were badly frightened, but that he had succeeded in quieting them. So far as his own disaster was concerned, he knew little.
“All I know is, that all of a sudden I didn’t know anything,” added Lieutenant Wingate.
“Why put it in the past tense?” questioned Emma sweetly, amid laughter.
By this time Badger had laid the fire and was trying to light it, but the sticks merely sputtered and went out.
“Why don’t you men help him?” urged Grace. “Come, Stacy, you have not done a thing to-night.”
“Right!” agreed Tom. “He is the laziest man in the Yellowstone.”
“No. That isn’t the reason. You forget that I have a weak heart,” reminded Stacy.
Emma retorted that it was his bump of industry, not the heart, that was weak.
“That’s right, insult me. You know I can’t resent it because I dare not excite myself,” reminded the fat boy. “I’ll teach you how to light the fire if you promise not to stir me up. If you do, I might die on your hands.”