The Overland Riders shouted, and Jim Badger grinned broadly.
“Your story is most entertaining, but I can’t say as much for your manner of telling it,” said Tom.
“That is about what aunt said of uncle’s manner of putting out the fire,” returned Stacy.
“What happened to the hired man?” questioned Elfreda, her eyes twinkling eagerly.
“Nothing. But uncle said he was so blamed mad that he had a good notion to set the hired man’s boots outdoors,” was the fat boy’s solemn reply.
“Stacy!” rebuked Nora.
“Nora!” retorted Stacy, amid the laughter of his companions.
Supper was a merry meal that evening, Stacy entertaining his companions until they had finished eating. Twilight deepened as they sat around the blanket that served for a table, and the shadows were thickening in the valley, blotting out the landscape. Drifting clouds were covering the peak of the mountain, some so low that it seemed to the campers as if they could stretch up their hands and touch the filmy masses.
Tom Gray stretched himself, took a survey of the clouds and what he could see of the valley below them.
“Jim, I reckon you had better give the tents an extra staking-down. It looks like a storm to-night,” he said.