"'Pears to me you've got a right smart appetite," said the woman.
"Yes, I have," said Dean, frankly. "I don't know when I have been so hungry. I am ashamed of my appetite, but I can't help it."
"Young folks is mostly hungry," said the woman.
"Especially when they have such nice things set before them."
The woman, rough as she was, seemed pleased by this tribute to her culinary skill.
"Well, you needn't be afraid to eat all you want to," she said encouragingly.
Dean took her at her word, and when he rose from the table, he had made way with a large share of the repast provided.
It had grown quite dark in the deepening shadows of the hills, but it was a twilight darkness, not the darkness of midnight.
"I think I will go out and take a walk," said Dean, turning to his hostess.
"You'll come back?" she asked with apparent anxiety.