Weekly journal-miner., 1919-12-24

strengthened out. Ii ye have grub ready fer supper, ye kin stay"
 The first part of the proposition was easy; the bottom of the pot came in sight long before the lean and hungry look had faded from the face of the Bullwhacker's prospective hash-wrestler. But as Hank shook the dust out of his blankets and turn ed in after supper he remarked in a gently speculative tone to nobody in particular that the Mayor O. Cork, rist his sown! had probably not lived to eat" any great length of time.
 As Christmas drew near with big ger stories, but no visible signs of O'Dulin's latent culinary genius, Joe began to get uneasy. Sunday visi tors from neighboring camps had spread the fame of the Bullwhacker' cook, though, as it happened, none of them had ever appeared for a second meal, and some of them, af ter accepting an invitation to eat, had been known to size up the hos pitable board and depart-with sud denly remembered business of the most pressing nature as an excuse.
 Joe felt that the honor of the camp demanded public vindication: "O'Dulin," he said, pushing back a particularly uneatable plateful oi breakfast, 'you've about made the round of argifyin' an excuses. 4eI must be runnin' short of somethin to say. Now if ye ever could cook ye can cook now, an we've got to do it. We've bin kinder easin' along to let ye ketch holt; but the boys all round is pollin' fun at this here camp fer payin' three dollars day fer a hash wrastler that kaint boil water without burnin' it. I've give 'em an invite to eat their Christmas dinner here, an you list want to lay yerself out They'll be on hand right at noon, an if things don't go off mighty smooth you'll be hittin' that trail faster'n you ever travelled be fore. An don't ye try sneakin' off before hand neither. I'm goin to have my eye on ye."
 "I'll let ye off on mince pies an wine sass an them fancy fxin's ye bin braggin' about, but if you don't set up the best duff this camp ever saw ye better put in yer spare time diggin' yer grave, fer yell need 1t. We giner'ly lay out to have duff every Sunday, but ye didn't seem to ketch on. I'm getting hungry fer it, now, an ye needn't try to work of no skin game That duff's got to be straight goods an right up to the mark-you remember!
 A power of snow covered the hills around the Bullwhacker camp and glistened among the shaggy cedar boughs and dark pinons like diamond dust. Looks like a Christmas card -or the ole farm back wander" said
 Dikes, yawning in the doorway. Blamed if 1 didn't look in my sock
 for the pop corn and red apples nanny used to hide there an tell me twas Sandy Claws Didn't find uothin' but a hole neither; a man ort to be borned twins, Hank, an one uv 'em a female. This sowin' up yer own close an livin' on what ye kin ketch IS wearin' Merry Christmas i to ye O'Dulin! How's the duff comin' on?"
 For once O'Dulin's blarncy was still the old dudheen hung cold and l smokeless in the corner of his lip and he hurried breakfast like a man in haste to his own execution.
 'Howly Saint Patrick! he com muned with the stovepipc when he
 was left alone to face the problem | of dinner for twenty, or sudden dis i solution; I'd give me state in glory i Gan I'm likely to be nadin' it before | nightD to know what sort av hathin 1 dish be's duff Me ovid mother, hivin be her bid tn day, billed a pot av prathies Christmas morn that ud | last tn year out. An wid a fitch av i bacon. mebbc, if tn rint was in, an a dhrop av tay fer tn owld ladies, an | belike, sup potheen fer tn lads, what more ud tn quanc want? Sorry pratic I've seen in this ou'dandish place; an duff, duff, duff in me ears 1 from morn till night!"
 The stove was hot while the cold
 chills were creeping up O'Dulin's
 spine, and by the time he had work ed himself into fever the stove had assumed a wintry temperature no coaXing could overcome. He started up th- hill for an armful of pitch piue, but the sight of Joe carelessly
 measuring the distance with one hand on his gun sent him precipi- i tately backward into the kitchen.
 Dikes, i'll memory of back wander" had trimmed the long ] Iiying-room with clusters of brown { cones and plumy pinon boughs. and
 swept and put to rights till the place had really festal air. The pitch logs in the big fireplace crackled
 merry welcome as the Bullwhacker
 crew and their guests tramped ill and
 took their places with a fusilladc of
 jokes and much assumed dignity. Politeness for the moment restrained | the eyes of the Would-be feasters, but
 as one after another took a sly look
 down the table dismay chased the | Christmas hilarity from their faces
 and a few began to ildget in their
 seats. If such another array of food, { half-cooked, ovcr-Cookcd, raw and
 burnt, ever graced d Christmas board it is one of the things lost to history. 1 O'Dulin had surpassed himself-and l in the very center of the table in