"Lord!" said Curly, reminiscently, and quite without connection with
any thought which had been uttered. "Say, it was fine, wasn't it,
Christmas? We allus had firecrackers then. And eat! Why, man!" This
allusion to the firecrackers would have determined that Curly had come
from the South, which alone has a midwinter Fourth of July, possibly
because the populace is not content with only one annual smell of
gunpowder. "We had trees where I came from," said I. "And eat! Yes,
man!"

"Some different here now, ain't it?" said Curly, grinning; and I
grinned in reply with what fortitude I could muster. Down in Heart's
Desire there was a little, a very little cabin, with a bunk, a few
blankets, a small table, and a box nailed against the wall for a
cupboard. I knew what was in the box, and what was not in it, and I so
advised my friend as we slipped down off the bald summit of the
Capitans and came into the shelter of the short, black pinons. Curly
rode on for a little while before he made answer.

"Why," said he, at length, "ain't you heard? You're in with our rodeo
on Christmas dinner. McKinney, and Tom Osby, and Dan Anderson, the
other lawyer, and me,--we're going to have Christmas dinner at
Andersen's 'dobe in town to-morrer. You're in. You mayn't like it.
Don't you mind. The directions says to take it, and you take it. It's
goin' to be one of the largest events ever knowed in this here
settlement. Of course, there's goin' to be some canned things, and
some sardines, and some everidge liquids. You guess what besides that."

I told him I couldn't guess.

"Shore you couldn't," said Curly, dangling his bridle from the little