Chapter Twenty-Eight
At the dinner table the group ate and chatted about the day's affairs. The two older women kept eying Jess who squirmed every time he noticed.
"I knew his appetite would get him into trouble someday," Daisy said to Hannah.
"His appetite or his sweet tooth?" Hannah asked with a straight face.
"Both," Daisy replied which started everyone but the subject of their conversation laughing.
When dinner was over the three youngest men went upstairs to change for the dance.
'Leave your dirty clothes in the basket by the stove boys," Hannah told them. Cam will be doing laundry Monday morning if the weather is good."
"With a little help from Mike," Daisy added.
"Aw Aunt Daisy!"
"It's the least you can do since you helped trick Jess into that pie eating contest," Daisy told the boy with a stern expression which was belied by the twinkle in her eyes.
"It's worth it," Cam declared, 'Just to remember him with pie all over his face and shirt."
"This started the women, and David, laughing again.
An hour and a half later, the pig wrestlers, and the pie eater, had had baths, washed their hair, shaved and donned clean clothes.
Cam whistled when she saw them.
Gordon was dressed in black trousers, white shirt with a green and black brocade vest and a black tie and coat. Sim wore black trousers, a gold brocade vest, black string tie and a royal blue coat.
"Jess looks like that gambler that Sheriff Markure ran out of town a few months ago."
Jess, with his unruly curls momentarily combined into some semblance of order, wore a white shirt with black pants , coat and tie with a gold brocade vest.
"Good thing the sheriff remembers him from your first visit," she joked.
"And just how do you know what that gambler looked like?" Hannah asked her niece.\
"Gordy told me who he was. I was coming home from the dress shop and Gordy had been in the saloon talking to a witness in one of his cases. Besides," the girl said, "nobody else in town dresses like that - or would."
"Gordon Carney McAllister!" Hannah exploded. "What have I told you about exposing her to such things?"
'"I didn't do it deliberately," her son defended himself while Slim and Jess tried to stifle their grins and chuckles.
"Oh, Auntie. I am fifteen now. You can't shelter me from that kind of thing forever. Besides, if I decide to become a lawyer I'll have to know about these things."
Hannah scowled briefly then shook her head. "Daisy - what do I do with them? Cam gets more and more like Gordon every day."
"At least she knew who - what he was," the other woman said. "My first day on the ranch an outlaw posing as a doctor arrived on the stage I came in on. Mike tried to sell him a - shall we say - untrustworthy horse until Slim took over, When he tried to escape, after I discovered the Wanted poster in his bag, Mike brought him that same horse to use in his escape."
'Yeah. Good old Tumbleweed ditched him in less than a minute," Jess laughed.
"Mike started picking up the money Willet stole and asked us if we weren't going to help him.? Slim smiled at that memory. "Mort Cory - our sheriff - never took a prisoner into custody so easy before or since."
"And you thought my seeing a gambler was bad," Cam grinned and looked at Mike who, had decided to stay home with her and Duncan. Nobody thought there would be many youngsters his age at the dance and Cam still hated large social gatherings so a night of puppy sitting, popcorn, cocoa and games was a good solution as to what to do with the boy.
"She's incorrigible Mother," Gordon laughed. "She'll never change."
"Not as long as you encourage her," his mother told him.
"Hannah, we're going to be late for the gathering at the Greenaways."
"Yes, dear, we're coming."
David was waiting at the front door holding his wife's coat and Daisy's. The three of them had been invited to Richard and Susan Greenaways for a night of reading, and discussing, Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Daisy was going with them and looked forward to it. She seldom had time at home to read for pleasure. Keeping her brood fed, clean, clothes in good repair and nursing them through the occasional illness or injury, was a full time job that left her too tired to read much of anything.
"It's slow going because not everybody in the group reads well out loud and has to be told how to pronounce some of the words - especially as Fogg travels through Europe."
"Now Cam, there's milk and cocoa if you want to make hot chocolate and there are some sugar cookies for you and Mike for a bedtime snack. " Hannah kissed both youngsters as she headed out the door. "Don't stay up too late. We have church services in the morning you know."
"We won't," Cam promised.
"Hannah, come along. I'm sure Cam and Mike will be just fine."
Doctor McAllister, his wife and Daisy departed for their gathering.
"Mike, you be sure and do what Cam tells you and don't give her a hard time about going to bed understand?" Slim laid down the law to his ward.
:Oh go on with you!" the girl told her cousin and friends. "Mike and I will get along just fine. First thing we're going to do is play with Duncan in the back yard for a little while. Then we'll check on the horses, the cows and my chickens. After that we'll play a few games, have our snack and go to bed.
"Come on, Mattie," Gordon said. "They'll be fine, but if we don't get to that dance real soon all the prettiest - and nicest - girls will already be spoken for."
"What he means," Cam jibed, "Is that Victoria Compton will have already found a partner for the first dance."
"Quiet brat," Gordon said as he tugged on the braid she now wore her hair in since it was late in the day.
"Make sure Slim and Jess meet Karen Dunnigan and Anita Kelly. She grinned at the three young men as they left.
"Karen and Anita?" Slim looked puzzled. "They're just kids."
"Mattie - Slim - you are so far behind the times. I know you haven't been to Evergreen much in the last few years but Karen and Anita are not kids any more. They're twenty-five and twenty-seven now."
Slim hesitated for a moment to think about this. Then his face brightened. "What are we waiting for? If they're as pretty now as they were then I have to see it for myself!"