She coloured very red; but it might be the heat of the fire over which she
was frying the pork for our dinner.

I was very hungry, but I felt no appetite for the dish she was preparing
for us. It proved salt, hard, and unsavoury.

D____ pronounced it very bad, and the whiskey still worse, with which he
washed it down.

I asked for a cup of tea and a slice of bread. But they were out of tea,
and the hop-rising had failed, and there was no bread in the house. For
this disgusting meal we paid at the rate of a quarter of a dollar a-head.

I was glad when, the horses being again put to, we escaped from the rank
odour of the fried pork, and were once more in the fresh air.

"Well, mister; did not you grudge your money for that bad meat?" said
D____, when we were once more seated in the sleigh. "But in these parts,
the worse the fare the higher the charge."

"I would not hare cared," said I, "if I could have got a cup of tea."

"Tea! it's poor trash. I never could drink tea in my life. But I like
coffee, when 'tis boiled till it's quite black. But coffee is not good
without plenty of trimmings."

"What do you mean by trimmings?"

He laughed. "Good sugar, and sweet cream. Coffee is not worth drinking