Shorty took two leisurely gulps before he answered:

"Old Man's sister's coming out to stay all summer--and then some, maybe.
Be here to-morrow, he said."

"Gee whiz! Is she pretty?" This from Cal Emmett.

"Hope she ain't over fifty." This from Jack Bates.

"Hope she ain't one of them four-eyed school-ma'ams," added Happy Jack
--so called to distinguish him from Jack Bates, and also because of his
dolorous visage.

"Why can't some one else haul her out?" began Chip. "Cal would like
that job--and he's sure welcome to it."

"Cal's too dangerous. He'd have the old girl dead in love before he
got her over the first ridge, with them blue eyes and that pretty smile
of his'n. It's up to you, Splinter--Old Man said so."

"She'll be dead safe with Chip. HE won't make love to her," retorted
Cal.

"Wonder how old she is," repeated Jack Bates, half emptying the syrup
pitcher into his plate. Patsy had hot biscuits for supper, and Jack's
especial weakness was hot biscuits and maple syrup.

"As to her age," remarked Shorty, "it's a cinch she ain't no spring
chicken, seeing she's the Old Man's sister."