“I suppose you picked it and cleaned it and got it all ready to roast,” she inquired.  “Or have you just been loafing around waiting for me to do it?”

“I et it,” asserted Andy.

Ma Bailey glared at him, shook her head, and marched into the house while Andy helped Bailey put up the horses.

“Ma’s upset about somethin’,” explained Bailey.  “Seems a letter came for Pete—­”

“Letter from Pete!  Why, he ain’t comin’ back, is he?”

“A letter for Pete.  Ma says it looks like a lady’s writin’ on the envelope.  She says she’d like to know what female is writin’ to Pete, and him goodness knows where, and not a word to say whether he’s sick or broke, or anything.”

“I sure would like to see him,” said Andy fervently.

“Well, if somebody’s writin’ to him here at the Concho, looks like he might drift in one of these days.  I’d sure like to know how the kid’s makin’ it.”

And Bailey strode to the house, while Andy led the team to the corral.

Later Andy appeared in the kitchen and asked Mrs. Bailey if he couldn’t help her set the table, or peel potatoes, or something.  Ma Bailey gazed at him suspiciously over her glasses.  “I don’t know what’s ailin’ you, Andy, but you ain’t actin’ right.  First you tell me that you had to camp at the Blue last night account o’ killin’ a turkey.  Then you tell me that you et the whole of it.  Was you scared you wouldn’t get your share if you fetched it home?  Then you want to help me get supper.  You been up to something!  You just keep me plumb wore out worrying about you.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“For why, Ma?  What have I done?”

“I don’t know, but it’ll come to the top.  There’s the boys now—­and me a-standing here—­ Run along and set the table if you ain’t so full of whatever is got into you that you can’t count straight.  Bill won’t be in to-night.  Leastwise, Jim don’t expect him.”  And Ma Bailey flapped her apron at him and shooed him out as though he were a chicken that had dared to poke its inquisitive neck into the kitchen.

“Count straight!” chuckled Andy.  “Mebby I know more about how many’s here than Ma does.”

Meanwhile Ma Bailey busied herself preparing supper, and it was evident to the boys in the bunkhouse that Ma had something on her mind from the sounds which came from the kitchen.  Ma scolded the potatoes as she tried them, rebuked the biscuits because they had browned a little too soon, censured the stove for its misbehavior in having scorched the biscuits, accused the wood of being a factor in the conspiracy, reprimanded the mammoth coffee-pot that threatened to deluge the steak, and finally chased Andy from the premises when she discovered that he had laid the table with her best set of dishes.

“Ma’s steamin’ about somethin’,” remarked Andy as he entered the bunk-house.

This information was received with characteristic silence as each and every cowboy mentally straightened up, vowing silently that he wasn’t goin’ to take any chances of Ma b’ilin’ over on him.