"Hungry as a bear and three cubs."
"Good."
She put the food on the table, cutting generous slices from the ham and
serving the children first because Joe wanted it that way. There was
milk for them, coffee for Joe and herself. Emma placed a heaping plate
of fluffy biscuits beside the potato dish. Joe ate in silence, noticing
the new gaiety in Emma's face and manner, and he thought that maybe now
she was feeling better about the whole trip. He finished, leaned back in
his chair, and sighed happily.
"I've got the six picked."
"Did you have any trouble?"
"Nope. Just had to look over a lot of mules. Got me six blacks, alike as
six peas in a pod. Put 'em together in a little corral, and there won't
be a prettier six-mule team in Missouri."
"Ma," Tad spoke up. "Pa says it's all right with him if I go into town
tomorrow."