The center was occupied by four long bench-flanked tables, down whose middle straggled utensils containing sugar, apple-butter, condiments, and sauces, and whose edges were set with tin dishes for about forty men.

The cook, a rather thin-faced man with a mustache, directed where the provisions were to be stowed; and the "cookee," a hulking youth, assisted Thorpe and the driver to carry them in.

During the course of the work Thorpe made a mistake.
"That stuff doesn't come here," objected the cookee, indicating a box of tobacco the newcomer was carrying.

"She goes to the 'van.'" Thorpe did not know what the "van" might be, but he replaced the tobacco on the sleigh.

In a few moments the task was finished, with the exception of a half dozen other cases, which the driver designated as also for the "van." The horses were unhitched, and stabled in the third of the big log buildings.