Jarvis was just pouring coffee from a tin pot into a tin cup, and Ike was turning over some strips of bacon in an iron skillet on an iron stove.

Both of them, watchful like all mountaineers, had heard the visitors coming, but they did not look up until they were on the raft.
"Mornin'," called Jarvis cheerfully.

"Look, Ike, it's the big fish that we hooked out of the river last night, an' he's got company." "I want to thank you for saving my son's life," said the Colonel.
"I reckon, then, that you're Colonel George Kenton," said Jarvis.
"Wa'al, you don't owe us no thanks.

I'm of an inquirin' turn of mind, an' whenever I see a man or boy floatin' along in the river I always fish him out, just to see who an' what he is.

My curiosity is pow'ful strong, colonel, an' it leads me to do a lot o' things that I wouldn't do if it wasn't fur it.