"Well, I tell you what we ought to do," said Ferd, as he sat down to a huge plateful of breakfast.

The Colonel set aside a plateful for each of the two absent ones, and cleared away the things.

They cook macaroni with tomatoes in huge iron kettles over charcoal fires, and sell it by the plateful to their customers, often hauling it out of the kettles with their hands, like a sailor's hornpipe, pinching off the macaroni if it lengthens too much, and blowing on their fingers to cool them.