“It’s not much I know about y’re Polak atin’,” she said, “but I can make a batch of pork pies that wud tempt the heart of the Howly Moses himsilf, an’ I can give ye a bilin’ of pitaties that Timothy can fetch to the house for ye.”

This generous offer Anka gladly accepted, for Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s pork pies, she knew from experience, were such as might indeed have tempted so respectable a patriarch as Moses himself to mortal sin.  The “bilin’ of pitaties,” which Anka knew would be prepared in no ordinary pot, but in Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s ample wash boiler, was none the less acceptable, for Anka could easily imagine how effective such a contribution would be in the early stages of the feast in dulling the keen edge of the Galician appetite.

The preparation for the wedding feast, which might be prolonged for the greater part of three days, was in itself an undertaking requiring careful planning and no small degree of executive ability; for the popularity of both bride and groom would be sufficient to insure the presence of the whole colony, but especially the reputed wealth of the bride, who, it was well known, had been saving with careful economy her wages at the New West Hotel for the past three years, would most certainly create a demand for a feast upon a scale of more than ordinary magnificence, and Anka was determined that in providing for the feast this demand should be fully satisfied.

For a long time she was torn between two conflicting desires:  on the one hand she longed to appear garbed in all the glory of the Western girl’s most modern bridal attire; on the other she coveted the honour of providing a feast that would live for years in the memory of all who might be privileged to be present.  Both she could not accomplish, and she wisely chose the latter; for she shrewdly reasoned that, while the Western bridal garb would certainly set forth her charms in a new and ravishing style, the glory of that triumph would be short-lived at best, and it would excite the envy of the younger members of her own sex and the criticism of the older and more conservative of her compatriots.

She was further moved to this decision by the thought that inasmuch as Jacob and she had it in mind to open a restaurant and hotel as soon as sufficient money was in hand, it was important that they should stand well with the community, and nothing would so insure popularity as abundant and good eating and drinking.  So to the preparation of a feast that would at once bring her immediate glory and future profit, Anka set her shrewd wits.  The providing of the raw materials for the feast was to her an easy matter, for her experience in the New West Hotel had taught her how to expend to the best advantage her carefully hoarded wages.  The difficulty was with the cooking.  Clearly Paulina could not be expected to attend to this, for although her skill with certain soups and stews was undoubted, for the finer achievements of the culinary art Paulina was totally unfitted.