dress for the business."

"Well, Mrs. Ingalls," smilingly encouraged a plump matron, "I suppose
we might do as good cooking here as we have done at home in times of
emergency. Shall we try?"

"I'm agreeable," laughed the lady. "That is, if we can manage the
range."

"Oh, leave that to me," said her husband. "I guess I've handled ranges
before." Which caused more merriment, since that gentleman's business
was in the hardware line.

Fresh came another bevy of rosy faces, whose owners declared that they
had been to a cooking school and knew all about it.

"Nothing like practical demonstration," bantered the young men.

"Hurrah!" cried one Hamilton, the pet of the house. "Give me the girl
who can don a white apron, roll up her sleeves, and plunge her pretty
arms into the flour barrel! That's what I'm looking for!" and he
cleverly balanced a chair on his chin, amid a clamor of repartee and
good-natured defiance.

"Go in, the whole ship's crew!" fervently urged a family man. "It will
be the best fun of the season."

"All right!" promptly agreed the ladies. "We are ready. Now, hurry up
and get on your porter's apron in time for the next wagon of trunks.
Pray, call us when you are about to shoulder one!" which turned the