understood that you do no cooking, or dishwashing. I think that the
reason women so often dislike camping out is because the only really
disagreeable part of it is left to them as a matter of course. Cooking
out of doors at best is trying, and certainly you cannot be care free,
camp-life's greatest charm, when you have on your mind the boiling of
prunes and beans, or when tears are starting from your smoke-inflamed
eyes as you broil the elk steak for dinner. No, indeed! See that your
guide or your horse wrangler knows how to cook, and expects to do it.
He is used to it, and, anyway, is paid for it. He is earning his living,
you are taking a vacation.

Now for the second advice, which is a codicil to the above: In return for
not having to potter with the food and tinware, _never complain about
it_. Eat everything that is set before you, shut your eyes to possible
dirt, or, if you cannot, leave the particular horror in question
untouched, but without comment. Perhaps in desperation you may assume the
role of cook yourself. Oh, foolish woman, if you do, you only exchange
your woes for worse ones.

If you provide yourself with the following articles and insist upon
having them reserved for you, and then let the cook furnish everything
else, you will be all right:--

_An aluminum plate made double for hot water_. This is a very little
trouble to fill, and insures a comfortable meal; otherwise, your meat and
vegetables will be cold before you can eat them, and the gravy will have
a thin coating of ice on it. It is always cold night and morning in the
mountains. And if you do not need the plate heated you do not have to
fill it; that's all. I am sure my hot-water plate often saved me from
indigestion and made my meals things to enjoy instead of to endure.