r?" demanded Miss Pendleton,
crossly. "I have a right to my opinion, I hope."

"I should hope it was nobody else's opinion," returned Miss Bobby,
quick to pick up the gauntlet.

"Hush, girls!" advised Mother Wit. "Let us not be quarrelsome. We
don't want Mrs. Morse to think we are female savages right at the
start."

Lil sniffed; but good-tempered Bobby said, quickly: "You're right,
Laura. I beg the company's pardon--and Lil's particularly. We must be
'little birds who in their nest agree.'"

"You're a fine bird, Bobby," laughed Dora. "Come on! I hear the dishes
rattling. Let's see what Lizzie has tossed up for supper."

"I wonder if she managed to boil the water without burning it?"
giggled Jess. "She's the funniest girl!"

"I should think you and Laura could have found a maid who wasn't quite
such a gawk," muttered Lil, unpleasantly.

"Hush!" admonished Mother Wit. "Don't let her hear you."

"Why not?" snapped Lil.

"You will hurt her feelings."

"Pooh! she's paid for it----"

"Not for having her feelings hurt," declared Laura, sternly. "And I
won't have it. She's odd; but she is quite as quick of hearing as the
next person."

"Aw, you're too particular, Laura," drawled Lil. But she stood a
little in awe of Mother Wit.

They joined Mrs. Morse and filed into the cook-tent. Lizzie's flushed
face appeared behind the steaming biscuits and a big platter of ham
and eggs. They did not really know how hungry they were until they sat
down to these viands.

Lizzie stood with arms akimbo and waited for the verdict upon the
cooking.

"Most excellent, Lizzie," Mrs. Morse said, kindly.

"Suits ye, does it?" asked the strange girl. "I flatter myself them
biscuits air light enough to sleep on."

"They are a good deal more feathery than our 'downy couches' here in
camp, I warrant, Lizzie," laughed Laura.

"Glad ye like 'em. There's plenty of biscuits--don't be bashful."

Jess giggled when she saw Lil's face. "How rude!" muttered Miss
Pendleton. "I don't see what you and Mother Wit were thinking about
when you hired that girl."

"Thinking of you, Lily--thinking of you," declared Jess. "She will
willingly do your share of the dish-washing."

"Dish-washing? Fancy!" exclaimed Lil. "I'd like to see myself!"

"Well I wouldn't," put in the omnipresent Bobby. "Not if I had to eat
after your manipulation of the dish-mop."

"But we didn't come to do anything like _that_," wailed Lil.

"Just the same we have got