se. Then we will not forget how to cook," and the young woman,
with eyes always open to the main chance for "making money," as she
called it, laughed at the bare possibility of such a thing.

"We might do that and help in the mission, too, there are so many of us.
I would like to work in the mission for a change, I think," said Ricka,
who was very religiously inclined and quiet generally.

"What would you like to do, Mrs. Sullivan?" asked Mary. "You say so
little, and we talk so much. I want to know what you think."

"Well, there are three of you to talk, and I am only one," said I,
laughing, as I placed the cups and saucers, all clean and shining, on
the cupboard shelves. "I should like the mission plan better than
anything, for I have had some experience in mission work; but if they do
not need us there, then I should like the roadhouse well enough, though
I think if eight or ten of us, each having enough supplies for himself
for the winter, should form a club and live under one roof, we could do
so more cheaply and comfortably than any other way, and have a real
jolly, good time in the bargain. These young men, many of them, are
intending to winter here somewhere, and all hate to cook for themselves,
I know, while they would gladly get the wood, water, and shovel snow, if
we did the cooking and housework. None need to work hard, and if a rich
gold strike were reported, somebody might want to go and do some
staking. In that way we might get some gold claims," I reasoned, while
all three listened during a lull in the work.

"That's what we all came to Alaska for--gold claims. I want three,"
remarked Alma with complacency, "and besides, there is plenty of
driftwood at Golovin on the beach which we could have for nothing, and
save buying coal at three dollars a sack as we do here," glancing at the
scuttle near the range reproachfully, as if the poor, inanimate thing
was to blame for prices.

Little Alma was keen at a bargain. There was nothing slow about the grey
matter in her cranium. If there was buying to do, or a commodity to
sell, Alma was the one of the restaurant firm to do it, enjoying well
the bargaining, where she was seldom outwitted.

So in the intervals between meals, or at night when the day's work was
done, we discussed our plans outside the kitchen door next the sea
beach, watching the shipping in the roadstead, admiring the lovely sky
tints left by the setting sun, or gazing at the softly rolling br