t had fallen in in places, and was no longer employed for its
original purpose. A very rusty and greasy stove now occupied the space
immediately in front of the fireplace, the stove-pipe leading into the
ample but tottering chimney. Near the stove was a bench supporting a
tin wash-basin, a wooden pail, and certain fragments of soap--evidently
all the equipment necessary for the simple ablutions of the Elden
household. The remnant of a grain bag, with many evidences of use and
abuse, performed the functions of towel, and a broken piece of
looking-glass gave the faintest intimation that a strain of fundamental
relationship links the sexes. By the western wall was a table, with
numerous dishes; and to the wall itself had been nailed wooden
boxes--salmon and tomato cases--now containing an assortment of
culinary supplies. A partially used sack of flour, and another of
rolled oats, leaned against the wall, and a trap-door in the floor gave
promise of further resources beneath. There was a window in the east
and another in the west, both open and unscreened; myriads of flies
gave the only touch of life to the dismal scene.

Irene looked it all over, then leaned against the window sill and
laughed. Her father had brought her west for holidays with the promise
of changed surroundings and new experiences, but he had promised her no
such delight as this. With the Elden kitchen still photographed in her
mind she called up the picture of her own city home; the green lawn,
faultlessly trimmed by a time-serving gardener; the floral borders, the
hedges; the two stately trees; the neat walk, the wide verandah, the
dim, mysterious hall; the rooms, heavily shaded to save the rich
carpets; the order, the precision, the fixedness, the this-sits-here
and that-stands-thereness--the flatness and emptiness and formality of
it all, and she turned again to the Elden kitchen and laughed--a soft,
rippling, irrepressible laugh, as irrepressible as the laughter of the
mountain stream amid the evergreens. Then she thought of her mother;
prim, sedate, conventional, correct--"Always be correct, my dear; there
is a right way and a wrong way, and a well-bred person always chooses
the right"--and her eyes sobered a trifle, then flashed in brighter
merriment as they pictured her mother amid these surroundings.

"She would be so shocked, oh, dreadfully shocked," she rippled to
herself. "I am quite sure she would never approve of Father breaking
h