lly,
to have a royal good time.

Happy the camper who, taking hint from the big lumber camps, ties to his
wagon an iron bean pot, and has always on hand for hungry souls a mess
of delicious baked beans. Every well-regulated camp should have a
bean-hole dug close by the camp fire, and then when guests come out from
town, if the camp is near town, a bean bake enlivens things. The
bean-hole is dug three feet square and carefully lined with flat stones
or boulders, then it is filled with hard wood which makes fine coals.
The wood is fired and burned until there glows a bed of hot coals and
the stones are at white heat. A place is scooped out in the center for
the bean-pot, and it is placed in this little oven, the coals swept back
into place, the hot ashes added, and the hot earth around the fire put
over it all. Then, snugly tucked away in their bed so warm, the beans
are left alone for four and twenty hours. When taken out, steaming and
fragrant, they are perfect in form, brown and crisp, and of flavor so
delicious that the mouth waters at the mere recollection. This with
brown bread or cone pone, baked in the ashes, and good strong coffee,
makes a meal in itself, and if the beans are served hot, the hungry
campers feel they have had a feast fit for a king. Those who cling to
their bean-pots keep one mess of beans baking all the time and are never
without this dish. Even city folks have had royal good times at bean
bakes given at some home with large yard, and, with an addition to the
beans, salads, sandwiches, cakes, and other frills, generally scorned
and passed by for the delicious baked beans.

Naturally digging a hole in the ground and building a fire does not
constitute a dish of baked beans; among other things necessary might be
mentioned the beans themselves. These are soaked over night and then
placed in the iron pot; the best sort is the English kettle with three
iron legs and rounding bottom. Right in the center of the beans a place
should be made for the pork. The pork should be pickled pork of a
particular kind--fat on top, lean below and scored across the top. One
pound of pork to one pound of beans is the allowance. For flavoring use
one cookingspoonful of New Orleans molasses; one teaspoonful of mustard,
one teaspoonful of salt and one of pepper. Stir into the beans and fill
even to the top of the pork with water. Given twenty-four hours of slow
baking, with no chance for the moisture to escape, the resul