Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/69

with the tea-pot in my basket, a very little tin pail, property of the boy house-keeper, but of quite questionable cleanness, and an iron spoon with part of the handle broken off. The pail and spoon are made clean. But there is no salt—nevertheless we manufacture the cakes without it in the little tin pail, with water, and a pinch of soda. Just here I gained a new idea. The water is very strongly impregnated with lime, making bread or cakes, without soda, quite light; some butter, which could be dipped with a spoon, was used for frying; and the lime-water cakes, made in a hopeless state of mind, were light and very palatable. Alice turned the tubs over, the smallest tub counted upon the larger, and spread three plates upon it. She was in an amusing state of dismay when she discovered that there was no way of sitting round her new-fashioned table, without chairs. So we shook hands with the little teapot, having the mug for our tea cup, arranged upon the old blue chest, and made love to the cakes from plates settled carefully upon our laps. We now again went into the science of economy, counting over our fast diminishing store of gold, and the many things we must