But the two disappointed cooks had nothing to say. They choked back their tears and fell to with an appetite on beans and onions ingloriously mixed with bread and gravy. And as a final delicacy, the campers, who had commenced with dessert and salad, finished off with two very delicious mealy potatoes apiece.

“If we stayed in this wilderness long, we’d revert to savages,” Miss Campbell remarked, stirring a large cup of black coffee. “But on the whole, I think I am enjoying the reversion and my appetite is getting better every day.”

“If I were starving in the wilderness and somebody offered me Mock Duck, I’d refuse it,” ejaculated Billie irrelevantly, for nobody had mentioned mock duck for a long time.

THE BALLAD OF MOCK DUCK.
(Poem by Percy.)
There was a haughty animal,
Lived in a meadow fine;
A domesticated lady
Of the genus called bovine.
Like many other females,
Beast or human or divine,
This domesticated lady
Of the family of kine
Gazed with rapture at her features,
As reflected in a brook,
When with unblushing ecstasy
Each morn she took a look.
As she smiled at her reflection
In the mirror of the stream,
She indulged in gentle rev’ries
Of complacency supreme.
“Besides my gift of beauty
And my cultivated mind,
I have other choice attractions
Of a very varied kind.
”My roasts and steaks are luscious,
On my hash all have relied,
My youthful veal’s delicious,
And my milk is certified.“
On these pleasing meditations
Broke a mother with her brood,
Sailing o’er that calm reflection
In a most ungracious mood.
”You may be steaks and roast beef
And hash of quality,
But you stoop to imitations
Of poor humble little me.
“You may be a benefactor,
But I’ll just remind you, ma’am,
That in one small particular
You are a blooming sham.
”Don’t let your sweet milk curdle
And don’t let it sour your luck,
If I make so bold to mention
That imposture called ‘Mock Duck’!“
So this web-footed lady,
With a malice quite feline,
Disturbed the calm reflections
Of that innocent bovine.

CHAPTER IX.

A LESSON BY THE WAYSIDE.

Promptly at nine o’clock Saturday morning the “Comet” might have been seen crawling down the side of the mountain with Billie at the wheel. Dr. Hume sat beside her and Elinor and Ben were in the back seat. It was with something of a holiday feeling that they went forth to meet Alberdina, the new maid, whose presence was becoming a pressing necessity.

“I don’t mind the cooking a bit, Doctor,” Billie was saying. “Especially with Nancy, although I suppose I am really her assistant. She makes things exciting enough. I think she’s a kind of culinary speculator and takes a lot of chances, but she’s awfully lucky. She takes all sorts of rag-tag ends of things, chops them into bits and turns out what she calls ragouts.”