antly following the laugh, Jane's head was thrust through the tent
opening. The head was in disorder, for Jane had found no time to
attend to her hair. She had been working, which meant that she had
been accomplishing things, for Jane was a host in herself when it came
to work.

"Excuse the condition of my crowning glory, darlin's, but I couldn't
wait to comb it. I have been sent to tell you that the grease is on
the bacon and the potatoes are popping open in the hot ashes of the
cook fire. We're going to cut off the tops of them, dig out a tunnel
and fill the tunnel with butter. Um, um! Now, what do you think of
that?"

In a twinkling Tommy was out of bed and gleefully hurrying into her
clothes.

"I thought it would interest you, darlin'," chuckled Jane.

"You dress as if you were going to a fire," declared Harriet, with a
good-natured laugh.

"She is," answered Crazy Jane; "the camp fire--the cook fire, I should
say."

Tommy, during this dialogue, had not uttered a word. Finally, having
got into her clothes to her satisfaction, she darted from the tent,
spinning Jane half-way around as she dashed past her, the little girl
twisting her hair into a hard knot as she ran.

"I want a potato with a hole in it," she shouted the moment she came
in sight of the cook fire. Some one snatched a hot tuber from the
ashes and tossed it to her. Tommy caught the potato, but dropped it
instantly and began cooling her fingers. "I want one with a hole in
it," she insisted.

"Bring it here and you shall have it," replied Miss Elting. Instead of
picking up the potato and carrying it, Tommy propelled it along with
the toe of her boot. She did not propose to burn her fingers again.
The guardian gouged out a hole to the bottom, filling the hole with
butter, Tommy's eyes growing larger and larger. Then she began to eat
the potato with great relish, after having seasoned it with salt and
pepper. This was no time for words, nor were any uttered until
nothing but the blackened skin of the potato was left.

"Thave me!" gasped Tommy. "Pleathe, may I have another?"

"Don't you think it would be well to wait for supper?" suggested Miss
Elting. "In your greediness you have forgotten the others."

"I beg your pardon, but I wath tho hungry! If you had been a fithh
thwimming in the ocean all night you, too, would have an appetite. How
would you like to be a fithh, Mith Livingthton?"

"I am quite content to be a mere human being," was the