t think anything of their not having come out
here to see how we were getting along."

"Some of them would have been out in a day or two, even if I hadn't told
them, Mrs. Pratt. As it is--but I think that part of my story had better
wait. Tell me, you've been selling all your milk and cream to the big
creamery that supplies the milkmen in the city, haven't you?"

"Yes, and I guess that we can keep their trade, if we can get on our
feet pretty soon so that they can get it regular again."

"I've no doubt you could," said Eleanor, dryly. "They make so much money
buying from you at cheap prices and selling at high prices that they
wouldn't let the chance to keep on slip by in a hurry, I can tell you.
But I've got a better idea than that."

Mrs. Pratt looked puzzled, but Tom Pratt, who seemed to be in Eleanor's
secret, only smiled and returned Eleanor's wise look.

"When you make butter you salt it and keep it to use here, don't you?"
Eleanor asked next.

"Yes, ma'am, we do."

"Well, if you made fresh, sweet butter, and didn't salt it at all, do
you know that you could sell it to people in the city for fifty cents a
pound?"

Mrs. Pratt gasped.

"Why, no one in the world ever paid that much for butter!" she said,
amazed. "And, anyhow, butter without salt's no good."

"Lots of people don't agree with you, and they're willing to pay pretty
well to have their own way, too," she said, with a laugh. "In the city
rich families think fresh butter is a great luxury, and they can't get
enough of it that's really good. And it's the same way, all summer
long, at Lake Dean.

"The hotel there will take fifty pounds a week from you all summer long,
as long as it's open, that is. And I have got orders for another fifty
pounds a week from the people who own camps and cottages. And what's
more, the manager of the hotel has another house, in Lakewood, in the
winter time, and when he closes up the house at Cranford, he wants you
to send him fifty pounds a week for that house, too."

"Why, however did you manage to get all those orders?" asked Margery,
amazed.

"I telephoned to the manager of the hotel," said Eleanor. "And then I
remembered the girls at Camp Halsted, and I called up Marcia Bates and
told her the whole story, and what I wanted them to do. So she and two
or three of the others went out in that fast motor boat of theirs and
visited a lot of families around the lake, and when they told them about
it, it was easy to