Yes," replied her neighbor gravely; "a fast of a week wouldn't be
very comfortable."

"And jack rabbits are tiptop!" burst in Harry Jervis. His mother
smiled.

"I'm glad you like them, Harry; I should like them better bounding
away over the prairies on their own long legs than served up half
cooked, on a newspaper for plates,--to be eaten with fingers, too,"
she added.

"Fingers were made before forks!" said Harry triumphantly, repeating
an old saying which had been quoted quite often in that car of late.

"Your fingers were not, Harry!" said Mrs. Jervis, laughing. "However,
we have cause to be thankful, even for jack rabbits eaten with our
fingers."

At this moment entered a brakeman with a can of condensed milk. "The
conductor sent this to you, ma'am," he said.

"But it isn't open!" said Mrs. Jervis in dismay; "and I didn't think
to bring a can-opener. If I had only known of this picnic-party, I
might have provided myself."

"I'll open it," said her neighbor, taking out a pocket knife; "I've
opened many a can in my travels on the plains."

"Don't take off the top," said Mrs. Jervis. "Make two holes in the
cover." He looked up in surprise. She went on: "One to let out the
milk, and the other to let in the air so that it can get out."

"Well, if that isn't an idea!" said the man, a broad grin spreading
over his face. "It takes a woman to think of that contrivance!"

"You see," said Mrs. Jervis, "that keeps the milk in the can clean,
and it pours out as well as if the whole top was off."

"Sure!" said the man; "I'll never forget that little trick; thank you,
ma'am!"

Mrs. Jervis smiled. "You're quite welcome," she said, as she proceeded
to dilute the milk with water from the cooler, and to warm the mixture
on the stove, using her own silver traveling-cup for the purpose.

While she was doing this, she had put the baby on Ethel's lap, saying
quietly, "You hold her a minute till I get the milk ready."

Ethel half grudgingly took the feebly wailing baby; but when the milk
was warmed and the hungry little creature quietly fell asleep in her
arms, she showed no desire to give her up. Mrs. Jervis, having
procured a pillow from the porter,--for this was a sleeping-car,--laid
the sleeping infant on the seat opposite her own.

Meanwhile, the idea she had been all this time seeking--the plan for
giving Ethel something to think of besides herself--had come to her,
and she now suggested it to her daughter, who had