hat it is, or how it's cooked."

"You don't go on that principle, though, Margery. I notice you take
just as much trouble with your cooking whether it's likely to be
appreciated or not."

"I do that for my own sake because I really enjoy cooking. I know what
I'm going to do next year if I can. Teach cooking in the high school.
And I think I can get the work, too."

"That's fine, Margery. I know you'll enjoy it."

"I think it will be pretty good fun. You know, it isn't only just the
girls in school. A whole lot of older girls come down--brides, and
girls who are going to be married. And they are the silliest things,
sometimes!"

"Time's nearly up," said Eleanor, looking at her watch. "Bessie,
signal four times with the smoke. I want to see if my watch is right
by Mr. Hastings'."

Four times the smoke rose, and from the other peak rose two short
answering smokes.

"We arranged that signal, you see," said Eleanor. "Now, watch! He'll
show the time by his watch. Count the smokes carefully."

First of all came two smokes.

"That's the hour; two o'clock," said Eleanor. "Now count the next lot
carefully; that'll be the first digit of the minutes."

Four smoke pillars rose, at regular intervals. And then, after a
well-marked pause, six more went up.

"All right," said Eleanor. "Answer with four smokes. That means it
was forty-six minutes past two, fourteen minutes to three, when they
started signalling. And my watch and his agree exactly, so that's all
right."

"We'll have a good lead when we are able to start cleaning up," she
continued. "But we can't waste any time. We start at two minutes to
three, and you want to remember that they know just how far behind they
are, and we won't be able to gain any more time from now on."

"Why not, Miss Eleanor," asked Margery, "if we've done it so far?"

"It's going to be very different now, Margery. I don't say that they
exactly despised us before, but I certainly do believe they
underestimated us. They thought they were going to have an easy time,
and they probably loafed a little this morning. But now, you see, they
know that they're in for a licking if they don't do mighty well, and
they'll strain every nerve to beat us."

"Oh, I suppose so, but we've really got a splendid lead."

"Yes. And do you know what will happen if we don't look out? We'll be
over-confident, just the way they were this morning, and it will have
just the same result.