THE INLAND PASSAGE. 47 



While no one could or would dare to dispute the 

 ability of that lady to do well whatever she under- 

 took, yet in the matter of bread making her methods 

 were peculiar. In the first place she had to have 

 the cabin to herself, and as bread has to be set over 

 night, we were all turned out on Christmas eve and 

 left to shiver on the deck. Then she has a way of 

 strewing flour about in the operation till she covers 

 the tables, the chairs, the floor, even the sides of the 

 saloon and sometimes the cabin roof with dough or 

 its ingredients. It was not five minutes after we 

 were allowed to return, the " rising" having been 

 made an accomplished fact and set away in a corner, 

 before our hands, our clothes, our faces, and our very 

 hair were covered with incipient bread. But worse 

 even than that was the injunction that was solemnly 

 laid on us under no circumstances to presume to touch 

 the "rising" which had been deposited directly over 

 the stove, and without moving which it would be im- 

 possible to get breakfast. As our lady was a late 

 riser herself, and would never stir till she was assured 

 through the state-room door that her breakfast was 

 ready and on the table, the question of having that 

 important meal was as complicated as getting the 

 fox, the goose, and the corn over the stream. 



One of the associate lady patronesses devoted her- 

 self to making biscuits, as the bread would not be 

 cooked till dinner time. I evolved pancakes, the 

 doctor compounded a hash, and altogether we began 

 Christmas with such a breakfast as is rarely met with 

 on the desert surface of the inland water communi- 



