SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
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some smooth surface through which water cannot pass. 
Some ice chests are lined with zinc and some with porce- 
lain tiles. In some ice chests, food and ice are kept in 
the same box, which usually opens at the top ; in other 
chests there is a separate chamber for the ice. From the 
ice chamber a drain pipe carries away the water which 
drips from the melting ice. 
Every ice chest must be kept clean and sweet. It 
should be looked over every day and washed carefully 
at least once a week. No crumbs of food should be left 
on the shelves. If you spill anything, wipe it up clean 
at once. 
The drain pipe must be kept clean. A long wire brush 
is used for this. If you are buying an ice box, get one 
with removable pipes, which are easily cleaned. If there 
is any odor from the chest, scald with water and soda, 
a teaspoonful of soda to a quart of water. Rinse with 
fresh cold water. 
If your ice chest drips into a pan which must be 
emptied daily, have a regular time for emptying it. An 
overflowing pan in an apartment may damage the ceiling 
below. If it drips into a pan which drains itself, be 
sure that the drain is kept clean and the entrance to the 
pipe unclogged. Clean the drip pan whenever you clean 
the ice chest. 
It is a good plan to keep food in closed containers like 
fruit jars. Wide dishes take up too much space. Con- 
tainers should be tall rather than broad. 
Put no hot dishes in the ice box ; it wastes the ice. 
The Iceless Refrigerator 
An “iceless refrigerator” sounds like a “fireless cooker/ 5 
This is an arrangement made to keep food cool in the 
summer when there is no ice. A wooden cage with 
shelves is covered with a cloth cover and placed near a 
