swer the hardest kind of questions off-hand on all sorts of unexpected contingencies. "Oh," she said one day when I was going out just after breakfast, "before you go do tell me what I can have for dinner?" and she put her hand to her head in the same old state of perplexity she^ was so well used to. "Well, Mrs. Tingee, a suitable soup would be — " "The weather is too warm for soup," she broke in with, " and be« sides, I have nothing to make it of, and Anne would not have time." In this respect I think she was wrong. In warm weather people take liquid food all the more readily and the soup is seldom too hot. I find that the only two dishes that are invariably eaten out clean with no remainders are the soup and ice cream. However, I went on: "If it is tacwarm for so4ip, you might get a fine bluefish and stuff and bake it with about a pound or less of slices of pickled pork laid under and over it, or a pompano or two of them, broiled, with softened butter and lemon-juice, and roast some young chickens, and get some of that early summer squash and corn that has come from the South, and a half gallon of thick, sweet cream and a dozen boxes of straw- berries and then if you have some sponge cake and delicate cake ready made and frosted and make your coffee strong and clear, you may get through this dinner time very well and you have all the afternoon and night in which to plan for to-mor- row." " I don't want to know that," the lady snapped out, half cross. " Do you know that I have had to drop the price of day board from four dollars a week to three dollars and a half, because the boarders teased me so to do so; they said they could not stand it to pay more and I had to do SAN FRANCISCO HOTEL GAZETTE'S it, and I should like to see myself buying strawberries for them at thirty cents a quart and cream at twenty-five. Anybody can go to market and buy the best of every- thing and make a good dinner; what I want to know is what you do when you have no pompano, no chickens, no fresh vegetables, no fruit, no cream, no cake, no nothing — now tell me that." "Can't tell you, Mrs. Tingee, but I will write out what it costs to give first- fClass board, plentiful, reasonably rich, but not extraordinar>; nor extravagant and perhaps you will pick out some items that will be useful to you." So the knotty question of "What do you do for a good meal when you have nothing that you want to make it with?" recurs continuall)^. How, for instance, can we serve mint sauce with roast lamb in Senator Sawmill's town, where not only no mint is to be bought, but none of the inhabitants apparently have ever heard of any other mmt, but Uncle Sam's, where^ money is made? And here is another instance : 500— A Little Party Supper. June 25. The proprietor of the Hotel D*Arlington came out with a cigar in his mouth and stood by smiling for a few minutes while I was cutting meat _ for supper. There was something coming. Presently he said : "I can't let you go to Uintah Lake for two days yet. Does it make much dif- ference?" "What has happened?" "Melnot'tc, the actor's troupe disbands here to pass the vacation at the summer 'resorts, and he wants to give a little fare- well supper to-night, and to-morrow night the college graduates have a straw- berry and ice cream party in the dining room."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

swer the hardest kind of questions off-hand on all sorts of unexpected contingencies. "Oh," she said one day when I was going out just after breakfast, "before you go do tell me what I can have for dinner?" and she put her hand to her head in the same old state of perplexity she was so well used to. "Well, Mrs. Tingee, a suitable soup would be — " "The weather is too warm for soup," she broke in with, " and be« sides, I have nothing to make it of, and Anne would not have time." In this respect I think she was wrong. In warm weather people take liquid food all the more readily and the soup is seldom too hot. I find that the only two dishes that are invariably eaten out clean with no remainders are the soup and ice cream. However, I went on: "If it is too warm for soup, you might get a fine bluefish and stuff and bake it with about a pound or less of slices of pickled pork laid under and over it, or a pompano or two of them, broiled, with softened butter and lemon-juice, and roast some young chickens, and get some of that early summer squash and corn that has come from the South, and a half gallon of thick, sweet cream and a dozen boxes of strawberries and then if you have some sponge cake and delicate cake ready made and frosted and make your coffee strong and clear, you may get through this dinner time very well and you have all the afternoon and night in which to plan for to-morrow." " I don't want to know that," the lady snapped out, half cross. " Do you know that I have had to drop the price of day board from four dollars a week to three dollars and a half, because the boarders teased me so to do so; they said they could not stand it to pay more and I had to do it, and I should like to see myself buying strawberries for them at thirty cents a quart and cream at twenty-five. Anybody can go to market and buy the best of everything and make a good dinner; what I want to know is what you do when you have no pompano, no chickens, no fresh vegetables, no fruit, no cream, no cake, no nothing — now tell me that." "Can't tell you, Mrs. Tingee, but I will write out what it costs to give firstfClass board, plentiful, reasonably rich, but not extraordinary; nor extravagant and perhaps you will pick out some items that will be useful to you." So the knotty question of "What do you do for a good meal when you have nothing that you want to make it with?" recurs continually. How, for instance, can we serve mint sauce with roast lamb in Senator Sawmill's town, where not only no mint is to be bought, but none of the inhabitants apparently have ever heard of any other mmt, but Uncle Sam's, where money is made? And here is another instance : 500— A Little Party Supper. June 25. The proprietor of the Hotel D'Arlington came out with a cigar in his mouth and stood by smiling for a few minutes while I was cutting meat _ for supper. There was something coming. Presently he said : "I can't let you go to Uintah Lake for two days yet. Does it make much difference?" "What has happened?" "Melrotte, the actor's troupe disbands here to pass the vacation at the summer 'resorts, and he wants to give a little farewell supper to-night, and to-morrow night the college graduates have a strawberry and ice cream party in the dining room."

Cooking for profit