The daily Alaskan., 1914-01-07
\ CULINARY TREAT
Served In a Little Cake Shop In
 a Little French Town.
THE COST WAS LITTLE ALSO.

l THE COST WAS LITTLE ALSO. Surprises Came Thick and Fast In the l Way Of Meals, but the Greatest Sur prise of All Came After the Castro
 homie Conquest Was Ended. ! They were talking about dainty din ners when the man who goes abroad said, "Thc best meal l ever got was in the back parlor of a small shop in one horse town, and 1t cost me 50 cents."
 Urged to tell his story, he continued: Tt was in a small provincial French town--Bo.s. A rrieud of mine called BOdfsh enticod me there by looking me up in Paris and throwing a fit about the delights of the town.
 "It has a castle he told me, and a moat and ramparts and a little cake shop run by a charming old woman
 "'Epou@h,' saSd ], me for BlOis.'
 ''Wc went there and we casued and we mOated and we ramparted, and then we blew into the little shop to cake The proprietress, a very | pleasant old woman, indeed. intro duced us to her son, who was mod estly hiding behind bis mustache in a corner.
 eve got into convcrsati tion with him that is. BoGfsh and I plunged into French and he. diving in heroicai,y after Us. was pulled under in our drowning struggles. The upshot of 1t all was that we agreed to hire a room in his mothers house for the night we meant to stay just one night in BlOis.
 "'And-er-Ginner% asked Bodfsh.
 eff the messicurs will permit r will do myself the honor of cooking them a dinner. said the cake lady's son, lowing most cOurteous'y.
 "ThercuDon BodGsh and went blithelv to an attic 51S years old at a conservative estimate. washed the cas- tie and the moat and the ramParts from our hands and faces and descend i ed to the dining room. 8 sm0u apart ment in the rear of maGgme's cake | shop.
 "Our laHdlaly's son was there, ready for US. S5 was a soup.
 "That was. by actual count. the l grandest soup ever produced by hu- 1 man being. ] have travelled all over the world. tasting the best every coun- try has to offer in the way of soup, but at the first taste of that Blois sample all my memories of other soups hud- dIed together in a dark corner of my mind and froze to death.
 q looked at Bodfsh. He was posi- lively half witted with delight. He ! looked as if he wanted to spend the rest of his life as high priest in a temple devoted to the worship-and manufac- ! ture-of that soup.
 "'NIore. meSsieurs?
 "Bptween Us we TaZed that soup to the ground
 l "'Entrce. uesSicUrs?
 "Don't asE ne what that eDtree was. Bodfsh ate it with his eyes shut and his head bowed reverentIy.
 "BOdfsh ana ! stayed in BIOis for twentv-nlue meals. Don't aS- me how many days that makes. we knew only l two s0rrS of timeS-meals and between meals As for sightseeing. we didn't sec much more than our plates, be l cause after each meal iu the back par Tor of that celestial cake shop we were so chock full that We hiberuated like snakes. Iay sDrawling on couches, un. able to budgc. blinking slcepily, grunt- ing grunts Gf Elysian COntentment Time and again we would ask that 1 Frpnchman how be had come by his culinary skill. but in vain. He would merely smile and give us another help ing. You may get some idea of what sort of meals that cuss gave US when I tell you that Eodfsh summed up his ability in these words:
 At times he seems to lose his culi- nary grip and dascenGs to mere per lection
 After the tWenty-nlNtl meal bou- fish and I remembered that we be- longed somewhere. had a number of relatives. were engaged in business had restive careers to coax along. So we called our cook, announced that we were leaving and wanted to know how much we owed.
 "'Six francs for each day, mes sieurs.' said he One for the room, one for breakfast, one and half for lunch. two and a half for dinner
 "Bodfsh and | fell heavily against each other Then We paid and started for the door
 ".Watt.' said onr host. T. too, travel away today.
 "'Whither are you boundT we asked
 "'To St Petersburg he replied. ] came away but to see hy old mother in the cake shop. [ had not seen her for five years. l must thank you, mes sieurs. for giving me this chance of keeping up my art. Had you not done .,.1- NR