The Press., 1920-06-03
THEIR LUCKY DAY
How Members of Camping Party
 Found a Cook.
Finding of Mama In the Wilderness or Getting Water From Rock Would Not Have Been Wonderful
 After That Experience.

It might seem reasonable to believe that in the wilderness the troubles and trials caused by cooks or the want of cooks could be comfortably left be- hind. but according to Mrs. Mary Rob- erts Rinehart such Is not the case. So essential a place In the routine of a large camping party does a cook oc- cupy that trouble with that impor- tant parsonage Is a dire calamity. In "Tenting Tonight" Mrs. Rinehart gives her views on the subject and describes the nerve-racking experience of trying to keep hold of an unstable cook.
 By the end of the second day. she says, we were we'll away from even that remote part of civilization from which we had started, and a terrible fact was dawning on us. The cook did not like us!
 Now. the center of a camping trip Is the cook. He has the hardest job that know of. He cooks with made Quate equipment on a tiny stove in the open, where the air blows the smoke into his face and cinders into his food. Worse than that, he must cook not only for the party, but for a hungry crowd of guides and pack CTS that sits in a circle and watches him, and urges him, and gets under his feet. He Is the first up in the morning and the last in bed. He has to dry his dishes on anything that comes handy, and then pack all his al start off for the next eating ground.
 So. knowing all this. and also that we were about thousand miles from the nearest employment office and several days hard riding from a set clement, we went to Bill with tribute. We praised his specialties. We gave him a college lad. turned guide for the summer, to assist him. We gath cred up our own dishes. But gloom hung over him like a cloud.
 A few days later the climax came. One afternoon we found a rangers cabin and rode into its inclosure for luncheon. Breakfast had been early, and we were very hungry. We had gone long miles through the thick and silent forest, and now we wanted food We sat in a circle on the ground and talked about food.
 At last the chuck wagon drove in. | We stood up and gave hungry cheer. | and then-Bill was gone! Some miles | back he had halted the wagon, got out. taken his bed on his back. and start ed toward civilization on foot We stared blankly at the teamster.
 Well" we said, what did he say?"
 "All he said to me was So longr" said the teamster.
 And that was all there was to 1t. There We were in the wilderness, far, far from a cook
 In savage silence we lunched out of | tins. When we spoke 1t was to i'm l pose horrible punishments on the de | faulting cook. In silence we finished | our luncheon; in silence, mounted our | horses. In black and hopeless silence | we rode on north, moving every mo- ment farther and farther from cooks | and hotels and tables d'hote.
 At last in a clearing we saw a man | sitting quite idly beside the trail. We | rode up to him and said:
 Do you know of any place where we can find a ceok?"
 And this man, who had dropped from heaven replied:
 "I am a cook"
 So we put him on our extra saddle horse and took him with us. He cooked for us with might and main, dawn and night, until the trip was over.