323                                    The Little Sick Child
per tonight till they have eaten; will you, Mary?"
" Indeed, I will not," was the reply from a pair of very set lips, at which Ricka and I retired1 to the kitchen to consult together, and prepare the much-talked-of meal.
Then I proceeded to spread the table with a white cloth and napkins, arrange the best chairs, and make the kitchen as presentable as I could with lamps, while Ricka went to work at the range. We had a passable supper, but not nearly so good as we usually have, for the official had not only taken us by -surprise, Jbut Jaad xx>me -unbidden, and was not, (by the express orders of the business head of the restaurant firm), to be made welcome.
At any rate, Ricka and I did the best we could under the circumstances, the meal passed in some way, and the official then renewed his request to be allowed to take all his meals in the Mission, meeting with nothing but an unqualified refusal, much to his evident disappointment.
I doubt very much now the probability of my getting any more copying to do for him, as he says I could have persuaded Alma to board him if I had been so inclined; but then I never was so inclined, and have about decided that I do not want his work at any price.
January twenty-fifth: This has been a very cold, windy day, but three of the men came in from prospecting on the creeks, and have little to report. To think of living in tents, or even native igloos,