Torchy and Vee

w motor kitchen. And after spendin' ten days soppin' up information about a machine that was a cross between a road roller and an owl lunch wagon, and fillin' my system with army stews co

g, and what cute little tricks young Master Richard had developed while I'm gone. But right in th

nking about poor

kums has just settled himself comfortable and decided t

ion Gray,

maid with the patient e

ely thirty,

I; "but she's

ldn't?"

ess bright and entertainin' in her chat when she was in the right mood. I'd often come in and found Vee chucklin' merry over some of the things Miss Gray had been tellin' her. And while she was at our house she seemed full of life and pep. Just t

he'd lost her father and mother within the last year or so, so I

ish, grouchy old boy, too, and the more waitin' on he got the more he demanded. Little things. He had to have his food cooked just so, the chair cushions adjusted, the light just right. He had to be read to so many hours a day, and played to, and sung to. He couldn't stand it to be alone, not for h

when they got there it wouldn't be a week before he had decided the air was bad for him. They should have known better than to take him there. Most likely one more week would finish him. Another long railroad trip would an

he never would have stood for this continuous double-time act. Or if there was home inspectors, same as there are for factories, the old man would have been jacked up for violatin' the labor laws. But being only a daughter, there's nobody to step in and remind him

at an old tyrant he was. Nor did Marion. She

who could have c

said Vee. "Tha

slow about it, though, and when he finally headed West it was discovered that, through poor managin' and war conditions, the income they'd been livin' on

s nurse," says Vee. "She's not

body she could m

t, Torchy," says Vee.

"Not that old prune face with t

nce she's been left alone he'd been callin' reg'lar once a week, urging her to be his tootsy-wootsy No. 3. He was the main wheeze in some third-rate life insurance concern, I believe, and fairly well

girl like that," says I. "Is he her be

too-that Mr. Ellery Prescott, who played the organ s

own a captain's commission at Plattsb

idn't play chess. Anyway, he finally gave up. I suppose he's at the front now, and even if he ever should come back-- Well, Marion seldom mentions him. I'm sure, though, that they thought a go

. "Lay off that rescue stuff. Adoptin' female orphans of over thirty, or matin' 'em up appropriate is

omething to cheer her up. Mrs. Robert Ellins h

ugh the last I knew about the Ellinses

ks inside of ten days was goin' some. Lots of people had been longer'n that without any, though. But when any pot wrestler can step in

sh had been warmed through-barely. And the roast lamb tasted like it had been put through an embalmin' process. But the cookin' was high art co

ad the broken-arch roll in her gait, and when she pads in through the swing-door she's just as easy in her motion as a cow walkin' the quarter-deck with a hea

and sidewipin' your ear with her elbow. Acci

childish, and then indulged in a maniac giggle t

r motto seemed to be, "Eat hearty and give the house a good name

Miss," she says to Vee. "And anoth

's out of hearin' apologize for her. "As you see,"

ll auctioneer, th

am fortunate enough to have anyone in the kitch

' that way," says I. "It seem

flag, and from which even personal maids had gone to be stenographers and nurses. But chiefly it was the missin' cook who was mourned. Some had quit to follow their men to trai

Vee had heard of one who boiled the lettuce and sent in dog biscuit one mornin' for breakfast cereal. Miss Gray told what happened at the Pemberton Brookses when their kitchen queen had left for Br

ho can make the best things in the world, and I can hardly a

e had no kick comin'. Not even the sugar and flour shortage seemed to trouble them, and our fancy meals continued

em army kitchens, that would roll around two or three ti

little remark before Vee stops sudden, right in the

hy on earth didn't you

ish streak has jus

thing," says she,

ays I,

says she. "D

mbulatin' rotisser

" says Vee. "A

e decided it that way, I expect sh

's apt to be a little puzzlin' in her remarks about it. As a matt

ed families-many of them with poor cooks, some with none at all. And there is Mario

. "Marion hangs out

go out for their meals; they want to eat at home. Well, Marion brings

ruck and Martha passin' out soup and

ntainers, such as they send hot chow up to the front trenches in; have

capital, though. She'd have to invest in a lo

" says Vee. "I'm g

I. "You'd look ni

as necessary as Red Cross work, or anything else. It would be scientific food conservation, man-powe

a dinner truck around might not appeal to her. You got to reme

orrow, Torchy, I want you to find out all about those containers-how much the various compartments will hold, and h

as being tested up on the East Side. So it was three or four days before she was ready to spring this new career on Marion. But one night, after dinner

ers Vee. "Oh, what if he shou

in on a fond clinch,

ly," says Vee, pushin' the f

ith his fat face sort of flushed and his eyes popped more'n usual. And Marion Gray seems to be sort of fussed

n' Marion by the arm. "You'll pardon me, I hope, Mr. Biggles, but I m

es knows what's happened he's l

down on a window seat and camps beside her. T

nds whispery, "was-

ers, and all the curves, she ain't so hard to look at. "Yes," admits

Vee, "you'd never in the

rion, her voice trembly. "Th

" says Vee. "Just you

dinner dispensary stunt, quotin' facts and figures and givin

ould keep Martha, and you would be doing something perfectly splendid for th

nk I could do i

d help you plan the daily menus. You will do the marketing and delivering. Martha will do the cooking. And there

hing the fever. Her eyes bri

e could do i

willing to t

on n

s ought to be told that he ne

I can," wails Mario

e that he should have another chance to bother you.

t swell. Leave it to me. I'll shunt him on the siding s

where he's waiting I passes through the hall and gathers up his new

iggles," says I,

ys he, gazin' at me

and all that sort of stuff, but she's goin' into another line. If you must know, she

says he. "I had an appointment with Marion for this evening; something quite important to-to us bot

s," says I, hold

ns purple in the gills, but he ends by snatchin

he knob, "I do not accept your impertinen

e'll be around to get your d

les, bangin' the

was plannin' their hot-food campaign as busy and excited as if it was Marion's ch

too. By Monday mornin' the Harbor Hills Community Kitchen Co. was a going concern. And before the week was out t

d notice. She's gone the limit-khaki riding pants, leather leggins and a zippy cloth cap cut on the overseas pattern. None of them Women's Motor

ith havin' perfectly good meals, well cooked, well seasoned and pipin' hot, set down at their back doors prompt every day, wit

when one day as I comes home Vee

ueals, "what do you

s I. "Baby's

e. "It's-it's

't bumped somebody wit

But, listen, Captain Elle

says I. "But I thought h

amp training recruits all this time. But now he has his

"Did it give him

my ear. "He thought her perfectly stunning, as she is,

puts a crimp in the ready-ma

he comes back, after the war,

gies as an impendin' tragedy, don't it