Fair play, she called it, believing that the children would more surely and more correctly learn from experience than from continuous preaching. Perhaps this was due to her own experience. She had been a girl much like Nancy. She had not inherited the so-called domestic instinct; no more did Nancy. To that cause was ascribed Nancy's unusual disposition toward business and her dislike for all kitchens. "Those roses!" she breathed deeply over the scented mass Nancy had gathered. "Aren't they just um-um? Wonderful?" "I knew you would like them, mother," responded Nancy happily. "I'm sorry we couldn't get things slicked up better today, but we were so constantly interrupted." "You will be, Nan dear. It is always just like that when business runs into housework." "Oh, but say, Mother," interrupted Ted. "It's just great here. There's the best lot of boys. And we've got a camp, a regular brigand camp--" "Look out for mischief, Teddy boy," replied his mother fondly. "I want you both to have a fine time, but a little mischief goes a long ways toward spoiling things, you know," she warned, earnestly. "Oh, I know. I'll be careful. We won't have any real guns nor knives, nor swords--" "Ted Brandon! I should hope not!" cried Nancy. "Real guns and swords and knives, indeed! If you go out playing with that sort of ruffian--" "But they aren't. We don't have them. No real firearms at-all," protested Ted. "And the boys are nice fellows." "But just imagine what I would do if you came in hurt. And mother away and everything," reasoned Nancy foolishly, as if she enjoyed the sensation. "It is not like it was when Anna was with us. Mother," Nancy asked, "don't you really think we should have someone in Anna's place?" "No, girlie, I don't," promptly replied the mother, who was just taking from the gas oven a deliciously broiled steak. "While we had Anna you never had a chance to find out all the simple things that you didn't know. Anna was an ideal maid, but maids are not educators and none of us can learn without being given a chance. Ted, please get the ice water. And I would try, Nancy, to have every meal, no matter how simple it is, served either on the side porch or in the dining room," counselled Mrs. Brandon. "Nothing so demoralizes us as upset kitchen meals." "Yes, mother, I know that," admitted Nancy, who, with her mother nearby for inspection, was daintily arranging the salad. "As a matter of fact, I lose things in the kitchen. Imagine losing the potatoes, pan and all!" A hearty laugh followed the recalling of Nancy's and Ted's dinner disaster. But even to that accident Mrs. Brandon insisted that her daughter was one of the girls who must learn by experience, so there were no long arguments given to point out her weakness. "But Anna is coming back, isn't she?" Ted pleaded. A boy wants to be sure of his meals in spite of all the educational processes necessary for training obdurate sisters.