Let us try paper. Pack the box or can four inches deep, with crumpled paper, making a very even layer. Put a piece of pasteboard much larger than the bottom of your pail upon this layer and set your pail in the middle of it. Now pack the paper tightly around the pail up to the very top, using a stick of wood or mallet to press it down. Now you must make a cloth cover for your pail in the shape of a tall hat. The rim of the hat must reach out to the edges of your case and be tacked there. Take out your pail, fit this cloth cover into the hole and tack the edge evenly to the box. You must now make a cushion to fill the rest of the box, packing it full of the crumpled paper. Make hinges for the lid of your box and put some sort of fastener on the front to keep the lid down tight. Now you have your fireless cooker. When your oatmeal or your stew, or your chicken, or your vegetables have boiled ten or fifteen minutes on the stove in your agate pail, clap on its cover, set it into the nest, push the cushion into the top of the cooker, clamp down the lid, and your work is done, for the cooking will go merrily on all alone by itself in your fireless cooker. While you are making your fireless cooker, remember that the thermos bottle is made on the same principle. And remember, too, that your non-conducting packing material will keep heat out just as well as it keeps heat in. In the summer time you may wish to keep your ice cream cold for a while in your fireless cooker. Perhaps you will see how this might help on a hot summer's day and what a comfort a fireless cooker might prove in a sick room. The Ice Chest. How It Is Made In taking care of food we must be provided with a cool place, for the storage of milk, butter, cream, and all cooked food that may spoil. In summer this is especially important; in an apartment, and in most city houses the ice chest is needed all the year around; in the country, it is needed only in the warm months. The ice chest is built much as the fireless cooker is made. Its case is usually made of wood, its packing material must be non-conducting, and its lining must be some smooth surface through which water cannot pass. Some ice chests are lined with zinc and some with porcelain tiles. In some ice chests, food and ice are kept in the same box, which usually opens at the top; in other chests there is a separate chamber for the ice. From the ice chamber a drain pipe carries away the water which drips from the melting ice. Every ice chest must be kept clean and sweet. It should be looked over every day and washed carefully at least once a week. No crumbs of food should be left on the shelves. If you spill anything, wipe it up _clean_ at once.