"I suppose so, sweetheart, and as a matter of fact," I added presently, "this is the best cup of coffee I've had for many a month." Laughing merrily, she perched herself on the arm of my chair, and sipped out of the cup I held toward her. "Of course it is. So you've gained that much by losing everything. It's very strange, Ben, and you may consider it presumptuous, but I've a profound conviction somewhere in the bottom of my heart that I can do everything better than anybody else, if I once turn my hand to it. At this minute I haven't a doubt that my yeast is better than Aunt Mehitable's. I'm going to cook dinner, too, and she'll be positively jealous of my performance. How do we know whether or not we'll meet any cooks in the jungle? And if we do, they'll probably be tigers--" "Oh, Sally, Sally! You think it play now, but what will you feel when you know it's earnest?" "Of course it's earnest. Do you imagine I'd get out of my bed at seven o'clock and cut up a slimy potato if it wasn't earnest? That may be your idea of play, but it's not mine." "And you expect to flutter about a stove in a pale blue breakfast jacket and a lace cap?" "Just as long as they last. When they go, I suppose I'll have to take to calico, but it will be pretty calico, and pink. Pink calico don't cost a penny more than drab--and there's one thing I positively decline to do, even in a jungle, and that is look ugly." "You couldn't if you tried, my beauty." "Oh, yes, I could--I could look hideous--any woman could if she tried. But as long as it doesn't cost any more, you've no objection to my cooking in pink instead of drab, I suppose?" "I've an objection to your cooking in anything. Another cup of coffee, please." "Ben." "Yes, dear." "You never drank but one of Aunt Mehitable's." "I'm aware of it, and I'm aware of something else. It's worth being poor, Sally, to be poor with you." "Then give me another taste of your coffee. But you don't call this being poor, do you, you silly boy?--with all this beautiful mahogany that I can use for a mirror? This isn't any fun in the world. Just wait until I spread the cloth over a pine table. Then we'll have something to laugh at sure enough, Ben." "And I thought you'd cry!" "You thought a great many very foolish things, my dear. You even thought I'd married you because I wanted to be rich, and it seemed an easy way." "Only it turned out to be an easier way of getting poor." "Well, rich or poor, what I married you for, after all, was the essential thing." "And you've got it, sweetheart?" "Of course I've got it. If I didn't have it, do you think I'd be able to laugh at a pine table?" "If I were only sure you realised it!" "You'll be sure enough when we are in the midst of it, and we'll be in the midst of it, I don't doubt, in a little while. I've been thinking pretty hard since last night, and this is what I worked out while I was making yeast." "Let's have it, then."