too.  It is a nice pleasant place, I think to myself.  It’s cool and comfortable, even if it is two flights.  You see I have a north and south window, and if there isn’t a good breeze from one way there is from the other; here’s my bedroom” (opening the door into a good-sized room with a large window), “blinds too.  I can make it as dark as a pocket; and here’s my dining-room, and kitchen all in one; here the lake water comes in; oh I tell you, I lack for nothing.”

“But don’t your rooms get all heated up when you cook?” Faith asked.

“Not a bit of it!  See here”—­calling Faith’s attention to what appeared to be a small light table made of iron.  “This is a gasoline stove, and the man that invented it ought to have every woman that owns one blessing him as long as he lives, for it’s a jewel,” and Mrs. Macpherson turned a screw and the flame flickered and glowed in one of the burners like a bright star.  “Here’s my fire all made, pretty soon I shall cook my dinner; over this burner I’ll put my oven, and bake a potato or two nice and brown in twenty minutes or so; over the other burner I’ll boil my tea-kettle and make my tea, then I’ll clap on the gridiron and cook a bit of steak; nicest way in the world to cook steak, it is so quick, you know that makes steak juicy; the quicker you can cook it the better it is.”

“Will it bake bread nicely?” Faith asked, growing deeply interested.

“To be sure,” and Mrs. Macpherson produced a plump brown loaf.  “You can see it is beautifully done; the least bit over half an hour bakes my loaves.  Oh, there isn’t a thing the creature won’t do.  I can tuck a chicken in the oven and it comes out done to a turn, or put in a joint of meat to boil and go on with my sewing, it cooks itself, you know.  I can roast a turkey; last Christmas I roasted one (invited in a neighbour or two, you know), and you would have thought it came out of my mother’s old-fashioned brick oven, it was done so beautifully.  I can wash and iron on it too, heats the irons as fast as you can use them.  It’s my opinion that women wouldn’t get so used up at their work if they would have these stoves; it is the heat that takes all the life and soul out of one.  It is pleasant to work if you know how, and can keep cool; it is a real saving of tempers—­this stove is—­for if you ever noticed it, folks begin to get cross just as soon as they get well heated up over a cook-stove.  No, it doesn’t give out any heat, and there are no ashes, or smoke, or soot, or dirt of any kind about it, and it is cheaper to burn than coal.”

“But have I not heard that gasoline is explosive?” Faith asked.