"What a miserable supper!" she remarked to a school-mate, when they had
gone from the dining-room and were gathered on the veranda for the short
half-hour that intervened between the meal and the evening study-hour.
"It was quite as good as usual," was the rejoinder in a sneering tone.
"What did you expect? Do you suppose the Mantons don't want to make
anything off us as boarders?"
"I hadn't thought about that at all," Lulu said, with a look of surprise
and perplexity. Then after a moment's cogitation, "I suppose they do want
to make all they can out of us, and that would be the reason there was so
little on the table; but would it have cost any more to have it cooked
properly? The bread was both sour and heavy, and the butter so strong
that I'd rather go without than eat it."
"Rancid butter is cheaper than sweet, both as costing less and going
farther," answered her companion, "and good cooks are apt to be able to
command higher wages than poor ones; also, like butter, bread goes
farther if it is unpalatable."
"But it makes people sick?" Lulu said, half in assertion, half in
inquiry.
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