Jed woke up early again Sunday morning and lit a fire in the cookstove. When the fire was hot, he put the coffeepot on to brew and then started mixing pancakes. He fried bacon and eggs to go along with the flapjacks, debating whether to stretch them out or to go ahead and use them up. But he reasoned they would not last long without refrigeration, even though the bacon was salt cured. He flipped the pancakes on the griddle and called out to Lizzie.
“Hey there, sleepyhead. We’re burning daylight! Coffee’s on and the jacks will be done in just a jiffy.” He heard a groan come from Lizzie’s room and knew she was moving. She stumbled out of her room a few minutes later, running her fingers through her hair. She looked unhappy.
Lizzie rubbed her eyes a time or two and said, “This hotel is really lacking on the shower facilities. I need to wash my hair. How in the world did people do it in the old days?”
“Actually, as late as 1900, women washed their hair only about once a month. That’s one reason they wore it up in buns or braided it, so it didn’t look so bad.”
“Ugh! That’s terrible!” Lizzie made a face.
“I guess you could go down and take a bath in the lake if you want. Wake you up, at least!”
“Very funny.”
“Sit down and have a pancake—or five. We’ll figure something out after breakfast.” Jed poured her a cup of coffee and slid it in front of her. “I hope you like salt bacon. It’s all the meat we have.”
“It’s fine. Smells good. What’s with you in the mornings anyway?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always been an early riser. Just like getting up and getting going, I guess.”
“Ugh. Daddy and I have an agreement. I take care of dinner, and on the weekends I do lunch, too, but he is on his own for breakfast. I usually just get up in time to get out the door to school and eat something on the way. He always leaves me a cup of coffee in the pot when he leaves for work.”
“Well, today is Sunday. We obviously aren’t going to church, so I thought we would just have a little quiet time of our own and then take it easy today. We’ll try to keep things as normal as we can. I think doing so will help us keep things together. What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me.”