She had thought that Tante Gretchen’s hunting suit was practical, but now she saw garments that were, if possible, even more comfortable and practical. Well, that did make sense. Women could not do all the things they had to do on the frontier if they were burdened with corsets and lace and ribbons and bustles and overskirts and . . . well, things. She quickly realized, as she was fitted not only with fringed skirts that only came to her knee, leggings, and fringed and embroidered shirtwaists, but with what looked like the same sort of costume that the Indian women had been wearing in the parade, and one of the voluminous satin skirts and blouses of the Quadrille, that she must be doing double and triple roles. Well, I’d rather be doing something than sitting about, she decided.

Once the costumes were fitted to the three ladies’ satisfaction, they more or less helped her dress and shoved her out the tent flap into the hands of the three men who were waiting patiently for her.

By now, she was ravenous. It had been a very long time since the bit of bread and cheese that had served as her luncheon.

As if he could read her mind (or, perhaps, hear her growling stomach), Cody checked his pocket watch and gabbled something. Kellerman translated that simply enough. “We’re going to eat now, and we must eat quickly to be ready in time for the evening performance.”

They led her to a big tent full of benches and trestle tables, not unlike a Festzelt, or beer tent at a big Oktoberfest celebration. The venues for eating and drinking at a Maifest tended to be smaller than the big beer tents at Oktoberfest, so this was the first time she had ever seen a place where people ate that was so very large. At least sixty people could be seated here at once! This was where the aroma of stew had been coming from.

At one end of the tent were men in aprons ladling tin bowls full of stew and handing them over to the performers and workers. Cody led her to the queue, and she got a bowl full of stew that smelled so rich and good her stomach began complaining that she wasn’t eating it right then, plus a huge chunk of bread and butter and a wedge of pie on a second tin plate and an empty tin mug. She got settled at a table, her tin cup poured full of coffee, and then Cody stood up and whistled shrilly, bringing all conversation to a halt.