JUNE 15, 1913 



425 



Our Homes 



A. I. BOOT 



And God said, Behold, I have given you every 

 herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the 

 earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of 

 a tree yielding seed: to you it shall be for meat. — 

 Gen. 1:29. 



In all they vrays acknowledge him, and he shall 

 direct thy paths. — Prov. 3:6. 



Behold the birds of heaven, that they sow not, 

 neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and yet 

 your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not of 

 much more value than they? — Matt. 6:26. 



My good friends, I have made another 

 " great discovery." While it is not exactly 

 new, I am sure it is absolutely true. The 

 greatest part of my discoveries are, as a 

 rule, not exactly new; but thej' are new to 

 me, and wonderfully precious, for I feel 

 that they come straight from the hand of the 

 great loving Father. Years ago, when my 

 good friend Terry said so much about sim- 

 ple eating, uncooked food, etc., I took a trip 

 over to his place expressly to partake of 

 one meal just as he recommends and prac- 

 tices. Some of 3"ou will remember I told 

 3'ou about it in these pages. My digestion 

 was a little ont of order on that day, and 

 I did not know whether his " menu " would 

 agree with me or not. Terry and his wife, 

 who were living by themselves, have only 

 two meals a day. I think the first one is 

 about eight o'clock, and the other about two 

 in the afternoon. When I ari'ived there at 

 the usual dinner time, and was told that the 

 hj^gienic spread was for myself alone, I 

 begged that it should be simply uncooked 

 food just as Terry writes about, and noth- 

 ing else. Well, just now I remember onW 

 three things on the table — rolled wheat, un- 

 cooked ; evaporated peaches, uncooked, soak- 

 ed in cold water; and butter. Friend Terry 

 fignred up the cost; and although I had a 

 good square satisfying meal, the cost was 

 only 6 cents. The wheat cost perhaps one 

 cent, or a little more; the butter, one cent; 

 but the peaches were so delicious, and I en- 

 joyed them so much, that I ate about four 

 cents' worth, and I do not know that I ever 

 had a more satisfying meal, and, somewhat 

 to my surprise, my digestion after it was 

 perfect, with no disagreeable taste in my 

 mouth afterward, at all. I do not remember 

 what I had to drink; but I rather think it 

 was some of Terry's beautiful cool filtered 

 rain water; or it might have been roasted- 

 wlieat coffee ; but I rather think it was just 

 water. 



Xow, the reason I go into these details is 

 as follows: Most of you know that my last 

 meal for the day, say about five o'clock, con- 

 sists only of apples — good ripe ones. In 

 Florida I take a fair-sized grapefruit with 

 my apples. I have tried mulberries, and, 



in fact, almost all kinds of berries and 

 fruit as a substitute for apples, but none of 

 them seem to answer as well. After I got 

 back from Florida I happened to go into 

 the grocery where we get our supplies, and 

 there I saw a case just opened of beautiful 

 evaporated California peaches. The peaches 

 were, of course, dried with the skins on. 

 They were unusually large, and looked so 

 tempting that I took a pound of them. One 

 of my happy surprises was that they were 

 only ten cents. As they were fancy stock I 

 thought the price would be a good deal 

 more. Well, remembering my experience at 

 friend Terry's years ago, I told Mrs. Root 

 to soak them in water and not stew them at 

 all. At the end of 24 hours I cut one of 

 the great luscious halves in two, and put 

 the quarter of a peach in my mouth. I at 

 once uttered an exclamation of surprise. I 

 believe it was not only the most delicious 

 peach, but the most delicious food of any 

 sort I ever tasted. You may remember I 

 said something in the same strain about that 

 baked dasheen. Now, I do not know wheth- 

 er those peaches were something extra, or 

 whether I had somewhat neglected to give 

 uncooked peaches the attention they desen^e. 

 I remember that, after my experience at 

 Terry's, we bought some ordinary peaches 

 and soaked them, but I did not think very 

 much of them. These peaches were not only 

 uncooked, but no sugar was added. They 

 were plentj^ sweet; but it was the sweetness 

 that God, through the influence of the Cali- 

 fornia sunsliine, put into them. I asked 

 Mrs. Root if she had tasted them. She said 

 she had not, but she drank some of the 

 water they were soaked in. By the way, T 

 think she put about one pound of peaches to 

 a quart of water. At her suggestion I 

 poured some of the water (or " juice ") into 

 a teacup, and took a drink. Well, if the 

 taste of the peach was a happy surprise, 

 the peach juice, or, if you choose to call it 

 so, peach eider, was a greater surprise. It 

 certainly was the most delicious fruit drink, 

 or drink of any kind. I ever tasted.* It did 



* By the way, once or twice every summer, and 

 several times in the winter, at my Florida home, I 

 have taken a glass of soda at the soda-fountains 

 just to see what they have that entices so many 

 men, women, and children to spend their nickels in 

 this way; and I have several times thought that 

 perhaps the " high cost of living " was brought about 

 largely by the nickels deposited at the soda-fountains. 

 Who pays for this expensive apparatus to be seen 

 in most of our drugstores that dispense ice cream 

 and soda? It is the nickels: and if you watch the 

 crowds as they take their various sodas, you will 

 find a lot of children, and perhaps grown-up people, 

 who look as if they did not have any nickels to spare. 

 I may say the same in regard to coca-cola and Hires' 

 root beer. Now, if the present generation demands 

 some such 4rin^s, usually called '■ fruit juices," frjT 



