Dinner at Noon. 97 



to pernicious legislation, and not the chill or 

 damp that greets us when we plunge into the 

 odor-laden air of a bright June morning and 

 greet the coming day. The familiar distich 

 concerning "early to bed and early to rise" has 

 as much sense as sound, and this cannot be said 

 of all the rhymes of all our rhymesters. For 

 one, I am willing to run the risks of insanity for 

 the sake of what I hear at sunrise, and in spite 

 of the sneers of aristocracy will eat my dinner 

 at noon ; and I hold that man a downright 

 fool who will not judge for himself what is best 

 for his individual needs, or lives under pro- 

 test that his neighbor may have no occasion to 

 criticise. Our duty to our neighbor does not 

 extend that far. If it did, it were time to revo- 

 lutionize the world. 



If the early morning is so worthy of an in- 

 timate acquaintance, why has not the world 

 long ago made the discovery? What I call 

 "the world" has done so, but my world is not 

 yours. Day and night have not the same mean- 

 ing in the city as they have in the country. I 

 have often wondered if the robin slept with one 

 eye open, for, however indistinct may be the 

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