Theory of Health. 15 



dead or living — I could tell what wood a log was in 

 the dark by my nose ; and the air is better where the 

 woods be. The ladies up in the great house some- 

 times goes out into the fir plantations — the turpentine 

 scents strong, you see — and they say it's good for the 

 chest ; but, bless you, you must live in it. People go 

 abroad, I'm told, to live in the pine forests to cure 'em : 

 I say these here oaks have got every bit as much good 

 in that way. I never eat but two meals a day — 

 breakfast and supper : what you would call dinner — 

 and maybe in the middle of the day a hunch of dry 

 bread and an apple. I take a deal for breakfast, and 

 I'm rather lear [hungry] at supper ; but you may lay 

 your oath that's why I'm what I am in the way of 

 health. People stuffs theirselves, and by consequence 

 it breaks out, you see. It's the same with cattle ; 

 they're overfed, tied up in stalls and stuffed, and never 

 no exercise, and mostly oily food too. It stands to 

 reason they must get bad ; and that's the real cause 

 of these here rinderpests and pleuro-pneumonia and 

 what-nots. At least that's my notion. I'm in the 

 woods all day, and never comes home till supper — 

 'cept, of course, in breeding-time, to fetch the meal 

 and stuff for the birds — so I gets the fresh air, you see ; 

 and the fresh air is the life, sir. There's the smell of 

 the earth, too — 'specially just as the plough turns it 



