178 CALVIN: A STUDY OF CHARACTER. 



about dictionaries, to "get the best." 

 He knew as well as any one what was in the 

 house, and would refuse beef if turkey was 

 to be had ; and if there were oysters, he 

 would wait over the turkey to see if the oys- 

 ters would not be forthcoming. And yet he 

 was not a gross gourmand ; he would eat 

 bread if he saw me eating it, and thought he 

 was not being imposed on. His habits of 

 feeding, also, were refined ; he never used a 

 knife, and he would put up his hand and 

 draw the fork down to his mouth as grace- 

 fully as a grown person. Unless necessity 

 compelled, he would not eat in the kitchen, 

 but insisted upon his meals in the dining- 

 room, and would wait patiently, unless a 

 stranger were present; and then he was 

 sure to importune the visitor, hoping that 

 the latter was ignorant of the rule of the 

 house, and would give him something. They 

 used to say that he preferred as his table- 

 cloth on the floor a certain well-known 

 church journal ; but this was said by an 

 Episcopalian. So far as I know, he had no 



