LIVING ON NEXT TO NOTHING A YEAR. 19 



in order to begin any such reform as this. As 

 I shall have occasion to say elsewhere, without 

 some effort, the evening, after a long day out- 

 doors in the wind and on the water or in the 

 woods, will prove a drowsy and unprofitable one. 

 A few weeks' earnest determination not to let 

 one evening pass without the reading aloud of 

 some magazine article, or of a certain number of 

 pages of some book worth reading, will result 

 in permanent enjoyment ; the sense of exertion 

 will disappear. There is a good deal to be said 

 in favor of the life of routine in which every 

 hour is laid out. 



To return to the tables of expense again, 

 some people might think that our bill of fare 

 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner meant semi- 

 starvation. We have been educated to like 

 oatmeal, for instance, and breakfast seldom 

 varies from oatmeal, bread and butter, coffee, 

 and eggs. For lunch there is sometimes fish 

 or oysters, or fruit, or a bit of cold meat. And 

 for dinner we have fish or meat, plenty of 

 vegetables, and, almost invariably, fruit or the 

 simplest kind of pudding. I know that such a 

 bill of fare would not please many people. It 

 is low living, at all events, if not high thinking. 



