My Boyhood and Youth 



adopted a vegetable diet and requested mother 

 to make the bread from graham flour instead of 

 bolted flour. Mother put both kinds on the 

 table, and meat also, to let all the family take 

 their choice, and while father was insisting on 

 the foolishness of eating flesh, I came to her 

 help by calling father's attention to the passage 

 in the Bible which told the story of Elijah the 

 prophet who, when he was pursued by enemies 

 who wanted to take his life, was hidden by the 

 Lord by the brook Cherith, and fed by ravens; 

 and surely the Lord knew what was good to 

 eat, whether bread or meat. And on what, I 

 asked, did the Lord feed Elijah ? On vegetables 

 or graham bread? No, he directed the ravens 

 to feed his prophet on flesh. The Bible being 

 the sole rule, father at once acknowledged that 

 he was mistaken. The Lord never would have 

 sent flesh to Elijah by the ravens if graham 

 bread were better. 



I remember as a great and sudden discovery 

 that the poetry of the Bible, Shakespeare, and 

 Milton was a source of inspiring, exhilarating, 

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