THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 251 



appearance. The strangest thing is that he is a skilled 

 cook, and consequently spends much of his time before 

 a tearing fire. We know, from the experience of Russia, 

 that it is pleasant, without being prejudicial to health, 

 to roll out of hot water into a carpet of snow ; the 

 reverse process of going out cold into warmth being, 

 however, conducive to catarrh. Be careful, conse- 

 quently, young friend, not to rush to the hearth when 

 you enter within doors, half- frozen, from a journey. 

 Stay about the coldest rooms until your system thaws, 

 and approach the fire only gradually ; otherwise a cold 

 will be the certain consequence of your imprudence. 



By way of caution, I would mention here that as a 

 boy I remember a gentleman, a solicitor, who, being a 

 bachelor, had his little box and garden of roses in a 

 sunny nook amidst the rocks some two hundred yards 

 from the wash of the sea-wave, at the lower extremity 

 of the Bristol Channel, whose practice it was to emerge 

 soon after daylight every morning in dressing-gown and 

 slippers by a side door into a solitary walk that brought 

 him down quite unobserved to his bath amidst the 

 crags, over a series of which the tide dashed at its 

 height, and within which, retiring, it left full many a 

 limpid pool, wherein the bright red sea-weed floated, and 

 the skittish shrimp larked or poised at pleasure. This 

 person became, at a comparatively early age, stone-deaf 

 — an infirmity w^hich the doctors attributed to what 

 they termed his abuse of bathing. The sound of water 

 brings to my mind those lovely swans again. They are 

 here once more, regaling themselves upon that precious 

 American w^eed, which has managed to spread itself 

 now, I presume, into nearly every English stream. 

 I am told that it is an excellent manure if mown and 



