Doctor Nature 105 



every three months for six years, and at present he's as 

 fat and solid as a Delaware shad. I shall never forget 

 his expression when he hooked his first breath of fresh 

 air and creeled a genuine outdoor appetite. A woods 

 appetite is very different from the hunger that once 

 in a while comes to the always-in-the-city man. It 

 strikes suddenly, one's knees begin to shake, and a 

 cold perspiration breaks out on the forehead. My 

 poor young friend, having never previously experi- 

 enced an appetite, of course didn't know what had 

 taken hold of him. He began to cry and totter, and I 

 stepped up to him just in time to save him from falling 

 off a moss-covered rock into a roaring trout stream. 



"I'm ill," he said, "have been ill all my life. I 

 thought this trip would do me good but I'm worse. 

 Please let me lie down; I'm very faint. " 



"Oh, come," said I, "you're only hungry; here, 

 give me your rod, and lean on my arm; you'll be all 

 right in a little while." 



I took him up to the farmhouse and started him 

 slowly on some deviled trout and watercress. Poor 

 fellow, he reminded me of a young setter dog born and 

 brought up in the city and taken afield for the first time. 

 Well, that young man did nothing but cry and eat for 

 two weeks. He then went home to tell his folks he had 

 come to life, and then hurried out to feed and weep for 

 another month. I know a hundred young men and 

 women in New York who are in a bad way with the 

 city complaint. The streets are filled with ghost-like 

 creatures. Lord Derby is right: "If you do not find 

 time for exercise you will have to find time for illness." 



"To-morrow we will go a-fishing; do thou go now 

 and fetch the bait. " Hymir to Thar. 



