284 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



contains the volatile principle, which the prescriptions 

 have not got. 



' Many of the compounds actually are beer, bittered 

 with quassia instead of hops ; made nauseous in order 

 that you may have faith in them. 



' " Throw physic to the dogs," get a cask of the true 

 Goliath, and " drenk un down to the therd hoop." 



' Long before Alere had got to the first hoop the rats 

 ceased to run up the wall, his hand became less shaky, he 

 began to play a very good knife and fork at the bacon and 

 Iden's splendid potatoes ; by-and-by he began to hum old 

 German songs. 



' But you may ask, how do you know, you're not a 

 doctor, you're a mere story-spinnef, you're no authority ? 

 I reply that I am in a position to know much more than a 

 doctor. 



' How can that be ? 



' Because I have been a Patient. It is so much easier 

 to be a doctor than a patient. The doctor imagines what 

 his prescriptions are like and what they will do ; he 

 imagines, but the Patient knows.'* 



He completes the charm of Coombe Oaks and of 

 ' Amaryllis at the Fair ' : 



' There was Alere Flamma singing in the summer- 

 house ; Amadis Iden resting on the form ; Amaryllis 

 standing by him ; Bill Nye munching ; Jearje indolently 

 rotating the churn with one hand, and feeding himself 

 with the other ; Luce sitting down to her lunch in the 

 kitchen ; Iden lifting his mug in the bow- window ; Jack 

 Duck with his great mouth full ; eight people — and four 

 little children trotting down the road with baskets of 

 food. 



' " The lazy lot of people in this house ; I never saw 

 anything like it." 



' And that was the beauty of the place, the " Let us 

 not trouble ourselves ;" " a handful in Peace and Quiet " 

 is better than set banquets ; crumbs for everybody, and 



* Amaryllis at the Fair. 



