CHAPTER IX 



SLEEPING OUT OF DOORS 



ONE of the most exhilarating experiences of my 

 life was that first night under the stars. How 

 much we conservative people owe to the initi- 

 ative of our friends! Anything radically new al- 

 ways presents to me its dark rather than its pleasant 

 side; and this is true of small as well as large experi- 

 ments. Many were the dishes which as a child I had 

 not eaten, consequently I did not touch them now, un- 

 til one by one the force of example and circumstance 

 constrained me to recognize them, and in nearly every 

 case that particular article of food became a favorite. 

 So it was with that new fad, as the Constant Improver 

 called it, of sleeping out of doors. I shrank from its 

 discomforts, the noise, the early light, the cold, all the 

 vague nothings I could not name. But a friend per- 

 suaded me to try it for a week — well, for a night, then 

 — and carefully chose a perfect one in August. 



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